He took off in a flutter, wings vanishing against the library’s eaves.Just trust me, Luther,he sang back.You know you want to!He found his own entrance, one I still hadn’t discovered. I watched the darkness swallow him and wondered, not for the first time, if Belfry knew more than he let on. If he knew what Jade was, if that was why he’d been pushing, nudging, scheming.
Mate. The word crawled across the inside of my skull, equal parts wonderful and terrifying. I shook myself sharply; indulgent thoughts would get me nowhere.
Rounding the back of my store, I briefly ducked inside to retrieve the wrapped parcel Thorne had commissioned, months ago but that I’d only just managed to acquire. A rare tome, older than Hillcrest Hollow, and not easily found, yet I had found it. Even Thorne hadn’t expected that. Whatever the ancient lore was this book contained, Thorne was not the only one curious about it. Perhaps I should read it before handing it over, just in caseit was anything dangerous, but I didn’t have the time. A rare conundrum for a vampire.
As I slung the parcel under one arm and stepped into the treeline outside town, a heavy tread approached from behind. What now? I did not want, or need, company while I quickly made this delivery. It was bad enough I’d have to deal with the rude Warlock upon arrival. The man paid good money, and I asked far more of him than I would of anyone else, but he was by far my most obnoxious client.
“Hold up,” Jackson called. He jogged to catch up, blond hair sleek and neat as a pin despite the evening patrol. Griffins were swift, but not vampire swift, and he had to work to catch up. “Gwen says you’re smitten,” he informed me the moment he did, a smug smile spreading across his face, amber eyes twinkling with his obvious amusement.
I groaned, long and low. Really? This was what I had to deal with? Why did everyone seem to think they could stick their noses in my business? First Belfry, now Jackson; pretty soon, I’d have to expect a visit from the mayor, warning me that I could not be the next one finding his soulmate. I knew the odds, they were astronomical, and it couldn’t happen again, except that it had. “I am not smitten,” I growled at the nosy shifter, enough bite in my tone to make most sane people back off in a hurry.
“Sure,” he said, grinning. “Because when Gwen says ‘smitten,’ what she really means is ‘completely undone by a pretty librarian.’” He waggled his brows at me in a playful manner, acting like he hadn’t even heard one bit of my warning to back off. I thought I’d made myself clear with that growl, butlions could be stubborn; perhaps he needed a more obvious demonstration.
“Jackson,” I said, turning on him and halting in the middle of a beam of moonlight. I bared my fangs, but that just made him smirk wider. His body was broad inside the tan lines of his uniform, and the gold star of his station glinted on his chest. Typical griffin, he might not dress in silk, but they were proud as fuck and often vain. Now that he had a mate to preen for, he was even worse than usual. Always hovering around town, perching on the roof of the B&B, and watching, taking pride of place in each town meeting.
“Hey, if you’re not into her, I can ask Drew if he wants to take her out. He’s been complaining that he never meets anybody…” Jackson began, with a casual shrug and a wave of one hand.
I didn’t realize I had moved. One instant I was standing in the moonlight; the next, Jackson’s back slammed into a pine so hard the trunk shuddered. My fangs snapped down, my vision flaring silver. I pinned him there with an arm across his chest. “You will not,” I snarled, voice rough with something I didn’t want to name. “Do you understand me? You will not set her up with Drew. Not with anyone!”
His eyes changed first, amber irises bleeding into molten gold. A lion’s snarl rumbled from deep in his throat. His claws, half-shifted, dug into my sleeve. It could just as easily be a trick of the eye, but his face seemed to subtly change: a golden glimmer, a widening of his nose, a hint of whiskers, and the flare of his mane around his head.
We froze like that, locked in old instincts we both pretended we no longer possessed. Then Jackson threw his head back and laughed, actually laughed, like I hadn’t been about to lunge for his jugular moments ago. “There it is,” he wheezed. “Now that sounds like not-smitten to me.” I released him with a disgusted sound. He brushed bark from his jacket as if being nearly throttled by a vampire was a minor inconvenience. UNEDITED
“Good night, Luther,” he said, ruffling his hair back into place. “Try not to brood too hard.” I muttered something unkind and left him to his amusement. Why did everyone accuse me of brooding, anyway? I did not brood! But he was right, I was definitely smitten with my librarian. Extremely so. Which meant I had my answer, didn’t I? She was worth the risk.
The woods swallowed me whole, the same way my thoughts did as I contemplated my next move. To woo Jade, I was going to have to pull out all the stops. That was going to be fun, she had no idea what was coming, but I’d make damn sure I erased that first impression I’d made on her, and then some.
