Midnight's Emissary Read online

  That might be a sticking point. I’d had a bit of a run in last fall with a couple of the witches and had no idea if we’d left things on a good footing. Not to mention I was pretty sure I couldn’t trust anybody Miriam called friend as far as I could throw them.

  It was too late to go on a wild goose chase across the city, but now that I had a plan of attack I felt more comfortable with this job.

  I’d take the rest of the night to relax before the craziness that was sure to follow.

  I set the computer on the end table and turned my music on very low before grabbing a beer and opening my front door. It was rare that I got to totally relax, and I was going to take advantage.

  I sat on the top step, just enjoying being outside, sipping my summer ale. It was one of those perfect nights, not too hot and without the bitter chill of winter. A breeze rustled the trees out front.

  My eyes closed as I let myself just exist.

  I’ve always liked nighttime. There’s something magical about that brief period when most of the world slumbers. Where one day ends and the next begins. There are so many endless possibilities.

  As a vampire, tied to the sunrise and sunset, I experienced a lot of these but rarely do I get to stop and put myself fully in the moment.

  A scrape of movement. Faint, like the sound of a shoe against pavement, drew my attention to the base of the stairs. My neighbor stood partially in shadow.

  I started to look away when his eyes caught the light oddly and a green sheen washed over them.

  I nearly dropped my beer in shock. The green disappeared and the shadows swallowed him before I heard the open and shut of his apartment door.

  That answered that.

  My neighbors weren’t exactly human. It made me wonder what happened with my previous ones. Did they choose to leave or did something make that decision for them?

  Wasn’t my business. I’d leave them alone as long as they left me alone.

  I was beginning to think I was cursed to draw trouble like a magnet.

  With my quiet enjoyment of the night gone, I headed back inside.

  * * *

  My alarms blared, pulling me from a great abyss.

  I groaned and pulled my pillow over my head.

  “You do realize that’s super annoying, right?” an irate voice asked from the other side of the bed.

  I stilled, closing my eyes and wishing more than anything that I’d imagined that voice.

  “Well? Aren’t you going to turn them off?”

  Damn. Looked like I wasn’t that lucky.

  I sighed and sat up, not bothering to turn off the three alarms.

  A pair of bright green eyes in a teenager’s face glared at me. The teenager attached to them had grown since the last time I’d seen him. He’d been standing on a grave cursing my name then. Now he had the beginnings of a scruffy beard. This was surprising given I knew he couldn’t age and was, in fact, way older than his looks suggested.

  “Turn it off.” His voice echoed in the small room, the deep barrel bass thumping in my chest. It had way more power than it should, considering I’d slapped a genie cuff on him, which should have kept him from accessing his powers. I narrowed my eyes at him.

  His wrist still held the copper bracelet. I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn’t want to think about how much worse things could get if he had managed to get out of it.

  “How did you get in?” I asked, propping myself up in the bed.

  He gave me a dirty look and slapped each of the alarms. The last one switched over to a local rock station instead of turning off. He yanked the plug from the outlet. It died mid song.

  “How can you stand that noise?” he asked, glaring at the now silent alarms.

  I shrugged. “They have their purpose.”

  He gave me a sly look. “Like waking you before sunset?”

  I didn’t answer. Flipping the covers off me, I was grateful for my modesty. I’d slept in a pair of shorts and t-shirt last night, so he didn’t get a full frontal. He backed away as I advanced on him, grabbed the door and shut it in his face, locking it in case he didn’t get the point.

  Concerned he wouldn’t stay out for long, I grabbed the first pair of jeans I could find then pulled out a blue v-neck shirt. I paired the outfit with boots and my rust colored, leather jacket.

  Since I was going to be interviewing people, I didn’t want to dress like the bike messenger I was. Appearances and first impressions meant something, no matter how much we told ourselves otherwise.

  Sometimes I went against the norm just to yank people’s chains, but I didn’t want to have to fight that stereotyping when I was on such a tight deadline.

  Besides, it was easier to hide the holster for the judge under this jacket than in my bike outfit.

  Dressed, I opened the bedroom door and went straight to my fridge. I had a feeling I’d need my hunger sated to be able to deal with the sorcerer over the next few minutes.

  “Enough games, Aileen. I want this off now,” he said, waving his wrist at me.

  I didn’t respond, grabbing a glass from the cabinet and tipping the wine bottle over. My mouth filled with saliva as my world spiraled down to that life sustaining ruby liquid.

  I needed that first sip more than my next breath. I’d do anything to get it. Crawl through glass. Kill. Anything.

  My desire for it was worse than any human inspired addiction, and it was one I could never walk away from. I might get better at controlling myself, but the need would always be there. Worse than crack. Worse than meth.

  I bolted the drink, nearly choking as I guzzled it down. I gasped as I lowered the glass. A bead of blood slid from the corner of my mouth. I caught it with a thumb and sucked it off. Mustn’t waste any. This stuff cost a pretty penny to get from the local blood bank.

  “Do you have any idea how gross that is?” the sorcerer asked.

  I had some inkling.

  “How did you get in my place?”

