Suffocate In Spirit - Shadows of the Night 4

Chapter 58

Hi,

Anna and Alexander will have to cooperate and overcome upcoming obstacles together, if they want to have a chance at stopping the Raven. From the looks of it, the odds are against them... And then there's the thing Anna finds out. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Read on and find out! I hope you like this one!

Lara

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Chapter 58

Alexander led me into the upper floors of the building. I followed, silently and without protest, for once. I was angry at him before, but now, after I saw what Medici did to the building, after having replayed what could have happened, the anger deflated and died inside of me.

I stopped in the middle of the third staircase we climbed. The trace of auras, of black magic dissipated up there. The space above us hovered in the air, the sudden absence of magic like a white cloud of static noise.

I tore my eyes open, blinking as the impact of reality set in. "It ends here. Someone probably opened a portal here."

Alexander was looking at me, arms crossed in front of his chest. "Explain."

"I'm not sure, but since a portal is a tear in time and space, it nullifies whatever magic existed in that space. Maybe it only sucks it in, or maybe the magic is consumed by the portal itself – I don't know. But I can tell that some of the rogues used a portal here. Maybe all of them, maybe not. But there had to have been enough to nullify all the dark magic I felt before."

"You cannot follow, even if you use a portal from the same spot?"

I shook my head.

"I was told you went to the Devotio Correctional Facility yesterday."

The question startled me, caught me off-guard in the worst way possible. For a long moment I stared at him. Of course he knew about it. His vamps had been following me around like silent dogs during the night - as much as his human flunkies during daylight. I knew that when I went to the prison.

"You said you wanted information on the half-witches," I said. "I'm using all the resources I have at my disposal."

"I assume you talked with Chris Hayes. You were going to disclose the information to me, I take it?" There was motion, a slow shiver in his eyes that gave me pause.

I shook my head. "She didn't give me anything I didn't know already. She said the Raven was going to choose abandoned buildings as hiding places and keep moving around. Not much we can work with."

He stared at me for a long moment. I expected him to argue the point, convinced that he'd think there were things I left unsaid. Then, when I expected it the least, he switched topics again – addressing the last thing I wanted to talk about.

"Why did you run, little witch?"

"I..." I shook my head, frowning. Run? Why run? "What? I didn't run."

He stepped forward. Less than a second and he was so close that our toes were almost touching.

"You ran. What I saw in your head, it was real."

I stilled. He was talking about what happened in my past – the death of my parents he saw when he forced himself into my mind.

"You were running a long time before we met," he said.

He cocked his head, and raised his hand until his palm touched my cheek. I sucked in a breath, couldn't move. Physical contact was the worst when it came to him. Intense. Vivid.