Suffocate In Spirit - Shadows of the Night 4

Chapter 56

Hi,

So Anna's back in New York, but will she be able to find her place in the city? What do you think are her options?

Lara

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Chapter 56

So, I actually did the impossible. I convinced the head vamp to let me stay in one of the unissued apartments that were in his possession. For now. The big question? Was my line of argumentation better than his, for once, or did he simply give me enough rope to hang myself up on? Apparently Alexander still didn't trust me. And maybe with good reason.

I erected shields and wards of protection all around my room and unpacked what little I took from my apartment. The most important thing was to catch up with what I'd missed while I was staying with the Lumenis. Alexander hadn't been very forthcoming in describing what happened during my absence. Not that he was forthcoming about much these days.

There was the one thing I didn't want to face, but that grasped my attention every time I turned things over in my head: In how far was me being his human servant public knowledge? Before I went to Italy, Brown said he would give me time to work things out and that he'd withhold the information until then. I believed him when he said that. But that was before I was abducted by Medici. I had no idea if Brown revealed the truth while I was abroad.

How would the witch community react? What was I going to tell Laura, Ryan, and Andy? And what were we going to do about the Raven? Alexander agreed to call off declaring me his human servant in front of his coven leaders, but he had been vague about my plan to decoy the Raven into a trap myself.

The most obvious plan of action would be to find the half-witches involved with the Bloody Warden and gain all the information I could get my hands on, but it was a long and elaborate one –at best. Alexander wanted the Raven to be found and convicted asap.

Whether he agreed with my plan or not, he charged me with the one thing he couldn't do: go to places a vampire couldn't access. He expected me to do it during the night – all under the watchful gazes of trusted vampires and undead spies he sent to protect me.

Protect me! Hah! As if.

I shook my head. If I wanted results, I had to get answers. I could think of only one person involved in the Raven incident whose whereabouts I knew of. Someone who would most certainly be able to give me more information on the Raven's scheme. Would she give me answers? And would trying to obtain them get me killed?

* * *

Going to the prison where Chris Hayes was in custody, awaiting trial – it was a bold move. Someone might argue it was suicidal, given what happened in Italy. Going to the prison, walking through their wards and having them read my aura – it was a test to the soul and could hurt me worse than the Raven and a horde of ancient vampires combined.

I didn't want to expose myself as a witch that once dipped into Spirit. But I didn't want to turn into a rogue witch either. I needed proof that I still was one of the good guys, and I needed it before I went to the prison. So I did the only thing I could think of. I contacted the witch that used to moonlight in and around the Crimson District, paid her handsomely for reading my aura. Holding my breath in anticipation for what she would see. Hoping she wasn't going to rat me out, if she saw more than just red in there. No honor among thieves and criminals.

She didn't find anything unusual with my aura. I was still one of the good guys.

So here I was, sitting in my old green Ford, hands on the steering wheel, staring at the prison gates like the idiot I felt I was. The Devotio Correctional Facility was the only prison in the state that had the kind of equipment and magical prowess to hold deviants of the supernatural kind. It was in the south of New York, close to the border to Pennsylvania. A naked block of concrete planted in a ring of forests and trees, spelled and secured to the nines and beyond.