Breathe Under Water - Shadows of the Night 1

Chapter 3

Hi!

The next chapter, finally. Since this has been a long wait, I'll keep things short. Please comment and vote! :)

Lara

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Chapter 3

Paranoia was me. I kept glancing behind me as I walked the last two blocks to the Circle's headquarters. There were shadows behind side-alleys and dustbins, and they were stretching and elongating behind my back. It was the same each time: Once I turned and actually looked, they were gone.

Two days had passed and still no sign of the vampire that killed Maria. Two days of living in self-delusion and denial. I kept ignoring the voice inside my head that insisted it was all my fault, pretending I could keep things together and function. Like I didn't see her lying there in that street every time I shut my eyes.

I shook my head. Pull yourself together, Anna. Focus.

I could do this, and, no, the vampire wasn't going to attack me out here on the streets, not with so many witnesses. I was surrounded by people rushing, pushing, and hurrying past each other. It was almost as if the Revelation never happened. The Revelation triggered off the fastest-paced exodus New York had ever seen. Not that I was sure the city had ever seen an outflow of people before.

It was a phenomenon throughout the United States, and it all started with that one autumn night three years ago when the existence of vampires was made public. Believing that rural life provided some sort of protection from supernatural things that went bump in the night, formerly die-hard city slickers packed their bags and left for good. New York wasn't dead by far, and the situation had begun to reverse with all the vampire junkies coming in, but the city wasn't full of that bustling growth anymore. Gone were the traces of that urban overcrowding we silently witnessed during the last two decades. Gone the endless traffic jams. The behemoth of steam and fog, and the honking of cabs as they snaked their way through the streets – it died a long time ago. These days cab drivers only honked like mad if they saw a real old vamp crossing the street in fast mo.

I rounded the corner and looked up. Who would have believed that the Circle would establish its headquarters in the middle of the Financial District of New York City of all places? Most New Yorkers believed it was an office building of Spira, a computer software company and a corporation trading in the stock market.

The skyscraper looked just like any other. It was an architectural John Doe among the modern castles of the city's financial aristocracy. Maybe it wasn't as imposing, or as high as the others in this area, but apart from that it was blatantly ordinary. As if. It was all but that. The whole building was magically secured and warded with some of the nastiest spells I'd ever seen.

Brown called me in, and I had no idea why. I already gave them my description, repeated everything that happened in minute detail. And what had the Force done? Diddly squat. They had no idea why Maria was killed, less who the vampire was that ripped her throat out. I was the sole witness. The punch line? It probably made me into the one person that had a killer vampire gunning for her.

I approached the swing door at the entrance and greeted the guard absently. Intuition had me pegging him for a shape shifter. Many security-related jobs were in furry hands, metaphorically spoken, but I wasn't quite sure with this one. I kept on walking. Using second sight to probe into his aura's nature was beyond my dignity.

I moved through the marbled hallway right up to the front desk. I found Debbie as I'd left her: perfect make-up, perfect smile. The familiar sight of blond hair in a tight bun and a face covered with too many layers of make-up made me almost feel at home. With me being in Italy doing my research for the Circle, it had been a long time since I last saw her.