Dead Ground (Harbinger P.I. Book 4)

by Adam J. Wright

  “Escort you? You didn’t mention anything about that. You said protect you.”

  She nodded. “Yes, protect me while I go where I need to go.”

  “And where is that?”

  “If I am to take back my forest from the Midnight Cabal, I need the item I told you about. You will escort me to it and protect me from harm while I return to Faerie and use it on those disgusting demons that have invaded my forest.”

  I looked at her closely. “So you’re not running at all. You’re preparing for a counter-attack and you’re dragging me along to fight for you.”

  “You will be my hero,” she said, “and they will sing songs about you in Faerie for all eternity.” She touched my arm and I felt a warmth flicker from her fingers and travel along my skin. The tattoo on my shoulder heated up.

  “I told you to stop with the glamor crap.”

  She removed her hand. “I’m sorry. But you really will be a hero and the faerie bards really will compose songs about you.” She turned to Leon and Jim. “About all of you.”

  “I want to know exactly where we’re going and what the item is,” I said.

  “No, that isn’t how these bargains work. You simply do as I ask.”

  “That may be the way things are done normally but that isn’t how I operate, especially when my friends’ lives are on the line. Either you tell us what it is we’re escorting you to, or the deal is off.”

  Her eyes flared an angry dark blue hue for a brief second before returning to their normal icy color. “Our deal is not off. Do you know the consequences of breaking a bargain with a faerie, especially one as powerful as me? You will be taken to my realm and kept there for all eternity.”

  “Maybe I will but you’ll be trapped in a dungeon somewhere being tortured by vampires and demons, because I won’t protect you from them unless you tell me exactly what’s going on.”

  She balled her hands into fists and slapped them down on her thighs. “Ugh! You humans are so frustrating!” She sighed melodramatically and rolled her eyes up toward the ceiling of the Jeep. “Very well. I need to you to help me get my torc.”

  “Your torc?”

  “Yes, it’s a circlet of gold. Mine is beautiful, decorated with carvings of acorns, leaves, rubies, and jade.”

  “I know what a torc is. So why is this one so important and how is it going to help you take back your forest?”

  She sighed as if the answer to my question should have been obvious. “All faerie queens possess a torc. When worn around the neck, it allows us to draw on the power of the land. Each torc represents the queen’s connection to her part of the faerie realm.”

  “And yours is hidden somewhere?”

  “They are all hidden. They are too powerful to wear all the time so each queen hides her torc somewhere safe, somewhere hidden from her enemies. I hid mine here, in your world.”

  I nodded, understanding. “So the Midnight Cabal wants to steal your torc and take over your part of the realm.”

  “Yes. They want to imprison me and use my power, through the torc, to rule my land. They’ve already done so in other parts of Faerie. My sister, the Lady of the Mountains, is also in danger. I wanted to warn her that the creatures who destroyed my forest will be heading for her mountains next but I had no time. I had to escape. I only hope she’s all right.” An expression of genuine sadness passed over her features and her eyes looked down at her hands as she pondered her sister’s fate. “Retrieving the torc is my only hope of returning home.”

  I actually felt a little sorry for her. Her forest had been occupied by monsters and for all she knew, her sister might also be exiled, or even dead. Gloria was a long way from home, putting her life in my hands while she was on the run.

  “Don’t worry,” I told her, “we’ll escort you to the torc and help you get your forest back.” We might also destroy the Midnight Cabal’s plans to use Faerie as a base of operations. Helping Gloria might allow us to strike at the Cabal before they could start the war they seemed intent on fighting against the Society.

  Gloria’s sorrow became a smile. “Thank you, Alec. You are my hero.” She looked around the car at Leon, Jim, and then back to me. “All of you are my heroes.”

  “I can live with that,” Leon said.

  I looked out of the window at the trees rolling by. I could live with being a hero, I just didn’t want to be a dead one.

  Chapter 11

  Felicity was going mad with worry. She had no idea if Alec was alive or dead and she couldn’t think of anything else. She sat in the window seat of her parents’ library, looking out at the garden she’d played in as a child and the sunny Sussex countryside beyond the far-off hedge, telling herself that Alec was fine and the only reason he hadn’t rung was because he was in an area where his phone didn’t work.

  She sighed and got up from the seat, pacing back and forth on the library’s oak floor, between the stacks of leather-bound books that looked down at her impassively. She’d loved these books as a child and had spent many hours in the leather armchair by the fireplace, studying the illustrations of far-away countries and intriguing relics that had been unearthed from a mysterious past.

  Many of the books concerned the ancient Egyptians, her parents’ field of expertise, but some of the tomes were concerned with other ancient cultures and had taught Felicity about the Romans, Greeks, Minoans, and Macedonians.

  She knew precise details of long-forgotten rituals and obscure nuances of lost languages, yet all she wanted to know at this moment was the answer to one simple question: was Alec all right?

  The door opened and her father came into the library. He was dressed in dark trousers and a light shirt, the outfit he wore for most occasions—whether taking part in archeological digs or hosting dinner parties at the house—but the shirt hung loosely on his tall frame. He’d lost weight, a fact that was also evidenced in his pinched facial features. He looked like a man who had been to hell and back, and it hurt Felicity to see him like this.

