Shades of Midnight: an Urban Fantasy novel (Chronicles of Midnight Book 4)

by Debbie Cassidy

  He propped himself up on his elbow. “Look. I know how things are. I know how you feel about the others, and that’s okay.”

  I ran a hand over his smoothly shaven jaw. “I’m glad. I’d never want to hurt you. And I want you to know that the way I feel about you is unique to us.” I leaned up to kiss his lips. “No one can replicate that.”

  Orin closed his eyes and touched my forehead with his. “Good to know.”

  Cassie’s warning circulated in my mind. “I promise I’ll never push you away, or make you feel unwanted. I know with Cassie and Killion … You weren’t happy and—”

  He tensed. “You’re not Cassie, and Ryker and Rivers are my friends. Killion was an abusive arsehole, and Cassie choosing to be with him was insulting.”

  I sat up. “So, you wouldn’t have minded if she’d been with someone else other than Killion?”

  He shrugged. “I’m not sure. She wanted an open relationship, and I wanted her, so I agreed. Then Killion came back onto the scene, and it hurt to see her with him.”

  “Does it hurt you to think about me with Bane?”

  He blinked down at me. “No, I just … I was jealous of him. I wanted you too.” He smoothed my hair back. “There’s something about you, Serenity. Not just your cambion nature, but you. You have the biggest heart, and empathy … You have so much empathy, and I know that my heart will be safe in your hands. I know you would never intentionally hurt me. And if it means being with you, then I don’t mind having to share.”

  His hand slipped down my side and over the curve of my hip to settle between my thighs. He stroked me, sending shivers up my spine.

  “I’m not on patrol for another hour.” His tone was gravelly with need.

  “A-huh.” I shifted my hips, eager for him to take the next step.

  “So …”

  I licked my lips. “Yes, please.”

  He smiled, flashing his even, white teeth, and then he slid his finger into my heat.

  ***

  Showered and dressed, I headed for the door. I was on Sunset patrol tonight with the SPD. It was gonna be weird working with the guys again, especially since I was going to be in charge, but there was no denying that I was looking forward to seeing the old gang again. Shame about the circumstances.

  “Serenity?” Ambrosius’s voice came from in front of me.

  I slipped into aether-sight to find him disheveled and bright-eyed, right in my face.

  “Whoa, personal space check, Ambrosius.”

  “We found it,” he said. “We found the summoning spell.”

  My pulse tripped. “You did? You’re sure?”

  He nodded. “Oleander found it at the cliff house. He’s on his way back now with Abigor. I wanted to tell you first. I need to tell Marika now, so we can get set up.”

  It was happening so fast. “Set up?”

  “The summoning requires some prep—an arcane circle using the correct symbols. We’ll need a large space, but we should be good to go in about an hour.”

  “An hour?” Okay, now I was sounding like an echo. Pull it together. This is what we’d been hoping for, the final nudge we needed in our advantage over the shades. I’d have to get a couple of Protectorate to fill in for me with the SPD, because this took precedence. This could turn the tide in our favor. “Okay, let me grab the guys and I’ll meet you in the training room. It’s spacious, so we should set up there.”

  He slipped through the wall and was gone.

  Orin was still on patrol, but Ryker and Rivers should be about somewhere. The training room would need to be my first port of call; Cassie was giving the human unit a workout, and maybe one of the guys was with her. We needed to clear out the room anyway.

  I rounded the corridor and ran smack bang into a solid wall of muscle. Hands grabbed my arms to stall my backward stumble.

  “You’re in a hurry?” Lucifer’s honeyed voice trickled over my senses.

  I stepped away from him, away from the undertone of familiar scent. “Oleander found the summoning spell. I need to find the others.”

  “The spell to summon the Piper?”

  “Yeah.”

  He pressed his lips together. “Make sure he also has the counter spell, the one to send him back.”

  Abbadon had known who the Piper was, but hadn’t gone into detail, and it was obvious from the shadow that had fallen over Lucifer’s face that he knew what we would be dealing with too.

