Midnight's Emissary Read online

  Midnight’s Emissary

  Copyright © Tobey White, 2016

  All Rights Reserved

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Discover More by T.A. White

  About the Author

  Excerpt for Shadow’s Messenger

  Chapter One

  No matter how many times I visited the Book Haven, I always had trouble believing it was a hub of supernatural knowledge. It just seemed so unassuming. A book lover’s paradise sure. With thirty two rooms crammed full of books, it was a maze that any Columbus dwelling book nerd would be overjoyed to disappear inside.

  It was even popular with the out-of-town crowd since it was also one of the largest independent bookstores in the U.S. still in business. It didn’t hurt that it had that old world charm that made German Village popular with tourists and hipsters. The building started life as a saloon before at some point being taken over by word loving entrepreneurs. Since then it had grown and assimilated the neighboring general store and cinema to become the unnavigable monstrosity that it was.

  I nearly tripped on the uneven brick path leading to the alleyway entrance. The path was lined by bushes and trees. Spring had come early this year and some of the plants were already beginning to bloom way ahead of schedule. Daft things didn’t realize in a day or two the weather would flip, as it always did in Ohio, and the frost would kill everything but the hardiest.

  “Welcome to the Book Haven,” a man greeted me as I stepped into the tiny nook serving as the store’s entrance.

  I waited as he checked out a woman and her two kids. Then I suppressed a sigh as a tall man in t-shirt and shorts stepped into the already cramped space. The guy looked like his frat days weren’t far behind him.

  The greeter looked at me expectantly as the woman and her horde filed past me. I gestured to the other man and said, “You can help him first.”

  “Are you sure?” the frat boy asked. He had blond hair, muscles bulging out of his body like they were trying to multiply, and towered over me by a foot.

  No, I just said it because it’s the exact opposite of what I want. I fought to keep the snarkiness off my face and nodded. Why do people always ask that? I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t sure.

  I waited, semi impatiently as the man checked out, and stepped up to the counter as soon as he left. The cashier pushed a map toward me. I glanced at it briefly and smiled. Wasn’t that cute? Not what I was here for but ok.

  “I’m looking for the section on feline behavior,” I said with the politest smile I could muster.

  The man paused and looked me up and down, his thin face a little skeptical at what he saw.

  At five feet seven inches, I was just above average height. My grayish, blue eyes, while not a common color, were not memorable enough to stand out. If a group of people tried to describe me later, half would say my eyes were blue and the other half gray. Dark brown hair with red undertones framed a face full of angles and hard edges. The uncertain description worked in my favor as I was trying to get into somewhere I wasn’t exactly supposed to be.

  I waited, hoping the code was still good from the last time I was here. Technically, I didn’t have the credentials to get into the hidden sections of the bookstore. The parts the normal public didn’t know about. The ones where people like me could find answers to their every question.

  I knew I didn’t fit the profile of someone who normally requested that room. For one thing, to most of the supernatural world, my aura was too closely aligned to that of a human’s. Baby vamps barely registered on the power scale, and I was so new to the fanged ranks that I was practically in diapers.

  I’d made sure to dress casually in jeans and a fitted blue t-shirt I’d gotten at a Colorado beer festival. My one nod to the slightly chilly weather was the rust colored leather jacket.

  I arched one eyebrow at the man, letting him know I wasn’t pleased with the delay. He gave me a sidelong, suspicious look even as he drew a map from under the counter and handed it to me.

  Some of the tension gathering at the base of my neck leaked away.

  I snatched the map and turned away, not bothering to thank him. People in this world rarely said thank you, and I didn’t want to give him one more reason to think I didn’t belong.

  It worked. I couldn’t believe it, but it worked.

  I headed up the rickety, wooden steps and waited on the next landing until the couple descending had passed before heading up the next set of steps.

  Despite the cool factor inherent in having a bookstore in a bunch of old buildings, it was a pain in the ass maneuvering through this place. I felt like an elephant in a china shop. The place was narrow, and in many spots you had to wait until oncoming traffic passed before proceeding.

  Forget trying to sit in an aisle while you read. You’d be buffeted by the continuous coming and goings of every person tramping through this place.

  A chain bookstore this was not. There were no comfy chairs to sit and peruse. No fancy coffee shop connected. And it smelled faintly of unfinished wood, mold and paper.

  Still, it had been in business for a long time. Even longer if you took into account the hidden face of the bookstore. The one that served people like me. Or rather, people like who I was pretending to be. Powerful, connected, dangerous.

  I took a look at the map and followed the blue line through one section after another until I stood in front of a roped off staircase. It had an exit sign that said “In case of emergency.”

  Got to hand it to these guys. They had a sense of humor.

  I tucked the map into my back pocket and glanced both ways to make sure I wouldn’t freak any unsuspecting normal out when I disappeared down the staircase.

