Suffocate In Spirit - Shadows of the Night 4

Chapter 47

Hi,

I hope you had a great week and a merry christmas! Okay guys, last update for this year. I hope you like it! It's on the long side! :-)

Lara

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Chapter 47

"Where are you going?"

I froze, stopped dead in my tracks. As if the voice had the power to disable limbs and feet, maybe even something in my core. I knew the voice, knew its texture more than I liked.

Why wasn't he still out there? The image of him and Helèna, the way she went soft in his arms, flashed in front of my eyes.

I fisted my hands and resumed my walk. I had no time for these thoughts. I had no business having them.

Fluid seconds. A breath and a hitch. Alexander's hand was on my arm, fingers wrapped around my elbow, before I made it a wimpy two feet closer to where I needed to go. My head tilted, eyes turned to him on their own.

Alexander was looking at me with the same look of indifference he used the first time we met. Only that something was different. Secrets, dark and sinister, were rolling behind his eyes – unasked questions and threats. Lies.

What was he doing here, dammit?

I tried to shake his hand off. It was like trying to break steel chains.

The sound of clapping made me look up and away. My eyes focused on a form at the end of the corridor. Vladislav II was standing right where I had been headed to.

"Well done. You have been holding out on me, Adorjàn." He smiled, dropping his hands and moving forward slowly. He came to a halt less than ten feet in front of us. "It seems you were lucky, for once in your life. Then again, how does the saying go? Fortune favors fools."

He was talking over my head, clearly addressing Alexander. Not that I cared. I was too busy reeling.

It couldn't be. The vampire who'd torn into my mind – was it Vladislav himself?

"You always had a penchant for dramatics, Vladislav – among other things." Glass splinters, grinding, and steel in Alexander's voice made me look at him. There wasn't an ounce of emotion on his face. "Fact is that I won the tournament. Your human servant's blood was," he closed his eyes, "delicious."

Something in my stomach twisted and moved. The sound of his voice was far from the kind of tone he used to tell another half-truth or lie. It sounded real. Did Alexander mean it? Did he enjoy drinking from Helèna Barthoryn?

Vladislav's eyes narrowed. "For the sake of the festivities I will let this go. Get out of my sight before I change my mind."

I froze. Change his mind? About what? Was he talking about what he most certainly perceived as a huge insult from his former protégé?

Then I made the connection. A connection that could mean death. A life wire pushed and pulled at my heart, halting it for the barest of seconds. Was Vladislav talking about what he saw in my head? Was he there?

Reality was distorted, my vision hissing in front of my eyes. And then Vladislav was gone. Thin air where seconds before one of the greatest monsters I ever met occupied space.

It left me alone with Alexander.

"Anna." It was a soft sound, a gentle command that should have made me look at him.