or the whir of swords cutting the air, he was sure Mouse was dealing with whatever the threat was and didn’t need him.
He turned a speculative look on Ashi, a feral grin curving his lips as he stalked forward on light feet, hunger and sadistic joy lighting his eyes. He’d been feeling a mite peckish anyway.
Ashi looked up, saw John advancing, and scrambled up the stairs, practically on all fours. This was not a good day.
John watched him go, debating whether or not to pursue. It amused him to be such a terror, but he didn’t really feel like playing cat-and-mouse.
Then a thought struck him. A rather wicked one.
He gave a sidelong look at Mouse’s apartment. She’d be distracted for a while.
That fiendish grin only widened as he slowly paced toward the stairs, growing anticipation bringing a crimson glow to his eyes.
Ashi bounded up the stairs, and tripped on his overlarge sweats. He felt suspiciously like a chick in a bad horror film. He wasn’t quite sure how he could draw that comparison, not having seen many movies.
Maybe if he could get to the room he shared with Christoph, John would leave him alone.
“Why run? You know I’ll catch you in the end.”
John didn’t hurry or swoop down on Ashi when he fell over himself trying to escape. He took his time, deliberately pacing up the stairs, burning eyes locked on Ashi’s retreating figure.
“I heard you said you liked it. Why run from it, then? You know it won’t hurt.”
He ran his tongue over one incisor, the single fang gleaming in the little light in the stairwell. Somehow this was more menacing than if he’d fallen on him like some wild, ravening beast.
“I promise not to take too much…”
* * *
Analie reached a hand back, embarrassed at how badly she trembled, and patted Freddy’s massive head. Her skull could have easily fit in his jaws.
“Look. J-just look. He still th-thinks a-and he’s ha-ar-armless, s-seriously. See? It’s just Freddy.”
Analie took a step back and put her arm over Freddy’s shoulders, slowly kneeling down until their heads were level. Freddy was still shaking and his striped tail had fluffed out to twice its normal size. He shoved his head under Analie’s chin and she hugged him, her fingers lost in the thick fur around his jaw.
“L-look. It’s Freddy. He’s just a shifter. He got stressed out and he shifted. He doesn’t want to be a tiger right now.”
Analie looked pleadingly at Mouse. “He’s not going to do anything, I swear. You could pet him, honestly. He’s like a really big kitty.”
Mouse did not look amused. Analie couldn’t see it, but she was still snarling, fangs openly bared in visible threat. The hellish light in her eyes dimmed but didn’t fade entirely.
Sebastian warily put a hand on Mouse’s shoulder, and she abruptly let the sword points drop, pulling away from his touch and setting the weapons down deliberately on the coffee table. The look she was giving Freddy was murderous. He was supremely lucky she had stopped to listen to Analie, for while she wielded deadly self-control and skill, when it came to protection of their building, she was easily overcome with mindless, deadly rage. It was partly habit, partly instinct. It was why she made such an effective guard dog, and now Analie had a much clearer idea of why Mouse’s apartment was situated where it was, and with so much weaponry readily to hand.
Analie would have been in total awe of how bad-ass Mouse was if she hadn’t been so close to gibbering terror.
“I’m sorry! I’m really, really sorry,” she said, her voice shaking. “Remember when I told you Ashi broke Freddy’s arm and leg?”
Freddy garumphed in distress. Analie clapped a hand over his mouth, as if it would help muffle the bone-rattling noise.
“He saw Ashi in the hallway. I dunno why he’s downstairs, but it scared the living daylights out of Freddy. He shifts when he’s stressed. Seriously, he doesn’t want to cause any trouble. He just got super scared.”
Mouse was tense and unmoving by the table. Close to the weapons.
“Um, sorry, but I’ve got… things… to do. Yeah. I’ll see you later,” Sebastian said, edging around Analie and Freddie as he hurried toward the door.
Mouse gave him a look, and the younger vampire cringed. He thought being a monster would make him brave, but the sight of Freddy had scared the (un)life out of him. Harmless or not, he wanted out of here.
After a moment, Mouse’s frown deepened, and