A Plague of Shadows

CHAPTER SIX-1

CHAPTER SIX

THE PRESENCE THAT HAD been lurking in the shadows crept towards Mina. A small voice in the recesses of her mind told her to run. But she didn't listen, drowned as it was by louder voices of guilt and dejection. Her arms and legs tried to force her to move, but she ignored them too. Instead, she sagged back against the wall, closed her eyes and waited for whatever was descending upon her. Her punishment for failing to kill the gargoyles.

A tentative shape formed out of the shadows, peeling itself away from the darkness to become a small point of light in her mind's eye against the imposing mass of the wall. She remembered her vision of the gargoyle that had almost killed her, its features imprinted against her closed eyelids in pinpricks of vicious light. She was pretty sure this sixth...or seventh sense was no more normal for a vampire than hearing music in the blood of others.

Whatever it was, the light of this shape was less harsh than the gargoyle, softer, and smaller too. It inched forward, its feet almost silent on the wet asphalt. It had a heartbeat, rapidly pulsing through its veins, and it had a blood song –– a high-pitched string instrument. She sighed a little tension away, but not enough. When the fuzzy edge of the shadow touched her pinkie finger, she jerked her hand back, to rest it against her bloody thigh,

Apparently, she still had some instinct of self-preservation. Very little, she thought. Better Luca had sucked me dry. She tried to open her heavy eyelids and failed, despite what she saw in her mind's eye was the shocked look on Astrid's face as the talons had torn through her. I should be lying there instead of her. Something soft ran across her hand, soft with sharp edges. Since death didn't seem to be coming to claim her, she forced her eyes open. Struggling to focus, she tilted her head to look at the shape.

"A cat?" The creature took a step back and looked at her, in between glances over its haunches. Mina reached her leaden hand out to pet it, and it pressed its arched back into her palm, before skittering around to peer into the darkness to their right. Mina stroked it again, absentmindedly wondering what it was so interested in. When she reached the tail, she stopped, causing the cat to turn around and rub its muzzle, followed by the rest of its body, against her arm, leaving a trail of orange fur.

"Do I know you?" Mina asked, half expecting an answer when the cat peered at her with its golden eyes. She scritched it under the chin. "Be a good cat and fetch me a dose of ibuprofen and a vodka chaser," she said, her reluctant lips forming a half smile. Then she remembered that would just make her ill...more ill. The cat pulled away, crouching to press its belly into the ground. Mina's heavy hand fell to the cold pavement without the warm body to hold it up.

"Sorry," she said, her head lolling to the side. A low, moaning growl emanated from the cat's small body, filling the alleyway. "Grumpy cat," she whispered. "It was just a joke."

Its hackles raised, the cat hissed. But not at her.

Mina froze, returning to her senses and picking up what the cat was reacting to. Arching its back, it jumped towards her.

"There's something out there, isn't there?" she whispered, her voice hoarse. Something headed our way. She peered into the darkness, where she could make all manner of creatures out of the nebulous forms and random glints of light. But it wasn't some unknown creature that made her stomach churn and her blood sing a thrumming song.

"Gargoyle." Her breath barely past her lips, but the cat still twitched. "It's back." She pressed into the wall, pondering the night, a part of her thinking she deserved to be rent into pieces to make up for Astrid's death.

"Ow!" A pair of golden eyes glared at her, and Mina looked at her hand where blood welled up from two tiny pinpricks, almost like a miniature vampire's bite. She sucked at the wound and glared at the cat. It continued to peer at her with those fiery eyes, its tail-end wagging as if getting ready to pounce.

"Right," Mina sighed. "I might deserve death, but you don't." In one scrambling move, she lurched up, heavy limbs forgotten, and grabbed the cat. The animal scampered up over her shoulder, using all four sets of claws to gain purchase. Mina bit her lip to keep quiet as she nestled the cat into her jacket and turned her attention to figuring out which direction to run.

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