Bathe In Fire - Shadows of the Night 2

Chapter 12

Hi!

Time for another update. I know I've said this before, but the weeks pass so fast, it's like riding on a bullet train. Please let me know what you liked and didn't like in this chapter. You got the power to make things happen - story-wise. Don't waste it! :D

Lara

__________________________________________________

Chapter 12

I eyed Zack from the side. "So, where are we going tonight?"

He gave me one of those vamp-blank-stares, while I was fumbling with the in-ear monitor.

"We've already covered the northern part of our assigned area. How about the southern part this time?" Zack answered.

"Why not? Sounds good to me," I said, trying to hide my nervousness.

So far Zack hadn't uttered the forbidden A-word. The ultimatum Alexander gave me would expire in less than two nights and I still had no clue what the head vampire was going to do once I didn't show up on his doorstep begging for forgiveness. I snorted inwardly. Like that was ever going to happen! Besides, I had enough on my plate already.

We still had no idea why and with whom Natalie left the Flying Dragon, or who was distributing the drug. So Tanner had sent us out into the streets. Undercover work it was. After four nights of investigating in the Crimson District with a vampire and very unsuccessfully so, I found myself sitting in my green Ford Lincoln with Zack yet again. We got out of the metal monstrosity and took the five minute walk towards the southern part of our designated area. This part of the Crimson district bordered the area known for holding clubs with a strict no-vampires-policy.

We roamed the streets, talked to a couple of people lingering around in front of the clubs. I already knew where this would end: the night would turn out to be a series of fruitless and frustrating hours, spent with questioning half-wasted and dead-drunk clubbers. Another dead end. At this point I was willing to believe that my informant, Larry, had been right. It looked like the usual drug users were scared out of their minds. It was almost impossible to catch someone dealing any drug whatsoever.

The punch line was that we could not even arrest common drug dealers if we came upon them. The TF3 had no right to interfere in 'mere' human crimes – it was human police business. We could report it, but the human authorities would see that as an affront. Dead ends.

We were walking through one of the more abandoned, darker alleys, a side valve for the violent onslaught of noise, the main street's drunken chitchat, when my brand new mobile rang. I fished for it, blowing air out of my mouth. What now? It was Blaze.

"Blaze, this is kind of bad timing ... What? Yes, we're coming." I turned to stare at Zack. "They've found another corpse."

"The Riverside," he said, already moving forward with more than human speed.

For a moment I simply stared after him before breaking into a run. Damn the vampires and their hearing.

* * *

It was a narrow side street, away from the flashy part of the Riverside area. The frequency of clubs and bars had thinned out and dispersed. Isolated and lonely buildings claimed their spot in the in-betweens of a string of rundown shops. The street was less illuminated, less posh than the Crimson District, the noise of the river drowned out by the general buzz of curious onlookers and the human police.