Walk Into The Light - Shadows of the Night 6

Chapter 12

Hi,

I'm going to keep things short this week: I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, lots of presents and relaxing holidays!! Hope you like this one! :-)

Lara

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Chapter 12

The night was unnaturally quiet, as if the whole city had been caught up in a collective intake of breath – waiting for something without knowing what it was. Apart from a few late-night party-goers, the streets were mostly vacated. Most humans and witches alike tended to stay home these days. No one liked to venture out, after the rioting New York had faced these past few days.

It added to the feeling I got from this part of the city, leaving me wary and anxious. Just standing there in that street was enough to leave a lingering sense of wrongness in my bones. Repeatedly I wanted to turn and check, make sure no one was holding his hands over my ears to drown out the usual big-city-sounds I'd grown to like.

The familiar noise concert of cabs weaving their way through New York's assortment of skyscrapers and apartment towers was a low bass sound in this part of the city – faded and insignificant, as if, perhaps, the population in these quarters didn't care about modern means of transportation.

And perhaps it was precisely that. A first trip into second sight had confirmed it: This place was crawling with both humans, witches and half-witches alike, holed up in apartments. No vampires – so far, so good.

Our target was merely about three-hundred feet in front of us, visible from where we had entered the long, straight street extending towards it. The surroundings of the housing complex I'd seen in Vladislav's mind looked a little different in reality, the sense of deterioration even more palpable.

The pieces fell together like a puzzle as my eyes roamed the area. The two adjoining streets meeting to my left. Graffiti smeared walls that undoubtedly showed up on rundown shops in the ground floors of silent giants of buildings that had long passed their glory days.

This definitely was the place I had seen in one of Vladislav's paintings. My eyes found their way to the moon and the dirt-smeared light ambience of the street that was threatened by gloomy darkness. Everything was as I'd seen it in my vision – except for the bundles of smoke that had been spreading and thickening over this part of town.

Whatever Vladislav had planned, it hadn't happened yet. Of all the scenarios I'd seen in Vladislav's mind, was this the one he'd chosen to implement next?

Illusion or reality? I had no way to be sure about this, but my guts told me we were at the right place. All the other spots had been hopefully covered by someone else by now.

Hopefully.

We stopped at the end of the two adjoining streets, watching the perimeters with wary eyes. Both Giuliana and Andy had turned taciturn on our way here. They remained silent, even now. I knew why.

This part of town was populated by humans, half-witches and witches alike. Would they listen to us, if we demanded they evacuate the place?

Leave their homes because of a vision I had seen in someone else's mind that might predict their doom? A vision seen in the folds of a sharp and morally decayed mind belonging to a thousand-year-old vampire at that?

No, they wouldn't. It sounded outrageously insane, even to me.

Then there was the time factor. Whatever Vladislav was planning to do, I had this gut feeling that he was going to do something tonight. We might not even have enough time to evacuate, even if we could.