On the elevator, Jack prattled on about proper sun-proofing procedures and I only half listened to him as I ran through possible excuses to get away from him. Only when we stepped out into the hall on the sixth floor did I remember the second part of my problem: no keys.

I eyed Jack. Nice muscle definition was visible on his arms and chest, even through the cloth of his shirt. Plus, he was a shapeshifter, and in the movies they were always super strong. He could probably just break down the door if worse came to worse. However, plan A was that knocking on the door would wake Lindsay. She might have had her phone turned off, but she was a light sleeper. She’d be pissed at being woken up, but I wouldn’t have to pay out of my security deposit for a damaged door.

Jack, walking ahead of me, stopped abruptly, and I almost walked into his back. “Everett, you have a roommate?” Jack asked over his shoulder in a near whisper.

“Yeah, of course I do.” I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes at Jack yet again. As if a museum intern could afford an apartment on their own. I actually could have afforded it because of my little side business, but that money was for something far more important.

“Does she usually leave the door open?”

“What? No.” I pushed past Jack, unable to see past the taller man. My front door was open about a quarter of an inch. A sliver of darkness was all that was visible past the door jam.

“Get behind me,” Jack hissed, and pushed me back with one hand. With his other he reached into his jacket and drew a gun.

I was so shocked that I didn’t protest as Jack pushed me backwards. I hadn’t realized he was armed. I wondered why a werewolf—or jackal in this case—needed a gun. Jack pressed his back against the wall of the hallway next to the door and slid along it with the gun in a two-handed grip, pointed toward the ceiling. It looked like something out of a movie. Keeping his gun in the air, Jack crouched down and leaned toward the doorway. It seemed smart to me. It put his head down at crotch level, whereas anyone who was going to shoot through the door would probably shoot higher, at chest or head height.

Jack took one hand off his gun and used it to push the door the rest of the way open. From where I was standing in the hall, I couldn’t see much. Just more darkness, which itself was odd because we usually left the light in the kitchen over the sink on for midnight snack runs.

“Where’s Lindsay?” I whispered, hoping she was okay. She’d been an alright roommate, and a great friend when I’d really needed one.

“Shush,” Jack hissed over his shoulder. “Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

“Wait, shouldn’t I go first? If I’m a vampire, I’m like indestructible, right? Like in the movies?”

“It’s not that simple. This isn’t a movie, and thinking that way will get you killed.” Jack’s eyes narrowed and he whipped his head back around toward my apartment, lifting his nose and scenting like a dog. Or a jackal. Wait, Jack the jackal. I snickered. What parents named a werejackal “Jack”?

“I said to be quiet. And stay here.” Eyes wide, Jack disappeared into the dark of my apartment. I wondered why the sudden hurry after he’d urged such caution. Shrugging, I moved up to stand next to my door where Jack had been a moment before. I could still feel the heat from his body on the wall and smell his shampoo. A breeze whispered from my apartment, covering Jack’s comforting scent with a smell that I couldn’t describe, but that immediately set me on edge.

The elevator behind me dinged, and the door began to open. I glanced behind me and almost choked as I caught sight of not other tenants getting off, but two uniformed officers. When they spotted me, they both drew their guns.

Without stopping to think about it, I took two steps forward into my dark apartment, slammed the door shut behind me, and turned the deadbolt. Running on autopilot, I flipped the light switch for the front hall.

“Damn it, Everett, I told you to wait outside,” Jack yelled from somewhere farther in the apartment. “Don’t come any further.”

“I didn’t have a choice. Two cops just got off the elevator with their guns drawn and they’re headed this way.”

There was a pounding thump at the front door. “Police, open up.”

“Shit. That other guy you bit must have called them.” Jack appeared from down the hallway leading to the bedrooms. “Don’t open that. We don’t want them here in your condition, not to mention…” Jack trailed off as he got closer, and grabbed my arm to drag me away from the door and into the kitchen.

“But that happened outside, on the sidewalk. What are they doing up here?” I asked.

The pounding on the door was getting louder, more frantic.

“Questions later. We need to get out of here before they get in,” Jack said.

“Why? I thought you were a ‘cop of sorts’. Just go talk to them.” I reluctantly pulled my arm from Jack’s grasp.

Jack grimaced and glanced back the way he’d come from, down the hallway towards the bedrooms. “It’s complicated.”

Actually, it was odd that Lindsay wasn’t up, especially with the banging at the door. She was a really light sleeper, up and yelling at me for the slightest noise when I got home late from fruitlessly trolling the local gay bar for dates.

“Is Lindsay home? I need to—” I moved to leave the kitchen, and Jack blocked the exit by reaching across the small space and placing a hand on either counter.

“That’s part of the complication,” Jack said.

“Look, just let me by.” I feinted left, and then when Jack shifted, I ducked to the right under his arm. He hadn’t counted on just how short I was.

Jack tried to grab my jacket, but it was like he was moving in slow motion as I ran past him. Everything felt unreal, like a dream or a slo-mo sequence from a movie. Jack’s hand closed on empty air behind me as I bolted towards the bedrooms. Weird, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it. The strange smell I’d detected outside got stronger as I moved farther down the hall.

I opened Lindsay’s bedroom door while knocking, but stopped cold at the sight that greeted me there.

Lindsay lay on her back on her bed, her eyes open and glazed. The bed was red with pooling blood that had run down from the wide slash that ran all the way across her neck.

I tried to scream, but Jack ran up behind me and clamped a hand over my mouth, muffling my cry.

“Shh,” Jack whispered into my ear. “It’s okay, but you can see why we can’t be here when those cops come in. We need to get out of here, now.”

