Protector of Midnight_an Urban Fantasy Novel

by Debbie Cassidy

  “Harker?”

  I stepped into the chute. “I’m here. I’m all right. Drayton, you need to get down here.”

  “Gary’s gone to fetch some ropes from the van. We’re loading up. Just hold tight. Do not go anywhere.”

  “You don’t need to worry about that. We’ll need torches too.”

  A scratching sound behind me had me spinning round. But it was so dark it was impossible to make out anything.

  “Drayton. Please, hurry.”

  The scratching came again, and something else...something that sounded suspiciously like breathing. Oh, fuck. I wasn’t alone.

  The scuffling grew closer, and the air closed in. My hands began to burn. The daggers were coming, thank God, and then a rope appeared in front of me and a moment later Drayton landed in the tunnel. I threw myself at him. He wrapped his arms around me, lifting me off my feet.

  “It’s all right. I’m here,” he whispered in my ear.

  I nodded. “There’s something down there. I heard it.”

  Gary landed in the tunnel and chucked a flashlight to Drayton. Drayton caught it neatly, and turned it on. He shined it to our left. A shadow withdrew around the bend.

  “What the fuck was that?” Gary asked.

  “I think we’re going to need to find out,” Drayton said.

  Be wary

  The daggers were already in my hands. There was mortal danger down here and we had no choice but to advance into it. Carl joined us, and with Drayton leading the way, we followed the shadow.

  The tunnel was wide enough for two of us to walk abreast of each other, so I walked abreast of Drayton with Clay and Gary making up the rear. The flashlight made the tunnels even creepier, intensifying the darkness outside its shaft of light. The ground underfoot was smooth as if someone had taken the time to carefully pat the earth back into place. And then we came to an intersection with three tunnels leading off from it.

  My scalp crawled and my stomach clenched. “It’s a burrow.”

  “Yeah, a fucking huge one,” Gary said.

  “I really don’t think I want to meet the owner,” Carl said softly.

  Drayton ran the light from his flashlight across the three entrances. “Eenie, meenie, miney, mo.” He swung the light back to the first exit and then stepped through.

  A scuffle drifted down toward us and Drayton paused, swinging the flashlight this way and that. The glint of eyes and then a flash of hairy limbs.

  Gary yelped. “Mother of shit.”

  “Was that a... Oh, man.” A spider. It had looked like a huge, inhumanly sized, monstrous spider. My palms were instantly coated in a sweat and if the daggers hadn’t been magically stuck to me, I’d have dropped them.

  Breath, just breath.

  “I am breathing,” I snapped.

  “What?” Drayton asked. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. I was just talking to...” the voice in my head? Er nope. “I’m fine.”

  But that was a lie, because my knees were ready to knock, and my heart fit to burst because spiders were supposed to be more scared of us than we were of them, right? Not one that size. One that size could eat my face.

  Drayton hadn’t advanced either. “Maybe we should head back and call for that back up.” I’d never heard him sound unsure before, and it sent a chill up my spine, but Jesse and the kids were down here with the huge spider. I couldn’t come this far and then back off.

  “I think we should just go a little farther. Just to scope it out. That thing hasn’t attacked us yet.”

  Drayton nodded. “Fine just a little farther and then we head back and get a few more boots down here and some more light.”

  We continued in silence, the only sound our rapid shallow breath and the scent of our fear. Was it my imagination or was the tunnel getting wider?

  “Drayton, I think that—”

  A yelp slammed into us from behind but was cut off too soon.

  “Carl!” Gary swiped at thin air, the flashlight went wild.

  “Argh!” Gary reached for us before being whisked back into the darkness.

  Drayton grabbed my hand. “Run.”

  We barreled down the tunnels, taking one turn after the other. I wasn’t keeping track and I doubted that Drayton was either, all that mattered was getting away and then we slammed into something sticky and strong.

  “A web, dammit!” Drayton said. “Don’t move. The more you struggle the more tangled you’ll get. My arm was stuck above my head, face buried in the sticky, silken strands of the massive web, and my hands still clutched the daggers. The daggers that could cut through anything.