  He sighed. “Why must you waste time asking such pointless questions? Weren’t you listening to anything I said?”

  Not really. I’d been laser focused on the blood and had lost track of everything taking place around me.

  He didn’t wait for my response, holding his wrist up and shaking it. “Get rid of this abomination. You’ve had your fun. Time to fix this.”

  A tall and gangly teenager, Peter Barret was the sorcerer who owned my mark. His plan to make me hunt down the draugr and claim its treasures had backfired when I decided to give its possessions back to it, ensuring the mark stuck around for the next hundred years.

  That was partially my intent as the mark prevented the vampires from claiming me for a hundred years. It was fortunate that I’d already slipped the cuff onto Barret, or I’m pretty sure my ass would have been toast after I pulled my little stunt.

  To say he wasn’t pleased was a bit of an understatement. He’d been blocked from his powers, courtesy of the cuff, for the last few months. I was pretty sure removing it without having some type of leverage over him would result in my prolonged and grisly death.

  His eyes were chips of green as he glared at me.

  I tilted my head. Something was different.

  I stepped closer and ran my fingers down his cheek. Stubble. Scraggly stubble.

  He smacked my hand away and ducked away from me. “What are you doing?”

  “Feeling your beard. I’ve never seen you with even a hint of one before. It’s cute. A little sparse but cute.”

  “Don’t be absurd. I don’t get beards.” He rubbed his chin. A thoughtful look came over his face as his fingers paused on the few hairs.

  “Whatever you want to tell yourself, pipsqueak.”

  His eyes flared. If they hadn’t belonged to such an annoying pain in my ass, I’d say they were pretty. Beautiful even. But then I could say that about him as a whole too. The sorcerer was caught in that weird time between puberty and adulthood where his parts didn’t quite go together right.

 
Eventually, if he had the opportunity to grow older, he’d probably break a few hearts with his looks. I couldn’t imagine being stuck in that awful phase for decades. Guess he had a reason to be so grumpy all the time.

  “Are you going to answer my question of how you got in here?”

  The information was important. I wanted to make sure I discouraged any future urges to visit me while I was sleeping by him, or anyone else. I was totally defenseless when asleep. Someone could come in and cut off my head, killing me true dead. I’d like to prevent that.

  He rolled his eyes, looking every inch the teenager in that moment. “I used an unlock charm.”

  Magic. I came alert, my hand moving to my holster in reflex. How? He shouldn’t have access to any of his magic.

  Seeing my movement, he gave me a nasty smile. “Oh, did you think I couldn’t do any magic? Guess again.” He held up his arm again. “Might as well remove this before things get nasty.”

  I studied him. Contrary to popular belief, accomplished liars often give away very little in terms of nonverbal cues. They are just as likely to meet your eyes as a non-liar. Most are versed in the nonverbal indicators of a liar and have practiced avoiding those traits when lying.

  Nothing about Peter said he was lying. There was a slight tightness to his shoulders but other than that he looked calm. As if butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.

  I wasn’t buying it.

  “Bullshit. No way you can do magic. Maybe charms other people brewed or one you had on hand already, but not stuff you did yourself.”

  If he’d had access to magic, I would have woken up in a lot more pain. I was willing to bet my life on that.

  He folded his arms and glared at me.

  Heh.

  “Hand it over,” I told him, making a give me motion.

  He looked at me as if I was speaking gibberish.

  “The charm. I know you have it on you. Give it over.”

  He dug it out of his pocket and passed it to me. “Not like I can’t get more.”

  “But you won’t be using this one.”

  No reason to make it any easier on him than necessary.

  I turned the charm over in my hands. A medallion with strange etchings around the edge, it was attached to a black ribbon. It looked like the sort of thing found in a hipster shop, not something used to commit a B and E. It was such a simple thing to have opened my locks as if they weren’t even there.

  I stuffed it in my back pocket. Might come in handy later.

  “As fun as this has been, it’s time for you to go.”

  “Take this off and I will.”

  Erg. The guy was like a dog with a bone.

  I folded my arms over my chest. “I take that off and what do you think the first thing you’re going to do is?”

  He opened his mouth but caught my expression and closed it, having the decency not to tell a lie so obvious that even astronauts in orbit would have been able to see it in glaring neon letters.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

  “So you’re just going to leave it on.”

  Pretty much. That was the plan.

  “What can I say? I’m pretty attached to my life.”

  “What if I promise not to kill you?”

  I laughed. “I’m not fond of torture either.”

  “You can’t do this.” He sounded every inch the teenager after mom told him he was grounded.

  “Sorry, guy. Until I can find a way to protect myself from whatever you’ve got cooking up in that brain of yours, you’re stuck wearing that very trendy bracelet. Congrats on your fashion accessory.”

  “No, this isn’t fair. I need access to my power. I’m a sitting duck without it. I’ve already had to fend off a pair of harpies wanting to steal a sixth century manuscript.”

  I blinked. That was a new one. What would harpies want with a manuscript?

  “Welcome to how the rest of us live,” I told him, not feeling a lot of sympathy. He’d pretty much described my everyday life.

