Blue Flames

Chapter 4

Someone is watching.

I woke silently, crouching on the bed with a dagger in each hand, facing the window. It was still dark, the street lights bathing the bedroom in a soft glow. The hairs on the back of my neck pricked in warning. I scanned the room without moving my gaze from the window. The room was clear, but there was someone or something out there.

I jumped on the floor, then padded to the window. Flattening my back on the wall beside it, I peeked outside.

The parking lot was deserted but for the cars. Wait. Right there, at the edge of the road under the heavy cover of trees, was a shadow. I blinked and it was gone.

Was it my imagination? I scanned the area again, but everything seemed peaceful. At times like these, I wished I had shapeshifter senses.

Blowing out a breath, I checked the lock on the windows and door, then checked the apartment again. I was a little paranoid. Okay, maybe more than a little. But with the childhood I've had, I could never be too careful.

Eight o'clock was still a few hours away. There was no way I would be able to go back to sleep. So I ate a bowl of cereal, then stretched my weapons out on the living room floor.

Cleaning my blades always grounded me. It was something I did ever since I could hold a knife. The clove scent in the mineral oil I used to clean my blades was reminiscent of home and safety. With each stroke, my shoulders relaxed, my heartbeat steadied and a small smile unconsciously stretched on my face.

My crossbow was in mint condition. The only problem was that I was out of silver bolts. I had regular ones, but they didn't do much in a fight against an immortal. Their superior healing abilities compared to humans made every weapon useless against them if it wasn't silver.

I doubted I would need a crossbow anytime soon, though. For some reason, I felt that any fighting I would be doing, would be in close range.

After putting away my weapons, I went through an exercise routine that I learned when I was almost five years old. The shadow fighting routine had helped my muscles grow and honed my skills throughout my childhood.

Sparring with uncle Robert was the thing that most influenced my progress as a fighter. I was smaller than the average female, but I'd learned to utilize my size against opponents much bigger and physically stronger than me.

"You make a smaller target compared to others, so if you're fast enough, you can make it impossible to hit you."

And I was fast. Most vampires were lightning fast. But thanks to uncle Robert's training, I could match a vampire's speed on my worst days in a fight.

Lost in the movements that challenged my muscles, I was drenched in sweat when the bell rang. The screen by the door showed a sleepy Irene in a fuzzy pink onesie. I stifled a smile and cracked the door open.

"Good morning."

"Morning," she grumbled, "That idiot blood sucker is not meeting us in the office anymore. We're on our own this morning."

I assumed the idiot was Kit. I was kind of glad to hear I didn't have to see his mug this morning. "And that upsets you?"

Irene bared her teeth in a snarl, which, considering her fluffy slippers and dorky bunny ears on the hood she wasn't wearing, didn't have much of an effect.

"I'm glad I don't have to see his mug this morning," great minds think alike, "but we had an appointment with an informant for the case. We were supposed to go together. He went alone. He has blindsided me more times than I can bear in this case."