Innocence and Evil (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #6) (7 page)

A loud bong sounded throughout the house.
“They’re at the gate,” Gavin said, hurrying to the control room.
“I’ll let them in.”

A few minutes later, a team of six Hunters
trooped into the house. It was always an interesting thing, seeing
the Hunters when they were all set to go out on a mission. Usually,
every single one of them had weapons covering every single inch of
carrying space on their bodies, but today, the weapons were
discreetly hidden underneath street clothes, since we were going on
a day mission.

I fully admit to having weapon envy. Vampire
Hunters were pretty damn inventive when it came to ways to kill and
always had something I’d never seen before. From crazy folding
crossbows to razor edged whips, they had it all.

With all the positions appointed, we
gathered into our vehicles and headed out.

The sweltering afternoon sun beat down on
us, a reminder of the fact that it was daylight. The only bad part
about a day mission was that it would be a lot harder to remain
hidden. We were going to be far more exposed than we normally would
be on our night hunts.

We parked several blocks away from the heart
of downtown and trekked the rest of the way on foot. The difference
between downtown and the rest of the city was the architecture. The
buildings were all older and the majority of them were made of
brick. There weren’t any fast food restaurants or chain mini-marts.
All the businesses were a bit more classy … and a bit more
expensive.

Since the Apocalypse, some of these
businesses had been abandoned. Some were just closed until society
completely righted itself and they decided it was safe to come
back. But, despite the lack of establishments still in business,
the downtown area was bustling with people.

“Should we go up or down?” Christina asked.
She kept pace beside me, looking amazing in a pair tight blue jeans
and a hip length leather jacket that hid her holster and knife
sheaths. Honestly, I never paid that much attention to what people
were wearing, but she made it really hard not to notice.

“Well?”

“Well what?” I asked.

“I asked if you wanted to go up or down.”
She raised an eyebrow at me.

I contemplated for a moment before
answering. “Down. I want to be on the ground in case anything
happens.”

“Down it is then.”

The old library was very gothic in
appearance and looked like it was straight out of the middle ages.
The cathedral like building was constructed of graying bricks and
had four towers that rose up on each corner of the structure. The
entrance had a massive stairway built out of the same gray stone
and the arched windows completed the whole medieval theme the place
had going on.

Directly across from the library was an old
movie theater that where they only showed classic films. Well, they
didn’t show anything anymore, but before the vampire takeover that
was what they played.

I spotted an empty bench beside a small
potted tree. “Come on.” I reached over and grasped Christina’s
hand, tugging her toward the bench. We sat down and I casually
draped my arm over her shoulders so that we would look like an
average young couple who was out for an afternoon on the town.

The bench was in perfect proximity to the
entrance of the library that we could simply sit there and watch
the front entrance without looking like that was what we were
doing. For a few moments, we simply sat there silent. Nobody went
in or out of the library during that time. The book industry was
probably not so hot since society had found out vampires were real.
People were still pretty scared. Sure, they would come out for a
pair of shoes or a hot meal, but not for books.

Christina shifted positions, bringing
herself a little bit closer to me. “Do you think that we will ever
truly eradicate the vampires?”

I shook my head, not looking away from the
library entrance. “No, not while Anthony and Pavlos still live.
Those from their lines will continue to make more vampires and the
cycle will continue.”

“I think your right,” she agreed. “But, can
you imagine the world without them … what it would be like? What
would we do?”

I laughed. “White picket fences baby.”

Christina didn’t laugh, so I guess she
didn’t find that amusing. “You don’t understand. I’m not qualified
to do anything in the real world.”

“You could be a cop.”

“Right. Those uniforms are hideous! That is
never going to happen.”

“Self-defense instructor?” I suggested.

She nodded. “Yeah, I may be able to do that.
We already help out at the training centers. I wonder what kind of
money is in that.”

“You’d never be rich, that’s for sure.”

