Sparrow's Release by Shiloh Darke

Chapter One
     
    Sparrow McBride woke to the sound of breaking
glass. Jerking upright in the bed, she blinked a few times, trying
to command her eyes to focus. She knew a few seconds of disoriented
confusion. Someone was in her house. No sooner had the thought come
than she heard yet another breakable thing shatter.
    Her memories of another intruder breaking
into her home when she was a child came to the forefront of her
thoughts. Her father had run to protect them. Her mother had made
her hide under their bed. She still slept with her parents and had
no room of her own yet. Her brother, wanting to be tough, like dad,
had followed him.
    When the first shots were fired, Sparrow had
covered her ears. The intruder had not wanted to steal anything. He
just wanted to feel what it was like to kill someone. She had
stayed where her mother had hidden her for hours after everything
had gone silent. When she finally emerged, it was to find her
entire family slaughtered at the hands of someone who had cared
only about ending someone’s life.
    The courts appointed her aunt as legal
guardian. Sparrow lived with her until she finished high school and
turned eighteen. Then she had started pursuing her plan of becoming
a cop. She wanted to help do her part to keep that same horror that
happened to her from happening to any other six-year-old child. Her
aunt had died the year after she had graduated from the
academy.
    Not having a family was something that
constantly bothered Sparrow. She was thirty now. Well past the age
of Spinster, in some people’s opinions. She hated being alone, but
she just hadn’t met the one. She knew in her heart he was
out there . . . somewhere. Someday, he would rescue her from all
the painful memories and give her a child and a life worth living;
one where she wasn’t always alone.
    The sound of still more breaking glass
interrupted her thoughts, reminding her some jerk off was breaking
into her house. She growled softly, “Not this time!” and hit
the floor, pausing only long enough to grab the Heckler & Koch
P2000 Compact Pistol out of her nightstand. Whoever was so
insistent on robbing her better kiss his ball-sack goodbye, because
he was going to lose his left nut if he broke one more thing. What idiot would enter the home of a cop in the middle of the
night anyway? She eased down her stairs silently with a
second’s smirk at the thought.
    One would think the squad car parked in the
drive would be a dead giveaway that whoever was the officer in the
home was indeed currently occupying the residence. Of course, it
was beginning to be a well-known fact—people were becoming dumber
every year. Maybe the intruder thought the car was just there
for curb appeal?
    She paid no attention to her state of dress.
It didn’t even bother her that she was about to take down a
burglar, wearing nothing more than a wife-beater and a thong.
Pressing herself against the wall at the foot of the stairs, she
moved, silent as a panther readying to strike.
    Although her name made people believe she was
no more than a tiny sprite, Sparrow was a well-trained officer. She
had gone into the police academy straight out of high school; had
worked with the bomb squad for over three years. This last month,
she had made Detective. The standard squad car was going to be
replaced by her preferred personal choice next week. Then she
wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb in her neighborhood any
longer.
    Slowly, she edged around the corner and
looked at the reflection offered by the mirror, which just happened
to be placed strategically to give her a view of the kitchen. It
hung over the fireplace, but was big and offered her a revealing
glimpse of both the entryway and the kitchen in just such an
instance as this.
    At first, she saw nothing. Then a large,
skinny, naked gray man’s reflection became apparent as he stood
staring back at her image in the mirror. She heard a series of
clicks and pings, which the logical side of her brain