Dead Ground (Harbinger P.I. Book 4)

by Adam J. Wright

  “Yes, they could,” she agreed. “No one is exactly sure how the Minoans were destroyed. Some historians say the nearby island of Thera erupted and the ash drifted over Crete. Others think the Mycenaeans invaded. If there were vampires on the island, that adds a new dimension to the theories, I suppose.”

  “Either way, we’re facing ancient creatures,” I said.

  “Yes.” Her tone was grim.

  “I don’t suppose the database tells us an easy way to defeat them?” I said.

  “No. They’re vampires, so the usual methods should work. Wooden stakes, beheading, or fire. The problem is, those methods will be more difficult to employ because these vampires will be stronger, faster, and probably more cunning than any you’ve encountered before.”

  “Did I mention they have demon minions?” I asked in a breezy tone, attempting to lighten the mood.

  “No, you didn’t. Alec, please be careful. I know I say that every time we speak but I wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t.”

  “I’ll be careful,” I told her.

  “I have to go,” she said. “My dad is tapping on the window. He wants me to go out and join him for tea.”

  “Okay, I’ll call you later when I know more about what it is we have to do to get the faerie queen’s torc.”

  “All right, I look forward to it.”

  “Take care, Felicity.” I ended the call and walked back to the house to give everyone the bad news. The vampires we faced were monsters from ancient times and I had no idea how we were going to beat such powerful creatures to Gloria’s torc and take the faerie forest from them.

  In fact, I had no idea how we were going to stay alive.

  Chapter 13

  “That’s great,” Jim said after I delivered the news. “Just great.”

  We were sitting around the picnic table, waiting for steaks to cook on the barbecue. The smell of sizzling meat drifted enticingly on the warm air, making my mouth water. We each had a bottle of beer on the table in front of us. Gloria hadn’t touched hers but stared at it with a mixture of wonder and wariness.

  “I told you we shouldn’t get involved in this,” I said to Jim. “You thought it’d be a good idea.”

  “Only because I wanted to help you pay off the debt you incurred in Faerie. Nobody mentioned ancient vampires.”

  “If you want to back out now, there are no hard feelings,” I said.

  He screwed up his eyes in disgust. “You know I’d never do that, Alec. I just don’t like being played by this faerie. First she put dreams in my head to get you to come here and then she forgot to mention that the two vampires chasing her have been around since ancient times. It’s typical faerie behavior and we fell for it.”

  “I’m sitting right here,” Gloria said, still staring at her beer. “I can hear everything you’re saying about me.”

  “Good,” Jim said, leaning over the table toward her. “Maybe it’s time you got a dose of truth. Humans aren’t just playthings for you to manipulate when it suits you. We don’t like being controlled.”

  “I haven’t controlled anyone,” Gloria said, looking at Jim. “You acted on the dreams of your own free will. I told you there were two vampires trying to capture me. You didn’t ask me how old they were until later. I’ve done nothing wrong.”

  “What Jim’s trying to say,” Leon told Gloria, “is that maybe you should think about being more forthright from now on. We don’t want any nasty surprises to bite us on the ass.”

  She looked at him, raised an eyebrow, and repeated, “I’ve done nothing wrong.”

  Jim shook his head, left the table, and went over to the barbecue. He began turning the steaks over and muttering to himself.

  “Are you going to drink that beer or just stare at it?” I asked Gloria.

  Her eyes widened and she returned her gaze to the beer in front of her. Condensation was sliding down the brown glass, pooling on the wooden table around the base of the bottle.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I have experienced so little of human food and drink that I’m not sure I’ll like it.”

  “Only one way to find out,” I said.

  Gloria nodded and reached for the beer, bringing the mouth of the bottle to her lips and taking a tiny sip. She swallowed and smiled. “This tastes interesting.” She took another swig, tipping her head back and draining the bottle.

  “You might want to go easy with that,” I said, “especially when you aren’t used to it.”

