Hi,

I hope you had a great weekend! I'm curious. What is your take on Andy showing up in the last chapter? Why does he want Anna to stop investigating? And what about Alexander? Let me know :-)

Lara

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Chapter 64

My breathing was shallow. Too fast. I wanted to tear away the blindfold and stomp on it. I wasn't being abducted this time. I was... What was the phrase George used? Oh, yes. Escorted.

When the two vamps showed up on my doorstep, announcing Alexander's urgent request, I tried to talk them out of it. I argued that going to the head vampire would be so much easier if we used my car. The two vampires beside me hadn't been amused. I refused to believe it was my driving style – they probably thought my car was a little outdated, or, as George put it, ready for the scrap heap.

So, here we were, on our way to Alexander's secret daytime residence – wherever that was. The motor noise of the black SUV was close to non-existent. Nothing but my harsh breathing. I leaned my head back on the plush headrest, trying to calm myself.

Andy's visit rattled me more than I liked to admit. I as good as told him I was going to come clean. The words had poured out of me, a leaking faucet, gushing with secrets I wasn't sure I wanted anyone else to see. Just another violent tug at the rug someone was trying to pull out from under my feet. Andy forbade me to keep going, stop investigating. Only why? Was the teen-kidnapping-case the linchpin he warned me against, or was this about the transactions? Which information was he warning me against?

I couldn't seem to decide what left me more puzzled. The fact that Andy seemed to know more about what I was investigating than he let on, that he was willing to help me, or that I decided to confide in him.

Then there was the question of how to break it to Alexander. Did I even have to? Soon my 'relationship' with him would be out in the open and every witch from here to Washington would know about my fall from grace. Things were going to blow up in my face, big time.

But maybe, just maybe, there would be a way out. If there was, I was ready to take it.

I had to talk to the head vamp first. Test the waters. If they were not stormy and dangerous this night, I would breach the subject of my future employment as his human servant. The thought of me coming to an agreement about anything with the head vamp was far-stretched, but I was willing to try.

I squared my shoulders and got out of the car once we arrived, painfully aware of the two vamps at my back as I made my way into the heart of Alexander's lair.

The menagerie of paintings and posh style architectural accessories bounced off me – visions and images I was well familiar with. The exquisite white marble floor opened up in front of me, a lane of blood-red carpets that must have cost more than my monthly rent. I followed George and the second vampire wordlessly. I'd walked the road before and knew where we were going. Luxury was not what scared me in this building. It was something else altogether.

Maybe someone had already succeeded in pulling out the rug underneath my feet. Maybe there was no rug and I was falling without even knowing.

* * *

They pushed me into the room – another déjà-vu among a long train of memories. Red velvet crawled on the walls and furniture like a real-life, blood-spotted cushion drawn over the whole interior of the room. Dark wooden panels above a fire place, flames dancing like red ghosts in the shadow-filled room. A golden floor lamp to my right, illuminating the piano.

Everything paled and waned in the wake of his presence. One glimpse was enough. Everything, every memory, every scrap of negative emotion turned into anticipation.

Alexander was sitting on the red velvet couch, amongst an assortment of parlor chairs that might or might not have dated back to the early 1900s. Whether they were part of his past, or merely chosen by someone else, I had no way of knowing. And there was a part of me that wanted to know.

His eyes were on me the moment I stepped into the room. They never left me. Not when the door closed. Not when I turned to check if the two vamps were still behind me. I could feel his gaze like an invisible force.

I tried to shake the feeling, turned around and put on a fake smile. I shoved words into my mouth, words I might have said once – an earlier version that could look at him and see the vampire and nothing else. A version of myself that didn't stop, freeze up, and think about what it would feel like to-

I fisted my hands. Flippancy, cheekiness, nonchalance, indifference. I didn't care – anything but that one emotion.

"So, you called. I'm here," I said, walking up to where he was sitting. "Where are we going this night? More investigating? A tour through the Crimson District?"

No motion on his face. A blankness that was more than that. He looked like he was a marble statue come to life – alive and very much so, but unreachable, unreadable, and a complete mystery to me.

"Sit, little witch."

I tried to ignore the softness in his voice, tried to pretend I didn't know what it was. It was the streak of sound he used whenever he wanted to hide something – or when he was pissed. With my kind of crap luck it was probably the latter one. Something happened.

If the head vamp thought I wasn't up to his game, he was wrong. Holding his gaze, I approached one of the Edwardian chairs and sat down slowly.

"Have some wine," he said, pointing to the small cocktail table to my right.

A wineglass was placed on it, much like the one he was holding in his hand. The red liquid shone in the dark yellow light coming from the corner, was reflected in the smooth surface of the glass table.

It wasn't blood, but I wasn't going to drink it. With all that happened I'd been too cranked up to eat before coming here. One wine glass could make me lose my head just enough to allow the head vamp to slip into my mind more easily. I couldn't give him any advantage or opening this night. Not until I talked to him about my future as his henchman. Besides, I didn't know in how far he was involved in the kidnapping case. Anything was possible.