“You’re so sweet.” She leaned her head
against mind. “Always so uplifting.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” I jokingly
assured her.

“What would you do?”

I thought about it for a moment. “I really
don’t know. Since my mom died, I only concentrated on finding
Trevor and killing vampires. Then, you all found me and this is my
job now. But, if there were no vampires, I’d probably be even more
lost than I’ve ever been.”

“That’s so weird, isn’t it? We just want
them to be gone, but they are all we know.”

It was a crazy thing to think about. Even
crazier for her and the other Hunters since they were raised to
fight and kill vampires. It was a way of life for them.

“Look.” Christina pointed. “Someone is going
in.”

I saw him at the same time she did. A tall,
dark haired man in a black trench coat and biker boots was pounding
his way up the stone steps. When he got to the landing, he turned
and scanned the street as if he was making sure no one had followed
him. At that moment, his dragon tattoo came into view and the black
ink stood out starkly against his pale skin.

I stood, tugging Christina up with me.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going in there,” I told her in a low
voice.

“What? No.” She pulled her hand away. “That
isn’t part of the plan.”

I shrugged. “So what. I don’t understand the
plan right now. It’s a freaking library! We should be able to go in
and browse some books, while discreetly checking things out.”

“We don’t know who is in there, someone
might recognize us.”

“If we don’t go in, we aren’t going to know
what is really going on in there.” I knew she didn’t want to mess
up the plan. The Hunters always stuck to the plan. Not saying that
I didn’t think communication and plans were good, but sometimes you
had to change the plan.

“All right,” she agreed. “But I have to
radio in and let the team know what’s going on at least.” With a
sigh, she shook her head and reached into her pocket for her radio.
She backed off into the shadows so she could radio in without being
out in the open.

The cell service had gone back up not long
after the Vampire Council fell. However, we decided that we didn’t
like using the cell phones. Pretty much anyone could tap into
those. Yeah, the radios weren’t much safer, but old school seemed
the way to go lately. You never knew who was listening to you, and
after the fiasco at the Pentagon we were pretty paranoid about
everything.

“Okay.” Christina reappeared, tucking the
phone into her pocket. “We’ve been cleared.”

I nodded. “Nice, we got permission from the
parents. Let’s go.”

“You don’t have to be so grumpy about it.
We’re going, aren’t we?”

I gave her a sideways glance as we hurried
across the street. “I’m not grumpy.”

“Right,” she mumbled.

We climbed the stone steps and I pulled open
the heavy door for Christina. “Ladies first.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, now you’re the
perfect gentleman.”

“Don’t get spoiled.”

I hadn’t been inside a library since I was
in high school and one thing I remember about it was the place had
a certain smell. It was hard to place, not exactly musty, but
something like that. Maybe had something to do with all the paper.
This library had that same scent.

The floors were a dark hardwood that
reflected the bright light of the gargantuan chandeliers that hung
from the vaulted ceilings. The front desk was a large octagon not
far from the entrance. And, to my surprise, someone was actually
manning the desk.

The librarian, or receptionist … or whatever
she was, sat behind the counter in a rolling office chair. Unlike
my high school librarian, this woman was much younger. She had
blonde hair piled up on top of her head, with a few strands left
down around her eyes, which were covered by hipster glasses. Even
though she hadn’t looked up I could already see that she had on a
crap ton of eye makeup too.

I slung my arm around Christina’s shoulder
as we approached. She eyeballed me and I gave her an eyebrow raise.
Couldn’t she tell I was trying to appear nonchalant here?

We finally reached the counter and the lady
behind the desk didn’t seem to notice that we were there. She had a
notepad open and appeared to be copying something from an
encyclopedia sized book onto the paper. I cleared my throat in
hopes that she would finally notice us.

“Oh.” Her head snapped up and I saw that she
had crystalline blue eyes. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t hear you come
in.”

Christina’s frame tightened beneath my arm.
Uh oh, that meant something wasn’t right already.

