Protector of Midnight

by Debbie Cassidy

  “The Order is gone. That’s all you need to worry about.”

  “You neglected to tell me you were nearly killed.”

  I froze, cupcake partway to my mouth. “Who told you that?”

  “Henry swung by just before you got here.”

  That prick. “Henry wasn’t even there. He knows nothing.”

  “So, you weren’t held hostage by one of the Order?”

  Gah. “Jesse. I’m an officer of the law which means sometimes I’m put in dangerous situations. It happens.”

  She turned to face me, her eyes bright with what I’d come to recognize as her idea face. I stifled a groan.

  “There’s a job opening at the school for a TA.”

  I set the cupcake back on the counter. “No.”

  “But we can be together, and you can be safe.”

  I didn’t want safe. I didn’t want to be working with kids. I needed action, any action I could get and the threat of danger, however slim, because without it, I’d go insane. Without it, the hunger would consume me.

  “I like my job.”

  “But you could have been killed.”

  “I’m seriously going to throttle the next person that says that to me.”

  The sound of bells filled the air. Crap. Seriously? They were going to do this now. Here at the charity fete?

  Jesse undid her apron. “Are you coming to watch?”

  “No. And neither are you.”

  Her jaw set stubbornly. “Stay here if you want, but you can’t tell me what to do.”

  “Pot calling the kettle black, much?”

  Her lips twitched. “Oh, come on. Aren’t you curious what they’ll say?”

  “No. Because it’s always the same shit.” But I was on my feet regardless, because there was no way she was going alone.

  The tinkle of bells intensified as we exited the back of the stall and joined the other humans making their way across the green toward the spectacle.

  “Did you see Gerry’s girl? Yes, she’s one of them,” someone said.

  Gerry ran the supermarket on main street. His twenty-five-year-old daughter had run off to join the silvered with her six month old baby in tow after her husband had gone scourge. Gerry, a widower, was left devastated. And she was here? Damn. Let’s hope Gerry hadn’t decided to come today.

  The silvered came into view over the rise. Humans dressed in gold and white robes that fell down to their ankles. Their feet were clad in silver sandals and around their necks glinted the silver chains of the White Wings. There were ten silvered today. They strode purposefully onto the green, silver bells at their waists jingling, ready to spread the word.

  Jesse gripped my hand, and stood on tiptoe to get a better look. She was tiny, barely five foot four inches, there was no way she was getting a good view, and even though I hated her seeing this, if she wanted to, then I needed to make sure she got a good spot.

  “Hey, excuse me.” I pushed my way through the crowd using my five foot seven height and SPD authority to get to the front of the mass.

  Jesse stifled a giggle and then we were upfront with an unobstructed view of the spectacle. Two district councilmen were standing either side of the silvered, their expressions tight. Yeah, this hadn’t been on the agenda. This little demonstration had probably been requested by Dawn last minute, leaving our district little time to prepare for it. But a request, however late from Dawn, could not be denied. Dawn provided most of our goods and services through export between the districts—things such as vegetables and fruit, things that didn’t flourish as well in Sunset. They also held the monopoly on technology, and the power plant that ran Arcadia was located within their borders. Our electrified fence was only running because of the high tax the citizens paid, another reason why not every human could afford to live in Sunset.

  The ten silvered came to a standstill. They formed a line and began to sing. It was a song of praise to the White Wings for their benevolence and mercy, and it made me sick.

  Jesse’s grip on my hand tightened. A quick glance showed her to be enraptured, mouth slightly parted as she absorbed their words. A sick, queasy feeling squirmed in my belly and the urge to shake her was almost too much. Instead, I fixed my attention back on the silvered as the designated spokesperson stepped forward to deliver the speech. It was Clara, Gerry’s daughter.

  “There is safety and comfort and peace beyond the gates,” she said. “There is a home for all who wish to follow. There is love and joy and everlasting happiness.”

  Really? Because that face sure didn’t look happy.

  “The decision is forever in your hands.” She delivered the final words in a monotone.

