Of Fire and Storm: Piper Lancaster Series #2

by D. G. Swank

  “I wish I could,” I said, “but I have to leave for an appointment. You’ll be in good hands with Jack and the detective, and I’ll give you my number. Feel free to call or text me anytime.” I pulled out my phone and she gave me her number.

  I sent her a text saying, This is Piper Lancaster. I’m only a phone call or text away. Then I gave her a hug and stood. “I better go before I’m late.”

  Jack stood too. “Piper. A word.”

  “Sure.”

  He followed me down to the bottom of the steps.

  Jack wasn’t the only one who wanted a word. “Are you calling Olivia Powell?”

  He looked off-balance as he said, “How did you know?”

  “Lucky guess. Have you been in contact with her?”

  He hesitated. “She was good to you with that whole mess with Gill. Nonjudgmental. I thought maybe she’d be understanding. Mostly it’s a hunch…” He shrugged. “I asked her if she could get me more information about the murders in Durham and the botanical gardens incident in Manteo.”

  My eyebrows practically shot up to my hairline. “And she didn’t think that was suspicious?” I caught a glimpse of Autumn and stopped myself from continuing. This was not the time or place for this conversation. “We need to get more information about what Lars was doing and where he went before the change. You’re going to stay with her for the interview, right?” I asked. “You can collect more information while you listen.”

  His eyes darkened. “That’s not why I’m staying, Piper.”

  I sighed. “I know that, Jack. You are a genuinely good person. I’m just saying that you’re here anyway, so you might hear information that could help us too.”

  He pushed out a sigh and turned to the side, clearly frustrated. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s just that this feels personal. I know Autumn. I’ve been her pastor for three years. Do you think someone targeted her intentionally?”

  “I guess we can’t be sure right now, but with everything that’s happened in the last few weeks…all those gruesome murders, then Lars’s abrupt personality transformation and then disappearance…and Tommy’s message that demons are coming…I don’t know. It sure feels intentional.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  I offered a reassuring smile. “Go call Detective Powell, but be careful. You know the police won’t understand what’s going on, and our peripheral involvement in something like this so soon after Gill’s murder could look suspicious.”

  “Agreed, but I still need to stay with Autumn.”

  I nodded. “I think you should too, but I’m still worried.” I glanced up at Autumn, who was silently crying. “It’s even more important for us to go see Helen tonight. I take it that you still want to go.”

  “More than ever.”

  “I’ll call you when I’m done with my training.”

  “I’ll be at the restaurant, but I shouldn’t have trouble getting away after ten.”

  “Othello’s?” I asked in surprise. Jack and I had a private dinner there to discuss our demon encounters; we’d been able to get a coveted reservation because his brother owned the restaurant, and his sister worked there too. But I couldn’t fathom why he’d be there so late at night.

  “I agreed to pick up some serving shifts…now that I’m unemployed.”

  “Oh. Right.” I couldn’t help feeling guilty, like I should apologize, or thank him? There was nothing right to say, really, so I changed the topic. “Let me know if you find out anything helpful from Autumn.”

  “Will do. Be careful at your next appointment.”

  I waved goodbye to Autumn, then headed back to my car. I was lost in thought when a twenty-something woman suddenly stumbled into my path, halfway to my car, looking slightly bewildered. She wore a pair of denim shorts paired with a UNC Asheville T-shirt, and her auburn hair was pulled back into a ponytail.

  I would have thought she was any other student on campus, except for the static electricity feeling coming from her.

  She was a ghost.

  “You’re in danger here,” the woman said. “It’s watching you.”

  The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. “What is?”

  “A bad thing.”

  “Did the bad thing send you to warn me away?”

  “No. My message is from someone else. Out of fear for your safety.”

  Was Abel behind this? He’d claimed to know nothing about the ghosts who’d appeared to me with warnings a couple of weeks ago. But I pushed the thought away. If this girl was like the others, I didn’t have much time.

