My relationship with our sire wasn’t as fraught with tension as it once was, but that didn't mean I wanted to get drawn deeper into Thomas's orbit. If I let Connor work for me, that's exactly what would happen.
No, thank you.
Better for everyone if I kept Connor at arm's length.
To say I didn't get along with Thomas was an understatement. I no longer hated him, but he was still manipulative and autocratic. Controlling in the extreme. All things I avoided when I could.
"You want me to prove myself."
I stopped, staring at him with something that approached consternation. That hadn't been exactly what I meant.
Connor nodded once to himself. "I find these terms acceptable. I will work to earn your trust."
I opened my mouth to argue. Last thing I wanted was for him to stalk me some more.
"Do you know him?" Connor asked before I could correct his mistake.
I glanced in the direction he was staring and frowned.
The bright red scarf caught my attention first. It was a splash of color in an otherwise colorless night as its tip trailed over the front of a black suit. The next thing I noticed was the umbrella the stranger held over his head, casting his face in shadow.
It was a strange affectation when there was no form of precipitation, not even a cloud in the sky. I had a feeling that umbrella was the reason I couldn’t see his face even with my enhanced eyesight.
Taken all together, it was weird. I'd learned to pay attention when things got weird. Not paying attention was how I ended up a vampire.
Humans tended to justify and explain away details of the strange and unusual. It was how they'd gone so long brushing up against the edge of our world without ever really knowing what waited in the shadows they refused to see.
That was how I missed the signs all those years ago when Thomas approached me in that bar.
Now, I paid better attention.
"No. You?" I said.
Connor's head moved in a tiny shake.
Great.
It didn't fill me with confidence that Connor, a vampire much older than myself who had also spent considerable time in a Fae court interacting on a regular basis with monsters, didn’t recognize the big bad creature standing across from us.
If my encounter with the shadow creature in the precinct wasn't in my not so distant past, I would have been tempted to keep walking. As it stood, it was hard not to draw parallels and connections between the two.
I opened myself up to my magic sight, dropping into a world I'd learned only a very few could see. The ability made me valuable in ways I didn't yet fully comprehend.
Lines of color dotted my vision, weaving in and out of the normal, everyday world as if it wasn't even there. Sparkles darted at the edge of my eyesight, faint impressions there and gone in an instant.
When I'd first started doing this, it had been difficult understanding what I was seeing, the magic edging out the mundane and giving me no frame of reference. I'd gotten better since then, but every once in a while, I came across something I had no way of interpreting.
Like now.
"What do you see?" Connor murmured in a voice low enough that even someone with super hearing wouldn't be able to hear unless they were standing right next to him.
I shook my head, once.
I had no idea. The umbrella man was a black hole, eating every semblance of light.
I peered harder. Pain spiked deep in my brain. A vise wrapped around the back of my head. The pressure grew before abruptly my magic sight snapped off, the mundane world once again ascendant.
I stumbled, nearly falling. Connor caught me, steadying me as I blinked away the spots of darkness in my vision.
"Are you alright?"
"Just swell," I muttered.
Across the street, teeth flashed and I got the impression of a sinister smile. The man tipped his umbrella at us before sauntering down the street, whistling jauntily the entire way.
After only a few steps, the shadows seemed to gather around him, swallowing him from view.
I released the breath I was holding, relieved to see him go. I might not have got a good glimpse at his magic, but something told me he was much more powerful than he seemed. Probably a good thing we weren't having it out with him a few steps from a police station.
"Do unknown creatures often make a habit of watching you?" Connor asked.
I considered his words then shrugged. "More than you think."
Patting his arm in thanks, I straightened. It was time to head home for the night. "See you around, Connor."
I forced myself to walk in the opposite direction of the umbrella man, waving once over my shoulder.
A stray breeze carried his final words to me. "Yes, you will."
TWO
THE NEXT NIGHT I ended up on the southwest side of the city, just outside German Village near harpy territory. Like many of the city's spook residents, the harpies had claimed a small piece of the city as their own. It had taken a while after my change to realize that Columbus was basically one big pie with each supernatural species claiming a piece of their own.
Vampires held much of the Arena District, which was trendy and hip and home to many of the bars and clubs the city's younger crowd tended to congregate at. The witches had put down roots in the Short North, side-by-side with art galleries, offbeat tea shops, and other one-of-a kind stores.
The harpies had claimed a portion of the Scioto river and the immediate surrounding area. The part of the river where I normally found them at was called the Scioto mile which ran through a good stretch of the downtown and beyond.
Like many other parts of the city, the mile had undergone a bit of a face lift over recent years. Once rather dismal and a bit sketchy, it was now a mecca for those who wanted to walk or picnic along the riverfront. Crafted from running trails and carefully tended lawns, the mile framed the Scioto river from the Arena district all the way down to Whittier Peninsula.
During daytime, it was rare to see the many paths unoccupied. When the weather was fair, flocks of business people took to the trails during their breaks and lunch hours before returning to their stressful days.
Tonight, I bypassed the riverfront promenade heading instead for the area south of Bicentennial park where the West Main Street bridge crossed the Scioto.
The harpies roosting grounds tended to move around a lot, but I was betting they'd head for the bridge at some point tonight. It had the best places to dive bomb the water below, and it wasn't far to Franklinton, home to several breweries and a slew of low-key bars.
Like the crows and ravens that they took some of their form from, harpies had a weakness for shiny things, and it was easy to pickpocket drunk humans stumbling home after a night at the bar.
It took three stops before I spotted Natalia and her flock, perched on the climbing wall in the Scioto Audubon Metro Park drinking beer and chucking it into a trashcan far below.
The evidence of broken glass surrounding the bin said that they'd been doing this for a while and that not all of them had great aim.
"Natalia," I said, not bothering to raise my voice. I didn't need to, she'd hear.
A lean woman high above paused in the act of lifting a beer to her lips. Clad all in black, much of it leather, Natalia was difficult to see against the night sky. Even her wings were black, easily lost against the darkness.
"Aileen?" Her voice floated on the wind.