Dead of Night (Hunters of the Dark #4)

by Dave Ferraro

Chapter Seven

  Shanna followed Amelia and Jade through the busy streets of New Orleans. It was daylight yet, but she could just imagine how stunning the city would look at night. She loved the old white colonial houses, with their majestic pillars and beautiful porches, and the occasional bay windows and spires here and there that added a touch of character and romanticism. It felt like she’d stepped back through time. She was jealous that Krystal would be out that night, moonlighting with a boy in such a city.

  “Quinn looked dejected when he got back,” Amelia said as they turned the corner and began walking alongside a manicured hedge, vibrantly green.

  Shanna looked down at her feet as they traversed the cracked sidewalk and shrugged. “Krystal said it wasn’t exactly a dream for any of them but Natalia.”

  “Shocking,” Jade sniffed.

  “I know, right? Just once I’d like to see her encounter something and fail miserably.”

  They walked in silence for a few minutes, taking in the sights, before Jade turned to Amelia. “So, tell me about this bookstore you’re dragging us to.”

  Amelia raised an eyebrow. “I’m dragging you? I seem to recall you asking to come along.”

  Jade chuckled. “Touchy. I just mean, what’s so special about this place that you would tag along on this trip to visit it?”

  “The store’s called Incantations. And they keep several sacred texts on the shelves. Many ancient and rare items you can’t actually buy, but you can study there, and there’s plenty you can purchase and take with you. Things you wouldn’t expect. Obscure monster histories, books of spells, demon lineages…that sort of thing. They pretty much have everything.”

  “Have you been there before?” Shanna asked.

  “No,” Amelia frowned. “I went to a store like it, looking for a spell, when I heard about Incantations. It’s like the Mecca of its kind.”

  “Did you find what you were looking for at that other store?”

  Amelia shook her head. “No, but I was definitely impressed. It leads me to believe that perhaps I’ll find what I’m looking for here. It’s supposed to be massive.” She cocked her head. “But be forewarned: It’s a shop for monsters. You’re going to run into some.”

  “Monsters?” Jade bristled and stopped short. “Really?”

  “They need access to this material,” Amelia shrugged, continuing on without stopping to acknowledge her reaction. “But no need to worry about your safety. It’s been spelled. No one can harm anyone else within its walls. Mortal enemies may peruse the same shelves at the same time, and can’t do a thing about the other’s presence. At least until they step outdoors.”

  “You’d think people would notice a place like that,” Shanna frowned. “With monsters going in and out constantly.”

  “You would. Especially since it’s located beneath a human bookstore. But people only see what they want to see. And the very notion that it exists is fantastic. The water table shouldn’t allow for its existence, but, again, spells allow for it to exist underground where it shouldn’t.”

  “You take us to the strangest places,” Jade shook her head before breaking out into a grin. “I can’t wait to take a look around.”

  It wasn’t too long before Amelia led them into a two-story bookstore that was part of a chain Shanna had shopped at frequently back in Minnesota. She exchanged looks with Jade as the sorceress led them to an elevator at the back of the first floor. There, Amelia tapped an empty space below the “G” button for the ground floor, and suddenly a button that hadn’t been there before lit up with a rune that looked like the top of a pitchfork. As soon as the doors closed, the elevator shuddered and began to descend.

  “Okay…” Shanna said, frowning at the magic button. “I mean, there are human-looking monsters like vampires and witches, but not very many monsters can walk into a run-of-the-mill bookstore without attracting attention.”

  Amelia chuckled. “True. There are other entrances. I know of a tunnel that vampires use during the daylight hours, and one that runs through a sewer system, but I thought we could avoid all that. You know, keeping it classy.”

  “Good thinking,” Jade concurred. “I just had my hair done.”

  Shanna eyed her long hair, pulled back into a long ponytail that swept her waist, and sent her a look, to which Jade winked at her playfully.

  After a moment, the elevator stopped and the doors opened. Amelia stepped out first, followed by two amazed hunters who looked around them with their mouths hanging open.

  The bookstore was massive. It hadn’t seemed like they’d been riding the elevator for long, but the space opened up overhead with an arched ceiling. Old oil paintings depicting scenes of creatures were everywhere Shanna looked, along with ancient statues, many still intact, of beautiful women and heroic men, none of them human. In the lobby, a stone fountain spewed water from the mouth of a satyr in a scene from a fairy tale, complete with dryads, centaurs and a fairy, all involved in merriment. It was breathtaking and very realistic, as if Shanna could see the statues coming to life at any moment.

  Beyond the lobby, Shanna could see room upon room of books, with tables where patrons had set out books and charts and were taking notes. Up above, there were more books on a floor where people milled about near the balcony. And just past the fountain, they spied a staircase that spiraled deep into the bowels of the bookshop, where many levels could be seen, at least another ten.