  Tears stung my eyes. “What’s your name?”

  “Abigale.”

  “I’m Piper. Do you know that you’re dead?”

  She gave me a sad look and nodded.

  “Do you know how it happened?”

  “I took the pills. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it, but it told me that I should.”

  My chest heaved as I fought a sob. She’d just confirmed my worst fear. “Do you have a message you want me to give anyone?”

  She shook her head. “I left a note.”

  A bright light appeared to my right, and the spirit turned into a pile of ash and a wisp of dark smoke. The light snuffed out, and I stared at the ash in horror.

  I’d never been more sorry to be right. The ghosts with the messages really had been killed so they could communicate with me. The guilt was nearly suffocating.

  I knew nothing about her other than her name and that she’d been forced to commit suicide. The last time a ghost had come to me with a message, I’d asked him if he wanted me to give a message to anyone. He’d asked me to tell his girlfriend that he’d planned to propose. I’d been overcome with guilt, but at least I’d given him some closure. I had no idea where Abigale was or if anyone had found her.

  I was helpless.

  Chapter 6

  I sat in my car for a good five minutes, trying to figure out what to do. Jack was with Autumn, so I didn’t want to disturb him. She needed him more right now. Rhys had class, and besides, I knew she was dying to spend some time with her girlfriend. Her ghost whisperer assistant duties had cut into her love life enough as it was. Abel was thousands of miles away, not that I would have called him anyway. Empathy wasn’t his strong suit, yet something in me ached to hear from him.

  The really stupid part of me.

  I picked up my phone and called Hudson. When he didn’t answer—not surprising since he had an office job—I hung up instead of leaving a message. What was I going to say? “I just called to tell you that I’m responsible for yet another person’s death, and now I’m feeling pouty and need someone to feel sorry for me”?

  Suck it up, Piper. This is not the time for whining.

  I started to back up from the parking spot when a wrenching feeling filled my chest. Something was happening to my connection to Abel.

  I rubbed my chest, pressing the area over my heart. Something was terribly wrong.

  The pain intensified, only to disappear as suddenly as it had set in. My connection to Abel disappeared with it.

  After living with the constant connection to him for two weeks, the sudden loss was jolting. And alarming. Had something bad happened to him? The thought filled me with dread.

  The afternoon seemed to drag on forever. The second of my two appointments ran longer than expected, and I couldn’t stop panicking about the severed connection between me and Abel. He’d claimed he needed me and my daggers to kill him, so I doubted he was dead, but that didn’t mean he was okay.

  I didn’t have time to go by my house to grab dinner before my nightly ass-kicking, so I picked up a hamburger on my way there. I was sure I was going to regret eating something so greasy right before Rupert literally kicked me in the stomach, but so be it.

  While I was in line at the drive-through window, I quickly checked the Asheville police reports for any hint of an overdose or death. Nothing. Did that mean they hadn’t found Abigale yet? I hated the thought of her lying somew
here, alone, but I reminded myself that she was already gone.

  I got to the warehouse early enough to change into my workout clothes and be on the mats by 6:59. Rupert put a little something extra into the evening’s workout, so by the time ten o’clock rolled round, I was doubled over my legs trying to regain my breath, and seriously regretted having given him even an extra minute to pound on me.

  “We won’t be working out tomorrow night,” Rupert said.

  My panic resurfaced, but I tamped it down. I looked up at him and sweat rolled down into my eye. I blinked, my arms too sore to wipe it away. “Did I graduate already?”

  He didn’t even crack a smile. Abel hired the most deadpan guys. “Mr. Abel will return tomorrow and has requested that you join him for dinner.”

  I straightened and propped a hand on my hip, trying to ignore the relieved—and excited—flutter in my stomach. “And Mr. Abel couldn’t ask me himself?”

  Rupert’s upper lip curled as though I’d asked the stupidest question known to man. “He has more pressing issues.”