  Yeah and it would be the last decision you’d make. I bit the insides of my cheeks to stop the words popping out.

  “Clara, come home, baby!” Gerry stepped out of the crowd. He took a step toward her. “Sweetheart. I miss you so much.”

  Clara didn’t even blink. Her expression remained neutral, her attention straight ahead.

  “What have they done to you? Tell me?” His voice rose, trembling with a cocktail of emotion.

  He began to walk toward the silvered. Shit. Accosting a silvered was a criminal offense.

  “Serenity...” Jesse urged.

  But I was already striding into the clearing to cut him off. “Back up, Gerry. You know the rules.”

  He blinked at me, his dazed expression clearing, and then his jaw clenched. “You think I give a damn about the rules? That’s my baby girl there. Get out of my way.”

  He tried to sidestep me, but I blocked him again. “Gerry, stop. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  The crowd was buzzing with murmurs.

  Gerry rushed me, but came up against a wall. Yeah, stronger than you thought, huh? I twisted, grabbed his arms and kicked the back of his knee bringing him down.

  “Out of the way! Move!” It was Henry’s voice bellowing above the crowd.

  Great the cavalry had arrived.

  I looked up as my colleagues strode toward me; Bellamy, Henry and Fulstrom.

  “Hey, guys. It’s okay. It’s just Gerry. He’ll be fine in a min...” My glaze slipped past them to the five-man extraction team. Suited and armed with guns. Guns. They circled me.

  Me.

  My heart went into freeze frame and then lodged in my throat. “What is this?” My voice was a croak because damn it, I already knew.

  “A mistake,” Bellamy said. “Harker. It has to be. But you need to come with us now ‘kay.”

  They knew. They knew what I was. I could see it in Bellamy’s sorrow filled gaze, and Henry’s triumphant one.

  “Serenity?” Nolan appeared to my left. “Are you coming?” He said it casual and soft, as if he was asking me to dance, but the nullifying cuffs in his hand said different.

  I swallowed hard, and carefully released Gerry. “Don’t touch her, Gerry. Just make the right choice.” He sobbed into the grass as I pulled myself up and faced Nolan.

  “There’s no need for those, Nolan. You know me.”

  His gaze flicked to the extraction team. “I know. But it’s protocol.” His left eye twitched.

  “We’ll get this squared,” Bellamy said again, but this time there was no conviction in his tone.

  I held out my wrists and locked gazes with Nolan. “Do it.”

  His strong hands cupped my slender wrists. “I’m sorry, Harker. I really am.” He cuffed me.

  My body went numb, my ears buzzing with the inevitability of it and then Jesse’s scream tore my resolve in two.

  “Serenity? Let me go. That’s my sister.” One of the extraction team guys had her in his grip, his arm like a vise around her waist, holding her back.

  My control snapped and tears blurred my vision. “Jesse, calm down.”

  But she was a wild thing, clawing at the arm that held her back, kicking and screaming as her worst fears were brought to life. As SPD began to lead me away.

  “No! Stop, you’re hurting me.”

>   I spun to see Jesse pinned to the ground her arms hiked up her back in an incapacitating position. Rage, hot and potent, coursed through my veins.

  “Let go of her.” I took a step toward the guy.

  “Serenity, don’t.” Nolan made a grab for me just as the extraction guy, pressed a knee to my sister’s back.

  Jesse cried out and my shields fell. “Get the fuck off her now!” The power I’d absorbed from Daryn, the power I’d stored up and squirreled away blasted out of me and slammed into the officers, knocking them flying. Jesse was suddenly free and sprinting toward me. My knees buckled and I went down, too weak to stay upright. Drained. I was fucking drained.

  Jesse pulled me against her, her face in the crook of my neck, her tears smearing against my skin. “No. Please don’t let them do this. Don’t let them take you.”

  There was no shock, no confusion as to why they’d come for me, just fear that they’d be taking me.

  “You knew?”

  She nodded. “I don’t care. I don’t care because I love you.”

