Dead Ground (Harbinger P.I. Book 4)

by Adam J. Wright

  “It’s like a divining rod,” Felicity said.

  “Yeah, and I bet I know what it’s pointing at. It’s obviously connected to Gloria. Let’s put it on the dash in the Volvo and see where it takes us. We’ll find Gloria and the others by faerie GPS.”

  Chapter 24

  I put the swords in the trunk while Felicity got into the Volvo and placed the torc on the dash. A silvery quality to the night air told me the moon was out even though I couldn’t see it through the mist. When I got into the Volvo, the torc was pointing west across Bodmin Moor, toward the coast.

  “I can’t just drive over the moor,” Felicity said. “I’ll have to find the proper roads to get us where we want to go.” She turned the Volvo around and drove back along the track toward the road. The torc revolved on the dash, pointing behind us until Felicity got onto the road and did a U-turn to point us in the right direction.

  As we headed west, the torc didn’t move. I put the heating on full blast; maybe we’d manage to dry off before we had to go out into the rain again.

  “This must be the right direction,” Felicity said. “Since the torc seems to be pointing directly at Gloria as the crow flies, what’s dead ahead of us?” She pointed at the glove compartment. “My dad keeps a road map in there.”

  I opened the glove compartment and got the map book out, turning on the overhead light and leafing through the book until I found Bodmin Moor. I found the road we were on and traced my finger across the page in a westerly direction. “There’s nothing but fields, then cliffs and a beach.”

  “Maybe there’s a cave in the cliffs,” Leon suggested. “The vamps would have had to stay out of the sun while they waited for it to set. A cave would be ideal.”

  “Yeah, it would,” I agreed.

  Felicity nodded. “I’ll head for the cliffs unless the torc suddenly changes direction.”

  I turned off the overhead light but kept the map book on my lap in case it was needed again. Half an hour later, we reached a coastal road that ran north to south. On the other side of the road, the tops of the cliffs were visible in the headlights and, beyond that, the lights of boats twinkling over the dark sea.

  The torc pointed directly out at them.

  “Maybe they’re not on the beach,” I said. “Maybe they’re on a boat.”

  Felicity drove across the coastal road and parked the Volvo on the cliff top. “We’ll need to find a way down there whether they’re on the beach or a boat.”

  We got out of the car and got the swords out of the back. Leaving them in their scabbards so their enchanted glow didn’t give us away, we walked along the rain-swept cliffs, looking for a way down to the beach. There was no mist here and the sky was starlit, with a half-moon shining down on us.

  When we found a steep, rock-strewn path that cut through the cliff and descended to the beach below, we took it, and ten minutes later we were standing on a wide stretch of sand. The sea crashed onto the beach with the rhythm of a heartbeat. The air tasted salty.

  I looked out to sea, then at the torc resting on Felicity’s open palm. It pointed southeast.

  “Looks like they are on a boat after all,” Leon said.

  I thought about it and then shook my head. “No, I don’t think so. The torc points in Gloria’s direction but it doesn’t give any indication of how far away she is. Think about where we are on a map of the world. This is the southeast coast of England. If you traveled that way,” I pointed out to sea in a south-easterly direction, “where would you end up?”

  “France, if you went far enough,” Felicity said.

  “And beyond that?” I asked.

  “Italy.”

  “A little farther,” I said.

  She though for a moment then said, “Greece.”

  I nodded. “Most vamps have a nostalgic connection to the place they called home before they were turned, the place they lived their life. It would make sense for ancient Greek vampires to have a lair somewhere in Greece, probably on Crete or one of the islands surrounding it.”

  “So you think that’s where they’re holding Jim and the others,” Leon said. He nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

  “I can do some research,” Felicity said. “See if there are any islands with old dwellings on them that might serve as a vampire lair. But even if we find out exactly where they are, how are we going to get there?”

  “The same way Leon and I got here,” I said.

  Chapter 25

  Felicity drove us back inland and found a place to park the Volvo near the stone circle. We all got out and I slung the duffel bag over my shoulder. The Hurlers Stone Circle was an eerie place at night, surrounded by mist. As we walked among the stones, I got out my phone and called Victoria Blackwell.

  She answered immediately. “Alec,” she said gleefully. “How nice to hear from you so soon.”

  “We need an exit,” I said, quoting The Matrix.

  “Of course,” she said. “Are you in the same stone circle?”

  “Yes,” I said. “There are three of us now.”

  “That’s not a problem,” she said. “Devon and I will begin the spell immediately.”

  We waited. After a couple of minutes, the air within the stone circle seemed to become electric. I felt the hairs on my arms bristle. There seemed to be a humming coming from the stones themselves, and the faint blue light whirling around us like a tornado. The light became more vivid and bright until it filled my vision and I could see nothing else. Then, it faded just as quickly as it had grown in intensity and we were standing in the back room of Blackwell books again. There was a strong smell of incense in the air. Victoria and Devon was standing by the altar, beaming at us.

  “We’re so glad you’re back safely,” Victoria said, “and you brought Felicity too. How nice.”

  “Yeah, your spell works like a charm,” I said.

