Protector of Midnight

by Debbie Cassidy

Well that was confusing, but he was right about the fact we needed to move on. “Yeah, let me check in with the others.”

  I dialed Bellamy and he answered almost immediately. His tone was barely above a whisper. “Harker, thank god. We found them. They’re here at the Dip in the Sea Mot—”

  The line went dead.

  I held the phone away from my ear. Full battery which either meant that Bellamy’s battery had died or that he was in some kind of trouble. An icy finger of dread ticked the back of my neck.

  “We need to go. Now.”

  But Ryker was already on the move.

  Chapter 6

  The Dip in the Sea Motel was actually a mile away from the sea. Tucked up on a rise with an ocean view, it was a favorite place for business conferences and events, and pretty empty this time of year. The Order must have taken it over. God, please don’t let them have hurt Mrs. Goodwin, the owner. She was old, like almost eighty and still going strong. If they’d hurt her, I’d find a way to make them pay. Using my ability was out of the question, but I could kick some Order arse.

  “Is this the place?” Ryker asked as we drew up at the bottom of the steps that led up to the motel.

  Bellamy’s car was parked up a meter or so away. “Yes it is.” I jumped out and drew my taser.

  Ryker stared at it for a long beat. “What’s that?”

  “A taser.” I made a zapping motion. “You stun the perpetrator with it.”

  “That’s your weapon of choice?”

  “Choice? We don’t get a choice. This is standard issue fare. It’s either this or the baton. I mean the baton is okay, but you can’t disarm someone from a distance and...”

  He’d walked off round the van. The back door slid open, but he was out of view, so no idea what he was doing. He returned a moment later clutching a... was that a fucking battle axe?

  “Whoa!” I pressed my hands to his torso, Oooh, hard. Focus. “You cannot go in there wielding that thing.”

  He cocked his head. “I’m Protectorate, and we’re dealing with the Order.”

  “Yeah, but this is my jurisdiction, so put the damned battle axe down.”

  He slowly lowered his weapon. “You believe your taser will disable a member of the order?”

  Okay, so he had a point. “I’m hoping that maybe we can talk them into leaving of their own volition. And, if not, then we go to plan B.”

  “Which is?”

  I allowed my lips to curl into a sadistic smile. “Kicking some Order arse.”

  He let out a bark of laughter. “Well. This I have to see.” He tucked the axe into a sheath at his back. “Lead the way.”

  My carefully cultivated smile slipped. Why did I suddenly feel like the butt of an incredibly funny joke?

  The steps were steeper than they looked, but I reached the top un-winded. Going in guns blazing was a bad idea, best to circle the building first, get a lay of the land. I indicated we do an outside sweep and Ryker nodded. I set out, low to the ground, body in a half crouch.

  I turned to speak to Ryker. “We can double back and—” He was gone. “Shit.”

  Someone screamed. A loud thud followed and a body came flying out of the dining room patio doors. It scrambled to its feet as Ryker came striding out of the building. Drayton was right behind him, the cocky dark haired neph’s face was twisted in fury.

  The guy who’d just been bodily expelled, obviously a member of the Order, locked gazes with me, his hand shot out and then I was flying through the air toward him. His wiry arms closed around me, locking me against him by the throat and the waist.

  “Stay back.” His voice was steady and sure, vibrating with command and laced with something that fizzed and popped. Magick?

  “Oh, come on, Daryn. Do you really want to fight us?” Drayton asked. His tone was easy and chilled even though his face told a whole new story, one of murder and mayhem. “You don’t belong here. You’re not wanted here.”

  Daryn gripped me tighter. “We belong everywhere and the humans need to know the truth. They need to know which side to join. The truth will set them free.”

  “Where are the others?” Ryker asked.

  A ball of energy smashed into the ground beside Ryker. I jerked in surprise, but Ryker merely sighed and craned his neck to look up at the first floor.

  “Hello, Marika,” he said. “Why don’t you come down here so we can speak?”

  She snorted. “So you can cleave me in two with that axe of yours, you mean.” The woman, slender, pretty in a haughty way, crouched on the edge of the upper level balcony.

