by Lukens, Mark
ANCIENT ENEMY
BOX SET
by
MARK LUKENS
Ancient Enemy Box Set—Copyright © 2019 by Mark Lukens
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reprinted without written permission from the author.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead (or in any other form), business establishments, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover Art by: Damonza
Special thanks to: Jet, Ann, Kat, Kelli, and Mary Ann – your help has been invaluable to me, and it means so much to me.
OTHER BOOKS BY MARK LUKENS:
ANCIENT ENEMY – www.amazon.com/dp/B00FD4SP8M
DARKWIND: ANCIENT ENEMY 2 – www.amazon.com/dp/B01K42JBGW
HOPE’S END: ANCIENT ENEMY 3 – www.amazon.com/dp/B07G1MS6RK
EVIL SPIRITS: ANCIENT ENEMY 4 – www.amazon.com/dp/B07L8KLXVB
DESCENDANTS OF MAGIC – www.amazon.com/dp/B00FWYYYYC
SIGHTINGS – www.amazon.com/dp/B00VAI31KW
DEVIL’S ISLAND – www.amazon.com/dp/B06WWJC6VD
WHAT LIES BELOW – www.amazon.com/dp/B0143LADEY
NIGHT TERRORS – www.amazon.com/dp/B00M66IU3U
THE SUMMONING – www.amazon.com/dp/B00HNEOHKU
THE DARWIN EFFECT – www.amazon.com/dp/B01G4A8ZYC
GHOST TOWN – www.amazon.com/dp/B00LEZRF7G
THE VAMPIRE GAME – www.amazon.com/dp/B07C2M72X9
FOLLOWED – www.amazon.com/dp/B078WYGMJN
THE EXORCIST’S APPRENTICE – www.amazon.com/dp/B00YYF1E5C
POSSESSION: THE EXORCIST’S APPRENTICE 2 – www.amazon.com/dp/B07NCZQTNR
A DARK COLLECTION: 12 SCARY STORIES – www.amazon.com/dp/B00JENAGLC
RAZORBLADE DREAMS: HORROR STORIES – www.amazon.com/dp/B076B7W252
COLLAPSE: DARK DAYS BOOK 1 – www.amazon.com/dp/B07SCPL6QB
CHAOS: DARK DAYS BOOK 2 – www.amazon.com/dp/B07TVYNW19
EXPOSURE: DARK DAYS BOOK 3 – www.amazon.com/dp/B07TY5S1S8
REFUGE: DARK DAYS BOOK 4 – www.amazon.com/dp/B07VR8KNJ6
AFTERMATH: DARK DAYS BOOK 5 – www.amazon.com/dp/B0821PWVH5
SURVIVAL: DARK DAYS BOOK 6 – www.amazon.com/dp/B0821QWTGB
SLEEP DISORDERS – www.amazon.com/dp/B07XX9WVGM
CHAPTER 1
New Mexico Badlands—Anasazi Dig Site
He was out there—she was sure of it.
Stella remained perfectly still. She listened for sounds of movement around the dark room, but all she could hear was heavy breathing, some snoring, and the ceaseless wind that howled around the trailer. The room was claustrophobic with the smells of body odor, sweat, and fear. She made herself wait a few more minutes before opening her eyes. She wanted to be sure everyone else was asleep.
Under the thin sheet that covered her body, Stella was fully dressed. She even had her hiking boots on. She had been planning this for more than a day now. This was her only chance.
And David’s only chance.
Finally, after counting slowly to one hundred, Stella opened her eyes just a crack. She sat up, not making a sound. She looked around the dark room at the few people who were left; some of them curled up on chairs, some of them on the floor. Some clutched weapons in their hands as they slept: knives, archaeological axes, anything that could be used in defense.
Jake, who was supposed to be awake and on guard, slept in a fetal position on the floor, a hunting knife gripped in one hand.
