Dead Ground (Harbinger P.I. Book 4)

by Adam J. Wright

  “Okay,” she said, “I believe you.”

  I gave her a reassuring smile and went over to Gloria. “How’s it going?”

  She opened her eyes and let out a sigh. “My power is returning slowly. I need my torc. I can’t go on much longer like this. This must be what it feels like to be human.”

  “Where is the torc, anyway?” I asked her.

  “Hidden.”

  “Yeah, I know that, but since you’re taking us to the place where it’s hidden, you might as well tell me where it is.”

  She thought about it for a moment and then said, “I suppose so. If it were anyone else asking me the question, I might refuse, but I’ve watched you, Alec Harbinger. You’re a plain-speaking, honest man. You wouldn’t betray me and take the torc for yourself.”

  “No, I wouldn’t,” I said truthfully.

  “The torc has been hidden in many places over time,” she said, “but the last place I hid it was in England.”

  “England? So what are doing here in Canada?”

  “I told you, my escape routes were limited. And at the time I hid the portal, there was no Canada or America.”

  “You hid it a long time ago?”

  “Yes, a long time ago in your human reckoning, she said. “It was a time when the people of that land and the people of my realm, the faeries, were quite close. They communed with us frequently and wrote stories and songs and poems about us. The land was mostly forest save for a few towns and villages and my people--who frolicked among the trees and springs--were seen as guardians of the wilderness by the people who lived in those places.

  “It was during this time that I gave the torc to my sister Vivian, the Lady of the Lake. She doesn’t live in Faerie—she’s bound to your realm—and her task is to guard items of power. So she was the perfect choice to guard my torc.”

  “Okay,” I said, “so where is your sister?”

  “She resides in a lake on Bodmin Moor. Are you familiar with Cornwall?”

  “Not really,” I admitted.

  “A lovely place. There are kings and queens and knights and everyone believes in magic and the faerie people.”

  I arched a skeptical eyebrow at her. “It sounds like you’re talking about the Middle Ages. Do you really think the torc will still be where you left it?”

  “I told you, it’s protected by my sister! I wish I hadn’t said anything now. I tell you the truth, yet you still question me.”

  I held up my hands in an effort to placate her. “Hey, I was only asking a question. If you don’t want to talk about it, fine. I’ll leave you alone for a while so you can build up enough power to get us out of here. As I walked away, I added, “And get over yourself.”

  “Alec, wait, I’m sorry,” Gloria said in a whiny tone. “Come back, please.”

  I went back over to her and said, “Are you going to play nice now?”

  But she was ignoring me, looking over at the cave mouth and the forest beyond. When she turned her face back to me, I saw the wide, terrified look in her eyes. “They’re here,” she said. “They found us.”

  Chapter 18

  Felicity was worry-stricken. She hadn’t heard from Alec for three days now and she was sure something was very wrong. She’d left dozens of messages and sent him twice as many texts but he’d gone silent.

  She’d even tried ringing the office phone on the off-chance that he might be there but that had just rung and then gone to the answering machine.

  Now, as she paced her parents’ patio, unable to sit still because of the nervous energy she felt, she wondered if she should get a flight back to Maine. If Alec was in some sort of trouble and turned up in Dearmont, he might need her and she’d be no good to him here in England.

  She looked out over the countryside. Evening was approaching, darkening the surrounding fields and trees and turning the sky a dull red. In the distance, a flock of starlings appeared as a black, swirling cloud and cried out as they found their roost for the night.

  Felicity’s phone rang and she grabbed it from her jeans pocket and inspected the screen. The number it displayed was unknown to her. “Hello?”

  The man on the other end of the line had a slight German accent. “Miss Lake, this is Hans Lieben from the Society. I’m calling about Alec Harbinger.”

  She didn’t want to tell this man—a total stranger—that Alec was missing, so she kept her cool and simply said, “Yes?”