  Hell, yes.

  I tested what little movement I had. All I needed was to angle my wrist enough to allow the blades to make contact with the threads, but the bonds were too tight. There was no wiggle room.

  You can do this. Just drop the shields.

  What? No. Now wasn’t the time to let the hunger out. The need to feed would take over everything including logic.

  Listen to me, child, the sentinel approaches, there is no time.

  The web began to vibrate, and ice filled my veins. The sentinel? We had to get out. Biting the insides of my cheeks I cracked open my shields and waited for the hunger, it surged to the surface, flooding me and lending my limbs a boost of strength. My wrist snapped taut and then this time when I strained against the bonds they stretched and my blade made contact. My wrist was free.

  “Harker, what are you doing?”

  “Cutting myself free.” I worked carefully, strategically, while the web bounced, announcing that the sentinel was close.

  Faster.

  I was going as fast as I could, and then the web released me, and I fell through to the other side. Drayton cursed and when I turned to him I could barely make him out. The threads that I’d cut had rolled back and wrapped around him. His body was coated and the only visible part of him were his eyes and mouth.

  “Go,” he said. “Go get help. Now.”

  “I’m not leaving you.” I began to slash at the web, desperate to get him free, the whole thing was bouncing now, yanking Drayton out of my reach. He slammed into the roof of the tunnel and stuck there.

  No.

  The flashlight, which had fallen to the ground flickered.

  “Serenity, you need to leave before whatever is coming gets here.”

  “The sentinel.”

  His eyes widened. “The daggers told you that?”

  “Yes.” A sob caught in my throat. I couldn’t reach him. Even if I wanted to cut him down, I just couldn’t.

  The light flickered over his face, catching the whites of his eyes and making them gleam. And the scrape of talons on flattened earth echoed down the tunnel, clip, clip, clip. Scrape.

  No.

  I reached for Drayton and his gaze softened.

  Then the flashlight went out and the tunnel was filled with an inhuman screech,

  “Run!” Drayton ordered.

  This time I listened.

  Chapter 28

  The darkness was complete, and yet I ran. The daggers in my hand tugged me forward.

  Left.

  Right here.

  There’s an intersection coming up.

  My disembodied companion could see in the dark it seemed.

  I’d left Drayton behind.

  The sentinel had him

  Keep moving. Do not stop. They are behind you. They do not want you to escape.

  Duh? I’d kinda figured that one out.

  Sarcasm will not serve any constructive purpose here.

  What? Could he read my mind?

  Irrelevant.

  It was highly relevant but escape was more so.

  Stop, here, turn to your right, move forward.

  I followed his direction and something bumped my knee.

  It’s a chute. Climb it. You will need to dig your way out but it is not deep.

  How did he know all this?

  I don’t, but you do.

  Wha
t the heck did that mean?

  Not now. Later.

  I climbed, my knees scraping on the bumpy earth and then I came up against soft soil. Freshly turned soil.

  Dig.

  Using my hands as spades I did just that. The earth shifted around me and behind me, and I was cocooned in it. My hair my face, my eyes—I was burying myself alive. Panic took hold of my lungs and used them as a squeezy toy,

  Focus, child. You’re almost there. Can you feel it? Can you feel the air?

  Now that he mentioned it, I could. Tamping down on the horror, I pushed on and then my hand thrust into nothing. No. Not nothing. Air. With a final push I broke the surface into the moonlight.

  Keep moving. There isn’t much time. It knows you have found its home and it will act to protect itself.

  “What is it?”

  Something ancient and wily. Something I had hoped never to see again.

  And what the heck are you

  A friend.

  I stared at my hands. The daggers were gone, they had been for a while and yet he was still speaking to me, which meant he’d been there all along—when I’d kissed Drayton, when I’d fed off River, when Bane had saved me from Abigor.

  I do not invade your privacy. Ever. I will always make myself known when it is time to fight or guide your hand. The daggers respond to danger, but I cannot always be there.

