Page 11 of A Wicked Dance of Obsidian and Light (Echoes of Darkness #1)

Timothy’s office is a few doors down from Grayson’s. The door is slightly ajar, and he’s sitting on his leather swivel chair with his headphones on, his back facing me. He’s staring at the big wall made out of monitors while checking out the surveillance footage.

“Tim?” I ask loudly after I knock on his door. He doesn’t turn around or even notice that I’m in the room. “I swear to God, if we are ever under attack at the compound, he’s going to be the one to die first,” I mutter to myself and stalk forward, placing my hand on his right shoulder when I reach him.

He belts out a high-pitched shriek, almost falling off the chair. I would have found that really funny if I wasn’t so pissed off over the encounter with Noah in Grayson’s office.

“Shit, Iris! You scared me,” he says as he removes his big headphones, the movement making his thick-rimmed glasses askew. Loud rock music is playing from his headphones, which explains why he didn’t hear me.

Timothy is the same age as me; we graduated in the same year, but when I was set on becoming a hellseeker, Tim never had it in him. His shy demeanor, lanky body, and aversion to any type of violence also made him an easy target for bullying. But he’s a genius and loves anything that has to do with tech and computers. His shoulder-length, dirty-blond hair is tied in a ponytail, and he’s wearing a black Metallica T-shirt over dark blue denim. He’s cute in a geeky, non-threatening way.

“What do you need?” he asks as he straightens the frame of his glasses.

“Grayson sent me to get a new phone.”

He bends and rummages through the drawer in his desk. “You hellseekers sure lose and destroy your phones a lot.”

His observation rubs me the wrong way. “Yeah, well, you kind of don’t give a shit about your phone anymore when a demon is about to eat your face, and then use your bones as toothpicks. Not like you would ever know,” I grumble the last part under my breath while I roll my eyes at him.

Tim flinches, and his whole face turns beet red at my words. Fuck . I’m being a bitch on purpose, and I have to calm down. I would never act or talk like this normally, especially to Tim, who never did or said anything bad to me.

I sigh. “Sorry, Tim, it’s been a couple of rough days.”

“No worries,” he says as his face starts to regain its normal color.

“How’s Roman? Did you guys go to that rock concert you were so excited about? What was the band’s name?”

His gaze flits to mine with a pleased gleam as he pauses his search for a moment, and his cheeks flush again at the mention of his boyfriend. “Deadly Sins. Yeah, they were amazing. Roman had this whole romantic dinner planned before we left on the rooftop of his apartment building. He even hung fairy lights on the pergola in between the trailing vines. It was beautiful.”

A soft smile turns the corners of my lips at Tim’s dreamy expression. Roman is one of the doctors who work at the compound. He visited from another compound in Europe two years ago and never left. It took Tim a whole year to garner the courage to ask him on a date, but since then, they’ve been in a steady relationship, and I couldn’t be happier for them. “Wow. Do you have any pictures?”

“No…we um, well, you know,” he stammers, visibly uncomfortable. “We were busy with other things,” he blurts out and clears his throat loudly before extending his phone holding hand to me. “Here. You know the drill, it’s already programmed with all the numbers you need.”

“Would you do me a favor, please? I know I acted like a major bitch just now, but can you also program my number in it and see if you can back up all my calls and text messages?” I ask as sweetly as I can.

“I’m not sure. If it was in the cloud, it’s possible; if not, I can’t promise anything. Come back in ten minutes.”

“You’re a lifesaver. Thank you so much! I’ll swing by in ten,” I say while making my way to the door, then stop in my tracks and turn around. “Um, I also wanted to ask you if you, by any chance, saw something weird on the surveillance footage Friday night, let’s say between nine and ten p.m.?”

He tilts his head to the side. “Like what?”

“I don’t know…someone acting sketchy, going in Grayson’s office without permission, that sort of thing.”

He shakes his head. “No, nothing out of the ordinary happened,” he says pensively, then his eyebrows drop in a frown. “Actually…”

My heart thunders in my ears as I wait for his next words with bated breath.

“…there was a glitch in the system, and I had to reboot it around nine thirty, so I didn’t have any footage for a few minutes, but this happens at least once a month. It’s nothing new.”

Fuck . I deflate like a balloon as I exhale heavily. “’Kay, thanks, Tim.”

“Wait. Why are you asking this?”

“It’s nothing, don’t worry about it. I’ll see you in a bit,” I tell him as I get out of his office and make my way to the library, where my aunt works.

Could the glitch be just a coincidence, or did someone cause it? I mean…it did happen at around nine thirty when I received the text. But who could be so tech-savvy to cause a glitch in an otherwise impenetrable system? I know we have top-notch security, and no expenses are spared to ensure the compound will never be breached. Maybe someone from the outside broke in, even if it seems impossible with the strong magical wards making this place a fortress.

