Protector of Midnight

by Debbie Cassidy

  “So, all the humans at The Deep...they’re there on the sly?”

  “Yep.”

  “Well, crap.”

  “There are two factions of humans in Midnight. Those that work to exist alongside us, and those that want to eradicate us along with the scourge,” Drayton said. “Unfortunately for us, many of the humans against us work for the MED or the public services which makes it hard for us to get the cooperation we need on cases. This hospital was built a few years ago after the main hospital began refusing to treat nephs.”

  So, there was segregation in Midnight, tiny cracks like the ones in my cell floor back in Sunset.

  “We have the upper hand because we have power,” Drayton said. “Humans need us for protection. They know it, and they hate it. Yeah, they’re pretty savvy about walking the line and not openly opposing us.”

  “Wait, so all the humans that don’t join a house...are they the ones against the nephs entirely?”

  “Some genuinely wish to live without ties to the nephs and hold no ill will, but the majority, yes.”

  “And these are the humans we protect from The Breed.”

  His lips curled in a sardonic smile. “Welcome to Midnight, Serenity.”

  At least in Sunset the people I’d kept safe had appreciated my efforts, but here I’d be protecting humans who hated me.

  The double doors behind us swished open and four men strode in. Two were in plain clothes and the other two in uniform strode into the foyer. The nephs seated in the waiting room, bristled at the intrusion. Humans. These officers were human, and I recognized one of the plain clothed one. Carrot top met my gaze steadily then blinked and licked his lips.

  The other plain clothed officer flipped open his badge. “MED. Where’s the girl?”

  Drayton crossed his arms over his chest and arched a brow. “What girl?”

  “Don’t play dumb with me, Drayton. Giles saw you put her in your car, and he followed you here.”

  “I did,” Carrot top said.

  “Planting spies at The Deep now, Langley?”

  Langley’s mouth twisted. “The Protectorate don’t have the monopoly on protecting humans. We’re investigating a spate of missing person reports originating at The Deep.”

  This is what Jonah, the owner of The Deep, had been taking about. What he’d asked me to keep an eye out for. It was what Giles was supposed to have been watching for, instead he’d been making out with a neph.

  I cocked my head. “So, your little spy, Giles, didn’t see anything suspicious?”

  Giles pushed up his bottom lip and shook his head. “Nothing.”

  “Could it be because you were otherwise engaged? Say...grinding up against a neph in a sequined dress?”

  Giles’s mouth fell open, but he snapped it closed, quickly composing himself. “She’s lying,” he said.

  Langley shot Giles a sharp look but Giles just shrugged in surprise. Damn, he was good.

  “This is our investigation,” Langley said. “So, just tell us where she is and we can get on with it.”

  Emmy chose that moment to reappear, but she wasn’t alone, behind her trudged a bespectacled man with an inquisitive face.

  “Drayton, it’s good to see you,” the man said.

  “You too,” Drayton said. They clasped hands.

  The man smiled, and pushed his spectacles up his nose. He then turned to the MED officers and his expression dropped to something below freezing.

  “Do you have a warrant?” he asked.

  Langley rolled his eyes. “No, Tristan. I do not.”

  “Then get out,” Tristan said simply.

  “Look, you have a human here. The girl they brought in is human. You probably aren’t aware but—”

  “Oh, I’m aware, and she’s in good hands. Once she regains consciousness and is ready for visitors we’ll inform the MPD who are dealing with this case.”

  Langley’s eyes flashed. “Now hang on a minute. This is an MED matter.”

  “Really? Tristan looked momentarily thrown. He tapped his bottom lip with an index finger. “Because I thought she was found at The Deep, which is MPD jurisdiction.”

  “She’s human,” Giles snapped. “And connected to a string of missing persons cases.”

  “All originating at The Deep, correct?” Drayton asked. “That is what you said, right?”

  “Which makes them all MPD cases.” Tristan tutted. “You really need to learn to do your job better.”