Stella watched Jake as she pulled the sheet away from her body and swung her feet to the floor. Keeping her eyes on Jake the whole time, she groped in the darkness for her purse on the floor beside the couch. The keys to her rusted and battered Chevy Suburban were inside the purse.
She grabbed her coat from the end of the couch and stood up in the darkness. She froze. Someone coughed and snorted in their sleep, but then the person rolled over and laid still. After the four days of terror they’d been through, it was unbelievable that they could sleep at all—but the body eventually surrenders to its basic need for food and sleep.
And survival, her mind whispered.
Stella crept past a table cluttered with labeled Anasazi artifacts that they had dug out of the cave only a week ago.
Had it been only a week? It seemed like years—another lifetime.
Stella made it to the side door of the trailer, unlocked it, opened it, and slipped out into the night.
Jake’s eyes popped open. He sat up in the darkness and watched Stella leave. He gripped the hunting knife in his hand, his forearm muscles bunching. He got to his feet and walked to the back door of the trailer.
He knew what he had to do.
*
Stella hurried down the trailer steps and stood on the rocky ground of the canyon floor. She spotted David forty yards away, bundled up in his coat as he gazed out at the barren landscape under the starry night sky. Stella glanced back at the trailer—no one coming yet—and then she hurried out to David.
She stood beside David. He seemed so small and fragile, only nine years old. He was at least half Navajo, maybe even full-blooded, but she didn’t know for sure. The only thing she knew about David was that the others inside the trailer wanted to kill him.
Stella touched David’s shoulder, a gentle touch. He looked up at her and his eyes seemed like dark shimmering pools of liquid in the night.
“David, we need to leave right now. You understand, don’t you?”
He nodded and offered her his hand.
She took it and they ran.
They ran past the three temporary trailers and tents that had been set up at the dig site weeks ago. Even though they tried to be quiet, Stella could hear their shoes pounding the rocky landscape as they raced towards the group of cars and trucks in the distance. None of the vehicles worked anymore, and she wasn’t sure why she believed her Suburban would start now.
But that wasn’t the truth, was it? She had an idea of why her truck was going to start this time.
They were only sixty yards away from the group of trucks when Jake jumped out from behind the last trailer, the hunting knife gripped in his hand, an insane look in his eyes. His hair was wild, his clothes ripped, and he seemed to be unaffected by the freezing air. This wasn’t the Jake that she’d known—longtime archaeologist, longtime friend. This Jake was someone different, an animal trying to survive.
Stella and David stopped; Stella’s arm shot out in front of David protectively.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Jake screeched as he took a step towards them. “You can’t leave!”
Stella didn’t answer; she just watched Jake like someone would watch an unpredictable animal.
Jake took another step towards them; his eyes were unblinking orbs of terror. “You can’t take him!”
“I have to,” Stella answered.
“We have to do what he wants. We have to give him what he’s asking for.”
Stella stood her ground, her arm still in front of David. “No. I won’t do this.”
“We have to!”
There was a rustling in the dry brush near Jake. He turned and tried to look everywhere at once. The cold wind blew harder, it howled down into the canyon, swirling sand around, bringing the coppery smell of blood with it.
He was coming.
Jake shook his head as unnoticed tears of hopelessness slipped from his eyes. He called out to the dark night, to the dark wind. “No! I’m doing what you want!”
Stella remained in front of David, ready to protect him as best she could.
Jake
backed up to the last trailer, still shaking his head no, still trying to look everywhere at once. His back touched the metal wall of the trailer, and he held his knife out in a trembling hand like it was his last line of defense.
Jake looked back at Stella and she could see a realization dawning in his eyes now; she could see some of the old Jake back in those eyes. He shook his head as tears slipped from his eyes. He tried to give her a smile, but his lips were trembling too badly.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I can’t do this anymore. I’m not going to let him take me while I’m still alive.”
Stella moved in front of David to block his view of what she knew was coming next. But she wasn’t able to turn away in time and she saw Jake bring the hunting knife up to his own throat. He didn’t hesitate; he slashed his throat in one quick cut, opening up a wide gash that spilled blood immediately.