  “And where do you go? I mean, where are you?”

  Somewhere you do not want to be.

  Enough with the cryptic. “How about just leaving me be?

  A chuckle. That I cannot do. Not yet.

  I pulled myself free of the earth. I was in the park, the one that the ripper had dragged the woman to. This is where he’d brought her, to this chute. The rippers were feeding this thing?

  What the fuck?

  I began to jog to the road. I needed to get to Bane and the others. We needed backup. A mile and a half on the ground, but if I took the roofs I could cut that journey in half. I cracked open my shields a little more, allowing the power I’d taken from Rivers to seep into my limbs. There was enough. There had to be.

  Just bring the shields down.

  No. There was no need for that. I could do this. I had it under control. And then I launched myself up onto the nearest roof and began to fly.

  ***

  The Mansion door swung open and I staggered in. My legs were rubber, and they gave way as soon as I hit the foyer.

  “Ryker! Bane! Someone!” I couldn’t move. I’d used my final reserves of power and the craving spread through my limbs like fire ants over my skin. The shields had fallen. I needed to put them up now. I tugged mentally but they refused to budge.

  No. Oh, shit. No. Why had I listened to the voice?

  “Serenity?” Ryker’s face floated above mine.

  “Get away.” My lips felt strange, as if they belonged to someone else.

  He reached for me, and I tried to roll away but the fire ants on my skin pressed down, holding me immobile.

  “Get away from her.” Bane’s voice reverberated throughout the corridor. “She’s craving, can’t you feel it?”

  Ryker’s eyes widened. His mouth twisted and he backed up. He had shields too, he must have dropped them. Good. He was safe. I didn’t want to hurt him, because this was a new kind of craving, something primal and raw and dangerous. I’d fed, I’d controlled the hunger and I’d kept the shields up a fraction, so why had it got so bad? How had the hunger forced the shields all the way down?

  Because it isn’t enough. You must feed the darkness not throw it scraps.

  Go away, just leave.

  Bane’s face replaced Ryker. “Harker, can you hear me?”

  The fire in my veins intensified and a scream tore from my throat. My body bucked of its own accord.

  “What’s happening?” Ryker said. “Why is she glowing?”

  Solid arms scooped me off the cool flagstones and pressed me to a different kind of furnace. My body wasn’t my own, gripping, and writhing, wanting. Oh, God. The shame.

  And then we were on the move.

  “Where are you taking her?” Ryker asked.

  “To be fed.”

  “Bane, what—”

  “Do you want to do it?” Bane snapped.

  Ryker was silent. He couldn’t, wouldn’t open up to me like that. My eyes burned because even though I understood why he wouldn’t, this would be so much easier with him. He grounded me in a way I didn’t understand.

  The world was a blur and Bane’s skin was velvet and taut and, yes, it tasted salty. Had I just licked him? Oh, fucking hell? Please, this had to end. Silk sheets kissed my fevered skin. Skin...where were my clothes. Rational thought fled my mind as a body covered mine. His skin brushed mine, his muscles sliding over my sensitized flesh

  “Feed, Harker.” Bane’s voice in my ears.

  My shields were down and I had no control so why wasn’t the darkness feeding?

  Because you are always in control, Serenity. Don’t you understand yet?

  “Harker, feed.”

  Yes.

  I latched on to him, wrapping my arms around his torso, hooking my legs around his. It was intimate and crazy and delicious, and his power—that honey syrup edged with cinnamon—poured into me. My heart pumped hard, pulse thudding in my ear, my core tightened and tightened as if...oh, god. No.

  “It’s all right, Serenity. Just let go.” Bane’s voice was rough, hoarse and breathless.

  No, no I couldn’t. This wasn’t how I fed. This was wrong.

  He smoothed my hair back from my face. His thumbs brushed the curve of my jaw, and then his lips brushed the delicate skin under my ear. His tongue flicked out to taste me, and I lost my grip. The orgasm ripped through me like a mini tornado, tearing a throaty groan that would have me mentally closing my ears for years to come.