“It’s all right,” I assured her. “We’re just
here looking for a couple of books.”

“Well …” She executed a goofy grin. “It is a
library so you’re in the right place for books.”

I offered a smile of my own. “Ha, you got me
there.”

She stood and very deliberately gave me the
once over from head to toe. Then, she did the same to Christina.
“What type of books are you looking for, perhaps I can send you in
the right direction.”

I gave Christina a squeeze and then leaned
over and whispered, “Pregnancy.”

The look I got from Christina was well
deserved, I admit, but it was one topic that a couple would
actually be searching for in a library. “It’s all right honey, this
is like the doctor’s office they have a client privacy policy.” I
turned to the woman behind the counter. “Right?”

For a moment she appeared a bit flustered by
my question and then she quickly pulled it together. “Oh, yes, yes
of course. Please follow me.”

Still keeping my arm firmly around
Christina, we followed close behind as we were led up a staircase
and then through a maze of surprisingly tall bookshelves. I didn’t
think this woman was actually a librarian. She was most likely a
vampire, judging from Christina’s reaction. At least they made sure
she knew her way around the place first, otherwise she would suck
at pretending to be a librarian.

“You should find everything you need in this
area.”

“Thank you,” Christina mumbled, pulling away
from me to inspect the books on the shelf. “This will help a
lot.”

I smiled and nodded, giving the librarian
her leave. “Yeah, thanks.”

She smiled back. “I’ll be at the desk if you
need me for anything.”

After she was gone, I stepped up beside
Christina at the bookshelf and caught her gaze, raising my eyebrows
in a silent question.

“Yup,” she confirmed.

Even though it was light outside, vampires
could still move about indoors during the day. If that vampy
librarian was awake then most likely more of them were too. “Let’s
look around.”

Instead of wandering through the many aisles
of books, we took to the perimeter where we would be able to take a
peek into any additional rooms. If the vampires were actually
hiding out in this place, we would find out where.

We found nothing on the second floor, so we
wandered back downstairs. “You think she will come looking for us?”
I asked.

“Shhh.” She held her hand up, ordering me to
be quiet. “Probably, if we take too long. But, if you don’t keep
your voice down she will hear us anyway.”

“All right.” I lowered my voice to a
whisper. “You think she knows who we are, though.”

Christina shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably,
they can sense us just like we can sense them. Just be ready to
fight.”

“I always am, baby.”

We hurried down the staircase, making sure
the librarian wasn’t looking our way when we hit the landing. The
desk and main doors where to the right, so we went left,
disappearing further into the depths of the stacks.

I glanced at some of the titles as we passed
and saw that all the books in this area were fiction. The
non-fiction must have been the upstairs, since that was where she
took us for the pregnancy book.

The silence and eerie feel of the place
reminded me of when my mother had taken me to a big museum when I
was young. I remembered my mother and I being the only ones walking
down the halls full of exhibits. Her high heels had clicked on the
shiny floors, echoing loudly with each step. As if to honor the
atmosphere, we didn’t speak. When it was time to pause, she would
simply place her hand on my shoulder and I would stop.

“Hey, check this out.” Christina halted her
already slow pace.

I shook off the memory, forcing myself back
into the present. “What?”

She pointed. I followed the direction she
indicated and saw that there was another staircase, almost hidden
among the shelves that lined the walls. I leaned in and tried to
see the bottom, but the steps took a turn part way down so all I
could see was a wall with a decorative sconce and a bulb that was
supposed to emulate torch light.

“That looks promising.” I glanced at
Christina and raised my eyebrow.

She closed her eyes and then opened them
again. “We’re going down there, aren’t we?”

“We came all the way in here to check the
place out. Of course we are.”

She flipped her dark hair and then reached
down with both hands, pulling two rather large knives from the
sheathes hidden under her coat. “You better hope that we haven’t
gotten ourselves into something we can’t handle,” she mumbled
before taking the lead and stepping into the stairwell.