Lost in Shadows (ONC 2024)

Chapter Ten

Shaken by my encounter with Lilith, I delayed going back down. Despite the muted cries of ecstasy and death around me, Charlotte's soft voice and tense breathing reached my ears. I loosened my tie, my thoughts tangled as I reflected on Lilith's advice. It was true that everything she did was for a reason. If she suggested we needed to go to the basement, it would serve her in some way. That didn't mean she was lying. The basement might have answers.

I doubted they were comforting answers.

She bit me with a terrible passion, as I belonged to her. Even if I hated it, I did. The world grew blurry, the more she took from me. I might die before she could turn me into an unholy creature.

The feeding stopped, and she tilted her head, examining me with her hellish eyes. Too weak to care about her intentions, I slid to the ground. She knelt, my blood staining her lips.

"This is your answer," she said. "I can still let you go. You needn't allow me to have you."

She always sounded so reasonable. I almost asked her to set me free. Images surged through my mind of the family I left behind. My mother's warning that the city would be the death of me.

I grabbed her arm, holding on like a pathetic supplicant. "I want this." God forgive me, I didn't know if it was true. "I want you."

She reached down and stroked my face with her frozen fingers. "You're a liar, Luke Grant. But I will always grant a home for lost children."

I buried my face in my hands. Her offer of mercy had been for a reason, but she would have done it. I would have been free of this twisted world and she would have ended up with her first choice. When she presented someone with a choice, either option would benefit her. I didn't know if it was worse to go into the basement or leave.

Before too much time got away from me, I went back downstairs. A few more glances fell on me. Those who noticed I went upstairs with an old one. If I was one of hers, I was someone to watch.

That's exactly what I didn't want.

Closer to the musicians, I found Charlotte with Elizabeth and Sky. Elizabeth had her arms around Sky, even though no one would touch them. It was smart of Elizabeth to pick an area where it would be harder to overhear our conversation, even if the haunting violin still frayed my nerves.

Charlotte jolted, her limited mortal senses not alerting her to my arrival until I was close. "What happened?"

I shrugged. "Nothing."

Elizabeth snorted, but kept her mouth shut. At least she understood the risks of speaking the truth about Lilith at this gathering.

Charlotte approached me, concern in her dark eyes. "It doesn't seem like nothing. When she showed up, you were like another person. More a zombie than a vampire."

"This isn't about me," I said, my tone more curt than I intended. "Have you found out anything about Anna?"

Charlotte brushed back a stray strand of hair. "I don't know. I chatted with a few of the blood promised. Two remembered Anna, but didn't know the vampire. No one has seen her tonight."

The violin grew more maudlin, and I fought the urge to take the instrument and bash the musician's head with it. "We might have come here for nothing. If she was a guest, you would have seen her. I'm sorry."

Charlotte balled her hands. "She didn't disappear. Someone has to know something. What about the rooms upstairs? We haven't tried everything yet!"

There was truth in her desperate words. Only the wrong direction. "Maybe there's a reason she's so hard to find. Maybe she is trying to protect you."