by Kelly Ethan
“Eradicate impure bloodlines. The earth is for humans, not the corrupted. Those are the lessons my father taught me.” Irene tore the scroll from Xandie’s hand. “And this scroll will help me achieve my mission and secure my knighthood within the Sanguis.”
Xandie had never noticed before, but the plain gold ring Irene wore had the same inscription of the Sanguis motto. “I thought your brother was the knight.”
Irene lowered the sword with one hand and gripped the scroll tight with the other. “Everyone always does. But my father trained me as his successor, not him. Nigel was my cover until the council of Sanguis ratified my name. But they demanded I prove myself and this scroll will do that.” Irene unrolled the scroll, hissing when the forgery was revealed. “You think you can play me like the demon? Think again. In fact, with you as bait I’m sure the library will give me access.” She threw the scroll away and raised her sword, bringing the hilt down on Xandie’s head.
Black spread from the outside of Xandie’s vision inward, until the last she saw was Irene, Knight Sanguis, smirking with her shark teeth on show. The woman had no clue about good sportsmanship.
If you win, don’t rub it in.
Thirteen
With clarity came pain. Xandie opened one eye and groaned, a heavy metal band digging into her head. She rolled over onto her side and gagged. Flattening her hands on the wooden floor, she attempted to push herself upright.
Hang on… Wood?
The last she remembered was the old drive-in. Trying to focus, Xandie peered around. The antique white walls of the library anteroom met her gaze. She’d woken up right where Irene Cummings had staked her lawyer.
“It’s poetic. A stake through his eye. He was descended from seers, you know.” Irene waggled her fingers in a creepy villainous hello, her sword now belted to her side.
Coughing, Xandie scooted back until she sat against a wall. “And Louise Maker, my real estate agent?”
“Oh, that one. Single-minded woman. She was an elemental witch. Lightning was her special gift.”
“So, you electrocuted her?” She scanned the room for Theo, but he was noticeably absent. The inside door to the library remained closed, but as she watched, it inched open a tad and her necklace warmed. The library wanted her to go inside. But why? Irene would be on Xandie in a flash.
“Appropriate, I thought. The banker took some planning. He’s descended from King Midas, so he had to die in a gold-related incident. Difficult, but in the end—his end—a golden cranberry and ginseng muffin laced with water hemlock from the library’s own garden had to do. I wasn’t pleased with that, but one sometimes has to make do.”
Yep, loony tune. Xandie kept an eye on the door as it opened further. This time she glimpsed Theo’s tail and an imp smirking and waving at her. The library must have a plan. She just had to keep the villain monologuing and find out what it was. “And my great-aunt Sera?”
Irene slapped her hand on her leg. “That woman. Such an annoyance. She never let me near the library. And Amoru dropped me like I was poison when he met her. I decided that would be a perfect way for Sera to go…poison.” Irene grimaced. “I’d miscalculated though, I didn’t realize Sera had appointed an heir already. My brother failed to tell me in time. But I got there.”
“Yeah, and only four people had to die. No harm, no foul…not.”
“Well, it’s a tad more than four people killed. I’ve purified the Point Muse area off and on since we moved here over twenty years ago. My brother, Nigel, is support and cleanup crew, since he hasn’t got the stomach for the kill. In fact…” She paused for effect. “I almost had you when you were five. Would have solved this whole mess. But your mother and her Harrow instincts saved you.”
Xandie had been right about her mother’s disappearance and about the identity of the killer knight. She just had the wrong Cummings.
“Is my mom alive?” Xandie knew it was pointless. Knew her mother was dead after all this time, but one little kernel of hope remained.
Irene tittered, holding a hand with manicured nails over her mouth. “Oh, my, no. I don’t expect so. After she told you to run, she darted off in the opposite direction and misjudged the edge of the cliff. I felt cheated, but it made clean up much easier. Even became a mysterious disappearance. One time my brother didn’t mess up a mission. Although he lost you. I sometimes wonder if he did it on purpose,” Irene mused.
A wave of red-hot heat washed over Xandie. Her mother was really gone. She stamped the pain into the back of her heart. She didn’t have time for hurt unless it meant putting it on Irene. An imp stuck its head out of the library door and chittered to Xandie, encouraging her to move. Xandie pushed against the wall and rose, weaving, to face her mother’s killer. “You’re psychotic. Didn’t your parents ever discipline you?”
