Chapter 3
T he call ended, and Paige flicked her gaze to Dewey. “Big-time trouble?”
Dewey powered off the television, gathered the plates, and buzzed across the room. He offloaded the pizza into the box. “Looks like we’ve got to take this meal to go.”
Paige rose from her spot on the couch and grabbed his carrier. “Yeah. What’s with all the code reds? And why did Ronnie say big-time trouble? I thought the last three were trouble enough. What could be worse than a chaos gem causing chaos in the world?”
Dewey hopped inside the black mesh container. “Could be anything. Cloak of Sovereignty. Ruby of Reduction. Emerald of Augmentation. Ring of Dominion.”
Paige wrinkled her nose as he rattled off the list. “Ring of Dominion? I sure hope we don’t have to take it to Mordor.”
“Mordor?” Dewey asked.
“You know, like Frodo and Sam. The fellowship of the ring. Elves, dwarves, hobbits.” Paige zipped his carrier shut and slung the strap over her shoulder.
“I assume you’re referring to those books by that man,” Dewey spat as she grabbed her purse from the counter and hurried to the door.
“Those books by that man?” Paige asked, with a chuckle. “Do I sense some disdain over those stories? Let me guess, not factual.”
“Oh, they are entirely factual. But he made a tidy sum off a terrible war. Thousands of deaths, and this joker comes along and turns it into fiction and makes a mint!”
Paige paused with her fingertips on her door knob. “Wait, are you saying…”
“I’m saying that’s all factual history.”
“OMG,” Paige said as she pulled the door open. “Now I’m really concerned. There’s no way I can make it to Mordor carrying that ring. I’ll die.”
“And I ain’t carrying you like Samwise either.”
“Okay, you take the ring, and I’ll carry you.”
“No way, uh-uh. I’m not touching that ring. I don’t want to go crazy, like poor Bilbo.”
Paige grinned at the idea of a crazy Dewey carrying his “precious” as she tugged her door closed behind her and locked it. She spun to face the railing surrounding the open stairs when movement caught her eye.
Devon straightened from his lean against the wall and approached her. “Paige, we need to talk.”
Paige set her jaw, pulling her lips back into a grimace. “No, we don’t. If you’ll excuse me, I have somewhere to be.”
“Paige–”
“Can it, Muscles,” Dewey shouted from inside the carrier, “we’ve got business. And it doesn’t involve you.”
“But, Paige–”
“Why don’t you crawl back to your creepy castle and climb up to your tower room and sulk?”
Devon fluttered his eyelashes as he slid his fingers through his hair.
“He’s right,” Paige said. “We have absolutely nothing to discuss. Leave me alone, Devon.”
She pushed past him, banging her hip against the railing and stumbling forward. Her back arched as she struggled to stay upright. The carrier swung wildly, and she pitched headfirst over the railing.
“Paige!” Devon shouted.
An electric shock shot through her body as the world started to go black. When her eyes fluttered open again, she stared up at a blurry ceiling. With a groan, she sucked in a sharp breath.
“Paige,” Devon’s voice said, his fuzzy face hovering over her, “you okay?”
Her vision came into focus as he slid her glasses onto her face. She blinked a few times before she tried to sit up.
“Easy, Paige, just wait a second.”
“Why, so you can tell her some more of your lies?” Dewey growled from within his carrier. “Get up, Paige. We have to go!”
“You nearly fell over the railing! You need to take a minute before you do something reckless.”
“Reckless?” Paige said, adjusting her glasses as she pushed herself up to stand. “What’s reckless is you showing up every five minutes in my life and nearly killing me.”
“I didn’t nearly kill you.”
Paige picked up the strap to Dewey’s carrier and slung it over her shoulder. “You did. I could have fallen over the railing because you wouldn’t let me go past you!”
“And then you knocked her out again with your devil touch,” Dewey yelled.
“It’s not a…I’ll fix that. Just give me the chance to fix it.”
“No,” Paige said, slicing her hand through the air. “I don’t want any help from you. Leave me alone. Stop harassing me. Now, I have to go.”
She sidestepped closer to the wall and squashed herself against it as she skirted around him.
“Paige, wait,” he said as she hurried toward the stairs.
“Leave me alone, Devon!” she said, wagging a finger in the air as she grasped the railing.
She dashed down the steps and pushed through the creaky door into the night air. She sucked in a deep breath as she hurried along the sidewalk. “Can you believe the nerve of that guy?”
“Total jerk,” Dewey answered from the confines of his carrier.
“Yeah! I mean, talk about strange. He’s waiting outside my apartment? Weird. Can you say stalker?”
“Definitely. Like I said, probably runs in the family.”
Paige wrapped her arms around her middle as she waited on the corner to cross the street. “Complete idiot.”
“Although, he did stop you from falling over the railing. I thought you were a goner. You’re really klutzy.”
