Drown Under Earth - Shadows of the Night 3

Chapter 37

Hi!

Do you know that feeling when you think you did everything right, everything you could, and then suddenly something happens - totally out of your range of control  - and everything's just a mess and blows up in your face? I refuse to believe one should feel bad about things you have no way of affecting (after you did all you could) - and I think, in a way it relates to this chapter. It made me realize that most of the time it's more complicated - because you will feel bad, no matter what.

I loved writing this one. I hope you like it too, let me know!

Lara

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Chapter 37

The head vampire of the state wanted to use my car. Not something I expected. Hell, it wasn’t something I’d included in the range of possibilities and scenarios that played out in my mind in advance. I thought I came prepared for everything and anything. Funny, that among all the oddities and the shit coming my way I still could be shocked by something like that.

I agreed without protest, which in retrospect was a good thing. The thought of being stuck in one car with Alexander might not have been a comforting one, but I remembered the last time he took me along to the Crimson District – going by car beat the hell out of being slung over his shoulder.

We reached my Ford in mutual silence. Alexander moved in swift and otherworldly strides. His stance said everything. He was in complete control. It made me wonder what I would see, if I allowed my secondary sight to flare up. Would his black aura be sifting all over the place?

Once we were inside my Ford Lincoln, though, the vampire abandoned his parade of dead silence and did the one thing I wished he’d stop doing: trying to make conversation.

“How old is that car, little witch?”

My head turned to him. What now? I looked away and tried to hide my confusion by turning the ignition key. The car roared to life, the engine’s sound like the primitive cry of a king of beasts. I shrugged.

“I don’t really know. I think it’s safe to say that it’s not older than you,” I said.

“Indeed, little witch.”

I ignored the soft, amused tone in his voice, forced myself not to wonder about the expression he was wearing. Car still in the parking space, I finally turned to face him.

“So, where do we go from here? I need directions.”

The vampire was leaning against the window, watching me with a bemused expression. “It is not far. Before we go, I would like you to have a look at this.”

He said it and handed me a black envelope. The paper was cold and felt foreign in my fingers. I frowned at him.

“What is it?”

He flicked on the light in the car. “Open and read it, little witch.”

Without a better alternative at hand, I did what he said and instantly wished I hadn’t. It turned out that it was the extract of a report. A report concerning itself with what happened in the Red Zone two nights ago – the night I helped the Bloody Warden members escape. The file included descriptions of the ‘suspects.’ I managed to skim over the thing with a relatively neutral expression.

I almost blew it when I reached the final two sheets of paper. The first one was a hand-drawn picture of Tony, and, damn if it didn’t look a lot like him. I stared at it briefly, before focusing on the last one, which was … me. Me in sunglasses and with a hoody. The drawer got my lips wrong, drew them thinner as they actually were. My chin was longer than it really was. Still – somewhere I recognized myself in it. The question was, did Alexander make the connection?