Bathe In Fire - Shadows of the Night 2

Chapter 31

Hi!

Thank you all for your comments on the last chapter. It's exciting, exhilarating, and... just awesome to hear your opinion on what I post! So, the next few chapters will be the ones I told you about before: you're up for a bumpy ride. I did my best to map this out as best as I can, and I hope you'll enjoy reading it as much as I loved writing it. Vote if you like, critique if you don't and feel like it!

Lara

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Chapter 31

My short-term sick leave from work stretched and elongated into an endless succession of minutes. Minutes that turned into hours. Hours that turned into days. I watched the ceiling in my bedroom until I recognized patterns in the white paint, sneaked out of our apartment to buy groceries we didn't really need, and fought over the full reign over the remote control with Ryan more than once.

I had too much time on my hands to stop thinking about Alexander and what he said when we last met. I remembered the timbre of his voice when he introduced the allegedly basic rules that governed our master-servant-relationship. I hadn't heard from the head vampire since then.

In fact, I was waiting for him to call. There was no way I was agreeing to this. I would remind him of that, and I would use a string of four letter words if necessary – in case he didn't get the message the first time. The silent vow I'd made to myself, however, couldn't prevent my thoughts from circling around what happened at my birthday party. It felt like I was in a limbo of boredom, tainted by compulsory, flash-like thoughts about the head vampire of New York and the hold he apparently had over me.

So, when I received a call from the TF3 headquarters four days after my birthday party, I was more than eager to leave the fortress of inaction I'd been locked in. The need to do something – anything – had turned me into a restless, grumpy zombie.

I left early and went there by car, jittery and ready for action. The glorious feeling lasted until I took my first step into the building. Entering the headquarters of the TF3 should have felt familiar to me, and yet the intimacy with the building and its security measures simply wasn't there. Something felt off about it, like my vision was narrowed and distorted. I approached the main office with painfully slow steps.

I had only been thinking about the prospect of solving the drug case, had been too excited about getting back to work to notice. There was one essential question I should have been thinking about before coming here. Should I tell my boss the truth? I was Alexander's human servant. As far as I knew the condition was a one way ticket; irreversible. Part of me simply wanted to do it because it had the nice side effect of Alexander having a hard time explaining himself. But there was another part of me that was afraid. Afraid what the vampire and the magical community would do afterwards.

The Circle would not be pleased about me being bound to the master vampire. I had no idea what their operational procedure was these days. This was the first time in history that the American magical community as a collective was not in constant war with the vamps. In fact they were putting on one hell of an effort to uphold the peace with them. Would it make any difference? Would they go as far as to lock me up? Or would I merely be an outcast? Could I risk that?

I didn't have answers to any of those questions. None. Zero. So I decided to let it go for the moment. So far, I was only supposed to be Alexander's servant for half a year – then I would be free. That was our accord. Not that I took Alexander's word at face value, but I was still hoping that I would find another way out of this. Fast.