Fade Into Black - Shadows of the Night 5

Chapter 10

Hi!

Sorry for the late update. The sh.. hits the fang in this chapter. Anna's neck deep in trouble. So, my question: What do you think, will she get out of this, and if yes, how?

PS: Will be abroad for two weeks, so no updates until I'm back. I will try to make it up to you with a super-long chapter 11 though!

Lara

____________________________________________________

Chapter 10

I pressed on, shoving myself into second sight with brute force. Auras blossomed around us, seductive dark spots below like fat poppies. The vampiric auras looked bigger and more powerful than they should have. Then again it wasn't surprising, given where we were. This place was constantly crawling with vamps.

I went deeper, shedding layers of perception. The aerial landscape was disturbed, as if in the middle of resettling, but I could see the magical footprints of whoever was in the room. The space was saturated with masses of black. I'd suspected the death of a powerful vampire would leave a battlefield of auratic darkness behind, but this? There was so much black, I could barely see anything else. The auratic set up was firm and strong – as if an army of vampires had lived and breathed in too small a space.

The fact wasn't comforting in the light of what I was seeing: catastrophic news. They looked small and insignificant within the dark masses, but they were there: red particles dancing within auratic black. Magic.

I knew now why Alexander asked me if the Raven was the perpetrator. Someone performed magic in Goshanger's office within the last few days. And that meant the killer could have been a witch.

I stared at it some more. A witch. Definitely a witch. Maybe not even a very powerful witch, but... I cocked my head. It might even have been a witch that no longer used one of the elements. My eyes shifted to Walter and Joshua. Could it have been a rogue?

Yes. Definitely could have been a rogue.

Noise from below. A shift in the auratic set up of gears. Dark mass in motion. I jerked. I was too focused on the auratic reading, I didn't notice.

Crap.

Someone was coming our way, dangerously fast.

Time slowed down. I turned to the brothers, saw the same realization on their faces the moment it hit home. Joshua and Walter were at the other end of the room. I was never going to get to them in time. A blink of the eye, a ripple in the surface of reality.

No.

The word never left my mouth, died and withered in my head as I watched the brothers vanish into the nether-depths of the in between and portal out. I lunged sideways and behind the door, reactivated the spell in the same instant, forced myself through it, rushed the incantation. The magic burned through me violently. Too fast. Not a chance to draw on the cuff. It hurt hurt hurt!

My aura winked out of existence.

The door to the room flew open, busting out of its hinges. The sound reverberated in my ears in time with my heartbeat. The wheels of time were askew, out of tune with my perception. I was sure I didn't blink. So sure. But with the next wink of time, another second passing, a vampire was standing in the room.

Red hair, a mountain of white flesh. It was George, Alexander's enforcer. The blood in my veins froze. If he was here, it could only mean that-

I heard it. The voice was dangerously soft. Silken. Void of inflection. Dangerous. It was the voice I sometimes heard in my dreams. And it was growing in volume, becoming louder, coming closer.