The wind shook the branches of the trees around me, showering the ground and me with tiny gray-green leaves. I was about to shake them from my fur when I caught two sounds—the first, a twig snapping lightly. The second, the brush of nylon against sharp leaves.
Someone was sneaking through the trees, headed my way.
I flicked my ears forward, but otherwise didn't move. Given the darkness and the gnarled trunks that surrounded me, it was unlikely that even the red of my coat would be seen. Besides, whoever was sneaking up ahead was human—or at least, in human form—and most humans took no notice of a dog, especially if it wasn't moving or threatening. Even if it was a wolf up ahead, the wind was in my favor, carrying my scent toward the ocean rather than the stranger.
Oddly enough, it didn't offer me the stranger's scent, carrying no more than the night, the ocean, and the multiple layers that spoke of the nearby restaurants, shops, and exhaust fumes.
If he was so close that I could hear him, I should certainly have been able to smell him. Unless, of course, he had no scent.
Hackles rose at the thought. Everyone had a scent—unless it had been deliberately erased.
No more careless sounds rode the wind. The man up ahead—though why I was so sure it was a man I had no idea—had either stopped moving or disappeared. Why was he sneaking through these trees? Was he spying, surveying the area like me, or were his intentions all together darker?
I wanted to move, but with all the crap on the ground, he'd hear me. But if I wanted to find out what was going on, what he was doing, then I might have to take the chance.
Sound whispered along the wind, cutting off the thought. Something scraped lightly against nylon again, and a second later, the unmistakable click of a safety coming off a gun.
The fear in my gut crystallized.
The woman waiting for Roberta Whitby was about to get shot. I leapt to all fours, but it was already far too late to do anything to save that woman.
A muffled report rode the wind. My gaze shot to the window. It shattered. The woman with the roman nose jerked, then slumped forward onto the table.
Dead.
And so was my chance at answers if I didn't move right away.
But as much as I wanted to charge in and attack, I knew such actions would earn me nothing more than a bullet. I had no idea who—or what—was ahead, but the mere fact he had no scent suggested that he was either a professional hit man or another of those creatures from the labs.
I looked ahead, judging the length of spring needed to clear all the clutter under the trees. Then I crouched and launched forward, clearing the undergrowth with inches to spare.
I'd barely landed when the sense of someone approaching had the hackles along the back of my neck rising. I looked over my shoulder. Only cars could be seen moving through the night—yet something unseen was there, crossing the road, approaching faster than the wind itself.
A vampire.
Jack had said he'd have people here, so it was more than likely a guardian.
And if that guardian saw me and reported my presence back to Jack, I'd be in deep shit. But I resisted the urge to throw my shields to full and disappear into shadow. That would only be asking for a deeper inspection. The approaching vampire had to believe I was nothing more than a wolfy-looking dog, and to achieve that, I had to let him skim surface thoughts.
So I blanked everything from my mind, lowered a shield, and thought of nothing more than the thrill of hunting the scent of cat, then stuck my nose to the ground and sniffed around. After a second or two, I actually did catch the spoor of a cat, and my wolf soul stirred excitedly. I trotted along, following the trail while keeping an eye in the shooter's general direction.
Heat touched my mind, a needle-sharp probe that got no further than surface thoughts. It snapped away quickly, moving on, searching the night. A second later, air ran past my nose, filled with the scent of pine, underlain with the richness of sage.
It was Jared, one of the newer recruits to guardian ranks.
He moved on, running for the end of the trees. Nose to the ground, I padded along after him.
Another muffled report bit across the wind. The patch of deeper darkness veered sharply, and the metallic smell of blood tainted the air. The shooter had to have infrared sights—or was a vampire himself—if he was able to see Jared. A third report came, followed by a grunt that was abruptly, chillingly, cut off. The shadows concealing Jared fell away and he slumped to the ground, what was left of his thin features showing surprise.
A growl rumbled up my throat before I could stop it. I halted, hackles raised, trying to act like an everyday dog when every instinct in my wolf soul begged me to run, to bring down the quarry, to tear his flesh and his life from his body. My lips drew back into a snarl, my whole body vibrating with the force of it.
The trees moved, and a man stepped out. He was as black as the night itself, and almost as invisible as a vampire. Yet he wore no shadows, nor did he wear clothes. He was little more than an outline, a figure who had a basic shape but no distinct features.
Just like the man—the creature—who'd attacked me in the hotel room in the Blue Mountains.
Misha had once suggested that a man who leashed the secrets of genetics to make the perfect killing machine could rule the world—or make a fortune creating purpose-built assassins for those who wanted the power to take out the opposition swiftly and easily. Maybe that nightmare wasn't as far off as we'd all thought.
I didn't move, watching the specter of a man, watching the gun he held. He moved to Jared's body, kneeling carefully and feeling for a pulse. Why he bothered I had no idea—not even a vampire could survive having half his brain shot away. As he checked, he kept an eye on me, but not in a suspicious sort of way. His behavior was more that of a man who simply didn't trust—or didn't like—dogs. And the rifle—one of the new runt rifles, which had the power and the range of a rifle, but were only a little bigger than a handgun—was pointed more at the ground than me.
I stuck my nose to the dirt again, sniffing around as I checked who else was in the area. In the restaurant, people were beginning to realize something was wrong. A waiter approaching the corner table stopped abruptly, and even from where I stood, I could see the dawning horror on his face.
A sharp, almost barked, laugh bit through the night, and a rumble of anger rose up my throat again. The shooter rose, his amusement evident in the brief flash of teeth—teeth that were gray rather than white. His gaze met mine, and, for an instant, death stood before me, deciding whether I was worth killing or not. Then the stranger blinked, and the moment was gone.
The relief I felt was almost frightening. As much as my wolf spirit might want to tear this man from limb to limb, the biggest foe I'd tackled with the intention of bring down was the occasional rabbit or fox in the "back to nature" sessions Rhoan and Liander liked to drag me along to. But killing a wild animal as an animal was far different from hunting—and killing—a humanoid. That was a milestone I never wanted to reach—and the major reason for my reluctance to join the guardian ranks.
Then I remembered Genoveve. I'd maimed there, more than once, and could so easily have killed. I knew it, even if I hadn't admitted it at the time.
The shooter took the small pack from his back, broke the runt rifle into several pieces, and shoved them inside. Then he slung the pack back over his shoulder and walked away. Just another man out for a Monday night stroll.
Only this man was a shadow most wouldn't see.
I padded along after him The urge to do more than simply haunt his steps still vibrated through my muscles, but attacking him here, on a main street, simply wasn't an option. The cops had undoubtedly been called by the restaurant, and the last thing I needed was interference from them. This killer was mine to question.