Hi,

I'm back! :-)

I promised you an extra-long chapter. Well, here it is!!! I hope you all like it.

Lara

____________________________________________________________

Chapter 11

I pressed my back to the wall, peering into the poorly-lit hallway. Slipping out Leonhard Goshanger's office without being detected was difficult enough. Whatever else this hellhole of mansion had to offer, it was going to be even tougher. If I wanted to escape, I'd have to do it the old-fashioned way and get out through the front door.

If Sonya's words could be trusted, she had led the vamps to the back of the mansion. No, I was sure that she saw me when she was searching the office. She was giving me a chance to get out of the mansion. I had no idea why she was helping me, but I wasn't going to let that gift horse go.

All I had to do was tackle the main hall and get past whoever was guarding the door. And I had to do it before the witch set up the wards again. I could only hope that Sonya was taking her time and that Alexander and his entourage of vamps were coming along to make sure she didn't hoodwink them.

The great hall looked empty, gave off the sense of abandonment. I crossed it swiftly and moved past another row of ancient paintings that reeked of violence in long gone times.

Almost there.

Just a few rushed footsteps that would bring me to the front door, and to safety. I was so busy scanning the space in front of me for threats, I almost bumped into the door that seemed to magically open in front of me. Out stepped George and Alexander. I froze, remained still, forced down that violent beating in my chest.

"You know," Alexander said. He stopped in front of the door, turning to his enforcer.

A non-committal grunt from George, so soft, it might have been part of my imagination, or nothing at all.

"The most likely scenario is that someone let them in," the head vampire said. "If it was a vampire, it was someone from the inside. Must have been. None of the other coven leaders would have gotten into the heart of this compound. Leo was a recluse. If he entertained guests other than me, he always met them downstairs."

"What about Anna? You think she's telling the truth? That she didn't know the Raven killed them?" George said. "I don't trust her."

"She better be telling us the truth. If not she will regret it," Alexander said.

George's eyes narrowed. "You think she's involved."

Time seemed to unhinge. Alexander went still the way a predator stills before the kill.

"I implied that I suspected the murderer was the Raven. She denied it," Alexander said. Life was breathed into him and he turned.

Blue eyes.

My heart faltered. He was almost looking at me. I stared into his eyes, met a two-thousand-yard stare head on. An abyss of secrets, ancient knowledge, and maybe death. Suddenly it was hard to breathe. In a second Alexander would walk right past me. If the spell held.

George followed him. The enforcer's arms loose at this sides, swinging. I wasn't fooled by the gesture. Something about the way he moved told me he was more than tense. Ready for a fight, or an enemy, should he try to attack his head vampire.

"You think she really went over?"

They walked past me, so close I could have touched them if I took a step away from the wall.

A muscle in Alexander's jaw flexed. "I do not know."

"If she truly went over, it would make her one of the biggest threats we're facing," George said. "She knows too much."

Long silence. A sound, similar to the shuffle of feet, as if the head vampire was hesitating. "Killing one of my own and in my territory is something I cannot tolerate as head vampire. If she had a hand in it..."

"What will you do?"

"No matter how, no matter who, I will protect my territory. If need be, I will terminate the threat myself," Alexander said softly.

For a second I forgot how to breathe. Thoughts fled from my mind, vanished in the wake of a terrorizing echo.

I will terminate the threat myself.

The words repeated themselves in my head, spun and twirled in a deathly waltz. The translation was easy enough. If Alexander found proof that I was a traitor, he would kill me. Just like that.

"How are we going to find her this time?" George said.

"Finding the Inri Brotherhood is our priority. Once we do locate Medici, we will also find Anna. Before someone else does," Alexander said.

I closed my eyes and pressed myself into the wall, willing myself into non-existence.

If I had a spell to make me invisible forever, I would take it. Right here, right now.