  My chest ached with sorrow, and my shoulders shook with sobs.

  “Jesse,” Nolan said. “It’ll be okay. Everything will be okay.”

  But it wouldn’t. Nothing would ever be okay again.

  Chapter 8

  My legs were finally working properly, but my head still throbbed dully. I’d never done that before—expelled power like that. This was something new, another clue as to what I could possibly be and to who I was.

  The cell was a reprieve from prying eyes. My friends, my colleagues, people I’d known all my life were looking at me warily, as if afraid I’d attack at any moment. Being locked in a cell was better. Head cradled in my hands, I studied the cracks in the stone floor—a network of tiny fissures, kinda like my life. Jesse had known, or suspected at least. Why hadn’t she said anything? Would they let her see me before they shipped me off to Midnight? How long before I was expelled?

  The door to the cell block clanged open, and Nolan strode in, his boots clipping against the floor.

  “Serenity, I brought you some tea and something for your headache,” he said.

  My eyes misted. “How can you be so nice to me now that you know the truth?”

  “Doesn’t change who you are,” he said. “You’re still the feisty, determined woman who walked into the recruitment drive five years ago and stole my heart.”

  Had I heard right? I looked up slowly and met his steadfast gaze.

  His throat bobbed and he ducked his head. “I can’t believe I just said that.”

  Yes, I’d heard right, and now my insides were doing all kinds of squirmy fucked up shit. “You never said anything.”

  “No point. You didn’t feel the same way. You respected me and cared about me. I was your mentor, but that’s where the line was drawn.”

  The words, we could have been more were on the tip of my tongue but I bit them back, not wanting one of the last things I said to him to be a lie.

  He entered my cell and pulled the door to.

  I offered him a watery smile. “Aren’t you worried I’ll jump you and make my escape?”

  He handed me the tea and pills then crouched in front of me. “If there was somewhere for you to run, I’d take you myself.”

  Dammit. Now I was crying. I put the mug and pills on the bench and buried my face in my hands.

  “Don’t.” His tone was harsh, reproving. “You’re stronger than this.”

  I sniffed. “No. I’m not. I’m fucking terrified.”

  The bench creaked as he took a seat beside me, and then he tugged me against him and lifted me onto his lap. He cradled me while I sobbed away my fear and despair. After what seemed like forever, the sobs subsided, leaving me spent and despondent.

  “Are you done?” he asked.

  I nodded against his chest. The steady thud of his heart was a channel for calm and resolve.

  “Now listen to me, Serenity. You were made to protect the weak. It’s in your blood. Neph blood, and that ain’t a bad thing.”

  I leaned back to look into his face. “How can you say that?”

  He scanned my face. “Because the nephs are all that stand between us and them—the White Wings and the scourge. The neph are stronger than us, more powerful. You think if they wanted to take Sunset we could stop them?”

  I blinked up at him. “But the treaty...”

  “A piece of paper to make us feel safe. It’s all an illusion, Serenity. The neph choose to stay in Midnight. They choose to protect humans who live there and prevent the scourge from spreading into Sunset, and now you’re one of them. You get to do what you were born to do.”

  His words should have made me feel better, but they barely chipped away at the sadness. “I don’t want to be a hero. I want to stay here with my friends and Jesse. This is my home.”

  He sighed into my hair, his fingers caressing the back of my neck and running down my back. Touching, touching, as if making up for all the times he’d held back, and I allowed it, greedy for the affection and eager for the comfort the contact provided.

  “If I had my way, you’d get to stay,” he said. “But we must maintain the illusion of control. You have to go.”

  I pressed my forehead against his shoulder. “How long before they come for me?”

  “I made the call a half hour ago.”

  So, maybe another half hour or so. Depending on how busy they were. “Can I see Jesse?”

  “You know the rules, Harker.”

  So I was back to Harker now. “Those are for scourge.”

  “Any non-human entity, Harker. Besides, even if I could, I wouldn’t”

  “What?”

  “She wants to go with you.”

