Protector of Midnight_an Urban Fantasy Novel

by Debbie Cassidy

  She looked about ten to fifteen years younger than Murray.

  “I’m sorry, mama,” Murray said. “I got lost.”

  She smoothed back his hair. “That’s all right. You’re safe now thanks to Drayton.” She turned Murray around to face Drayton. “Say thank you to Drayton, Murray.”

  “Thank you, Drayton,” Murray said compliantly.

  But Drayton only had eyes for Viola.

  She took a couple of steps closer. “Do you want to stay a while?” There was so much hope in her tone, so much longing in her eyes.

  Drayton took a step towards her and then caught himself. “I have to go.”

  “Drayton.” She reached for him, but he was already halfway to the car.

  She choked back a sob, and focused on me. “Are you two...” She shook her head, unable to finish her sentence.

  “Are we? Gosh, no. I’m new to the Protectorate and he’s just showing me the ropes.”

  She sniffed and pushed back her silver blonde hair. “He hasn’t been to see me before,” she said. “And he probably won’t come back. So, can you please tell him...Tell him it wasn’t his fault, and if he believes it was, then I forgive him.”

  Viola faded into nothing, and the specters drifted off, as if Murray’s return had severed them from their need to hover at the gates to their home. A horn honked shattering the relative serenity of the night—Drayton was impatient to be gone. With questions battling for dominance in my mind, I headed back to the vehicle.

  “Don’t,” Drayton warned as I got into the car.

  “Don’t what? Don’t get in?”

  He kept his eyes on the windscreen. “Don’t ask about her.”

  “Okay. But she asked me to give you a message.”

  He gripped the wheel tighter, evident by the whitening of his knuckles. “I don’t want to know.”

  A wave of empathy hit me, and no way was I the empathic type, not when it came to just anyone. The only person who I’d felt empathic toward had been Jesse and that had come from years of being siblings, years of shared heartache. This emotion that had me in its grip, this need to somehow smooth the crinkle from his brow and wipe away the tick in his jaw was disconcerting. And the urge to blurt Viola’s words out was so strong I had to bite the insides of my cheeks. He didn’t know what she’d said. He wasn’t ready to listen, but I’d memorize the words and hold them for him until he was.

  He started the engine and did a neat U turn.

  “What’s in the mausoleum?”

  “There’s nothing in it,” he said shortly.

  “Then why did that woman, the plump one want you to go with her?”

  “It’s a doorway to their home. The world the spirits have built using their combined energy. They call it Respite, and it’s been growing for over a hundred years.” He steered the car down the incline. “Some of the older ghosts never leave, some have forgotten their deaths and Respite has become their Arcadia, except without the monsters that would hunt them.” We were back on the slip road which led into the main district. “As time has gone on, as the living that knew them pass on, as time goes by, they have been forgotten, and so they too have forgotten. It’s a blessing really.”

  “What about Viola? What about her family?”

  His throat bobbed. “Viola had no family. Her mother died in childbirth and her father was unknown. She kept to herself and lived a relatively unsocial existence. Viola was sweet and shy.”

  That tone...regret and longing and loss. He’d loved her.

  He cleared his throat. “We’ll be back at base in five. I’d prefer it if you didn’t mention the cemetery to the others.”

  Was he worried about them asking questions about Viola? “Sure.”

  “I’ll speak to Bane about the Sanguinata recruiter and let him know we’ll be headed there tomorrow.”

  “I can still come?”

  “If you’re going to be one of the Protectorate, you need to learn how to liaise with the houses. This will be a great observational exercise.”

  “I get it. You don’t want me to speak.”

  “What you did at the hospital was admirable. But it won’t work with the Sanguinata. They don’t respond kindly to threats or manipulation. They prefer to deal in them. Like Tristan said, there is a delicate balance to Midnight, and we must work to preserve that.”

  The gates to the Protectorate base came into view, inky lines against a cloudy Midnight sky. The moon winked out, obscured by the dark churning froth and the world was plunged into absolute darkness. The car headlights swept across the gate and it opened with a creak.