  “More pressing than asking me to dinner?” Okay, when I put it that way, it did sound stupid, but Abel was already controlling six hours of my day. He couldn’t order me to have dinner with him.

  But you want to have dinner with him.

  That was beside the point.

  “Mr. Abel has requested that you dress for dinner.”

  “Dress for dinner? This is Asheville. That could mean my best pair of jeans.”

  The look in Rupert’s eyes suggested he was about to initiate another round of sparring that would end badly for me. “He will send a car at eight.”

  “I can just meet him at the restaurant,” I said. “No need to send a car.”

  “He’ll send a car.” Then he headed for the exit. “Turn the lights out and lock up when you leave.”

  Lock up? “I don’t have a key.”

  “They’re next to your bag,” he said, not bothering to look back as the door slammed behind him.

  A key. This was new. Why would Rupert give me a key?

  Of course, it didn’t take a genius to figure out the key wasn’t from Rupert. It was from Abel. But why?

  I grabbed my water bottle and took a long gulp as I spun in a circle, taking in the space. Did Abel expect me to come here and practice on my own time, above and beyond the six hours I already spent here? Or maybe he’d decided Rupert and Davis had done all they could do to help me and I was now on my own.

  My phone’s ringtone shook me out of my reverie, and I wasn’t surprised to see the call was from Jack.

  “I’m off for the night. Do you want to pick me up from the restaurant?”

  “I still need to change and shower,” I said. “My session ran late.”

  “Don’t bother with the shower. Just come pick me up.”

  I cringed and sniffed my armpits. Not too bad. I wasn’t looking my finest, but hadn’t I wanted to put Jack off anyway? This wasn’t a date. We were going to see a ghost, and I suspected Helen wouldn’t mind what I smelled like. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  I picked up my bag, and sure enough, two keys attached to a ring lay on the floor. The warehouse only used one key, so what was the other one for?

  After shutting off the lights, I went outside and locked the door behind me, figuring out the correct key on the first attempt. As I turned it, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. I told myself it was the cooler September evening air hitting the sweat on my skin, but I knew there was more to it. The tingling of my tattooed hand confirmed I wasn’t alone.

  I briefly considered calling out—shouting a greeting, a threat, something—but instead I walked to my car, concentrating on the feeling and pushing energy outward from the marks on my hand. It was something small, a good twenty feet away at the edge of the tree line, only it didn’t feel evil. It felt…neutral.

  After I unlocked my car, I opened the back door and tossed my bag into the backseat. “I can feel you out there,” I said. “I don’t think you’re an enemy, but I don’t think you’re a friend either. I only have issues with demons, so as long as you aren’t killing people or stealing their souls, you and I can coexist.”

  “So you really fight demons?” The creature’s voice was small yet deep.

  “I’ve fought a few. But then, you saw me kill one last night, didn’t you?”

  “Will you fight more?” the creature’s voice called out.

  A tingle ran down my spine. “Yes,” I said, trying to sound more certain than I felt. “And I will destroy them.”

  “Then you and I are friends.”

  Just as suddenly as it had appeared, the presence was gone.

  What the heck?

  I needed to talk to Jack.

  He was waiting for me at the corner down the street from Othello’s, wearing jeans and a fresh T-shirt. When he got in, he smelled good, an intoxicating blend of basil and garlic as well as a hint of something I couldn’t name. Then I realized it was coming from the bag in his hand. My stomach growled in anticipation.

  He took one look at my face and laughed. “I had Max make an extra plate of tonight’s special for you.”

  I’d had his brother’s food before, and it was amazing. “How’d you know I’d be hungry?”

  “You just worked out for three hours, Piper. How could you not be?” He set the bag in his lap and fastened his seatbelt. “I know you said Rupert or Davis or whoever told you to eat protein, so I made sure Max put plenty of chicken in there along with the pasta.”

  I practically drooled at the thought.

  Jack laughed. “Put the car in park and let’s switch places. I’ll drive. The food’s better hot anyway.”