  Bane’s body pressed into me. His huge hardness rubbed against my sensitive parts, and, damn it, I was grinding up against him, wet and slick and wanton.

  Drayton’s face flashed through my mind. The webbing was wrapped around his body and over his face. The sentinel had him. We had to save him.

  “Enough.” I bucked, and twisted and Bane rolled off me.

  My hand went to my chest where my heart felt as if it was about to crash through my rib cage and make a break for it. I slammed my shields down, but the juncture of my thighs still throbbed hungrily.

  “Harker?”

  My body grew liquid as lethargy infused me. Last time I’d fed off him, I’d slept for hours. No. Not this time. I jumped off the bed, shaking my arms and hopping from foot to foot. I needed to stay awake. I needed to. Hey, the floor was rising up to say hello.

  ***

  I opened my eyes on a snort.

  Bane’s deep violet eyes drank me in from his position on the side of the bed. His chest rose and fell erratically.

  “How long have I been out?”

  “Twenty minutes,” he said.

  “We have to go. Right now.” I swung my legs off the bed, my knees brushing against his chest. His huge hands closed them. They were bare. I was naked. No. I still had my underwear on but still.

  “Calm down. Tell me what happened.”

  He was so close. Too close, and the memory of his powerful body pressed against mine was too fresh for this proximity. I’d wanted him, writhed under him, and—oh, God—he’d licked me.

  “Harker, focus.”

  I shook my head, dispelling the final vestiges of the feeding. “Drayton and the others are in danger.” My voice was a rasp. I cleared my throat. “There are tunnels underground. Spiders.” I filled him in as quickly as I could. “And I think the daggers know what we’re dealing with, at least the voice that goes with them does.”

  Bane stroked the tattoos on my wrists. “Can you speak to him now?”

  I closed my eyes and reached out. Hey are you there?

  Nothing.

  “He’s not here. He did say he wasn’t always here.”

  B
ane’s lips compressed. “Fine. In that case we’ll have to work with what we have. We’re dealing with spiders, big ones, but still insects. So let’s treat them like what they are.”

  He rose and held out his hand. “Let’s go crush some eight legged beasts.”

  ***

  Ryker pulled me into a hug in the foyer. “You scared me half to death.”

  Orin and Cassie were by the door, adjusting their weapons belts.

  Rivers bounded down the stairs. His sword had been replaced by a smaller blade tucked into a sheath at his waist, and his sword spot had been filled by a canister strapped to his back.

  “What is that?” Ryker asked.

  “Bug repellent.” He shrugged. “It won’t kill them, but it will slow them down.”

  Bane grinned. “Good thinking, Rivers.”

  Orin clapped his hands together. “Let’s do this thing.”

  “Wait,” Bane said. “Cassie, Ryker alert the MED and rally reinforcements. Cover the two chutes and kill any threat that emerges.”

  Ryker’s body tensed. “Like Hell. We’re coming with you.”

  Bane growled and his lip curled to showcase his fangs. “Don’t test me, Ryker.”

  Ryker bristled, his gaze sweeping over me, his brow crinkling in concern. “Damn it, Bane.”

  Bane’s eyes narrowed. “She is with me. She will be safe.”

  Ryker closed his eyes briefly and nodded.

  Cassie placed a hand on his arm. “Come on, let’s round up the troops and get going. If anything goes horrifically wrong, I should feel it, we’ll get down there asap, I promise.”

  Ryker nodded reluctantly.

  Rivers joined us by the front door. “Do you need to feed?” His expression was impassive, but the rapid pulse at his throat told a different story.

  “I’m good, thank you.”

  He nodded curtly.

  Bane yanked open the door and we piled out and headed for the van. When we got there, Rivers and Orin climbed in, but Bane took a few steps away. I turned to him enquiringly.

  That smile again, with the fangs. “I’ll see you there.”

  His wings shot out, huge obsidian things and he launched himself up into the air.

  “Serenity?” Rivers held out his hand, and I clasped it, allowing him to haul me into the van. The door slammed and we were off.