  Victoria looked at me with confusion in her eyes. “It isn’t a charm, Alec, it’s a translocation spell that is hundreds of years old.”

  “Figure of speech,” I said. Then I thought better of trying to explain it to her and added, “Never mind. We may need you to send us somewhere else soon. Will you be able to do that?”

  “Of course,” Victoria said, “just let us know when you’re ready to travel again.”

  “I will,” I told her. “Thanks for your help.”

  We left the back room and went through the shop to the street where the Land Rover was parked. When we got in and I started the engine, I looked over at Blackwell Books and saw the sisters standing in the window waving at us. Felicity waved back and as she did so, she asked me, “What did you have to promise them this time?”

  “Nothing,” I said, “because this time we were helping them by being their lab rats.”

  Her dark eyes widened with surprise. “You mean they haven’t cast that spell before?”

  “That’s right,” I told her. “We’re the first people to travel that way in a long time and I don’t think the sisters were sure it was going to work.” I pulled away from the curb and headed for home.

  Chapter 26

  When we got back to my house, I went into the kitchen to grab three beers from the fridge and order a pizza. Felicity took a seat on the sofa in the living room with my laptop on the coffee table in front of her, her fingers flying over the keyboard. The torc sat on the table near the computer, resolutely pointing east.

  Leon was on his cellphone trying to get Michael to postpone the rest of his vacation and come help us on the rescue mission. From the snatches of conversation I caught, it sounded like Leon was promising to make up the vacation time to Michael by letting him take it at a later date. I didn't think he was going to have a problem convincing his butler to join us because Michael seemed like the type of guy who thrived on action, much like Leon himself.

  When I'd ordered the pizza and opened the beers, I went into the living room and sat down next to Felicity “How's it going?" I asked.

  "It may take some time to sort t
hrough all the documents relating to the properties on the Greek islands around Crete," she said “but I'm sure I'll find something leads us to the vampires."

  "I know you will," I said. "I have every faith in you."

  She smiled at me but I detected coldness in it. No, not coldness but an emotional distance, as if she were putting up an unseen barrier between us.

  I guessed that was totally understandable; her father had recently had a heart attack and was still recovering. Felicity probably thought that she should be still in England caring for him and not stuck on my living room sofa researching vampires, a job that she could have done just as easily from her parents’ house.

  “Listen,” I said. “When we came back through the portal, I just assumed you’d want to come with us. I didn’t think that you might want to go back to Sussex. I’m sorry.”

  She looked surprised for a moment. “What? No, I wanted to come. I want to be part of this.” She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “Anyway, I’m assuming the witches will be able to send me back afterward.”

  “Of course they will,” I said, feeling relieved that I hadn’t forced her here against her will but still confused by the distance I felt between us.

  “Alec, there's something I need to tell you," she said. “The reason I was in Exeter was because I went there to meet a man named Hans Lieben from the society." "

  "Lieben,” I said. "I've been trying to contact him. Some of the messages on my phone are probably from him but I haven't had a chance to check them yet."

  "He has some information for you," Felicity said. "He told me that your father disappeared on purpose and that the last thing he was investigating before his disappearance was your mother's death. Don’t you find that strange?”

  “Not really. I was asking him about the car accident recently. I wanted to know if he genuinely thought my mother’s death was accidental and not a murder, which my recent memories seem to suggest. As far as I could tell, he believed the accident story. Maybe my questions prompted him to look into is a little deeper.”

  “But then why did he disappear?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s something I’ll have to ask him when he contacts me.”

  “Do you think he will? Contact you, I mean.”

  “If he uncovers some new information about my mother’s death, I’m sure he will. At least, I hope so.”

  Felicity nodded and pointed at the laptop. “I should get back to this.”

  “Yeah,” I said, putting a beer on the table in front of her and getting up. “I’ll see if Leon has convinced Michael to help us.”

  I found Leon on the kitchen, putting his phone in his pocket.

  “Any luck?” I asked, handing him a beer.

  He nodded. “Yeah, Michael is glad to help. He should be here soon.”

  “Great. We’re going to need all the help we can get if we’re going to storm the vampires’ lair.”

  Leon took a swig of beer. “That’s assuming Felicity can find it. Those guys have had hundreds of years experience of covering their tracks.”

  “She’ll find it,” I said.

  As if on cue, Felicity called from the living room, “I think I’ve found it.”

  We went over to the sofa to see what she’d discovered.

  “There’s an island called Dia,” she said. “It’s close to Santorini, which is where a volcano erupted three and a half thousand years ago and caused the catastrophe that some scholars think wiped out the Minoans. There’s a ruined village on the island of Dia and also,” she turned the laptop so Leon and I could see the screen, “this mansion.”

  The mansion was built on the cliffs, overlooking the sea and other islands in the distance. Built of stone with huge windows to capture the views, it didn’t look like the kind of place vampires would choose to live.

  “Those windows are very big,” I said. “Not exactly the preferred architectural style for vampires who go crispy in the sunlight.”

