Dark City (The Order of Shadows Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

window. The dingy pink light from the jukebox and faded turquoise formica countertops gave the place a 50s look. Not in a retro way, this place literally hasn't changed for going on seventy years. And it didn't need to, not when it had a captive audience who'd come here no matter what the place looked like.
    A few customers were huddled in the shadows but the candles on the tables illuminated their faces. Drunks, junkies, dreamers, plotters, planners and people like me engrossed in meetings they probably shouldn't be having.
    There was no sign of Haskins.
    The door chimed as I shoved it open and stepped inside. The music was perfectly nondescript, easy listening from the 60s and 70s. I looked down trying to avoided eye contact with the people and creatures sitting in the alcoves but I managed to spot a troll who wasn't bothering to cloak himself, as well as a witch and a pair of mages among the usual low life schemers.
    The aroma of coffee, pancakes and bacon grease hung in the stifling air. I made my way along the counter to the bar stool where Nika, the owner, sat. She was a tall, handsome lady; her thick auburn hair spilled out from under a small white cap and her emerald green eyes glinted like jewels as she glanced up from her magazine.
    There was warmth in her eyes, but also tragedy. I'd never asked Nika her story, and she'd never told it. Not asking questions is part of the Diner's allure.
    "What can I get you, Morgan?" She asked, her voice as direct and hoarse as ever.
    "Coffee." I also ordered a donut I had no intentions of eating. Nika placed it on a china plate, and there it sat, the sugar gleaming on the greasy splodge of dough. She passed me a cup of acrid black coffee with a sachet of brown sugar balanced on the rim of the saucer.
    "Keep the change."
    She accepted the twenty without a word. Everyone overpays Nika. The diner's both an institution and a haven within our community. I reached for the coffee but paused as I saw someone appear in the corner of my eye.
    "Detective Haskins." Nika barely kept the disdain from her voice. "Coffee and cheesecake?"
    "Yeah, that'll get things started," Haskins answered, just as he always did. He squinted at the bruises on my face and the bloody crust on my neck. "Busy night?"
    "Probably about the same as yours." Haskins looked more disheveled than ever. Wild spikes of dirt-brown and ash-grey hair crowned his head. His tired pebble-like eyes were red and his frayed suit seemed like it was about to unravel, I hoped I'd be far away from him when that finally happened.
    We walked over to our usual booth at the back of the diner and sat in the shadows beneath the flickering cola sign. Haskins' hands shook as he placed his cup and plate on the table.
    He looked haunted. A man with a spectral monkey on his back. He stabbed his fork into his cheesecake and swallowed it without bothering to chew. And then he glanced at me with his usual look of expectation.
    I slid the envelope across the table. The irony of having a police detective for a narc wasn't lost on me. "So what have you got?"
    Haskins poked at the remains of the cheesecake. "I've spent most of my night at a murder scene. The victim was an older man." He paused and set his fork down. "Someone cut his throat, took his eyes out and laid him on the floor like he was sleeping. He was definitely one of your lot, loads of occult shit in the house."
    "Can you elaborate on occult shit?"
    "Strange old books, black candles, weird statues, hands of glory, that sort of shit." Haskins took the envelope and folded it into his raincoat. "He had some weird scars too."
    "Scars?"
    "Hocus-pocus symbols. Just above the wrist."
    "Scars or tattoos?"
    "Both. Rough, like the artist used a knife instead of a tattoo gun."
    "What kind of symbols?"
    "I don't know what any of that crap means." Haskins shrugged. "I guess they looked like runes."
    "They might have been for protection." Protective runes were common in our community.
    "Well they weren't very