Excerpt: Midnight Ace & the Fang of Queztalcoatl

The intern turned back to the door only to find it open, but escape was not his fate. In the shining light of the fire stood a mysterious stranger. Standing with all the pride and certainty of the an executioner, the stranger was practically a shadow with a third dimension. Every discernible feature, save the lean athletic frame, was concealed by a form fitting layer of shining black leather. Even the stranger's gaze was hidden behind a pair of tiny, polarized goggles that reflected the image of the burning library back upon young Michael Grayson.
His instant of hesitation and surprise would cost Michael his life. The stranger took this second of confusion to produce a tiny blade from within the shadows of their wardrobe. With a single flick of the stranger's wrist, Michael Grayson fell dead as the red rush of his life stained the burning carpet of the San Caballero library.
Professor Dankmyer froze in his tracks, trapped between the dark assassin and the blazing fire. He knew he stood no chance of surviving any kind of encounter with one so adept and ending human life. He was an academic, not a warrior. He knew why the stranger had come. As if reading the thoughts streaming through his mind, the stranger gaze a singular, heavy nod.
“No,” Dankmyer cried. “You cannot have it! It belongs to me now!”
The stranger merely raised an empty hand and wagged a finger at Dankmyer's audacity. He slowly, comfortably began to move closer. It would all be over soon. The professor decided in that instant that if he was going to die for this artifact tome, he might as well die fighting. He burst forward in a clumsy, angry charge that the stranger easily side-stepped. The dark one replied simply by extending his leg. This sent the professor tumbling to the floor in a heap.
The snake skin book shot from his grasp and slid across the library floor. Even though it was only a few feet away, Dankmyer knew that this was the end. He looked up at the one who would take his life and prepared himself for the worst. He saw the black clad murderer step casually past Grayson's body and draw another tiny knife from the folds of this bizarre garb.
It was over. In a few seconds he would be dead, and if the book was not lost in the fire then it would certainly be in the hands of this, his murderer. He clenched his eyes shut and prepared for the worst.
Suddenly a high pitched whine could be heard rising over the roar of the flames. Both Professor Dankmyer and his would-be killer turned their gaze upward. An instant later, the skylight above the library exploded into a rain of tiny shards of glass and the Midnight Ace came into view.