Protector of Midnight_an Urban Fantasy Novel

by Debbie Cassidy

  I pulled my arm back and pushed my sleeve down. I licked my dry lips. “Do you know what’s happening to me?”

  He stood slowly, towering over me, and drew his sword. “I’m sorry. But I cannot allow you to live.”

  “Abbadon?” Bane said. “What are you—”

  But the sword flared to life, silver and magnificent, and then it was arching toward me. I was going to die. My brain went into panic mode, body flooding with adrenaline. I instinctively brought my hands up to shield myself, forearms crossed. My wrists burned and then weight settled in the palms of my hands. The sword cut through the air with a whoosh but never made contact.

  “Look, Bane. Look at that.” Abbadon said.

  I raised my head, blood roaring in my ears and stared at the daggers in my hands.

  Bane was on his knees before me. “Are you all right?” His tone was gruff but tentative.

  I shook my head. “No. No I’m not all right. What the fuck is going on?” I stared from Bane to Abbadon. “Can someone please explain this shit to me?”

  “The daggers reacted to what you perceived as a threat. They materialized when I attacked you.”

  I stared at the wicked sharp blades still clinging to my skin. He hadn’t meant to kill me. It’d been a stupid test. Panic was a live thing burning its way through my airways.

  “I want them out. I need you to get them off me.” I shook my hands desperate for the blade to be gone. They blinked out.

  Gone? Were they gone? I tugged up my sleeve and let out a growl. I’d been expelled from my home, taken from my sister, and just when I’d convinced myself being part of the Protectorate might not be so bad, I had daggers stuck under my fucking skin.

  “Abbadon. What is going on?” Bane asked. His body heat wafted toward me, bathing me in warmth I desperately craved now that the adrenaline rush was abating. “You asked me to keep the slab safe. To keep it out of the Order’s hands. You told me no one could remove the daggers from the stone.”

  “The daggers are all we have left of Merlin,” Abbadon said. “Creating them was his last act before he vanished, and the Order, with their insane ideas, must not get hold of the relic.”

  With my shields down it was weird, but it was almost as if I could taste the evasiveness in his response, and man it was suddenly crystal clear. “You’re afraid The Order might know something you don’t, aren’t you?”

  His eyes narrowed, and he pressed his lips together.

  I stood up. “You have no idea what these daggers are, do you?”

  My tone was slightly more accusatory then intended, but then did I really give a shit? He was hiding stuff from not only me, but Bane as well. Pretending to know shit when he was as clueless as we were. Not cool.

  “They are rumored to cut through anything,” Abbadon said.

  “Yeah, even I know that, and I’ve been here for five minutes. But how can you know for sure? You’ve never tried them, because they’ve always been stuck in the stone.”

  “That’s right.”

  “And you have no idea why they chose me.” I rubbed the tattoos through the fabric of my shirt.

  He smiled, and it lit up his face. “Oh, that I can answer. These are daggers of Aether, which means they can only be wielded by someone with an affinity for Aether and void.” He paused to let that sink in. “They chose you. Which means you’ve found your elemental affinity.”

  An affinity... “I don’t have an affinity for anything.”

  “You obviously do. Problem is the Aether affinity is so rare we have very little information on how it manifests.”

  This was too much—revelation on top of revelation with no time to breathe or get my feet under the table. Not enough time to adjust.

  “What happened?” Bane asked. “Cassie said you were in a trance.”

  Okay, a rundown of events was a good idea. It was a chance to focus and hopefully fix this thing. “I heard a voice calling me. I followed it and the next thing I knew I had the daggers and alarms were blaring.”

  “A voice?” Abbadon said. “What kind of voice?”

  “A man’s voice. I don’t know.”

  “And what did this man say?” he asked.

  What had he said? “Just stuff like, come here, do you see me and... Oh, together we are invincible.” Invincible. I pulled up my sleeves again. “I’m stuck with them aren’t I?”

  “For now,” Abbadon said. “But we will find out more, and we will find a way to unbind you.”

