Drown Under Earth - Shadows of the Night 3

Chapter 42

Hi!

I know I have a lot to make up for, so I tried really really hard this time. You'll get a super-long chapter, and, man, things are happening in this one! I hope you like it! Thank you all for reading :-)

Lara

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Chapter 42

I glanced at my watch nervously. Again. Another nervous tick I seemed to have picked up that night. Sighing, I commenced my prance again, walking up and down the dirty pavement in front of the apartment building. I had been doing that one-man show for fifteen minutes. It was already eleven. I was supposed to meet Alexander in the Blood Line Hotel in thirty minutes to take him to a still unknown place that the Raven had chosen as the head vampire's future gravesite.

The sidewalk was practically void of people – apart from one man in a trench that gave me a funny look in passing. And that was about ten minutes ago. My eyes went up to the faint light coming from our flat again, then shifted to take another nervous look at the sidewalk below.

Where the hell are they?

I scanned the street in the same manner I had done about half a minute ago. Nothing. I rolled my shoulders nervously. My shoulder holster was starting to chafe. If I was lucky, the rogues wouldn't pat me down before I lured Alexander to his supposed execution place. Scratch that. If I was lucky, I wasn't going to have to use my gun in the first place.

Someone cleared their throat behind me. I whirled around, eyes widening.

Medici had gone into overkill mode. This time he sent five examples of his endless repertoire of rogues. And they were all walking straight up to me. I realized with a growing lightheadedness that Goth kiddo – or Justin as I learned – was present as well. He was dressed in the same manner I had seen him the last time we met. He had gone for a black hoody with a different front print this time, though. My ensuing mental shrug was entirely private and probably not the reaction of a sane person, but, dammit, I needed to put on a calm front.

"Hey there," an unknown, male rogue witch said coolly. As if we were meeting for something as mundane as going to the movies.

I watched them approach me with wary eyes. As soon as the group had reached me, Justin moved forward and handed me a syringe, the liquid inside of a gray, almost-glowing color. I stared at the thing before looking up at him, puzzled.

"Raphael says to inject the head vamp once you're in the middle of the park," Justin said.

"Why would I..."

Then it dawned on me. A shot of silver nitrate for the head vampire of New York? That complicated things a bit. No, that fucked things up in a big, epic, shitty way. I felt cold sweat creep through my pores up to the surface and tried to pretend my system wasn't rocked with small doses of sickness. I had to be convincing, even if I couldn't convince myself. If they as much as suspected anything, I would be dead. And so would Alexander.

I huffed in frustration, giving Justin a look. "And how the hell am I supposed to do that? He's a vampire with inhuman reflexes, for magic's sake!"

"Not our problem. We'll be watching, though. If you don't manage to do it the deal's off," another rogue said and sneered.

Peachy.

"Fine," I snapped. "You mentioned something about a park? Which one?"

"Boyd Park," Justin said. "You'll bring Alexander to the center, right in front of the obelisk. Be there at midnight."