by Kelex
The nymph pouted prettily. “Why wouldn’t I be let in?”
He ignored her question, again looking at the paperwork. Colm tilted the page in the light and saw the letters glow slightly. He handed her back her papers. “Better luck next time,” he said before waving two of the officers to escort her out.
She sank her claws into his hand. “I think you need to look again,” she whispered, batting her lashes again.
“I don’t,” he said before growling low in his throat.
The nymph double downed. She dug in even more. “Look again.”
Colm had been raised better than to hit a female, but she was pressing her luck. The two guards stepped closer and grabbed her by both sides.
And that’s when all hell broke loose.
The female shifted. Long, piercing teeth grew from her mouth, her face elongating. She screamed like a banshee—which is what Colm was quite sure she was—and wormed out of the guards’ hold. Colm shifted within seconds, roaring as his limbs twisted and fur sprouted all over his body.
Those in line scrambled out of their way. Screams erupted around them.
Banshees weren’t welcome in Midnight. Even other paranormals hated to see the death harbingers.
As soon as the shift had taken over, he growled. The sound filled the whole station. Colm leapt onto the banshee and pinned her to the ground, claws into her shoulders.
“Death will still come to this place,” the banshee said in a gasping, malevolent voice. “You can’t stop it, Colm McCreary… no matter how hard you try.”
She dematerialized, and he dropped the few inches her spindly body had taken up. Colm rose to his hind quarters and waited to see if she’d rematerialize elsewhere and attack. A few other guards circled around him, waiting… watching.
When it was obvious she was gone, Colm began to shift back to his human form.
How had she known his name?
Colm looked down at his nametag—thanking the heavens for the ensorcelled uniform that grew with him when he shifted. He’d never known of their existence before he’d arrived. He couldn’t even count the pieces of clothing he’d destroyed over the years.
Only his last name was on the tag.
Had she come to deliver a message directly for him? Or had the banshee some powers that had gotten his name from him?
Death will still come to this place…
Matioc appeared at his side. “You knew her?”
“No,” Colm said, shaking his head. “I should go put in a report.”
Just as he was about to turn and head for the office, a train came tearing into the terminal.
“Wait until these passengers have gone through. Then make your report,” Matioc ordered.
Colm spun and glared at the train. He was more than ready for a brief respite after tackling the banshee. Taking his place back on the line, he opened for business.
Those waiting in the lines eyed him, appearing wary of leaving their spot and getting into his—even though he had no line.
Finally, a shifter scooted over and handed Colm his papers, a wry smile on his face.
Colm eyed the paperwork. Racoon shifter. They had a bad reputation in the city. Most were petty thieves and hustlers. He lifted his stare and eyed the male.
The raccoon lifted his hands. “I’m not like the others, I swear. If I was one of the bad guys, I sure as hell wouldn’t have come through your line.”
Colm frowned. “What do you mean my line?”
“I’ve never seen a shifter that big move that fast,” the raccoon said. “You caught a mother-effing banshee, dude.” The shifter whistled. “You caught her.”
Colm shrugged off the comment. Bear Mountain had been insulated from the outside world. He knew of other paranormals, but mostly in the abstract. He hadn’t known a banshee was hard to catch.
Maybe that was in his favor.
“Damn—what did you parents feed you? I didn’t know bear shifters could get that big.”
“A nice steady diet of raccoon shifters,” Colm murmured.
He smiled inwardly as he saw the male swallow nervously.
“I ain’t got no beef with you…” The raccoon paused to eye Colm’s nametag. “McCreary,” the raccoon finished. “I promise. I’m just here to find my idiot brother and take him home.”
Colm eyed the male again. From just over the racoon’s shoulder, he saw a group heading his way.
Five men walked closer, most of them with eyes wide and mouths open. They stared around them at the beings in the surrounding lines.
Colm froze. His eyes widened, and he stood to his full height, tilting his head to get a better look.
Before coming to Midnight, he’d gotten hooked on a human show. Paranormal Prowlers. He wasn’t a couch potato and rarely watched TV, but one late night when he’d been exhausted and unable to sleep, flipping the channels to find something brain numbing, he’d stopped on one. The minute he’d seen the host—Reese Whittaker—appear on screen, he’d been caught in the human’s web.
Colm had sat for hours watching the human that night, transfixed.
And now, that human was walking up to him in a station in the paranormal world.
“I didn’t even see them get off the train,” he heard one of the humans in the group say.
At least, he thought they were human.
He wasn’t sure—they had to be something other. Or they wouldn’t have arrived on the train to Midnight. But Reese and Jeph worked to prove Colm’s world was real. Why in the world would they do that if they were paranormal themselves?
“Hopefully we won’t run into those things again,” Reese said, his voice sending tingles down Colm’s spine.
“So… can I go in or what?”
The spell was broken for a moment. Colm looked down at the raccoon shifter and then the crumbled paperwork he clutched in one hand. He nodded and hand stamped the paperwork. “I’m giving you a two week pass. No more, no less. Find your brother and get out of the city.”
“Yes, sir!” the raccoon said before moving through the gates.
