only had two on my plate at the moment, and neither of those were likely prospects. I mean, it wouldn't be our evil soul, because he preferred more direct methods of destruction. I also doubted it would have anything to do with Adrienne's case, because that was getting nowhere fast. And while Blake might be annoyed at my lack of results, I didn't think he'd send hits out on me. Though I had no doubt he could have done so if he'd wanted to. He'd know the right people, if only because he was that type himself.
I left the casings lying where they were - not only because I didn't have gloves but because I knew squat about guns and wouldn't have been able to tell one casing from another - and followed the building's edge, looking for a clue as to where my would-be assassin had gone. I wasn't close enough to see the pavement directly below, and technically six flights shouldn't have had my phobia rising, but the breeze whistling up and over the edge gave a feeling of greater height and my stomach twisted.
I reached the other end of the building. There was a small jump over an alleyway to the rooftop of my building, and someone had not only taken it at speed but had misjudged their landing. Several of the aerials were either bent out of shape or broken. The old cow of an owner would have a pink fit - she loved her TV above everything else.
After a quick glance down at the gap between the two buildings, I backed away from the edge and pressed the corn-link button in my ear.
"Anyone home?"
"Oh joy, it's the bitch," a familiar voice said.
I smiled. "Hey, Sal, welcome back. I missed you."
She snorted. "Yeah, I'm gone a whole twenty-four hours and you're pining for me. Right. What can I do for you, wolf girl?"
"Someone's just taken a potshot at me. With silver bullets."
"So who'd you piss off this time?"
"No one that I know of."
"I find that extremely hard to believe."
So did I, actually. "He missed."
"You do like stating the fucking obvious, don't you?"
I grinned. "He did manage to put a whole heap of holes in your car."
"Well, fuck him."
"Yeah." I took a breath then, with my heart racing a million miles an hour, ran at the edge, and leapt over. It wasn't really a wide gap, no matter what my stupid fears were saying, and I landed on the other side without problem. "The shooter was on the roof of the apartment next to mine. I'm currently on my rooftop and heading down."
"Any evidence?"
"Shell casings. There might be prints."
"I'll send a team out."
"Thanks, Sal."
"You won't be thanking me when you get the repair bill, wolf girl."
I chuckled softly, clicked off the corn-link and walked around to the fire exit. The stair door was hanging off one hinge and swaying softly in the breeze. And what looked to be a footprint was neatly etched into the metal. My attacker was on the small side, if this print was any indication.
I stood to one side of the doorway, studying the shadows and listening for anything out of place. The normal sounds and scents of living drifted up from the apartments below, but the air also held the slightest hint of staleness - the type of staleness I'd long associated with vampires. Though this wasn't as bad as some.
My shooter had definitely been past here, but I doubted he was still hanging around. His scent was fading, and I couldn't "feel" any other nonhuman in the immediate vicinity.
Still, if he knew I lived here, there was no saying he wasn't waiting in the shadows near my apartment.
I ducked around the corner of the broken door, feeling a little foolish but knowing it was better than feeling a little dead. Hell, Rhoan would never forgive me if I got myself killed this easily after everything we'd been through this last year or so.
None of the shadows moved, though, and the darkness hid nothing but dust. Even so, I edged down each step carefully, every sense tuned. No one jumped out at me. Nothing but darkness hid on the fire escape.
When I neared the hallway of my own floor, I hesitated, switching to infrared and scanning the area. Again, nothing.
But the heat of two bodies flared to life in my apartment, and neither the shapes nor the murmuring voices were familiar.
Infrared couldn't actually tell me what race the two people in my