Page 68 of Curiosity Killed The Vampire

He glanced down at me, his eyes softening a shade. “You could always stop arguing with me, Cass.”

I gave him a crooked smile. “Where’s the fun in that?”

The corner of his mouth twitched, but the flicker of warmth in his face vanished as quickly as it came. “Get some rest. We leave before dawn. The sooner we start tracking these leads, the better.”

I hesitated. “You’re not planning on sleeping, are you?”

“Not tonight,” he said.

I nodded slowly, pushing off the railing. “Then I’ll see you in a few hours.”

We didn’t get the chance to part ways.

The air changed.

A subtle shift.

Pressure dropping.

A vibration in the wards humming through the old stone.

Then—

Laughter.

Not loud.

Not forced.

But unmistakable.

A smooth, cold, velvet-edged sound that slid through the corridors like smoke.

Valerian.

It scraped down my spine before I fully registered it, threading through every inch of Shadow Bone like invisible claws. I stopped mid-step, my power rising instinctively, crackling under my skin.

Below us in the foyer, the vampires who’d been murmuring in tight clusters went still. Heads lifted. Conversations died mid-word.

Valerian’s laughter rolled again—this time echoing off the high vaulted ceiling as though the very walls were amused. Shadows shivered across the archways. The chandelier above the foyer flickered violently, each crystal trembling as if it might drop.

Someone below whispered, “What was that?”

Another hissed, “Magic, it’s a⁠—”

“Warlock,” a third voice cut in, strained. “He can’t breach the wards.”

But they all knew.

This wasn’t a physical incursion. No doors blew open. No scent rode the air. No footsteps. No presence we could pin down.

This was projection—and only one warlock in our world could push his will through fortified vampire wards like this.

Valerian’s voice followed the laughter—smooth, venomous, and utterly without origin.

It came from everywhere and nowhere at once.

“Oh, Shadow Bone… look at you.”