  “Automated?”

  “No.”

  Okay.

  Gravel crunched under the huge wheels of the ride and then a shadowy streak cut across our path, low and fast.

  I pressed myself back against my seat, hand on heart. “What was that?”

  “Sentinels. Nothing for you to worry about. They won’t hurt you. They protect the grounds.”

  “What are they?”

  He shrugged. “No idea. I’ve never seen one up close. They’re just there.”

  We were almost at the top of the drive when movement in the periphery of my vision had my head whipping round just as something slammed into the side of the car, filling the world with the crunch of metal.

  Chapter 19

  The car turned upside down and right-side up, over and over again until it settled with a clang leaving me suspended in the air, staring through cracked glass. Pain exploded in my chest where my seatbelt cut into my torso, pinning me, and squeezing the breath from my lungs.

  “Serenity!” Drayton’s hands were on me, fumbling for the clasp to my belt.

  How had he already come loose? Wait, had he been strapped in? Shit, was that blood on his face? His hands?

  The world rumbled and shook.

  “Fuck, it’s coming. Dammit!”

  Something snapped and then I was free. My head slammed against the roof of the car, but there was no time to react to the pain, because Drayton was pressing me against the passenger side door.

  “Sorry, so sorry,” he said.

  My ribs screamed in pain. What the heck. The crunch of metal and the crack of glass covered my strangled scream and then the pressure was gone. Drayton slid out of the car, his eyes wide.

  “Give me your hand.”

  He reached back in for me. “Now, dammit!”

  I held out my arm, and pain lanced down my side. My vision darkened.

  The car began to shake around me.

  “Stay with me, Harker. Come on.” He lunged, grabbed my hand and tugged.

  My scream was fire racing up my throat and singeing the back of my nose, and then he had me in his arms and we were stumbling back. Oh, God. What had happened? I opened my eyes to a green haze.

  Something had hit us.

  Something that was stomping toward us now—an eight-foot tall metallic monster with dull red eyes and a jagged mouth—it’s movements were jerky and stiff, but its intention was clear. It wanted to hurt us and it was getting closer, moving as if it had all the time in the world. Each stomp of its oversized feet had the ground vibrating.

  Drayton backed up slowly with me still clutched to his chest. “Serenity, can you run?”

  My body was on fire. I was pretty sure I had a couple of broken ribs. “Yes.”

  “Good. I’m going to put you down and you’re going to make a break for the mansion.”

  “I’m not leaving you.”

  “Noble, Harker, but that’s a golem, and we’re not going to be able to take it down just the two of us, especially when you have broken ribs and a concussion. You need to get the others.”

  “They’ll have heard the commotion, surely?”

  “See the green shimmer in the air?”

  So, that’s what that was? Not just a side effect of getting my head bashed in. “I see it.”

  “It’s some kind of spell, it’s probably blocking sound, or something. Get the others.”

>   The golem, as if sensing our plan, put on a burst of speed. Probably what he’d used to ram us in the first place. Drayton practically flung me to the ground just as the golem swept the car out the way with an almighty crash. I hit the dirt in a crouch and ran toward the mansion, chest aching, eyes watering.

  I slammed into the foyer. “Help! Bane. Ryker, anyone!” Another shaft of pain sliced me in half, and I buckled. “Dammit, help.”

  “Serenity?” Rivers hauled me to my feet. “Where are the others?”

  “You need to help Drayton. There’s a golem outside.”

  Rivers released me, drew his sword and ran out the door.

  Ryker appeared in the entrance to the lounge. “What happened to you?” He was on me in a heartbeat, his hands probing for injury, and then heat spread across my torso leeching the pain.

  “We have to help the others,” I grabbed his hand and tugged him out of the door.

  Out into the silent night. No. It couldn’t be silent, because there, right in front of us, enveloped in a green bubble were Drayton and Rivers, battling the metal monster who refused to be cut down.

