Of Ash and Spirit: Piper Lancaster Series

by D. G. Swank

  I hesitated, then said, “No.”

  “You don’t sound certain.”

  “I don’t work with wild animals either,” I said. “I don’t even have a pet.”

  “But do you know what could have done it?”

  “How could I?”

  “You were in the same line of work as Gill. I thought perhaps you might have heard of whatever wild animal might be loose.”

  She sounded like she knew something, but there was no way she could suspect the truth.

  “I help spirits cross to the afterlife, Detective Powell. I don’t work with wild animals.”

  “You know what I find most interesting, Piper? The fact that you never once denied knowing what the animal was. You dodged the question every single time I asked.”

  I was so caught off guard I didn’t know what to say.

  “Good chat, Piper,” Detective Powell said. “Interesting chat.” Then she hung up.

  “What was that about?” Hudson asked.

  “Good question,” I mumbled.

  We finished eating; then I told Hudson I was going out for the evening.

  He glanced up in surprise. “Going where?”

  I decided to be somewhat truthful. “To meet Jack.”

  “Again? A second date?”

  “There was no first date, and I insulted him this afternoon. I want to apologize.”

  Hudson narrowed his eyes. “You really like this guy, don’t you?”

  His question caught me off guard. I did, but not like he suspected. “Honestly, Hudson, I don’t know. I like him, but I think I need him more as an ally than a boyfriend, you know?”

  He gave me a sad smile. “I know.”

  “Besides,” I said, “who has time for a boyfriend?” So why had Abel’s face popped into my head? I definitely didn’t need that man in my romantic life. “But I do need his help, so I want to go apologize in person.”

  “Want me to come as moral support? I can sit in the car.”

  “No,” I said, avoiding his gaze. “I need to do this alone. I’m going to go upstairs and get ready.”

  “Okay, but if you change your mind, let me know.”

  Twenty minutes later, after I changed clothes and pulled my hair into a ponytail, I headed down the stairs again to leave. Hudson was watching TV in the living room, and I knew I had little hope of escaping his scrutiny.

  “Are you about to go grovel to a priest or perform a jewel heist?”

  “Very funny,” I grumbled.

  He sat up straighter. “Seriously, Piper.”

  I made a face. “Okay, so Jack and I are going to visit a client.”

  “You don’t like seeing clients at night.”

  “That’s because I was scared of things that go bump in the night,” I said. “But now that I can see them, what difference does it make whether it’s day or night? I’m just trying to help people.”

  His eyes narrowed. “I know you, Piper. You can’t fool me. What are you up to?”

  “We’re going to meet a client.”

  “Dressed like you’re a badass Linda Hamilton in The Terminator.”

  I decided to take that as a compliment. “We dealt with a badass ghost this afternoon, and since I’m not sure what I’m going to run into, I decided to dress the part.”

  “Huh.” I could see he didn’t believe me, so I decided to leave before he pushed me too far. I grabbed the box of daggers off the dining room table and headed for the kitchen. “Bye, Hudson.”

  “Hey,” he called after me. “Have you heard from Rhys yet? I’m starting to get worried.”

  “She says she might be a few hours longer.” I practically ran out the door before he could question me more.

  Fifteen minutes later, I pulled into the church parking lot. At a few minutes after nine, the parking lot was empty except for a single dark sedan. I glanced around before I got out of the car with the box under my arm and my can of pepper spray in my other hand, paranoid after my encounter a few hours earlier, then hurried to the entrance.

  The sanctuary was dark except for the lit candles on the altar and the votive candles in the back. It gave the church a surreal look, but Jack was nowhere to be seen.

  “Jack?”

  “Here,” I heard him call out from the front of the church. He walked out of a room to the left of the altar, wearing jeans and a black T-shirt. This time he also had a white stole around his neck.

  I took one look at him and stopped in my tracks. He was such a contradiction of hard edges and godliness.