  Putting the empty bottle on the table, she let out a little burp and laughed. “It’s so delightful.” She reached down to the cooler on the ground, rummaged around in it, and brought out another bottle.

  “Like I said, go easy.” I went over to the barbecue to join Jim. “You okay?” I asked him when I was by his side.

  “Yeah, I’m good, Alec.” He didn’t look at me, choosing instead to watch the cooking meat. “It’s just when I think of all the things we faced, all the times we saved each other’s lives, it would be a shame if we get taken out of the game because a faerie tricked us.”

  I nodded. “I agree. Which is why we’re going to survive this, just like we survived all those other things. If we have to kill a couple of ancient vampires along the way, then so be it.”

  He grinned. “You make it sound so easy.”

  I shrugged. “Maybe it will be. Maybe ancient vampires rely on their reputation to protect them from being attacked. Maybe they’re actually weak and we’ll kill them without breaking a sweat.”

  He laughed. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”

  “Okay, so maybe we can get to Gloria’s torc before the vampires catch up with us.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, maybe, but I doubt it.” Using a meat fork, he took the steaks off the grill and put them onto a plate and gestured with his chin toward the faerie queen. “What do you think of her, Alec? What’s with this ‘Gloria’ persona she’s adopted?”

  “I don’t know. She’s treating this more like a vacation than a life-threatening situation.”

  “Well, that could change if those vamps find us,” Jim said. “Here, take these to the table while I get the salad from the kitchen.”

  I did so, taking my place next to Gloria. She looked at me with glassy eyes and grinned. There were now three empty bottles on the table in front of her.

  I looked over at Leon. “Did she drink all these?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I told her to stop after the third but I think it was too late.”

  Gloria giggled. “I can see now why humans like to eat and drink so much. I don’t have to eat at all, of course, because I’m a faerie, but I like this beer.” She pointed with an unsteady hand at the three empties. “It’s made me feel very relaxed.” She sighed and looked up at the sky. “It’s very nice here.”

  “I think it’s time we introduced you to black coffee,” I said, getting up and heading for the house. To Leon, I said, “Don’t let her have any more beers.”

  “They’re all gone,” he said.

  I went into the kitchen where Jim was supposed to be preparing the salad. But instead of doing that, he was standing stock still in the middle of the room, his face upturned slightly. It looked like he was listening to something.

  I stopped and listened too. Apart from the hum of the refrigerator, the ticking of the kitchen clock, and the sounds of Leon and Gloria talking outside, I couldn’t hear anything.

  Jim held up a hand, telling me not to interrupt him. After a minute passed, marked out by sixty ticks of the clock on the wall, he said, “Someone’s coming. They’ve passed the wards on the road.”

  So he hadn’t been listening at all, he’d been mentally connecting to the wards. Because he lived in a remote area, Jim had placed wards on the road approaching the house. They were low-level, so they didn’t keep out intruders but alerted Jim when anyone with ill-intent went past them.

  I’d considered casting similar wards at the end of my street in Dearmont but the problem with such protection spells was that they
had a loose interpretation of “ill intent.” So, if one of my neighbors decided he didn’t like the guy with the Land Rover and the lawn that sometimes went too long without being mowed, the ward would activate every time that neighbor drove onto the street.

  So I kept my wards around the house itself. It meant I didn’t have an early warning system if someone actually meaning to do me harm was approaching my house but it also meant I wouldn’t get an unsettling feeling in my gut every time the guy who lived across the road came home from work.

  Another advantage Jim had, living out in the woods, was that he could keep a weapon rack in his living room without having to worry that it might be seen by the local Jehovah’s Witnesses or a Girl Scout selling cookies.

  We went to the weapon rack and we each took a sword from it. I grabbed one for Leon, too. We also picked up a crossbow and a quiver of bolts each.

  I opened the screen door and shouted, “Leon, get the shotgun from the Jeep.” Without a second’s hesitation, he ran for the vehicle and opened the trunk.

