Suffocate In Spirit - Shadows of the Night 4

Chapter 40

Hi!

So, I could shock some of you with last week's developments, mouhaha! I haven't lost my touch. Anna is in serious trouble, and I'm not talking about the bedroom situation here. See for yourselves. I hope you like this one - it's a longer chapter :-)

Lara

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Chapter 40

It was a long, restless night. Sleep must have come, because at some point I awoke – that moment when consciousness snaps into being and dreams evaporate in the back of the mind. A trickle of sound, a stir of something that penetrated and slipped into my mind. I looked up, buried underneath a mountain of silken blankets.

A shaft of artificial light fell into the room and I caught a glimpse of someone moving to the couch. My spine stiffened, elbows digging into the mattress as I righted myself. At second glance the figure started to look like Jack, who by rights should have been sleeping here instead of me.

I'd been contemplating the bed-situation while I was trying to knock myself into unconsciousness with dark theories and even gloomier thoughts. It looked like our hosts, the Cellinis, had either not been expecting two human servants, or had assumed me and Alexander would share bedsheets. Were they to blame for all of this mess?

I watched Jack place something on the armchair before leaving without a glance.

The door closed almost soundlessly. Panels of darkness snapped back into place. Silence deepened and unfolded around me until all I could hear was my own breathing. I lay down again, the rustling of silk like an explosion of sound and noise. Trying not to move turned out to be harder than aniticpated. The resolve lasted for about three seconds.

I turned, aware of that someone beside me, anticipating, straining to hear something. Dammit, no way was I going to get more sleep after this. Go figure.

How much longer was I going to be stuck in this... this mess? I cursed inwardly. I didn't even know how late it was. I took a deep breath and raised the covers in slow motion. The mattress creaked as I inched forward and righted myself until my feet touched the cold floor.

The voice came out of nowhere. "What are you doing?"

I froze in mid motion, hand outstretched in the dark – all things Alexander could probably sense and see in minute detail.

"I'm having a human moment," I lied. "Besides, if you expect me to act like a human servant and look the part, I'll need to take a shower."

The light went on in the same moment I said the last word. I turned and saw him sitting up in bed, crimson blankets falling away from him like a second skin. I forced my eyes back to where they had been, focusing on a spot above the door handle, and asked the last question that had been on my mind.

"What am I supposed to wear this time, anyway? Black leather? Spandex? Or are the Cellinis' tastes a little above vamp standard?"

Soft laughter erupted from behind me. The urge to turn and look at him was overwhelming, but I kept staring at the ornamented wood across from me. It was true that the door was the one way to escape, though.

"Jack left it at the couch," Alexander said.

I stalked over to the glass table and took whatever Alexander's boy wonder Jack had left there, not even looking at it. For some reason all I could think about getting away from the master vampire.