Walk Into The Light - Shadows of the Night 6

Chapter 13

Hi,

This will be the last chapter for this year - can you believe it? It's number thirteen and well, it proves to be an unlucky number for Anna...

Out with the old, in with the new: may you be happy the whole year through. Happy New Year to all of you!

Lara

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Chapter 13

Small, almost insignificant patches of red, there one second, gone the next.

Not now.

By all rights the Death Squad should have been in the center of the city, helping the Circle defend their headquarters from the real danger. Why did they have to show up here and now?

They had to have been looking for me, or else they couldn't have found me that fast, even with the kind of spell we just performed. The spell we used was destined for the undead and while witches might pick up on it, it was far from the blinking neon-sign, say a null bomb would have caused in the auratic surroundings of the place.

Fight or flight – the answer came instantaneously. My feet started moving on their own, boots pounding on patches of cracked pavement. Wind brushed my eyes and cheeks as I burst into the street to my left, away from the pulsing half-dome we'd drawn over the housing complex.

Ribbons of red to my right, fading lighting fast. Then to my left. I saw them from the corner of my eyes, pulse hammering in my ears in a frantic arrhythmic sequence, my mind racing. That I'd gotten away last time was sheer dumb luck.

This time their approach wasn't following the rules they'd used last time – no systematic circling in from all sides. It seemed, in fact, not to follow any rules at all. I drew up walls of air around me, breathing hard as I sped down the street.

What the hell was I sup-

Their figures appeared in a flash, holograms coming to life in less than a second, blocking my way. I came to an abrupt halt, eyes wide.

Four men and two women lined up in front of me, all of them dressed in black. Elite witches that for some reason had turned down offered positions within the Circle and chosen the life of bounty hunters. Scratch that, they'd somehow made it into the most exclusive line of career among witches I'd ever heard of. How skilled and powerful did you have to be to join them?

I swallowed. With the witches in front of me, the only fast exit I could think of for now was moving backwards – running back towards the housing complex cocooned in a spelled dome behind me.

Their leader was standing in their midst, arms lose at his sides – ready for an attack, if necessary. With the buzz cut and the set jaw O'Donnel's face might have belonged to a determined, experienced army general shortly before declaring war.

His brown eyes bored into me with unguided contempt. Andy had told me O'Donnel's success rate was 98 percent. Had my repeated, narrow escapes ruffled his feathers?

"You've given us quite a run for our money, but that ends tonight. Right here", O'Donnel said.

I licked my lips, mind racing. Which exit strategies did I have left? Would the truth work and would they even believe me? It was worth giving it a shot.

"Listen, there's a thousand-year-old-vampire rampaging the city. I have to stop him", I said.

O'Donnel smiled. It was the mocking smile of a shark in disguise.