Hi!
So Andy's about to step into the lion's den - if you can call it that... In the last chapter Andy said he had "a score to settle" with Alexander. Before you read this - can anyone guess what exactly he was referring to?
Thank you all for reading and for the many comments! Even though I can't answer every single one, I read them all and I love them :-)
Lara
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Chapter 48
ANDY
We ended up in the back of the club, where the waitress showed me through a door. It led to a long corridor that seemingly ended in black â the illusion was perfect. I could have believed I was walking into a pit of darkness. The barmaid closed the door behind me and the music of the club was gone.
I was as good as sealed off from the rest of Ryon Club. Not even a dull vibration or faint bass sound. All that was left was a memory, an intuitive knowledge that somewhere in the club music was still playing. My ears tingled, as if caught up in a sensation of phantom pain.
I stilled. I wasn't alone. A figure was leaning against the wall, arms crossed under his chest. Blond hair, short and messy. Skinny in the way athletes are, or maybe someone who was used to fighting â sans heavy muscle. Skin so white, he might have passed as a newly turned vamp. He blinked. The motion was slight, but it betrayed his nature. No need to go into second sight.
Definitely human. A vamp would have stared at me without blinking.
The human male regarded me with wary, forbidding brown eyes. "He's been expecting you. He has a guest right now but it won't take long."
"Thanks, Mr. ..."
He smiled, like a dog baring its teeth. "Jack. Let's leave it at that."
The black curtain behind him moved and out stepped a blond twenty something. Hair in a messy ponytail, eyes wide like a deer caught and trapped in headlights. She looked like a junkie that had kicked heroin and crashed, crashed real hard. The vampire coming out behind her appeared like a second shadow glued to her back.
"Escort her out, Jack," the vampire said.
The Scottish accent was not as thick as I remembered last time. And I wondered why. Butterscotch eyes settled on me, packing a slight, but controlled power punch. I knew who he was: George Rider, Alexander's enforcer. Swell, just swell.
"George," I nodded to him as a way of greeting.
"Varner," he said and turned. His red hair was in a thick braid, low down his back, swinging with the motion. "You can come in now," he said, his back still to me.
I took one step, then halted and turned around. Jack was leaving with the blond girl, fingers tight around her elbow. Had I just missed Alexander feeding on a human? A very weak human that looked more dead than alive? I shoved myself into second sight and faltered in my next step. The girl's aura was half red and half black.
What the fuck was a rogue witch doing in here?
"You comin? Or do you need a bloody invitation?" George said from behind the curtain.
I flexed my hands and rolled my shoulders.
Show time.
I lifted the oily, black curtain and stepped through.
The Blue Room was called that for a reason. The color wound its way through every part and aspect of the room. An assortment of futuristic blue furniture and tidy cushions. Blue colored fake rose bushes at the back. Neo-kitsch and futuristic design, distracting from the real danger.
George moved in behind me and walked to the right side of the room. With his arms crossed underneath his chest he was leaning against the wall like a walking, talking statue going back into utter stillness. The head vampire was seated on what might have been a big bed or couch in the center of the room. It was an unusual way to meet business partners. I was pretty sure he was doing it on purpose.
His posture was relaxed and yet... His black hair was slicked back, not a hair out of order, not a lint on his tailored white shirt. Alexander was good as far as military strategies went; fooling his opponents into believing he was relaxed and not ready to strike in case they showed weakness. All for show, but damn effective. In this room Alexander was the one calling the shots. I'd be stupid to forget that.
Blue eyes that watched me approach with a bemused expression.
"Mr. Varner," he said.
I came to a halt in front of the bed-couch. "What are you doing with a rogue witch in your club?"
Alexander smiled faintly. "An informant, of a kind. Why don't you take a seat."
Not a question but a command. My fingers twitched, arms loose at my sides. In here the head vampire was king. I remained where I was.
Bring it on, Alexander.
"You set me up," I said.
He cocked his head. "Set you up, how?"
"You sent me to places Anna was least likely to go into hiding. On purpose."
"Mr. Varner, it is in my best interest to find her as fast as possible. Explain to me why I would ask for your assistance, if I had the ability to tell where she was?"
I smiled at him. You got it all figured out, don't you?
"Now, to what honor do I own your call?" Alexander said.
"I met Anna, just now," I said.
The head vampire stilled. If possible at all, he was a statue in this moment more than ever.
"Elaborate," he said softly.
I recounted what happened, but left out the part where I let Fabrice bite me and tried to read his mind. No need to give the head vamp information that could compromise me, or Anna for that matter.