  Coast was clear. I threw one leg over the chain and stepped onto the top stair. Or at least that was my intention.

  Instead I ended up tripping and falling when my foot landed much sooner than I expected. I ended up on all fours on the other side of the chain, staring down at red carpet with gold and cream detailing.

  I climbed to my feet and looked around the cavernous room. It certainly wasn’t the Book Haven, or maybe it was and the other place was just a pale imitation of this.

  The ceiling towered several stories above me, so high that its depths were shrouded in shadow. Every wall was lined with row after row of book cases. So many and so high that there were ladders climbing the walls.

  Unlike the normal store where the book shelves were fairly worn, thin scraps of wood only one step up from plywood, these shelves had the deep red gleam of high quality oak that had been cared for by overworked apprentices who’d no doubt spent most of their lives shining it until you could see your reflection in the wood’s depths.

  It wasn’t my first time visiting this place, but I’d never been in this room.

  Normally someone like me, someone low on the totem pole wouldn’t have even known this place existed, but Hermes, the courier service I worked for, had sent me on several deliveries for the hidden bookstore.

  The entrance to this place changed constantly. As far as I could tell this place existed in some kind of pocket realm. That’s why I needed the map. It was the only way I could find a way insid
e.

  The only thing I hadn’t been sure of was the code phrase. It seemed to change every time I came here. My last delivery to the caretaker was four days ago so I figured it would be good still. And I was right.

  My footsteps were muted as I moved into the depths of the bookstore. It was like walking through a tomb and reminded me of some of the battlefields I’d visited with my parents as a child. It had that same quiet that seemed to shout without ever making a sound. The kind that said you were risking life and limb bringing the noise of the living into a place where only the dead should walk.

  I rubbed my arms, suddenly freezing. This place hadn’t had this kind of unsettling feeling the last time I was here, or any of the times before that. It was like it knew I wasn’t supposed to be here. I pushed forward, telling myself that I was letting my imagination run away with me.

  The only thing this place seemed to have in common with the human side was the maze like labyrinth that its rooms formed. The passageways twisted and turned, narrowing unexpectedly before opening up into great rooms full of books and other items.

  I paused by a table with a gold shield displayed on it. There was a great oak tree embossed on the metal, the fine detailing catching and sending the light rippling along the branches.

  I drew closer, wondering what type of tools the maker used to give it such a lifelike look. I reached out to touch, almost anticipating the feel of live wood under my fingers.

  “I wouldn’t,” a voice said next to my ear.

  I jumped and snatched my hand back, straightening from where I’d bent closer to examine the shield. I hadn’t realized I’d crossed an entire room to examine it until now.

  “That thing has a habit of bespelling people. It’s quite dangerous. If it likes you, it’ll draw you into its internal world. If it doesn’t, you’ll just stand there and starve yourself to death. End result is the same either way. You die.”

  A man with curly brown hair and skin the color of walnut gave me a friendly smile as if he told people about the dangers of the homicidal shield all the time.

  I stepped back from the item in question, not wanting to test my luck.

  The man watched me with a bland gaze. Friendly, but not too friendly, as if he had all the time in the world to wait for me to do whatever it was I was going to do.

  “Do you work here?” I asked. “I’ve never seen you before.”

  “Nor I you.”

  There was an awkward pause. Awkward on my side at least. The silence didn’t seem to bother him in the least. It was like being watched by a cat, one that was utterly disinterested in your future or past because your actions had no bearing on its feline superiority.

  “Um, I’m looking for something. Perhaps you could help me.”

  The man waited.

  This guy was definitely a little weird, but then I was in a supernatural library with a moving entrance. I couldn’t really expect anything less.

  “I’m looking for a book.”

  The man smiled, his light brown eyes warming with laughter. “Well, we are in a bookstore.”

  Ah. That’s right. Stupid statement.

  Looked like the guy had a sense of humor. It was a relief actually. Made him seem slightly more human, which when standing in a supernatural bookstore next to a shield that ate people was surprisingly reassuring.

  I gave him a strained smile. “I’m not really sure what I’m looking for. I mean I don’t have a name or anything to give you.”

  This was a lot harder than I thought. For some reason, I thought I could just waltz in, find what I was looking for and then waltz out. No interaction with other people necessary and no one would be the wiser about my visit.

  That hadn’t happened and now I was awkwardly explaining myself to the man with the enigmatic gaze.

  I took another step away from the shield. You could never be too careful with magical artifacts that might eat you. I meandered toward another table, taking the time to get my bravado back.

  This plan would work or it wouldn’t. If it didn’t, they’d throw me out of the store. Probably ban me for life, which would affect any runs that might end here. They’d probably let my boss, Jerry, at Hermes know, in effect guaranteeing my subsequent firing.

