Heart of the Night
Shadowed Hearts Series

Excerpt

About six-thirty, as Jess walked by the library’s main desk, Carrie looked up from the computer and said, “Your boyfriend just came in.”

Jess turned to where the man sat in the corner. As usual, he held a book open in front of him, but he wasn’t reading. Instead he stared at her with a brooding look that suggested both sadness and danger. He had dark hair streaked with premature gray, since he couldn’t be more than thirty. His gray eyes seemed permanently lost in shadows. Not quite handsome. The face was too angular, drawn too tight for that, but compelling, nonetheless. His demeanor was tense, wary, constantly on alert.

A man haunted by unfinished business. She wanted to laugh at herself. Where had that come from? She knew absolutely nothing about him except that he’d started showing up regularly each evening a few weeks ago, sat quietly in his corner, watched her more than made her comfortable, and left on his own just before closing time.

Carrie gave her a cheeky grin and added another possibility to her endless series of speculations about the mysterious visitor. “Maybe you accidentally picked up something that has super-secret information and he was sent by the CIA to retrieve it.”

Since neither of them knew anything about the man, they had fun trading outrageous fantasies. They both recognized him as wildly out of place here. His air of constant wariness and the tall, lean, muscular toughness made him the sort of man you’d expect to find hanging out in a gym or a sports bar or maybe a high-class casino, not in a small-town library.

Jess decided this would be the night they moved from nods and tight smiles to actually saying a few words to each other. Maybe learning each other’s names. She knew he was interested in her, one way or another, but she wasn’t prepared for the expressions that flashed on his face when he saw her moving toward him. Alarm followed a flash of delighted pleasure, but then dread took over.

By then he wasn’t looking directly at her, however, but to a space behind her, near the open area at the library’s entrance. She’d heard the commotion herself and turned to look.

Unease stirred in her and not just the contagion of the man’s alarm. Other than the visits from the nursing homes and retirement communities, five adults rarely came in at the same time, clearly together. Worse yet, one of them was the Reverend Damon Ryder, the man who’d probably left the sign on the door that morning.

Jess studied the Reverend as she approached and had to admit he was kind of impressive—big, broad-shouldered, with over-long blond hair, sky blue eyes and the kind of looks that made women swoon and men jealous. He wore his own charm and charisma with obnoxious self-awareness.

He’d shown up in town a couple of months ago with a few “followers,” and they’d set up camp beside the abandoned church. She had no idea who actually owned the church and whether the newcomers had arranged to buy or lease it, but a week later they were holding some kind of odd services in the building. A few of the townspeople had gone out of curiosity and some had continued to go, even dragging a few friends or neighbors with them.

Initially she’d deemed them harmless, if a bit screwy, with their unorthodox beliefs, but within weeks, he’d begun leading groups on expeditions to her library. Then she’d started hearing that the Reverend preached against the “Godless” books the town library offered. When he set up a dais on the town square across from the building and began preaching from there against science texts that lied, fantasy novels, with particular scorn for one series featuring a teenage British wizard, and “pornographic” romance novels, she became alarmed.

She didn’t find out about the next part of the program until his followers had checked out virtually every biology text that even mentioned evolution and sociology texts dealing with magic and religion. Checked them out and kept them out. When she asked about them, she was told they were lost. She’d just begun sending out bills for the lost volumes.

She kept her eyes on the Reverend as she asked, “Can I help you?”

He didn’t answer. His gaze had traveled beyond her and focused on the stranger who’d been haunting the library and her the last few weeks. For a moment the Reverend’s composure slipped. Astonishment and alarm flickered in his expression, hardening for a moment into a glare of pure hatred, before he regained control.

“What is he doing here?” the Reverend asked in his most theatrical and self-righteous tone, pointing to the man who still sat in the shadows. “This is a creature who has done wicked things beyond your comprehension. How can you allow this walking evil to sit here among the good and decent people of this town?” His stare sharpened as he challenged the other man, “Do you deny it?”

They all turned to watch the stranger’s reaction, waiting for his denial. He stood, unwinding his long, lean length with deliberate care. He glanced at Jess for a moment before returning his stare to the Reverend. “I deny nothing. Whatever else I’ve done, I’m not a liar.”

Jess sucked in a harsh breath. What the hell was going on here? Whatever it was, she wasn’t about to have it escalate into anything more in her library.