Hi,

Honestly, you guys are amazing! I got so many great comments in the last few weeks, I want to use this opportunity and say "thank you"! When I started writing this story, I never thought I'd get this far. Your support and encouragement keep me going as a writer. So thank you  :-)

Okay, now back to the story. I have another question for you. Where do Anna and Alexander stand now? In a nutshell, what is happening right now?

PS: The song I chose for this chapter is one of my personal all-time favourites ;-)

Lara

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Chapter 30

Crimson District existed long before the Revelation happened. Its checkered street network had seen decades pass, before the night gave rise to the openly displayed vampirism and the new-age vamp Bohemianism New York had witnessed these past years. Back then as now people wanted to feel alive. Not surprising, in a city that lived and breathed in business with the undead.

Red-yellowish light intruded, mesmerized the darkness in the street like wafts of lingering mist. We'd reached the edges of Crimson District. Whether that was a good or bad thing we'd yet to see.

I cut myself off from magic, caught in a limbo of deprived human senses that left me blind to what was around me. I had no idea what we'd encounter.

I should be used to this by now.

It wasn't the first time I felt like a human and yet, it frightened me as much as back then. My powers had been an essential part of me for over a decade.

The air was cool on my skin, nothing more. There was no taste or life current to it. Like a wine that had lost most parts of its bouquet, flattened out into flavored water. I couldn't feel. I couldn't taste.

All I could feel was Alexander's hand in mine. His skin was cool to the touch, yet it was everything but flat or dead. Our link was stable, a thick cord that in truth did more than simply connect two auras. It was a tight merging that left no room to breathe or hide.

I tried my best to keep as much distance between us as possible, but I'd glimpsed something in those free-fall-moments after our auras became one. It was different than the first time I linked us all these months ago. I saw more.

It was like a maze of shadows and light inside a mansion that vaguely reminded me of his secret lair in the city. Music and light, silence and shadow played hide and seek within its walls. In those very few moments and seconds of truth, I saw myself running towards another door in a long line of doors. There was something behind, but before I could get there and look, another door snapped into place.

Alexander was hiding something behind that door. Something he didn't want me to know. I wondered what it was.

I shook my head. No time to worry. Not now. Keeping our auras balanced and under wraps demanded most of my attention.

I let Alexander guide me into the night blindly.

Foolish.

Maybe. But I was trying to survive. I was still alive. Maybe even because of Alexander.

The further we moved into the street the thicker the light got. Empty space and shadows filled with people and laughter. Motion crept into the haze of red-yellowish light. Alexander's hand was firm, intertwined with mine, urging me on as we made our way along the side walk.

The crowd seemed familiar, reminded me of my undercover work for the Circle. Drug dealers, runaways, teenagers too young to know they shouldn't be in this part of town, and people that just didn't care they were here.

Marked, scarred. Blinded. All of them.

The smile on my lips was bitter. And who was I to judge? No matter how, no matter why, I was here myself, after all. I was just like them. Marked, scarred and blinded. Desperate to just survive and keep breathing.

Alexander slowed, so that we were walking side by side. Like a couple taking a stroll through the city. I craned my head from left to right, seeing, feeling nothing. Just laughter and the slurred patter of voices bouncing off the walls.

Something was off. There was something different, a missing ingredient. I only noticed once we were well in the crowd. No vamps.

I narrowed my eyes. Yeah. That's it.

There were no vamps in the street. Here, in the Crimson District, at this time of night. Where were they?

"Where are the vamps?" I said softly.

Alexander didn't turn to look at me, the twitching of his fingers the only sign that he had heard me.

"Can't you guess?" He said softly, finally looking at me.

The blue in his eyes was barely contained in what might or might not have been a human shell. Underneath, the vampire was lurking, the powers that made him into who he was. I felt the power, a dark ribbon flaring up like a kindled fire.

I smoothed the creases, balanced the surging power in the mix of auras.

I exhaled and closed my eyes. My breathing slowed, almost died away in between the hiccupping scraps of sound in my ear. My heartbeat was slow and sluggish.

The vision of an abandoned mansion rose to my eyes, an apparition of that long corridor with the repetition of doors. The door that slammed shut into my face before I could catch a glimpse of it.

The slow pulse jumped like the tip of a tongue flicking behind my ear and I opened my eyes to the real world. Alexander was still looking at me.

"No," I said. "I have no idea what's going on, other than that the Raven's turned all of New York into a glorious mess."

Alexander stared at me. Motion. Not on the outside. Inside, somewhere between the auratic bond we shared.

