Hi, sorry that I've been taking so long to write! I've had exams all week! But, my exams are over! YAY! Anyway, here it is! Please tell me what you think!
We were all ready to go back to the Witching Hour. No one was sure what to expect but the casino being empty certainly wasn't something we could have ever guessed at. As we walked in through the front doors expecting to see crowds of people, we realised it was empty; not one sound came from any section of the casino. Our footsteps echoed on the wooden dance floor as we made our way to the bar situated at the back of the room.
One moroi man sat at the with a beer glass in his hand. His form was slouched over and he seemed to either be sleeping or too drunk to realise that we had entered. As we got closer I realised that the moroi was none other than the manager. Well, this made our job a whole lot easier!
I cleared my throat and stood right behind him. The man turned, and his eyes were lazy. He was drunk, so much for life being easier. His hair was mangled and his eyes had huge bags under them.
"Hey," he slurred, "I remember you!"
Lissa spoke first, "What happened to all the customers?" she asked gesturing around her.
"Simple, ever since the Queen's murder, no one's been game enough to go outside!" He laughed, "And now they're saying the murderer was broken out of jail by an ex-strigoi!" He continued to laugh.
That's so not good! It's already out that I escaped and that I was helped by Dimitri! They could take me, but no way was I letting Dimitri get tangled up in this!
"Listen," I said through my teeth, "we need your help with something."
"I'll help you," he replied, leaning in close to my ear, "If you give me a little something in return." He smirked and kissed my cheek.
That's when Dimitri interfered; he snarled and grabbed the man by his shirt collar. "We're not here to play games!"
The manager looked terrified and nodded solemnly. "What is it you want?" He asked quietly.
"When we were here last...you knew a lot about Li-Eric Dragomir. How?" I questioned. I had a feeling this was going to take a while.
"What did you know about my dad?" Lissa asked angrily. Oops, another thing I forgot to mention! I'm going to hear about this later.
The man ignored Lissa's outburst and shrugged, "How does everyone else find out about the latest gossip?" He questioned rhetorically.
I paused thinking about this for a moment. We were in L.A. we met him and when we got home. What happened? I found out something! What? That's when it all came crashing into my head. "But, it's more than that." I started, "When we got home, I got a phone call from a friend about a break in at the alchemist office here. It was around the time we met you. You knew so much about Lissa's dad that it was hard to believe that it was general knowledge, even if you are the manager here." I paused again, "IT WAS YOU! You were the one who broke into the alchemist office and stole the files on Lissa's dad! But...why?" My brain was hurting; I couldn't remember the last time I had thought so hard about one topic.
"Stolen files on my dad? Alchemist office? Friend? Rose, what the hell is going on?" Lissa snarled I felt her anger boiling up. Damn it! I really need to start remembering to fill people in!
"Can I explain later?" I asked quietly anxiously awaiting the manager's reply. He seemed to have sobered up a lot. This was really strange.
The manager attempted a laugh; however it was humourless and came out more like a snort. "What's it to you?" He bared his teeth in a smirk.
"Need I remind you that we have the upper hand?" Eddie inputted, gesturing towards Dimitri's hand that was still entwined in the man's shirt.
The man leant forward and rumbled, "You can do what you want to me, but it will still be 100 times better than what they will do if I tell."
My brows furrowed in confusion, who? That seemed to be the question I was asking all the time now. Who would need information on Lissa's father? Who would threaten this man? Who would turn Tomas? How did they get to him? So many questions filling my head, all of this seemed surreal.
"Who?" Christian asked taking the words straight out of my mouth.
"Oh, I don't know! Only the one everyone's afraid of." He paused, as if thinking whether or not he should tell us something, "Go back to the start. The answers lie in Vladimir's history." The man riddled. Well that helped. NOT!
"St Vladimir?" Christian asked again, we were all puzzled. What has he got to do with all of this?
"What do you mean? He's dead!" I yelled angrily.
"Many things are supposed to be dead. But, are they really? The dead can come back again. The un-dead work what has returned from the shadow land." The man whispered, as if he was afraid someone would hear him.
We were all stunned into silence. What the hell? The dead can come back again. The un-dead work for what has returned from the shadow land. Ok...the un-dead has to be Strigoi doesn't it? And the shadow land..That's where some ghosts are trapped. It's the world between reality and death. That's where all the ghosts come from that I can see. They can freely travel from the shadow land to reality but not everyone can see them. They're stuck as they are. They can't cross over. Or they don't want to?
"And that is where we stop things!" A voice grumbled from the shadows. "You, old man, have said way too much." A figure came out from the shadows and the first thing I saw were the pupils rimmed with read.