Bathe In Fire - Shadows of the Night 2

Chapter 17

Hi!

Okay, it took me longer than I thought to finish this chapter. Sorry for the wait, but I made this one extra-long :D As always: thank you for reading, and please please let me know what you think!

Lara

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Chapter 17

Our newest victim was a member of the bleeder scene, one of the most extreme you could find in New York. Dexter Colston, age twenty-two, was one of the first to pick up the newest and hottest hobby many night clubbers shared ever since the vamps came out of the woodwork: serving as a living, breathing blood bag.

According to eye witnesses Dexter regularly went to clubs known for dishing out blood to vamps. Bloody Rose was our third address for this night. Zack and me were here to find one of Dexter's drug buddies, whom we hadn't been able to locate so far. No matter whom we questioned these past few days, no one admitted to being with Dexter the night he died. But we had an eye witness who testified that he and Dexter used to go to clubs with a man named Lenard. He was the one we came looking for this night.

Zack watched the crowd with his arms crossed in front of him. I stood beside him, sipping my coke tensely. My eyes darted from the dance floor to the back area again, zooming in on a bunch of undead. The three vamps entered the club about half an hour ago. They weren't alone anymore. A group of girls had come to their table, flocking around them like moths to a flame. I should have focused on the entrance area, but, somehow, without me realizing my eyes went back to them.

One of the vamps put his arm around the blond girl sitting behind him, leaning in. At first it looked like he was going to whisper in her ear. The innocent gesture morphed, turned into something else; the dark material my nightmares were made of. The vampire bit her, looming over her like a reversed shadow.

My breath hitched, fingers clutching the glass of coke until my knuckles turned white. Pools of blood, a gray carpet. I blinked, letting go of the glass in one quick motion.

What was that? This was neither part of my memory of that night, nor had it happened when Alexander bit me. Sweat tunneled its way to the surface, palms wet and slippery. For a moment I stared at my hands, before my eyes darted back to the vamps. My pulse sped up. There was blood and-

"He's just entered," Zack said, turning to me. "Hey, are you alright? You look kind of pale."

I took a deep breath, pushing against whatever my imagination had conjured in my head. We were here for a purpose. I couldn't lose it now. Besides I had no intention of discussing what happened with Alexander's second-hand vampire.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's do this," I said, feeling the lie on my lips. I guided my eyes back to the entrance area, and sure enough I spotted him.

Dressed in black latex pants and a black T shirt, Lenard wasn't easy to miss. Even though this was a renowned club for bleeders, he was one of the more exotic kind. His hair was dyed black and spiky, the texture shiny and smooth from his excessive use of gel. I opened my senses to second sight and got a clear reading. Lenard's aura glowed in the clear translucence of a human.

He moved through the club with a surety I'd rarely seen in other clubbers. He spotted the vamps at the back of the club in less than two minutes, walking up to their table without hesitating once.

We waited for what amounted to one hour, watching our target moving from one vamp to the other. His intentions were clear. He was on the lookout for a new fix. The longer he toured the club, and the more he got rejected, the faster and jerkier his motions grew. The surety with which he'd entered the club faded with each passing minute. And then he finally spotted Zack.