Chapter 21 #2
I was halfway through moving a step stool when Belfry swooped dramatically into view.
“You!” I said. “Feeling better after your failed-fireball embarrassment?” I asked, almost cheerfully.
Maybe I felt a twinge of guilt for poking fun at his attempt, but then again, he had tried to use fire to stop me from leaving.
I did not fail, he huffed. I merely… misjudged my timing.
It had taken him almost an hour to get over this embarrassment and show up, when I was pretty sure Luther had instructed him to keep me company.
The sun was still climbing slowly toward its zenith, the library sunlit through its restored windows.
Belfry must hate being up right now, but he didn’t sound grumpy, just his usual cheerful self.
“Uh-huh, sure,” I said as I crossed my arms and gave him a once-over.
He’d landed on a stack of books in the shade, but his eyes were huge.
“Since you’re here, mind showing me the entrance to that basement you mentioned before?
” While I had worked and searched, I’d kept looking for any sign of Gwen over by the B in fact, the humidity was perfect.
All of these books were pristine, their leather covers uncracked and shiny with health, as if they had been made yesterday instead of having been hidden in the dark for years without care. No, these books didn’t need me at all.
I swallowed roughly and nodded. “Okay. Fair enough, Belfry. Maybe this is too advanced for rookie paranormal archivists, anyway.” But I could still sniff around to see if I could find anything on vampires and sudden, permanent mating bonds.
I needed to figure out if there was a way to undo this, to find out what it meant, even if those thoughts kept making my stomach twist in ways I couldn’t explain.
Was it anger, sadness, distress? Did I want to keep this weird mating bond thing with Luther?
The man had barely graduated from enemy to obnoxious neighbor to lover.
I stepped deeper into the strange library, my eyes trailing over the spines as I sought answers to a question I couldn’t seem to form. Much I couldn’t read, and some I could, though my Latin was a bit rustier than I would have liked. Vampire, vampire, where was it?
One shelf seemed dedicated to dragons, so that meant they were real.
There was even one dinner-sized golden scale set in a holder on one shelf between the books.
Another shelf was all about lycanthropes and other assorted shapeshifters, and I stared with fascination at a book embossed with a beautiful griffin.
That was not an uncommon symbol; I’d seen it on plenty of old books.
The griffin was a favorite among medieval nobility, but I had a feeling this book wasn’t some boring treatise or history of a royal family.
I was deep in this ancient, mythical place when the fine hairs on the back of my neck rose. My pulse spiked as a shot of adrenaline rushed through me. I turned, searching the dark library, my flashlight dancing around. Someone was watching me.
Jade! Belfry shrieked from nearby, but it was too late. A shape lunged from the dark stone stairs, as if it had followed me down here. I had a moment to see the flash of teeth, claws, and more darkness. Then everything dissolved into a rush of terror and blackness.