  Unbind me, because I was bound. Of course, I knew that was what had happened, but hearing him use the word brought it home. My heart sank and the darkness inside me stretched and sighed. Wait...the shields were still down but the crazy desperate hunger was gone. I didn’t need to feed. How was this possible? Could it be the daggers? Were they somehow soothing the need or was it the feast that Bane had given me on my arrival—the honey that had knocked me for six but had left me energized and refreshed. Too many questions without answers.

  “Serenity,” Bane said. “I promise you, we will find answers.”

  “I’m fine. Cassie said we needed to pick a weapon, right?” I flexed my hands. “These daggers will have to do for now.”

  His chuckle was like gravel over syrup.

  “No.” Abbadon said. “If the Order finds out what you’re wielding it could be dangerous.”

  “So, what are you saying? I have to stay indoors until you fix this?”

  Bane and Abbadon exchanged glances.

  Abbadon locked gazes with me, his expression solemn. “No. You’ll come with me. You will be a guest of the Black Wings.”

  My stomach did a flip. Guest was just a polite way of saying prisoner. Well, that so wasn’t happening. “Does the Order even know these daggers exist?”

  “We don’t know,” Abbadon said.

  “Let me get this straight. You want to take me prisoner—”

  “Guest,” Abbadon said. “You’d be free to roam the mansion.”

  I shot him an arch look. “As I was saying, you want to take me prisoner because you’re worried that the Order may, possibly know about the existence of these daggers, and could maybe recognize them if I used them. Never mind the fact that no one is supposed to be able to pull them from that slab, or that fact that Aether affinity is super rare.”

  “She has a point,” Bane said. He moved slightly, enough to obstruct Abbadon’s access to me.

  A chill skittered up my spine. Would the Black Wing take me by force? Could he best Bane?

  Abbadon’s eyes were speculative slits as his gaze slid from Bane then back to me. “We cannot take the risk,” he said.

  “Fuck that!” I stepped away from them both. “I am not going to be a prisoner because of a maybe, or a possibly. I didn’t want to be here, but now I am, and there is no way I’m sitting and twiddling my thumbs while there are humans out there that need saving. That isn’t who I am, so if you want to keep me off the streets you’re gonna have to kill me.” My pulse was hammering with adrenaline, with the need to flee or fight and my palms burned just like they’d burned when I’d been attacked. They were responding to my fear. “But I warn you, you’ll have a fight on your hands.”

  The daggers slid into my palm in response to the threat, but it looked good, as if I’d summoned them on cue, and my chest heated with gratitude for the display of power.

  Good girl

  “These things can cut through anything right?” I arched a brow, feigning confidence and met Abbadon’s stare head on.

  “Talk some sense into your officer, Bane,” Abbadon said.

  Bane tucked in his chin, hands on hips and then he shrugged a huge shoulder. “They are rumored to cut through anything.” He looked, up, his lips turned down. “Possibly even wings.”

  Abbadon pinched the bridge of his nose. “Dammit, Bane. When will you accept that we’re on the same side?”

  “When you stop keeping secrets from me,” Bane said.

  “Fine, you can keep her. But she is your respon
sibility. If the Order discovers the existence of the relic, if they come for her, if they get their hands on the daggers, it will be on your head.” He strode toward the balcony. “If you change your mind, you know how to get hold of me.” His wings stretched and flapped, and he launched himself up into the air with one powerful leap.

  “The others don’t know about the Black Wings. No one comes up here but me,” Bane said shortly.

  “What are you saying?”

  “They can’t know.” He turned on me, his eyes blazing, lips pulled back to reveal wicked canines. “You breathe a word of this meeting, and I will end you, and don’t think those daggers will stop me. I’ll catch you while you sleep and I’ll tear out your throat.”

  “Whoa!” I held up my hands. “Look, I think I know a little about keeping secrets. You don’t need to get all grrrr.”

  His lips dropped back over his fangs and his brow furrowed. “You’re either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid.” He headed for the door. “You must be cold. Let’s get indoors.”

  Goodness he was a mercurial creature. “Thanks,”

  “What for?” he said gruffly.