My eyes went back to his. "I'm not thirsty, thanks. I'd like to-"

"It was not a suggestion, little witch." He was totally at ease, the fingers of his right hand cupping his chin in a deliberate show of calmness. "You will have some wine with me."

I knew that tone of voice. It went well with bloodstains and violence. For some reason Alexander was in a foul mood. Until I knew why, I was going to have to humour him. I picked up the glass, watching him as he did the same.

"To our master-servant-relationship," he said.

I blinked and stared at him. Nothing in his face was in motion, but strain ate at his voice, gave it more texture. It was very different from the soft death threats I'd heard him use before. I shrugged it off and we clinked glasses in silence, but I couldn't ignore the tension riding the air. As much as I couldn't ignore the feeling of being watched.

I took a small sip, put the glass down and stared at the liquid. The wine was good.

No wonder, it probably cost a fortune. I suppressed the urge to snort.

I looked up. Alexander was watching me with the eyes of a cold strategist preparing for battle, or of a hunter watching its prey.

"Is it that you do not like the taste? Or are you reluctant to drink to our relationship, little witch?"

Dammit, why was he always right on the spot about the things that counted? I smiled and raised my glass in mock salute, before emptying it in one go – consequences be damned.

Once I downed it, I noticed he did the same, only that he'd set it down, placing it neatly on table before my lips left the rim of the glass. The glass felt heavy and weird as I put it beside his.

The sound of his voice made me look up again.

"When I allowed you to stay in that apartment, to make it your operating place until your official initiation as my human servant, I did so under certain conditions," he said softly.

"I investigate and go where you can't. Try to make some contact with the half-witches. Use myself as bait to draw out the Raven. We're keeping the human-servant-master-relationship under wraps until we've bagged him," I said, adding, "Isn't that what you wanted?"

If I thought my nonchalant behaviour could evoke some sort of reaction, I was wrong. He didn't move, did, as in the nature of the vampire, not even blink.

"And what exactly are you investigating, little witch? Enlighten me as to how going to a bar with your human friend is related to your investigation?"

He was probably talking about Larry. I couldn't act like I didn't know what he was talking about – not when I perfectly knew we both did know. I stared at him, making mental calculations.

If you can't evade, attack.

I shrugged. "He's been providing me with information for years. I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm no longer part of the Circle. Thanks to our master-human relationship, I can't go through my usual channels. I've got to make use of other tools – which is something, I think, you're familiar with."

"Does that include your witch friend?"

He was still sitting on the couch, white and beautiful in the mass of red velvet, watching me. Nothing about his stance or position changed. Still, there was a new undercurrent in his voice, motion in deep blue eyes – things I recognized. Insignificant and small details that should have warned me about what was to come.

"You mean Andy?" I frowned. "Yeah, he came by today."

I wasn't going to tell Alexander why he came. Not until I knew what was really going on. I stared at him. Did he know something, anything, that related to what Andy told me?

Alexander didn't blink, didn't look away like a normal person would have. There were no comfort zones, no rules he played by. Not in conversation, not in anything else.

Then a slow smile where, instants before, nothing was in existence. "Are you not going to explain, little witch?"

I frowned. "Explain what?"

"Why he came by? I think we both agreed that your whereabouts needed to be kept private as long as the Raven remained a threat. That in turn begs the question how your witch friend could possibly know about them. Or, is he more than that? Is he in fact more than a friend?"

I stared at him. "You called me here to talk about this?"

Was he suggesting what I think he did? Alexander knew nothing happened. How, when, courtesy to our bond, he'd know every single time I got close to someone else? When, thanks to him, I didn't-

I shook my head, a violent motion that didn't even come close to what went on inside my head, and forced myself to take a deep breath. This house was a lion's den for more than one reason.

I couldn't get out as long as Alexander condoned it, which in fact meant that as long as I didn't satisfy his eternal, undead curiosity, I was staying. It pretty much described our 'relationship.' He was master. I was servant. Nothing could change that. He knew it, I knew it.

I was beginning to feel lightheaded, and not only from the wine. I buried my hands in the soft velvet, then released the cloth abruptly, knowing that he could see and sense more than I ever would. Another slow blink of the eye and I breathed out, aiming for that mental state that let me accept things as they were – or at least pretend I could.

"Is that all you wanted to talk about?" I said "Aren't there other questions you should be asking? Wasn't that what you once said to me?"

Another small smile that could have been derisive, involuntary and genuine – or merely a calculating move in a chess game I didn't even know we were having.

"Touché. If we were both playing by the rules, I would address other questions first. You are not, playing by the rules, however. I find it a little unfair that I should be the only one bound to guidelines you never followed to begin with."

He was speaking in riddles this night. I had no idea what the hell he was talking about, but wasn't stupid enough to not see it for what it was. Because whatever it was, we were on dangerous territory.