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It was early afternoon and I was at the Cal State Fullerton library

I waved to htly and rose from his chair, but I breezed past, blew hi up At the third floor, I wound h a maze of book aisles until I came upon the special collections room

Cal State Fullerton had , there was a room devoted solely to local science fiction authors One could find original Dunewith his personal notes My favorite was the Philip K Dick rooht the man had a screw loose, andOr so was onto hi Room, which consisted of extremely rare manuscripts Like with the science fiction room, these books couldn&039;t be checked out Only admired Or feared And, yes, there were one or two books in here that definitely aroused some fear Okay, a lot of fear

Except today I wasn&039;t here to read books, or even to peruse the shelves I was here to

I hung a right into the Occult Reading Room and wasn&039;t too surprised to see that it was e, that is A very old man in spirit forht Then again, ht As I carumpily, and promptly disappeared into the nether-sphere

Well, excuseroom was really a library unto itself It had its own shelves, its own filing syste chairs Even its own help desk, where I rang the little bell

As I waited, I could hear so roo and even the occasionalman soon appeared from the back offices What he did back there, I didn&039;t know Who he was, exactly, I didn&039;t know that either For all the world, he appeared as just another handsoht smile

His name was Archibald Maximus, and I suspected that Cal State Fullerton, unbeknownst to the students and faculty, housed perhaps one of the world&039;s erous collections of arcane and rare books, books full of dark power Books that could do great har person

I suspected young Archibald Maxiatekeeper of sorts A watcher A protector

His particularly bright aura suggested I el I&039;d ht So ested he wasn&039;t entirely of this world

Or I could be as crazy as a loon

"Hello, Sa across the counter and taking both of randchild

"You rehtly pale, but quite warm, hands I briefly reveled in the waret?"

His name was Archibald Maxi librarian Somehow, I suspected it was closer to the former than the latter

Anyway, this was one of the rare times that I didn&039;t worry about my cold flesh Archibald, after all, was very aware of who I really was

When I was done acting like a bashful schoolgirl, I opened the box I&039;d been carrying with me and presented the contents to Archibald He silently held up ht play off its golden surface The three emerald roses sparkled hat I was certain was supernatural intensity As he studied it, I heard so room, near where I knew soasped

"Ssssister," the voices whispered, nore them," said Maximus, as he continued to study the medallion

"Ssssister Mooncome to us"

The hair on my arms stood on end "They know my name," I said

"Yes"

"Who are they?"

"Bound spirits"

"Bound in the books?"

He nodded without looking atfor soain "They soundevil"

He looked at ht eyes briefly faded Then he gave rin "It&039;s why I&039;m here, Sister Moon," he said But before I could respond to that, he plunged forward, so therare artifacts"

"How rare?"

"The rarest Hang on"

He moved lithely around the center help desk, swept pastroos stopped in his presence While I watched from the help desk, he used a step stool to fetch a thick book along the upper shelves No, not the upper shelvesit was resting on top of the shelf No one would have known it was there No one but hi dust off what appeared to be leather skin, but with an odd yellow tint to it "Is that leather?" I asked

He set the heavy book down in front of me and, as more dust billowed up, looked deep into me "Not quite, Samantha This is huht," he said, but that didn&039;t stop hi open the oversized book "Huly suitable book cover, as you can see Pliable without breaking"

"E again"

Fighting back a dry heave or two, I did es of the book and watched as Max carefully turned what I knew to be a different kind of skin Vellum, or lamb skin I had, after all, read The Historian You can&039;t help co

Anyway, Max orking his way slowly through what appeared to be a very old book filled onderfully ornate and colorful drawings Page after page of strange-looking creatures, sye containing four drawings, two of which looked very familiar

"My medallions," I said

"Yes," he said "Two of them"

Indeed, there were the medallions with the ruby and emerald inlaid roses Also pictured were medallions inlaid with sapphire and diamond roses

"Who wrote this book?" I asked