Breathe Under Water - Shadows of the Night 1

Chapter 13

Hi!

Thanks for all the comments and for reading! I caught myself at checking wattpad almost every day for the story's latest status! Okay, so Anna will be in big trouble in this one - again. Please let me know what you think - particularly about the non-breathing kind.

Lara

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Chapter 13

I closed the door, turning in slow motion. Walking behind Corine, watching her lower her head, I felt like the human servant I clearly wasn't. I shifted my gaze. This was my chance to observe and get a better glimpse of the vampires seated around the table.

Who of you blood-sucking moguls is eager to get involved in the drug traffic in New York?

I knew that Heron had his hands in conventional drug traffic, and I had proof that his realm of influence reached well into New York. Not that that cleared him. He could still be behind the new drug, could in fact have ordered Maria's death. I was merely shelving the information for later reference.

Who else could have an interest?

Could one of these vampires be Cellini or at least an Italian? Their appearances were all I had to go with.

My eyes hovered over the long table, caught in that moment of suspension right before a rubber-band snapping.

They stayed on the vampire sitting to the right of Heron. He had long black hair, framing an androgynous face that was so pale, it made him look like a twisted porcelain doll. For the barest of moments I happened to look into the unknown vampire's eyes, dark pools of nothingness gazing back at me with a deadness that didn't leave any doubt to his nature. The vampire might have looked human on the outside; inside, however, there was a bleak desert of cruelty, of coldness I had rarely seen. My eyes shrank away from him, a human reaction I couldn't suppress.

Alexander was seated at the other side of Heron. Letting my eyes wander, I caught his gaze. I automatically dropped my eyes.

Damn. Not only that I went against vampiric conventions, I lost the opportunity to get a good view of the female vampires and the rest of the male ones. I saw enough to know Heron wasn't the only with a thing for ancient clothes. Surely there were more of the familiar lace patterns.

Another problem: How was I going to sift through a few dozen vampires, when I didn't know the first thing about who was attending? Everyone in this room could have his hands in the new drug business. And the most disturbing possibilities of all: Could Maria's murderer be attending the conference? Not as a higher ranking guest – he wasn't powerful enough for that – but as something else? Was he in fact crawling through one of the corridors in the basement in this moment?

"I didn't notice before. You have a new servant? How odd."

Heron's voice drilled into my eardrums, threatened to push that shiver I'd been trying to hide to the surface. I fought not to look at him directly, the power induced in his voice affecting my unshielded mind. It was as if it was rattling at my door, trying to break in.... into my house, my mind, my soul. It carried a sense of oldness that was unexpectedly new to me.

"Anna, come over here." Alexander's voice was authoritative and emotionless, left no doubt as to who was in control.

That he was scared me in too many ways. Fear was not going to help me now. It would make me clumsy, insecure, and unable to react.