  The urge to understand swelled within me. “What is he? What is Death really?”

  Lucifer blew out a breath and shrugged. “A rumor. Nothing more. Never anything concrete. A few of us caught wind of his existence not long after the dawn of man. We went to the creator to ask who this entity was that plagued mankind, but we were ordered to leave him be. To never go where he walked.”

  “Why? Why would God warn you away?”

  Lucifer shrugged. “I have no idea. None of us do. But we heard tales of his reaping. He walked the battlefields, and wound his way through the towns riddled with disease. He came when summoned, but lingered until expelled by the arcane. But as time passed and magic was weakened by technology, he was forgotten.”

  “Magic is weak outside of Arcadia?”

  He sighed. “I do not know. It has been over a century since I walked the earth. But when I left, yes, magic had been weakened. Humanity had begun to lose faith, almost as if the creator’s withdrawal had somehow communicated itself to his children via the aether that touches us all.”

  “So, we need to have a counter spell, and we need to keep an eye on Death.”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you going to be okay being in the room when we summon him? I mean, you promised God that you wouldn’t cross his path …”

  “And He promised to watch over us. I think the shelf life on those promises has expired.”

  I nodded. “Okay. I’m going to go find the guys.”

  “You mean Ryker, Rivers, and Orin?”

  Those were my guys. “Yeah.”

  He looked at me strangely, and my scalp prickled under the scrutiny. What was he doing in this part of the mansion, anyway? “Were you looking for someone?”

  He blinked down at me. “I guess I was.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Your room is on this floor?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I suppose in that case I was looking for you.”

  He was freaking me out. “You suppose?”

  He smiled wryly. “I decided to take a walk, get the lay of the land, and my feet led me here.”

  Not his feet, Bane’s feet. Bane’s memories. I couldn’t do this right now. I couldn’t remember him. “Well you found me, but we have work to do, so how about you find Malphas instead? Make sure the other Black Wings stay out of the training room for the rest of the afternoon. We need to keep this small—just the Order, the primary nephs, Ava, you, Malphas, and Abigor. Oh, and Oleander—he did find the summoning spell, after all.”

  He nodded curtly. “You’re a natural at this.”

  I arched a brow.

  He grinned, and the absence of fangs made my heart hurt. “Leading, Harker. You’re a natural at leading.”

  “Yeah? Then why are you still standing here?”

  He backed up a step and then turned on his heel and headed back the way he’d come. A minute. I needed just one minute for him to be gone and take his scent with him. Being around him was disconcerting—a constant reminder of what I’d lost. Best to avoid him whenever possible, at least until the loss wasn’t so raw. And when would that be? Drayton had been gone months, but it still hurt to think about him, and now, knowing he was trapped inside his own body, the agitation was ten times worse. Thank goodness things were moving forward with the shade predicament. Action was the only cure for a bruised heart.

  It was time to summon the Piper.

  Chapter 13

  The room was brightly lit and the arcane symbol had been painted onto the ground. Rivers had assisted wi
th the runes, ones that the Order hadn’t seen before, but Rivers seemed to instinctively understand. They’d glowed briefly as he’d drawn them onto the ground. The Order stood around the circle, eyes closed, holding hands. At a glance they looked calm and composed, but a closer inspection revealed the cracks.

  Perspiration glistened on Marika’s forehead, and her companions were showing the strain as well—mouths were twisted, brows furrowed, and knees trembled. This was no easy feat, whatever they were doing. However, they were drawing arcane power to channel into the circle and it was having a negative effect on them.

  Long minutes ticked by, and then one of the Order members fell to her knees, bringing her comrades down with her, but they didn’t break contact, and none of them opened their eyes. Oleander shifted from foot to foot, the book that contained the summoning ritual clutched to his chest like a shield.

  I looked to Rivers. “This isn’t working. It’s hurting them.”

  “The runes are powerful,” he said. “Give them a moment to draw what they need.”