I have to get my hands on the security footage and comb through it. I could ask for Tim’s help, but I don’t want to get him into trouble, and at the end of the day, anyone could have done it. What if Tim is behind it all? He’s the only person I know with the brains to cause a glitch and hack into Grayson’s phone.

I snort a quiet laugh at that thought as I step through the library’s threshold. Tim wouldn’t hurt a fly. The empty library hall is drenched in colorful filtered light as the afternoon sun radiates through the vitrail glass of the floor-to-ceiling windows. The walls and shelves are white, with golden plaster ornaments in the corners, and the ceiling is jaw-dropping. Six cupolas with elaborate lime-wood carvings are painted in the same lapis lazuli color Michelangelo used for the Last Judgement fresco. The paintings depict a grand imperial court made of pure gold surrounded by walls and streets garnished with the most precious stones, streams, and rivers that run through golden sands and blossoming trees. Cherubim, seraphim, and archangels fly or complete mundane tasks in the elaborate Elysium, the City of Angels.

Aunt Josephine is sitting at her desk at the library entrance, scribbling something in a notebook. She’s wearing her usual gray pantsuit with a white shirt underneath, her hair pulled tight in a severe bun. She’s fifty-two, five years older than my mother, but she doesn’t look a day over thirty-five. The blood that runs in the veins of the lightborn is blessed, and it makes us age much slower than normal humans. I don’t know how much of that applies to me, though, since I’m a half-blood, as Veronica and her pack of hyenas always like to remind me since my first day at the compound.

She used to be a hunter in the Order, but after her fiancé, Owen, suffered a horrible death at the hands of a draconic ravenger in a gruesome battle, she couldn’t bear fighting anymore and chose to be the new librarian, occupying the position that was left empty when the one before died of old age.

Even though she doesn’t look a day over thirty-five, her conservative clothes and the way she styles her dark-blonde hair age her a bit. She also doesn’t look much like my mother. If someone told me they were sisters without me being aware of that fact, I would have said that was impossible. My mother’s hair was much lighter, almost whiteish, and the cerulean hue of her almond-shaped eyes made her look otherworldly. In comparison, my aunt’s eyes are warm brown and rounder in shape, but always kind and motherly.

The soles of my sneakers make loud, squeaky noises on the marble floor of the library, the dead silence heightening the sounds as I amble toward her desk. She hears me approach and lifts her head. When her eyes find mine, a dark shadow passes over them. Her whole face turns ashen.

It stops me in my tracks.

In the next second, stark relief floods her features, and I visibly relax . Jeez, Iris, first Tim and then your aunt, who is next on the suspect list, Sam? I shake my head, berating myself for letting paranoia get the best of me. I quickly come to my senses and continue walking until I’m standing right in front of her desk.

“I’ve been so worried about you! Where have you been?” she demands loudly, anguish evident in her tone. “You didn’t answer any of my calls.” Her voice echoes off the tall walls of the enormous library.

“I was injured in a strange demon encounter and lost my phone. I’m sorry I missed our Sunday dinner,” I tell her hesitantly. I don’t want to add to her concern, but I need her help finding information about the umbra.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, dear. I lost my head.” She shakes said head as she stands up, sidestepping her desk and hugging me. Her fragrant perfume envelops me; she always smells like roses.

My aunt smiles at me and sits back down behind her desk. “I’m glad you’re okay. We can reschedule our dinner any time. Happy birthday, by the way!”

“Thank you! Let’s talk on the phone and see how the week goes. Maybe we can go out to Ciprianni’s for a change. My treat,” I say while I bend slightly to rest my forearms on her desk.

She flaps her hand in the air like it’s a non-issue. “Don’t be silly. You know I love to cook for you.”

“Can you maybe help me with something?” I ask.

“Of course. What is it?” Her questioning eyebrows make her doe-like eyes even bigger.

“I need a book on ancient demons that haven’t been seen on Earth in hundreds of years, maybe more. Do we have anything like that in here?”

“Hmm, maybe in the archives in the basement. We have some books there that were written even before the initiation of the Knight Templars. Is there a specific demon you’re looking for? I need to narrow down my search.”

I tear a hole in my cheek as I deliberate what I can tell my aunt. But she took me in after the accident and gave me a life in the Order. I can trust her with my life; I’m sure of it.

“Yeah, there is. I believe umbra demons attacked me on Friday night, and I just wanted more information on them. Please keep this to yourself. I don’t want anyone to know, not even Grayson. Until I have more details about it, of course,” I say in a whisper. I don’t want a random person who might pass near the library to overhear our conversation.

