Walking up to the doors of the mansion, I feel goosebumps form on my forearms that run down my spine. Patting the stock on my high-powered Heckler & Koch UV/silver over-under for comfort, I look up at the great shuttered windows, which look like droopy, malevolent eyes, especially with one of them half busted out. Adjusting my Kevlar neck band, I walk up the steps, wincing as two of them creak.

For form’s sake, I knock on the front door, even though it’s boarded over. It doesn’t have a condemned sign on it, but that’s simply because the county zoning office generally doesn’t give a fuck about buildings on the wrong side of the New Haven bridge.

“Hello? Haven Police. Is anyone home?”

Of course, there’s no answer, but before I go inside, I hesitate, wondering if I should just call for backup. I know that if this place is connected with vamps, they’ll be asleep or in hiding. And if I wait for backup, I’ll lose time, but more importantly, if I get overruled, the vamps will smell me and abandon this place. Their noses are . . . acute.

I should be fine. I have daylight on my side. And maybe I’ll find a couple more bodies that can pin the crimes on the specific vamps I’m looking for. Even a name, if I’m lucky.

Still, as I lower my shoulder to the door, I can’t help but feel like I’m being drawn into the house. I pop the door and bring my weapon up and turn on the light connected to it, helping with the dim interior. Automatically, my training kicks in and I get worried. While the mansion might be pretty messed up, the walls and windows are intact enough that the first floor is bathed in thick shadows that seem to swallow my twelve-bulb LED like it’s nothing. Even just casting it across the foyer, it feels like the light doesn’t so much disperse as get muted.

“Hello? Detective Eve Carter, NHPD,” I call out. “If you’re here, show yourself before there’s a problem.”

At least my gun gives me some comfort. German engineering at its finest, the UV laser will help me against any vamp, while the forty-round silver-tipped armor-piercing rounds will cause anything else in the house to reconsider their retirement plans very quickly too.

The floors creak as I make my way down the right hallway, the hardwood underneath the worn carpet screeching about every third or fourth step. I can’t seem to avoid it. No matter what I do, I can’t seem to avoid the squeaking noise. Each one still makes my heart jump a little more, though, so that by the time I reach what appears to have been the library, I’m panting.

Nothing. I clear the room before noticing that the walls are still partially lined with books. The chaos of the Para Wars didn’t totally destroy what’s here, and from what I can see, whoever lived here last had quite the collection.

I glance at the covers of what I can see, unable to read anything. It’s all in foreign languages, but what I do see sends even more chills down my spine. One of the books lies open to a page filled with illustrations of torture, of Biblical demons cavorting around a naked woman, one of them with a huge, veiny cock ready to tear her open.

I turn away in disgust, still shivering as the sense of dread fills me even more. I leave the library, keeping my eyes open for anything, bodies or vampires, something I can either gather clues from or interrogate.

But nothing lives here. I can’t even hear the buzz of insects, which is strange. Places like this should be filled with mice, bugs, and other shit like that . . . but there’s nothing but silence except for the sound I’m making.

Still, as I leave the library and head toward the back of the mansion, I swear something is watching me, observing my every step. The feeling grows as I penetrate further inside, checking every room but finding nothing but dust.

I know what procedure would call for. Retreat, get on the radio, get on the horn with Joe or with Central Dispatch, and get some backup units here. But I keep going, cold sweat trickling down my forehead to sting my left eye as I keep my weapon up, safety off, ready to perforate anything that comes my way. I don’t know why, but something inside is calling to me, subtly telling me that I need to keep going.

Suddenly, the hallway ends and I emerge into what I can only describe as a great room. At least three floors tall, every crevice of the huge octagonal space is nearly pitch-black except for a blindingly white light that stabs down to the middle of the room, illuminating a small stone circle.

I don’t want to step into the light, but the darkness around me is so thick I swear my flashlight doesn’t do anything, and I’m worried that if there is something in here, I won’t see it coming.

Sweat drips down my face with every step toward the light, but I’m colder than ever when I step inside, trying to sweep the room. The dark almost presses in on me from all sides, just wider than my shoulders, and almost pulses as if it’s breathing.