  “You got here sooner than I expected.”

  “I had to get out before Hudson asked me any more questions.”

  His gaze fell on the box at my side. “Do you have the daggers?”

  I instinctively clutched them tighter. “Yeah.”

  “I can bless them if you like. If they work like they’re supposed to, then I suspect they’ve already been spelled or blessed in some way, but . . .”

  I held out the box. “Yeah. Please. I feel like I need all the help I can get.”

  He took the box and set it on what looked like a white marble baptismal font on the corner of the altar. After he opened the lid, he retrieved something that could best be described as a silver metal ball at the end of a wooden handle. He began to speak in what sounded like Latin, sprinkling the knives with water from his device. I wasn’t sure that his blessing would actually help, but watching him made me feel connected to something bigger. Like maybe God was on my side.

  After a couple of minutes, he set the mallet on the altar. Then he removed his stole and carefully folded it and placed it on the altar too.

  When he handed me the knives, I gingerly took them from him. “Thank you.”

  “You need to keep them somewhere on your body.” His gaze looked me up and down. “What about your boots?”

  “You want me to just keep them in my boots? I’ll cut myself.”

  “We’ll figure out something for next time.”

  “Next time . . .” I looked up into his face, trying to control my terror.

  “You can do this, Piper. I know it.”

  “Yeah. Fake it till you make it, right?”

  Sympathy washed over his face. “I have a plan to figure out what you’re up against—what we’re up against.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s out in my car. Let me gather up my things and we’ll go.”

  He grabbed a messenger bag from the first pew, heaving it onto his shoulder. From the way it hung, it looked to be packed full.

  “Have you held the daggers yet?” he asked as he gestured toward the front doors.

  “If you’re asking if I feel different when I touch them, the answer is no.”

  “That doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” he said. “But I wish we had time to figure out a safer way to test them.”

  So did I, even if I had no idea what form that would take.

  Abel would know if they were demon-killing daggers.

  But I couldn’t trust Abel, so I’d do best to stop thinking about him.

  “We can go together in my car,” Jack said, leaving the church and heading for the trunk of the sedan. “I thought we could park partway down the hill and then walk the rest of the way.”

  “So you really did come up with sort of a plan.”

  “A bare-bones one,” he said as he lifted the trunk lid. “It involves this.” He lifted a two-foot-by-two-foot object. “It’s a drone. I remembered that Max had gotten one for Christmas a couple of years ago. It has a night-vision camera, so we can fly it over the bridge and try to figure out who’s there. I suspect we’ll only be able to see the humans, but they’re the ones we’re most worried about.”

  I hoped he was right, but I suspected he was very, very wrong.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Jack drove up Beaumont Street and parked about a half mile from the bridge, pulling off into the driveway of a house that looked abandoned and had a for sale sign in the front yard. I’d b
een watching closely, and I was positive we hadn’t been tailed by Abel or one of his people.

  I put on the leather coat Jack had brought for me (it belonged to his sister, so it fit nicely), then pulled the daggers out of the box. Jack slipped on his own leather coat, stuffed the taser into his pocket, and slung his messenger bag over his shoulder. Those other preparations complete, he grabbed the drone.

  “We’ll hike up the hill a bit, then I’ll send up the drone,” he said. “I suspect we’ll only get one shot at this, so I want to make it count.”

  “Okay.” I rolled my shoulders, trying to adjust to the weight of the leather. It wasn’t as hot tonight, but it was warm enough that the jacket felt stifling.

  The road didn’t have street lights, but the full moon helped light our way.

  Jack kept checking his map app, and after a short walk, he came to a stop and turned on the drone. “We could be ruining our element of surprise by doing this, but hopefully it’ll help us figure out if we’re dealing with one or two people or a whole group of them.”

  “Wouldn’t the demons kill them?”

  “Not if they’re controlling them somehow.”

  My mouth dropped open. “How?”

