Fade Into Black - Shadows of the Night 5

Chapter 43

Hi,

We've been waiting for this for a while: Another dance between Alexander and Anna. Any idea what happened to Anna, anybody? I hope you like the chapter :-) 

Lara

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Chapter 43

For a long moment he stared at her. Still, oh so still.

"When I entered the street you were gone. There was blood on the asphalt," Alexander said.

She stilled. Blood.

Something was tugging at her mind. A memory she was close to grasping, yet something was in her way and every time she reached for it, it slipped through her fingers.

She couldn't remember. She didn't know what it was, but it weighed upon her like a brick wall, threatening to fall and bury her under. She closed her eyes.

Blood.

"Whose blood was it, Anna? What happened?"

She didn't know. She might have lost minutes, maybe an hour in that street. Nothing in her mind but blank open space. Then that moment of new awareness and power.

The memory of who she was before that moment felt like a cheap Hollywood movie, or maybe a story a con-artist had made up to gain her trust and deceive her. She refused to fall victim to cheap tricks, be they coming from a small-time crook or the head vampire himself.

She had to focus on the here and now, for the time being. Priorities. Her eyes went back to the diary. Alexander had no right to take it. It belonged to her. She could try to snatch it away from him, fight him for it. Yet she hesitated. He was too formidable an opponent. She wasn't sure she could take him. Not without preparation.

She only had one bargaining chip to get the diary: Alexander thought she had valuable information – a missing puzzle piece she herself didn't have. She had to make use of that.

"This city isn't at the brink of chaos, it's neck-deep in it. You want to know what happened the night of the attack?" She lifted her chin. "Give me the book and I'll tell you everything I know."

She refused to call it diary, wondered whether he had guessed, or had read everything anyway.

He stared at her, blue eyes that were calculating with an ancient old mind.

"How would I know the information was worth handing it over? How would I know your words could be trusted? You are not only an outlaw in this city, you are a liar."

Liar. The world bounced off against her barely erected walls. She had to get herself in that perfect place again, that place where she felt no one and nothing. Nothing but the dark magic. She would get her hands on the diary, no matter how.

She shrugged. "You're a vampire, you'll know if I'm telling the truth or not. Besides, I'm not the first outlaw you've made bargains with."

He looked at her for a long moment. The familiar weight of his penetrating stare settled on her shoulders again. "We have a bargain, then. Tell me a single lie and it will be void."

The stone cold expression on his face left no room for argument or doubt. He was not going to budge on this. He had always been head-strong. Not that it mattered. She would give him the truth. At least as much as she knew of it.

"Fine," she said. "I was with the Fade pack. We were looking for the Inri Brotherhood. We thought they were hiding in the sewer system. It turned out we were wrong. They used it to hide human weaponry. They attacked us when we moved in. A diversionary tactic, apparently."