Page 12

“The prophecy must be kept safe.” It came out in a strangled hiss.

“What prophecy?”

The vampire on the floor twitched. My eyes went to his left hand, which was twisted underneath him so that it disappeared under the white jacket he wore. He twitched again.

“Uh, guys.” I tried to warn them, but I’d been too late. The vampire grabbed whatever was in his pocket and launched to his feet, moving with the swiftness of a hunting panther. He launched the black ball down by Claire’s feet.

“Shut your eyes and nose!” she shouted just as the ball exploded, throwing out a plume of thick, black dust. I did as she said, snapping my nose shut with my fingers and closing my eyes just as the cloud rolled over me, like a ghost coming to consume me.

It hit me with a physical force that nearly knocked me over… no. That wasn’t the dust. Something had actually hit me, or someone? There were arms wrapped around me. Strong and firm. I maybe should have struggled, fought back, but it didn’t feel like I was in danger. These weren’t the same arms that had tried to snatch me up outside the store.

The dust dispersed moments later. I opened my eyes and looked up, directly into those emerald-green orbs I had been so drawn by earlier. My hand pressed up against the man’s bare chest, some of his scales under my fingertips. Soft, like the finest and rarest of silk, and warm, like the ground after a hot summer’s day, baked under the bright sun.

“Are you okay?” he asked, opening his arms.

“I, uhm, yeah, I’m good.” My heart raced, although now I couldn’t quite pinpoint why.

“I didn’t want the vampires grabbing you. They can see through the onyx ash.”

“The what?” I rub a hand over my face. “Actually, more importantly: why the hell were those vampires after me in the first place?”

“That’s a very good question,” the dragon said. He held out a hand, and it took me a quick second to realize he meant for me to do the same. I returned his handshake, trying hard not to notice how firm his grip was and how warm his palm was and how smooth his fingers felt around mine.

Which, of course, was the only thing I could think about until he released his grip.

“I’m Damien,” he said. “Blackthorne.”

“Robby… Diaz,” I say in a feeble way of imitating his impressively dramatic sounding last name. He chuckled and I found myself staring at his lips a little too hard.

“Maddox,” one of the others said with a casual head nod, saving me from my self-induced man trance.

“I’m Xavier,” the youngest-looking one said, coming over to give me a friendly and slightly surprising hug. My hand brushed against the golden scales on his bicep, feeling that same velvety, smooth texture. “You’re safe with us.”

“Thank you,” I said. My mind whirled but at least my legs were still pretty steady.

Claire began to pick some things up, using her magic to push all the glass and broken items to the side of the room in a neat pile while she worked to reorganize a shelf. I couldn’t always make out the threads of magical energy Marvels used to manipulate this world—it depended on how much force the Marvel was using to weave the threads of mana—but I could see a slight shimmer of pink and red surrounding the glass shards. Like a brief hallucination in the middle of a dry desert, the air glittering just above the ground.

Maybe it was partly the shock making me look for distractions, but I got down on my hands and knees to help gather whatever I could. After all, I was a new employee.

“He mentioned a prophecy,” Claire said as she reorganized a knocked-over display of jewel-encrusted amulets. “Could it have to do with the same one that’s behind the dragon fall?”

“Could be,” Damien said. I looked at the gathered group of handsome men (and gorgeous woman), realizing I didn’t belong here. This wasn’t my place. These were beings with immense and immeasurable power, holding an equal amount of respect—from most people, at least. I was just a regular guy buried under debt and worry, and now I was apparently the target of some wild vampire coven.

No. I didn’t belong here at all. I had to go, had to get back home. It would be a long trek at this time, anyway, especially since I was now going to be looking over my shoulder every other minute.

I scooped up a couple of leather notebooks and set them on the carved wooden desk, where other books were stacked in messy columns.

I really feel like I just need to lay down,” I announced to no one in particular. I looked to Claire, hoping she didn’t regret giving me a job now that I appeared to be attracting vamps the same way my bare ankles attracted swarms of mosquitos. “Sorry about all of this. If you want to dock any of my paychecks, I totally understand.”