Bathe In Fire - Shadows of the Night 2

Chapter 1

Hi!

I wanted to thank you for your comments and your amazing support for the final chapters of Breathe Under Water, so I decided I'll pull an all nighter (or something coming close to it) to post faster this week. So, this is it: chapter one of Bathe In Fire, book 2 of Shadows of the Night! I hope you like it and as always comments and criticism are welcome. Let me know what you think.

Lara

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Chapter 1

I watched them patiently, hiding in the shadows. At this rate they'd get completely wasted before midnight. Not that this was any news to me. I had been watching their likes repeatedly for over two weeks now, roaming Crimson District's streets restlessly. And yet I always came back to this place, drawn to Tamurè Club like a moth to the flame.

From punk kids to leather-clad, though guys to innocent-looking girls – I had seen it all. No matter what day of the week, no matter how late, show up they would. Oh, and not alone. Never alone. In twos and threes. Mass consumerism reached into drug business and well beyond it.

The night was quiet, the noise of the busy streets far far away from us. We were in one of the back alleys, not far from where she died. Maria. I closed my eyes for a moment. Why couldn't I stop? The odds were against me. Not even the Force had been able to locate Thomas Burke yet. But the knowledge that the vampire who killed Maria was still somewhere in New York, somewhere out there, drove me into the streets; still hungry for vengeance; still yearning for retributive justice.

I sensed it, more than saw it. They appeared out of nowhere. Like they always did. I tensed, pressing my back against the wall behind me. The group of vampires moved into the street swiftly, inhumanly fast, parted darkness with their shiny, pale skin effortlessly. At first the bunch of kids I had been watching didn't even notice, too pumped with drugs and alcohol, their minds chasing after things that were not really there. The vampires were very real, however. Three, all clad in black. They stood before the group of junkies silently, staring at them without moving.

The boy with the black leather jacket noticed them first, blinking up at their figures with glazed eyes. His hair was disheveled, legs outstretched in front of him limply. By all appearances leather boy didn't care that he was sitting right beside someone else's spew.

"Hi there!" He raised his beer bottle to them, before turning to his seemingly oblivious peers. "Hey guys, we got company!"

One after the other the humans shifted their gazes lazily, taking in the newcomers with dilated pupils. One of the girls stepped forward awkwardly, as if she had lost the power to control her limbs, and twisted a finger through her long hair. I frowned. Either her last dye job had gone wrong or she had a penchant for neon pink. I didn't know what shocked me more, her hair color or the fact that she looked like she hadn't passed her sixteenth birthday yet.

"You wanna hang out with us?" She said, her words slurry and slow.

Shadows played chase with a deeper, more profound darkness that seemed to linger in those small alleyways and side streets. The light of the streetlamp further down the alley was small and faint. The first vampire moved forward, right into the shaft of light, slapping on a dark, sardonic smile. Dark hair was tied into a bundle of strands that trailed down his back, straight and unmoving, as if it wasn't something organic, something that could be cut by scissors. His eyes were two dark pools of nothingness, his whole demeanor displaying that which shouldn't even be named. The essence of the vampire. The ultimate predator.

"Actually, we had something else in mind," he said slowly, cocking his head. "How about having a drink?" The quality of his voice had changed into a siren song I was already familiar with. I narrowed my eyes. He was using compulsion.