  “What!” I jumped off his lap. “No. She can’t. She mustn’t try and follow me.”

  He nodded. “I know. Midnight is no place for someone like Jesse. It would chew her up and spit her out, but you...you can handle it, Serenity, but not if you have Jesse to look out for. In time, she will move on and build a new life.”

  It was why contact between citizens of Sunset and Midnight was prohibited. The only line of communications ran between law enforcement and district councils.

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I promised to protect her, to keep her safe.”

  “And you can do that from Midnight. You’re an excellent officer, Serenity, but you’ve always held back. Run a little bit slower and pulled your punches. Now you get to realize your full potential. If the Protectorate won’t have you, then maybe the MED will.”

  The Midnight Enforcement Department dealt with all the minor crimes in Midnight. They were like the SPD, but on the other side of the border. Working for either organization would be better than not taking any action at all. Yes. I could still keep Jesse safe by controlling the scourge infection in Midnight.

  “Promise me you’ll keep an eye on her. Promise me you’ll watch out for her.”

  He smiled, but his eyes didn’t light up. “Always.” He stood, towering over me again and reached out to cup my cheek. “I know it’s presumptuous and highly inappropriate, but for the last five years I’ve dreamt of kissing you. I just don’t want to—”

  I grabbed the back of his neck, yanked him down and pressed my lips to his. His mouth parted and his tongue met mine. Heat coursed through me, shooting out from the hungry dark part of me that usually lurked behind my shields. My fingers tightened on the nape of his neck, body pressed up against his. I deepened the kiss, and a raw moan rattled at the back of his throat.

  “Ahem!”

  Nolan pulled back, his cheeks flushed, his eyes bright.

  “Sir, the Protectorate are here.” Bellamy kept his eyes on the ground shifting from foot to foot.

  Nolan ran his thumb over my bottom lip and then pulled me in for a hug. “Thank you.” He whispered in my ear.

  The cell door clinked shut, but neither Nolan nor Bellamy bothered to lock it. Like Nolan had said, there was nowhere to run.

&
nbsp; Chapter 9

  It was the walk of shame. The brown and cream corridor seemed extra long, doors open on either side as officers peered out to watch the neph who’d hidden among them all her life be evicted. My cheeks burned with the shame of it, but I held my head up high, and kept my stride even.

  Reception loomed up ahead, and through the glassed off upper half of the double doors I caught site of the neph sent to collect me.

  Ryker stood, arms loose at his side, damned shades firmly on the bridge of his nose. He was in that damned not-leather outfit again, his black t-shirt hugging his biceps lovingly.

  The darkness slammed against my shields wanting out, wanting to rage. This was his fault. He’d told and now I was losing the only home I’d ever known. The lump was back in my throat, but I’d be damned if I’d let anyone know how devastated I was. Nolan pushed open the doors and stood back to let me through. Julie stared at me wide eyed as I ducked under the barrier.

  “Why isn’t she cuffed?” Henry demanded from his position on the customer side of the reception counter.

  “She’s one of us,” Nolan said.

  “No, she’s a fucking neph,” Henry said.

  Ryker’s head whipped round to spear Henry with his shaded gaze. There was something completely disconcerting about someone staring at you through a pair of sunglasses, as if the shades somehow gave him super vision, the ability to burrow into your head and find your soul.

  Henry held up his hands. “Look, I meant no offense.”

  “Then maybe you should keep your mouth shut,” Ryker said.

  Henry’s jaw ticked, but even he knew better than to take on one of the Protectorate.

  “Are you ready?” Ryker asked me.

  “Do I have a choice?” There was way too much hope in the question, and I bit the insides of my cheek wanting desperately to take back the tone while hoping that he’d say, of course you have a choice, Harker.

  “No.” He held open the door. “Van’s parked round the side of the building.”

  With a final glance over my shoulder at the people who’d been my family for the last five years, the people who, with the exception of Nolan and Bellamy, were looking at me as if I was a freak, I stepped out into the sunset.