Faerie Storm Read online

  Faerie Storm

  Harbinger P.I. Book 8

  Adam J Wright

  Copyright © 2019 by Adam 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.

  The Harbinger PI Series

  LOST SOUL

  BURIED MEMORY

  DARK MAGIC

  DEAD GROUND

  SHADOW LAND

  MIDNIGHT BLOOD

  TWILIGHT HEART

  FAERIE STORM

  NIGHT HUNT

  GRAVE NIGHT

  FINAL MAGIC

  Harbinger PI Series Audiobooks

  LOST SOUL

  BURIED MEMORY

  DARK MAGIC

  DEAD GROUND

  SHADOW LAND

  This book is dedicated to you

  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

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  NIGHT HUNT

  Mailing List

  1

  “So do you think you can help me?” the middle-aged man sitting at the other side my desk asked. He was smartly dressed in a suit and tie, which clashed with the fact that his long gray hair was tied back into a ponytail.

  While he waited for me to answer, I realized I’d zoned out while he was telling me why he was here in my office. Not a great thing to do in front of a potential client. “Of course I can help, Mr Pelletier,” I said, not knowing what I was promising. At least I remembered the guy’s name.

  Carlton, who was sitting beside Mr Pelletier and taking notes, cut in to save me. “Mr Harbinger will make a start on your case right away, sir. It isn’t often that a case of suspected demon possession comes our way and we’ll be happy to investigate.” When he mentioned demon possession, he shot me a look that told me he knew I’d missed that part of the conversation. He was trying to jog my memory but to no avail.

  During the interview, my mind had drifted back to my house where Excalibur sat waiting in the basement. I could hardly get the sword out of my head after Merlin had placed it in my hands to stop me passing out from exhaustion. That had been only yesterday but I was already craving another rush of power from the ancient blade. Maybe it was a good thing I was at the office and unable to get a fix so easily.

  “I don’t know where else to turn,” Mr Pelletier said, looking down at his intertwined hands mournfully. “Since her mother died, Cathy has been my only family. The thought of what’s happening to her breaks my heart. If there’s anything I can do to get my daughter back—anything at all—I’ll do it.”

  “I’ll do everything I can to help,” I assured him.

  “Thank you, Mr Harbinger,” he said, getting up and leaning over the desk to shake my hand.

  His grip was stronger than I’d expected, his blue eyes steady as they fixed on mine. “I’m sure I made the right decision coming here.”

  “You certainly did, sir,” Carlton said, touching Pelletier gently on the shoulder and leading him out of the office. “Now if you’d like to walk this way, we can discuss billing.” He led our new client out into the hallway and closed my office door behind him, leaving me alone in the room.

  I went to the window and looked down at Main Street. There was no rain today, so far, but a chill wind had blown into Dearmont and most of the townsfolk seemed to be staying at home. Only a few brave souls could be seen on the street going about their business.

  Hopefully, a new case would take my mind off the damned sword. I wasn’t exactly sure when my dependence on the weapon’s energy had started—maybe the first time it had called my name from the basement—but it had to stop. Between this new case, the Midnight Cabal, and Merlin acting suspiciously, I had enough on my plate. I couldn’t deal with some sort of paranormal addiction as well as everything else that was going on.

  I watched as Mr Pelletier—if he’d given his first name, I didn’t remember it—left the building and walked along Main Street, pulling up the collar of his coat against the wind.

  Carlton knocked on my door.

  “Come in,” I told him.

  He entered with a grin on his face. “I got our new case squared away. Looks like things will be going back to normal around here.”

  I frowned at him. “Back to normal? What do you mean?”

  “Just that we have a regular case with a regular client. No more trips to Egypt or dealing with the Midnight Cabal. This one sounds nice and simple and not too dangerous.”

  I gestured to the notebook in his hand. “Remind me of the details.”

  He pursed his lips and looked at me disapprovingly. “Yeah, you kinda spaced out there for a while, didn’t you? You didn’t hear a word he said.”

  “Just give me a rundown of what he told us,” I said, going back to my chair and dropping into it. I wasn’t going to tell Carlton anything about my problems with Excalibur. I still didn’t exactly trust the guy.

  He consulted his notes. “Dan Pelletier is a software designer who moved from New York City to Greenville a year ago. He has a fourteen-year-old daughter named Cathy. According to Mr Pelletier, after they moved into their new house, Cathy became friends with a girl who lived next door, Lydia Cornell. Lydia was the same age as Cathy and the two girls became fast friends. They rode the school bus together and after they got home, they played in the woods until their parents called them in for supper.”

