Second Skin (Skinned) by Judith Graves Page B

miss them.” Those eyes returned to the book in her hand, The Rightness ofWrong . A scantily clad couple posed on the cover, muscular, shirtless guy and woman with long flowing hair and unlaced corset. Looked like someone had an inner bad girl waiting to bust out.
I knew the feeling. I glanced at the etched nameplate on the edge of the librarian’s desk.
“Actually, Mrs. Larpane, I’m hoping to do some research,” I said. “Do you have mythology texts?”
Those cold eyes again. “On vampires? Same rack. Saves time.” “Ah…no. I’m looking for information on dreams, dream demons, that sort of thing…” I trailed off. “And I’m also interested in the new display outside. Historic Alberta. How cool is that?” I laughed and shot a desperate look at Paige.
“Doesn’t sound cool to me.” She shrugged. Unlike Brit, the queen of sparkling banter, Paige didn’t back me up when I got cornered. Not one iota.
“Oh, but it is.” Larpane put her book face down on the desk. “We were fortunate to get as much realia as we did.” She seemed quite animated now, eyes bright with interest.
I raised an eyebrow.
“Realia. Real historical items. The display has toured all around the province. But, and this is so tragic, the last school to have the display had this huge fire and only a portion of the original materials survived.”
“A fire?” I asked. Hairs on my neck quivered.
“A real book burner, from what I hear. Took half the school down, including the library.” Her face paled. She glanced up at the sprinkler exposed in the ceiling above her desk. “I don’t know what’s worse, the fire or the water damage. Can you imagine? Losing all those books…”
“Yeah, that’s a real shame,” I said. “But as long as no one was hurt—”
“A student died,” Larpane said, interrupting me. “Like I said, a tragic event.” Her eyes brightened. “You wanted dreams and mythology sources, right?”
I nodded.
“Follow me.” Larpane came out behind her circular desk and walked about seven paces to the right. A thrill of anticipation shot through me. She was going to lead us to some mysterious candlelit backroom with a secret altar. I knew it. “Here we are.” She stopped at the first unit of shelving. How anti-climactic.
I watch too many horror flicks.
Paige looked bored and leaned against the shelving’s metal end-unit. She began surfing on her cell phone.
Larpane scanned the books on the shelves, pulling volumes and handing them to me.
“So, Mrs. Larpane, about that display,” I said, shuffling the weight of the books in my arms. “Where did it come from?”
The doll bugged me. It was practically stalking me with those evil stares. The fire thing and its connection to the doll bugged me. Things were amok in Redgrave, and that damned doll had arrived at the same time as the night mare and with a ghoulish history to boot. Coincidence? I didn’t think so. Better if I knew what I was up against. Was this the work of the night mare messing with my mind, or something else?
Larpane looked surprised I hadn’t guessed. “Donated by Harbinger, of course. They’ve got their hands in everything around here.”
I should have known. In Redgrave it all came down to Logan and Harbinger.
“Harbinger seeks out antiques and other items of historical significance. They do like Redgrave to have that lived-in, homey atmosphere.”
I frowned. “Lived in?”
“You know, aged.” She met my eyes over the stack of books I held and then grabbed a couple from me. Who knew there were so many books about dreams? “Let’s set you up at a table.”
Paige trailed behind us as we moved to the back of the library and the large desks. One of which was occupied by six nerdy guys playing some kind of card game.
Like knights of the round table acknowledging the presence of a lady, they stood as Paige entered their line of vision, gave her bows she didn’t even notice, and then resumed their gameplay.
Oh, lord. Even without makeup,