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  Twilight Heart

  Harbinger P.I. Book 7

  Adam J Wright

  THE HARBINGER P.I. SERIES

  LOST SOUL

  BURIED MEMORY

  DARK MAGIC

  DEAD GROUND

  SHADOW LAND

  MIDNIGHT BLOOD

  TWILIGHT HEART

  Copyright © 2019 by Adam J Wright

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  1

  I hadn’t planned on spending a cold November night in a cemetery but here I was.

  No one had hired me to be out here freezing my ass off but I’d noticed a news article about a strange event that had occurred at the Whispering Pines Cemetery and I’d felt duty-bound to check it out.

  A couple of days ago, the police had decided to exhume the body of Mrs Linda Whittington, a woman who’d only been a resident of Whispering Pines for one week. Mrs Whittington had died at home in an apparent suicide while her husband had been on a business trip to Albany. At least that was what the police had been led to believe.

  But recent evidence had come to light that placed the husband at home during the night his wife had died. Since she’d already been buried, a decision was made to exhume the body and search for evidence of murder.

  The grave had been opened but the coffin had been found to be empty.

  One side of the coffin had been splintered and broken and close examination had revealed scratch marks on the outside. The earth had been disturbed. Not the earth at ground level but the earth at the level of the coffin, six feet under.

  It was as if something had burrowed into the coffin and taken Mrs Whittington’s body away.

  That left the medical examiner and the police scratching their heads in disbelief and confusion. They couldn’t explain what had happened.

  That was to be expected; they were regular people with no belief in the paranormal. They couldn’t be expected to recognize the work of a ghoul.

  Instead of enlightening them--and thereby tipping them off to the fact that hideous creatures like ghouls actually existed--I’d decided to deal with the subterranean grave robber quietly while everyone else slept.

  So here I was, creeping around Whispering Pines in the dead of night, casting my flashlight beam around the small cemetery in search of Linda Whittington’s tombstone.

  The flashlight was in my right hand. In my left, I held a shovel.

  Digging my way into the ghoul’s tunnel was going to be hot work so, despite the cold, I wasn’t wearing a jacket. Instead, I wore a black tee and a dark blue flannel shirt. Black jeans and boots completed my ensemble and ensured my clothing was dark enough that I wouldn’t be seen from the nearby road. I doubted anyone would be driving past here in the dead of night but I wasn’t taking any chances.

  An enchanted dagger hung from my belt in a leather sheath.

  There was no point bringing a larger weapon—a sword, for instance—because I was probably going to have to kill the ghoul inside one of its tunnels and a long weapon might snag on the walls or low ceiling. The dagger would give me better maneuverability in a tight area while still packing enough punch to kill the beast.

  My light finally came to rest on the stone that bore Linda’s name. The grave hadn’t been filled in again after the discovery of her vacant coffin and was covered by a green tarpaulin that had been staked into the earth around the hole.

  I lifted it off and dragged it aside. The empty grave beneath my feet was lost to darkness. I shone my light down there and examined the earth. I could see a section of earth that looked as if it had been disturbed recently. That would be the way into the ghoul’s tunnel.

  Climbing down into the grave, I remained alert for the slightest sound or movement. Ghouls generally avoided human contact but they’d fight and kill if cornered and had long claws and teeth with which to carry out the deed.

  The air in the grave was cold. I thrust my shovel into the disturbed earth, eager to get to work so I could keep warm. When this was done, I was going home to a long, hot shower.

  The earth gave way to the shovel blade easily and after a few minutes it collapsed, revealing a tunnel beyond. I shone the light into the tunnel and saw that it led into the earth for about twenty feet before branching both left and right.

  Great, I was about to climb into a subterranean maze. I just hoped there was only one ghoul down here. With so many tunnels heading in different directions, it would be all too easy to find myself flanked by the damned things.

  I took comfort in the knowledge that ghouls were usually solitary creatures. That didn’t mean there couldn’t be more than one in these tunnels but it was unlikely.

  Still, I couldn’t allow myself to become complacent.

  The tunnel wasn’t large enough for me to stand up in but the ceiling was high enough to allow me to crouch.

  Leaving the shovel in the empty grave, I unsheathed my dagger and climbed into the tunnel. The blue glow from the dagger, along with the bright beam of the flashlight, lit my way.

  A fetid smell lingered in the air and seemed to cling to me as I proceeded deeper into the tunnel.

  When I reached the intersection that led left and right, I decided to take a right. There was no logical reasoning behind my choice other than the fact that the right hand tunnel led deeper into the cemetery where the one that went left led toward the road.

  I guessed that the ghoul’s nest would be far away from the road and more likely to be situated at the rear of Whispering Pines, where the cemetery gave way to the pine woods that gave the place its name.

