Fade Into Black - Shadows of the Night 5

Chapter 12

Hi!

I hope you all had a great weekend! Mine was great :-)

Back to the story. The noose around Anna's neck is tightening. It will take a miracle to get her out of this. I hope you all like this one.

Lara

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Chapter 12

I learned two things since my run-in with the head vampire. One: the magical null bombs weren't the only objects of power the Raven coveted. Two: I knew for a fact that he didn't leave them in the part of the sewer system we were currently hiding in. I was pretty sure that he retrieved the magical objects from a place that was safe, a place that he himself had chosen for safe-keeping. That in turn meant, he was going to use them. Soon. If that logic was to be followed, it meant he kept them close at hand – at all times.

I masked my face with an expression of nonchalance before the scowl could make its way to the surface. When I asked about the promised photocopied pages from Elena Larosa's diary, he said I hadn't fulfilled my task. Not yet.

The Raven didn't hand me back my pendant either. In fact, he gave me nothing at all. He'd gone out on a prowl in the city, taking me along the ride without invitation or clarification of what we were doing. The travel via portal made me nauseous to the point of throwing up.

No news there.

I peered into the night sky. Where are we?

I suppressed the question, tied it in a knot and buried it deep down inside. Right next to that damned black box that was on the verge of bursting. Contemplating what would happen once and if it did burst? No, I wasn't going to go down that road.

We were on one of the thousands of rooftops in this city, stranded in mind-boggling heights. We joined what looked like a small group of lookouts that had been cowering in the shadows for what must have been a long time.

Remaining still and calm on a skyscraper is harder than it looks. The wind kept whipping back and forth with the force of a miniature hurricane. Apparently the rogues had mastered the art of feeling at ease in niches like these.

I hadn't. We were too high above ground for me to feel comfortable looking down without vertigo-induced nausea.

I blinked several times, took deep shallow breaths. The checkered conundrum of streets looked bizarrely familiar in the dim glow of streetlights. I looked down, then up again. The words on top of a skyscraper directly in our line of vision were what caught my eye. The letters glowed in a bright red color, as if they were blushing at their own presence.

My head whipped to the Raven. Then went back again. Searching. Contemplating. Waiting.

Minutes stretched into what might have been near an hour. The rogues remained where they were. All waiting. All in silence. Stone-faced.

There were about two dozen. All of them dressed in black cloaks that nearly reached the ground, allowing them to melt into the shadows. I caught glimpses of automatic weapons, knifes and other weapons. It made me feel uneasy for more than one reason. It meant they were prepared for hand-to-hand combat.

I was worn out. Unsure of how to play what little cards I had left. If I truly wanted them to believe I wanted to be one of them, I would have to show them I was putting the same trust in Medici as the rest of rogues. That meant not questioning his decision. Not asking why we were here. I wasn't sure I could feign that kind of devotion and sense of duty, but I had to try.