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
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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 â 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.
I turned, eyes widening. Alexander.
The head vampire was coming our way.
* * *
My eyes went to the door with the desperation of a dead woman walking. George was standing in the doorway, arms loosely at his sides, eyes gliding from one end of the room to the other.
The next thing I perceived was the sound of someone outside the door. I flinched, inched closer towards the wall. My chance of escape had just portalled out under my nose. I had to get out the old fashioned way, and I'd have to do it before the wards were up again. And that wasn't even the hardest part. I couldn't let myself be detected by the vamps. If they got their hands on me, here of all places...
I pulled on the magic, dropped down low, lifted that veil into elementary magic. Power burned through my system, threatened to fry my veins and brain. The temperature around me dropped as I buried myself beneath layers of reality â layers, I hoped even Alexander couldn't see and crack. I had to go deep enough for him not to sense my presence.
I held still. Would it be enough? I was his human servant. He'd made it perfectly clear that he could sense me, no matter where, no matter when. Even if the invisibility spell was strong enough to fool someone as powerful as Alexander, the head vamp might be able to sense me. Technically I was still his human servant. He'd know it was me. I pushed further into that zero space of obscurity.
Colors and shapes came to me like visions, obscure and dark, as though someone had cloaked the room in a veil. Time and images came sluggishly, unwillingly and hiding from the human eye. I blinked, unmoving, still. Cold drops of sweat on the back of my neck, my breath too steady for the danger I was in.
"There's no one here," George said softly. The words totally and absolutely clashed with his body language. George was ready to take on anything and anyone â no matter if visible or not.
Time did a flip, adrenaline exploding in my system like a budding blossom. Motion.
Alexander walked in the door as if he owned it. He was dressed impeccably, not a speck or lint on his tailored slacks â at least I was pretty sure they were â or on his equally customer made white shirt.
Blue eyes scanned the room, methodically and slow. The moment of truth had come. Would he sense my presence? His eyes darkened â two blue orbs that could have been gates to obsidian galaxies or to the deep blue sea.
"What happened in here?" he said, turning to the pale-faced vampire coming in behind him. "When we entered, both my enforcer and I sensed a disturbance â a disturbance of magical nature, to be precise."
The pale-faced vampire stilled, then turned to his brown-haired companion, shoulders hunched, like he was expecting a death blow of a sort. Knowing the head vampire and his temper, that might not be far-fetched.
George crossed his arms in front of him. "Means: we believe someone just performed magic in this part of the mansion."
"I think I made myself clear enough about how this matter was to be handled," Alexander said.
The tone in his voice rubbed against my membranes. Not in a good way. In fact it was in the worst way possible. The image of soft velvet against naked, white skin forced itself into my forehead, reminded me of things I'd rather forget.
It made me want to portal out in that very instant, consequences be damned. But there was still a small chance Alexander wasn't going to notice my presence and I could walk out unharmed. As long as it existed, I was going to stay.
"There's no one here. We did as you said," the pale-faced vampire stammered.
The head vampire examined him for a long moment. Motionless. Face a no-man's-land of another sort.
Tap tap. The sound destroyed the moment, tore into my ears like a bloody arrow. Tap tap. Slowly, but surely it came closer. The sound of slow, dragged steps.
Alexander turned his head, angling it toward the door. "What does our magical expert say on this?" He said it in a silken-soft voice that made me want to run.
My eyes widened, breath stuck in my lungs. By the time I could breathe again, she'd already stepped into the room. Gray hair, tied back in a thick braid, her eyes of a very light brown, as if the color had been washed out by the years. Wrinkled hands, decorated with countless silver bracelets and rings. I knew her. Knew even her name. Without a doubt it was the witch that used to moonlight in and around the Crimson District. Sonya Bernards.
The last time I saw Sonya, she was working for me. Apparently she was working for Alexander now.
Damn the three great witches.
She looked first at Alexander, then took a cursory glance at the room. "What do you want me to look for?"
"There is no need to tell you that. You will look and tell me what you see," Alexander said in a steely voice. "And do it before my patience runs out."
"Maybe you should coerce somebody else then, next time," she said gruffly, walking past him and into the room.
"I am paying you handsomely," the head vampire said.
"I do not work for the likes of you, Alexander. And I never break my own rules," she said. "Now let me do my work."
I watched her, holding my breath. She was a witch of the water, which meant she couldn't get a reading like an air witch could have, but she was probably good enough to know how to circumvent that. She closed her eyes, muttering under her breath.
My blood froze. She was going to use a spell. And something told me it would be powerful enough to dismantle my own.
I felt the intrusion. A hand plunging into a still bath tub, stirring in and on the cool surface. Yes, she was doing a reading. Colors blurred, melted into a tangle of overstrung sensations, then faded away completely. I blinked, ringing for air in a soundless gasp. The magic flickered, built itself up, but the spell held.
I stayed still. Endured. Pain in my fingertips. Pain in my skull like a violent, physical roar.
She turned and I could feel how she searched the room methodically, a systematical ocular scan on another level. It was the only sensation I could feel besides the prickling numbness.
Sonya stopped, opened her eyes and stared straight at me. I stared back, a deer caught in the headlight.
"Well," Alexander said.
It wasn't a question. It was a demand. My eyes shifted to Alexander. He seemed calm on the surface, but from the soft, silent silkiness in his voice I could tell the head vampire was upset.
My eyes went back to the witch, pleading silently, desperately. Ice twirled in my veins, threatened to numb my core. I'd probably gone under too far. The thought barely registered as I watched the witch. For a long moment she didn't move.
She blinked, turning to Alexander with a slow shake of her head.
"The reading was ambiguous," she said. "I need to know what I'm looking for."
I held my breath, waiting. Could it be that Sonya didn't see me?
Alexander didn't bat an eyelash. "We sensed a disturbance when we entered. Somebody was here recently," he said. "I want to know who."
I went still, trying to shake off the numbness in my core. Alexander said somebody. That meant he didn't know it was me. Unless he we were ass deep in another mind game. Maybe the head vamp didn't want the rest of the troupe to know. No, that didn't feel right. Keeping secrets among others of his kind, particularly George?
"Could it be residual magic that was part of a spell?" the head vampire said.
She shook her head. "I cannot tell for sure."
"You better pray you can, or else I will not be as merciful next time," Alexander said. "I'm sure the Circle will be interested in your extracurricular activities on the black market."
Crap. He was blackmailing Sonya. Alexander'd been shadowing me for a while now. Did Alexander find the witch through me?
"There is no need for that," she said, her eyes going back to the spot I was at. "I will have to do another reading, but if somebody was here, I'm pretty sure he or she would have already left. Anything else would make no sense."
My eyes widened. Sonya was talking to me. She knew.
She turned to Alexander. "Show me the parameters. The wards of this mansion have been breached. I'll go and mend them first."
She said it in a casual tone of voice that apparently even caught Alexander off-guard.