Suffocate In Spirit - Shadows of the Night 4

Chapter 5

Hi!

Another weekend over too soon. And the world keeps turning. Okay, so now back to the story. I loved reading all your comments on the last chapter! I liked your theories about what might happen. Great stuff! I'm overwhelmed by what you guys think about this story, and that you enjoy reading it!

Enought said. Here's chapter five. Let me know what you're thinking...

Lara

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Chapter 5

A muscle in my jaw jumped, then locked. I held Alexander's stare mutely and with a cold look of contempt. I was not going to look away. And I was not going to contemplate the meaning of his last statement.

"I told you that as my human servant I expect you to speak to me openly and freely," he said. His voice was more than just sound, it was a physical, palpable caress; silken pins and needles.

Another long moment passed. The master vampire had maneuvered me into a verbal danger zone, and if there was something I hated more than the fact that it showed on my face, it was the fact that he seemed to have an edge over me – again.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I finally said.

He cocked an eyebrow. "Is that what you believe?" As if in answer to my discomfort and bewilderment, the vampire laughed softly. He turned his back on me and walked back towards the couch.

"Have your slight investigations finally come to some sort of fruition?" He said.

All was right with the world. Alexander was his hateful self. I scowled at him.

Slight investigations?

I had been combing through the Bloody Warden's vicinity for four damned weeks, restlessly and diligently I may add, and now Alexander was implying I was idling away my time? True, going in, I wasn't keen on finding one of the former small-scale movement's members, but I did my share of undercover work for the vamp.

Ever since Chris Hayes, former club owner and dropout-ex-Circle-member, was arrested for the murder of Magenta Warrens, the doors to the wooden establishment had been firmly closed. The fact that she was the leader of a movement against vampires? Almost negligible in the light of what she was arrested for, if you asked me.

Naturally, Alexander didn't share my sentiments. To him the Bloody Warden was the mother of red rags. A group of half-witches joining to conspire against vampires, and, even worse, planning their destruction? Insult enough for the head vamp to deny them space to breathe.

He had been keeping tabs on the Bloody Warden and Chris Hayes for weeks, a delicate chess game of subtle surveillance and suspicion. I was pretty sure Hayes had been aware of the head vampire's interest for a while. But the situation escalated before one of the two could make their first move. Someone poisoned blood in a vampire club in the Red Zone a few weeks ago.

Alexander suspected that it was the Bloody Warden members' work. He actually was right, for a change. I knew, because I was there.

And I was never going to tell him that.

He wanted each and every single half-witch he believed was involved in the 'Jolterhead incident' observed and, if possible, arrested. Since he didn't have any proof that the Bloody Warden members had been involved at all, that was easier said than done. All Alexander knew for sure so far was that the club had hosted anti-vampire meetings. Over the past two weeks Alexander and his vampires managed to find the one or the other half-witch who had visited the club regularly, but none of them had been part of the 'proactive mission' in the Red Zone. I had a hunch what kind of interrogation techniques the vamps used, but I wasn't too keen on finding out.