  Moving forward in a crouching position made my thigh and calf muscles ache so I dropped into a crawl and made my way carefully forward. No point risking cramped muscles, especially down here. I needed to be in peak condition when I finally came face to face with the resident of this underground maze.

  The deeper I went, the worse the smell got. After a couple of minutes, I was almost gagging on the stench of rotted flesh. It got so bad, I wasn’t sure I could go any further.

  Maybe I wouldn’t have to. I could hear a scrabbling sound in one of the tunnels ahead. Something was coming this way.

  And then my phone began to buzz in my pocket.

  I couldn’t imagine that anyone would be calling me at this time of the night unless it was an emergency. The scrabbling ahead sounded far enough away that I’d have a chance to at least check who was calling before the creature reached me so I dropped the flashlight and dug the phone out of my pocket.

  Felicity’s name was on the screen.

  The sound in the tunnel was getting closer.

  I backed up slightly and answered the call. The flashlight illuminated the tunnel in front of me so I’d know as soon as the ghoul appeared. I should have enough time to find out if Felicity needed me urgently. If she did, I’d back up all the way out of the tunnel and go help her. The ghoul could wait. It wasn’t going anywher
e.

  “Alec,” she said as I held the phone to my ear. “Are you there? The line’s a bit crackly.”

  “I’m here,” I told her. “I’m in a tunnel.”

  “A tunnel? I thought you’d be in bed. It’s--“

  “Yeah, I know how late it is. What’s up?”

  The scrabbling sound had stopped. Maybe the creature was biding its time or maybe my light had put it off. Either way, I couldn’t hear it moving toward me anymore. I hoped I wasn’t going to have to go chasing it deeper into this underground warren; I wasn’t sure I could handle the smell if I had to go any further.

  “I’ve received an email,” she said. “From the Society. I was wondering if you’ve received one as well, since its contents concern you as well as me.”

  “An email? I have no idea. Like I said, I’m in a tunnel right now.”

  There was a pause, during which I was sure Felicity was wondering if she’d heard me correctly. “You mean you’re driving through a tunnel?”

  “No, I’m not on the road. I’m in a tunnel underneath a cemetery.”

  “What are you doing there? It’s--“

  I didn’t hear the rest of what she said because the wall next to me exploded outward and a snarling ghoul leaped forward, razor-sharp teeth and claws bared.

  I dropped the phone and raised the dagger. The blade bit into the ghoul’s shoulder and the creature wheeled away from me with a high-pitched shriek of pain. It huddled in the flashlight beam and put one huge paw up to the wound I’d given it.

  If I’d thought the smell in the tunnels was bad, the stench coming off the creature was a thousand times worse.

  It was ugly too, with an elongated snout that held hundreds of fangs and beady eyes that glared at me with a fiery hatred. Its body was covered with patchy brown fur and its ears were pointed like a bat’s.

  The beady eyes sized me up, flickering from my face to the glowing dagger in my hand. If it ran, I was going to have to chase it. If it attacked, I was going to have to defend myself and try to hold onto the contents of my stomach because the foul smell coming off the creature made me want to vomit.

  I wasn’t sure where my phone had landed but I heard Felicity’s distant voice coming from somewhere. “Alec? Are you there?”

  The ghoul hurled its body forward, arms and claws outstretched. Instead of backing away or waiting for it to land on me, I pushed forward with my legs and straightened my right arm--the one holding the dagger--while flinging my left arm behind me for balance. I lunged at the ghoul like a fencer striking a winning blow and felt the dagger penetrate the creature’s chest.

  Hot blood poured out of the wound and over my hand but instead of recoiling in horror, I pressed the blade deeper.

  The ghoul’s deadly teeth snapped at my face. Bringing my left arm forward, I elbowed the snout away and forced the creature against the tunnel wall, still plunging the dagger into its body.

  The creature’s eyes stared into mine for a second but the hatred they held faded away along with the ghoul’s life force. Its body went limp and the flow of hot blood that had been pumping out of its body stopped when the heart finally gave up.

  I pushed myself away from the corpse and backed out of the tunnel, finding my phone buried beneath a covering of dirt as I made my way back to the intersection that led to the grave.

  Despite my lungs burning and my heart pounding in my chest, I didn’t dare to take a deep breath until I was back in the open grave where the air tasted fresh and sweet. Once I was there, I leaned against the earthen wall and breathed in lungfuls of the cold night air.

  Not only was I going to have to take a shower when I got home, I was going to have to throw these clothes into the trash. My shirt and jeans were covered in ghoul’s blood and I was sure the stench that pervaded the tunnels had permanently embedded itself into the fabric of everything I was wearing.

  I checked my phone to see if Felicity was still on the line but the screen was dead. The phone must have gotten buried during the scuffle with the ghoul and some dirt must have found its way inside.

  Great. So now I had no idea what email Felicity had been talking about and wouldn’t know until I got home.