“Sure, you know I’d do anything for you, dear. How do you spell that? I have never heard about this type of demon before. Is it u-m-b-r-a ? ” she asks while writing down the name in the notebook.

“Yeah, I think so, but I’m not one hundred percent sure.”

“All right, I’ll look into it and let you know if I find something. It’s going to take at least a couple of days, though, maybe even weeks. The books we have in the basement are very old and need to be tended with care. There are also over two thousand books that haven’t been organized in a very long time,” she tells me softly, catching on that I don’t want anyone to overhear.

“Perfect. Thank you, Auntie! I don’t know what I’d do without you.” I bend over her desk and give her a peck on the cheek. “I have to go. I need to pick up my new phone and then I need to get some training in before I start my shift tonight.”

“All right, dear. We’ll talk soon.” She waves at me before getting back to scribbling in her notebook.

I stride back to Tim’s office and knock again on his door. This time, he hears me.

“Ah, there you are. I finished setting up your phone, but I could only recover your calls, photos, and everything else besides the text messages. And I don’t know if you had everything stored in the cloud, so some might be missing. Sorry,” he says as he rotates his chair to face me.

Damn it.

I really need my texts back. I wanted to prove to Grayson that I wasn’t lying—well, at least about that.

“Is there any way I can get my texts back?” I exasperate.

He shrugs. “Unfortunately, no. I tried everything already.”

“’Kay, thanks, Tim.” I sigh in defeat and take my new phone from him.

As I exit Timothy’s office again, Noah gets out of Grayson’s study. Shit. The feeling that I need to punch something comes back with a vengeance. With all the blows I keep taking since Friday night, I feel like I can’t catch a break.

I turn my head, pretending I haven’t seen him, and quicken my pace toward the stairs. I have to get to the third floor, and I can feel him getting closer to me by the second.

“Fuck! Iris! Just wait a minute. I need to talk to you,” he growls angrily as he grabs my right arm. The heat of his hand brands my skin and sends shivers all over my body. His sandalwood cologne invades my senses. Without intending to, I take in a deeper breath. I missed him and his stupid smell so much. I shake my arm free of his hold and narrow my eyes while turning around to face him.

“You’re five years too late, Noah. And what about what I need, huh? Right now, what I need is to get away from you as soon as possible or else I’ll flip the fuck out,” I whisper-yell at him, not wanting to cause a scene. I turn around and resume my brisk walk, reaching the stairs.

“Oh my God! NOAH! I heard a rumor about you getting back, but I needed to make sure it was true with my own eyes,” Veronica squeals ostentatiously in a stupidly fake sweet voice that makes my teeth want to fall out as she half-runs, half-walks, descending the stairs from the third floor.

Fuck my life.

I look up and huff loudly, praying for patience because I can’t deal with this shit anymore. I would rather gouge my eyes out with rusty spoons than have to sit through this.

Veronica’s platinum-blonde hair is held up in a perky ponytail that bounces with each step. She’s wearing a short pink skirt paired with a low-cut T-shirt in the same color. She looks like a real version of a Barbie. At least she has her outside beauty going for her because I experienced first-hand how rotten she is on the inside.

“I was training when Britney told me she saw you arrive earlier today. I started looking for you immediately. I always knew you would come back for me,” she says as she reaches us at the bottom of the stairs and hugs Noah, pushing her heavily padded boobs in his face while completely ignoring me.

I hate to admit it, but jealousy ignites my blood. “Yeah, in those clothes, you were training for sure,” I mumble under my breath, and I know I’m being a petty bitch, but I don’t care.

She side-eyes me and pretends she didn’t hear a word I said because Noah is here, and she’s desperate to get back with him. They were in a relationship a few years back but split up around the same time I joined the Order. She always talked about how perfect they were together and what beautiful babies they would make. She’s still set on marrying him and makes sure everybody knows it. I can always pick up his name in her mindless conversations with her minions, Tessa and Britney.

I’m surprised I still have teeth with how strongly I’m grinding them. I start climbing the stairs, trying hard not to look behind and see what everybody else does: the golden couple. When I left Tim’s office, I intended to do the medical exam first and then go train. But if I don’t punch something soon, I will burn this place to the ground.

“Iris, wait! We haven’t finished our talk,” Noah shouts after me.

“We haven’t even started it, Noah. Besides, you’ve been too busy for five years straight; what’s another day?”

“So, tell me, what have you been up to since we last spoke?” Veronica’s sickly-sweet voice reaches me at the top of the stairs, and I bite the inside of my cheek hard, drawing blood.

Noah says something back, but I can’t hear his exact words.