Bathe In Fire - Shadows of the Night 2

Chapter 42

Hi!

Trouble ahead! Anna and Andy will be facing the vamp in this one. Oh, and by the way, after this chapter there will be one more in this book. Of course that's not the end of the story! Shadows of the Night - book 3 is coming... Yeah!!!

Lara

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Chapter 42

Our footsteps reverberated on the bare walls. Together with the sound of blood rushing in my ears, the echo was multiplied, and way too loud. I stared into the darkness beyond. The flight of stairs ended in the basement. The roughness of the concrete wall behind my back didn't feel reassuring. Voices, shuffling of feet, and then suspense-filled silence; Andy turned his head, about to give me some sort of signal, when-

"Come out, come out, wherever you are. I can smell you from here. You reek of magic and fear."

The voice was low and power-fused, its tone signaling a false cheerfulness that made my blood run cold. I grabbed Andy by the shoulder and drew up shields of air, putting as much force into them as I dared to. Andy nodded, and together we stepped forward, straight into the lion's den.

And what a den it was. At first I couldn't see the lion, though. I never thought that all the horror movies got it right. One officer standing at the back of the room. Four unmoving bodies on the floor, two of them with gunshot wounds. Small pools of blood underneath, arms twisted in unnatural angles; pools of blood;

... my parents. Instantly I slammed down any mental doors to my past I could get a hold of.

No!

One SWAT member was leaning on the wall to our right, panting heavily. His right arm was wounded, yet he still held a gun in his left one. He caught my gaze and shook his head. It took me a few seconds to make sense of it. Then I understood. The officers – they were all dead.

"More visitors. The more ... the merrier."

Again that low voice that made me think of blood and razor blades. I could feel it grating on my mind, its texture and force hostile and oppressive. I glanced up and got my first look at what I believed to be Gabriel Zent.

He was behind the officer at the back of the room, half-hidden in the dark. He was holding the officer in a tight grip, a second shadow molded to the human's back. One glance was enough to tell me that the vampire had used him both as a shield and as a weapon. I didn't know if the vampire had made him pull the trigger, or if the undead did it himself, but I was positive that the shots had come out of this officer's gun. The look on the human's face was vacant, frighteningly empty. Shock or compulsion? Wasn't that the question?

"Good evening to you too, Gabriel," Andy said in a low voice.

He talked to him in the same manner he had used with Alexander. Casual and obscenely banal; I was starting to believe that it was his way of dealing with the undead, or assholes like Alexander. I understood what Andy was aiming at, though. He wanted to make sure that it was really Zent we were facing. I still couldn't get a good look at the vampire's face. All I could see was a dark shape behind the puppet-like human.

"And who are you?" The vampire threw the question at him in a mocking tone.

I raised my gun, pointing at him. "Someone who's going to send you back to hell!"

Andy grabbed my arm, shaking his head without ever once averting his eyes from the vamp. "Don't. He's still alive."

I blinked. He was talking about the human. The vampire was using him as a shield. As long as he did that I couldn't shoot at him without risking to kill the officer in the process. Crap. The vampire led out a roar of laughter. Miniscule movement trickled into the stillness. The human in the vampire's grip jerked and shook slightly with the vampire's outburst of laughter.