  When it came to Max’s food, I wasn’t going to argue. I pulled over and we switched spots, Jack handing off the bag of food. I didn’t wait to pull it out and dig in. I allowed myself a few bites before I said through a partial mouthful of pasta, “Did you find out anything more from Autumn?”

  “No, but Lars’s personality change was really sudden. She kept mentioning that.”

  “My gut tells me this isn’t random. The timing is just too—”

  “Coincidental.”

  “Yes. And with demons on the loose and college students getting slaughtered, another one now missing…we really need answers from Helen.”

  “Let’s hope she has them.”

  I took a few more bites, then said, “I saw another ghost today, a young woman named Abigale. She delivered a message.”

  Jack gripped the steering wheel and turned to face me. “When? Where?”

  “Right after I left you,” I said, pushing the words past the lump in my throat. “On campus.”

  “Why didn’t you come back and tell me?” he asked.

  “What good would it have done? I didn’t want to upset Autumn, and the woman was already dead. But whatever is sending ghosts to me forced her to kill herself, Jack. She didn’t want to do it.”

  He was quiet for several seconds before he said, “I guess we knew that whatever force is behind the messages has been killing people, but it’s never gone this far.”

  “I didn’t know what to do. I had no idea how to find Abigale. I was surrounded by dorms and apartments… Where would I even start? I thought about calling hospitals or the police, but how would I explain it?”

  “I can ask Olivia.”

  I shot him a look of surprise. “You’re on a first-name basis?”

  He grimaced but didn’t respond.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea, do you? It’s bound to set off alarm bells.”

  “So we do nothing?”

  “We scour the papers and the news to make sure she’s found,” I said. “I asked if she had a message for anyone, but she said she left a note. I guess there’s nothing to be done.” My voice broke.

  “This isn’t your fault, Piper.”

  “I know, but it sure feels like it.”

  “Piper.”

  The pity in his voice w
as nearly my undoing, so I moved onto topic number two. “Something weird happened tonight after I finished my training.”

  He sat up straighter. “Did you have any trouble?”

  “No, but I met…something. Not a demon, but it didn’t give off a friendly vibe either.”

  I told him what little I knew—how the being had appeared and then promptly disappeared, how it had only pledged its friendship after I confirmed that I planned to hunt more demons, and how my best guess was that it was some sort of tiny man.

  “Where was Rupert when this was going on?” he asked, sounding kind of pissed. “You could have been ambushed.”

  I rolled my eyes as I pierced more penne noodles with my plastic fork. “Like Rupert would have done much good against a demon. He wouldn’t be able to see it. Besides, I was prepared to get in my car and take off. But now I’m curious. What else is out here, besides demons?” I asked, turning in my seat to face him. “What do you think I was talking to?”

  He frowned for a few seconds as he watched the road. We were headed up the tall hill we called Beaucatcher Mountain. “Could it have been a ghost?”

  I shook my head. “No. It definitely wasn’t a ghost. I get a totally different feeling from them.”

  “How so?”

  “Well, I typically don’t feel anything unless it’s a really strong ghost like Helen. Or Tommy. Demons have a totally different vibe—they make my marked hand tingle. I can sense their presence…their intent. I can tell if they’re hungry or curious. I get none of that from ghosts. The thing I encountered tonight…I could sense its presence through my mark, but there was no evil coming from it. It was totally neutral. Like it had heard there was a new neighbor and it was curious enough to check it out.”

  “Huh…” Jack didn’t sound very happy.

  “I’ll ask Helen about it too,” I said, “but it doesn’t mean she’ll answer. Helen’s a bit…mercurial.”

  Jack’s brow lowered. “I’ve heard of cars dying after people go up to the bridge to talk to her.”

  “I’ve heard that too, so maybe we should park a ways down the hill.” I shoved another bite of pasta in my mouth. After I swallowed, I asked, “Do you think Lars is possessed?”