  Langley tucked in his chin and shook his head. “You nephs, you’re all the fucking same. Sly fuckers who’ll take what they can, when they can.”

  My neck heated. “And you humans are ungrateful arseholes who use us for protection when it suits you and treat us like shit the rest of the time.” I took a step into his personal space. “Have the paperwork for the missing persons sent over by the morning, or we’ll be coming to collect.”

  He met my gaze, the corners of his eyes twitching as we faced off, and then he backed up. “You’re playing with fire,” he said. “The MED won’t take kindly to this.”

  “Yeah? Well then tell them to find someone else to save their arses when the scourge runs.”

  If looks could kill, I’d be breathing my last, but then the heat was off as the quartet turned away and headed for the exit.

  I puffed out my cheeks and blew out a breath. “How’d I do?”

  Drayton let out a bark of laughter.

  “Wonderfully,” Tristan said with a twinkle, but then his expression hardened. “However, if you put my hospital on this kind of position again, then it will be a different story. Going up against the MED may be incurably satisfying, however, you know the clout they have in the district. Midnight functions on a delicate balance and the less we do to jeopardize that, the better.”

  “Wait, you were the one who brought up the whole jurisdiction thing?”

  He nodded. “Yes. You were wrong to bring her here, and they were wrong to claim this case.”

  Emmy smiled. “Tristan is a stickler for protocol.”

  “Which brings me to our young human patient,” Tristan said.

  “Is she really still unconscious?” Drayton asked.

  “Unfortunately, yes. We’ve sent off for blood tests and are running some labs on her now. She’s stable but unresponsive.”

  “There are no visible ligature marks on her body, no wounds of any kind,” Emmy said.

  “We’ll know more once we get the results back in a couple of hours,” Tristan said. “In the meantime, we’ll monitor her and treat her as a Jane Doe.”

  Or course, she had no personal belongings on her, no hand bag, nothing when we found her.

  “We’ll call you once we have something more,” Emmy said.

  Drayton ran a hand over his face. “Thanks, both of you, and sorry for bringing this onto your doorstep.”

  The corner of Tristan’s mouth lifted half in a smile. “I may be annoyed, but I can’t deny that you made the right call.”

  “Excuse me, nurse?” one of the patients in the waiting room called out. “I’ve been waiting for almost an hour.”

  Emmy shot us an apologetic smile. “I’ll speak to you soon. It was nice meeting you...”

  “Serenity,” I supplied.

  She nodded. “I’ll file that away.” She hurried off to deal with patients and Tristan walked us to the exit.

  Outside, the night air was crisp and fresh against my cheeks. I breathed it in, letting it wash away the panic of the last half hour.

  “You did good in there,” Drayton said. “I think you’ll be an asset to the team.”

  “We’re not done yet though, are we?” I followed him to the car. “Don’t we need to do something about the Sanguinata and their unauthorized recruitment drive?”

  He unlocked the doors with the key fob and then shot me a wicked grin. “Fancy paying the House of Vitae a little visit?”

  Chapter 18

  We drove in silence, heading east along the coast. The Black Wing resid
ence was visible in the distance, the lights tiny pinpricks in the night.

  “Isn’t it illegal to recruit outside of the annual drive?”

  He pressed his lips together. “Ryker been filling you in?”

  “Yes, so why aren’t we going in with a warrant. Wait, do you even have warrants. I’ve been with you for two weeks, and I see you guys go in and out on patrol with the other primary nephs from the guest houses, but you don’t actually do any paperwork, do you? Like keep reports and stuff?”

  His brows shot up. “No one’s showed you the office?”

  They had an office? “No.”

  “Oh, good because we don’t have one.”

  Oh. “Then why’d you say you did?”