  “You have no jurisdiction over us here in Sunset,” she said. “Let the SPD deal with us. Why come all this way for a fight that isn’t yours? We’re no longer the MPD’s problem, so why do you care?”

  Drayton arched a brow. “She does have a point.”

  Ryker shot him a stern look. “You’re breaking the law and that’s enough. Sunset is out of bounds and you know it. Besides, what makes you think the humans here will listen to your claims any more than the ones in Midnight?”

  “Because, here in Sunset, the humans are closest to nirvana, they can almost taste it, and we can offer it to them without a silver chain to bind them. We can set them free.”

  Drayton rolled his eyes.

  Several figures appeared to our left and right—more Order members. Where the fuck was Bellamy and Fulstrom?

  Ryker’s jaw tensed. There had to be about twenty members of the Order. Twenty witches with access to the arcane, all poised to let fly with the magick.

  “You’re surrounded, Protectorate scum,” Marika said. “And I, for one, am glad you came out all this way. Away from your buddies at the MPD, away from your territory.” She leapt down, landing lightly on her feet a few meters to my left. “You think you’re better than us just because you have Black Wing blood in your veins? Well, we don’t need the filthy blood of the fallen to have power. We have the arcane, and with it we will be free of this prison.”

  “Marika,” Daryn said. “We can’t let them live. We can’t have them bringing back reinforcements.”

  This was my cue. “Reinforcement will come, though,”

  Daryn cut off my words with his arm.

  But I’d caught Marika’s attention. “Let the human speak.”

  I licked my lips. “You kill them and more will come looking for them. If they didn’t care about you being in Sunset before, they will now. They’ll hunt you for vengeance and they won’t stop until they get it.”

  A shadow of doubt flitted across her face, but then she smiled, wicked and sharp. “That’s just it, human. They’ll have to find us first. This district is large, filled with hidey holes and sympathizers. So many humans just want to be free. Sunset is rife for the reaping, people looking for another kind of safety, a freedom that a silver chain from Dawn can’t provide, but we can. And while you hunt us, we’ll reap and pick you off one by one for the Order is vast and the Protectorate is…” She held up her pinky and flexed it, bottom lip sticking out in a faux sad face. “But most of all, I just don’t give a fuck.”

  The Order members raised their hands, ready to let fly. My stomach cramped, and my pulse tried to break free of my veins. They were going to do it. They were going to kill us.

  Ryker locked gazes with me. And I swear he winked, but with the shades it was impossible to be sure, and then he was moving so fast he was a blur. The axe was a toy in his hand, cutting a swathe through the air, whoosh, whoosh, swish, and Drayton had a bloody sword. He moved, easily deflecting the magick that was thrown at him as if he was out for a morning stroll. The Order was going down, blasted by the deflected energy balls. Marika made a break for it and Drayton ran after her.

  All this action and less than a minute had passed. And then the arm around my throat tightened painfully.

  “Stop. Stop or I kill the human.” His arm flared with electrical energy stinging my skin and bringing water to my eyes.

  Ryker froze with a sea of unconscious and wounded
bodies at his feet. Daryn began to chant. Words I’d never heard, but yet understood as if I’d invented them myself. It was an incantation to kill, a curse to drop Ryker where he stood. How the heck did I know that? Wait, that wasn’t important right now. Focus in the main issue. I couldn’t let Ryker die to save my arse.

  There was only one thing to do, to incapacitate him. I gripped the arm at my throat, ignoring the burn and dropped my shields. Power rushed into me, Daryn’s power, the arcane power the Order commanded. Glorious and filling and—oh, fuck—I wanted to scream in ecstasy as it rushed through my limbs, pooling in my belly and setting every nerve ending alive. Wait, there was something else, something even thicker and purer. Drink, drink, drink. I couldn’t stop, didn’t want to. Why should I? This was good, too good, and, damn, I’d been hungry for so fucking long.

  The arm slipped and the body holding me captive fell away. My eyes snapped open and locked with Ryker, his shades were off and he was squinting at the floor, at the empty husk that had a moment ago been a member of the Order.

