Hi!

Sorry for the late update! Here's the next chapter :-)

Anna working together with the Inri Brotherhood, or not? Is this bound to end in chaos? And, who do you think killed Leonhard Goshanger? I hope you enjoy this one! :-)

Lara

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Chapter 9

This was a spell I hadn't put to the test yet – at least not without Giuliana's guidance and advice. Saying the words without my godmother at my side scared me. It was that hole in my stomach, that empty space that seemed to grow with each step I took in what I felt was the wrong direction.

I took a deep breath, called my magic to me.

I rifled through the auras of the brothers and mine, working them, reshaping. Particles aligned, readjusted, changed color in the auratic framework.

Auram te laudo. Aura veni, auxilium per occulere desidero.

Magic raced through me, burned and fried my mind to the point of total annihilation.

I took the pain, gasping, fighting my way through it. Together our auras winked out of existence, taking flesh and bones with them.

I did it.

I performed an invisibility spell – highly illegal in New York and the rest of Northern America, but highly effective. I stared at the brothers, saw their faces and outlines as if through a veil. Only the three of us would be able to see each other. No one else, neither human, nor vampire, would be able to see us or sense our auras.

The only question was how long it would hold. Or rather, how long I'd be able to hold it.

* * *

We slipped through heavily ornamented corridors, walked past dark paintings that told tales of bloodshed and power struggles, tip-toed on soft dark-green carpet with our breaths held. I craned my head from time to time. No surveillance cameras, no motion detectors, no nothing. Apparently Goshanger invested more into furnishing than security.

Good for us. We needed every advantage we could get. We were not visible to the eye, our auras and essences clouded by the spell, but this was not a human household. There was no guarantee the vampires wouldn't be able to sense us in some way.

There were no crime scene tapes, nothing that could have pointed to the presence of the Force or the TF3 for that matter. From how things were looking, the head vampire was unwilling to air dirty laundry.

Knowing Alexander, he forbade his minions to alert the authorities. Why, if he suspected the Raven? He openly asked me if the Raven was the perpetrator. Letting the TF3 clear up a magical-related crime would have been a smart move.

Unless keeping the information to himself was more important than gaining the help of the witch community in solving the crime. Which made perfectly sense.

When Alexander asked me about the Raven's possible involvement in the matter, he had me cornered. I didn't think he'd have brought it up, if he thought I was going to get away.

Goshanger's vamps said it themselves: the murders raised questions about the head vampire's ability to protect what he called his own. No matter who killed those vampires, Alexander didn't want the rest of the vampire community to know the details.

Only, if it wasn't the Raven, who was it?

The mansion reeked of blood and fear, the hollow wariness a crime left clung to the walls and hallways like solid, sticky fog.

I remembered the outline of the mansion vaguely from my last visit. Vaguely remembering something, and knowing your way through a maze of corridors were two completely different things. Ditching vamps before running right into them was another problem. It happened at the worst point possible: in the heart of the mansion.

We were rounding another, vaguely familiar, and equally opulently decorated corner.

"I know it's necessary, but I don't like it."

We flattened ourselves to the wall in unison, my heart thudding with the violent drive of a sledgehammer. Two vamps were coming our way.

I had seen one of them before. Long brown hair, white-skinned and even paler than the rest. The face stuck with me – part of a sack-full of memories I'd rather not have. I backed away inch for inch, eager to get out of the way. The cloaking spell was a powerful one, draining my cuff to dangerously low levels, but I was not going to risk exposure. A vampire bumping into us might just do the trick.

"There's no way around it. Leonhard died in his office. That makes us all suspects," the brown-haired vampire said.

"Bullshit! None of us could have taken him, and Alexander knows that."

"It doesn't change the fact that Leonhard died in a place that should have been safe. Somehow the Inri Brotherhood got inside. They killed him. Alexander knows that. What he doesn't know is how they got in. You know what I'm thinking? We both know it was none of us. So, either someone with a lot of juice let them in, or they themselves have got enough to get in on their own. So, if whoever killed those vamps could get to Leo, he could get to anyone. If they're that powerful, who's to say Alexander can guarantee our safety?"

I stilled. Apparently the vamps suspected it was the Inri Brotherhood's doing, but the vamp also said someone might have let the perpetrators in. That meant the killer might have been a vamp, or at least they suspected that much.

Joshua and Walter were as tight-lipped as the Raven. I still didn't know if the Inri Brotherhood was involved. I stared down the corridor they'd come from. If I could drop the shielding spell and take a look, I might learn something.