  “For taking my side.”

  He turned his head, offering me his wickedly gruesome profile. His lip curled showcasing a lethal canine. “You’re one of us now, Harker, and I take care of my own.”

  “Wait.”

  His chest rumbled in exasperation. “What now?”

  “What shall I tell them? The others. They’re gonna ask what happened up here.”

  He turned slowly, his eyes glinting in the night. “You could tell them we had a tryst?”

  Was he serious?

  His regard was suddenly too intimate, too probing as it raked over me. “No, they wouldn’t believe that. If I fucked you, you’d probably break.”

  My heart slammed against my ribs. Whether in fear or arousal I wasn’t quite sure. His nostrils flared and he cocked his head as if listening for something. He was a mountain not a man. He was mean and rude and temperamental. It was fear that was sending my blood rushing to my head, but the daggers didn’t materialize.

  He snorted and turned back to the door. “Tell them we talked. Tell them I’m looking into things.”

  Chapter 14

  “And then she was like: Enunciating. Won’t. Make. A. Difference.” Cassie’s voice drifted out of the kitchen to greet me. It was a pretty good impression of me, I had to say, she had the right amount of jaw clenching going on.

  Male laughter filled the air.

  “I wish I’d been there to see it,” Orin said.

  I stepped into the room and all eyes were on me.

  “Here she is, the woman of the hour.” Cassie held her arms wide in greeting.

  Ryker kicked the seat out opposite him in invitation, and I slid into the spot, scanning the faces around me. Cassie, Orin and Ryker I knew, and Drayton wasn’t here, but there was a new face at the table—slender, features, an inquisitive mouth and a guarded gaze.

  “Hi, I’m Serenity.” I held up a hand in greeting.

  The new guy studied me for a moment, his throat worked and then he picked up his cup. The silver cuff on his wrist glinted in the overhead light. “I know who you are.” His tone was cold, indifferent.

  “Rivers...” Ryker shot him a warning glance.

  Rivers pushed back his seat and stood. “Don’t worry, Ryker. I’m not sticking around. I have to get ready for patrol. See you around, Serenity.” He strode from the room. His wiry form vanishing out the door.

  I winced. “I don’t suppose he’s like that with everyone is he?”

  Ryker exhaled through his nose, but Cassie laughed.

  “Oh, don’t mind Rivers. He doesn’t like change. He’s inherently suspicious of anything new but he’ll warm up to you. You just have to give him time. Rivers is our resident genius. He makes things, and fixes things.”

  I desperately wanted to ask what Rivers was but it didn’t feel right.

  “It was dangerous,” Ryker said. “Going head to head with Bane like that.”

  “Oh, come on, Ryker,” Cassie said. “Bane wouldn’t hurt her.”

  She didn’t sound too sure though, plus hadn’t she been pressed up against the wall out of harm’s way at the time? I glanced from Ryker’s stern face to Cassie’s guilty one. But it was Orin who filled the silence.

  “Bane is an honorable neph,” Orin said. “He believes in protecting the humans of Arcadia, and if you’re on his side, then he would never hurt you. However, if in that moment he thought you were a spy, a member of the Order sent to infiltrate and steal from us, he would have killed you.”

  “And it was her standing up to him that stopped him,” Cassie said. “There was no way a spy would have had the balls to do that, not with Bane’s fingers wrapped around their throat.”

  Ryker tensed. “You didn’t tell us that.”

  Cassie shrugged. “It worked out all right.” She popped a chip into her mouth and chewed. “So, what happened at the roost?”

  Now they were all giving me sly looks. But Bane’s voice reverberated inside my head. The others don’t need to know about the Black Wings...tell them we talked and I’m looking into things.

  I repeated his words and shrugged. “So, I just wait.”

  “And in the meantime we have no idea what those daggers are actually doing to you?” Ryker said.

  “Ryker, man. Chill.” Orin said.

  What was going on here?

  Ryker pushed back his chair. “I’m gonna run some laps. I’ll find you when I’m done and we can talk,” he said to me.

