was still on.
The door to her apartment was ajar. That was where the draft was coming from.
Eva relaxed. The idiot had not shut the door properly, and it had opened again after he left.
She crossed the living room, mumbling to herself. She closed the door and locked it.
Then she caught the scent.
It was a light metallic smell that she did not recognize right away.
She did not have time to think about it. Something was moving behind her.
She spun around.
“Who’s there?”
Nobody answered. She seemed to be alone in the apartment.
She pulled her bathrobe tighter around her as she tried to get a grip on the danger she was sensing.
Was she picking up on some sound at the edge of her senses? Like breathing?
No, that wasn’t it. What she felt was more menacing than simple breathing, and now all her senses were on full alert. The homicide detective, trained and used to facing danger, immediately took up the reins.
She stepped behind the sofa to use it as a buffer between herself and whatever was there.
There was someone in her apartment. She was convinced of that.
Someone who was waiting.
She could not see the intruder, but she could feel his presence with every fiber of her body.
The scent. She recognized it.
It was a smell that she had known well since childhood.
It was the smell of blood.
Her thoughts began to race. Her service weapon was in the bedroom. She had to get it. Now.
She crossed the living room and passed a mirror on one of the walls. A reflection caught her eye.
It was an animal.
A wolf.
Eva stopped in her tracks, trying to understand.
This was no dream. She really was seeing a wolf in the mirror. The beast was black and scrawny, its hair mangled. Bearing sharp fangs, it was watching her. A red unearthly light shone in its eyes.
Eva did not look behind her. She realized that this was no reflection. That beast-whatever it was-was really on the other side of the glass.
She stood straight, keeping her eyes on the animal. She thought of the demons in ancient myths that were said to be capable of traveling in mirrors. She tried to find a logical explanation. She found none.
The wolf, for its part, crouched, as if getting ready to spring. Eva could not hear any sound, but she could see its dingy yellow fangs when it growled. Its eyes seemed to burn with even more ferocity.
Her hand closed on the first object it met. The vase on the coffee table. It had cost her a fortune.
Eva hurled it at the mirror.
The mirror shattered, exploding with a cry that was like hundreds of screams.
Eva stepped back, trying to collect herself. Was it a hallucination? Some new and unexpected after effect from all the drugs and alcohol she had consumed? Or maybe it was something else, something way more dangerous. Until she could understand what was really happening, she would not let any fantasy near her.
The hardwood floor was now littered with glittering debris. She thought about the shattered mirrors they found in the victims’ houses, and a sense of urgency rushed up inside her.
Whatever it was that was going on now, it had happened to the victims too.
And none of them had survived.
Eva spun around to make sure she really was alone.
She was.
At least she seemed to be.
But the feeling of being watched would not go away.
She rushed to her bedroom. Her Beretta was in the nightstand drawer. She grabbed it and took off the safety. She pointed the gun in front of her, aware of how ridiculous a defense it was against an invisible enemy, yet reassured by the feel of solid steel in her hand.
The alarm clock now displayed five thirty.
The apartment was silent.
“Who’s there?” she called out again.
Only distant thunder outside answered her.
“Come out,” she insisted. “I know you’re here.”
The intruder, if there was one, remained invisible.
Her hurried movements had caused her bathrobe to come open. She felt horribly vulnerable, and no way was she going to remain half-naked. She took off her robe and hurried to put on a pair of jeans and a T- shirt.
Then she straightened, guarded, looking for a pair of socks that she dropped before managing to put them on.
She thought she’d heard a…
…yelp?
Ridiculous. It was ridiculous, wasn’t it? Still, she had to understand what was going on. To understand it very quickly, before everything fell apart.
She felt movement behind her.
It came from the mirror in her bedroom.
She pivoted and barely had time to see the shape of the wolf in the reflection.
She did not want to know. With an outstretched arm, she smashed her Beretta against the mirror. It shattered with a fearsome scream.
Eva stepped back, panting, handgun pointed in front of her.
There was blood on the shards of glass.
She took a quick glance at her hand and saw no cuts.
The blood spattered on the floor was not hers. And the blood dripping from the mirror-from inside the mirror-was not hers either.
One last piece of the mirror fell to the floor and shattered. Eva watched as blood gushed from inside the glass. It puddled on the floor.
She fetched her phone on the nightstand and called her first contact without thinking.
It rang and rang.
“Erwan, pick up,” she whispered.
“Hi. You’ve reached Erwan Leroy’s voicemail,” her colleague’s cheerful voice said, “I’m not available right now, but…”
Eva hung up.
She heard noise in the other room.
It was not a yelp this time.
It was footsteps.
The front door opened, then closed.
Someone had just walked in.
Or else, someone had just left.
She pressed herself against the wall.
“Who’s there?” she screamed.
Silence.
She raised the phone and called dispatch.
First ring.
She ventured a look out of the bedroom.
Still not seeing anything, she opened the door wide, the phone still pressed to her ear. Second ring.
A figure was in the hallway.
A black wolf with eyes like fire.