  “Do you know where he is, Miss Lake? I have received a message that he wishes me to call him but I cannot reach him.”

  “No, I’m not sure,” Felicity said. She didn’t know if she could confide in this man or not. He said he was from the Society but she had no proof of that. And the Society still had Midnight Cabal spies within its ranks so even if Hans Lieben was telling the truth, it didn’t mean Felicity should trust him.

  There was a pause on the other end of the line and then Lieben said, “It is very important that I speak with Alec as soon as possible. Could you please ask him to contact me as a matter of urgency?”

  “I thought you said he left a message for you to call him,” Felicity said.

  “That is true, yes. He wished to speak to me regarding his father. I have information on the matter that I wish to talk to Alec about.”

  “What is it?” Felicity asked, her curiosity piqued. “I’m not sure when Alec will be able to get back to you but you can tell me the information, if you like, and I’ll pass it on to him.”

  There was another pause and then Lieben said, “Very well, I will speak to you, Miss Lake, but not like this, not over the phone. Perhaps we can meet somewhere?”

  Alarm bells went off in Felicity’s head. She had no idea who this man was and meeting him could be dangerous. But, on the other hand, it wasn’t as if she had anything that Lieben wanted; she had no idea where Alec was any more than he did. So even if Lieben was working for the bad guys, Felicity couldn’t let slip any information that could put Alec in danger.

  And what if Lieben was one of the good guys? Felicity owed it to Alec to get whatever information she could out of Lieben since Alec wasn’t here to do it himself.

  “All right,” she said, “I’ll meet you. But where? Are you in London?”

  “Not at the moment. I’m currently in Plymouth. You are quite close by, I believe, in Sussex.”

  “How did you..?” She was going to ask him how he knew where she was but then remembered that there were many ways the Society could track her. Unlike Alec, she didn’t have tattoos that protected her from location spells or scrying. “Never mind,” she said, “where would you like to meet?”

  “I can get my driver to bring me to you,” he suggested.

  Felicity decided that whether Hans Lieben was a good guy or not, she didn’t want him coming to her parents’ house. She wanted to choose the location of the meeting herself and make sure it was in a crowded, public place. “That isn’t really convenient,” she said, “and I don’t want to drive all the way to Plymouth so perhaps we could meet somewhere in the middle? How about Exeter? There’s a coffee shop there called Fresh Grounds. Do you know it?” She’d been there a few times with her mother. Even though the city was a three-hour drive away, they’d made that drive on numerous occasions to visit Exeter’s gothic cathedral and spend the rest of the day shopping.

  “No,” Lieben said, “but I’m sure I can find it.”

  “Tomorrow then,” she said. “Shall we say one-thirty?” That would give her plenty of time to make the drive.

  “Very well, Miss Lake. I shall see you then.” He hung up.

  Felicity put her phone away and went into the house. Her parents were in the living room watching Midsomer Murders and didn’t notice her go up to her room. She decided not to disturb them. She’d tell them in the morning that she was going to Exeter.

  When she got to her room, she lay on the bed and tried Alec’s number again but her call went straight to voicemail as usual.

  Alec,” she whispered into the darkness,
“where are you?”

  Chapter 19

  I told the others to prepare for an attack and hefted my backpack over my shoulders in case we needed to make a quick exit. When the pack was situated firmly on my back, I drew my sword. Jim, Leon, and Girard had done the same. The blue glow from the blades lit up the cave. Frasier was crouched in a firing stance, her gun pointed at the forest.

  “What is it?” I asked Gloria. “What’s coming?”

  “The name is Davos,” came a cold voice from the shadows beneath the trees. A tall, thin man dressed in a dark suit and red tie stepped forward slightly. He had long, straight, black hair that reached down below his shoulders. When he reached the edge of the shadows, he stopped. “The sunlight in this realm doesn’t affect me quite so adversely as that in our own but I prefer to remain here if that’s all right with you.”

  “That’s fine with me,” I said. “You can stay there all day for all I care.”