He turned his gaze on Reese, and his breath caught in his throat.
The human met his stare… and his eyes… they glowed.
He frowned. The light had barely been there… maybe it had been a trick of the eye… but when a scent hit him full force, there was no denying it.
“Paperwork,” he said, holding out a hand.
Reese looked down at that hand and then back up at Colm, frowning. “What paperwork do we need?”
“Birth certificate… pedigree… IPAA ID card or the foreign equivalent… or a travel visa,” Colm said, struggling to form the words. The need slamming into him was untenable.
“I didn’t know we were entering another country,” Reese said with a sly grin.
That same grin he gave to viewers when he thought he’d said something witty or funny.
“Where is it you think you are?” Colm asked, narrowing his eyes.
“Midnight, Mississippi… in the good ‘ole U.S. of A,” Reese said. “So why would I need a travel visa to get in?”
“You have no idea where you really are, do you?” Colm asked them.
The smile faded on Reese’s face, and his stare turned dark. “Yeah. I think we have an idea where we are.”
“How did you get on that train?” Colm asked.
“I bought five tickets,” Reese said, pointing at the four men behind him.
“For Midnight?” Colm asked.
“What’s the hold-up here?” Matioc said, appearing like a ghost at Colm’s side.
“They have no paperwork,” Colm murmured, even though the thought of Reese not coming into Midnight made it hard for him to breathe.
“Are you witches?” Matioc asked them.
Reese frowned. “Um… no.”
Matioc huffed. “Recently deceased?”
Reese’s eyes widened. “You mean a ghost?”
“Yes. A ghost. Are you amongst the dead?” Matioc asked.
<
br /> Reese shook his head, frowning even more. “No.”
“Then I’m sorry. You can’t be allowed into Midnight.” Matioc waved over some of the guards to take the humans away.
Colm felt a wave of panic. “He’s a shifter’s mate.”
“I’m a what?” Reese asked.
Again, his eyes did a little partial glow. Human eyes didn’t glow, even if they were mates. This man might be more than human… but Colm had no idea what he was.
He’s mine. That’s all I need to know.
Matioc paused. “Unless he’s claimed by those shifters, he cannot come into Midnight. If he cannot come into Midnight, he needs to have his mind wiped. Those are our procedures. You know this, Colm.”
“Mind wipe?” one of the other humans asked.
Colm ignored the question, focusing on Matioc. “But what if his mates are here in the city? We might be ruining their chances of meeting.”
“That’s not my problem,” Matioc said. “Nor is it yours.”
“There has to be times when laws bend. For the right reason,” Colm said.
Big Beaver glared at Colm, his lids narrowing. “Our rules do not bend. You’re new here, you need to follow them to a tee.” He nodded to the guards to escort the men out and turned to walk away.
The humans didn’t go without arguing, but the guards were too strong for the men to fight.
Colm stood by, watching helplessly as his mate was being removed.
He followed the guards, watching as they primed two of the humans for a mind wipe.
“What are you doing to them?” Reese asked, pulling on the guard’s arm.
The guard pushed Reese back—and right into Colm’s arms.
Colm realized the guards weren’t paying attention. He grabbed Reese’s arm and dragged him through the crowd that was starting to form around the display.
“Where the hell are you taking me?” Reese asked, his tone irate.
Colm stopped for a second, spinning to face his human.
“Do you want to see Midnight or not?”
Reese’s anger faded. “I do.”
“Then come with me.”
****
Hart opened his eyes, and suddenly they were standing in a field. The sun was barely up, casting just enough pink over the sky to allow him to see. “What the fuck just happened?”
He turned to see Griffin, Jeph, and Nick all standing there as if they were frozen.
Spinning to the other side, all he saw was empty field.
And no Reese.
They kept him?
Panic bubbled up his chest. He turned to his three remaining friends, worried they’d been hurt.
But within seconds, they began to blink, their bodies relaxing.
“Where the hell are we?” Jeph asked, frowning.
Griffin and Nick spun in a circle before looking at Hart.
“They kept Reese in Midnight,” Hart said.
“Where?” Jeph asked.
“Midnight! The station we just left with the big beaver looking dude and the ghosts and the witches and the… everything!” Hart cried.
“What the fuck have you been smoking?” Griffin asked. “And why aren’t you sharing?”
“The mind wipe,” Hart said, his mind in overdrive. “They said they were wiping our minds… but it didn’t work on me. I remember everything.”
“You sound crazy,” Nick said.
“What’s the last thing you remember?” Hart asked them.
“Reese wanting to do one last trip,” Nick said. He frowned. “Can’t remember where.”
“Midnight, Mississippi. We were there,” Hart said. “On the other side. They forced us out and wiped your minds.”
“I have to agree with Nick on this one,” Griffin said. “Are you okay, dude?”
“They have Reese!” Hart screamed. “They kept him on the other side!”
“Whoa, whoa,” Jeph said as he approached Hart. “Who has Reese?”
“The guards at the gate in the terminal we were just in,” Hart said as calmly as he could.
“We weren’t in a terminal,” Jeph said.
“Oh, and we just spontaneously showed up in the middle of a field?” Hart asked.
