Hidden Demons (S.P.I.R.I.T. 3)

By Dawn Gray

In the quiet Northeast Kingdom town of Aldenville, surrounded by beautiful mountains and a lake that crosses borders, something is amiss.

Construction begins in the midst of protest, which only escalates when the remains of an ancient skeleton is found. Suddenly, the ground opens up to reveal a hidden cavern below the town itself.

Special Agent Scott Embry of the S.P.I.R.I.T unit is flown in from Washington when the leader of the dig site goes missing. Their only witness, her best friend, Peighton Weak, is a Speleologist who was brought in to lead the team of cave divers. Their plan is to go down into the depth of the darkness to explore the strange writings that cover the dig site and bring about the mysterious beginnings of Aldenville.

Along with the help of Evan Reed, a peculiar man himself, the team begins to uncover the secret beginnings of Aldenville and its hidden demons, some which span over five centuries.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dawn Gray
• Release date: Feb 17, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310531941

Dawn Gray

I grew up in Vermont and for years have been occupied with my own worlds and creating my own characters. The entire seven book Vampire Legacy series is published and available here, based largely in New London/Waterford, CT these books follow a clan of vampires through their history with mortals. S.P.I.R.I.T has evolved to a three book series so far, and Raven and Before the Moon Rise are also stand-alone novels. The Arcane follows the adventure of a traveler on a road trip from hell and The Pack trilogy is just the beginning of a wild new ride for the Summerford children, members of the largest Pack in Massachusetts.

Book preview

Hidden Demons

A S.P.I.R.I.T. series novel.

DAWN GRAY

Hidden Demons

Dawn Gray © 2014

Smashwords edition

To Melissa: Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword must have had her in mind. Thank you for being such a great friend and editor.

To those at Anchor Group, cheers for years to come.

To Scott, without his inspiration and tidbits this wouldn’t be possible.

To my fans, you keep reading, I keep writing, and the plots get thicker.

To my kids, I love you with all my heart and you are a miracle every day.

The places in this book may resemble a town or city that you live in, the connections to that are purely coincidental, we think. Please be respectful of other people privacy when investigating odd happenings in your town, and contact me if you would like a chance to tell it in a plotline.

From the Aldenville Free Press newspaper, page 3. Letters to the editor section.

History depicts the vampire as a soulless, lifeless, and otherwise useless being incapable of thought and feeling, living with only the primal urge to drink blood from prey. They are born from the deaths of those who were evil in life, or had the misfortune to be plagued with one thing on a list of a multitude of unfortunate life events that would, in the end of their days, indicate that they might rise from the dead to drink the blood of the living.

So, what the hell happened to me?

In current times, we hear all sorts of reports, fact or fiction, on various vampires and the way that they were created. Or how they live now in the modern age, adjusting to the quickly passing centuries, growing accustomed to whatever language, culture, or fad that might be out there at that time. How they have grown from mindless drinking machines to soulful artists and human activists, since we all know that we should preserve the food chain. What a better way to do it than to band with those we eat to create a more peaceful world?

Peaceful, yeah right!

Vampires reign in the night, yet foolish mortals do nothing but roam it, waiting to fall victim to the charismatic ambiance perk of being a Nosferatu. They hide in the guise of well-dressed business men who happen to be strolling into a local watering hole alone! Good looking and groomed to the nines, they enter this place of alcohol and sex for what? Not a martini, shaken not stirred, but a glass of your most refreshing AB positive.

Oh look, there she goes now, in her high-heeled boots and fishnets all the way up to her ears.

Local clubs beware, for the fanged menace like to lurk in these dark and unexpected corners, too. They fancy themselves perpetual teenagers, with the neurotic ability to blend into any social scene where loud music, low lighting, and kids dressed in little less than underwear parade around in complete ignorance to the killers in the corner.

There goes Polly-Anna, dancing away on the stripper pole. Too bad the horny, fanged, dead guy in the corner has already pegged her for a late evening snack. Guess she won’t be running home to her quiet suburban neighborhood before dawn to change into her little Catholic schoolgirl outfit so she can make it to mass before classes begin.

