bucket. He sprayed the leaves around the cigarette with the fluid and the lit the match. The fluid instantly caught, creating a bright light in the darkness.
Winter immediately pulled back and settled the veil closed again. He shoved the squeeze bottle and matches into his pockets as he moved over to the kitchen door. He didn’t need a large fire. Just one big enough to catch someone’s attention to send them outside. The important thing was that it needed to look like an accident. He didn’t want to tip his hand just yet that someone was trying to infiltrate the house.
To his relief, it didn’t take long for someone to notice that a bush was on fire. The door was thrown wide, and a vampire stepped partially outside. He held open the door while remaining in the doorway, casting a shaft of golden light across the patio.
“What the fuck?” the bloodsucker snarled. “Who the hell was out here last?” He turned toward the interior, shouting, “Someone get me a bucket of water or the damn fire extinguisher.” He’d slammed the door shut behind him before Winter could move.
Winter hovered near the door, cursing under his breath. The bastard had blocked his entrance into the house with his body. His plan wasn’t working quite how he’d expected, but he wasn’t ready to give up yet.
A few seconds later, the same vampire returned with a bucket in hand. He strode across the patio, toward the fire that was increasing in size and threatening to spread to another bush. A second vampire followed him out, but he stepped through the open doorway just enough to allow Winter to squeeze inside.
Releasing his breath in a rush, Winter slipped down the short hallway that ended in a large kitchen filled with polished stainless-steel appliances and a fancy tile floor. Everything was either white or silver, making the room feel oppressively bright. The only thing out of place was a pair of dirty glasses and some empty bags that had once held blood. Looked like Winter had interrupted their late-night snack.
He had barely gotten across the kitchen when the two vampires returned with the empty bucket. There was some talk about a cigarette starting the fire and why someone named Leslie couldn’t fucking put his butts out in the bucket like everyone else. Winter nearly laughed to hear that his distraction had worked so well. There was no suspicion that anyone had set the fire on purpose.
Continuing through the house, Winter took note that even more ghosts were crowded inside of Damon’s house than outside on his lawn. He would have thought most of his victims would prefer to move away from the murderer if possible, but maybe they were hoping to exact some kind of revenge on the bastard.
Besides the ghosts, there were even more vampires walking rounds through the house. Two were stationed by the front door, and another two were in front of a set of double doors on the first floor that he was willing to guess was Damon’s office. He counted at least three more walking rounds through the place, poking their heads into open rooms and checking windows at regular intervals. It was as if Damon were expecting to be attacked at any moment.
Winter wished he could stroll into Damon’s office now and cut the fucker’s heart out, but he held back on that dark impulse. Aiden was right that Damon’s death would create a power vacuum. They’d lose one threat and just move Paavo or some other vampire into Damon’s place. Right now, Damon was a known threat. Something Winter could at least partially plan for.
The soft scuff of a shoe across the tile floor was his only warning. He’d been lost in thought and hadn’t noticed a new pair of vampires on their rounds. He ducked out of the way just in time to avoid one of them plowing right into him. Winter released a heavy sigh of relief, leaning against a wall for support.
The vampire stopped right where Winter had been and gave a whole-body shiver. “What the hell? You feel that?” he muttered, looking over at his companion.
“What?”
“Cold spot. Right here.”
“What?”
The vampire with short blond hair and a goatee turned around where he stood, his eyes passing right over where Winter was plastered to the wall. “A cold spot. Like the air dropped twenty degrees right here.”
The other vampire with brown hair waved his hand right in front of the first vampire, his face wrinkled with