THE LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS - BWS

seven

"I was perfectly comfortable," I answered and he smiled. It was a real smile that put both his dimples on display and I had to work twice as hard to stay focused.

"Is it a habit of yours to follow honest citizens around— Or am I special?"

My heart skipped a beat as his flirtatious gaze waited eagerly for my answer. Was flirting the only way he could hold a conversation? Or was he using this tactic to distract me from the very reason I was in his office?

That thought suddenly cleared my mind.

"I know what you are," I said, purposely ignoring his comment.

His surprise was apparent despite how quickly he brushed it off. His body had stiffened the span of a millisecond and his eyebrows had shifted to a frown before he regained a blank face. Most people would have missed it. But not me. I always had a talent for noticing what others couldn't. An acute sense of attention. Very helpful when out on a job.

But had he really not figured out I had pieced two and two together already?

"Do you?" He asked as if I was the most entertaining thing he had ever witnessed.

"You're a Hunter."

His eyebrows furrowed again but he regained a straight face so quickly I wondered if I had imagined it this time.

"And what makes you say that?"

Bingo. I was right. My lips curled into a satisfied smile.

"Besides the fact that you didn't question what a Hunter is?"

He smiled again, not bothered to deny it. It would have been pointless anyways.

"You're hiding evidence. I've looked at the coroner's files of the last few years. All the autopsies you've performed were of victims of creatures— I know how to recognize one when I see one."

William was looking at me passively, almost bored.

"Why would such a respected doctor such as yourself go out of his way to protect the creatures who did that?"

I used the word 'protect' on purpose. I wanted to get a reaction out of him. He shifted forward on his seat and uncrossed his legs.

"Is that what you think I do? Protect the— creatures? If I were a Hunter like you claim, why would I do that?"

Despise and hate transpired in his voice at the word creature. If that wasn't an indication that he was indeed a Hunter, I didn't know what would be.

"You tell me," I answered, my eyes narrowed. I tried to read what his expression-less face was hiding, in vain. Whatever he was feeling at this moment wasn't strong enough to show. His chest moved up and down at an alarming slow pace, and I suddenly became too aware of how mine seemed to heave way too fast. Was he really so calm? I looked like a heaving mess next to him and I wasn't even hyperventilating, I was simply– breathing. The growing silence combined with the way his eyes were scrutinizing me started to make me feel uncomfortable. He had a way to look at you that seemed to stripe you of all your secrets.

I swallowed and was about to say something, anything to break the tension in the room but he said, "You seem to know a lot about me while I don't know anything about you."

He shifted again in his seat and sat back, his ankle back on his opposite knee.

"Well, except that you're no FBI agent," he mocked. "What's your real name?"

I hesitated for a second. If I wanted him to trust me, I needed to give him reasons to and lying about my name would not serve me well.

"Charlotte."