  He flipped the page on his notebook before continuing. “Three months ago, the girls went missing. They went into the woods as usual but this time, they didn’t answer their phones when their parents called them. The police searched for the girls but didn’t find anything. The woods up there are vast and dense so the officers didn’t cover much ground before it got dark and they had to call off the search until the next day. The next morning, Cathy showed up. She was covered in cuts and grazes but was otherwise unharmed physically. Mentally, however, she seemed to be “damaged” according to her father. She hasn’t spoken to anyone since that night in the woods and she’s withdrawn into herself.”

  “What about Lydia?” I asked.

  “She’s still missing. Nobody knows what happened to her and Cathy isn’t telling. The police resumed their search for Lydia but they didn’t find her.”

  “So why has Pelletier come to a Preternatural Investigator? Where does suspected demon possession come into it?”

  “I was getting to that.” He flipped the page of his notebook again and said, “The police didn’t find the girls that night but they did find a cave somewhere out there in the woods and according to their report, there were strange symbols drawn on the walls. Mr Pelletier questioned one of the officers who saw the symbols and was told they were demonic in nature. So now he believes his daughter has been possessed by some sort of demon.”

  He closed the notebook. “That’s quite a story, eh?”

  “Maybe,” I said. “Just because the police office
r described the symbols as demonic doesn’t mean they were. I need to see that cave for myself. I also need to see Cathy Pelletier. I realize she won’t speak to me but I should be able to determine if she’s actually possessed or if she’s suffering a mental breakdown due to some sort of traumatic experience.”

  Carlton nodded. “I’ll arrange your accommodation. How long are you going to spend up there?”

  “Get me a hotel room for a couple of days. There’s a place called Lake Shore Lodge situated a few miles south of Greenville. Get me a room there.”

  “You’ve been up that way before?”

  “Yeah, I was working on a case with Felicity. There was some trouble at a mental health facility called Butterfly Heights.”

  “Oh,” he said, flipping back through the notebook.

  “That place had some history,” I told him. “It was originally called the Pinewood Heights Asylum and the Midnight Cabal were carrying out a secret project in the basement. That ended in 1942 when a patient named Henry Fields murdered nine members of staff and the place was closed down. Fields used his occult knowledge to transport his soul into the Shadow Land and he became Mister Scary.”

  Carlton nodded as he reread his notes.

  “The place reopened in the fifties as Butterfly Heights,” I said, “We discovered that one of the doctors was carrying out experiments on patients who carried a faerie gene in their blood. He wanted to develop a serum that would change him into a faerie creature so he could be with a siren that was being held captive in the basement.”

  Carlton found what he was looking for and turned the notebook so I could see his neat handwriting.

  “That’s the place,” he said, pointing at two words he’d written down while taking notes earlier. “That’s where Cathy Pelletier is.”

  I looked at the words on the page and frowned.

  Butterfly Heights.

  2

  Half an hour later, I was at my house packing an overnight bag for the journey north. The last time I’d made this journey, I’d been with Felicity and we’d bounced ideas off each other regarding the case we’d been working on. Now, I was investigating this new case alone. Whereas before, the trip had been made easier by Felicity’s presence, this time I wasn’t looking forward to the long drive north along State Route 6.

  After I’d packed the clothing and essentials I’d need for the next couple of days, I took the bag downstairs and crossed the living room to the front door.

  Where I paused.

  Should I take Excalibur?

  I had no reason to believe I was going to get into any physical conflict while investigating this case—and I had plenty of weapons in the Land Rover if I needed them—but Excalibur was more than just a blade with which I could fight. It could also provide me with energy.

  I opened the door and stepped outside. I didn’t want to become reliant on the damn sword; maybe a few days away from it would be a good thing.

  The cold, winter wind buffeted me as I opened the Land Rover’s tailgate and threw the bag inside. Leaving Excalibur behind may sound great at the moment but what if I experienced a sudden dip in energy like I’d felt yesterday? If not for the sword, I’d have blacked out.

  I closed the tailgate and went to the driver’s door but hesitated before getting in behind the wheel. If I drove away now and left Excalibur behind, I’d be too far away to just drive back and get it if I needed it.

  The chill wind bit into my bones as I stood there contemplating what to do.

  Finally, I got in behind the wheel and started the Land Rover. Screw it; I was just going to have to manage without the sword. Being so reliant on the damn thing didn’t sit right with me.

  I backed out onto the street and drove away from the house without looking back.

  It wasn’t until I got to State Route 6 and headed north that I realized my entire body was tense. I was gripping the wheel so tightly that my fingers ached and my shoulders felt like tight knots. I put the radio on and forced myself to relax. Highway to Hell by AC/DC blasted through the speakers and I sang along, putting all thoughts of Excalibur out of my mind. I wasn’t going to let an old hunk of steel get the better of me.