Vampires are everywhere. From our city halls right down to the janitors that clean the malls after our little children spend all of their money buying the latest fashions, which were probably invented by the neck-biting, sniveling creatures to expose more flesh for their feasting eyes.

What can I say? I can’t warn you from where I stand, in a darkened alley behind the cover of shadows, trying to block out the light of day from scorching my skin. I can only do what I can to inform you of the vast numbers you are dealing with. Vampires live in every facet of life that you can imagine, and if you think long enough, or take a moment to look around, you might find yourself standing right next to the very thing that used to haunt your dream.

Chapter 1

With a confused look in her silver eyes, she blinked from the daylight that reflected off of the recycled newspaper page and slowly glanced around at the people who passed by her on the crowded main street of the little suburb of Aldenville. The quaint little burg was nestled in the heart of Vermont. It was a quiet town, but it seemed to hold its own in residency. At the moment, it was a sunny, spring afternoon and the shops that lined the street where the little café sat was bustling with people.

Dell Marquis folded the small corner of the page that she had been reading and rubbed her nose. How could such a thing be submitted and accepted by a regional paper? It wasn’t even in the human-interest section; it was in the local news right on page three. Who would want to print such a blatant disregard for privacy in a paper read by tens of thousands of people daily? She shook her head, grabbed the empty Styrofoam cup that held her hot tea, and went to stand up from her chair when a shadow cast over her. Not one for company on any given day, she looked up with a grim frown and stared at the man with the pale green eyes.

He didn’t say a word to her, not verbally anyway, but kept his eyes locked on hers as he moved to sit down in the seat across from her. Dell didn’t quite know what to think, and slowly she sunk back down in the black iron seat to stare at this young man. His eyes were the oldest part of his body, and the ageless soul within shined through, but his complexion was smooth, like a twenty-year-old model. His hair was golden and fashionably cut, his eyebrows plucked to a certain extent, but the curve of his nose told her that he had once fallen victim to a fist flying at a high rate of speed without the opportunity to duck.

She took in his easygoing manner as he sat back in the chair, his hands folded across his khaki shorts and one bare calf resting on the knee of the other leg. His feet were adorned by soft leather sandals that looked quite comfortable to wear, and the dark polo shirt only helped to accentuate his pale skin. Dell shook her head, rubbing her calloused hand across the back of her neck, and cocked an eyebrow in his general direction.

What is it, Norm? she questioned. He shrugged, as if disrupting her break wasn’t anything of importance. Good, then I’ll see you back at the dig site.

Dell stood, tucking the paper under her arm, and made her way down the street. She took her second left as she listened to Norman’s easy pace behind her. Once more she turned, approaching a fenced and gated area. The security guard nodded politely at her, and she heard Norman mumble to the man before following her in.

She tucked her bright auburn hair up under the baseball bat that she had scooped up from her workbench, placed the paper under the other stacks that took up just as much space, and turned to the lanky man who had all but stalked her to work.

Now would be a good time to tell me just what the hell you want before I call Mac over here and have you removed from the property, she bit out between clenched teeth. Norman grinned and cleared his throat.

The dig site is being closed off, he announced, watching as she shook her head once more. It seems our funding has gone down the tubes since your brilliant presentation about absolutely nothing.

I told them exactly what I had found at the time … squat. However, I think they might be impressed about what’s going on now, she replied, stepping up to the large, open hole in the ground.

The dig site stretched thirty feet across the large abandoned lot, and at its deepest point went almost ten feet into the ground. A dozen or so workers milled around, each concentrating on the roped off section of dirt that they were assigned to, but it was the empty corner of the hole that made Dell smile.

She made her way slowly down the metal ladder, Norman Dumas right behind her. With steady feet on the uneven ground, she made her way over mounds of loose gravel and dirt to pause at the edge of the spot where she had stopped digging earlier the evening before.

Norman looked over the light sand before him, not seeing anything of interest; not even the old walls that belonged to a civilization older than his great-grandparents’ grandparents protruded from the dust. Suddenly, he spied the black hole in the corner, hidden carefully by the shadows of the wall and the sun.

We broke through it last night. Dell stepped up to the edge, but quickly reached out with her arm as Norman leaned over. Careful, we’re not sure how sturdy the ground is any closer to the hole. It’s possible that the whole ceiling will give way and we’ll land with our head in our asses.