"You think it was Victor?"

Victor. My eyes went back to the vamps. I knew the name, better than I liked. Victor was one of Alexander's coven leaders, one of the most powerful. Incidentally he had a hate-on on Alexander.

The pale faced vamp shrugged. "Rumors had it he was more powerful than Goshanger, but I'm not so sure about that."

The sound of a bell trickled through the silence in the mansion, bouncing off the walls like sputtering rain.

"They're here already, dammit," pale face said softly. "Trust them to be over-punctual."

There was more than displacement of air. The vague sense of deadness I'd felt ever since we walked into the mansion disappeared in one fluid second. Sounds, treacherously soft and obscure trickled into my perception. Motion exploded as the two vamps turned their heads and sped down the corridor in the too-fast-to-see motion of a true predator.

A sense of relief flooded my system, threatened to knock my knees out from under me, make them break like two flimsy matchsticks. We had fifteen minutes left before the outer wards of the mansion were reactivated again. It took us a little less than five minutes to get this far, but it would take about twice as much to find our way out of the mansion – unless I dropped the cloaking spell and we portalled out. The only problem was that I'd have to drop the cloaking before we entered the portal.

I caught Walter's and Joshua's gaze. I hadn't known them for long, but I could read the look on their faces by now. They weren't going to leave without the information we came for. They wanted more.

Walter jerked his head towards the corridor we came from. Yeah, I got it. He wanted to follow the vamps and see what else they knew. I wanted something else. My head went back to the end of the corridor. Was it the Raven who killed Goshanger? I was not leaving without learning the truth.

I shook my head, pointed in the other direction, turned, and started to creep along the walls and down the corridor. Right towards Leonhard Goshanger's office.

* * *

It was an old, elegant door that once struck me as opulent and classy. But that was another night, seemed like another place altogether. Now it gave away a sense of premonition, a whiff of stale blood and death that was hard to ignore. It loomed like an ominous gateway to secrets no sane human could learn without being in danger of losing his mind.

We were alone in the corridor. I had no idea if more vamps were somewhere behind it, guarding the spot Leonhard Goshanger died at. Maintaining the cloaking spell negated the use of any other magic. At this point in time I wasn't sure that was a bad thing.

I didn't hesitate, pushed the door open in slow motion. Not even half-way through and a hand of steel cuffed my wrist. Joshua, shook my hand, pointed at the other end of the corridor. The look in his eyes spoke volumes. This is not what they, and supposedly the Raven wanted.

A noise from the back of the mansion. The brothers' heads turned to it in unison. I used the moment and pushed the door open with my foot, all the way through.

Joshua cursed silently and shoved me into the room, with Walter following behind. In we went.

The first thing that hit was the stench of blood and dust. Slightly familiar and disturbing on more than one level. I scanned the room. More old furniture, an ancient, dark-wooded writing desk with a pen-holder that must have cost a fortune. Leather chair behind, grayish walls and paintings that spoke of bloody wars in the middle ages. Despite the opulent decoration the room seemed too big for a simple office, giving off a sense of vastness that intimidated, more than pleased.

My eyes were drawn to the far end of the room instants after we entered. My eyes travelled to the floor. A dark smudge in the carpet in front of the writing table, burn marks and dust. Ashes. There was no doubt in my mind: Leonhard Goshanger died in here.

Inhaling, I let my nostrils flare wide and stared at the setup of the room. I moved towards the carpet, examining the ashes, crouching on the ground. Walter and Joshua didn't move, stayed at the door like two bouncers on duty.

Who did this? Human senses were not going to help me now. Medici wasn't going to give me more info than necessary. This was my only chance of uncovering who was behind this and find out who was playing double games and why.

If it was Medici, I had to end my charade, and stop him. If not... I shook my head.

I'd been hoping for a quick get-away without having to deactivate the spell that hid our presence. Once I deactivated it, I risked exposure. Someone might sense or see us. We could portal out, but there was a small chance the vamps would know we were there.

The brothers are not going to like that, I thought darkly. No way around that now.

I readied myself, going to that place that governed magic. The spell pulsed, slow and dark, powerful. I touched it mentally, taking back the spell, word for word. Like shoe laces, coming undone, the magic spilled out and dissolved. The atmosphere in the mansion changed within less than a heartbeat. As if too much mass and space had been crammed into a perfect vacuum. Impressions and planes of power slammed into my consciousness all at once, making me dizzy. Not something I had time to worry about. I had to find out what happened in here. And I had to do it fast.