Stella turned and nudged David forward into the night, keeping him away from the horrible sight of Jake. But she couldn’t block out the sound of Jake’s gurgling throat, the sound of the liquid thump as his body hit the ground, the sound of one of his legs kicking at the trailer in death spasms.
“Run!” Stella yelled at David.
They bolted for the group of vehicles.
As they got closer to the vehicles, Stella could hear something chasing them, crashing through the desert brush—gaining on them.
The Suburban was only thirty feet away now. Twenty feet away. Ten.
Stella didn’t dare turn and see what was chasing them; she opened the door of her Suburban and yelled at David: “Get in!”
David hopped inside and scrambled across the bench seat.
Stella jumped inside and slammed the door shut and then slapped at the door lock button. She rummaged in her purse for the keys to the truck and her fingers finally curled around them. She tried to jab the key into the ignition with trembling fingers, but she was shaking too much and she dropped the keys down onto the floorboard.
David sat up on his knees in the passenger seat as he stared at the inky darkness outside the truck’s windows.
Stella groped for the keys in the darkness down by her feet. Her fingers searched and searched—and then she found them. She sat back up; she didn’t look at David, she didn’t look out the windows, she only concentrated on getting the key into the ignition. They were so close now to escape—so close.
If the truck was going to start …
You know it will start this time, her mind whispered.
She managed to finally slide the key into the ignition. She twisted the key. The motor turned, it made a tired and sputtering sound. She twisted the key again; the motor cranked and cranked. Over the sound of the engine trying to fire into life, Stella could hear something outside, like the wind itself had come alive—the Darkwind, that’s what Jim Whitefeather had called it. Jim Whitefeather—the first one taken.
She couldn’t think about Jim right now.
“Come on, damn it!” Stella screamed at her Suburban just as something slammed into the side of the truck, rocking it so hard that Stella was afraid it was going to tip over. David flew backwards and fell into the passenger door. He hit the back of his head on the passenger window, but not hard enough to break the glass. Stella almost lost her grip on the keys, but she held on to the steering wheel and kept twisting the key.
The truck started! The powerful engine roared to life.
Stella slammed the shifter into drive. She stomped on the gas pedal. The Suburban’s back tires spun in the sand and shot up a rooster-tail of dirt into the night air. Then the tires caught traction and the truck climbed the small rocky incline with ease and drove up onto the dirt trail that led out of this place.
Stella muscled the steering wheel, her foot still hammered down on the gas pedal. The rear tires spun in the dirt and the rear end of the Suburban fishtailed, losing control. She had to be careful; she couldn’t wreck the truck and leave them stranded here. With all of her willpower, she pulled her foot off of the gas pedal, fighting the natural urge to panic. She turned the wheel back the other way to correct their spin away from the decline back down into the parked vehicles.
She pushed the gas pedal down again, and this time she guided the truck back away from the hill that they had just climbed. The Suburban lurched forward, gaining speed quickly, the powerful engine a screaming fury. The headlights knifed into the darkness as she navigated the twists and turns of the canyon road.
Stella let out a long breath that plumed in front of her face in the freezing air. She could breathe again—it felt like she’d been holding her breath for hours. Her muscles began to relax, her fingers loosened on the steering wheel a little.
They were safe for now.
Stella looked at David. He rubbed the back of his head, his long black hair rumpled.
“Are you okay?” she asked him.
David looked at her and nodded; his dark eyes were glassy in the night, his small breaths clouded up in front of his face.
“You’re not bleeding, are you?”
David shook his head no.
Stella glanced at the rearview mirror, the dirt road barely visible behind them in the red glow of the taillights. But someone stood there in the middle of the road—it was a man watching them leave, she was sure of it.
She looked back at David. “I won’t let anything happen to you,” she promised him.
David just stared at her. He didn’t seem so sure.