  Jim and I took the weapons to the picnic table and strapped the swords to our belts. When we were armed, and Leon had come back with the shotgun, I looked at Gloria. “Someone’s coming this way. Jim’s wards flared into life, so it’s someone looking for trouble.”

  She blinked against the sun as if it were too bright. “We should get out of here.” Clambering to her feet, she pointed dramatically at the Jeep and Explorer. “Quickly, to the vehicles.” Then she took a couple of steps forward before falling to the ground and lying there, laughing.

  Leon looked down at her, then at me. “Wow, she really can’t hold her liquor.”

  For a moment, I considered bundling her into the trunk of one of the vehicles. At least she’d be out of our way.

  We waited, standing in the mid-afternoon heat, hands on the hilts of our swords, ready to draw them at the first sign of trouble.

  “You hear that?” Leon whispered.

  “What?” I asked. All I could hear was Gloria rolling around on the ground, giggling to herself.

  “A car,” Leon said.

  “I hear it too,” Jim said.

  Gloria scrambled to her feet and sat down at the picnic table again. “That wasn’t a good idea. I’ll just stay right here.”

  The sound of the car got louder as the vehicle got closer. When it came into view and parked at the side of the house, I let out a relieved sigh. It was the green Chevy Tahoe that Frasier and Girard drove.

  The two detectives got out of the vehicle and came across the lawn toward us. There was a purposeful determination in Girard’s stride but his face was unreadable.

  “Well, that explains the wards,” Jim said. “Girard has never liked me.” He put on a false smile and said to Girard, “How can I help you, detective?”

  “Cut the crap, Walker. If you know something about those killings, I want to hear it.”

  Jim shrugged. “I thought you didn’t believe in monsters?”

  “Oh, I believe in monsters,” Girard said, “I’ve met plenty of them. And every one of them was human. Now, if you know who killed those people on the trails, I want that information. Otherwise, I’m going to arrest you and your friends here for obstructing a peace officer.”

  “That term doesn’t apply to you,” Jim said. “You aren’t exactly a peaceful guy, Girard.”

  “Says the guy with a sword strapped to his belt. What the hell is going on here, anyway? Some kind of role-playing?”

  “It isn’t any of your business,” Jim said.

  Girard went up to Jim and stood in front of him, hands on hips, his sports jacket open just enough to show the butt of his sidearm. “I’ll tell you what is my business, Walker: murder. This is a murder case and you can’t just declare it solved and expect us to forget about it. Who’s the murderer? Where’s the evidence?”

  “You want to see the evidence? I’ll show you on a map where it is. You can see for yourself.”

  Girard snorted. “I’m not going into the backcountry to look for Bigfoot, so forget about it. I want answers here and now. So start talking.”

  “Like I told you, Girard…” Jim stopped, his voice fading away. He held up a hand as if telling everyone to be quiet. Everyone complied, even Girard. After a couple of seconds, Jim said, “The wards. Something just went past them.”

  “Don’t try to pull that crap on me,” Girard said. “We’re going to sit down and you’re going to tell me what you know about this murder case. I don’t want to hear about flying monsters, ghosts, or trolls. And I…” He paused, turning his attention to the house and the woods beyond. “What’s that noise?”

  I heard it too, a rustling coming through the trees, as if dozens of people were rushing through the woods toward the house.

  Gloria, who had been sitting quietly at the table, looked up with fearful eyes and said, “They’re here.”

  Chapter 14

  They came swarming over the roof of Jim’s house, dozens of red-skinned demons with hatred burning in their flame-yellow eyes. Some of them had horns, some flew on bat-like wings. All of them brandished weapons: axes, swords, wickedly-spiked maces, and cruel-looking whips.

  I loaded my crossbow. I couldn’t see how we could win against so many of them but wasn’t going down without a fight.

  Girard stared open-mouthed and wide-eyed at the demonic invaders and muttered. “What. The. Fuck?” His hand went to his gun and he fumbled it from its holster with shaking hands.

