In Darkness We Must Abide (The Fallen King, Episode 8) by Rhiannon Frater Page A

Rhonda often in the past. The city did contain fond memories, but it was difficult to unearth them beneath the thick fog of her emotions. Austin was a foreign land to her now. Its familiarity was already weighted down with the past. It wasn’t home anymore and she felt that truth keenly.
    As she took a right past the Half-Priced Books where she and Rhonda had spent hours scrounging for novels, her fingers gripped the steering wheel ever tighter. The cold air and humidity formed a mist over the road and fogged up the edges of her windows. The quiet of the night enshrouded her and she flipped on the radio just to escape the silence.
    When she at last nudged her car onto the on ramp that would put her on course for Houston, she released a long exhalation. It was a relief to be on the road at last, yet she feared what awaited her at the end of her journey.
    As the car left the city lights in its wake, the little vehicle was swallowed into the night.
     
    * * *
     
    Armando was both amused and annoyed by Vanora ’s little trip down memory lane as her little sedan slipped through the streets of downtown Austin. Keeping pace with the vampire tracking her was easy enough. The vampire had the presence of someone younger and not nearly as powerful as Armando. Althea’s progeny was so intent on Vanora that he didn’t appear to detect Armando’s presence.
    The fact that the vampire was so young was shocking. It indicated that all of Althea ’s powerful vampires must have remained behind to battle Aeron and died with her and Parthenia. Though Vanora’s stalker had the aura of a vampire over a hundred years old, he was a mere babe compared to most of the vampires created by the last of the Seven Sisters and her lover. Althea had to have been very desperate to impart her final revenge on one of the youngest of her creations.
    Moving swiftly through the night, Armando was a mere shadow flickering along the ground. Infused with the blood of many mortal victims (though he had been careful not to take a life), he was at full power. At each stop light he paused in the gloom surrounding buildings or trees, cloaking himself as the assassin did the same. It was obvious Althea ’s man was waiting for Vanora to leave the city limits before he attacked. The closer her little car crept to the outskirts of town, the easier it was for Armando to track him.
    Since it was the middle of the night, the traffic was light and soon Vanora ’s car was the lone vehicle on the long stretch of highway. As the pale illumination of the city lights against the overcast sky diminished, Armando prepared himself for the inevitable attack.
    Vanora ’s car was just past the small town of Manor when Armando sensed a powerful presence at his back. Hurtling himself into a tree, he hunkered among the limbs and hid himself further in the shelter of his power. Below, a shadow shifted against the inky backdrop of the night. After a slight pause, a woman with masses of red hair emerged from the murk and peered up at him.
    “ You can’t hide from me Armando,” she said in her Scottish brogue, smirking.
    “ Nelly,” Armando whispered.
    Older than Armando, Althea ’s favored offspring was a true threat. Armando realized now he had been lured into a trap. The male vampire must be Robert, Nelly’s companion.
    With a wild grin of delight, Nelly leaped into the air and kicked the trunk of the tree in which he was perched. There was a loud crack as it splintered apart. Armando threw himself clear of the branches, landing lightly on the highway below.
    “Babysitting for Aeron?” Nelly teased, standing with her feet apart.
    “ Still doing your dead mistresses’ dirty work?” Armando made a point of adjusting the cuffs of his leather jacket and pretending not to be threatened by her, though he continued to watch her through long his lashes.
    Nelly ’s green eyes flared red. “Your murdering bastard of a creator will die at my hands.”
    Clasping his hands before him,