  I needed to stop thinking about everything that could go wrong. It was too late to turn back, and I didn’t have time to have a panic attack now.

  I met the man’s eyes again, aware that they hadn’t budged from me during my whole internal motivational speech. That was alright. It was creepy, but who wasn’t a little creepy among the spooks.

  “I’m hoping you can point me to a book that might have a rundown of who’s who on the supernatural side of things. If it has anything to say about the inner politics of the different factions that would be great too.”

  “That’s a big request.”

  Hence the reason I was essentially breaking into this place. I’d looked everywhere else. No one had anything that could act as a primer of the different species and factions making up this magically fucked up world. Or at least no one who was willing to deal with me, the no-power baby vamp who was marked by a sorcerer and at odds with the vampires.

  “I’m aware.”

  He finally looked away, his focus turning inward as he sank into thought.

  “There might be something.”

  Really? Hell yes. Maybe this hadn’t been such a bad plan after all.

  “That’s great. Where is it? How much will it cost?”

  I didn’t have much money, but perhaps I could put it on a layaway plan or something.

  His lips took on a sly quirk.

  I paused, not liking the way he suddenly looked like the cat who caught the canary.

  “The where is simple enough, you just have to find it. As for the cost, that’s another matter. Some might say it will cost you nothing. And everything.”

  Was that a riddle? It certainly sounded like it. I hated riddles. My thought patterns were too linear, and I rarely guessed the correct answer. Maybe I should start looking for this thing on my own. No way did I want to accidentally promise my first born and be stuck in a Rumpelstiltskin situation. Not that, as a vampire, I could even have a first born, let alone a second.

  “What would I do with a first born?” the man asked in a bemused voice.

  I narrowed my eyes at him. A mind reader. Must be pretty powerful to get through my internal defenses. I’d thought they were pretty secure after the incident with the draugr. The one that landed me in my current situation.

  Guess not.

  In my distraction, had I dropped some of the layers?

  The man gave no visual reaction at my reinforcing my mental defenses. Had what I done worked? I couldn’t tell. I couldn’t slam shut a door, effectively kicking the mental peeping tom out. The defenses were more organic and relied on confusion and misdirection as they created a mazelike forest in my mental landscape.

  Aiden, a vampire I had met briefly during the incident, told me it was rare for someone to create a fortress based on nature. He said it like my mental forest made me rare, the kind of rare that might be referred to as a freak in ruder company. But I might have been reading into that.

  “Maybe this book isn’t for me,” I said.

  His smile was sweet and innocent, not the sly one of before. No way was I buying what he was selling. This had devil’s bargain written all over it. The last thing I needed was to get sucked into another situation that was well over my head. I was barely treading water as it was.

  “It’d be a pity if you walked away. The piece I have in mind would be perfect for your purposes.”

  I gave him a tight smile. “Somehow I think the price is a little steeper than I want to pay.”

  “Hm,” he said, his eyes blank.

  I finally placed what it was about him that was making me uneasy. His expressions were only surface deep. As if someone had taken clay and begun to make the facial expression that matched the feeling but forgot to make the rest of the features
reflect that feeling. His lips smiled but the skin around them stayed still, no dimples or wrinkles. The skin around his eyes and on his forehead remained smooth and unmarked.

  Yeah. I didn’t know what this guy was, but he definitely wasn’t human.

  Time to carefully extricate myself from this conversation and make my way towards the exit.

  “The cost is not high.”

  I stuffed my hands in my pockets, fingering the silver knife hidden there. “You know what they say, ‘beware things that sound too good to be true.’”

  His expression registered only slight surprise, as if he was no longer making the effort to appear human.

  He could definitely still read my mind, or else he was really good at reading the situation.

  “I have never heard that saying before.”

  I bet he hadn’t heard a lot of sayings.

  “Not true,” he said. “I’ve heard this one – ‘There are more things in heaven and earth.’”

  Shakespeare. Lovely. I hated reading that play in high school.

  I opened my mouth to respond and stopped, studying his inquisitive expression. He seemed awfully invested in me taking whatever it was he was trying to sell. It put me even more on guard.

  I wanted knowledge but not at the expense of my life.

  “You’re right. You do know human expressions, but I’m afraid I’m just not interested in this amazing book of yours.” I pointed behind me as I backed up. “I think I’ll just be going now.”

  I started for the door.

  “But you haven’t found what you were looking for yet.”

  This guy just wasn’t giving up.

  I gave him a strained smile, not pausing as I headed for room’s exit. “Thanks, but that’s life.”

  His lips frowned. I say his lips because the rest of his face didn’t move. This was really starting to creep me out. I was beginning to realize why only certain people were allowed into this place. Only the powerful and dangerous could make it in and out without death stalking every move.

  I tried not to think of the weapons I was carrying on me, not certain that I could fight him off if he attacked.