The deeper I walked, the more an uneasy prickle curled along my spine—a sensation I had not felt in these woods before. Wrongness: creeping and cold. The same flavor as the darkness that had plagued Ísarr and Bianca, Gwen and Jackson, these past months. Something in the trees seemed to hold its breath, and I found myself doing the same. What if it was back? And what the hell was it? We’d been so certain we’d vanquished it last winter, but now I was beginning to feel like perhaps we hadn’t, perhaps we’d just struck it a blow. Whatever this “it” was.
I tightened my grip on the parcel, climbing the ridge where Thorne had built his ridiculous glass-and-stone palace ofsolitude. It rose through the treetops like an angular jewel, far too expensive for a man determined to avoid society, and far too large for someone to live in all alone. Everyone in town had held their breath when he’d arrived and had it built in record time, but he’d kept to himself, and that was good enough.
I reached the steps just as the door violently swung open. Thorne stormed out, coat swirling, black hair haloed around his face in messy waves. His dark eyes burned with irritation, and some inner fire that was shadowed and dangerous.“You’re late,” he snapped, with far more venom than anyone had ever dared to use against me. This man, he was still not an easy part of town, even if he’d helped out last winter; my senses told me he could be a threat as easily as an ally.
I lifted the parcel between us. “I found your book,” I told him mildly, not impressed by that anger and aura of darkness. There wasn’t much that could harm me, and I wasn’t easily intimidated. I’d just tangled with a griffin and come out on top. This man might have magic I did not possess in the same way, but he did not heal, and I would.
He raised a brow, calling into question everything I’d just said. Wasn’t it he who’d been calling my phone every day to find out if I’d found it yet? Hadn’t I only given him the news that I had this very morning? “You’re still late.” And just like that, the night felt normal again, if only for a moment. The words sounded calmer, familiar, much like something I could have said.
“You’re not my only customer,” I informed him, but he’d already yanked the parcel from my hands and begun to retreat back into his house. He seemed entirely oblivious to my presence as thewrapping paper was torn from the parcel and the worn leather and gold-embossed cover was revealed.
I turned and left; it wasn’t like I was itching for more conversation anyway. The need to return to town and check in on Jade was powerful, and I had not forgotten the creepy darkness that had clung to the trees. A new possibility filled me: that perhaps it was Thorne who was responsible for the dangerous shadows that pervaded the forest.
“Wait, Luther!” he called out just then. His footsteps pounded on the floor as he rushed back to the door. If possible, his hair looked even wilder, and his dark eyes seemed sunken in his pale face. The scruff on his jaw made me take a second look; I hadn’t noticed it at first, but Thorne seemed a little manic and unkempt. That was nothing like the Thorne I was used to dealing with, and I had to on a very regular basis, as he had expensive tastes and often needed very rare supplies for whatever spells he was cooking up.
I paused on the steps, the skin between my shoulder blades itching as if I were being watched from behind. Thorne skidded to a stop on the porch in front of me and reached out with a hand so fast that it blurred. That, I definitely did not expect, and to my shock, I was not fast enough to avoid him. His fingers slapped against my neck, slipping down to the hollow at my throat with a trail of blazing fire.
“What the hell?” I snarled, slapping his hand away and leaping back to land in a defensive crouch. Even with several feet between us, I could still feel heat burrowing into my skin where he’d touched me.
“A ward,” he panted, hands waving in an intricate pattern in front of his body. “It’s a ward, Luther. To protect you.” He did not seem to think that needed further explaining and began to turn away, hands lowering to his sides and then brushing over his slacks as if brushing away dust.
“What for? What from?” I asked. The burning had faded, but it felt like something solid had settled over my skin. It was sinking in and beginning to fade, as, indeed, wards tended to do, but that didn’t mean I trusted it. Then again, I trusted the wards this warlock had put up around the B&B where Jade was currently safely ensconced.
Thorne’s gaze was bleak as he flicked them my way. “Pray I’m wrong, Luther. Pray I’m wrong… but… I believe we’re dealing with a Galamut.” He slammed the door behind him with such finality that it reverberated in my bones. I stood in the driveway in front of his house, surrounded by the stirrings of spring, soured by darkness too thick to be safe. A Galamut? It was a word that tickled at the back of my brain but did not summon forth any image, not a shred of information. If Thorne was this worried, it had to be bad.
I spun on my heels and darted into the trees, summoning far more speed than I had for the trip here. Jade. She was the only thing on my mind then. I had to get to her. I had to protect her. Woo her? No. I was going to haul her over my damn shoulder into the protected, warded safety of my home and never let her out again. She’d hate me, but at least she’d be safe.
A voice whispered at the back of my mind, the niggle of doubt: Would she, though?
Chapter 13
