Fade Into Black - Shadows of the Night 5

Chapter 17

Hi,

Okay, I have a question for you. Who is Anna talking about towards the end of this chapter? Any ideas? Theories? I'm curious... ;-)

Lara

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Chapter 17

"It started with air. Then fire and water followed. The last element I used was earth magic. I do not tell anyone, not even my brothers, but I am scared. I lost time again. They said I destroyed a whole building with earth magic yesterday. It was Sasso's old barn.

I know that I was there. We all were. The vamps chased us to the brink of the forest behind it, and one got to me. I know he got to me. But that's the last I remember.

They said I destroyed the barn and buried him underneath charred pieces of stone and earth. I can't believe it. No. I won't believe it. I am not losing my mind.

The elders are wary of me and speak in hushed whispers when they believe I do not notice. I know what they speak of behind my back. They say that my ability to use that much elemental magic is unnatural. They believe I have to be watched and accompanied at all times. I am not to be alone and unwatched. But I will not be caged."

I put the diary away, rubbing my eyes. It took me longer than anticipated to read through it than I thought it would. Sometimes the handwriting got hard to read. Some of the Italian words I didn't know. I still had to get my hands on a dictionary, though I didn't know how. Yet. Dammit, the only other option was getting my myself a new cell phone. Necessary at some point in time, but maybe not wise right now.

I knocked my head on the wall behind me. Now that I'd begun reading Elena Larosa's diary, I wasn't so sure I wanted to read on.

I closed my eyes and strained my ears. Waited.

I heard it in its approach. The train plowed its way through the underground, the earth above and underneath shaking like a trembling, traumatized child. The subway system was a perfect playground and sanctuary for someone on the run – like me.

Twenty-four lines, a network full of angles that proved, among other things a perfect hiding system. Enough nooks and crannies in the vast underground that allowed hiding.

I was close to one of the less frequented lines in the eastern part of the city, right at the outskirts of the Red Zone. Rumors of gang wars and vampires roaming the streets had turned the station into a miniature ghost town years ago. These days it was an abandoned shadow of what it once was. The few people that got off and on here were either looking for trouble, or suicidal.

If you followed the lines you could slip right in between two intersections and walk down a set of stairs that might or might not have been built before the nineties. There was an entire abandoned level underneath the tracks. Used in times before this area turned into the Red Zone and became a hotspot for gangs and undead on the prowl.

I'd stayed close to this spot for one night when I was still with the Raven and his rogues. I used to think hiding subsurface was one of the countless ticks Medici picked up over the years. Now I knew he had to pick them up in order to survive.

The Raven never stayed in the same hiding spot twice. I figured, if anyone looking for the rogues had found this place, he would have by now. Logic also told me no one in their right mind would bother checking twice.

Surviving in a city without a single penny in your pocket isn't easy. In the cradle of the American financial sector all that does count really IS money, but when faced with the impossible, where all that matters is naked survival, many things become irrelevant.

I managed, by breaking the boundaries of the legal way.

I portalled out and away from Alexander and hadn't heard or seen a thing of the vamps ever since. As to the Inri Brotherhood and the Raven? I still had no clue if they escaped.

I expected the tidings of the Raven's or the Inri Brotherhood's capture to be dominating the newsfeeds throughout the city. Expected the head vampire would display and show off the fact that he was the one who captured, if not the Inri Brotherhood's infamous leader, at least part of the Brotherhood. He would make as much use of it as he could.

He did not.

The news bulletin of the Raven's or the rogues' arrest never came. It made me wonder. Did the head vamp get his hands on no one, at all? Or did he simply bide his time? There was no doubt in my mind that it was a deliberate action, just another one of Alexander's carefully laid out plans.

I strongly suspected the Raven got out before the vamps laid a finger on him. He was much quicker and more skilled in opening portals than I or anyone else I knew. I didn't even want to contemplate the other option.

If Alexander caught him, would he question, or worse, torture the Raven before he handed him over? Was that why the news of the arrest hadn't come out? If yes, how much did Alexander know? For all I knew Raphael Medici would have told Alexander I was the perpetrator, just to get back at me for stealing the magical artifacts.

If Alexander suspected I took part in the murdering of his vamps, and I believed he still did, he'd want me dead. While I didn't want to face him after our last encounter, I didn't want him against me. Head vampire or not, among all the players in this city, he was the one most likely to find me now that I was no longer with the Inri Brotherhood. I was his human servant. With a little effort he could locate me simply through the bond. That was why I kept moving and slept mostly during the day.

If Alexander did find me, he could make things very ugly for me. That was, as long as I didn't have proof I wasn't involved in the killings.

Someone murdered some of Alexander's most trusted vamps, and contrary to the head vamp, I wasn't one-hundred-percent sure it was Medici. It would fit Medici's MO, and a rift in the vampire community would play into his hands, but... I just wasn't sure.

Whoever did it, had either the means and connections to enter a coven house undetected, or he or she had shitloads of power. Maybe both. If I was right, this was not a coincidental act, it was a well-wrought and carefully executed plan. It was a very specific message. Someone wanted Alexander's vamps to believe he wasn't powerful or capable enough to protect his own.

Either it was an unknown faction that wanted the Inri Brotherhood to take the blame for it, or it was the Raven indeed. In both cases, it meant that they needed help to get into Goshanger's mansion.

Someone from the inside? I shook my head. It just didn't feel right.

I didn't have enough information to draw conclusions. I was stumbling my way through the city like a blind newborn.

I'd turned my back on the Circle what felt like eons ago, but the repercussions were coming only now. Whatever information I could access, the privileges I had, they were gone. I had no way of talking to someone else from the Circle.

How much did the Circle even know about the vampire deaths? Did the TF3 investigate? I stilled. Would the Circle even share the information with the vamps at this point in time? The peace in the city was as fragile as a half-burnt matchstick in a tornado.

I considered the options I had and came up with none. No one would give me information, less talk to me at this point in time. All the parts that did not reside with Alexander would arrest, or worse, kill me upon sight. Unless...

A mirthless laugh escaped my lips. There was an option. Dangerous as hell, but worth trying. Aside of the Inri Brotherhood I knew only one key player in this city that would not side with Alexander, no matter the circumstances. And I just knew where to find him.