  “To see your face.” He snorted. “It lit up, all hopeful.” He shot me a quick look. “This isn’t SPD, Harker. It isn’t MED. This is Protectorate. We are the boots on the ground and the fists in the night. We spend our time getting our hands dirty. Yeah, if we come across anything super freaky, we lodge it in the events ledger, and we do keep a rota for patrols. Other than that, there is no paperwork. Paperwork means red tape and time wasting and that’s the MED’s department. They deal with all the human criminal issues, we deal with the supernatural and that usually involves more permanent and immediate action. No paperwork required. There are certain areas of Midnight that are considered outside MED jurisdiction and The Deep is one of those places. Crimes committed there are technically considered supernatural, which is where this gray area has arisen with the missing humans.”

  “So, what do you do for cases like this?”

  “We usually do them by the book. We fill out the necessary warrants for information on the computer in the study and Bane seals them.”

  “So we should get a warrant.”

  He winced. “Technically, but if we go in with a warrant, the Sanguinata will see it as a threat, and they don’t take kindly to threats. Best to just drop in on a social visit and hope Dorian is in a good mood.”

  “Is he their leader?”

  “Yes, and they call him Lord Dorian. Sanguinata have their own internal power play and hierarchy. Something outsiders aren’t privy to. If he’s feeling amiable, we may get lucky and get an audience. Otherwise, we’ll have to request an appointment and be ready to move at the drop of a hat.”

  Maybe it was my time with the SPD. Maybe it was all the years I’d spent parading as a human, but this just felt sloppy to me. “I still think we should get a warrant.”

  He exhaled sharply. “Being able to throw the book at someone doesn’t mean it’s always the best option. Trust me. I know how to deal with Dorian. Just let me do the talking. The Sanguinata nobility have their quirks, things I don’t have time to go over with you now. Tuck away what you see, and file your questions until we get back to base, okay?”

  A shiver skipped down my spine. “What am I going to see?”

  He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “I can’t say for sure. The Sanguinata are an unpredictable contradiction.”

  Now my head hurt.

  The stretch of road we were on was silent and empty, a slip road between the busy part of the district and the residential side. A figure came into view stumbling along the side of the road. There was no pavement here. He was actually on the bloody road. On the road in bare feet!

  “Drayton!” I pointed out of the windshield.

  “I see him.” He continued to drive.

  “Wait. Look, he’s not wearing any shoes.” I tugged on Drayton’s elbow. “Stop, we have to help him. He looks lost. Confused.”

  For a moment, I thought Drayton would actually just ignore me, but then, with a soft curse and an angry tug on the steering wheel, he pulled over a meter or so behind the man.

  “Damn it, Murray.” Drayton sat with his hands gripping the wheel, knuckles white as he watched the guy in the rear view mirror.

  The guy, Murray, faltered in his step for a moment, looking this way and that. His mouth moved but it was impossible to hear what he was saying from this far away. He was dressed in a faded brown shirt and dark brown trousers. He stopped and ran a trembling hand through his wiry shock of white hair.

  I prodded Drayton’s bicep. “Well, are you going to go speak to him?”

  “Wait here,” Drayton said.

  He exited the car and slowly approached the confused looking guy. Murray smiled, his eyes lighting up as they fell on Drayton. He nodded vigorously and allowed Drayton to steer him toward our vehicle. The rear headlights spilled across him and for a moment I could have sworn he just disappeared, but no, he was back again. The back passenger door opened and Murray slipped in.

  Drayton got back in the driver’s seat and started the engine. “We’re just going to make a quick pit stop and drop Murray home.” The words were clipped. He glanced at the clock on the dashboard. “We may need to hold off on our visit to the House of Vitae and go first thing in the morning.”

  My heart shrank with disappointment. What were the odds of Bane letting me go with Drayton once he found out about the Sanguinata recruitment? And there was no way Drayton was not going to report what had happened to his boss.

  We pulled back onto the road.

  “Are we there yet?” Murray asked from the back seat.

  “Not long now, Murray,” Drayton said kindly.

  It was a tone I hadn’t heard him use before—soft and considerate, as if he was speaking to a child. A quick peek in the rear view mirror showed Murray doing that muttering thing again. He’d seemed confused and wandering around without shoes. It was clear what was going on here.

  “How long has he had dementia?”