Jeph frowned slightly. He had no answer for that.
Hart dug in his pocket for his phone and realized he’d left it with Heinrick. He’d been so overwhelmed by all he’d seen, taking photos or data hadn’t even registered.
A thought suddenly crossed his mind.
“Heinrick, Heinrick, Heinrick!”
The ghost appeared in the middle of the field.
Jeph, Nick, and Griffin all took a big step back, wide-eyed looks on their faces.
“Where am I?” the conductor said, frowning as he looked around the field. He turned to Hart, glaring. “What have you done? How did you pull me from the train?”
“You never gave me my phone back,” Hart said meekly.
“Ah, yes,” Heinrick said. He dug into his translucent pocket and fished it out. He handed it back to Hart. “Now… send me back.”
“How do I do that?” Hart asked.
Heinrick rolled his eyes. “The same way you got me here.”
“I just repeated your name three times like you told us,” Hart said. “So, so I—”
“That would not bring me here,” Heinrick cried.
“I didn’t do anything else,” Hart spat. “Heinrick, Heinrick, Heinrick,” he yelled, wishing the ghost back on the train.
And he was gone.
“What… was… that?” Jeph asked.
Hart turned to glare at them. “The conductor from the train we took to Midnight,” he answered before opening his phone. “What day is it?” he asked.
“It’s Thursday,” Nick said.
Hart lifted his phone to show them the date. “It’s now Saturday,” Hart said. “You’ve lost nearly two days.”
Nick and Griffin stared at the phone before lifting their stare to Hart.
“We need to find Reese,” Griffin said.
Hart’s head fell back with relief. “Finally.”
Chapter Seven
Reese stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to look above him at two men floating along in the air. The sky was beginning to grow lighter—coupled with the glow of the streetlights—he had a perfect view.
Even higher were the skyscrapers towering. He felt like he was in the middle of New York City, but there was a vibe here that he’d never felt there. The big guard from the station turned back to him and grabbed his arm before dragging him down the street.
“One of those guys will drain you dry if you wander too far,” he said.
Reese lifted his face to look again as he was pulled along. “Vampires?”
“Yep,” the guard said.
“But the sun’s coming out.”
“There is a mystical barrier around this city. It allows light to filter in, but it doesn’t harm vampires.”
“But aren’t they dangerous?”
The guard pulled open a glass door to one of the buildings. “No more dangerous than anything else in this city.”
Reese paused and looked at the open door. Once he went inside, he’d be alone with the big guy…
Part of him was really, really interested in being alone.
Another part was spooked as hell.
“Come on. Before someone finds you.”
“Are you dangerous?” Reese asked the man.
“To the wrong person—yes.”
Reese felt a tremor race down his spine. But it wasn’t fear.
He felt his body stiffen—just as it had the first moment he’d laid eyes on the guy. “Am I a wrong person?”
“Not in a million years,” the guy said. His eyes glowed brightly in that moment… and he felt a need unlike any he’d ever felt before.
“Come inside,” the man said again, cocking one sexy as hell brow. “Or we’re both going to get in trouble.”
Reese crossed the threshold and drew in a sha
ky breath as he passed the big man. He allowed the guy to lead him onto an open elevator. One button and the door closed.
“I’m Reese, by the way.”
“I know,” the guy said, eyeing him.
“Oh,” Reese said. “And you are?” He’d thought he heard the beaver-man call him Comb or Com or something like that.
“Colm,” the guy answered, meeting his stare.
“How’d you know my name, Colm?”
“I’ve seen your show.”
Reese smiled. “Like it?”
Colm’s eyes swirled with light again. “Yeah.”
“So… what’s with the eyes?”
Colm frowned.
“They keep glowing,” Reese said.
“They glow when I feel strong emotion,” the man said, staring hard.
“What… what emotion… do you feel right now?”
The elevator stopped, a ping filling the car before the doors slid open. They both stood there a moment, no words shared between them. As the doors began to close again, Colm reached out and reopened them.
“Follow me.”
Reese trailed the man out of the elevator and down a hallway that looked too narrow for the guy’s shoulders. He allowed his gaze to follow the curves of muscle outlined in that amazing back… all the way down to the tightest, most perfect ass he’d ever seen. He wondered what it looked like without that uniform on.
What the hell am I thinking? He’s a guy!
Reese released a breath. It wasn’t the first time he’d eyed a good-looking man and wondered about his own sexuality. Sure, he liked a little anal play—but never had he had the desire to race across the line before and into the arms of a man. He’d always had girlfriends, but honestly, because of the show he wasn’t in any one place long enough to really forge a relationship. Those girlfriends were more a long series of booty calls.
What’s one more booty call?
Colm stopped at one of the doors lining the dingy hallway and opened up. “Get inside.”
Finally they were alone.
“What great places you bring me to,” Reese said, eyeing the threadbare studio.
“I’m new in town. It was a cheap, clean place to start.”
“Clean?” Reese said, eyeing the water stains on the ceiling.
“It’ll do for a bit,” Colm said, his jaw tensing.
“Sorry,” Reese said. “I didn’t mean to sound like a dick.”