  He smiled when he saw her and said, “I thought I might find you here. This always was your favorite room in the house.” He lowered himself into the leather armchair and sighed, as if the effort of coming in here from the next room had exhausted him.

  “You should take it easy,” she told him, worried about the tired look that had settled on her father’s face.

  “Nonsense. I’m supposed to do some light exercise every day, building up a bit at a time. I’m no use to anyone if I can’t even walk around the house. I might as well be dead.”

  “Dad, don’t talk like that.”

  “Well, it’s true. You and your mother have been putting your own lives aside to look after me ever since I had this bloody heart attack. It’s time I looked after myself.” He looked at her closely. “Which is what I want to talk to you about.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean it’s time you went back to America. Your mother tells me you’ve been on edge lately and I’ve noticed it myself. You want to get back to your job, the new life you’re making for yourself. And I don’t blame you. I appreciate everything you’ve done, Felicity, but I can’t have you stuck here with me and your mum when you have a life of your own to lead. Besides,” he said, offering her a weak smile, “I’m on the mend. I’ll be back to my old self in no time. It isn’t fair to keep you here. Your mum can do enough fussing around me for both of you.”

  “I don’t mind being here, really, I don’t,” she said, crouching next to the chair and taking his hand. “I love you, Dad.”

  “And I love you. Which is why I want you to go back to America and live your life.”

  “In a couple of days, perhaps.” She didn’t want to leave until her dad was looking at least a little better. Besides, if she returned to Dearmont now, the office would be empty. Alec was still in Canada and she had no idea how long he’d be there.

  There wouldn’t be much of a job to do while Alec was gone. She could take phone calls, of course, and talk to pros
pective clients, but all she would be able to tell them was that the P.I. was away at the moment and would deal with their case when he returned. She might as well stay here with her parents.

  Was that the real reason she was reluctant to return to Dearmont, though? She wasn’t sure where she stood with Alec on a personal level and a small part of her wondered if she was using her father’s heart attack as an excuse to stay in England and not have to face Alec and deal with what was going on between them.

  She liked Alec a lot, but a few weeks ago, she had been ready to marry Jason. She’d realized at the last moment that it wasn’t the life she’d wanted but didn’t that prove her mind was all over the place? It felt wrong to start a relationship with Alec right now. And he was still trying to get over over Mallory leaving him.

  Mallory had told Alec she needed some space for a while and, at the moment, that was how Felicity felt too.

  Jason had hurt her, not least in his attitude toward her job and independence. Felicity had no fear that Alec would ever hurt her like that—he was in a totally different league to Jason—but her emotions had been scraped raw and she needed time for them to heal over before she exposed them again to anyone.

  What had happened between her and Alec wasn’t a bad thing—in fact, it had been exciting—but the timing was just wrong.

  “Well, don’t feel you have to stay here because of me or your mother,” her dad said. “We can manage just fine.”

  “I know,” Felicity said, “but I don’t mind staying here a bit longer. I like visiting, you know that.”

  He looked at her with a sadness in his eyes. “It’s just a shame that every time you come, it’s because of something bad. Last time, you split up with Jason and this time, it’s because my bloody heart has been playing up. It would be nice to have you here under better circumstances.”

  “Yes,” she agreed, “it would.” Then, remembering the split with Jason and the phone call she’d received from her mother, telling her that her father had suffered a heart attack, she murmured, “There does always seem to be something bad happening.”

  “One of my colleagues rang the other day to see how I was getting on,” her dad said. “He joked that I’d been researching Ancient Egyptian heart curses so much that I’d put a curse on myself. Absolute nonsense, of course, but it does have a certain irony to it.”

  “Heart curses?” she asked, her interest piqued.

  He nodded. “A little-known practice that was taking place during the eighteenth dynasty. A priest would cut the heart out of someone who was presumed to have power and then seal it into an urn, or a chest, or some other such container. Then the receptacle was supposed to receive the power of the heart donor. It was called the Sealing of the Heart.

  “Then, of course, a curse was written on the container, saying that if anyone destroyed the heart inside, a terrible fate would befall them. So the ‘heart vessels’ were untouched. Even grave robbers feared them. A few have been unearthed in their original state.”

  Felicity’s mind began racing. “How could the curse be broken?”

  Her father looked at her with an amused expression and shrugged. “I don’t know. I expect there was some myth about it but I haven’t come across it in my research yet. I’m writing an article for The British Museum. They’re going to have an exhibition next year. Some of the vessels used to hold the hearts were quite beautiful.”

  Felicity thought of the Box of Midnight and its gold and silver panels inscribed with hieroglyphs. “Yes, I know. What source documents are you using?”

  “Are you interested in the subject? Yes, of course you are. You were always interested in the lesser-known practices, and the Sealing of the Heart was quite obscure.” He got to his feet and led Felicity to an old desk beneath the window at the far end of the room. The surface of the desk was covered with papers and books. “This is the material I’m sifting through,” he said. “There are copies of some papyri there and this codex”—he tapped one of the books—“mentions the ritual.”

