BLOOD LEGACIES
Chapter 74: The Librarian

Chapter 74: The Librarian

"A book?"

"Yes," I unlocked the door, taking out the book I hoped to return. It has already stayed longer than I expected due to my incident, let’s hope she doesn’t charge me cash for this.

"Founding Juneau?" Owen asked, gazing upon the cover strangely.

"Yes, back when everyone was focused on keeping the truth from me, I thought I might find answers from it" I shrugged, walking ahead but he followed.

"Where did you get it from?!" he suddenly demanded.

"A bookstore from around here, I had no idea I passed my aunt’s shop when I did,"

"Emma"

I faced him.

"Founding Juneau was not supposed to reach you"

I frowned slightly.

"What do you mean?"

"Like you said you got this book when you knew nothing, the librarian wasn’t supposed to give this to you, my parents own most of the bookstores here and I know that"

I paused, that was alarming, no wonder when Dace saw it, he said he was surprised I was given this book.

"But it’s just history here, nothing unusual," I shrugged.

He sighed. "Come on show me the bookstore"

~

Owen seemed alarmed by this, I mean why should he? Because of the fact I was given the book? That aside, it seems something else was bugging him, he has been asking all sorts of questions.

"This is the place," I said as we came to a stop at the bookstore, it looked the same so it was definitely not hard to recognize. For a minute there with Owen’s demands and questions I thought I might have hallucinated the shop, well thank god it was here then, or else that would have been super weird, but definitely not weirder than what I have seen in the past weeks.

Owen walked in first and the bells made a noise, what’s with all the shops in this town and bells?

"Hiya Owen, nice to see you" a tan-skinned man around the age of maybe 40 or more said at the counter.

"Hey Tom"

"What can I do for you?" he asked.

"Emma, this is Tom, he’s the librarian for this bookstore"

"Okay," I nodded. "Seems like shifts happen here"

"Shifts?"

I faced Owen.

"I told you, a lady attended to me, not..." I looked back at Tom who gave me a smile. "Tom"

"A lady?" He intoned. "The only lady here is my wife, but she’s off duty today"

"No she’s not old, she’s young and beautiful," I said certainly, but it felt like I was telling a lie due to the look he gave me, okay what was going on?

"Emma"

I faced Owen with a confused gaze.

"Tom and his wife are the only ones who have access to this bookstore"

"What?" I said in a faint tone.

"Whoever you met here was not supposed to be here"

"No, I’m certain... she gave me this book" I showed Tom who now had wide eyes when he saw the book I held. He quickly snatched the book away from me, making me gasp at his sudden harsh behavior.

"How did you get your hands on this?!" he demands. "It’s not for you!"

"Easy Tom, I know Emma, and she’s telling the truth," Owen said to him, probably trying to calm him down, but this Tom didn’t seem to have, his ardent gaze pinned me down and I was shaken by this, I only just took a book, not killed a person.

"It’s just an ordinary book" I muttered, shaking slightly.

Owen placed a hand on my shoulder. "Hey, it’s okay"

"No it’s not, someone attended to me, she spoke as if she knew me, knew my aunt and, and... and I... I"

"Hey hey," he rested both hands on my shoulder blades. "I believe you, okay?"

"If it wasn’t Tom’s wife then who was that?"

I noticed Owen’s eyes hardened. "I will find out"

~

"There must be an explanation for this" Vanessa spoke up, we were back at the shop and I was still trying to wrap my head around what happened.

"I talked with Tom, his wife was on duty that day and she never leaves the shop," Owen said but then he rubbed his forehead. "Except when she had to pick up her dog at the vet"

"That must be it"

"Every Thursday"

"I went there Thursday, ’’ I said in a faint tone. "If you guys know something or anything, do not leave me out of it" I spoke up.

"We have a theory," Carly said and I faced her.

"Vampires"

I paled.

"Yes, what Carly said, Vampires have the tendency of taking a human form when they drink them dry"

I think my insides turned to ice at the mere mention of that, the chill was so deep that it got me shivering.

"Emma dear, give us the description of the lady that attended to you," Vanessa said. And I explained her looks as best as I could remember, she took the description on her phone, maybe she wanted to send it to someone to get a search.

But something was still bugging me, I knew that look Tom gave me, it wasn’t just about someone invading his shop but about the BOOK, like I wasn’t supposed to touch it or something like I did a crime, I knew deeply there was nothing in there, or it wasn’t just history, maybe something else.

"That book" I spoke to Carly as Owen and Vanessa were on something. "Why is everyone freaking out that I had it?"

She seemed hesitant to say something, but I gave her a pleading look, I wasn’t set aside in this anymore and she know that, I really want her to say something, whatever it was I could take it, I was sure it wasn’t as daring as getting tricked by a vampire or whatever that lady was.

I was somewhat relieved when she opened her mouth to speak.

"Well in a bookstore such as the one you visited, Owen’s parents own most of them" she rubbed her hands on her knees, still looking hesitant.

"And?" I urged.