Always such a lady, Normal snapped and moved back a step. So how do you propose to go about this?

I’ve got a dive team coming in from up north. Peighton Weak is bringing in some cave divers to head down there. They know more about what’s under the surface than we do. Dell stood up, stepping back to lead the visitor to the ladder. We’ll know by tomorrow what’s down there, if anything.

I’ll get right on the phone with our finance department and see what I can do. Norman shrugged. Pray that you find something, Ms. Marquis, besides an empty hole.

Dell wanted to throw a stone at the man who turned and walked away, but she knew that her life’s work depended on him being in a good mood. The site she was working on now was accidentally discovered when a construction crew—who had begun digging up the space for a building’s foundation—uncovered a skeleton believed to be centuries old. While her expertise was not forensic anthropology, she could see the differences just by looking at it with her naked eye. There was something strange about this whole place.

The crew got back to work, carefully digging around pottery, dusting them off with small paintbrushes, and edging out the dirt particles with soft toothbrushes. Dell couldn’t help but stare at the black hole as she sat at the edge of her area, something about the strange opening frightened her as much as it intrigued her and she hoped that Peighton arrived soon so that her curiosity would quickly be sated.

****

Evening rolled in, and the floodlights flashed on to illuminate the area. However, after a hard day in the sun, most of the team was ready to hit the showers and head out on the town to celebrate their progress. Dell was happy with all the work that they had done and was glad to give them some extra time off, but her infatuation with the mystery in the corner wouldn’t let her go. She was wary of leaving the site unattended.

With a steaming cup of coffee in hand, Dell settled down in the rickety rocking chair that she always brought with her while working. It was a comfort to have something from home even if she was so far away. She rocked back in the chair, lifting her feet up to set them on the table, and slowly brought the mug to her lips, inhaling the deep aroma of the brew.

It was then—as she stared up at the bright, star-lit sky—that she heard the strange scratching sound echoing in the quiet night. She set the coffee down and sat forward, hoping to hear it again. For a moment, there was nothing except the silence of the site, but just as she was about to sit back and chalk it up to nerves, she heard the scratching sound once again.

As her heart pounded against her chest, Dell quickly stood and moved over to the ladder, picking up a flashlight that had been abandoned beside the other equipment before descending down into the dusty darkness. She took cautious steps toward the corner and froze as the shadows moved. Her nerves made the flashlight shake, reflecting off from the different angles and activating her overactive imagination.

Hello? she whispered, moving closer to the hole.

What she thought was scratching became more of a grinding, like hard nails against stone. As she leaned in closer, the beam landed on the pale white, skeletal face of a monster with bright red eyes and sharp teeth.

Dell screamed as she fell back on the dirt and scrambled away from the thing that was crawling from the hole. Unfortunately, she wasn’t moving fast enough; its claws reached out and grasped her around the ankle. She turned over, clawing at the ground and trying to get away as the ancient demon pulled her closer to the depth of the darkness. She opened her mouth, wanting to scream for her life, just as those thin, ice-cold claws clamped down around her waist. Someone stepped up to the rocking chair she had just occupied and her eyes grew wide, hoping they would just turn to see her, but it was too late. She was dragged down into the blackness.

****

Peighton Weak watched her old friend’s wide eyes as she was sucked down into the darkness. Her chest pounded as she quickly moved toward the corner of the site and slid down onto her stomach. She knew of the weak crust below her, and as the tears slid down her cheek, she moved by inches toward the gap.

She stopped suddenly, as the ground beneath her rumbled, and flattened out against the dry earth. As the shaking stopped, slowly Peighton opened her eyes and raised her head, once more staring down into the emptiness as a blast of stale and decrepit smelling air burst forth from the opening. She tried desperately to hold in the heaves as the foul smell lingered, but her stomach wrenched, threatening to give way just as a fountain of crimson fluid spouted from the hole in the ground, covering her and the surrounding area with the putrid liquid.

Peighton shook. The blood that covered her was still warm, but stunk of decay and rotten meat. Slowly, she pushed herself back, trying not to become the next victim of the demon below. As she placed her hand down against the sand,