  His face twisted in anger, his eyes becoming an emerald green so vivid they glowed. His anger was a tempest in a teakettle.

  “I’ll figure a way out of this and when I do, you’re going to pay.” He shook his head. “I’m not even going to kill you. I’ll make you beg for death, wish for its sweet release. These next hundred years are going to be hell on you.”

  With such sweet promises as that, was it any wonder I refused to remove the genie cuff?

  “As fun as that sounds, I’ll have to take a rain check. I’ve got places to be and people to see. None of whom include you.”

  His nostrils flared like an angry bull about to charge, and he shook his head then kept right on shaking it.

  “No, I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here until you remove this.”

  That could be a problem. I didn’t want him lingering in my apartment while I took on the rest of the supernatural world. Being worried about what traps or charms he was planting while I questioned witches was not how I wanted this evening to go.

  “You’re not staying here,” I told him.

  He lifted his chin. “I am. I’m not moving until you give me what I want.”

  “This isn’t a demonstration. It’s not a tree you can hook yourself to protest the unfairness of the world. This is my home and if I say you’re not staying, you’re not staying.”

  “Try and make me.”

  What was he? A child? Oh, I forgot. He was a grown man in a teenager’s body. Perhaps his mind had reverted to the age of his body. That might explain this little game of his.

  He smirked at me, confident that I was out of options.

  My eyes narrowed; I smirked back.

  He’d picked the wrong opponent. My sister would attest to that. I was the queen of bad decisions when someone tweaked my tail on my own territory.

  I advanced on him, his smile disappearing quickly.

  Heh, heh. Want to pull this stuff in my house when he didn’t have access to his power? We’d just see who came out on top.

  He backed away. “What are you doing? Stop.”

  Not so tough without those powers. No lightning bolts to send blistering pain down all of my nerve endings. No green lights to nip at me when I didn’t do what he wanted.

  “I’m warning you.”

  He jumped over the coffee table, putting it between the two of us. I walked one way and he walked the other. I switched back and he circled in the opposite direction.

  What were we? Children playing ring around the rosy? Enough of this.

  I stepped up and over, grabbing him by the arm before he could run. I hauled him to the door with him batting at me and struggling to get away. For a big bad sorcerer, he wasn’t overly good at the physical stuff. It was kind of refreshing to be the one with all the strength for once. Usually I was so outclassed in terms of power both magical and physical.

  He jerked hard, ripping his arm out of my hold. “Alright, I get it. What’s your big rush anyway?”

  “I told you, I have places to be and people to see.”

  He got a crafty look on his face. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with those spooks going missing all over the city.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  He shrugged. “Your penchant with involving yourself in trouble.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “I recall last time that trouble could be laid right at your door.”

  “You would have gotten involved anyway. I just sped up the process.”

  Sped up the process? He’s the reason I almost got eaten by a dead man, not to mention he was the driving force behind the vampires finding out about my existence. If not for him, I wouldn’t be in my current predicament of having to locate an heir for my sire to turn. I was guessing at my sire’s goal but it was an educated guess.

  “Let me thank you for that kindness.” I flicked his ear.

  “Ow.” He covered the abused ear. “What was that for?”

  “For being such a goo
d Samaritan.”

  I flicked the other ear.

  “You’re very violent, you know?”

  I bared my fangs. “Vampire, remember?”

  He grumbled, looking almost adorable, cupping both ears to protect them from being flicked. Too bad that innocent face hid someone who’d just as soon rip my throat out as spit on me.

  I yanked open the door. “Out.”

  To make sure he didn’t try to come back in, I wheeled my bike out after him and used it to herd him down the stairs. Swiping my phone and keys off my kitchen table, I stuffed them in my messenger bag and put the strap over my head. I propped the bike against the wall as I finished getting ready.

  The sorcerer watched with his arms folded over his chest. “I’ll just wait here until you get back. You can’t make me leave.”

  I wonder what the police would do with a trespasser. Taking in his surly teenage face, I had to ask myself if they deserved having to deal with him. Probably not, but it was sure nice to imagine.

  My phone rang.

  I answered without checking the screen. “Hermes Courier Service. We come to you.”

  “Get over here right now.”

  “Caroline?”

  The sorcerer dropped his arms and edged closer, doing a pretty good job of pretending not to be interested.

  I grimaced at him. Short of jumping on the bike and riding one handed down the street there wasn’t a lot I could do about my eaves dropper. I was pretty sure he would just jog after me.

  “Get over here right now, Aileen.” Stress threaded through her voice. “I don’t know what I’ll do.”

  “Ok, I’ll be right there. Are you at the OSU library?”

  “Yes. Hurry.”

  I hung up, my stomach a mass of knots. She wouldn’t have called me if she wasn’t in trouble. From the amount of stress in her voice it had to be bad.

  Perhaps supernatural bad. My stomach pitched.

  No, no. It couldn’t be that. I didn’t need to jump to conclusions.

  What I needed was to get over there. Fast.

  I threw my leg over the bike and pushed off. Peter stepped in front of me and grabbed the handle bars. I jolted to a stop.

  “Move. I have to go.”

  “That was Caroline, wasn’t it?”