I scowled at her retreating back. "What does that mean?"
She lifted a hand over her shoulder in a wave.
"Natalia? You and your sisters aren't sitting around watching me, are you?"
No answer.
Damn it. They were.
"We'll revisit this conversation at a later time," I muttered under my breath as I stood, facing the woods. For now, I had a stalker to chase off.
*
I lingered on the running path, opening my senses to the world around me. My magic sight settled over me, overlaying the mundane world with its kaleidoscope of colors.
Magic, or at least some semblance of it, ran through most things. Often it was weak, no more than a spark.
My stalker might be good at going undetected, but I was willing to bet he forgot to shield his magic.
At the edge of my vision, power flared—a brilliant white. It reminded me of lightning, searing hot for an instant before it was gone again.
I smirked, my feet taking me toward where I'd seen the flash.
"Connor, you might as well come out. I know you're here," I called.
The forest rustled, the shadows moving as a man stepped onto the trail, an umbrella held over his head to shade his face.
I stumbled to a stop. I'd found something, but it wasn’t what I expected.
The stranger dipped forward in a bow. "You found me, my dear. Though I confess, I don't know who this Connor is."
I looked around uneasily.
This was a clever trap. The worse part was I'd blundered into it on my own, and I had no one to blame but myself. My overconfidence had made it easy for him to lure me into a quiet, secluded part of the path, the river gurgling only a few steps away and the trees shielding us from prying eyes.
“This is the second time we’ve met," I said, after a moment.
The umbrella man straightened. "Indeed."
"Why are you following me?"
Shadows stirred under the umbrella, darker shapes against the night. I squinted but couldn't pick out any details.
"To get your measure." His voice was cultured and deep with the faintest of accents.
I backed up, feeling my stomach tighten as he advanced a step. "Why would you need my measure?"
"I represent a group who are looking to hire someone with a special set of skills."
"And last night you were seeing if I had those skills?" I couldn't keep the skepticism out of my voice. He hadn’t yet done anything that could be construed as threatening, except for the fact he hit a ten on the creep'o'meter. That was more than enough for me to treat him with extreme caution.
"Suffice it to say, we'd like to hire the pretty vampire." The man sounded pleasant enough, but I could sense the threat right under the surface. If I didn't do what they wanted, there would be consequences.
I backed up another step, frustrated when he advanced, reclaiming the distance between us.
"You still haven't told me who you are," I bluffed, buying time while I tried to think of a plan to extricate myself from the current situation.
"You can call me Don."
That had me blinking at him in surprise. It was such a normal name for a person that I suspected wasn't a person at all.
"Alright, Don, how about you come back during business hours, and we can discuss this like civilized people," I tried.
He took another step toward me, closing the distance. "It would be better to discuss this now."
I'd been afraid he would say that.
From under his umbrella, shadows unfurled—like unruly locks of hair being released from a hair tie. They flexed and curled as they dropped nearly to his waist, some as thick as an elephant's trunk, others thin and sinuous.
I edged away, conscious of the fact the situation was quickly spiraling out of my control.
The temptation to give in and take the job, terms unknown, was strong. Unfortunately, I had an iron clad rule about not accepting work from people who terrified me. And this man scared me on a whole other level.
There was something primal about his power, that whispered of fears half forgotten. It told me this man was something dangerous and unknown.
There was also the small matter of not letting someone strong arm me into accepting jobs I didn't want.
Reputation was a fragile thing. Once lost, it took twice as long to regain. If people thought it was easy to walk all over me, they'd take advantage. I'd lose any gains I'd made since going it alone.
I stopped retreating. If I acted like prey, he was going to treat me like prey. Sometimes you had to bluff to get ahead.
"Like I said, I only hear requests during business office hours."
Granted, I didn't actually have an office or business hours during which he could visit, but he didn't know that.
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist." Regret colored his voice.
The blackness he cloaked his magic in swelled, giving me a split second to brace.
A blur of white barreled into him from the side.
"Run," Connor roared.
Yup, good plan.
I didn't hesitate, shooting down the path without a backward glance.
If a vampire, centuries my senior, wanted to go head-to-head with a scary Fae, more power to him. This baby vampire planned to live by the mantra that those who ran away, lived to fight another day.
By instinct I managed to head toward the part of the city where I’d left the car.
Getting out of the park was easy since no one tried to stop me.
I hit the cobblestone streets that signaled the beginning of German Village and pounded down an alley, making a beeline for my car.
It occurred to me by the time I took a second turn, darting into an alley then across a street and down another ally while trying to lose an assailant that wasn't actually there, that Connor and I might have overreacted.
Technically, Don, the umbrella man, hadn't done anything more threatening than try to hire me for an unspecified job.
Maybe he was harmless. Simply coming across more threatening than he intended. That was a problem for a lot of the older, more powerful spooks. They didn't always understand proper social etiquette in these modern times.
I slowed to a walk, putting my hands on my hips as I tried to control my breathing.
I didn’t quite believe it. Don and his umbrella, which masked what was under it, unsettled me on a primitive level. More importantly, Connor had acted as if the man was an extreme threat.
I trusted his instincts. Possibly more than my own.
If he thought the man was dangerous, chances were, he was. But was he dangerous to me?
While I pondered whether I should head back and help Connor, the air shimmered a few feet ahead of me. Magic stirred, a sparkling distortion that I would have associated with a visual migraine had I still been human. It shimmered and shivered, slowly growing until it took up the space of a door.
Magic, the likes of which I'd never encountered, wafted out of it, whispering of welcome and homecoming.
I took a cautious step back.
A Fae had created this, I was willing to bet. One that was extremely powerful. It tasted like one of them, but different.
"Oh dear," a voice said from behind me. "Someone is impatient."
I whirled, crouching as my fangs popped through my gums.
Though I couldn't see his eyes, I got the sense Don was staring beyond me to the door.