Bound to Shadows (20 page)

A quick scan of the front two rooms didn’t reveal anything out of the ordinary. We turned and
made our way down the hall, our footsteps as silent as the house.
But as we neared the back room, the sensation hit me—an uncomfortable and all-too-familiar wash
of heat. The sort of heat that came from lust. The sort of heat I’d felt when I’d followed the
man who’d come out of Vinny’s building last night.
I stopped abruptly. Rhoan glanced at me, one eyebrow raised in question. I signaled that I could
sense someone inside and he shook his head, meaning he couldn’t. Which was odd, but it didn’t
make me doubt what I was sensing. I learned long ago to trust what I felt. It might never have
gotten me into less trouble, but at least it did give me a heads-up.
He raised his hand again and began to count down. When the last finger fell, I went in low and
fast, slapping down on one knee as I scanned the room with the laser at the ready.
I had one brief glimpse of a man—the man Kye had identified as Carlos Martez—then he was gone,
his body exploding into a mass of writhing, boiling black smoke that fled sideways. I followed
with the laser, saw the mirror. Fired.
But I was too late.
The smoke that had been a man hit it a fraction of a second before the laser beam, the last of
him disappearing into the confines of the mirror just before it shattered. I rose and ran over,
but the glass was empty of anything but my reflection.
“What the fuck was that?” Rhoan said.
I glanced at him. He stood near the doorway, his gaze sweeping the room and his gun still held at
the ready. “That,” I said heavily, “was probably the vampire responsible for murdering two women.
He’s possibly also the vampire behind our beheadings.”
“Vampires can’t just up and disappear into smoke.” He scanned the room a final time, then relaxed
a little and lowered his weapon. “And they certainly can’t disappear into mirrors.”
“I don’t think we’re dealing with an ordinary vampire here.”
“But even if he’s an emo vamp, the same still applies. They just can’t fade into
mirrors.”
“Unless they were something that could
before
they became a vampire.”
I pocketed my laser and began picking up the pieces of glass. If he could disappear through a
mirror then he could reappear, too, and I wasn’t about to chance an ambush.
“So, what was he looking at so intensely?” Rhoan said, walking lightly across the room.
“I don’t know.” I rose and walked back down the hallway, opening the front door and tossing the
mirror’s remains out into the garden. Hopefully the bright sunshine would stop him from using the
shards as an avenue of return. I did the same to the mirror that had been smashed in the hall,
then on the way back to the kitchen, I checked the other rooms. I found a mirror in what looked
to be the main bedroom, and dumped it whole and intact outside. It looked old and may well have
been an heirloom. And while I enjoyed baiting Sal, I wasn’t about to destroy something she held
dear.
Rhoan was kneeling where our vamp had been, but glanced up as I entered. “It’s a
trapdoor.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Sal has a panic room?”
“Pretty sensible thing for a vampire to do,” he commented. “Especially given the human history of
distrust when it comes to vampires.”
“It’s generally not that bad these days.” The door itself wasn’t large—it was big enough for a
body to slip through but little else. It was also metal, and looked strong enough to withstand a
bomb.
“Tell that to the vampires who have lost their heads,” Rhoan said, voice wry. “Or to the humans
who wanted to belt your lights out.”
“That’s different.” I knelt down beside him and ran my fingers across the cool metal, looking for
something that might act as a lock or a switch to get into the thing. “Besides, it’s not humans
decapitating the vamps. How are we supposed to open this sucker?”
As far as I could see, there was no damn lock. There wasn’t even enough of a gap between the door
and the metal frame around it to squeeze fingers in and rip it open.
“I don’t think anyone is meant to.” He raised a fist and pounded heavily on the door. The sound
echoed through the stillness, and from what seemed a long way away, a dog yapped.
I grinned. I knew that bark. And if the little terrier I’d rescued was alive down there, then
surely Sal was, too.
“Sal,” I shouted, leaning forward a little, “it’s Riley and Rhoan. The threat is gone. It’s safe
to come out.”
“God,” Rhoan said, wincing as he wiggled the earlobe nearest me with one hand. “Give a warning
next time you’re going to do that.”
There was no immediate answer from the room below us, but the excited barking got louder. Two
seconds later, there was a hiss of air—similar to that of an air lock opening—then the lid popped
upward and slowly opened to reveal a ladder.
