Page 18 of Top Secret Vampire

“Reese.” I tightened my grip on her wrist. “Someone was inside your house.”

Her brow creased. “What do you mean?”

“Wait here.” I slipped into mist, letting the shadows wrap around me like a cloak. It felt exhilarating to transform, to be free to glide across the ground without anything holding me back. I flowed away from her, darting up the cliffs and around the left side of the house. The scent of salt air mingled with the earthy aroma of plants.

Leaving the mist near the building, I sharpened my senses. I scanned the perimeter, noting every sound, every rustle that could point me to the intruder. My heart raced, though not from fear but from the instinct to protect Reese. A flash of movement caught my eye, and I spotted the figure slipping down the driveway and onto the road.

They hesitated, perhaps sensing I was nearby, before bolting to a vehicle and climbing inside.

Before I could mistify and reform at their side, the air twisted around them. The vehicle shimmered and disappeared.

A chill coursed through me. This was no ordinary trespasser. Whoever they were, they could wield magic much like my own.

Growling, I turned back toward the house, my fists clenched in frustration.

Chapter 7

Reese

By the time I’d finished climbing the stairs and reached my home, Wolf was striding around from the other side of the building, his face full of concern.

“Who was it?” I asked as he approached me.

“I don’t know. I only caught the back of them before they climbed into a car and both disappeared.”

“Disappeared? You mean . . . are they a vampire like you?”

“The scent was wrong. It’s not one of us.” His frown deepened. “I’m not sure who or what they are, but they’re not human. A witch could do something like this.”

“They were inside my house.” Panic roared through me, and I pivoted and raced to the door, unlocking it and flinging myself inside.

I rushed around the first floor with Wolfram following, but I didn’t see anything moved or disturbed. After taking the stairs to the second level, I did the same thing, scanning all the rooms but seeing nothing out of place. If he hadn’t seen them slipping from my house, I wouldn’t know anyone had been here.

“Attic?” Wolfram asked, and we hurried up those stairs as well, but I’d cleaned the room out when I moved in, and it looked the same.

He strode around, pausing periodically to tap his shoe on the wide floorboards before returning to me.

“What were you looking for?” I asked.

“An empty space below the floor where someone might’ve hidden something.”

“Did you find one?”

“Nothing up here. I’ll look throughout your house if that’s alright with you, in case there’s something else going on.”

“Of course.”

We went back downstairs and while I went to my office and turned on my laptop, he started searching.

Wolf joined me in my office. “I didn’t find anything suspicious. I’m going to install wireless surveillance cameras on your home and set booby traps.”

I frowned up at him from where I sat at my desk. “What kind of booby traps?”

“Tripwires such as a thin wire or string stretched in front of a point of access that will trigger an alarm when touched, alerting me to an intruder's presence.”

“Like a buzzer?”

“Something more sophisticated than that. I’ll set them up to alert me through an app on my phone. They’ll cover all your access points.”

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