Drown Under Earth - Shadows of the Night 3

Chapter 30

Hi!

I had a very busy week, but the weekend was great! Anna's careening from one catastrophe to the next. Brace yourselves for the next chapters! :-)

Lara

__________________________________________________________

Chapter 30

The others were making their way out of the room. I lingered behind. I stared at the crime scene for a long moment before I turned away.

Not the only one lingering.

Sarah, who had been watching me from the corner of her eye, only left the instant I did. Why? Did she mistrust me that much?

We were walking down the corridor and we were all alone. I watched her walk in front of me, saw the subtle sway of her hips, heard the sharp, slapping sounds of her high heels on the white marble.  This was the kind of walk a confident modern woman would have.

"Why did you stay behind Sarah?" I said softly.

"Believe me, I would never voluntarily stay in the same room with you longer than necessary," she said without turning around.

"And I never got why someone would voluntarily wear shoes like that for work," I said, shrugging. "So how does that have-"

"I didn't think you would understand," she threw the statement over her shoulder. "Human women like you never do."

I ignored the statement. Her hostility had been all over the place during the investigation. No news here.

She stopped, turned and looked be up and down, smiling. "Besides, with you, it would be futile."

I raised my hands in mock resignation. "Okay Sarah, I give up. Why exactly is it necessary to wear high heels to a crime scene? You afraid the corpse will get up and run, if you don't announce you're coming?"

Sarah stilled, her blue eyes ablaze. "You know what you are? An annoying human bitch, and I'm tired of you! Why don't you just shut up?"

I folded my arms in front of me. "Okay. I don't know what your problem is, and honestly, I don't give a damn, but if you can't keep a lid on it during investigations, you should consider quitting the force."

"My problem?" She looked at me with eyes on fire, her otherworldly energy dancing along my skin. "You are the problem, Anna! You're only using him!"

Him-who?

Sarah stepped closer. "You want me to quit? You should be the one to quit the force! You got the job only because of Alexander to start with. You slept with him to insinuate yourself into the TF3!"

My blood froze. The statement, the pictures that started to unfurl in my mind – it was just too surreal.

She didn't just said that, did she?

"What the hell? I wouldn't ... he's the head vamp, for the great three witches sake!"

She put her hands on her hips in a challenging, swaggering gesture. It looked fake and completely out of place, like an exaggerated grin at a funeral.

"I'm not stupid," she said. "Why else would he have lied to the Council about you?"

I blinked at her. "I have no idea what you're talking about. What the hell's going on?"

"Him keeping you away from them? Giving his word only for the incidents in Michigan? That was the reason why they kept questioning him for four days. Can you imagine what it is like to be around Dark Death for four days? As if that wasn't enough, he pissed the whole council off when he refused to bring in the one witness who could, no, should have backed his statements: You!"