Page 5 of Mending Mayhem

Higgins stood on the front steps, his meaty arms crossed, a toothpick hanging out of his mouth. “It’s about damn time you got here. You stop for breakfast along the way?”

My eye twitched. How could a man in his position hold so much contempt for the people who saved his ass on the regular? “Maybe next time you should take care of it yourself. Or are you too scared?”

“I ain’t afraid of no ghosts.” He ascended the stairs and unlocked the door before curling his lip at me. “But I left my proton pack at the station.”

“Scrub the footage when we’re done.” I unsheathed my sword and stepped through the door before I could lob off his head too.

A few lights glowed softly overhead, which was all I needed to see the mess the soldier had made of the fiction section. Paperbacks and hardcovers lay haphazardly about the floor, no doubt thrown aside when the overgrown fly-man couldn’t find whatever he was looking for. Loose pages littered the tables and chairs, and claw marks marred the dark wood shelves.

Ash gasped behind me. “How dare he?”

“There’s a rift.” Chaos marched ahead, pointing to an area on the right where a shelving unit lay on its side, the books it once contained strewn around it. “We should seal it.”

A thud and a scrape sounded from above, like furniture dragging across the floor.

Ash ground her teeth. “We have to save the books first.”

“Is the reference section still on the second floor?” I headed for the staircase.

“Yes,” she said, and they followed me up.

As I reached the landing, I slowed, my gaze cutting left and right, searching for the Predator shimmer in the air, listening for the grotesque rustle of giant insect wings. The sound of footsteps echoed from below before Shade and Miles pounded up the stairs, alerting the enemy of our arrival. I held in a groan.

“You couldn’t have waited five minutes?” Shade drew two knives from his harness.

“You couldn’t have gotten here any faster?” I held my sword in both hands, gathering fire in the core of my being and sending the flames up the blade to illuminate the dark hallway.

“Where’s Mayhem?” Miles asked.

“I vanquished him.” I crept forward, my arms tensing, ready to swing at the first snap of the beastie’s pincers. “Which way, Ash?”

“Wait. Seriously?” Shade laid a hand on my shoulder.

I shrugged him off. “Which way?”

“We’ll explain later,” Ash said before taking a deep breath. “To the left. Dammit, he’s in the Salem history room. Those volumes are priceless.”

My sister marched ahead, her hands fisted at her sides, and I smiled. The only time Ash Holland ever threw caution to the wind was when books were in danger.

I extinguished my sword and walked next to her, matching her determined pace. We flanked either side of the entry, and Chaos joined her, while Miles and Shade stood on my side.

One of the double doors stood ajar, and I peeked inside. Destroyed books littered the floor, their pages ripped out and shredded into hundreds-of-years-old confetti. I was never a bookish gal, but seeing our city’s history torn to shreds hurt my heart.

“Someone digitized all these books, right?” I asked.

Ash’s brows slammed down. “Not yet…”

Tearing paper sounded from inside, and the thud of a tome dropping to the floor followed. My sister’s eyes widened.

I turned to the guys. “We have sigil protection, so we’ll go in first. You two follow.”

Shade opened his mouth to argue, but Ash threw the doors open and stepped into the room. “Oh, hell no,” she said.

I focused my intent on recognizing the fae shimmer and followed her in to find a giant roach-man flipping through a book of historic property deeds. Of course they’d send a scout to gather information, but… “Why doesn’t he show up on cameras?”

“Must be something in his DNA.” Chaos gathered hellfire in his palms.

“No fire.” Ash clutched his arm. “We can’t risk any more damage.”

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