The strong killer attitude dropped and Irene screamed at Xandie, “My mother was useless, my father got rid of her taint early. Saw her weakness and my brother was just like her. I had no choice, one of us had to stand and fight. My father was hard, but he knew he had to prepare me for the coming war. The war to eradicate all corrupted lines from this world. It will be a biblical purging and you won’t survive.” Irene spat the words at Xandie. Her hands curled into claws as she scrabbled at Xandie’s neck, trying to choke her words away.
“Geez, say it, don’t spray it.” Xandie wiped her face with one hand. The other she inched toward a chair the library had replaced after her lawyer died. She flung it hard at Irene. Not bothering to wait and see wood against face results, Xandie bolted for the library. Slamming the door behind her, she ran to the back of the library, and crouched, waiting for the library to bring the pain on the psycho wannabe knight. An imp dropped onto her shoulder, and chittered away, pointing at the door. The library would surely lock Irene out or incapacitate her. Instead the library door slammed open and Irene strode in, eyes glittering with a need for blood, her sword arm held high.
“You can’t hide from me.” She held up Xandie’s necklace. “See? I have your connection. I can track you like prey and the library can’t help you anymore.”
Xandie scrabbled at her neck but her hands met bare skin. She hadn’t even felt Irene remove it. The woman was right; the library couldn’t help her now.
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that, toots.” Theo bounded off a shelf, aiming at Irene’s head. Two imps with minute swords rode the cat like a mighty steed. Tiny, demonic knights coming to her rescue. Theo landed on Irene’s shoulder and dragged his claws down her sword arm. The imps cheered and poked her head and neck with their toothpick swords.
Irene screamed and swatted around her head. She dislodged Theo, who flew into a bank of shelves, thankfully filled mainly with papyrus scrolls and not heavy books. The shelf toppled over. The scrolls tumbled down. Theo lay still in the middle of the mess.
Xandie grabbed a pile of books and pegged them at Irene’s head. “Not my damn cat too.”
The library agreed with Xandie and the room shuddered for a moment. The walls shivered and shelving rattled wildly. Even with Xandie watching the walls, they still extended. The room elongated until a corridor of shelving and books were between her and her mother’s killer.
“I think the library disagrees with you on not helping me,” she hollered back at Irene. Using the woman’s distraction, Xandie scooted over to Theo to check on the brave feline. She pulled a book off him. An imp hung spread-eagle underneath. He grimaced and waved his sword at her. Easing the tired warrior off Theo, she patted the cat’s sweat-soaked fur. “Anyone one would think you like me, Theo, if you keep leaping to my rescue.”
Theo groaned and opened one eye. “Fresh tuna might help me mend. I’m sure I’ve broken every bone in my tail.”
“I might be able to work that out.” Xandie grinned, relieved. Theo would be fine if he resorted to emotional blackmail.
“Well, I’ve worked it out. You’re about to die.” Irene panted above Xandie. Her raised sword glinted, a silent testament to the
hate beaming from her crazed eyes.
The lights in the library flickered as hundreds of tiny imps swarmed out of the light fittings. All hoisted tiny toothpick swords above their heads. Xandie swore she heard a Geronimo and a tally ho in amongst their chittering. They swarmed up Irene’s legs. She screamed a high-pitched wail and flung her sword around. Xandie ducked and scooted her, Theo and the wounded imp out of sword reach.
Dragon’s breath flamed through the library, avoiding the books and scrolls. And vines twinned their way around and through every library nook and cranny. The roar of a bear vibrated through the cavernous room. A group of figures advanced down the long library-made corridor. Xandie smiled. Her friends were coming to the rescue. Her family was here to defend her; even the interfering dragons had turned up for a fight. Xandie looked around the room. Her library defended her with the help of a plague of battle-hardened imps. Looks like Amoru escaped their circle after all if his imps were battling Irene.
Speaking of Irene…
Clambering to her feet with Theo and the imp cuddled into her chest, Xandie stepped up to the imp-covered mound known as Irene. The only spare flesh the imps weren’t covering was her face. The imp-bound woman radiated crazy even covered in the denizens of hell.