  “This is incredible,” Shanna breathed.

  Jade tapped her shoulder and Shanna turned to see a hairy creature, at least ten feet tall, enter from a wooden doorway across the room. It shook its fur out before nodding to the man who sat at the check-out counter, and walking past him and into the labyrinth of books.

  “This place is sick,” Jade beamed at Amelia. “There have to be some answers here!”

  “Answers?” Amelia returned, then nodded in understanding. Jade was always seeking the answers to questions about supernaturals that made sense in a scientific manner. Like why silver killed werewolves, and no other metal, or why vampires needed an invitation to enter someone’s home. Shanna knew the answer to that last question, but wasn’t about to go into details on it just yet. She was still processing her connection with the first vampire, Diana, not to mention the other Diana she was often confused with, the horrible murderous consort of Vlad, whom Shanna looked ridiculously similar to. While meeting with the elders of La Faer Noir a few weeks ago, she had heard the story of the first vampire, and with it came the secrets for why vampires had certain rules. But Shanna was less concerned about the first vampire than the horrible one that she had perhaps directly reincarnated from. That Diana was a ruthless thing, a creature that Shanna herself could perhaps become one day if she were changed. Diana hadn’t, after all, been born a horrible monster. She had been changed from an innocent into one, if Shanna could believe the visions she’d been having of her.

  Perhaps, Shanna thought to herself as she looked around, she could find some answers here as well. Hunter didn’t have these means in his store of books to search for references of Diana, but now that she was here, she could perhaps do a little digging of her own.

  “You are new here,” the man who’d been sitting behind the desk suddenly stood and walked over to them. “And quite human, from the looks of it.”

  “That we are,” Amelia acknowledged, bowing her head slightly in his direction. She proceeded to introduce them as Shanna looked the man up and down, assessing him. He didn’t look like any creature of the night that she knew of. He looked human, with no telltale ink marks spilling over his skin to mark him a witch, and his flesh was too tan for him to be a vampire. He was young, perhaps in his mid-twenties, and quite handsome, with bleached blonde hair and dark eyebrows. Perhaps, she decided, he was a werewolf.

  He suddenly chuckled and Shanna looked up to meet his eyes. “You’re right. I’m not quite human. But I’m not a were.”


  Shanna’s eyes widened. “You read my thoughts?”

  “Sorry,” he bowed his head slightly. “It’s customary to do a surface scan of humans, to make sure they didn’t wander in by mistake. You three are obviously well-versed in things that go bump in the night and are welcome here. I see you already know about the no-violence spell, so you may browse peacefully.”

  “But what are you?” Jade asked, tilting her head curiously. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

  “Not at all,” he grinned. “I’m a mere telepath, with some telekinetic powers. I probably had some demon blood in my family somewhere down the line, but it’s pretty diluted by now. I still have some gifts left over, though.”

  “How did you land a job here?” Shanna asked, glancing around. “This place is incredible.”

  “They were in need of my services,” he shrugged. “The Children of Athena were an obvious place for them to go to find such a specimen.”

  Shanna frowned. The Children of Athena... Why did that sound so familiar?

  “We’re actually changing the name, to make it sound a little more impressive,” he said, meeting Shanna’s gaze. He smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “The Athena Corps. Pretty good, right?”

  “You’re a group of psychics?”

  He nodded. “People with abilities like telepathy, pyrokinesis, clairvoyance…” He paused as he met Shanna’s eyes. “And channelers, of course. Automated writing, that sort of thing.”

  Shanna’s eyes widened as she recalled a vision she’d had of Diana, before she was changed into a vampire. Back then, she’d been Emma, a scared girl hiding from a vampire with her brother. The brother she’d killed in cold blood after she’d changed. But Emma had been at a school then, for psychics. It was for The Children of Athena. She was sure of it. And if she could believe what she’d been told time and again, what she tried to deny, even to herself, she had been that girl once upon a time, in a past life. And if that were true, some of that psychic energy had spilled over into this new life. Shanna could understand different tongues and speak them without prior knowledge. And perhaps that same power was where the visions she had of Diana stemmed from. They were so real when they came over that she had to believe there was something powerful behind them.

  “Just how big is this place?” Jade suddenly asked.

  Shanna looked up to find his eyes on her still. Intense, like he could see right through her.

  “I’m sorry,” Amelia said, shaking her head. “We don’t even know your name. I’m Amelia.”

