moonlight, I guess it really didn’t matter where he was.
Chances are, I wasn’t going to find him.
Silence flowed and ebbed around me as I checked Jason’s room.
The knob didn’t move under my hand and I took that was a good sign. For now.
It would be hard to hear anything, considering how thickly carpeted the floors were and I held the hwan-geom at my side, the hilt slippery in my hands.
When this was done and I survived, I was going to ask Jason to drop me off at a cemetery and leave me there all night. If I couldn’t face my fears, then I was worthless.
I thought I heard sounds, soft, scrabbling sounds, although that could have just been Michael going through drawers trying to find a damned flashlight.
Why didn’t this house have a damn generator? Jason seemed rich enough.
Taking the stairs seemed to take forever and a day, but without even an artificial source of light, I was worse than a mouse in front of a starved cat. I was lucky it was a full moon.
It occurred to me halfway down the stairs that I could’ve simply called the police.
Then I remembered the phone lines were probably down.
Still, it didn’t hurt to help.
At the base of the stairs, there was a phone and I picked up the receiver quietly.
The line was dead.
I hoped it was just a power outage, just an electric error until my eyes went down the phone line and saw it snipped neatly in half.
That was the first clue.
The second clue was Michael hanging from the chandelier.
His body swayed lazily, tongue hanging out, eyes open wide and I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the very professional looking leather strap around his muscular neck.
How the hell did he get up there?
How strong would someone have to be to put him up there?
A vampire.
A bead of sweat rolled down my face despite the cold air wafting in through a slightly open French window leading out to the back yard and sleeping roses.
I had no way of knowing exactly when he died, but there was always something to estimate.
A tug on his shoes told me he couldn’t have been dead more than ten minutes.
Who has the key?
Just myself and Reiko.
I managed to get Michael off the chandelier, although he fell most of the way. It was a good thing he was already dead; the fall alone would’ve broken several crucial bones.
A quick check through his pockets gave me nothing. No wallet, no cell phone, nothing.
But more importantly, no keys.
If I had been the one ordered to exterminate a newly turned vampire, and given the choice between a tired vampire and a human driver with little developed self-defense skills, guess which one I would gun for.
Not Reiko.
A scream shattered the night, ringing through the house, echoing in my ears.
Jason.
Shit.
All reasons for stealth thrown out the window, I bounded up the stairs, hwan-geom unsheathed, heart and pulse racing.
It was always like this during a chase. Adrenaline pumping through my body, making it hard to concentrate on anything else but whatever was in front of me…Elder Chang had liked my single-minded attentiveness.
Jason screamed again, a pain filled cry that made the hair rise on my bare arms.
No, no, no. He couldn’t die. Not now.
Not when I had a mission to fulfill.
I wouldn’t let him.
The doors to his room were wide open, a set of keys hanging from one of the door knobs and I wished I’d been smart enough to stay in front of Jason’s room instead of going downstairs for whatever reason. It made sense now: whoever wanted Jason would have to find him, thus come upon me.
If I got out of this alive, Reiko was going to slit me from ear to ear. And I would let her too.
There was no excuse.
A figure stood over Jason, one hand wrapped around his neck, long blond hair hanging into his prey’s pale face.
Jason shuddered, trying to draw in a breath and as the bastard pulled back his hand to deal the final blow, I flicked the bi-su in his direction.
I was very good at throwing daggers, and never missed.
This case was no exception.
The darkly clad assailant fell over the side of the bed, the dagger lodged deeply into their pectoral muscles and Jason drew in a loud, explosive breath. Blood seeped from the bandage wrapped around his neck and his eyes were almost completely dark as he slowly, laboriously crawled towards me.
Behind him, the vampire staggered upright, and yanked the tiny dagger