  “Do you mind if I look through them?” she asked.

  “Of course not. If you find anything interesting for my article, let me know. I really should get back to work on that as soon as possible.”

  “You should rest,” Felicity told him. “I’ll go through this material and make notes of anything interesting. Then you can write it up later. Meanwhile, do what the doctor told you and take it easy for a couple of weeks.”

  He looked from Felicity to the desk, then back again. “I suppose you’re right. It’s a lovely day. I might sit out in the garden for a while. Care to join me?”

  “You go ahead,” she said. “I’ll make a start on this.” She indicated the papers and books.

  He chuckled. “Same old Felicity, can’t resist exploring the past. What are you looking for, anyway?”

  “Nothing, I just find the subject interesting.”

  He gave her a knowing look. “You can’t fool me. I know when you’re on a treasure hunt. You have the same glint in your eyes as you had when you were a little girl and your mother and I hid Easter eggs around the house.”

  “I just want to have a look, that’s all.”

  He grinned. “If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine. I’ll be in the garden if you need me.” He patted her affectionately on the shoulder and made his way to the door. Once there, he turned and said, “Don’t take too long. I’ll get your mother to brew a pot of tea later. Come outside and enjoy it with us.”

  “All right, I will.” She waited until he was gone and then seated herself at the desk. When she reached for the nearest stack of papers she noticed her hands shaking slightly. Adrenaline was pumping through her veins. She felt anxious and excited, and a bit nervous.

  Somewhere on this desk might be a way to break the curse that had taken hold of Mallory.

  Chapter 12

  We arrived at Jim’s house and got out of the Jeep. Before we went on whatever journey Gloria had in mind, I wanted us to take stock and plan ahead. There was no point blundering ahead unprepared, especially when we were going up against a pair of powerful vampires.

  Also, I wanted to call Felicity and let her know we were okay and tell her about my father. I could update her on the current situation with Gloria and get her to do some research on Davos and Korax. If they’d been around for as long as Gloria seemed to think they had, there must be a record of them somewhere in the Society’s database. Maybe there was some information that would give us an edge against them.

  “You guys go ahead,” I told the others as they were walking toward the house. “I’m going to call Felicity.” I hit her name in the contacts list on my phone and paced back along the road as I waited for the call to connect. Felicity answered after a couple of rings.

  “Alec, how are you? Is everything all right?”

  “Everything’s fine,” I told her. “We killed the nightwing but the case has developed into much more than we originally thought.”

  “What do you mean?”

  I told her about my father’s disappearance, then about the appearance of the Lady of the Forest and my deal with her to retrieve her torc and take back the faerie forest from Davos and Korax.

  “I’m sorry about your father and all this torc business sounds very dangerous,” Felicity said when I was done.

  “Yeah, it probably is,” I agreed. “But I don’t have any choice. Breaking a deal with a faerie queen is probably just as dangerous. So, I’m going to see it through and get free of my debt. At least that will be one less thing to worry about.”

  “I suppose so. Listen, Alec, I have some potentially good news. I don’t want you to get your hopes up just yet but I’ve found some ancient Egyptian writings regarding heart curses.”

  “Heart curses? You mean like the curse Mallory picked up from that damned box?”

  “Yes, the curse Rekhmire cast on the Box of Midnight. It’s called a heart curse. It’s mentioned in some of the codexes and there are references to it in hie
roglyphs painted on the wall of Amenhotep’s tomb. I’ve got photographs to work from.”

  A sudden flame of hope flickered to life inside me. “Do they mention a way to break the curse?”

  “I haven’t found anything yet but I’m still looking and there’s a lot of material to read through.”

  “That’s great.”

  “As I said, don’t get your hopes up yet. I just thought I should let you know there’s a chance. A glimmer of hope but nothing more than that at the moment.”

  “Still, it’s something,” I said. “I was going to ask you to see if you could find any information on Davos and Korax but now I think it’s better if you follow your lead about the curse.”

  “I can do both,” she said. “I have my laptop here. I’m making some notes for my dad for an article he’s writing. I can log into the Society’s database now and have a quick look.”

  I heard her fingers on the keyboard and then she said, “I’m in. I’ll try Davos first and see what we…oh, that’s strange.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. The screen just flickered for a second. The database disappeared and then came back. Just give me a moment.” I heard her keyboard clacking again. “There’s something here. Davos is one of three vampires thought to have originated on the island of Crete around 1500 B.C. Alec, that’s the time of the Minoans. He’s been around since then?”

  “Sounds like it,” I said. I thought of all the vampires I’d fought. The oldest had been a female vamp in Chicago who was supposedly three hundred years old and she’d been damned hard to kill. Davos was over three thousand and he had a companion who was probably just as old. “Does it mention Korax?” I asked Felicity.

  “Yes, it mentions him as one of Davos’s known associates, along with a female vampire named Damalis. They all originated from Crete during the same time period. They must have seen the fall of the Minoan civilization. That’s incredible.”

  “They were probably the cause of the fall of the Minoan civilization,” I said. “Three vampires could wreak destruction on an island of primitive villages. They’d tear through the population like foxes in a henhouse.”