CHAPTER 2
Cody’s Pass, Colorado
Stella had driven through the night from New Mexico up into Colorado. At four thirty in the morning they reached the outskirts of the small town of Cody’s Pass. Stella was bone-weary; her eyes so tired it felt like she had sand in them. She saw a motel at the side of the road—it was called The Mountainside Inn. The vacancy sign blinked in the night.
She glanced at David. He was still sleeping, curled up against the passenger door with his seatbelt over him. The heat was on low and the truck was warm and comfortable. She looked back at the road and pulled into the parking lot of the motel. She didn’t plan on getting a room—she wanted to keep on the move. But if she could just park for an hour or two, try to get a little sleep.
She parked in the back of the motel, backing into a parking spot far away from any other vehicles. She shut off the truck and made sure all of the doors were locked. It was still warm inside, but she figured that the cold would creep in from outside and wake her up in an hour or so. She just needed to close her eyes for a moment.
Stella glanced once more at David to make sure he was still asleep, and then she eased her seat back and closed her eyes. She instantly slipped into dreams. Not dreams, really—fragments of memories. She remembered the dig site. They had found an undiscovered Anasazi site and set up the trailers not too far away from the mouth of the cave. Jake was excited. Stella was excited. They were finding some great artifacts, never before discovered clues to the mysteries of the Anasazi—why they vanished and where they went to.
A week ago Stella had found a lost boy near the mouth of the cave. He was bloody and barely conscious. He wouldn’t talk. It was like he was in shock. She carried him back to the trailer. She cleaned him up and asked him questions, but he wouldn’t answer her, the only thing he told her was that his name was David. Jake wanted to call the police, but they were on Navajo land, with Navajo permission of course, and their satellite phone wasn’t working. Jim Whitefeather said he would drive to the nearest town thirty miles away and contact the Navajo Tribal Police. But there was something about Jim Whitefeather, something about the way he stared at David, like he was remembering an ancient story from his culture. And there was something in Jim’s eyes that Stella had never seen before—fear.
And that was the day everything started happening …
Stella snapped awake, her breath caught in her throat. She looked around, forgetting for a few seconds where she was.
In my truck, her mind whispered. Parked in a … her tired mind tho
ught for a moment, sluggish from sleep … parked in a motel parking lot.
It was cold. Stella looked at David. He was awake and staring at her.
It was still dark, but the eastern sky was beginning to lighten up with the rising sun. The sun would bring light but not much warmth to the frozen landscape. Stella turned the key and the truck started right up. The heater blasted cold air at first, but then began to warm up.
Stella had only slept for about an hour and a half, and at first she felt worse, but she knew she would feel better soon. Even an hour and a half of sleep would help. Her mind drifted back to her dream, to Jim Whitefeather, to what had happened to him. But she pushed that horror away.
She looked at David. “How long have you been awake?”
He just stared at her.
“You hungry?” she asked him.
He nodded, but still wouldn’t say a word. He had spoken only a few words since that day she’d found him. She had at least convinced him to tell her his name.
Stella pulled out of the parking space and drove out onto the street. She saw a gas station up the road, its sign lit up in the early-morning darkness.
“We need some gas,” she said, but she didn’t expect David to respond.
She pulled her Suburban into the gas station and parked next to one of the gas pumps. She cut the engine and stared out the windshield for a moment.
“I need some coffee,” she whispered. “What do you want to drink?” she asked David.
David stared at Stella, but he said nothing.
“I wish you would talk to me.”
Still no answer from David.
“I know you’ve seen some … some really bad things. We both have. But you need …” She let her words trail off. Maybe she should try a different approach. “Is there someone I can call for you? Your parents? A relative?”
David stared at her, but still wouldn’t respond. He looked out the passenger window.
Stella sighed and grabbed her purse. She pulled out some money; she had enough to make it through Colorado and up to her aunt’s house. They’d be safe there for a little while, she hoped. They would get there, and then she would figure out what to do with David.
