Walk Into The Light - Shadows of the Night 6

Chapter 14

Hi,

I admit it, I did it again. I left you with a cliffhanger at the end of the last chapter. Well, I'm here to confess. I did it again. Whatever you'll find between the two cliffhangers, I hope you'll like it. About the end of the chapter: Who is it? Any ideas? ;-)

Please also listen to the music, I particularly like this song and it fits the chapter well!

Lara

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Chapter 14

The devastating truth hit me as I stared down the street and mentally traced the direction I'd come from. I must have lost the pendant instants after I used the invisibility spell – that moment when I tried to avoid an orb of compressed air coming my way. I remembered how close the orb passed me, the air displacement I'd felt, thinking, damn that was close.

It probably hadn't been just a close call. It must have torn off my mother's pendant when I leaned backwards. Dammit. It was my mother's pendant, and what was more, my best means of escape.

I couldn't go back there. Not yet. The Death Squad was probably still there.

I swallowed.

Relax Anna. You got away on your feet once, you can do it again.

I could cross the Red Zone's territory and get out on the other side without anyone being the wiser – if I was smart enough to avoid trouble with stray vamps on the way.

I frowned. That was a big "if".

My cellphone vibrated in the pocket of my jeans. I lifted the hem of my jacket, about to fish it out, and froze. I turned and it happened again. The auratic landscape opened like pages of a book, turning as if moved by a ghostly, invisible hand.

Caught up in the auratic gray of my surroundings, I felt it. The constant gnawing, the silent pressure on my shoulders, the slight gray veil over my eyes I hadn't allowed myself to feel, they were there. Back again – more powerful and stronger than I remembered.

Getting stronger even still. The power of the grave reached out with a silent moan that bordered to the seductive whisper of death coming.

That could only mean one thing: he was close.

Vladislav.

The atmosphere changed with the suddenness of a nuclear attack, affecting very aspect, every plane of existence, no matter which one. Particles backed away from the massive force sweeping into the street like flocks of frightened sheep. Light slinked into corners, edged away by the ever growing faceless crowd of shadows.

This was the fabric my nightmares were made of, only it was real. The pressure was back, obliterating rational thought. All I wanted, was to get away.

Too late.

A whisper, a voice inside my head that might have been my own – or not. If not, I was in deep shit. Air came to me, a small cocoon of air particles forming a wall of air in front of me as I turned.

Auratic gray still danced in my eyes, the vision of second sight overlaying the reality I wanted, needed to see. I gritted my teeth and shook my head, fighting my way back to the real world. I had to see – both planes.

The pressure on my shoulders increased and I had the sudden urge to turn around and look.

Look I did.

* * *

I felt his approach with every breath – an increase of pressure in the back of my head. Goose bumps lifted on my skin as I turned, scanning alleys and dark byways that were littered with smaller dangers and shadows. I'd pick them over Vladislav any night.