  “There are legend surrounding this island,” Felicity said. “The local sailors won’t go near it. They say the residents only come out at night. The village on the island has been in ruins since it was apparently destroyed by monsters that decimated the residents during the course of a single night three hundred years ago. As for the windows on the mansion, look a bit closer at the picture.”

  I leaned in and nodded. “This is definitely the place.” The windows were fitted with steel shutters on the inside and all those shutters were closed, blocking out every last ray of sunshine. “Felicity, can you check if there was a church in that village? If so, the Blackwell sisters can get us there.”

  She nodded and turned the laptop back around so she could see the screen. Her fingers flew over the keyboard again.

  The pizza arrived and I went to the door to pay the delivery guy. As he was leaving, a blue Ford Bronco pulled up outside the house and Michael got out. “Good afternoon, sir,” he said when he saw me.

  “Hi, Michael. Thanks for cutting your vacation short.”

  “Not a problem, sir. I’m always willing to help however I can.” He followed me into the house and said hello to Leon and Felicity.

  “Did you bring the shotguns?” Leon asked him.

  “Of course, sir.”

  I put the pizzas on the coffee table and opened the boxes. The house suddenly smelled of melted cheese and pepperoni. I got Michael a beer from the fridge and the four of us sat around the coffee table eating and drinking.

  “I’ve found a church on the island,” Felicity said. She was eating but put up a hand to cover her mouth while she spoke. “There’s nothing left of it except for a couple of walls, though.”

  “That’s fine,” I said. “As long as it’s hallowed ground, the transportation spell should work.”

  I called Victoria Blackwell. “Hey,” I said when she answered. “We need to get to a Greek island called Dia. There’s an old, ruined church there.” I heard her relate the information to Devon.

  “We’re just looking it up now, Alec,” she said. “How is everything else? All right? How were the sweaters?”

  “Great. They kept us very warm.”

  “Well, that is good. You and Leon can keep them, you know. Consider them a gift from us.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  Devon said something in the background and then Victoria said, “Yes, we can get you to that island. Isn’t our spell wonderful?”

  “It is,” I said. “You’ll be helping a lot of people. Some of our friends are being held in a vampire lair on that island.”

  “Oh? Anyone we know? It’s not your friend Mallory is it? Or that lovely deputy, Amy Cantrell?”

  “No, it isn’t them. One of my old colleagues, a couple of Canadian cops, and a faerie queen.”

  She gasped. “A faerie queen? Which one?”

  “I don’t know. She goes by the title Lady of the Forest. At the moment, she’s calling herself Gloria, but I know that isn’t her real name.”

  “The Lady of the Forest!” Victoria said excitedly. In the background, I heard Devon give a whoop of excitement.

  “You know her?” I asked.

  “No, not personally, but we invoke her name sometimes when we do faerie magic. You say she’s in danger?”

  “That’s right. We’re going to go rescue her from some vampires and demons.”

  “Well, come over right away. Whenever you’re ready.”

  “Thanks. I was thinking we’d wait until midnight. That way, because of the time difference between here and Crete, we’d arrive at sunrise.”

  “Ah, yes, of course,” she said. “Hit the vampires during daylight. Well, we’ll be here at midnight, ready to send you on your way.”

  “Thanks.” I ended the call and turned to the others. “It seems the Blackwell sisters are a little star struck where Gloria is concerned. Anyway, they can get us onto the island.”

  “Do we have a plan after that, sir?” Michael asked.

  I shrugged
. “Not really. We need to get into that house and find Gloria and the others. I’d planned to take the torc to her and give it to her there so she could help us blast our way out of there but I think that’s too risky. No need to take the torc right to our enemy’s door. We’ll leave it in the Land Rover and give it to Gloria when we get back to the bookshop.”

  “So we’re going to hit them head-on?” Leon asked.

  “I don’t really see that we have much of a choice. We can try to get in using stealth, sure, but once we’re discovered, it’s going to turn real nasty real quick. We don’t know how many demons are in there. Not to mention the two ancient vampires; Korax and Damalis. We’re going to have a battle on our hands.”

  “You can take out the vamps the same way you took out Davos,” Leon suggested.

  “Maybe,” I said, “but it’s risky. I have to expend nearly all of my energy to do it and I can’t predict how long it will take before the life-force regeneration thing happens. And what if one of you guys is too close at the time? We can’t rely on my magic as a viable strategy. We’re going to have to go old school and that means wooden stakes and decapitation.”

  Turning to Leon and Michael, I said, “I’ve got some shotgun cartridges that have wood mixed in with the metal shot. We can load the shotguns with those.”

  “And swords,” Felicity said. “We need to take swords. Cutting off a vampire’s head is a tried and true method of destroying it.”

  “We’ll take swords,” I said. “Let’s finish the pizza and get the weapons ready. We’ve got a date with two ancient creatures that aren’t going to die easily.”

  Chapter 27

  We arrived at Blackwell Books at midnight. The sisters were waiting for us inside the door and when they saw us, they both smiled widely.

  “There are four of us this time,” I explained to the witches as Felicity, Leon, Michael, and I piled through the door with our weapons. “That won’t be a problem will it?”