  Frasier seemed less perturbed than Girard and was already crouching in a firing stance, her gun held steady in both hands.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Leon bring the shotgun up to his shoulder, then heard the loud report as he pulled the trigger. A demon that had been crawling down the side of the house dropped to the ground.

  The noise seemed to shock Girard awake. He began firing indiscriminately at the demons, his eyes still wide with disbelief.

  I loosed a bolt at a winged demon that was swooping toward us and caught it in the neck, sending it spinning into the wall of the house. It slid down the wall and lay dead by the porch steps.

  The stench of sulfur filled the air. It invaded my lungs and made me want to puke, but I held it together and fired at a second demon, this one dashing across the lawn toward Gloria. The bolt pierced its chest and the demon stumbled before sprawling on the grass. It landed at Frasier’s feet and she put a bullet through its head to make sure it was dead.

  “There are too many of them!” Jim shouted. “We need to get out of here!”

  We made a dash for the vehicles. I abandoned the crossbow and drew my sword, its blue glow lighting the air around me. I looked over at Gloria, who was standing by the table and watching the demons swarm over the house, and told her, “Get behind me. Stay with me.”

  She nodded and came over to me, weaving slightly.

  I pointed at the Explorer. “We’re going that way.” I stepped forward as a tall, heavily-muscled demon approached with a hand ax. It swung it at me and I ducked, hearing the blade whistle through the air above my head. I lunged forward and drove my sword into its belly. The demon roared in pain. I used my boot to kick him backward into one of his companions, freeing my sword so I could swing it at a winged demon that seemed hell-bent on catching Gloria. It swooped down to grab her as I swung the blade up at its body.

  The blade bit into the demon’s side and lodged between its ribs. I arced the sword, with the demon still attached, over my head and toward the table, slamming the winged creature through the wood. The picnic table splintered, empty bottles smashing into each other, the steaks landing on top of the dead demon’s body.

  I removed my sword from its body and made a dash for the Explorer. Gloria was ahead of me, staggering toward the vehicle. She tripped and went sprawling headlong into the dirt. She cried out and I wasn’t sure if it was from pain or fear.

  One of the demons on the roof took the opportunity to leap down beside her and scoop her into its arms. It glared at m
e with a look of triumphant hatred and grinned.

  Then its head jerked back and the demon fell to the ground, Gloria scrambling out of its arms.

  Frasier appeared beside me, reloading her gun.

  “Good shot,” I said.

  “We can discuss marksmanship later,” she replied, aiming her newly-loaded weapon at a demon by the Jeep and taking it down with a head shot. She walked steadily over to the Jeep, gun raised to eye level and held in both hands.

  Gloria was opening the door of the Explorer, clambering onto the back seat. I ran over, slid behind the wheel, and started the engine. As it roared to life, I looked back at the melee by the house.

  Leon was sprinting for the Explorer, shotgun discarded and sword in hand. I leaned across and opened the passenger door for him. Jim was heading for the Jeep, where Frasier was already in the passenger seat and shooting out of the window. Girard was close behind Leon, turning every so often to fire at the mass of red bodies swarming from the lawn toward the vehicles.

  I heard the Jeep’s engine start and then Jim backed away from the house, swinging the vehicle in a tight arc so it pointed at the road. Frasier was still firing from the passenger-side window, blowing away demons with expert precision.

  Leon got in next to me, breathing hard. “Let’s go,” he panted.

  “We’ve got one more passenger to collect,” I said, gesturing to Girard.

  The detective was on one knee, picking his targets from the horde of demons and taking them down with steady, controlled shots.

  “Girard, move your ass!” I shouted at him.

  He didn’t seem to hear me and I wasn’t sure if that was because he was too far away or because he was in shock. The appearance of the demons had shattered his worldview; a worldview that he’d seemed to believe in unwaveringly. He’d just been shown that the preternatural world he’d denied so strongly was real. His mind would take some time to adjust to this new reality.