  The room was deadly silent for several beats. “What just happened?”

  Cassie tapped her empty plate. “Ryker’s a worrier, that’s all. He cares. He can’t help it, and sometimes it twists him up inside.”

  Orin frowned and opened his mouth to add something but the scrape of Cassie’s chair as she pushed it back cut him off. His shoulders slumped as if in defeat.

  “There’s some left over pie in the oven if you’re hungry.” Orin smiled disarmingly, his handsome face suddenly boyish and appealing. “I made it earlier.”

  “Okay, you big lug, let’s get some rest,” Cassie said. “We have patrol in four hours.” Cassie tugged him to his feet and they left hand in hand. For the first time since being brought to the MPD, I was alone with my own thoughts, and, frankly, I had no idea what the heck to think.

  In the absence of any constructive thought, pie sounded bloody fabulous. I’d eat pie and wait for Ryker and maybe I’d get some proper answers.

  ***

  After several wrong turns, dusty, spooky corridors, and locked doors, I found my way back to my allocated room. Someone had laid fresh clothes on my bed, and the wardrobe had been stocked with the black clothes I’d come to associate with the Protectorate. A quick feel of the material confirmed that, yep, they were definitely not leather. They were stretchy, thick fabric that could probably withstand some serious wear and tear—perfect for going up against the scourge.

  I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the dagger tattoos on the inside of my wrists.

  “Why me?”

  Was I expecting the voice to answer? Kind of, but there was silence. Did the voice only speak when the daggers were out and when I was in danger? Where was it? In my head. Shit. Was it in my head? No. It had to be connected to the daggers which were under my skin. Urgh. It was invasive and unsettling and as cool as it was, I wanted them gone. But they’d picked me, which made me different, special maybe? Could this be a clue to who I was and why I’d been abandoned to Arcadia?

  There was a knock on the door.

  “Come in.”

  Ryker entered smelling all fresh and showered. His hair was still damp and curled under his ears, and he was dressed in joggers, a t-shirt and slippers. “Are you tired?” he asked.

  Should I be? “What time is it?”

  “Almost nine in the evening.”

  “This Midnight thing is going to take som
e getting used to.”

  “You’ll adjust. You lived in Sunset all hours of the day. Soon, Midnight will be no different. Your body clock will adjust, in the meantime just rely on your watch.” He sat on the edge of my bed. “I’m sorry for running off earlier.” He pulled a mobile phone from his pocket and handed it to me. “This is for you. I’ve pre-programmed it with all the important numbers. You won’t be able to call out of the district though.” He made an apologetic face.

  I popped the mobile on the bedside table and shuffled back up against the headboard. “When we first met, Drayton said you didn’t talk much.”

  He balked. “Are you saying I talk too much?”

  I chuckled. “No. Gosh, no. I just wondered why he’d say that.”

  Ryker ducked his head. “Because it’s usually true.”

  “But not when it comes to me?”

  He fixed his gaze over my shoulder. “It’s impossible not to talk to you. You ask so many questions.”

  “You don’t have to answer.”

  He smiled. “I find myself wanting to.”

  What was it about this guy that made me feel so safe and at home? I crossed my legs and got comfortable. “Can you tell me about the others? I know Cassie is a banshee, but what about Orin and Rivers.”

  What about you, I wanted to ask. All I knew was that he was an empath, but my gut told me there was more to his story. Cassie and Orin’s weird shared glances when Ryker had left earlier and his own reticence all made that gut feeling stronger.

  “I know it’s nosey. but I kinda really need to know. It’s been driving me nuts.”

  He shifted to lean back against the post at the foot of my bed. “Orin has an affinity for water. He can breathe under water, and he’s able to draw moisture from the atmosphere if need be. He’s also a wizard with scones, and anything baked. We think he may have Roan in his family tree somewhere.”

  “What’s a Roan?”

  “A first generation of nephs who could shift into seals. When in human form, they’d shed their skin and hide it until they were ready to return to the sea. Orin can’t shift though, but he does crave the sea.”