  Gravel ate at my soles as I skid into the green haze. It was as if someone had flicked on a switch to turn on the sound. The world was suddenly alive with noise. Crashed and thuds, and yells, and the whoosh and whiz of air as the golem swung his mighty fists. The earth beneath us protested with rumbles. The gravel shifted and bounced as the monster stamped and stomped. Rivers was too close to the metal beast, he staggered back as if realizing his error but lost his footing and fell down on his back. The golem brought its huge fist down in a slow motion arc, and Rivers let out a bellow, the shock waves were visible ripples in the air. Air, he was using the air to combat the golem. It worked, hitting it in the chest and pushing it back a single step.

  Drayton leapt up onto the Golem’s back.

  “No!”

  Ryker grabbed my hand. “He’s looking for a breach, some way into the metal. We need to get to the earth inside it. If we can puncture it, we can disable it.”

  Rivers was already up, slashing with his sword.

  Ryker joined him, running circles around the golem to distract it from Drayton’s ministrations. I grabbed the daggers at my waist and jumped into the fray. I slashed at its thigh managing only to scrape the metal with my blade. The thing was indestructible. It spun toward me ready with a backhand, but I dropped and rolled out the way, coming to stab at its backside.

  This time it ignored me and instead reached for Drayton. Grabbing the incubus by the scruff of the neck, he flung him toward a huge oak. The sound of his body making contact with wood was cut off as it was outside the bubble. But his mouth opened in an exclamation of pain.

  Rivers and Ryker circled the golem, as it stepped from side to side, as if unsure what its next move should be. Drayton was already back on his feet and diving into the bubble with us.

  “What does it want?” Rivers asked no one in particular.

  “We can worry about that when we bring it down,” Ryker said.

  “My blades are useless, there is no way to cut through the metal,” Rivers said.

  Blades that could cut through metal. My blades. “Wait. I have an idea.” I tucked the twin blades Cassie had given me back in their sheaths. “Just back up. Do not help me.”

  “What are talking about?” Rivers asked.

  “No,” Drayton said. “She’s right. Back up.” He’d obviously cottoned on. “Get out of the bubble.”

  “No way,” Ryker said. “Serenity, it’s too risky.”

  I shoved him. “Go!”

  And there was no time to procrastinate because the golem was coming at me, the only target left in its bubble of destruction. It was going to smash into me, hurt me, maybe kill me. Come on! The blades of Aether settled into the palms of my hands with less than a meter left between me and the golem. I dropped, ducking his swinging fist and slashed at his legs with all my might. My blades went through him like butter. And then the upper half of his body was sliding forward. Right at me.

  A strangled squeak fell from my lips just as a body slammed into me from the right. We hit the dirt together, Ryker and I. He pulled me close, cradling me against him. “Dammit, Harker. That was close.”

  Around us, the green haze dropped to the ground and seeped into the earth like a bazillion tiny motes of emerald dust. The golem was down, twitching in the final throes of its existence as the dirt packed inside its metal frame spilled out like life blood.

  Ryker pulled me up.

  The golem let out an inhuman shriek and then its body lay still.

  “What in the world happened here?” Bane stood, hands on hips, face contorted in confusion as he took in the scene. He was a hulking distorted figure under a moonless sky, and then the clouds chose that moment to part and silvery light lit up the driveway bringing the carnage into stark relief. The car was totaled, the driveway a churned mass of gravel and dirt, and Drayton... Shit. He swayed on his feet for a moment as if moving to a melody only he could hear and then he dropped like a stone.

  Chapter 20

  The huge stone hearth in the lounge had been teased into an inferno, and a meeting had been called. Cassie was still absent, but Orin was back from patrol. We sat around on chairs and sofas nursing shots of brandy or whiskey. Drayton was pale and his hair was still caked with blood, but he’d refused Ryker’s offer of healing. The meal he’d had at The Deep was enough to knit his wounds, and the bruises on his temple were fading already. If only cambions could use the power we absorbed to heal. The only way I’d be able to do that was if I absorbed Ryker’s healing ability.