  He flashed me a predatory grin. “Now, Mr. Harbinger, is that any way to greet a new acquaintance? And all of these weapons that you and your friends are brandishing are quite unnecessary.”

  “You’re no acquaintance of mine,” I told him. “I know who you work for.”

  “I don’t work for anyone,” he corrected me. “I work with the Midnight Cabal. Working with them suits my needs, that is all. Now, speaking of working with people, perhaps you’d like to work with me and hand over the faerie.” He pointed a long finger at Gloria, who shrank back against the cave wall, fear written in her face and posture.

  “I can’t do that,” I told Davos. “I’m sworn to protect her.”

  He chuckled. It was a dry, rustling sound, like dead leaves falling onto a grave. “And I thought chivalry died long ago. You’re a Society-man through and through, Alec Harbinger. You must have inherited that from your father.”

  “Leave my father out of this. You came here for the faerie queen, and I’m telling you I’m sworn to protect her. So either leave or make your move.” Even as I said the words, I realized I was calling out an ancient vampire. Not a wise move. But I refused to show fear to this creature.

  Davos looked amused. “You certainly have spirit, Alec. But I tire of this conversation. We both know I can take the faerie whenever I want to. I’m simply trying to avoid bloodshed.”

  “A vampire trying to avoid bloodshed,” I said. “That’s the first time I’ve heard that one.”

  “Don’t be so cynical,” he said. “I have reasons for not wanting to spill your blood but I will do so if there is no alternative.”

  “You’re all heart,” I said. But my bravado was hiding something else: fear for my friends. They’d been drawn into this because of my bargain with Gloria and because of that, I felt responsible for their lives. As far as I could see, there was only one way for us to get out of here and that was through the dark tunnel at the rear of the cave, into the Shadow Land.

  That might put us in even more danger but facing an ancient vampire here and now, without the proper weapons or equipment, was a death sentence.

  Besides, maybe the Shadow Land wasn’t all that bad. Gloria was terrified of the place but she had a tendency to over-dramatize everything.

  I said to the others, “I’ll hold him off for as long as I can while you guys make a run for it. Get to the tunnel.”

  “No,” Gloria said, “I can’t go in there. Don’t make me.”

  “You either go in there or you face the vampire,” I told her.

  Her eyes turned reluctantly to the darkness at the back of the cave, then back to me, and I wondered if she might actually be considering staying here and facing Davos.

  But Jim took her arm and led her back there. Frasier and Girard followed.

  Leon hesitated. “Are you coming too, man?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be there in a minute,” I said. “Now, go.”

  He went.

  Leaving me to face the ancient vampire alone.

  “Alec,” Davos said, “how long do you think you can you keep running? Do you really think you and your ragtag group of friends have any hope against the Midnight Cabal? The reason Korax, Damalis, and I are working with them is because they’re going to win this war and become the most powerful organization in the world. Your Society of Shadows will be nothing more than dust in the dark wind. You can’t fight us. You’re nothing more than a minor annoyance, a bug to be swatted away and then forgotten.”

  “I’d rather be a minor annoyance than no annoyance at all,” I told him.

  He smiled coldly. “That’s the trouble with people like you; you don’t dream big. You content yourself with a pathetic, short life and tell yourself that you’re making a difference somehow, making other people’s pathetic, short lives better. Your altruism sickens me. Why not take life by the throat and throttle every last gasp out of it for yourself?”

  “And be like you?” I asked. “Work for the Midnight Cabal and try to put humanity back into a state of superstition and fear?”

  “Yes, make them fear us. Do you know what it’s like to be feared? Do you know how powerful it makes you?”

  “You’re nothing but a group of bullies,” I said. “You have an inflated sense of self-importance and need to force others to fear you to make yourselves feel good. And you say my life is pathetic?” I forced a laugh of disdain out of my throat, hoping my stalling had given the others enough time to cross over into the Shadow Land, because I was getting ready to make a run for it myself.

