Breathe Under Water - Shadows of the Night 1

Chapter 23

Hi!

I'm back with a new chapter. I won't have access to internet next week, so I thought I'd post now... :)  I hope you like the way the story is developing. I mean, it's in your hands: Tell me this sucks and I'll change it (maybe, mouhaha!). This time you'll get to know a bit more about Anna's past. Read, post, vote! Thanks for reading guys!

Lara

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Chapter 23

In retrospect, sneaking out was probably not the wisest thing to do. Not when my stomach still hurt. Not with everything that happened last night.

But there I was, standing on the terrace that belonged to the mansion of a freaking head vampire that could have snuffed me out without blinking. And the punch line was that Heron wasn't the only potential candidate. If Alexander found out that I had left our room without his 'permission', I would be in real trouble.

And yet, I couldn't help thinking that it was totally worth it. This was real. The wind tossed hair into my face, toying with it like it was a falling leaf, but I didn't care. I breathed in cool night air, beginning to feel more like myself again. The tension left me in gradual, almost rhythmic, waves.

Thoughts about what it had felt like standing on the terrace with Jake penetrated my mind.

The view had been very different in sunlight. Now, with the oncoming dark, it seemed eerie. The shadows seemed to stretch and elongate under my steady gaze. It could have been my imagination, but the absence of movement, of life, was palpable. Trees and bushes, plants and small pathways – the areal was less tended to than your usual formal garden, had a wild, hostile feel to it.

By now I had almost convinced myself that the strange thoughts in my head had just been a part of the injury's nasty aftershock, redoubled by Alexander's blood. Nothing more than a little blood-induced compulsion from your friendly neighborhood vampire. Right.

It was disturbing that I had actually wanted to touch a vampire, wrong on so many levels, I couldn't even begin to recount them. It must have been a side effect of having swallowed his blood. Before, I couldn't get away from the corpse fast enough.

The calming effect of the solitude reversed, backfired, as I realized that I was all alone. Hadn't I been all along?

How would she have handled the situation? The smile came without me consciously noticing. Maria would have gone in there and blown away those undead suckers without breaking into a sweat. She would probably have figured everything out on the first night. And she'd have tried to catch the murderer not out of revenge, but because it was the right thing to do.

Staring into the night-sky, I remembered the day we truly became friends.

* * *

I walked away from them, climbing the small rocks without turning around. I didn't stop until I stood on that cliff I'd seen from the shore, high up above the beach, the lighthouse behind me. Kudos to whoever had come up with the idea of coming to Montauk. The view was breathtaking. The shrill laughter of one of my female class mates broke through the sound of slapping waves.

Add a bunch of graduating witches and the fact that they just tackled the last round of their final exams and you have your recipe for disaster, I thought, grinning.

Somehow, without me noticing it, Maria appeared beside me.

"Stunning, isn't it?"

I simply nodded. We stood there in silence for a few minutes before she spoke again.

"It's in these moments that I feel most alive. It feels like no matter what happens to me, if I know I can return to a place like this, I know I'll be alright." She paused for an instant. "Okay, did that sound as weird as I think it did?"