Breathe Under Water - Shadows of the Night 1

Chapter 6

Hi,

Finally, the next chapter! What can I say - read, post, vote! :)

Lara

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Chapter 6

Two hours of sleep and a restless night that seemed to have no end and no beginning. It lasted too long and yet ended too soon. Getting up in the morning felt like stepping into another hazy, cotton-stuffed dream.

I went through the motions, picked my outfit with care. I wasn't exactly a fashion horse, but the black blazer did look good with the black pants. It was a fail-safe option for someone who had a penchant for committing fashion crimes, like me.

One last look into the mirror before grabbing the night blue velvet cloak and my car keys. Getting there would take me about three and a half hours, maybe only three – if I got lucky. Once in the car, I fed the sound system with a disk of one of my most recent discoveries: 10 Minutes 2 Late. The music soothed me while I made my way up north on the Interstate 87.

Less than three hours later I made a short break at a gas station near Albany, realizing that my calculations regarding drive time had been way too optimistic. I finally glimpsed the road sign I had been waiting for after another hour. Lake George. Almost there.

I sighed. I should have taken the plane and be done with it. Apparently there were two exits, and naturally I was not sure whether to take the first or the second one. Finally I settled on the second one, which said Lake George North.

After driving along the lake for another ten minutes I stopped beside a huge red tour bus parked on the side of the scenic route. I ignored the bustle of what had to be about two dozens of Japanese tourists scattered around the place, mentally neutralizing the clicking sound of cameras and the epidemic rustle of the general buzz of sight-seeing.

The bus driver was the only one who wasn't participating in the photo competition of the desperate. He was leaning against the front of the bus casually, smoking a cigarette. I walked up to him and asked for directions to the White Estate. For a few seconds he stared at me. I got it. Who was I to ask for the White Estate? Dressed in an eighty dollar suit and flat heels that cost probably less than what he had in his piggy bank.

He said it wouldn't take me more than ten minutes to get to the spot, which was at the south side of the lake.

"Lake George is beautiful all year round, but this time of year is particularly pretty. Not so crowded." He took another drag on his cigarette and expelled the smoke slowly. "Are you going to meet someone there? Your boyfriend, maybe?" He winked at me.

"No." I turned around, starting to make my way back to the car. "I'm going to part with someone," I said softly.

Courtesy to the bus driver's directions I found the house easily. It was the house Maria had spent most of her summers in as a young child. The summer house of the Whites, who were good friends of the Hards family. It was where the funeral ceremony would take place.

When I approached the building, I met some of the other witches of the Force. I knew some of them from school, since me and Maria had been classmates. Other faces, however, were unfamiliar.

Brown wasn't going to attend the funeral. He had to stay in New York because of the drug case and the final preparations for the Vampire League conference. Although the Circle did not know its exact location, they had to officially permit and monitor the border crossings of probably more than two dozen powerful vampires.