“I should have hunted you down when I had the chance. Shouldn’t have allowed my brother to talk me into letting you go. I will get out and slaughter you and every impure I can find. Equis. Pura. Sanguis.” She yelled the last word but gurgled to a stop when an imp sat on her face and passed wind. Giggling, a mob of imps presented their backsides and tooted a lullaby to calm the crazy woman.
“Looks like you have the matter in hand.”
Braun’s rough tones washed over Xandie and for once she didn’t feel like battering him over the head with a hard object. He must have shifted to bear before charging in to rescue her. He still had huge hunched shoulders and massive non-human sized arms. Braun obviously still had his bear sense of smell as he leaned over and snuffled her honey shampoo-washed hair.
“The imps have it in hand or horns, for that matter. I take it from their presence our demon professor escaped our binding circle?”
“Elspeth let him out.” Amelia frowned at Chief Braun as Xandie’s aunt drew level with the duo. “You have a little fur there.” She pointed to his mono brow.
Zach Braun blushed and nodded to Xandie. “Glad you’re okay.” He smiled for a moment. “At least this time it was self-defense.” He waved at her and joined the rest of his family as they lumbered out.
Amelia and Winifred each gave Xandie a hug. She watched while Lila and Holly and a host of her Harrow relatives dealt with the vines and flowers. The library shuddered and everyone held their breath when it shivered back into a normal large room. “What happens to the pyscho with a sword?”
Elspeth pried Amelia and Winifred away from Xandie. “Give the girl breathing space. She’s survived one murder attempt; she doesn’t need another.” Elspeth cackled and took a step back to get a good look at the battered Xandie. “Braun wanted to take Cummings in, but I called a favor in with a guy I know. He’s a Templar, and they’re excited to get their knightly hands on a Cummings. Her bloodline has murdered impures for a long time.” Elspeth pointed toward Lila and Holly. Behind them, a bearded figure in a long trench coat hovered. He looked normal, but when he moved Xandie glimpsed silver armor under the coat. “He came prepared to deal with her, but you and the imps had already completed his mission.”
Xandie demurred. “All the library, Theo and the imps doing.”
“Well, dearie. Whoever helped you, you’re safe. We heard Irene talk about your mother. You found justice for her and saved the library and the residents of Point Muse. Not a bad week’s work.”
Had it only been a week? Xandie followed her family out of the library and into the kitchen to brew a calming, Harrow tea. She’d found a family, friends, a talking cat and now a pet imp.
It had only taken a few murders to find her place.
Fourteen
Xandie kicked back and polished off another butter puff before taking a large sip of her hot chocolate. Lila’s bakery was back to bustling. Customers stacked in for her cousin’s latest creation involving cream, pastry, honey and spun sugar. All the Braun family were lined up with money already out. Xandie shook her head. Bears and honey. She snorted to herself and demolished another puff. Winifred and Holly pushed their way in and collapsed in chairs around Xandie’s table.
Holly laid her head on the table and pretended to snore.
“New job tiring you out?” Her cousin had started a new job at the Elysian Fields Funeral Home the day after Xandie’s epic showdown with Irene, AKA psycho wannabe with her own sword. Three days later it looked like Holly hadn’t had a wink of sleep.
“They put me on flowers. I hate flowers and they hate me. If I see any more of those black roses or white lilies, I might hurl.” Holly pouted, pretending to look like a sulky little girl.
Winifred slapped Holly on the back. “Cheer up, no one’s tried to kill you girls yet. That’s a good start to the new week.”
“But they elected Elspeth the new mayor. What good can come from giving extra power to a senile Harrow?” Holly glared at her mother. “I can’t believe you voted for her. She calls your only daughter death girl.”
“It’s a term of endearment.” Winifred soothed Holly and gave a wave to her sister, Amelia, behind Lila’s counter.
Grandma Elspeth, the new mayor, was an interesting choice for Point Muse. She didn’t give it too long before a mob of residents holding flaming torches forced Elspeth from the position. But since the mayor had done a runner and was in the wind, hiding from the police, shifters and Templars, maybe a temporary replacement wasn’t such a bad idea.
Xandie leaned back in her chair and stretched her food belly out. Sera’s and her mother’s murders avenged, the library, Theo and his new pet imp settled back in and a private oath from the demon Amoru not to harm her was in place. Everything was falling back into normal life. She’d found her niche in the world as a crazy librarian to a sentient library in a town of supernatural creatures. Who’d have thought?