“What the—”

I’ve waited so long for you to come, young one.

Okay, that’s it. I’ve officially gone from nervous to paranoid to over the fucking edge. “No way. Houses don’t talk to people. Not happening.”

The darkness seems to chuckle, as if my objection is not worth its time to refute. You are the chosen one, the one we’ve been waiting for, the one who will bring about darkness for eternity.

“We?” I ask, still swinging my gun around and flipping the fire selection button from semi to full auto. “What are you talking about?”

Your birth has been foretold in our realm for millennia, the one who could empower us to overcome the forces of light. And now you are here. Because of you, so many dark things have happened. So many deliciously dark, evil things.

“You’re full of shit!” I call out.

The car crash that killed your parents. Their screams are music to our ears . . . and those lost in the conflict afterward. So sweet to savor their pain, the pain you caused.

“I wasn’t even a teenager when the war started!”

The voice doesn’t seem to care how old I was when the Para Wars began but instead decides to suddenly change course on its conversation. He’s coming for you. He will have you.

That, at least, I can deal with, and I pop a three-shot burst into the darkness. “Anyone who wants to try and have me had better have some big balls, because I won’t go down without a fight.”

Enough’s enough, and I try to step out of the circle of light, but I can’t. Instead, tendrils of darkness grab me like hands and lift me into the air. I try to fire my weapon but it’s ripped from my hands and sent flying into the surrounding blackness. I struggle against the grip but it’s both smoke and iron. I can’t touch it but at the same time, it has the grip of death itself.

You need convincing.

Suddenly, a tendril wraps around my neck like a wire and starts to squeeze, cutting off my breath. Fiery pain comes with it, and I swear that somehow, the darkness is cutting my very skin even as the air is slowly cut off from my lungs.

Submit.

“Fuck you!” I hiss, barely able to get it out before my breath is totally taken away. The voice chuckles, amused.

You shouldn’t have come here. Soon, the world shall be ours.

Let me go! I scream in my mind, kicking my legs. I can’t breathe, and the darkness seems to be inside my eyeballs now, the world dimming. My lungs fill with more fire, about to burst as the darkness draws me up higher, higher into the circle of light that’s entrapping me.

NO!

Something inside me cries out, and a surge jolts my limbs. The voice seems to recoil and the darkness lets go, a rush of air filling my lungs as I plummet to the floor, so surprised I don’t even have time to scream as I drop to the stone.

I cry out as my ankle twists and I roll. I can see my weapon lying on the floor, and I snatch it up, raising it . . .

Right into the face of a golden-eyed wolf, its fangs bared and a growl rippling in its throat.

I scream, rolling and squeezing my trigger, but nothing happens. With a curse, I realize I have the gun set on UV. The drop must have changed the settings. Flipping my fire selector, I fire another shot, but the wolf dodges, and I hear another growl . . . deeper and from behind me.

I spin, just in time to avoid a paw from a massive bear. I roll again but see another animal. I’m surrounded. Above me, I hear a scream and look up at . . . a bird?

There’s too many, but maybe I can take a couple with me. I aim at the bear, but the bird drops, the wing hitting my barrel and sending my weapon clattering to my feet.

shifters. I thought I was dealing with vamps, and it’s shifters instead? Powerful ones too, from the looks of it. I raise my hands, growling. “Fine . . . but I’m taking one of you with me.”

It’s just bragging. We all know it’s over. The three shifters with legs back me against the wall, and I prepare for the end. They’re gonna tear me limb from limb.

Suddenly, a bright flash temporarily blinds me, and I hear the sound of popping bones. A voice chuckles, and I open my eyes.

It’s the handsome warriors. And if I wasn’t so rattled, I might actually appreciate them standing gloriously naked before me, their chiseled bodies on display, the dark-haired one, Cole, with an amused smile on his face.

“Well, Halfling,” says Cole as the big one takes off a backpack and starts passing out clothes. Cole doesn’t move, instead pinning me to the wall with the twinkle in his eyes and the seemingly blindingly bright flash of white teeth. “We meet again.”