"Looking for me?"
The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them.
My back was pressed so hard against the chain-link fence that I could feel the metal links digging into my shoulder blades through my thin jacket. "You've been... what do you mean you've been looking for me?"
He stepped closer, and the streetlight behind him caught the planes of his face. When he smiled, those impossible fangs gleamed like polished ivory, and I felt my knees threaten to give out again.
"Exactly what I said," he replied. "Though I'll admit, you've led me on quite the chase these past few weeks."
Weeks?
This thing, this creature, had been hunting me for weeks, and I'd had no idea.
"I don't understand," I whispered, and hated how small my voice sounded in the narrow alley.
How young and broken and desperate.
"I'm nobody. I'm nothing. I don't have anything you could want."
His laugh was soft, almost musical.
