The Reluctant Vampire Page 0,80

good sense?" Drina asked with amusement as she strapped the quiver to her back for easy arrow retrieval, and then quickly loaded the gun.

"I don't know. I guess I never really thought about it," he admi ed quietly, and then shook his head. "And I suppose you're good with both those weapons?"

"With our eyesight, be er than the best mortal sniper in the world," she assured him, and then added wryly, "Having more than two millennia to practice and perfect the skill doesn't hurt either."

Teddy nodded solemnly, and then followed her into the kitchen. He paused at the window, though, and she glanced back to see him already peering fre ully out into the darkness. He didn't glance around as she opened the door, but said gruffly, "Be careful out there."

"I will," she assured him, and slid outside.

It wasn't as cold as it had been before this, and Drina wondered idly if this was the first sign that winter might be coming to an end here, or just a slight reprieve. Whatever the case, the snow on the deck was a bit slushy under her boots, so it was actually warm enough to bring on some mel ng, and the night was as s ll as death, with no wind to aggravate things. The one thing she'd no ced while here was that the cold that seemed bearable on a calm night, became completely unbearable if a wind kicked up. She'd also learned that it played havoc with something called the windchill factor, which as far as she could tell just meant it felt even colder than it really was.

Gaze skimming the backyard, Drina moved to the edge of the deck and paused at the bench that ran around it. She squinted, searching the dark shadows, automa cally turning off the safety on her gun as she did, but didn't see anything. Of course, she'd taken long enough to gear herself up that whatever she'd seen could have climbed up onto the roof by now, she thought a bit irritably. The possibility made Drina glance back toward the house, her eyes searching out the roof. Of course, she couldn't see all of it from that angle, so sighed and moved to the stairs to descend into the yard and start toward the back fence. She glanced back occasionally to see how much of the roof she could now make out, but was nearly to the back fence before she could see all of it.

There was nothing to see. No raccoons, hungry enough to break from their winter sleep and go in search of food, and no rogue creeping about, looking for a window to slip through. Which didn't mean they hadn't moved around to the front of the house, Drina thought, and moved closer to the house un l she was sure Teddy could see her, then pointed at herself, made a walking signal with her fingers, and then gestured toward the road-side of the house.

Teddy seemed to understand and, in response, pointed to himself, and then pointed in the same direc on, which she presumed meant he would follow her progress via the ground-floor windows. Drina turned and started around the house, crossing the driveway, and then walking along the sidewalk beside the house to get to the front. She kept glancing up toward the roof as she went, spo ng Teddy at various windows as he followed her progress, but also scanning the roof to be sure there was nothing and no one creeping up there.

At the front of the house, Drina paused at the wrought-iron gate and took a good long look at the yard and house. She noted Teddy's presence at the front-door windows, but as in the back, the roof at the front was empty. She was about to turn away and head back around the house to return inside, when a rustling caught her ear and made her freeze.

Turning slowly, Drina searched the front yard more carefully, checking every nook and crevice. She frowned when she spo ed movement in the shadowed snow in the corner of the yard in front of the upper and lower porch. Whatever was moving was too small to be human. She hesitated, but curiosity won out and she opened the front gate and stepped inside.

The worry about rogues gone now, Drina started across the yard, another concern rearing its head. It might be a poor abandoned, hungry, and freezing cat roo ng in the snow for food. Drina