"You would call this a glorious mess?"

His face was as it had been before, but I knew he was feeling something, tasted the emotion on my tongue.

I shrugged. "Do you have a better word for it?"

He pulled me to the left and closer to him. A group of drunk punks stumbled past us, their laughter a shrill slap slap of sound in the hurly-burly of the Crimson District. The momentum carried me forward and sent me careening into his side. Electric currents, equal to fissures, forced goose bumps on my flesh. Alexander moved on as if nothing happened.

"I do not have a better word, Anna. The situation in the city is more precarious than you think. The vampires, just like the humans, are wary of the recent attacks."

"What are you not telling me?" I said.

He smiled. "I am not the only one that is not telling. There are secrets you keep from me. Do you want to make an exchange?"

I shook my head. This was not a topic I wanted to explore. Dangerous on all levels.

"What if you get caught with me?"

"I will claim that I myself arrested you, which is why-" His hand squeezed my own. "Keep moving. Do not turn around."

I stared at this face. Garish light played over his features as we moved on, passing one of the nightclubs that promised more than music and drinks. Red neon tubes bled into the night and the air smelled of alcohol, drugs, and sweat. Hookers leaning on the wall and on lampposts, almost standing out in the crowd of people practically making out on the street.

"What the fuck man?" Someone growled from behind. Sounds of bodies hitting the asphalt.

I tensed up. I was cut off from second sight, couldn't look beyond human sight, but somehow I knew it. The Death Squad found us.

My hand tightened on Alexander's. The urge to let go of his aura vibrated in my fingertips, an eager parasite crawling under my skin, trying to break through the surface. I saw myself turning my back and check. I wanted to let the spell dissolve and slip through my fingers, just so that I could look and see what was coming our way. Count them by numbers and auras, see how they moved into the street.

I didn't dare turn.

How many?

Shadows, gliding along the corners of my eyes like mist creeping in. I shivered. Even with human senses the magic was a tangible force, dragging itself along my skin like sharp, wet nails. Something crashed and clattered on the other side of the street, another yell and a few choice words.

Run. Escape.

We needed to escape. Only where to? My eyes went from right to left as we moved forward through the crowd of people kissing, drinking, and making out on the street. We were so close to the club's walls, I could touch it if I just stretched out my hand. We could slip into the next club and-

Alexander pushed me back against the wall, looming over me like a reversed shadow.

"One of them is right behind us." His lips hovered over my earlobe. His words were barely above a whisper.

Something clattered, another yell paired with a curse.

The air vibrated with power, raised goose bumps on my skin.

"Play along," Alexander's voice rasped along my skin, barely above a whisper.

I stared at him, eyes widening. His hand came up and over my head in a lover's embrace, shielding my face from sight.

No.

Kissing him was dangerous. Dammit, any physical contact was dangerous as long as our auras were linked. It could loosen my hold over secrets and thoughts I did not want Alexander to guess, less learn. I put my hand on his elbow, squeezing.

"Is there a problem?" His mouth was hovering over my ear, voice barely above a whisper.

"I have to maintain the spell," I said tightly.

"You are not emotionally compromised. Then it should not be a problem. Unless you consider it a ... distraction." His voice was void of emotion. Practical. Efficient. "Tell me to stop and I will."

His mouth descended on mine, tongue softly against my lips, demanding entrance. My body vibrated, tingled, sliding towards the edge of a dangerous cliff. There were so many emotions inside of me, I barely knew what to do or what to think. Bone splitting anxiety. Heart racing need. Desire. Fear. Anticipation.

The taste of his lips on mine was familiar. The force of his kiss dragged me out of fear and right into desire. No escape, no way to hide with our auras linked. I could feel him there at the threshold of my mind, getting closer to my core with every heartbeat.

It should have disturbed me. Should have scared me. There was no way to deny it. Despite everything, the thought of him being that close exhilarated me with the fast rush of adrenaline in my system. I wanted this. I closed my eyes, got lost in a kiss that should have never happened.

Vision and reality dissolved. I was walking down the corridor again, lost in the forest of locked doors, knowing exactly which one I was looking for. Light flickered behind a door that stood slightly ajar. I took a step, another one. Tentative steps turned into a fast walk.

I wanted to know what was behind.

Alexander dragged me into a dangerous power game I barely understood, less knew how to play. He half forced, half talked me through the motions. Had the upper hand from the first moment. If I remained in this game, I would only do so as an equal opponent.

Either that or nothing at all.