Breathe Under Water - Shadows of the Night 1

Chapter 36

Hi!

Back again with a new chapter. Another one that was fun to write. Then again, all of them were, so far... ;) Okay, so, Anna and Alexander are trying to capture the Raven. Please let me know what you think about this one! Thank you all for reading and commenting!!

Lara

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Chapter 36

Another déjà vu experience I clearly didn't want to have: me and the head vampire in a car. Only this time we were alone. Nothing I could do about that. Dressed in black from head to toe, not even my proverbial war paint could save the night.

Shivering, I snuggled deeper into my black jacket to hide the small gun I carried. Guns and girls – it held connotations that went from laughable to dangerous and sexy. Let me tell you this much, I didn't feel one bit sexy. The shoulder holster chafed against the thin fabric of my spandex shirt, while the cold metal-plastic was an unpleasant and distracting sensation against my ribcage.

Alexander's voice seemed to come out of nowhere. "I think you should hide our auras now, little witch. We will be there soon."

I sighed, debating with myself whether I actually wanted to switch with one of the other Force members for this night. They were going to watch from a safe distance, but at least they didn't have to put up with the airs of the freaking prince of darkness. With a resigned shake of the head I reached out to touch his shoulder.

Swapping into second sight came as naturally as breathing to me. I'd seen it before, but the reading still made me pause for a moment. The auratic black of the head vampire was all over the car.

No way out of it now.

* * *

Alexander parked the black jeep in a side street of Chinatown. The street was empty apart from a few shabby cars parked in the same fashion as ours, squeezed in right beside the curb. My hand was on Alexander's shoulder, had been ever since I linked and hid our auras. At this point in time I wasn't sure it made the task ahead easier. Physical contact with the head vampire made me feel like walking through an electrified, life size sardine can.

We were in one of the old industrial zones, where warehouses sprouted up like mushrooms in the nineteen-nineties. The condition the houses were in, however, left no doubt that the economic situation was quite a different one these days. The building across the street was just one example of a ruined existence, a physical manifestation of financial collapse and business failure. We could have parked in the next best side street and encountered the same decay of concrete.

Walls and walls smeared with spray paint around us, loud colors local gangs left to mark their territory in this of all places. Further down the street a dark gray warehouse loomed in front of us. Rusty chains locked the entrance's wired gates, forbidding access to random passers-by – or to anyone unfortunate enough to have business being in this place. Pieces of wood and random cardboard barricaded the windows, shutting out the world. Whatever was stored in there, it was confined to rot inside safely.

I was beginning to wonder whether this place only looked like it was genuinely abandoned, or whether Alexander's informant – whoever that character was; not like the vampire told me – gave him a fat piece of nothing.

According to Alexander's informant this was the hideout of the Raven, alias Raphael Medici. Even if the information was right and it was, there was still the question whether the rogue witch was really involved in the attempted assassination of the Cellinis. Could we even proof it? I seriously doubted that the sighting of ravens close to the scene of a crime the non-vampiric population was oblivious to would tip the scales in a courtroom.