“That wasn’t my fault! Devon trapped me, and I hit my hip trying to get around him.”
“Well, to his credit, he did save you.”
Paige stepped off the curb as the light changed and strolled across the crosswalk. “Yes, and knocked me out again with that stupid electric shock.”
“I’ve really got to get on researching this and see what I can do about it.”
“It’s fixable, at least according to Devon. So, I hope you can figure it out.”
“If Devon can figure it out, so can I,” Dewey said as the library came into view. “I’m smarter than him.”
“Well, I mean Devon may not have figured it out. Maybe it happens a lot and he just knows it because it’s been handed down through his family for generations or something.”
“Secret family recipe for curing electrical shocks from a beast mark, hmm.”
“Maybe you should text him,” Paige said with a chuckle as she ducked into the back alley and approached the library’s rear employee entrance.
“Very funny, Paige.”
“Well,” she said as she tapped her keycard against the reader near the door, “you seem to think it’s a worthy solution for me at every turn.”
“And you were just too happy to pay me back with it.”
Paige chuckled as she strode down the lackluster back hall past the now-dark HR offices.
As she entered the main library, Otis appeared from between two large wooden shelves. “Oh, hey Paige, working late?”
“Yeah,” she said with a poke at the bridge of her glasses, “Ronnie called us in.”
“Hi, Otis!” Dewey called from his carrier.
“Hey, Dewey, almost didn’t see you there. Out and about again, huh?”
“Movie marathon,” Dewey reported. “But we didn’t make it very far. Duty calls.”
“Well, have fun and be safe.”
“We will, thanks, Otis,” Paige said as she strolled toward the curved staircase leading to Ronnie’s office on the second floor and climbed to the next level.
Light shone from inside the director’s office, spilling onto the shiny tile floor outside. Paige approached, knocking on the jamb. “Ronnie?”
“Come in!” the woman yelled, bent over a printout on her desk.
Paige stepped inside onto the thick carpet and eased the door closed behind her before she settled into a seat on the opposite side of the desk. She unzipped Dewey’s carrier, and he climbed out, taking the seat next to her.
“Another red alert, huh?” he asked.
“Yeah, big trouble. Just give me a second here.”
“What are we talking? I mean, on a scale of one to chaos gem,” Dewey questioned.
Ronnie lowered her chin, glancing at him over her reading glasses. “Bronze ring.”
Dewey remained silent for a moment.
Paige fidgeted in her seat. “Bronze ring. Well, that doesn’t sound so bad.”
“Oh, sure, it’s not too bad,” Dewey answered. “As long as you don’t mind someone having unfettered access to any time period they’d like.”
Paige crinkled her nose. “Oh, well that sounds–”
“Bad,” Ronnie finished for her, “yes. But what makes it even worse is who is vying for this item.”
Dewey leaned forward in his chair, his eyes wide. “Who?”
“Transylvanian Vampires.”
Dewey’s jaw dropped open, and he flopped against the chair’s back cushion. “No.”
Ronnie’s head bobbed up and down. “Yes.”
Dewey slow-blinked and shook his head. “This is a nightmare. They’ll take that ring and–”
His voice cut off, and he blew out a breath.
“I know,” Ronnie said.
Paige flicked her gaze back and forth between them. “They’ll what? Change history? What?”
Dewey climbed to his feet, his paws balled into fists. “Destroy history, is more like it. Human slaves, anyone? The Transylvanian Vampires would say yes, please.”
Ronnie nodded. “Their power would be unchecked, particularly if they can go back far enough to unseat the day-walkers.”
Paige lowered her chin. “Day-walkers. As in…Devon.”
“Yes, as in Devon’s clan and a few others. They are at the top of the food chain,” Ronnie explained. “And so far, they haven’t made too much trouble. They’re happy to live amongst us and rule the other supernaturals with an iron fist.”
“But this would upset the balance of power. It’ll be an all-out war,” Dewey said. “And one the day-walkers stand to lose if the Transylvanians can get that ring and the add-ons to take them back to the beginning.”
Paige crinkled her forehead as she tried to follow the conversation. “So, these Transylvanians…”
Her voice trailed off as she formulated her thought.
Dewey leaned closer to her, his eyes wide as he awaited her question. “Yeah?”
“Are…what…exactly?” she stammered out.
“Traditional vampires. The guys you see in the horror flicks. Fangs, capes, white skin,” Dewey said. “Coffin-sleepers. Can’t take daylight, allergic to wood and garlic.”
Paige’s eyebrows shot up. “Right, okay. All right, so they aren’t invincible.”
Dewey narrowed his eyes at her. “Planning on staking all six thousand or so of them, are you?”
“Oh, right, that would be…a lot.”
Dewey shook his head as he turned his attention back to Paige. “Sometimes, Paige, sometimes.”