Breathe Under Water - Shadows of the Night 1

Chapter 9

Hi!

Up next: The house of horrors... Just kidding! :P We're finally on our way to Pennsylvania. A final word of warning: things are going to get ugly in this one. Though that's probably up to interpretation. Anyway, enjoy.

Lara

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Chapter 9

I was seated in a luxury version of a black BMW X5 – complete with bling bling rims and tinted windows – on my way to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Even though Pennsylvania was still within the outskirts of Alexander's dominion, valuable information I was provided with a few days ago, the Vampire League Council meeting would be held by Heron, master vampire of the District of Columbia and parts of Virginia. It was a meeting of higher ranking American vampires of the whole United States, a meeting that initially was supposed to be held in Washington D.C. – in Heron's area.

According to Brown, the vampires decided to hold it somewhere else a few weeks ago. Apparently they wanted to keep the convention secret from the human public in particular. For reasons beyond my understanding, the vamps thought that currently Washington D.C. was a hot spot, publicity-wise. 

The convention's exact location was hidden from the magical communities and the shape shifters – not to mention the rest of humanity. Even Brown had only received the information that it would be held somewhere in Pennsylvania. Alexander had made it part of the deal not to give away any more details. What he didn't know, though, was that thanks to the human police officers smuggled into the catering service, parts of the human and magical forces knew where the undead shit would hit the fang.

As for whatever closet humbug the vampires had in mind of performing, I was neither interested, nor in a position to witness any of it. I wouldn't be allowed to attend the council meeting itself. Nevertheless, there were the 'social activities' attached to it, hosted by Heron; and that was where I came in.

As Alexander's human servant I would be able to enter almost every area. Hopefully I could find out more about the new drug and, more importantly, why Maria was killed and who was behind all this. For, whoever was, he could lead me to her murderer. I couldn't forget the flash of black in her killer's eyes, couldn't blot out the images of blood dripping from his chin. No, by the three great witches, I wouldn't rest until he had met true death.

Although Brown believed that the murderer was a vampire unknown to the Circle, I suspected that Heron himself could be connected with Maria's death somehow. Some of the crime scenes in and around Washington D.C. reeked of the vampire's handwriting, and according to rumors he was involved in drug business. However, the drug trafficking he allegedly had his hands in was 'conventional' and not what the Circle was after at the moment. Moreover, Brown admitted that the evidence Washington's CF gathered painstakingly was not enough to nail him. Why wasn't I surprised?

We were making the trip during the night, using one of Alexander's swank cars. The head vampire was sitting in the front seat, while I was trying to look inconspicuous – in other words, trying not to be there – in the backseat. A specially designed BMW X5. Were all master vampires multimillionaires?

It would take us about one and a half hours to go from New York to Pennsylvania. Ninety minutes in one and the same car with three vampires. I had already met the two additional vampires Alexander had brought along in Ryon Club, where they witnessed last night's performance test starring me and Vanessa. I felt more than uncomfortable, and it bugged me that I felt that way because ... I sighed.