“Shit, shit,” I said, pushing away Jack’s hand. Now that Jack had distracted me from the body, I noticed that Lindsay’s room had been trashed. All the clothes from her closet were scattered on the floor, and the dresser drawers were all askew and empty, the contents thrown about the room. When I thought about it, when I’d run through the living room, it had been a mess too. Oh, no. My stash. I had to check on it.

“We can go out the window,” Jack said.

I let Jack pull me away and shut the door to Lindsay’s room. The pounding on the door had gone silent, which was somehow more ominous than the banging.

“I need to check my room,” I hissed to Jack, darting past him to my door at the end of the hall. Jack chased after me, but again I was faster.

As I grabbed the doorknob, I heard the front door crashing open. “Police! Freeze!”

I couldn’t see the front door from the hall, but they’d seen me come inside so they knew someone was here.

“Go, go!” Jack hissed, pushing me into my bedroom ahead of him and carefully easing the door shut behind us. Jack turned and leaned against the door, pressing his ear against it.

I reached over to flip on the light, but Jack glanced at me and shook his head. I pulled my hand back. I could see well enough anyway. Dim light from the streetlights below came in through the windows where I had failed to fully close the blinds when I’d left for work. Was it only this morning? It seemed like it had been ages since I’d last been home. So much had happened since then.

My room was as trashed as Lindsay’s had been. My dresser drawers had been pulled out, and my closet had been emptied all over the floor and bed. Even my posters had been ripped off the wall. My eyes darted to the AC vent on the floor by my bed where I kept my stash of artifacts stolen from the museum. The vent cover was missing, and the plastic bags that I’d been using to store the items were tossed on the floor, empty. They’d been taped inside the vent, out of sight of anyone casually peering inside. Someone had either known where to look, or done a very thorough search.

I was in trouble. I owed those items to the boss, and she wasn’t going to be happy I had lost them. I physically grabbed my right arm with my left hand to stop myself from feeling for the amulet in my pocket to check that it was still there. If I was right, what I had there might make up for the missing items. If I was wrong, well, I was in a lot more trouble than I thought.

“What happened in here?” I whispered.

“I don’t know, but we need to leave before the men out there find us in here,” Jack hissed to me. “We can talk about the how and why later.”

“Fine,” I whispered back. I started stepping over the wreckage of my room. I spotted my testosterone prescription bottle in the mess and scooped it up without stopping, stuffing the little vial in my jacket pocket and zipping it closed.

Jack unlatched the window and pushed it open, letting in the cool night air. He grabbed the sides of the screen and twisted it out, letting it go to drop out into the night. It was a very long drop to the grass below. Jack grabbed my arm and shoved me at the window. I grabbed the window sill and tried not to look down, feeling a little faint. It had started raining since we’d come inside, and rain droplets pattered my face and hands.

“Jump,” Jack urged in a whisper, glancing nervously over his shoulder at the closed bedroom door.

“What? Are you crazy? I’ll break a leg or worse,” I whispered back.

“You’re a vampire. You’ll be fine. Now hurry!”

He seemed so sure of himself. Sighing, I put my hands on the ledge, preparing to climb out, but caught sight of the ground below and froze.

“Hurry!” Jack urged. “We don’t have time.”

“I can’t, it’s too high!” I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to back away, but Jack shoved me forward.

The door behind us banged open. “Freeze, police! Put your hands where we can see them and step away from the window.” Their voices were muffled. I think they were in Lindsay’s room across the hall. It’d only be moments before they found us.

I startled and would have backed away, except for Jack standing right behind me. My pulse raced.

“Shit. Sorry.”

I wanted to ask what he was sorry for when Jack’s hands moved down to my hips, grabbing my pants and lifting me up. “Out you go!” Jack hefted, flinging me up and out.

“No!” I shrieked, flailing for the window frame as the ground came into view. My fingernails scratched the paint on the window frame on my way out, but I didn’t manage to get a grip with Jack’s continued pushing at my butt and legs.

Next thing I knew I was falling, spinning through the air as wind rushed past me. I felt almost weightless as I spun in freefall, at least until I landed on my back on the grass behind the apartment building. The impact knocked the breath out of me and I felt my spine snap. It hurt, but not as much as I would have expected. I felt another pop and gritted my teeth against the wave of pain that wracked me.

I opened my eyes in time to see Jack jump straight out of the window like a superhero, sailing easily over my position. Without thinking I rolled over to watch him, enthralled by the sight. The vial in my pocket shattered as I rolled over it, and the oily residue soaked through the windbreaker. Shit.

Jack landed in a crouch that turned into a roll about ten feet away from the building. It looked as if he’d just jumped from a burning or exploding building in a movie scene, a comparison not at all harmed by his rugged good looks and muscled physique. He sprang to his feet as if he’d just done a somersault, not jumped from the sixth floor. “Follow me, I’m parked up this way.” He jerked his head to indicate the far end of the building. Without watching to see if I followed him, he jogged off toward the sidewalk.

“I can’t, I think I broke my back,” I called after him.

Jack slowed and turned, but didn’t stop, continuing to walk backwards. “You’re fine. You’re a vampire. You’re already healed.”

I sat up, and Jack was right. The pain was gone and nothing felt broken. Maybe… maybe Jack was telling the truth and I was a vampire now.

My head spun. I thought through my options and realized I had none. My work had been compromised, and so had my apartment. Jack was an unknown element. As long as Lindsay’s killer remained unaware of Jack, I might have a chance of staying safe. I also needed to keep Jack from finding out about the stolen amulet. Cursing, I climbed to my feet to run after him, wiping grass from the back of my damp jeans.

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Continue on to Chapter 3

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