AllFreeNovel
Share Us
By the time we got to the gallery beneath the dome, I felt terribly guilty. I tried to sit them down with paper and crayons, but they kept hanging onto me for almost the entire remaining time, while the guilt and confusion grew. I’d warned them not to go there, because children liked to do the things they weren’t supposed to do, so it was a well-earned scare, but I hadn’t expected them to be quite so affected by it. It’s like they had no idea how to handle fear, to put it into its proper box and move onto the next more helpful emotion.
“You’re safe. It was only an illusion. It wasn’t a real demon. Real demons are much more terrifying.”
For some reason, they only cried harder after that. Listening to children cry is the most exhausting thing in the world. No matter what I said, no matter how many times I tried to get them to sit up and color, they clung to me until finally Horace came.
“What’s this?” he asked as they threw themselves on the man. He’d been in the military, so he was strong and sturdy, but they rocked him with their fear-driven assault.
Sarah pointed at me. “She let a demon get us!”
He looked from them to me, crouching down to get the story, touching their faces, calming them with that way he had. I hadn’t been able to calm them down, even though they’d held onto me. I didn’t know how to deal with children. The only thing I knew how to nurture was books. I knew what to expect of them, but I’d judged incorrectly where they were concerned. I should have realized that a circle of flames and a demon would be too much for some unscarred elves. Well, they weren’t unscarred now.
My stomach knotted up as I cleaned up the crayons and took my lunch. I needed serenity to soothe the emotions and reactions that surged around my core. I failed at being a normal human. I would never know the right responses to people. That was usually okay, because I could hide in my books and not think about people, or only have to deal with them on the other side of a desk where books were the only topic of conversation.
But remembering their fear, their accusations, it wasn’t okay. I took a deep breath and took a bite of my sandwich as I underlined and made notes in the margins of the photocopied pages of Hammurabi’s code. I needed calm in my life or I got more nightmares. Been there, done that, got the eternal fires burning in the underworld. It was fine. The next time Horace asked me to babysit his children, I’d be violently ill. With the way my stomach was tangling, it wouldn’t be a lie.
I had just started to breathe normally in the enclosed study room with my ancient text and pages of partial translations when the door opened and Horace walked in.
He was human with faded blonde hair that didn’t show the gray. He stood straight and commanding, his blue eyes burning at me with anger that didn’t show on the rest of his face. He was usually mild and polite, cool and reserved, but now his eyes burned bright like a desert sky at midday. There was crackling power in him, even though he didn’t usually show it.
“Miss Morell, why did you trap my grandchildren in an upstairs hall for hours?”
I hesitated. “Not hours,” I said cautiously.
His nostrils flared, but he kept his anger contained as he spoke clearly. “My son passed away two years ago. My daughter-in-law isn’t interested in her children being exposed to the foibles of humanity, and now it’s demonic forces, not just human weakness, that I have to explain away. Why would you terrify them so badly, Miss Morell? Do you hate children so much?”
I flinched. “I’m sorry. I meant to teach them a lesson, so they’d be safe and not actually get into real danger with books that might incinerate them.”
“You don’t think you could have kept them safe by staying with them? That’s all I wanted from you, to watch over them because they are dear to me as your books are dear to you. You can understand that, can’t you?”
I curled my fingers in my lap while my heart burned with the accusation. I understood books, not people. “Yes, sir. I misjudged the situation.”
He sighed heavily and his anger drained out of him. “I have a different assignment for you. Perhaps you won’t traumatize this patron.” His eyes held a warning, but not anger.
I nodded rapidly. “Of course not. What can I do to help?”
He smiled slightly and raised a finger. “Enter.”
I glanced at the door as it opened and in walked The Scholar. His eyes had so much blue mixed with the black, intense blue that was almost violet. All the air escaped my lungs and I was left floundering.
The Scholar was still tall, dark, and handsome, his lines sculpted with an eye to rugged virility that wasn’t remotely tamed by his neat suit. His black tie was narrow, the perfect width for dragging him to your cave. No idea why he’d wear a suit to a cave, but logic had no place with his perfection. What did that even mean? No idea, but the point was that he was the patron that I had to not terrify, even though he was exactly the kind of monster I’d been trained to lure in and slaughter.
I should be friendly yet professional. But I couldn’t breathe. My body remembered the impact he’d made on me earlier, the feel of him, while in the back of my mind I was preparing five death spells and analyzing stab points beneath his immaculate suit.
Horace said, “The Scholar has a list of documents he needs that I’d like you to fetch for him. Today.” He smiled at me, leaving that word, ‘fetch’ out there where anyone could trip on it. Fetch, like a dog. That’s the only hint he’d give that he was still upset about the way I’d traumatized his grandchildren, but it was enough.
My shoulders slumped as I nodded and turned to the dangerously attractive monster I wanted to kill and said, “Of course. I’d love to help you.”
Harold put his hands on my shoulders, a grip that could be crushing. “I leave him in your excellent hands,” then after one more squeeze to remind me not to traumatize the patron, he turned and strode out past the Scholar, leaving me in the empty room with the monster. It should have felt larger without Horace and his anger to fill it up, but the way the Scholar was looking at me, I started to get claustrophobic. My heart rate accelerated while I stared at the man who gazed back at me, still, intent, and impossible to read.
I tried for a professional smile. “If you have a list for me, I’ll take care of it as soon as possible.”
He slowly withdrew a paper from the inside pocket of his jacket. Funny that I’d been pressed against the jacket just a few short hours ago. “I apologize for interrupting your lunch break.” His voice was the timber of a cello, low, musical, slightly rough.
I swallowed hard at the sound of that beguiling voice, meant to lure in prey. I shuffled together my notes, trying to ignore the threat that he represented. I’d barely gotten back into the flow of translation, but it was over for the day, along with my peace. Horace knew that I avoided the monsters, but this was my punishment. I’d deal with the vampire, or whatever he was, and I’d be civil.
“I wasn’t very hungry. I get caught up with translation and forget to eat, anyway.”
His eyes burned even more intently. “Truly, I apologize even more sincerely for interrupting your translation. What are you working on?”