* * *

I felt cold, numbed to the core. The exit was heavily guarded. Four stony-faced vamps guarding the front door and one human that looked more like thug than servant. Now that the vampires knew the wards had been breached and that the security system was down, they were apparently more than on the alert. An army of ghosts couldn't have entered undetected.

I tried to think past the lightheadedness that had begun to settle. I was drained. It took all I had to keep a hold of the magic and remain invisible – I had to walk out on my feet. Maybe I couldn't even do that. I leaned against the wall for support. Sweat stuck to the back of my neck, my breath coming in short gasps. Either I thought of something and got out now, or they were going to notice my presence.

Think, Anna, think!

I stared at the four guards. The door was closed. If I opened it they would notice. And even if it was open, chances of me slipping out and past them without physically touching one of them were zero.

It happened without the slightest hint of a warning. The sound hit first, then I felt it. The ground moved, the foundations of the mansion shaking with what could have been the first repercussions of a small earthquake. But no, it was something else. An explosion somewhere close by.

The vamps stirred, then blurred into hyper-speed, bolting out the door. The human followed. I blinked. The door to freedom, my freedom, was clear.

I shoved myself forward, forced my feet to take a step, then another, then another. If I didn't move, I was going to die. Night air filled my lungs.

I stepped out of the mansion and into chaos. Somewhere, maybe two streets over, maybe less, a plume of smoke made its way up into the night sky, blending with the darker parts above – those that weren't illuminated by half-broken street-lamps.

Blurs of shadows in front of the mansion. Shouts from the mansion. The vamps were in the middle of regrouping, and that meant Alexander would be here soon. I had to get away dammit.

I forced my feet back into motion, hastened my steps, eager to get away from the place. The magic wavered, flickered – like a candle stirred to a wild, angry jet of flame.

I stared at my hands with layers of reality swimming in front of my eyes. The spell was coming apart. Crap. I broke into a run. Glass shattered under my boots.

I was past caring. I kept moving forward in a daze – until I stumbled into the arms of something big.

"About time. You messed that one up." Heavy-muscled arms grabbed my shoulders.

I looked up, blinking. It felt like my whole body had been forced through a meat grinder.

"Girl, your nose is bleeding. Fuck! What did you do?" Walter was shaking me.

I made it out. I was safe. Hysterical laughter bubbled up and died inside my mouth. Saved by the Inri Brotherhood.

The last thing I saw before I lost consciousness was a twisted, fuzzy vision of Walter's face. The last thought stayed with me though.

The Inri Brotherhood came back for me.

* * *

I was out for half a day and woke up in a make-shift bed that could have belonged to a hot-sheet hotel or a brothel. At least I didn't have to go through another whack trip via portal. I was told the nose-bleeding stopped a while ago, but I still felt like shit.

"Are you completely out of your mind?"

The words didn't match the voice. The Raven sounded far too calm. It made me uneasy. Made me wonder if it was one of those days again. Raphael Medici could be a sharp-witted genius one instant, then hours later he was the rambling madman he was rumored to be, meeting every cliché of the dark-magic-tainted lunatic there was in the book.

"Not only that you put the whole mission in jeopardy, you ended up aborting without the information you were supposed to retrieve," he said. "I wanted to know what Alexander knows about the murders, not two vampire underlings that hardly can put two and two together."

His hands were laced behind his back, the telltale sign that he was unhappy. He was wearing a white shirt. No jacket. The look in his light-brown eyes was dangerous, told tales of a fragile, unstable mind.

"When you sent us there, you knew the risk. You knew I might not be able to keep up the spell long enough," I said.

He was in a foul mood, again. And it didn't escape my attention that some of the Inri Brotherhood members that used to guard me were missing. Again. No one ever talked about it. No one explained. But I knew it was happening. They died.

I kept telling myself it was in combat. The longer I stayed with the rogues, the more I believed I was wrong. I saw what dark magic did to them. It took its toll.

Maybe I didn't want to know about it.

I licked my lips. I was going to do it. Toe that line in the sand and voice what I was thinking.