  “They were after something,” Bane said. “Information most likely. A test of our defenses.” His voice was a stormy rumble. “If it had gotten away it would have taken all those details back with it.” His gaze fell to me sending a spike of fear racing up my spine. “You used the blades to bring it down.”

  It wasn’t a question, but I nodded anyway.

  “You’re lucky you succeeded. If you’d missed, if it had gotten away, it would have informed the order of your pretty enchanted blades.”

  His tone was patronizing, and it rubbed me up the wrong way. “I know how to fight, Bane. I’m not a newborn lamb. I knew what I was doing. And even if it had escaped and made its way back to the order, we don’t know that they’re even aware what the blades really are.” it was on the tip of my tongue to say that not even the Black Wings were sure, but the warning glint in his eye had me biting back those words.

  Getting onto the boss’ bad side was just dumb. If I ever wanted to have my wings unclipped, I’d need to play it by the book.

  Bane snorted in derision. “You think if they’d found out about a pair of enchanted blades that they’d just shrug and drop it? If they find out about a magical item, they’ll look into it. Hard. It’s what they do. It’s who they are. They’re arcane addicts, humans who should have gone scourge but didn’t. Instead they formed a fucking cult that worships Merlin. If they find out what those blades are, they will come for you.”

  “And they’ll have us to deal with,” Ryker said. “No one messes with one of ours.”

  Everyone began to speak at once, their voices low murmurs, but my brain was doing that going off on a tangent thing it had a habit of doing.

  Humans who should have gone scourge? Is that how the Order had gotten hold of their access to magick? “But why?”

  Bane broke off in his conversation with Ryker. “Why, what?”

  “Why does the arcane affect the Order differently?”

  Bane turned his head on his thick neck to look at me. He was standing by the hearth, dwarfing it with his huge frame, the brandy glass tiny in his paw of a hand. And now his entire attention was on me, every hair on my body quivered.

  My mouth went dry. “I’m just saying, there has to be a reason, right?”

  “If there is then we’re none the wiser,” Rivers said. “It’s probably something genetic.”

  Bane
looked away, releasing me from the deep violet depths of his eyes. I exhaled slowly, and sat back in my seat.

  “What I want to know is how it got into the compound in the first place?” Rivers asked. “The sentinels would have noticed it surely.”

  Bane tipped back his head and downed his drink. His throat bobbed once and then he set the glass on the mantle. “Not necessarily. A golem is made of earth. It’s an inanimate object animated by magick, but it is not alive. The sentinels may have sensed it, possibly been confused by it, but they wouldn’t have viewed it as a threat. This bubble you spoke of that muted the sound of the fight between you, probably affected them too.”

  “So what do we do now?” Rivers asked. “We can’t just let them get away with this. They attacked our home.”

  Bane flicked his gaze to the siren. “We do exactly that. We act as if nothing has happened and we watch for their next move.”

  Movement caught my eye, a scuttling thing on the coffee table. A spider. I let out a squeak.

  Rivers shifted forward and gently scooped up the crawly. “It’s more scared of you than you are of it,” he said.

  He walked over to the window with the crawly cupped in his hand.

  “I highly doubt that. Give me a ripper or a bloodsucker any day, but spiders, urgh.” I shuddered.

  Rivers cracked open the window and dropped the spider outside before reclaiming his seat,

  “There are a couple of other things you need to know,” Drayton said. “Serenity caught a Sanguinata trying to recruit at The Deep, and when we left we found an unconscious human female partially buried in the sand around the side of the building.”

  “Was Cassie with you?” Orin asked quietly.

  Drayton’s expression shuttered. “Yeah, she was. She didn’t come back out with us though. She bumped into an old friend.”

  Orin dropped his gaze to his lap. “Okay.”

  Oh, man. This sucked.

  “What did you do with the human?” Bane asked.