  He shook her hand, then Jade’s and Shanna’s as they introduced themselves, his hand lingering on Shanna’s for a split second longer than the others. “I’m Eric. Nice to meet you all. And this place…” He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it himself. “This place goes on forever, it seems. Currently, there are sixteen levels, but as soon as we acquire new books, more space just appears. We’ll come in one morning, and there’s a new lower level. It’s amazing.”

  “That is amazing,” Jade agreed. “Who created this place?”

  “No one knows. It’s passed hands to new owners so many times, its origins have been lost over time. But Incantations is still around for us to cherish, and all who seek knowledge are welcome here to examine its treasures.” He glanced up as a vampire woman approached the counter. “I should get back to work. Please, take your time and let me know if you have any questions. Enjoy yourselves.”

  He returned to his post and they watched him begin to ring out the vampire for a moment, before Jade turned to them with wide eyes. “This place is wicked awesome. I could spend years, decades, hell, centuries in this place and not get bored! Can you imagine what revelations must be in some of these books?”

  Amelia exchanged looks with Shanna as they followed Jade into the next room, where she eagerly began to browse the shelves. Before long, Amelia did the same and they drifted off in their own directions, Shanna admiring the gleaming banisters and the warm brown wood, as well as the smell of old books as she picked up worn leather bound volumes from the shelves, skimming them briefly before returning them to the shelves, and wondering how many people had laid their hands on them.

  She climbed a staircase and looked down over the balcony at the people below as they examined books, deep in thought, some mumbling to themselves as they tried to locate what they wanted. She started to try guessing at what sort of creatures the patrons were, but so many of them looked human, that she quickly gave up, moving on to more book browsing, admiring any new art she came across along the way.

  Before long, she lost sight of Amelia and Jade and felt a moment of panic. The bookstore was so huge; she could imagine getting lost in its depths. But then she found the main aisle again and let out a sigh of relief, scolding herself for wandering without paying attention.

  She did a quick circuit of the floor she was currently on to orient herself, then began to read the signs labeling the various areas of the book floor.

  “Are you looking for anything in particular?” Eric asked, suddenly at her side.

  Shanna offered him a smile. “I thought you manned the cash register.”

  “I do,” he agreed, returning her grin. “But I had a break coming up, and you…fascinate me.”

  She laughed. “Okay… I’m really not very interesting.”

  “Oh, but you are,” he insisted, taking a step closer to her.

  “Wait,” she frowned. “Just how much have you picked out of my head?”

  He watched her for a moment, and she wondered if he was again sifting through her thoughts, perhaps looking for an answer that would appease her. Just how did people trust telepaths?

  “Forget it,” she said, holding up her hands defensively. “I don’t want to know.”

  “Not much,” he said softly, running a hand back through his hair. “Enough to know your strange connection to The Children of Athena, and your…past life.”

  Bristling, she walked away from him without saying another word, and wondered after she’d lost sight of him if she hadn’t made a mistake. He knew about The Children of Athena, a piece of her past. He had information that could be useful. And, she realized as she glanced around at the various shelves, she could frankly use some guidance in the massive place. But she figured that it was too late to change her mind, so she continued looking at signs, cluelessly trying to conjure some sort of pattern from their seemingly random order. Just where did one look for books on evil vampires they may have reincarnated from?

  She was so distracted by the signs that she didn’t notice a man around a sharp corner until she nearly walked into him. “Oh,” she murmured, stopping just in time to avoid crashing through him. She put out a hand as she stopped herself and found that she’d placed her hand on his arm. His skin felt hot to the touch, but somehow pleasant as well. Not that the rest of him was unpleasant. He was tall, perhaps six feet, four inches, with dirty blonde hair that was short on the sides, and styled up in tangles of healthy locks. He was very handsome. Actually beautiful was probably a more appropriate word, with high cheekbones and perfectly-shaped lips. He was also shirtless, only wearing a pair of dark jeans and a thick black belt. She found herself staring at his chest, which was well muscled above his well-defined abs. She swallowed hard as she dropped her hand from his strong arm, then looked up and met his eyes, red eyes that were smoldering as they looked into her own, as if he could search out her soul through them.

  She took a step back, trying to pull her eyes from him, but she found them drawn to him inexplicably. He was a gorgeous man, and she wondered briefly if he wasn’t an incubus, or some other such creature that fed off of sex magick, but the tattoo that covered the center of his chest made her think that he was more than that. It was an eye done in black ink, very life-like and somehow intimidating, as if it were real.

  He suddenly chuckled, a rumbling sound that somehow broke the spell he seemed to have over her
, and she looked away, nearly gasping with the effort. “See something you like, honey?” he asked, arrogance thick in his voice.

  Shanna returned her eyes to his face warily, to find an amused grin on his face. “I’ve seen better,” she managed. Then she walked away without daring to look back, letting his laughter chase her.