Page 81 of Bitten Vampire

The vision wavers, reforms at a junction.Wow, that’s a weird sensation.Our car enters the crossroads, and another vehicle hurtles from the opposite side and smashes into us. Through shattered glass, I see the moment of impact—Valdarr folds himself around me, shielding me.

The vision snaps back. I am ejected, gasping.

He must have… he must have died.

For me.

Are you all right?” Valdarr asks.

No.But I drag in two breaths and croak, “Yes. How long was I out?”

“Around forty seconds.”

Forty seconds? The vision had felt more like an hour. Vision time clearly doesn’t match real time. I could spend hours—days even—inside a vision, and only moments might pass in the real world.

I remind myself I have never attempted this as a vampire. Perhaps the vampire side of me is stronger, sharper and better equipped for psychic work. Maybe. I don’tknow. I only know I must cling to what I learn and pray it will be enough.

“I need to try again.”

Determination pulls me under. Vision me is alert: she urges the driver to divert before the crash site, and the car takes a different route.

That is when it strikes me— how perilous this meddling might be. Vision me now knows what I know. I have altered the future.

A spell slams into the car, killing everyone inside. I am ripped away.

I go back in.

I ignore the vehicles and hop through moments like turning pages, checking every turn, every street, hunting the safest path.

Fear sharpens my memory.

Again. And again. Close calls. Ambushes. More spells.

I keep going.

At last—after several failures and one narrow escape—we reach the Council chambersunscathed.

We step inside?—

—and that is when the true ordeal begins.

Chapter Thirty-One

Last night’sback-to-back visions were anything but healthy. After dozens of attempts I ended up glassy-eyed and shaking, nearly unconscious, until Valdarr—quite rightly—put his foot down.

Strangely, I was grateful for my vampire half. Had I attempted them while being human, and forced that many visions into a single sitting, I would have fried my brain. The undead part kept me going… until it could not.

Now we stand in the heart of the Vampire Sector.

The district is ultra-modern, almost science-fiction, with technology I have never seen; I half-expect hover-cars to zip past. It feels as though I have stepped intoBack to the Future.

We pause before an immense block of black glass.

The Hall of Silence.

My anxiety spikes. I have never been this frightened—not for myself so much as for Valdarr, for the clan who took me in, for anyone who might pay the price of my existence. One misstep and it is not only my head on the block; I might make a mistake that has my vampire killed.

“Are you all right? You’re looking a little peaky,” Simone says.