  To my left, Lucifer stared at the circle intently as if he could force it to life through will alone. And then a collective sigh went up, and the Order tucked in their chins, shoulders sagging. The symbols lit up one by one, as if in some secret arcane order, like a code that only the Order could tap into.

  “Here we go,” Rivers whispered.

  It was happening, the damn thing was charging. The Order pulled each other to their feet and began to hum, a low-level sound that had the hairs on the back of my neck shifting with unease. The air was suddenly electric, crackling with power, and then lightning lanced down from the ceiling and smashed into the center of the circle. A shockwave flared outward, smacking me in the chest and propelling me backward into the body behind me.

  We hit the ground, the body breaking my fall. We hadn’t been the only ones hit; everyone within range was down.

  “Shit.” I glanced over my shoulder at Ryker, who had his arms around me. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. I got you.” His gaze slid from my face to the center of the room. “Motherfucker.”

  A figure stood in the circle, head bowed, naked except for a pair of loose black pants. His hair was long, no short. Dark, no it was blond. I blinked and rubbed my eyes. A woman? No, it was definitely a guy—a tan-skinned, dark-haired guy. He raised his head and looked straight at me with his almond eyes.

  “Death’s a woman?” Ryker whispered.

  But I was trapped in Death’s obsidian gaze. He cocked his head and crooked his finger, and, by God, I was on my feet and taking the first steps toward that blazing circle. Someone hooked me around the waist and pulled me back.

  “Snap out of it, Serenity.” Rivers’s voice was an icy slap.

  Shit, what the heck? I shook my head. I’d been about to breach the circle.

  “He’s smaller than I expected,” Rivers said.

  The guy was huge. What was he talking about? Wait. “Ryker, what do you see?”

  Ryker tore his attention from Death and focused on me. “What?”

  “What is in the circle?”

  “A woman.” His cheeks grew pink. “A naked woman.”

  Rivers’s arm flexed around me. “I see a guy, small, thin, unshaven.”

  Lucifer joined us. “I do believe Death is mutable.”

  “What do you see?”

  He blinked several times and then looked away. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is how we’ll keep track of an entity that appears different to us all.”

  I glanced at Malphas and Abigor, who had also averted their gazes. There was something going on here that the Black Wings weren’t sharing with us.

  “We tether him,” Marika said.

  Death arched a brow and crossed his arms.

  “Why isn’t he saying anything?” Orin asked.

  Death smirked.

  Marika caught her bottom lip between her teeth. “I don’t know. I think the circle is simply a doorway, a peek into his world. Right now he’s standing in that doorway, but to allow him to interact with our world, we’d need to pull him through and tether him.”

  “And we do that how?” Lucifer asked.

  It was Oleander who answered. He was poring over the pages in the book that had revealed the summoning ritual. “One of us has to volunteer to anchor him—no, wait, not volunteer, be chosen.” He looked up, his face pale. “We have to let him choose his anchor.”

  Death’s gaze was on me again. He looked … hungry. My throat was suddenly dry. “And what does this anchoring involve?”

  “This symbol.” Oleander held up the book. “We have to cut it into the person Death chooses, and it will allow us to pull him through.”

  “It’s a binding rune,” Rivers said. “A pretty powerful one.”

  Oleander blinked up at him. “You know a lot about runes.”

  “It’s a gift,” Rivers said, deadpan.

  “I don’t like this,” Orin interrupted. “Why is he staring at Serenity?”

  “Maybe he wants to fuck her too,” Cassie muttered.

  Rivers shot her a lethal look. But my stomach turned because he was staring at me intently, with purpose. Please do not pick me, pick someone else, anyone else. It was a horrible thing to think but it was a reflex thought, and once it was scrolling through my mind, it wouldn’t dissipate.

  Oleander walked up to the boundary and held the book up so Death could see the symbol, which took up a whole page. Death stared at it and nodded, his expression suddenly all business.

