Fade Into Black - Shadows of the Night 5

Chapter 9

Hi!

Sorry for the late update! Here's the next chapter :-)

Anna working together with the Inri Brotherhood, or not? Is this bound to end in chaos? And, who do you think killed Leonhard Goshanger? I hope you enjoy this one! :-)

Lara

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Chapter 9

This was a spell I hadn't put to the test yet – at least not without Giuliana's guidance and advice. Saying the words without my godmother at my side scared me. It was that hole in my stomach, that empty space that seemed to grow with each step I took in what I felt was the wrong direction.

I took a deep breath, called my magic to me.

I rifled through the auras of the brothers and mine, working them, reshaping. Particles aligned, readjusted, changed color in the auratic framework.

Auram te laudo. Aura veni, auxilium per occulere desidero.

Magic raced through me, burned and fried my mind to the point of total annihilation.

I took the pain, gasping, fighting my way through it. Together our auras winked out of existence, taking flesh and bones with them.

I did it.

I performed an invisibility spell – highly illegal in New York and the rest of Northern America, but highly effective. I stared at the brothers, saw their faces and outlines as if through a veil. Only the three of us would be able to see each other. No one else, neither human, nor vampire, would be able to see us or sense our auras.

The only question was how long it would hold. Or rather, how long I'd be able to hold it.

* * *

We slipped through heavily ornamented corridors, walked past dark paintings that told tales of bloodshed and power struggles, tip-toed on soft dark-green carpet with our breaths held. I craned my head from time to time. No surveillance cameras, no motion detectors, no nothing. Apparently Goshanger invested more into furnishing than security.

Good for us. We needed every advantage we could get. We were not visible to the eye, our auras and essences clouded by the spell, but this was not a human household. There was no guarantee the vampires wouldn't be able to sense us in some way.

There were no crime scene tapes, nothing that could have pointed to the presence of the Force or the TF3 for that matter. From how things were looking, the head vampire was unwilling to air dirty laundry.

Knowing Alexander, he forbade his minions to alert the authorities. Why, if he suspected the Raven? He openly asked me if the Raven was the perpetrator. Letting the TF3 clear up a magical-related crime would have been a smart move.

Unless keeping the information to himself was more important than gaining the help of the witch community in solving the crime. Which made perfectly sense.

When Alexander asked me about the Raven's possible involvement in the matter, he had me cornered. I didn't think he'd have brought it up, if he thought I was going to get away.

Goshanger's vamps said it themselves: the murders raised questions about the head vampire's ability to protect what he called his own. No matter who killed those vampires, Alexander didn't want the rest of the vampire community to know the details.

Only, if it wasn't the Raven, who was it?

The mansion reeked of blood and fear, the hollow wariness a crime left clung to the walls and hallways like solid, sticky fog.