  “If these are the Guardians, then that’s their goal. To control the demons. I still think they want you to help them do that, but what if they’ve already found a way?”

  Abel? If the demons were being controlled, he was the likely culprit behind this. Bitter disappointment hit me hard. I needed to be prepared to face him or the Guardians.

  “Or,” Jack continued, “what if they’ve stolen Rhys so they can have a ringside seat to see what you can do for them?”

  Was it wrong for me to hope for that scenario?

  He set the drone down on the ground, then pulled out his phone and opened the app. “Hopefully we’ll be able to see where they are and where they’re holding Rhys.”

  Holding both daggers in my right hand, I fingered the pendant hanging from my neck with my left. “Once we know what we’re walking into, I’ll be able to track the demons.” I didn’t want to expose myself sooner than necessary.

  The drone lifted off the ground, then rose above the tops of the trees. It took off up the hill while Jack stared at the screen on his phone.

  I leaned in next to him. “How can you tell what’s going on? Everything’s green.”

  “I can see the road, but the trees are blocking part of the view. I can fly it lower if I need to—closer to the road—but then they’re more likely to see it.”

  We were silent for several seconds while we both watched the screen. I was about to give up when Jack said in an excited voice, “There. I see someone. Lower left corner.”

  I still couldn’t see anything special, so I took his word for it.

  “There’s two more.”

  I could make out their outlines a bit better this time. “Is one of them Rhys?” I asked, my stomach tightening with nerves.

  “I don’t think so. I’ll swing by again to see if I can get a better look.”

  “Did they notice the drone?”

  “Doesn’t seem like it.”

  He made another pass. “Three guys but no sign of Rhys.”

  “Am I wasting my time?” I asked. “What if they . . .”

  “She has to be here. They’ll have her here to get you to do what they want. She’s a pawn, but the only way that works is for you to see her.” He leaned closer to the screen. “I think I found where they’re keeping her. There’s a single car up in the parking lot of Zealandia Castle. There’s a woman standing close to the trunk, looking toward the bridge.” He glanced up at me. “I think she has a gun.”

  Of course she did. “How do we deal with guns, Jack?”

  “I don’t know.” There was a slight hitch in his voice. “If I can get close enough, I can tase at least one of them, but then I’ll lose the element of surprise with the other three.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “I don’t have a choice. I have to go up there and face them.” Then a possible ally came to mind. “Maybe Helen will help us.”

  “Helen? The ghost?”

  “I met her last night. She asked Abel if I was the one. She thinks I have some purpose too.”

  Jack returned the drone to us and set it down behind some overgrown foliage.

  I checked the time on my phone. “We’re fifteen minutes early. I think we should go announce ourselves and see if we can catch them off guard.”

  “Are you ready?”

  My palms began to sweat. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  I shifted one of the blades to my left hand and hefted them both. They felt foreign, yet I couldn’t deny there was a rightness about them too. Almost like they were an extension of myself. The engraving on the handles dug into my palms and fingers, making me wish I’d brought a pair of fingerless gloves. Something to consider for next time.

  There it was again: next time. I was crazy if I thought I was going to survive this.

  We reached the intersection of College and Beaumont, and even though I knew the road had some major twists and turns ahead, as the crow flew, we were only a few hundred feet away. I was tempted to take off my necklace, but I didn’t want to announce my presence to the demons just yet. I knew they were around even if I couldn’t yet sense them.

  “Jack,” I whispered, knowing that sound carried out here. I was still foolishly hoping to catch them off guard. “While I’m dealing with the demons, I want you to try to get Rhys and get her out of here.”

  “I’m not going to leave you to deal with them alone, Piper.”

  “We both know I’m the one who will be able to deal with them. You have to save Rhys.”

  “Piper.”

  I stopped and he came to a halt beside me. “Jack, we need an order of importance here.”

  “Okay . . .” He sounded like he didn’t like where this was headed.

  “Rhys, you, the daggers, then me.”

