Walk Into The Light - Shadows of the Night 6

Chapter 28

Hi,

Okay, I'm overwhelmed by all the responses and the support I got this week. Even if I couldn't answer each single comment, please know that I'm really grateful for your support! I'm happy to have you as my readers!

Enough said, I hope you like this week's chapter! :-)

Lara

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Chapter 28

Humans tend to go for extremes, risking life and limb just to feel alive. It's all about the adrenaline, the rush and the moment. Not so vampires.

Even in my short time as a member of the undead, I knew. There was no need to go out on a limb. We were living in a giant cage of extremes.

* * *

The factory wasn't far from Alexander's secret lair. I knew, I actually paid attention. After the dullness of my "chamber" with its repetitive fleur-de-lis pattern – without realizing myself – I had been eager to get out and see something else.

As a human, I might have passed the old cement factory without a second thought. Not so as a newborn vampire. The building was an architectural bouquet of concrete cylinders and scaffolds mantling the main building. Steel pipes dug into the construction like claws, as if they might help nature speed on the slow decay.

There were a number of walls that had been defaced with graffiti – small acts of vandalism that seemed nothing compared to what I'd seen in the Crimson District. The company must have closed down only a few years ago.

The sky was clearer than I'd ever seen it, stars shining with a precision and color I'd never beheld before. It seemed endless, as if I might catch a glimpse of what lay beyond its horizon, if I just looked hard enough. It was as if the world had gained another dimension, so complex and intricate, it was hard to comprehend.

The smell reminded me of damp concrete, a dull flavor that stuck to the top of my palate like a soft layer of bubble gum. I had no idea why Alexander had taken me to this place. Perhaps because it was because it was void of humans. Perhaps because it was far enough from the center of the city to not run into any other vamps.

It had been a short ride – not too far away from his lair – but sitting in the car had felt like being boxed into a sleek, moving coffin. Alexander's presence had felt like an overwhelming storm in the making.

Now that we were out in the open it was easier. I could feel more than just the abandoned factory. My senses seemingly stretched infinitely, made me want more.

Beyond the crumbling fence, beyond the factory's boundaries a city I once called mine was still busy, alive with light, laughter and voices. The city was a whole system in full operation work, gears of a giant clock, endlessly shifting, clicking into place.

Part of me wanted to go there, see it with my new eyes, no matter how cursed they seemed and at what price they came.

"Beautiful, is it not?"

The sing-song of presences, distant voices and motion stopped. Alexander's voice tore through my thoughts as if they were made of sandpaper. Perhaps some things would never change.

I turned, struck again by his overwhelming presence.

He was standing behind me, not two feet away, arms crossed in front of his chest. His eyes not up in the sky, but on me.

"Why did you bring me to this place, Alexander?"

My voice sounded different, manifesting in what I might have called an unfamiliar pitch. Or maybe it was, just like Alexander's, richer in tone. Just more.

Like everything.

For a long moment he didn't speak, just stared at me, as if he was unsure himself why he brought me here.

"You had questions and wanted answers."

"Answers? Now you're going to give me answers?"

A trickle of laughter escaped my lips. The cramps in my stomach surged with a vehemence that, for a moment, left me reeling. I fisted my hands, fingernails digging into skin.

"It will depend on the nature of the topic, Anna."

Blood hissed in my ears, a boiling teapot shrieking like a hot-headed banshee. I launched myself at him, moving through air like a flying dagger.

Time seemed to halt and move backwards, my feet carrying me forward in fast-motion. The world danced past me and suddenly I was standing at the spot Alexander had been standing in seconds ago.

I turned, found him behind me, leaning against a concrete wall twenty feet away. My feet were trembling, blood boiling and in motion.

I wanted to open my mouth, take a few gulps of air that would no longer bring the release I needed.

What the hell had I become? This was not what I wanted.

Alexander's human servant, rogue witch, Pentagram – it felt like I was sinking, sinking deeper, no matter how much I tried to get myself out of this mess.

I was ready to sacrifice myself when I fought Bathoryn... and Vladislav. I was okay with it.

I'm not okay with this.

Alexander's face carried no longer the familiar taste of blandness. The change was fractional, might have been lost on the old, human me. Whether intentional or not, the corners of his mouth had lifted.

"Why did you do it? Why did you turn me into a vampire?"

The words tumbled out of my mouth. Whisper. Prayer. And accusation.

Wind drove through the cylindrical towers, evoking a small sound concert in the factory a horde of ghosts might have made.

Alexander didn't move, didn't speak.

"Is this indeed the question you want answered most, Anna?"

Another non-answer. Was this just another move on that big chess board his whole world was spun up on? Had I been just another chess piece he was now toying with?

"You knew. You had to know what turning me meant. What it would do to me."

Ghost memories of a long-gone night in Italy rose to the surface. All those years ago, when I lost everything in a single night – before I'd even crossed the doorstep to adulthood. Whispers, screams and the hypnotic set of dark, almost black eyes spun and twisted into a crescendo.

In the end I had been turned into what killed my parents. No matter when, no matter how. No matter where I turned, there were no answers.

I took a step forward, hands fisted, fingernails digging into and breaking skin.

"Answer me, Alexander!"

The edges of his mouth dropped as his face smoothed back into the bland version he used for political opponents, or whenever he wanted to hide something.

His hands dropped to his sides, the motion slow and deliberate.

"Yes, I knew."

I launched myself forward, tearing through the night sky, topping whatever speed-records I had set as an air witch.

Alexander vanished before I could reach him, but this time I saw the motion.

This time I was goingto get all the answers I wanted. I no longer had to play by human rules.