“Riley?” Sal almost sounded relieved, which definitely meant the situation had been
bad.
“Yeah,” I said. “The house is clear. It’s safe to come out.”
“Good.” The sound of steps on metal rungs echoed, then she appeared, looking more than a little
disheveled and wearing a white satin nightdress that showed off her curvaceous figure to
perfection. The little terrier was tucked safely under her arm, though he was wriggling for all
he was worth and giving everyone a silly doggy grin.
She set him down once they were both out, then met my gaze squarely. “Thank you.”
I raised an eyebrow. “We were only doing our job. And Jack sure as hell wouldn’t have wanted to
lose the second-best liaison he’s ever had.”
A wry smile touched the corners of her mouth. “No, I mean thank you for giving me the dog. He
saved my life.”
“How?” I glanced down at the mutt in question. He was running excitedly around Rhoan’s legs,
yipping for all he was worth, stopping only when Rhoan bent down to give him a pat. “I mean, he’s
a great dog and all, but he’s not really a threat, and he certainly wasn’t much help to his first
master.”
Sal smiled and scooped up the little dog as he ran back to her. “I was woken up by his barking.
When I went down to investigate, he was frantic. The beat of life was strong on the other side of
the front door, and whoever it was wore a very powerful nanowire that I couldn’t get past. The
intruder scampered the minute I neared the door, but he left a miniature camera sticking through
the keyhole. I destroyed it, but it was too late.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Too late for what?”
“To stop it.” She gave the little dog another scratch. “Fred gave me the heads-up when he started
barking at the mirror. That’s when I noticed the smoke forming.”
She’d called him Fred? A woman with no imagination when it came to decent dog names, obviously.
“And you knew what it was?”
“Yes. I’ve come across mirror wraiths before and have seen what they can do.”
“So you smashed the mirror and ran for the safe room?”
“Yes.” She smiled, though it held little in the way of amusement. “They can only travel through
reflective surfaces, so unpolished steel is a perfect foil for them.”
“So why not just destroy the rest of the mirrors in the house?”
“Because I had no idea how long the man at the door had been using the camera or how much of the
house he might have seen.” She shrugged. “It was safer to hide.”
“If these things can come through mirrors,” Rhoan said, “why would he be using someone to take
images through a keyhole?”
“Because they cannot come through unknown mirrors. They have to physically see them before they
can use them.”
Which explained the housekeeper’s observation that the second man had carried a camera but wasn’t
using it. It also suggested our two female victims had a tryst with the wraith before he’d
started visiting them nightly.
Yet their friends and families had claimed that neither women had lovers. And while you might not
tell your family that sort of stuff, most women
did
gossip to
friends.
“How come you know about these things and Jack doesn’t?”
“Because we come from two very different parts of the world. There are always regional
evolutionary differences in species.” She shrugged. “The question is, why would the wraith come
after me?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Don’t suppose you’ve been having seriously sexual dreams of late, have
you?”
She glanced at me. “This is the first time the wraith has attempted to get into my house. So, no,
I haven’t.”
“What about the Melbourne vamp council? Are you on that?” Rhoan asked, moving to the nearest
window and looking out. He still held the gun ready, too, though I doubted our felon would risk
coming back so quickly. Then I noticed his hand was still near his ear and realized he was in
contact with Jack.
“No, I’m not.” She frowned. “Although I did a short stint a while ago, when a friend of mine went
overseas. And I have to say, most of the councilors are arrogant jerks.”
Coming from Sal—who could be as arrogant as the best of them—that was saying a lot. I leaned back
against the kitchen counter and crossed my arms. “Those jerks are currently being
murdered.”
She nodded. “I’d heard, but I really didn’t think it would involve me, given that my tenure was
so brief.”
“How come Jack didn’t know?” He mustn’t have; otherwise he would have mentioned it. Jack was many
things, but he wasn’t cavalier with the lives of his people, and he would have at least arranged
protection for her.
“Because I only attended a few meetings, and my name never actually went onto the permanent
roster.”
“And how long ago did you stand in for your friend?”
