monstrosities. Then I went back for Vayl.
I didn't see him when I pulled into the parking lot, but I could feel him waiting for me. Although it was more than that. It's an extra sense, one I've only had since… well, for about 14 months. And I'm not the only one who's fascinated by it.
During our first mission together, Vayl had admitted part of the reason he requested our pairing was the fact that I can smell vamps. Not literally. Still, it's almost a visceral scent, something near the back of the nose and just behind the eyeballs that whispers
We'd been stalking a renegade named Gerardo, who the Italian authorities had asked us to bag before he decimated yet another convent. Apparently he'd run through so many in Europe that he'd felt the need to emigrate. Having trailed our quarry to the hushed halls of the Monastery of St. Bernadette in Oregon, we hoped the sisters had enough brains to keep themselves barricaded in their cells and that my inner alarm would sound before one of them needed to escape for a quick pee.
'Do you feel anything yet?' Vayl had asked.
'Nope. And I'm not sure it would help if I did.'
'Why not?'
'It's not like I could give you coordinates. The Sensitivity doesn't work that way. Best case scenario, all I know is he's in the same room as us.'
Vayl had stopped me, his hand so warm on my shoulder I would've suggested a trip to the emergency room if he'd been human. 'I believe this gift is just the tip if the iceberg, Jasmine. If we nurture it, develop it, I think you will be amazed to discover what lies deep beneath the water.'
Ironically, that was where we found Gerardo, hiding under the lily pads in the fountain behind the abbey church. I'd seen vamps fight before. Fought beside them, in fact. But Vayl surpassed them all. He attacked Gerardo with the ferocity of a starving crocodile, his lips drawn so far back from his teeth I could see his rear molars without squinting. They both fell back into the fountain, slamming the statue of Bernadette that stood in the middle hard enough to make her wobble.
When they emerged, blood bubbled from a huge gash in Gerardo's shoulder. He broke free of Vayl's grip and tried to jump out of the water. Vayl caught him halfway and he fell hard on the concrete rim. Like a lion on a zebra, Vayl latched onto the back of Gerardo's neck, the look in his eyes just as fierce and nearly as primal. Suddenly I knew why the Romans had packed their coliseum on a regular basis. I wanted to roar with approval. My gladiator was kicking ass, baby.
A sound to my right distracted me. A nun shuffled out of the shadows. I ran toward her. 'Sister, you need to leave. This isn't something you should see,' I said.
She'd jumped me almost before I realized she smelled undead. But the newbies are sloppy. Lack of training, maybe, or an overabundance of hunger. My crossbow bolt pierced her heart before she could even form a decent snarl. When I looked back at the fountain, Vayl stood alone as well. We'd smoked both our vamps without sustaining any major personal damage. Always a cause for celebration.
Vayl had pointed to the little bits of ash and dust that had fallen where the nun had stood moments before. 'That is why you must hone your skills.'
Six months later I hadn't made a helluva lot of progress. While I often felt like yanking my hair out by the roots, Vayl maintained his cool. He just kept saying, 'We are missing a vital link in the chain. When we discover what it is, you will rocket forward. But that does not mean you should stop trying.'
So he continued to throw training ops my way, and since I wanted to keep my job, I kept cooperating.
I looked around the lot, wishing I could ping some sort of radar off him. After all this time, I still hadn't figured out how to narrow my search. I'd learned only that if I paid attention to the awareness, it might alert me when he moved. Leaving the car running, I turned off the headlights and turned on the night vision. It was easier than it sounded.
One of my roommates in college was a techno-wizard named Miles Bergman. The tall, skinny son of a Russian dissident and an environmental biologist, his paranoia prevents him from working for the government outright. But he does sell us the rights (sometimes exclusive) to use his gadgets. Pete loves the arrangement, because it means he doesn't have to put out any extra cash for pesky items like health insurance and vacation days.
One of the many cool inventions Bergman developed for me was a set of night vision contact lenses. I squeezed my eyes shut for a couple of seconds and when I opened them the interior of the Lexus looked like it had been parked under a green streetlamp. The cars surrounding me could've come straight from Enterprise of Emerald City. All lovely shades of lime, they lined up like contestants at the Miss Oz Beauty Pageant. Only one wasn't what she seemed. One hid a dark, long-lived secret. But which?
I scanned the lot quickly, never letting my eyes rest in one place for too long. And I still nearly missed him. He stood between a Toyota Tundra and a Jeep Cherokee, an inkblot in the shadows, tapping his cane on the side of his shoe.
'I see you,' I whispered. As if I had shouted, he stepped forward. I unlocked the doors as he made his way to the car, just another well-to-do gentleman going out on the town. He looked like an Oscar winner, handsome and elegant in his black tuxedo. Even his cane worked, an integral part of the affluent man's evening clothes rather than an assassin's tool.
He slid into the car beside me, which shook me more that I let on. I preferred him sitting in the back, like a boss, rather than in front, like a date. I moved to change gears and nearly yelped when his hand covered mine.
'Wait a moment,' Vayl said, looking at me steadily through his predatory eyes. I tried not to fidget while he took stock of my hair, dress, shoes, though every second that passed squeezed at my nerves, as if he'd wrapped them in barbed wire and turned a crank that pulled it tighter until they screamed. I wanted to thump him. Didn't he know he was being rude? And unsettling? And rude? I opened my mouth to tell him exactly what I thought when he said, 'You look incredible. Like a goddess. I take back everything I said earlier.'
The attention-starved teen in me melted. Even my brain reverted. All I could think for a second was,
Gag.
I squeezed my eyes shut, took my vision back to normal. It helped restore my equilibrium too. 'Thanks,' I said.
