7. Reese
Chapter 7
Reese
B y 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.”
“You won’t be here all the time.” Which meant if he was out of the house and someone triggered one of his devices, I wouldn’t know, and he wouldn’t be here to help. A shudder rushed through me. I’d lived here alone for months and never felt unsafe. Now I felt as if someone might always be watching.
“I will not be leaving you here alone,” he said. “Consider me your bodyguard 24/7.”
He wasn’t making a demand, and his tone remained neutral, so I didn’t insist that I could take care of myself.
Because I couldn’t. I hadn’t even taken one self-defense class, though I should. The thought of facing someone like the person who’d climbed out of my window a short time ago worried me. Wolf said they could be a witch since they’d made the car disappear, which seemed beyond vampire mistification.
Monsters, I was getting used to. Magical people? Not so much.
“I’ll install motion sensor lights as well,” he said. “They’ll come on when someone moves outside your home. I’m turning your home into a fortress.”
I didn’t want to sigh, but it slipped out. “I don’t like being afraid or feeling as if I need to walk around all the time wearing armor. No one has tried to seriously harm me.” I doubted the seagull would’ve pecked me to death. The blender was more an inconvenience than a solid threat.
The writing—
“Not yet.” His words stunned me into silence, and after a pause, I nodded. “We need to find out why they’re doing this and if the incidents are related. We suspect they are, but we’d be foolish to make that assumption when we don’t have all the facts.”
“How will we determine if they are?”
“I have ways.”
“Vampire ways?”
He grunted, his steely gaze meeting mine. “We also need to find out why they’re doing it. We assume their goal is to drive you from town, but there could be another, unknown reason.” His sharp gaze scanned the room. “Once you’ve finished here, I’d like to go to my home for essentials. You should come with me. When we return, we need to go through everything in case there are some clues we’re missing.” He settled on the sofa while I turned back to my laptop.
“My list is gone,” I said, pawing through the piles on my desk.
He came over to stand beside me. “What list?”
My face heated. “I keep a list of all my login information. I know I should do something more secure with it than laminate it and leave it on my desk, but it’s always worked for me.” A horrifying thought dawned on me. “That person who was here could’ve stolen it.”
“Are your passwords saved on your laptop?”
“Yes. The list was a backup.” I held up my phone. “I also take a picture, so I’ll be able to get in.” But so would the person who was here.
“Change your passwords immediately.”
“I will.”
He returned to the sofa while I opened up a browser. I was able to get into my email without a problem, as well as my publishing account, and I promptly changed the passwords. But when I went to FaceSpace, I couldn’t get in. I’d set up two-step verification, but that didn’t work. I couldn’t get into Instaplug or TickingClock either. I’d scheduled videos and posts for the next few weeks, so current marketing wasn’t an issue.
“My bank, publishing, and email accounts are secure,” I croaked. “I changed the passwords. I’m worried my social media accounts have been hacked. Do you have FaceSpace, Instaplug, or TickingClock on your phone?”
“I do.” After entering the passcode, he handed his phone to me.
“Your screen name is Bitesized?” My laugh burst out, and it felt good to find humor in something when this was stressing me so much. It was no coincidence that Tracy quit, and I couldn’t get into any of my social media accounts. She was the only other person with full access.
“It made sense at the time.” His face darkened. How cute; a vampire who blushed. “I would like to state for the record that I’m not bite sized, however.”
Oh-la-la. Was he hinting at body parts? I wanted to ask but decided not to. I liked him, and I liked the friendship we were developing, but I wasn’t in any rush for more.
“Back to your accounts,” he said with a cough. “I’ll go start erecting traps while you investigate your accounts.”
“Alright.” I held up his phone. “Thanks.”
“Anything and everything I have is at your disposal.” He dipped forward in a bow before he straightened and left the room, his cape swirling around him.
Adorable. I loved how formal he was, maybe because it gave me a perfect reason to tease him. I kept picturing myself messing up his hair. Loosening his red tie. Wrinkling up his cape.
I placed his phone on my desk and scrolled into FaceSpace, quickly finding my page. My gasp rang out when I read what someone—damn, that Tracy!—had posted in bold on my page.
It’s with considerable glee that I announce that I no longer plan to write or publish any more books. Although, honestly, I didn’t exactly write them. AI did.
I hate my fans. I hate everyone who reads my books, though I love all your money!
From now on, I’m going to spend my time lounging in my hot tub on my enormous balcony, raising a toast with expensive wine to all the money I’ve made off you gullible fuckers.
“No,” I hissed. “No!”