"She was using dark magic. It was just like the night Victor's coven house was attacked, when I found her in that street. Her eyes were vacant. Just empty. I tried talking to her, but..." I shook my head. "It was like I couldn't get to her, at all."
For a long moment Alexander didn't move, or breathe. "Are there any precedents for a witch coming back from being rogue? Any precedents you know of?"
I clenched my jaw. "It's one of the taboo topics in our society. The Circle gets tight-lipped whenever it comes up. Why teach young witches how to get out of an addiction you shouldn't even develop to begin with? The Circle has a zero tolerance policy whenever someone goes rogue."
Alexander didn't look remotely surprised. My mind flashed back to the rogue witch walking out of his establishment a few minutes ago. How much did the head vamp already know?
Alexander stared at me for a long moment. "There are different theories in the magical community about the form and nature of Spirit. From what I could gather, the more Anna uses this fifth element, dark magic as you call it, the more she will become like a rogue. The more she uses it, the more she will crave it like a drug addict. We need her to stop using it, to let go of the dark magic as a whole."
So that was why he had entertained a rogue witch. One step ahead. Always. If it wasn't Alexander I might have mentally saluted him.
"You are not the only one that met Anna," he said softly.
My eyes snapped to his, meeting them head on. "What? When?"
"That is irrelevant. When I did meet her, she was eager to obtain a diary by a witch named Elena Larosa." He paused, watching me with the eyes of a psychologist waiting for his patient's reaction. "Fragments of this diary are in my possession â nothing more than photocopies. It seems the diary contains parts of magical theory that we cannot make much sense of."
"Let me guess. You want me to decipher it for you?" I narrowed my eyes. How much did Alexander really know?
"I want you to decipher it for the sake of Anna," Alexander said. "For a reason unknown to us, she needed the diary. I want to know why."
The weight of his eyes was crushing. For a moment I saw myself nodding in agreement, caught up in an out of body experience. I shook myself, lowering my gaze to a spot south of his eyes. The power of the grave â Alexander had tons of it. I'd done this dance before, with Fabrice. I knew what I was doing.
I smiled, showing teeth. "I'll work together with you if that's what it takes to get her back, but if you try to mind-fuck me again, Alexander, I'm out of here."
His lips lifted. A miniscule motion with great impact. "Let us be clear about one thing, Varner. I do not like you. And I do not like you in Anna's vicinity. After we are done with this, you will neither approach me, nor Anna." His voice was soft, yet racing on a razor edge. "I know you believe that you are the good character in this stage piece. Frankly, I do not care who or what you are. You will help me retrieve Anna. And then you will leave."
"Not on the table, Alexander," I said. "I think it will be for Anna to decide if she wants to see me or not. What's in it for you anyway?"
He leaned back. "I need her to function."
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"
Function? What for?
The way he sat there, he might have been a general whispering orders to armies. Or moving chess pieces stealthily from one end of the board to the other.
"The only question that should be of importance to you is, if you want to help Anna or not," Alexander said. "Will you, or will you not cooperate?"
I ran a hand through my hair. Damn the great three witches. He had me over a barrel and he knew it.
Fuck this.
"Fine. We have a deal," I said through gritted teeth.
I was going to get Anna back, if I had to collaborate with the devil in person.
The weight of his gaze intensified, as if someone had added a few weights on my shoulders.
"I want full disclosure, Varner."
Just like Fabrice, the head vampire knew more about shady deals and tricky promises than all seasoned politicians in the state together.
"On the condition that you give me access to all the information you have," I said.
He smiled lazily. "You will translate the diary for me and in exchange I will give you all the hiding places Anna used in the past few weeks. That is what I am willing to trade in."
I stilled. He knew where Anna had been hiding? How could he know that?
Wrong as it sounded, I would have to trust the head vamp. For now.
"Agreed," I finally said.
A shift in reality. Something was approaching from behind.
Zack, Alexander's second in command appeared beside the head vampire. His voice was so low it barely made a sound at all. Alexander stilled, his face bland and void of reaction. Did anything make him feel something at all?
"My second in command will escort you, so you can have a look at the diary in private."
Zack appeared at my side, grinning. "Come with me. Drinks are on the house."
I was pretty sure Alexander was trying to get rid of me, probably so he could meet an important business partner he didn't want me to know of. I wondered just who that was.
The smart thing would be to stall, stay and see who was coming. And yet, being smart in front of Alexander could get me killed. Besides, I needed to figure out why Anna had wanted the diary so badly.