  I couldn’t leave the cemetery yet, though; there was one more thing I had to do.

  I climbed out of the grave and made my way to the Land Rover, removing my blood-covered shirt, despite the cold. I opened the Rover’s tailgate, threw the shirt inside, along with the useless phone, and took out a large plastic bottle of lye.

  Returning to the grave with the lye, I entered the tunnels again and crawled to where the ghoul’s body lay motionless in the beam from the flashlight.

  I opened the bottle and poured the entire contents of lye crystals over the corpse. Ghouls are attracted to dead human flesh and they’re even more attracted to dead ghoul flesh. If the body was left here to rot naturally into the earth, it would bring more of the damned creatures to the area.

  Using lye to dissolve the body was an old Society trick I’d learned years ago. No one was sure exactly how it worked but a ghoul corpse covered in lye didn’t attract the attention of other ghouls.

  When I was done, I grabbed the flashlight and left the tunnel. I used the shovel to fill in the tunnel before climbing out of the grave and replacing the tarp over the hole. No one would ever know I’d been here. The only witness to my presence here was currently being dissolved by sodium hydroxide.

  By the time I’d stowed my gear in the back of the Land Rover and climbed behind the wheel, I regretted the fact that I hadn’t brought a change of clothing with me. I felt filthy and I was stinking up the car.

  I drove home with all the windows open.

  2

  An hour later, I was standing at the kitchen sink, tapping my phone as I tried to dislodge the dirt from it.

  I was freshly-showered and wearing a black T-shirt and sweats. The clothes I’d worn to the cemetery had been thrown out. After some fiddling with the phone, I managed to get it to switch on. While it booted up, I took it into the living room, where my laptop sat on the coffee table.

  I checked my email but I didn’t have anything from the Society so whatever communication Felicity had been talking about had been sent to her only.

  While I was pondering that, the phone booted up completely and I saw that I had half a dozen missed calls from Felicity. Picking up the phone, I called her back.

  “Alec,” she said when she answered. “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” I said. “Sorry we got cut off. My phone kind of got buried. What’s this email about?”

  “Don’t you have one too?”

  “No, I just checked. Nothing from the Society. What does it say?”

  There was a pause and then she said, “Can I come over and talk to you? I’d rather speak face to face.”

  “Of course. The door’s unlocked. I’ll make coffee.” Remembering Felicity’s beverage of choice, I added. “And tea for you.”

  I ended the call and went into the kitchen to make the drinks. While I was filling the coffee machine and waiting for the microwave to heat the tea, Felicity arrived. She was wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt and an expression on her face that seemed torn between joy and sadness. The corners of her mouth were quirked up as if she were trying to hold back a smile but her dark eyes were filled with tears. I couldn’t tell if they were tears of joy or sadness.

  “Hey,” I said. “What’s the Society been emailing you about?”

  “They’ve offered me a job,” she said.

  “A job?”

  She nodded excitedly. “My own office. My own cases. They want to make me a fully-fledged P.I.”

  “Wow, that’s great! I knew it wouldn’t be long before they realized how great you are. I’m really pleased for you.”

  The microwave dinged but I ignored it. “Why are we drinking coffee and tea? We should be celebrating. I’m sure there’s a bottle of champagne around here somewhere. Someone brought it to the Halloween p
arty and it never got opened.” I opened one of the cupboards and searched for the booze.

  “There’s something else,” Felicity said. “The job is in Manchester.”

  I felt my heart sink a little. I’d been so excited for Felicity that I hadn’t thought about the fact that her promotion meant she’d be leaving. I pushed my emotions down. This was everything Felicity had ever wanted and worked toward and I wasn’t about to ruin her happiness by dwelling on the negative part of her big news.

  “Manchester isn’t far from here,” I said. “We’ll probably have some cases that intersect. I’m sure monsters cross the border between New Hampshire and Maine all the time.”

  She shook her head. “Not Manchester, New Hampshire, Alec. The job is in Manchester, England.”

  “Oh,” I said, pulling the bottle of champagne from the cupboard. I tried not to let the disappointment I felt show in my face or voice. “Well, that doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re going to be a P.I. You’ve done it! Congratulations!”

  I got two glasses and popped the cork off he champagne bottle. Most of the effervescent liquid spilled out onto the floor. I quickly poured what was left into the glasses and handed one to Felicity.

  “To Felicity Lake, P.I.” I toasted, clinking my glass against hers. We drank. I’d never been a fan of champagne and this glass wasn’t going to change my mind. I set it aside and poured some coffee from the pot. After what I’d been through tonight, I needed the caffeine hit.

  Felicity also put her glass aside and took the tea out of the microwave. “I’ll never understand why you make tea in the microwave,” she said as she placed the cup on the counter. “That’s one thing I won’t miss when I move back to England.”