Chapter 164: A dangerous illusion (part one)

No hope... 

Echoes my mind in watery laughs, the silvery voices of vampires spinning around a long forgotten ballroom. 

No hope for the hybrid girl.

Despairingly, I think of the monumental task ahead of me- two more lairs, both designed by creatures created to kill, perfect predators who show no mercy or sentiment to the lesser beings that sit below them in the grand pyramid of life. A series of trials designed to wipe out the weak and the mortal- that is what is ahead of me now.

I can almost hear Azrael's laugh from here. How he would rejoice in the sight of my anguish!

Again, that watery laugh echoes through my mind, blurred, as though underwater.

No hope! No hope!

A steady hand against my shoulder pulls my mind back into existence. A pair of comforting arms slink around my body, cradling me against a sturdy form.