  No, this couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t be dead. He was supernatural, right? He had magick. But the pure delicious stuff I’d devoured...Oh God, he was pure human. A human who could wield magick. Not a neph, not scourge. I’d drained what little arcane power he was hoarding and then moved on to his life force. This is what could have happened to Jonathon if I hadn’t stopped. I staggered back, turned my head and puked on the grass. Oh God, oh hell.

  There was movement in the periphery of my vision as Ryker took a wary step toward me.

  I straightened and wiped my mouth with my sleeve. “Please. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know he was pure human.” My shields slammed back into place. “I can’t...you can’t.”

  Drayton came strolling around the side of the building. “The bitch got away, but I doubt she’ll stick around Sunset now that we’ve taken out her cell.”

  Ryker rushed over to me and scooped me up into his arms. “Be unconscious, let me speak.”

  I closed my eyes and slumped against his hard body. But my heart was jack hammering in my chest.

  “What the fuck happened to him?” Drayton asked. “Wait... Damn that looks like...”

  “His spell backfired,” Ryker cut in quickly. “It knocked the human out in the process. The damn fool was overreaching with his magick.”

  Drayton was silent for a long beat. “Is that what happened, Ryker?”

  His tone was saturated with sarcasm, doubt, an opening for Ryker to spill the beans. He suspected something. Drayton suspected. Shit. There was a long beat of silence, the only sound the steady thud of Ryker’s heart against my ear. Was he going to tell?

  His biceps flexed and his chest rose and fell in a sigh. “Yeah, that’s what happened.”

  “All right,” Drayton said slowly. “I’ll check on the other two humans. Daryn knocked them out when we arrived. Fucker knew we weren’t alone. He wanted you to come so he could kill us both.”

  “I’ll get her into the van and see you back at SPD.”

  Oh, God. He knew. Ryker knew. I remained unconscious as he loaded me into the back of the van.

  “You can open your eyes now?” he said.

  I did so to find him hovering over me, his shades were off again and his eyes, the clearest blue, stared deep into me, as if attempting to touch my soul.

  “What are you?” his asked softly.

  “I’m human.” I blinked back tears, biting down on my quivering bottom lip and despising this moment of weakness. “Please. I’m human.”

  His exhale was warm and sweet on my face. He nodded slowly. “Be careful little human. Sometimes what we think we want isn’t always what’s best for us.” He scooted back and jumped out of the van. “Strap in.”

  The door slid shut and I dropped my head into my hands.

  What had I done? What the fuck had I done?

  Chapter 7

  My hands shook as I poured coffee into my mug. It sloshed over the side and onto the counter. I’d killed a man. A man who’d wanted to kill me, but still. I’d killed him, sucked the life right out of him. I was a murderer, and Ryker knew I wasn’t human. My stomach roiled and quivered with nausea, and my eyes burned with the pressure of holding back tears. The Protectorate was gone, thank goodness. They’d taken the bloodsucker we’d had in lock-up with them and jetted for Midnight. Ryker had kept his mouth shut. He hadn’t even looked at me, but Drayton had and there was way too much speculation in those glances.

  A shadow fell over me and a large hand clutching a tea towel mopped up the mess for me.

  “You all right?” Nolan asked.

  I nodded, wanting desperately to lean into him, to draw from him to quell the shakes. They knew. Two members of the Protectorate knew.

  “How are Bellamy and Fulstrom?”

  “Recovering.” He cupped my shoulder and turned me to face him. Looking down on me with the concerned expression I was so used to, and something else, something dark and new I’d never noticed before. “Tell me you’re all right.”

  I nodded, breaking eye contact. “I’m fine. Just shaken up. It was crazy.”

  “You could have been killed.”

  “That’s the second time this week you’ve said that to me. Way too much excitement for the SPD.” I cracked a smile, wanting to ease the tension.

  His fingers flexed against the taut flesh of my shoulder and then he released me. “If you need to talk... If you need anything, you come to me.”

  What I needed was to run. To fuck like a jackrabbit and expel this excess power thrumming inside me, but personal relationships were a no go area for me. Aside from Jesse, there was no one close—no one except Nolan, my mentor, my rock.