  His mouth gaped open and he looked aghast. “What?” He shook his head. “No. No way.”

  “Jack.”

  “The daggers over you? Are you crazy?” he whisper-hissed.

  “If we’re dealing with the Guardians, we can’t let them get those daggers. Please.” I felt no shame in begging. I’d do anything to keep the daggers out of those master manipulators’ hands. My father had died to keep these weapons from them. I had to be willing to do the same. “Jack, please.”

  “Piper, you’re vastly underestimating your importance.”

  “How would you know . . . ?” One look at his face told me what I needed to know. “The voice.”

  His serious eyes held mine. “You are so much more important than you know.”

  The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. “I don’t know what the voice told you, but I’m about to go in there and get slashed to ribbons. After that happens, don’t let the Guardians get the daggers.”

  His face hardened. “I thought you wanted me to get Rhys out of there. How can I get the daggers if I’m helping her escape?”

  I shot him a dark scowl. “I can’t plan for everything, Jack.”

  He put a hand on my upper arm. “Piper, here’s my order of importance: you, the daggers, Rhys, and then me.”

  “We’re here to save Rhys.”

  “But not at the cost of losing you. Whatever’s about to happen . . . you’re meant to play an important part in it.”

  I could see I wasn’t going to sway him, so I said, “Fine. But while I’m distracting everyone and dealing with the demons, you get Rhys. Then we can all escape together.”

  “Agreed.”

  At least we agreed on something.

  My heart began to race as we turned up College Street.

  “Where’s the traffic?” I asked in a low voice.

  “I wondered about that . . . I think the demons are preparing for you.”

  “What does that mean?” I really didn’t like the sound of it.

  “It means the
y’re preparing to face you and don’t wish to be disturbed. I think they can emit something to keep humans away.”

  I shot him a glance. “You’re not serious.”

  “I’m dead serious.”

  I supposed it was better that way, but if that was true, what else were they capable of? “You mentioned that Valvad wasn’t a high enough level to kidnap Rhys during the day and orchestrate this whole plan. I take it there are demons that are?”

  “Yes. Higher-level demons can take over a human body by possession.”

  “Like in The Exorcist.”

  “Yes, but I suspect most of them are more cunning. I would imagine some possess for survival, but I’m certain there are others that do it for a more specific purpose. They would be more careful to avoid detection.”

  “What purpose?”

  He was silent for a moment. “The reappearance of the Lost Colony changed something in the metaphysical world. I felt it. Did you?”

  “No.”

  “The Guardians must have felt it too, since they sought you out again.”

  Of course, according to my dad’s letter, they’d set my twenty-fifth birthday as D-day. I wanted to know why, but I couldn’t deal with any of that now. I had to save Rhys and kill two demons. No big deal.

  Jack pulled me to a halt and lifted his hand, pointing ahead.

  I could see two men standing next to one another about twenty feet from the bridge. It took me several seconds to notice the third guy on the other side of the bridge. Rhys had to be up at the car.

  I turned to Jack. “Since we’re early, what if you go around through the woods and try to sneak up on the person holding Rhys? I’ll wait here for a few minutes to give you a head start, then walk out and make a bunch of noise to cover any kind of commotion you might make.”

  Jack frowned, but he nodded slowly. “Okay. Give me five minutes.”

  “Okay.”

  He searched my face. “Be careful, Piper.”

  “You too. Thanks for helping me save Rhys.”

  He gave another nod, then darted around a curve and out of sight. The roads up here were so twisty, which was often an annoyance. At the moment, it was working in our favor.

  The breeze picked up and a chill ran down my back. Were the demons near? For all I knew, Valvad or Thargos were in the trees at my side, ready to pounce. I rubbed the stone at the base of my throat with my thumb. I felt exposed standing here in the shadows, but if I took it off to track their locations, they would know I was nearby. Well, I was here to confront them. Maybe it was best to be informed. Time to take it off.