  It began to rain, the wind whipping water violently against the windshield. I turned on the wipers and squinted against the spray that was coming up off the road.

  When I finally got north of Dover-Foxcroft, I let the GPS guide me to Dan Pelletier’s house. The first thing I wanted to do was take a look at the cave with the “demonic” symbols on its walls. The GPS led me through town and then farther north toward Greenville.

  My destination was a large house set back from the road, nestled among the pine trees. I drove along the driveway that led to the house and parked the Land Rover by the porch.

  I got out and sprinted through the rain to the front door, protected from the driving rain by the porch roof. When I knocked on the door, I got the impression that there was no one home. Still, I waited a couple of minutes and knocked a second time anyway. If Dan Pelletier was home, he might be able to direct me to the cave behind the house. If he wasn’t, I was going to have to go searching for it myself.

  “There’s no one home,” said a female voice behind me.

  I turned to see a dark-haired woman wearing a blue slicker with a hood that obscured most of her face. She was standing on the driveway, behind the Land Rover. In her hand, she held a tennis ball. A large Golden Retriever circled her legs, its eyes fixed on the ball.

  She threw the ball into the woods and the dog scampered after it.

  “He went to Dearmont,” the woman told me. “He ain’t back yet.”

  “Okay, thanks,” I said. Wondering if she might know the location of the cave in the woods, I asked, “Do you live around here?”

  She gave me a curt nod. “I do.”

  I detected a wariness in her attitude that was understandable in the circumstances. I was a stranger and we were in a pretty remote location. For all she knew, I might be casing out the place.

  “Dan Pelletier came to see me today,” I said, hoping to allay any fears she might have. “My name is Alec Harbinger. I’m here at his request.”

  The dog returned with the ball and dropped it at her feet.

  As she bent to retrieve the ball, the woman said, “You’re the ghost hunter from Dearmont.” She tossed the ball into the trees again and the Retriever chased after it.

  “Yes, that’s me,” I said, not bothering to correct the job title she’d given me.

  She shook her head slowly. “I told Dan it was a fool’s errand going to see you. You can’t bring Cathy back from the God-awful state she’s in. Even the doctors up at that asylum don’t have a clue what’s wrong with her. What do you think you can do that they can’t?”

  “I don’t know,” I told her honestly. “Maybe nothing. But if Cathy’s condition was caused by the kind of things in which I specialize, I might be able to help her.”

  “The kind of things in which you specialize,” she said. “I suppose by that, you mean ghosts and demons and God knows what else.”

  “I do,” I said.

  She stepped closer, anger burning in her dark eyes. “Is that what you think took my little girl? A monster from Hell? Do you think she’s down there in the pit being held captive by the Devil?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  She pointed an accusatory finger at me. “You listen to me, ghost hunter. My poor Lydia was taken by a monster but it was a human monster, not some creature from the fiery pit. It’s a tragedy that breaks my heart every single day but at least I know her soul is at rest. She’s with the good Lord now and I won’t listen to you spouting obscenities and blasphemies by suggesting she’s anywhere else, much less in Hell. Do you hear me?”

  “I wasn’t suggesting anything like that,” I said.

  “Don’t you speak to me anymore,” she said, turning away and heading toward the road. “Luke, come here,” she shouted at the trees. “We’re leaving.”

  Th
e dog reappeared with the ball clamped in its jaws and followed her dutifully, tail wagging.

  I watched her go while the rain hissed down. There was no way I was going to ask her about the location of the cave. I’d been in situations before where my mere presence caused offence and I’d discovered that the best thing to do was to keep my mouth shut and get on with the job quietly.

  Mrs Cornell was understandably in pain over the disappearance of her daughter and there was no way I was going to add to her pain if I could avoid it.

  I had no idea what time Mr Pelletier would return. That meant I could wander into the woods and try to find the cave without any idea where I was going or I could continue toward Greenville and check in at the Lake Shore Lodge.

  Going to the Lodge seemed like the best idea. I could return here later when Pelletier was home. Or maybe I could discover the location of the cave by doing some research. Hell, I had a dedicated researcher at the office; I should pass the job onto him.

  I fished my phone out of my pocket and called Carlton.

  “Alec,” he said when he answered the call. “How’s it going up there?”

  “I’ve only just arrived,” I told him. “I need you to find out exactly where that cave is that Pelletier mentioned. The one with the markings on the wall.”

  “Sure,” he said. “No problem. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

  “That’s all for now.”

  “Okay, I’m on it.”

  I ended the call and got into the Land Rover. If Felicity had still been my assistant, I’d have someone here with whom to explore ideas but with Carlton being bound to the office, there was no chance of that.