  He wants you Harker. Wants you balls deep. I can’t believe you haven’t noticed. Julie’s words reverberated inside my head, kicking up my pulse and heating the base of my neck.

  I cleared my throat. “How did they get in?”

  “What?” his voice was rasp.

  I glanced up at my reflection in his dilated pupils. My mouth went bone dry. I licked my lips and he tracked the motion. Something stirred inside me, that part of me that just didn’t give a damn about right and wrong, the part that just hungered and wanted. The part I worked to keep locked down all the fucking time.

  Exhaling through my nose, I took a step away from him. “We need to check out the fence. Do a full perimeter sweep. They had to have got in somewhere.”

  His lips tightened. “I have Henry and a couple other guys on it.”

  “Good.”

  “Go home and get some rest. The report can wait.”

  “The report can wait?” I placed my hands on my hips. “Okay, who are you and what have you done with my boss?”

  His eyes crinkled and the weird dynamic melted away. “Shut it, cheeky. Go home and get some sleep. I’ll see you Monday.”

  “Monday? You don’t want me in tomorrow?”

  He arched a brow. “You have the day booked off for the fete remember?”

  The Fete? Oh crap. The Fete. Stalls and smiles and cakes to be sold to raise money to buy the materials to fix our fences. Dawn was our provider and the materials weren’t cheap. The bastards probably put the prices high on purpose. They wanted us vulnerable and exposed so that more people would become silvered.

  “Yeah, good times.” My tone was flat and he let out a bark of laughter

  “Save me one of Jesse’s brownies.”

  “I’ll save you a whole batch.”

  His eyes twinkled. “You always do.”

  Did I? Yeah, I did. “Well, someone’s got to take care of you.” I jabbed his taut abdomen with my index finger teasingly. But he didn’t smile, instead his gaze took on that intense vibe again and my stomach did a flip.

  Fuck Henry and Julie and their weird ideas. Nolan was just...Nolan. Then why was I backing up so quickly. “Look, can we just keep the details of the mission under wraps? You know how worried Jesse gets.”

  He nodded. “Of cours
e.”

  “See you Monday.”

  I turned and strode out of the coffee room leaving my coffee behind.

  ***

  Fetes sucked. Okay, not the actual fete but working a fete sucked. While everyone else milled around on the green, eating burgers and cotton candy, playing games and taking spins on the Ferris wheel, I was stuck at a stall selling cute cupcakes and delicious brownies. Urgh. This so wasn’t my forte, but Jesse loved it all. Here, amongst her peers, Jesse was in her element.

  Although, right now she was giving me the cold shoulder. My scalp pricked with unease. Had someone said something to her about yesterday? Nolan had promised to keep the details under wraps but still...

  A group of older kids from her school came strolling past our stall, must have been around thirteen or fourteen.

  “Teenagers, eh?” I nudged Jesse. She glanced up from covering the lemon drizzle cake she’d baked that morning.

  “Kitty, Derek, how are you this fine morning?” she asked.

  The kids paused and their blasé expressions melted into smiles. “Morning, Miss Harker. Great, Thanks, Miss Harker.”

  Jesse smiled indulgently. “Care for some yummy cake?”

  The kids walked over eagerly and began picking out their treats. Jesse spoke to each of them, adjusting her tone to suit the child and they were putty in her hands. She was good with them, good with kids in general. It’s what made her such a great teacher.

  The group wandered off, waving bye and Jesse turned her attention to restocking our table.

  I passed her the box with the chocolate muffins. “How do you do that?”

  “Do what?” She took the box and began to unpack it carefully.

  “Remember each face and each name.”

  She shrugged. “I dunno. I just do.” She popped the empty box behind her. “I heard about the massacre at the motel.”

  I closed my eyes. “That was supposed to be kept on the down-low.”

  “Yeah. Well, this is Sunset.”

  True. Gossip was gold here. Considering that not much of note ever happened, when something did blow up, it was all over the district in record time. The motel was probably the biggest incident to hit Sunset in years.