  Davos wasn’t affected by my insults—I was sure he’d heard much worse in three-and-a-half thousand years of existence—but it felt good to tell him what I really thought of him and the organization he worked for.

  He grinned. “Alec, you stand there insulting things of which you have no comprehension and yet the most insulting thing is that you think I don’t know what you’re doing. There is only one reason a fly speaks to a spider and that is to delay the inevitable. You believe that even as we stand here conversing, your friends are escaping into the Shadow Land.” He laughed. It was a thin sound like a cold breeze blowing across a graveyard. “You are mistaken.”

  I heard a noise behind me and turned to see Gloria, Jim, Frasier, and Girard being led out of the shadows by demons, their hands restrained behind their backs. Their weapons were in the arms of one of the demons.

  When I turned back to face Davos, he was suddenly standing right in front of me. I stepped back reflexively, swinging the sword at him, not really aiming at any part of him in particular, just taking a wild swing.

  He side-stepped the blade and moved forward so fast I wasn’t aware of his attack until I felt his cold hand around my throat. He looked into my eyes with a malevolent glare. I looked away, not because I was afraid of him but because I couldn’t let him glamor me.

  Davos lifted me off the ground with one hand and took my sword from me with the other. As my weapon clattered to the ground, I fought against the vampire with my arms and legs, kicking at him and struggling in his grasp, grabbing his hand with my own and trying to tear it from my throat so I could breathe, but he was too strong and my efforts were wasted.

  His mouth curled into a snarl. “After existing for millennia, few things give me pleasure anymore. Killing you might give me some satisfaction but it would be brief and soon would be no more than a pleasant memory. But I know the type of man you are, Alec, and I know that making you live with the knowledge that you failed to protect someone is a far worse punishment than merely killing you.”

  He threw me into the shadows and, as the cold blackness enveloped me, I heard Davos say, “Enjoy your nightmares.”

  Chapter 20

  Blackness totally engulfed me for a second and then I landed on my back in a dark forest. I scrambled to my feet and looked around.

  Behind me, there was a sheer rock face and a dark tunnel that I’d just been thrown from, the tunnel between here and Faerie. I ran back into it, not sure what I hoped to achieve with no weapons, but unwilling to leave my friends in the clu
tches of Davos and his demons.

  But the tunnel only went so far before terminating in a natural stone wall. There was no portal back to Faerie. After throwing me through, Davos had sealed it somehow.

  I stalked out of the cave and into the trees, suddenly aware of how cold it was here. Gloria had said the Shadow Land was a place of never-ending winter and it looked like she was right about that. Where orbs of light floated in the Faerie forest, here there were flakes of snow drifting on a cold wind. The sky was a deep, gloomy blue that was shot through with gray snow-clouds.

  An urgent, whispered voice came from the trees. “Alec!”

  I looked in the direction of the sound and saw Leon coming toward me. He seemed relieved to see me. “I thought I was here alone,” he said. “When the demons attacked, I got separated from the others.” He looked around. “Where is everybody?”

  “The demons caught them and took them back to Faerie,” I told him. “Davos sealed the way back. We’re going to have to find another way out of here.”

  “I hear that,” Leon said, shooting a nervous glance at the forest around us. “And the sooner the better. This place gives me the creeps.”

  “Me too,” I agreed. “Gloria said it was a place of nightmares and it definitely has a nightmarish quality about it. Let’s just hope we don’t run into the boogeyman. We don’t have any weapons.”

  “Yeah, I lost my sword somewhere,” Leon said.

  “The demons will have picked it up,” I told him. “No point worrying about it now. Let’s find a way out of here.”

  He nodded. “Any idea which direction we should try?”

  “I don’t think it matters. From what Gloria said, I don’t think the usual laws of time and space apply here. Parts of this realm are formed from nightmares so the place is probably fluid, like thought. There might not be any static locations.”