  Oleander stepped back to allow Death a view of the room. Death’s focus shifted to me once more, but then he smiled, raised a hand, and pointed straight at Marika. Her gasp of shock masked my exhale of relief. Not me. For once, it wasn’t me, but Marika’s ashen expression made my stomach roil with guilt.

  I was an awful person. “You don’t have to do this, Marika.”

  Even though we all knew it needed to be done, there was no way I was forcing this onto someone. Who knew what this Death would do to us?

  She licked her lips and rolled up her sleeve. “Do it. Do it before I chicken out.”

  Rivers stepped forward with his dagger, and using the book as a guide, cut the symbol into her arm. Marika winced but didn’t make a sound. Her attention was fixed on the circle, on the figure inside who now only had eyes for his anchor.

  Rivers stepped back. “What now?”

  Oleander flipped the page. “Blood from the wound. Marika, you need to smear it onto the circle. Break the circle with it.”

  This was the moment for her to chicken out. It still wasn’t too late, and the conflict was clear in her beautiful face. But Death, impossibly beautiful Death, took a step toward her, his face morphing from amused to compassionate. He nodded and held out his hand reassuringly. A whimper fell from Marika’s lips and then she stepped forward, swiped blood off her arm, and rubbed it across the glowing lines of the circle. A crack like lightning, a rumble like thunder, and the circle went dark.

  “Where’d he go?” Ryker asked.

  Marika let out a squeak, because there he was, standing right beside her. But he looked different. Slender, dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved roll-neck shirt. His hair was silver now with a definite metallic sheen to it. It was long at the top, swept back off his forehead, with a short back and sides. His eyes were piercing, icy blue, reminding me of the Husky dogs I’d seen in books. Was this what Marika saw? Had he taken on the physical representation of what his anchor perceived, or was it his real form?

  “There is much death here.” The first words out of his mouth were like a melody. “Much death to feed my hunger.”

  “Aren’t you death?” Rivers asked.

  Death smirked. “A human name gifted to me over the millennia. I will permit you to use it. But death is a human condition that occurs whether I am present or not. I am merely a collector of souls.”

  We had him here, and we needed to get down to business. “That’s good because we have a ton of lost souls in o
ur city that are in dire need of a thorough collecting. They don’t belong here, and they’re feeding off human energy and causing problems.”

  “And where is here?” He turned in a slow circle, taking in the bars and ropes and pillars that made up the training room. “This is a lost place. A hidden place. A place which has slipped into a crack of reality.”

  Yeah, he wasn’t referring to the room. “We’ll happily fill you in on where we are once we have your agreement that you’ll take the souls away.”

  “Take them away?” His smile was pure predator. “Well, of course. I will claim what is mine. And there is much of me here. This place is saturated with the potential of death …” He licked his lips.

  What was he talking about? “When can you get started?”

  He turned to Marika. “As soon as my anchor permits.” He inclined his head. “Should I get started, anchor?”

  She took a step away from him. “Yeah, you can … go do whatever.”

  He laughed, the rise, fall, and cadence making me want to melt. I shuddered.

  Death leaned in to Marika. “Let me explain how this works. As my anchor, you come with me, wherever I go.”

  Shit.

  Marika shot me a panicked look.

  I took several steps toward them, but Death held up a hand to halt my progress, his expression suddenly hostile and as dark as an abyss.

  The playful persona was a facade, and a monster lurked beneath. My primal instincts warned me to back up, to run, but I held my ground. We had summoned him. We controlled him … didn’t we? “Can’t you do this without taking her with you?”

  His pale eyes were flinty. “No.”

  Fuck. If we wanted the lost souls gone, then we’d have to trust that he wouldn’t hurt Marika. Hurting her would surely break his connection to our world, so it wasn’t in his favor. Besides, Oleander had the spell to force him to leave if he refused to go willingly, which both Abbadon and Lucifer had said he would. But Marika looked as if she was about to pass out; all color had drained from her face.

  “Marika?” Oleander prodded. “You don’t have to do this. We can stop this now.”

  She swallowed hard. “No. I’m good. I can do this.”