Midnight Poison (The Paranormal Poisons Saga #1)(6)

The man paused at the table behind the ladder. His shoulders shook with a short huff of a laugh. Mocking. He picked up a pen off a stack of papers. A quick scribble later, he moved around the table and headed their way.

Kiara hooked her arm through Butch's bony one and dragged him down the aisle. She slid around the bookcase, and when the old cowboy balked, she left him behind to rush down to the other end to follow the assassin.

She paused a moment. Risked a peek. The intruder's focus was on the door to the stairs down the tower. Kiara smiled. That would keep him busy for a while. It was locked from the outside. Kiara knew there was no way he could get through it since she had not been able to do so for over a month.

She darted out to the table behind the ladder. From the safety of the bookshelves, Butch waved his hands frantically. She ignored him and chose, instead, to stay and see what the stranger had found so interesting.

Case files. On Oleander.

It seemed everyone was brushing up on the ruthless serial killer and his modern-day murder spree. He had been dormant for hundreds of years, but the recent eruption of slayings had forced Kiara's guardian out of retirement. And out of her life for the last five weeks. She blinked against the sudden water in her eyes. She missed Leontes. Terribly.

"Focus," Butch whispered.

"Right, right," Kiara muttered.

The pen he had used sat atop the tally of Oleander's newest victims. The assassin had drawn a slash through it and sprawled a new number beneath, increasing it by over a hundred and adding the ominous words "and counting" at the end.

Kiara shivered with a sudden chill.

Metal moaned softly. She jumped. The assassin threw his back into opening the oak door. The vault-like attachment built into the opposite side of the wood and the solid steel lining made it heavier than it looked. Without sparing a glance back, the intruder slipped out, tucking the syringe in his pocket.



       
         
       
        

"Oh my God!" Kiara skirted around the desk after him. "He opened the door!"

"Kiara, stop." Butch stood in front of the exit, arms out. "I don't think he's here to steal anything."

"Neither do I." Kiara grinned at him as she passed by.

A quick check out the door revealed nothing but the man's shadow across the tight spiral of stairs. The stone steps were freezing against her bare feet, but Kiara hardly noticed, so excited at being out of the tower.

Butch kept a firm grip on Kiara's elbow to keep her from rushing down. The stairs opened up to a hall of eggshell-colored stone walls and creamy marble floors that were not any kinder to her feet.

Twisted iron chandeliers cast a bluish-white light on the intruder as, mid-step, he flicked his arms down and out to the side. Two short swords slid out from his sleeves. Without breaking stride, he sauntered out the end of the hall and swung his arms wide. Two heads toppled at his feet.

The assassin made a sharp left out of sight. In his wake, two bodies crumpled across the entryway on top of each other.

"Retreat!" Butch hissed.

Kiara sprinted ahead. "I think he's Oleander."

"So do I!" Butch screeched, eyes wild with fear. "Let's hide, missy. Now!"

"Let's go to the ocean!" Kiara flattened her back against the wall of the entryway, and then peeked out to make sure the coast was clear.

She spared only a casual glance at the dead bodies on the floor. Rotted faces and skin a sickly blotch of yellow and purple. An obsidian ooze glugged from their necks and stained the shiny marble. A couple of murdered zombies were certainly nothing to cry over. There were at least a few dozen more stumbling about the palace to replace them.

Out in the corridor, Butch twirled an anxious circle on the other side of the zombies. "The ocean? What about the serial killer loose in a palace full of potential victims?"

Kiara shrugged, skipped over the corpses, and headed the opposite way of the man she was now almost certain was Oleander. "Someone else's problem. Besides, you just said we should hide."

"Kiara," Butch growled.

"Ugh." Kiara let her head fall back with the groan. "Fine." She kicked a frustrated jig, then stomped after the assassin.

"Wait! I didn't mean go after Oleander." Butch fell in step beside her. "Just tell someone he's here."

Kiara smiled with anxious hope. "Then we go to the beach?"

"Yes. Wait!" He grabbed her arm to keep her from rounding the corner.

Kiara peeked out. The assassin stalked down the corridor and descended the stairs to the assembly room below. She waited a beat and then followed. The corridor also served as a balcony to view the large chamber below. Its black leather furniture was strangely empty. Usually, at least a few undead could be found hanging out there. The ebony curtains were drawn shut even though dawn was hours away.