Lycan Blood (Alex Vane: Demon Stalker #1)

It's Not Stalking When it's in Your Job Description

“You do realise this is pretty much the most stupid idea you’ve had so far?” Scott’s assessment of the situation wasn’t really wrong. Of course, it wasn’t really helpful either but that thought didn’t seem to have occurred to him.

“Shut up.” I muttered, shifting my feet to try and get some of the circulation back in them. I was currently crouched down behind a Rhododendron bush on the outskirts of Adam’s yard, doing a fantastic impression of a creepy stalker. Scott was squashed beside me, complaining bitterly into my ear at every opportunity. It wasn’t exactly how I’d dreamed of spending my Sunday morning.

“What exactly are you hoping to see anyway? Adam dragging the corpses of several cheerleaders into his house in broad daylight?”

“No!” I rolled my eyes. He was entitled to be annoyed by my plan of course but did he have to be so vocal about it?, “Just…something suspicious. There has to be something. Besides, do you have a better plan in mind?”

“We could knock on his door,” Scott suggested dryly, “You know, like a normal human being might do.”

“Come on, be realistic! You think Adam is going to let me into his house?” I froze as an old man walked by. He gave us both a funny look but thankfully said nothing, “Look, I promise we’ll only do this for half an hour more and then we’ll go. You have to admit, it’s better than doing nothing.”

“I think I could make a valid argument against that point.” He sighed but he didn’t get up. I was quite glad to be honest. I wasn’t scared of Adam exactly but after what happened yesterday, he had me on edge. If I was discovered then he was hardly going to react well to me spying on him from his garden so it was nice to have backup. Even if that backup was particularly whiny.

The worst part was I couldn’t exactly disagree with the point he was making. We’d been here for about an hour already and so far we’d seen precisely nothing useful. Adam’s dad had gone to work (confirming his existence I suppose, unlike Jenna’s seemingly invisible parents), his mum had almost caught us when she watered the potted plants by the door and a strange black cat had pestered Scott for a while. Oh, and Adam's mum had gone out too. Hardly riveting stuff. Adam himself hadn’t made a single appearance though and I wasn’t even sure he was awake judging by the way his curtains were closed. Stalking Adam had seemed like a good idea at the time but maybe that was just the desperation talking.

“So do you do this a lot?” Scott asked, after no more than a minute of blissful silence. I resisted the urge to hit him. Hard.

“Do what?”

“Spy on guys. Not that I’m judging you of course. What you do in your own time is up to you.” I didn’t even have to look at him to know he’d be wearing that irritating smirk. He was only teasing me because he was bored but that didn’t make it any less annoying.

“Do you want us to get caught?” I snapped, turning my head just in time to see a black car pulling into the drive. Instantly I froze, fingers still clutching handfuls of waxy leaves as if they would offer me some sort of protection, “Crap. Scott, don’t move okay?”

“Why not?” He may have been confused but he still sensibly obeyed me. He didn’t so much as turn his head.

“Because there’s a car behind you. I don’t think they can spot us. Hang on.” As slowly as I dared I shuffled back, terrified of making a sound. Someone was getting out of the car now, a pale figure with neat black hair: Adam. Of course. His mum soon got out the driver’s side. She had the same dark hair and complexion but had a lot more warmth than her son.

“Oh no,” Scott swore beside me, mimicking my shuffling so that he could see too. Adam was standing sullenly beside the car, glaring at his mother who was chatting away quite obliviously. Both were thankfully facing away from us, “What if we get caught?”