Fade Into Black - Shadows of the Night 5

Chapter 48

Hi!

So Andy's about to step into the lion's den - if you can call it that... In the last chapter Andy said he had "a score to settle" with Alexander. Before you read this - can anyone guess what exactly he was referring to?

Thank you all for reading and for the many comments! Even though I can't answer every single one, I read them all and I love them :-) 

Lara

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Chapter 48

ANDY

We ended up in the back of the club, where the waitress showed me through a door. It led to a long corridor that seemingly ended in black – the illusion was perfect. I could have believed I was walking into a pit of darkness. The barmaid closed the door behind me and the music of the club was gone.

I was as good as sealed off from the rest of Ryon Club. Not even a dull vibration or faint bass sound. All that was left was a memory, an intuitive knowledge that somewhere in the club music was still playing. My ears tingled, as if caught up in a sensation of phantom pain.

I stilled. I wasn't alone. A figure was leaning against the wall, arms crossed under his chest. Blond hair, short and messy. Skinny in the way athletes are, or maybe someone who was used to fighting – sans heavy muscle. Skin so white, he might have passed as a newly turned vamp. He blinked. The motion was slight, but it betrayed his nature. No need to go into second sight.

Definitely human. A vamp would have stared at me without blinking.

The human male regarded me with wary, forbidding brown eyes. "He's been expecting you. He has a guest right now but it won't take long."

"Thanks, Mr. ..."

He smiled, like a dog baring its teeth. "Jack. Let's leave it at that."

The black curtain behind him moved and out stepped a blond twenty something. Hair in a messy ponytail, eyes wide like a deer caught and trapped in headlights. She looked like a junkie that had kicked heroin and crashed, crashed real hard. The vampire coming out behind her appeared like a second shadow glued to her back.

"Escort her out, Jack," the vampire said.

The Scottish accent was not as thick as I remembered last time. And I wondered why. Butterscotch eyes settled on me, packing a slight, but controlled power punch. I knew who he was: George Rider, Alexander's enforcer. Swell, just swell.

"George," I nodded to him as a way of greeting.

"Varner," he said and turned. His red hair was in a thick braid, low down his back, swinging with the motion. "You can come in now," he said, his back still to me.

I took one step, then halted and turned around. Jack was leaving with the blond girl, fingers tight around her elbow. Had I just missed Alexander feeding on a human? A very weak human that looked more dead than alive? I shoved myself into second sight and faltered in my next step. The girl's aura was half red and half black.

What the fuck was a rogue witch doing in here?

"You comin? Or do you need a bloody invitation?" George said from behind the curtain.

I flexed my hands and rolled my shoulders.

Show time.

I lifted the oily, black curtain and stepped through.