Kieran and I both paused at the sound of a scuffle. He eased forward slowly, switching off his flashlight. A broken moan trailed toward us, went high-pitched and kept ululating. The hairs on my arms rose. We crept closer as the sounds got louder.

And then a shadow knocked a can across the alley, clattering suddenly. It leaped toward me, yowling. I scrambled back, slipped on a puddle of liquid, and landed hard, knocking the breath out of my lungs. Kieran fumbled with his flashlight. Cat eyes gleamed at us, then vanished with a hiss.

“Cat,” Kieran said shortly.

“I fell on my ass over two cats fighting?” I pushed myself up. “That’s just embarrassing.” Kieran’s light swung over me. His eyebrows lowered. I looked down.

I was covered in blood.

“Are you hurt?” He rushed toward me.

I shook my head. “Not my blood.”

The puddle I’d slipped on wasn’t rainwater or spilled garbage runoff. It was blood.

A lot of it.

I grimaced at the state of my pant cuffs and tried not to gag. Kieran crouched down to get a better look. The puddle was quite deep and thick, not yet dried.

“I don’t think anyone could lose this much blood and survive,” he said darkly.

I frowned. “Vampires wouldn’t waste that much though.”

He glanced at me, straightening. “Not the ones you know.” The beam of faintly blue light followed a trail of droplets so red they were nearly black to the brick wall of the nearest building. He pointed the flashlight to the metal fire escape, wet with melting snowflakes and something else entirely. “More blood on the bottom step.”

“But no body,” I confirmed after checking behind the Dumpster and a pile of crates full of empty bottles. “And no blood leading anywhere else.”

Kieran tucked the flashlight in his belt. “Will you be okay if I go up?” he asked.

“I’ve got this thing.” I adjusted my grip on the miniature crossbow. “I’m good. I’ll cover you.” God. The lingo was contagious.

“If there’s incoming, don’t wait for me,” he said, climbing the steps. “Just run.”

I rolled my eyes at his back. Then I turned my shoulder blades to the wall and kept an eye on the mouth of the alley leading to the road and the fence to the school on the other side. Litter pushed around my feet when the wind picked up. Wind chimes from someone’s back door shivered through the frigid air. A car drove slowly down the street, tires crunching through a very thin layer of ice, headlights spearing the drifting snow. A dog barked farther down the road, probably because of one of the cats. I heard the slight scrape of Kieran’s boots as he hauled himself up onto the last balcony. It was only a three-story building so it didn’t take him long. I risked a glance up and saw him pulling himself up to the roof as if he were doing chin-ups.

There was something unnerving about standing in a dark cold alley, the ground stained with mysterious blood. I went back to cataloging sounds, jumping when Kieran spoke, even though it was softly enough that I nearly didn’t hear him.

“I found a body,” he said tightly. “Female.”

I stared up at him. “Should I call 911?” I fumbled for my phone with cold fingers.

“Too late for that.”

I shuddered. Kieran was standing on the roof with a dead body. “What do we do?”

“She’s been exsanguinated,” he said. “Puncture marks on the neck. We’ll have to call it in to the League. They have a cleanup crew for this kind of thing.” He dialed and spoke into his phone in low tones.

“Remind me not to sign up for that department,” I muttered, hunching my shoulders against cold and trepidation. I was very aware that the cuffs of my pants were stiffening with a dead woman’s blood. I swallowed against the bile burning in my throat.

And then I realized there was something worse than being covered in blood.

Being covered in blood in a town overrun with vampires.

A shadow moved to fill the mouth of the alley. I couldn’t smell mushrooms over the rotting garbage in the Dumpster and the snow, but I knew it was a vampire regardless. Pale, too fast and too agile; just not Hel-Blar. It was a man, fangs gleaming. A woman stepped up behind him, smiling. She wore fur and pearls. Definitely not from Violet Hill.

“Oh, good,” she murmured, sniffing the air. “I’m starving.”

“I’m not food.” I lifted my crossbow. “And I’m under Drake protection.” I angled slightly so they could see the Drake family insignia cameo I wore around my neck.

“We just want a little bite.” The man shrugged. “And I don’t see any Drakes here. Do you?”

“There are still treaties,” I argued, suddenly nervous. I glanced at the other end of the alley. I shifted from one foot to the other.

“Treaties, bah. All I see is one little girl, all alone.”

“Then you’re not looking close enough,” Kieran said from the rooftop, just as he aimed his flashlight at them. It only blinded them momentarily, but it was just long enough that I could launch into a run. Kieran kept pace with me, jumping from roof to roof. A shingle slid and crashed to the ground behind me. I ran as fast as I could, trying not to slide in the snow and ice. My leg muscles twitched, my lungs burned, and still I ran. I could hear them behind me. They were faster than I was and could have caught up easily enough. They were playing with me.

Aunt Hyacinth told me a story once about organized hunts in the nineteenth century when she was turned. Vampires would use terrified humans instead of a fox. The fear and the adrenaline made blood sweeter.