"You were ready to sacrifice us, just like that. Not that that's news to me, but don't go bitching about things you knew might happen."

I wasn't going to tell him that I deliberately went into Goshanger's office and that I suspected the 'mission' was another one of his tests. If it was, it threw up a hell of a lot more questions than I liked. He knew the risk when he sent me into the mansion.

If Alexander got his hands on me and decided to play a question and answer game according to his standards, I might have given up every single detail of my stay with the Inri Brotherhood. Raphael wouldn't risk exposing delicate information. That in turn meant I hadn't gotten around to learning the important stuff yet, and I wasn't even talking about the question of who murdered the vamps.

I knew about the null bombs, his quest to know what was going on in the city and with the vamps, and his supposed master-plan to use it as a diversion to further his own goals. So, what else was there to learn?

Information about the Raven's diversionary tactics wasn't really what I'd been looking for. The only thing that could really harm him was my knowledge about the Inri Brotherhood's secret hideouts. I turned the thought over in my mind, stunned by the conclusion I came to. It could harm him .... unless-

I blinked. Unless the information would soon no longer matter. The Raven was planning something, something big. And by the looks of it, it would happen soon.

I had to know what.

"Besides, we did learn something you can and should use," I said coolly.

I wasn't going to tell him about my run-in with the head vamp and what I overheard in the mansion, but I was going to give him something. See if it would get me anywhere.

"And what would that be?" He said.

"Alexander wanted to keep the murder incident under wraps. Why? To avoid another conflict between the races? I don't think so. Whatever Alexander does, he only does it if and when it benefits him in one way or the other. Portraying vamps as the victims? He could definitely gain something from it, but, and this is the stunner, he was very clear on this when he gave orders to his underlings. He didn't want anyone else to know how exactly Goshanger died."

Medici stared at me. "I've been playing this game long enough to know that knowledge is power, Anna Johnson. So does the head vampire."

"Whoever killed that vamp could be a serious threat to Alexander and his territory," I stated.

Now I was trying to test him, gauge Medic's reaction and see if he was lying or not.

The Raven's expression morphed to one of disgust. "Why are you telling me things we already know?"

I sighed. "Because I got a reading from the crime scene, and whoever wielded the magic – I think he or she wasn't strong enough to go against Goshanger alone," I said, gauging his reaction.

Was he acting? Was it really not a rogue witch, but someone, something else?

He narrowed his eyes. "Elaborate. What exactly did you see?"

"A half witch, most likely," I said slowly.

"There's more," Medici said in a low voice.

His gaze didn't waver. Light brown color that was washed out, and yet oddly obscure. I wondered who I was currently facing. Half mad rogue or cold-blooded, rational strategist?

Maybe a little of both.

Upon my continued silence, he raised an eyebrow. "Are you telling me you believe it was someone from the Bloody Warden?"

Chris Hayes' group of half witches. Could it have been one of them? I stared back, remembering the small army of auratic black mixed with red.

"I don't know," I said.

It could have been a dark witch. Or a half-witch. I just couldn't be sure. Who or whatever it was, it meant that the head vampire was in trouble. It meant someone could have let the murderer in. It meant Goshanger himself could have invited him or her in.

I didn't know if any of it was the case, but there's one thing I was pretty sure of: the witch that killed Goshanger was probably accompanied by vamps. If that was the case, we were not just talking about a bunch of vamp underlings. Whoever came with the magic user had power.

I had a hunch, a tight knot that convulsed in my core like a spreading disease. By the three great witches, I hoped I was wrong. Because I couldn't think of many scenarios that involved a half-witch or rogue working together with a vamp. Not in this city. If it wasn't the Raven and if that logic was to be followed, it meant things might have shifted.

What if it was someone from Alexander's inner circle? What if it was one of the coven leaders? If it was someone from the inside, it flung the door to possibilities wide open – possibilities that might well turn out to be my worst nightmare.