  “A few years. He’s a good guy, just wanders off sometimes. He’d have found his way home eventually, but by that time he’d have worked himself up into a state.”

  “You can’t just assume that. Dementia gets worse with time. I can’t believe you were just going to drive off and leave him.”

  “He would have been fine. Trust me, Murray isn’t going to get any worse.”

  What did that mean? And why did he sound so pissed off about it? I was about to ask when we swung left onto a narrow track that cut up an incline, and then an ornate arch rose up ahead of us. The headlights swept over the curly iron letters that graced the curve of the arch.

  Respite Cemetery.

  What the heck?

  Murray clapped his hands together. “Home. Home.”

  “Um, Drayton, why are we at the cemetery?”

  Drayton shut off the engine. “Because this is where Murray lives.”

  My pulse skipped and my heart lurched as several figures appeared under the arch. Up here, with the light of the moon shining strong you could see right through them all.

  Heart hammering, I turned my head to look into the back seat and right through Murray.

  A scream lodged in my throat as I clawed for the door handle.

  “Drayton grabbed my wrist. “Seriously?” he snapped. “You’ve faced scourge and Killion and you’re running from Murray, a harmless ghost.”

  His tone was sincerely incredulous. He really believed I was being ridiculous and when he put it that way, then yeah, it was pretty crazy. I slowly peeled myself off the door and loosened my grip on the handle.

  “You have ghosts.” Man my voice sounded all croaky and weird.

  “Yes, we have ghosts. Everyone here is a victim of the scourge or The Breed. Unable to move on, for whatever reason, they seem to be drawn here. They’ve made it their home.” He stared out the window at the gathered forms, his eyes scanning them as if searching for something.

  Murray was patting the window, eager to get out.

  “You can stay here,” Drayton said to me. “I won’t be long.”

  He got out and unlocked Murray’s door. My fear had evaporated to be replaced by curiosity. Ghosts. Who’d have thought? Drayton approached the transparent gathered figures and I quickly stepped out of the vehicle to join him.

  Several pairs of eyes skimmed
over me, smiles and nods and talking amongst themselves, Music drifted on the breeze and fireflies hovered over the gravestones. It would have been pretty if not for the whole cemetery housing dead people thing.

  “Aw, Drayton, thank you for bringing him home,” a plumb cheery woman said. “It’s been a while for sure since we saw you.” There was no reproach in her tone, just sadness. “You know we’ve missed your visits.”

  Drayton licked his lips. “I’m sorry. I...”

  “Ach, never you mind.” She waved her hand toward the stone mausoleum rising up behind them. “Why not come visit with us for a while?”

  The doors to the mausoleum were ajar, and, no, it wasn’t my imagination, the music was drifting out from inside the stone structure.

  “I... No, I need to get back,” Drayton said.

  The crowd parted and a beautiful ethereal woman slipped through the gathered. Her cupid bow mouth broke into a beaming smile at the sight of Drayton, and his whole body tensed.

  “The fireflies told me you were here,” she said. “But I didn’t believe, didn’t dare hope. But here you are.”

  “Hello, Viola,” Drayton said. His tone was flat and dull.

  Her joyous expression slipped, and shadows filled her eyes. “You finally came, but not to see me, did you?” Viola asked with a sad smile. “You want to forget.”

  “How can I?”

  Her gaze slid my way and she caught her bottom lip between her teeth. “Time has a way of healing all wounds...for some of us.”

  “Not me,” he said.

  Those two words vibrated with pain and longing and suddenly it was clear why he’d been so annoyed. He hadn’t wanted to come here, because he hadn’t wanted to see her. This woman. This dead woman. He cared for her...she was someone he’d lost. Was this what Cassie had been alluding to at The Deep? Was this something to do with The Breed? Is this why he hated them so much? Did he love her?

  A plump woman held out her arms to Murray and he hurried over to her, allowing her to clasp him to her bosom and rock him back and forth. “You, naughty boy. I warned you to stay put, didn’t I?” The plump woman said.