Embraced By Darkness (Riley Jenson Guardian 5)

Maybe he'd gone.

Maybe he was waiting for a clearer shot.

I sniffed the air, trying to get sonic hint of who and what my adversary was. The air ran sharp with many aromas - including the metallic scent of my own blood - but there was no hint of vampire on the breeze.

I switched to infrared and scanned the rooftop. There was no one here. I was totally alone. I swore softly and rose. No bullets smashed through the air to greet my sudden appearance. My quarry was truly gone.

Cursing softly, I walked over to the corner of the building, going near, but not too near, the edge. At least a dozen shell casings littered the ground. Someone had wanted me very dead. Question was, who? And had they moved up from using cars and trucks to using bullets?

I suspected they had. But why? Certainly there was nothing happening in my private life that warranted such actions, so it had to be connected to a case.

Problem was, I only had two on my plate at the moment, and neither of those were likely prospects. I mean, it wouldn't be our evil soul, because he preferred more direct methods of destruction. I also doubted it would have anything to do with Adrienne's case, because that was getting nowhere fast. And while Blake might be annoyed at my lack of results, I didn't think he'd send hits out on me. Though I had no doubt he could have done so if he'd wanted to. He'd know the right people, if only because he was that type himself.

I left the casings lying where they were - not only because I didn't have gloves but because I knew squat about guns and wouldn't have been able to tell one casing from another - and followed the building's edge, looking for a clue as to where my would-be assassin had gone. I wasn't close enough to see the pavement directly below, and technically six flights shouldn't have had my phobia rising, but the breeze whistling up and over the edge gave a feeling of greater height and my stomach twisted.

I reached the other end of the building. There was a small jump over an alleyway to the rooftop of my building, and someone had not only taken it at speed but had misjudged their landing. Several of the aerials were either bent out of shape or broken. The old cow of an owner would have a pink fit - she loved her TV above everything else.

After a quick glance down at the gap between the two buildings, I backed away from the edge and pressed the corn-link button in my ear.

"Anyone home?"

"Oh joy, it's the bitch," a familiar voice said.

I smiled. "Hey, Sal, welcome back. I missed you."

She snorted. "Yeah, I'm gone a whole twenty-four hours and you're pining for me. Right. What can I do for you, wolf girl?"

"Someone's just taken a potshot at me. With silver bullets."

"So who'd you piss off this time?"

"No one that I know of."

"I find that extremely hard to believe."

So did I, actually. "He missed."

"You do like stating the fucking obvious, don't you?"

I grinned. "He did manage to put a whole heap of holes in your car."

"Well, fuck him."

"Yeah." I took a breath then, with my heart racing a million miles an hour, ran at the edge, and leapt over. It wasn't really a wide gap, no matter what my stupid fears were saying, and I landed on the other side without problem. "The shooter was on the roof of the apartment next to mine. I'm currently on my rooftop and heading down."

"Any evidence?"

"Shell casings. There might be prints."

"I'll send a team out."

"Thanks, Sal."

"You won't be thanking me when you get the repair bill, wolf girl."

I chuckled softly, clicked off the corn-link and walked around to the fire exit. The stair door was hanging off one hinge and swaying softly in the breeze. And what looked to be a footprint was neatly etched into the metal. My attacker was on the small side, if this print was any indication.

I stood to one side of the doorway, studying the shadows and listening for anything out of place. The normal sounds and scents of living drifted up from the apartments below, but the air also held the slightest hint of staleness - the type of staleness I'd long associated with vampires. Though this wasn't as bad as some.