“Nearly six months ago.” She let the little dog down again then moved across to the percolator
and began lining up cups. “As I said, it was mostly boring, everyday stuff. You know, someone
wanting permission to set up a nest, someone else wanting help with a fledgling—” She paused and
frowned as she pressed a button on the percolator. The machine began to spit and hiss, and the
rich aroma of coffee filled the air. “There was one request the council refused. A man came to
them requesting their help with several fledglings who were having trouble coping with the turn.
As it happens, he hadn’t actually asked the council’s permission to set up a nest, so he was
punished. He was severely reprimanded, and the nest was destroyed.”
“And how are nests usually destroyed?” The answer was pretty obvious, given the method being used
on the councilors, but it was a question that still had to be asked.
“Beheading, then the bodies left to burn in sunlight.”
“That would certainly be enough to piss someone off.”
“Yeah.” She handed me a coffee, then walked over to the window and gave the other to Rhoan. “But
it was six months ago. Surely if he was going to seek revenge, he would have done so before
now.”
“If I’ve learned one thing in this job, it’s that the bad guys never do what you expect,” Rhoan
said. “And six months isn’t a long time when you basically live forever.”
“Point taken,” she agreed, and took a sip of her own coffee. “He didn’t seem particularly angry
at the council’s decision, though. And he stood by and watched the destruction without saying a
word.”
“Maybe he was so damn angry he just wasn’t able to react.” I breathed deeply, savoring the divine
smell emanating from my coffee cup, then took a sip. It lived up to the promise of its aroma. I
might even be tempted to say the fresh fruitiness and creamy coconut flavor was every bit as good
as my old favorite, hazelnut. “What happened to him after that?”
“I don’t know. He just disappeared off the radar.”
“And the council didn’t find that alarming?” Rhoan asked.
Sal’s smile was wry. “If the council got alarmed every time a vampire decided to make himself
scarce, they would very quickly become nervous wrecks.”
“I thought vamps tended to stick to their own territories?”
She arched an eyebrow. “If we did that, then there would be none of us in Australia, would
there?”
That was certainly true. Australia didn’t have the same history as England, Europe, or even the
United States. And when it came to white settlement—and the subsequent inflow of supernaturals—it
was certainly one of the last places to be populated.
“So,” I said, after taking another drink. “This man who went before the council, what sort of
vamp was he?”
She shrugged. “I have to admit, I was bored and wasn’t really taking that much notice of
proceedings. But his name was Ammon. Ammon Nasser, I think.”
It was a start, at least. I pulled out the photo taken from Kye’s computer from my pocket and
showed it to her. “Is this Nasser?”
She frowned at the printout, then shook her head. “Nasser is tall, with spiky brown hair and
odd-colored eyes.”
“Odd how?”
She hesitated. “It’s almost like the color is unstable. It shifts hue constantly. It’s very
weird.”
It sounded it. “Are mirror wraiths vampires?”
“Generally no, but like any other person born to this world, they can chose to become one.” She
took a sip of coffee, her expression considering. “And he uses the mirrors extremely well, so I’d
say he was a fairly old wraith when he changed.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because wraiths have certain restrictions when it comes to mirrors, much like vampires with
sunshine. The ability really to use mirrors only becomes honed to a true skill as they
age.”
“How come you know so much about wraiths?” Rhoan asked, voice full of curiosity.
Her smile was bitter. “Because many years ago, one of them killed my family. It took me a very
long time to track it down, but I eventually did.”
Which was why she’d become a vampire. She didn’t say it, but she didn’t have to. “So how
do
you kill them?”
“The best way is to catch them in human form. Then you can dispatch them by any means that would
kill a normal human. In smoke form, however, they are virtually unstoppable—though I have been
told if you can hold them within the surface of one mirror, then smash that mirror in sunshine,
you will destroy them.”
“That doesn’t exactly sound easy.”
“No, which is why I chose the more old-fashioned method.” Her gaze skated down my body and she
smiled when she saw I was wearing wooden-heeled stilettos. “I would suggest stronger stakes.
Those would not penetrate the heart of most vamps.”
They weren’t actually designed to do anything more than cause great discomfort, but Sal knew
that. She was just getting back to her normal snarky self. Which was a good thing. “Are you able
to give Jack a list of the councilors?” I added. “We really need to give these people
protection.”