The only loose end was her father. But she’d deal with him when she had the energy. The last thing she wanted was to lose another parent even if it was only to hurt feelings. And everything seemed quiet. The town was peaceful and not a dead body in sight.
Holly’s eyes iced over, silver forming an opaque fog over her eyes. The same process every time she saw an impending death…
Here we go again.
The End.
The Dastardly Dragon Killer and the Poison Breath
A Point Muse Cozy Paranormal Mystery. Book Two
Kelly Ethan
One
“Who’d have thought ceramic garden gnomes craved blood?” Alexandra Meyers, a.k.a. Xandie, squealed when a nasty-looking gnome with a sharp fishing pole bared his teeth. She panted, her stomach a wibbly wobbly bowl full of jelly. Her attackers had such cute faces, all red-cheeked and wide grins, but hid a sadistic Xandie-biting streak a mile wide.
“Well, sweetie, there're rumors on the dark witch web about a breed of cursed gnomes.” Elspeth lined up her crutch and let loose with a sharp underarm sweep. “Bonsai,” she cackled as a sneering miniature female with an apron, red cheeks and a tiny sharp knife exploded into white dust.
“You want to talk about rumors when zombie gnomes are stalking us?” Xandie climbed up on the base of one of the lampposts lining Main Street. Her grandmother, Elspeth Harrow, had a somewhat dubious and mysterious past. Xandie had only known her for the last few months. The woman was a wildcard with a devious streak a mile wide, but her aim was spot on. Her grandmother had sprained her ankle racing carts with the clothing optional octogenarian coven in town. So, the wild streak had its downside. Xandie winced when a gash on her ankle pulled tight with a sharp twang. Arms quivering, she adjusted her hands around the lamppost. Maybe it was time to try out for weight training. The burn in h
er muscles flared red hot the more she thought about letting go.
“There is always time for rumors, Xandie. You’re a Harrow, it’s in your blood.”
“My father would argue it’s Meyers’ blood, not Harrow,” Xandie offered with a grimace. Her father hated Point Muse, his hometown. He’d grown up surrounded by the weird and wacky characters that populated the small Maine town. Then he’d met her mother, Miranda Harrow, and he’d convinced her to move to Andrews, a college town outside of Portland. Three and half hours away from Point Muse. Not far enough if you asked her father. He still hadn’t forgiven his only daughter for moving and becoming the librarian to the supernatural Great Library of Alexandria. Xandie shuffled her feet on the base of the lamppost, easing the tingling in her toes now.
“Huh, I guess Nicholas Meyers is the expert then.” Elspeth swung her crutch again, taking the head off a rosy-cheeked statue with teeth filed into sharp points. “The rumors don’t matter, anyway. These gnomes are from my collection.”
“The mysterious Elspeth Harrow collects ceramic blood-hungry garden ornaments?”
“Everyone has a hobby. Mine’s cursed statues. Someone stole my head statue. Went out this morning and she was missing, and the rest only listen to her. That’s why we have a bloodthirsty gaggle of gnomes.” Elspeth jabbed her crutch down on a red-capped gnome nibbling on her bandaged ankle.
Even her grandmother was spryer than she was. Taking action, Xandie swung a leg and karate-kicked a hungry milkmaid. Score. “Lila isn’t due to open for another ten minutes and they have us pinned down. What’s our next move?” Before she fainted from excess exercise.
“The next move is to eliminate these ornaments before they take us out, dear.”
“Cursed gnomes. What else can Point Muse shock me with?” At least Theo stayed in the library with his pet imp, Horatio. He’d wanted to practice riding techniques. Her aunt, Amelia, had even made a tiny saddle for the imp. Her vet-witch aunt had proclaimed Theo, Xandie’s ancient Greek teenager turned cranky black cat guardian, would benefit from caring for a pet. Even if the pet was a demonic denizen of Hell. Elspeth had given her stamp of approval by gifting a tiny hot-pink tracksuit with impish bedazzled on the pants. Horatio loved his clothing and paraded on Theo’s back, wiggling his pink tracksuit bottom in pride. Since the imp helped defend the cat from a killer knight, he’d been a fixture in the house.
