The Depths of Darkness Read online

  The Depths of Darkness

  by

  Laurie Bowler

  Published by Laurie Bowler at Smashwords.com

  Copyright 2011 Laurie Bowler

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please return to Smashwords and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  *****

  Chapter 1

  He appeared in the dark recesses of my mind, walking around with his attire pristine and yet there was something about him, some strange mysterious darkness that was both compelling and dangerous. For a witch it was a forbidden combination, he never left my mind and remained lurking, always waiting and listening as if ready to strike.

  I stood and watched my computer curser flashing, sighing deeply in exasperation with no idea how to begin the script. My scripts were being ceased by the order of the high witch in my small realm, which contained the last handful of remaining witches in the world.

  Our jobs had been to investigate and interrogate the un-dead creatures that still remained, since the death of Matace. He was the highest witch’s predecessor. His murder had caused outrage and a small number of witches had ventured on their own to find the person or persons responsible.

  My own job had become decidedly difficult in the passing months; the dark stranger seemed to lurk everywhere. I couldn’t shake him from my mind, neither could I see him clearly. The visions and images of his face were barged by the barrier between this world and his. Our only connection seemed to be the vivid dreams that were my only saviour during one of the most harsh times I’d ever known to exist. Prior to this, no one had been bold enough to slay the highest witch and yet it seemed one of them had ventured off course and had done just that.

  In frustration, I slammed my fist hard down on the well worn, tarnished table and watched it splinter slightly with the force; the table had served me well but with age and the expenses of living, it was well worn and terribly tarnished. I wandered over to the window and looked in the direction facing the office block opposite, I spied the other man whose identity was a mystery. The facing adjacent building was imposing on my small neatly packed away office. My office was situated at the rear of the gigantic complex of magic and the many other spaces of the universe that mortals had no idea existed beneath their feet.

  Standing next to the window was the outlined silhouette of a man. He was staring back at me, bold and brave, unknowingly etching me into his memory. He couldn’t get enough, invading my dreams was one thing but working in such close proximity of me was another. His father was the eldest of the un-dead and arranged for his composition to earth and wittingly to the office block where his imminent torture began. Although this man remained a distant and intriguing mystery, I’d felt compelled to find out some information about him to satisfy my own curiosity. The only information that remained at large, was his name.

  ���Why don’t you just take a damn picture?” I muttered angrily as he continued to stare back at me.

  Startled at the reaction when he picked up his phone, I jumped with fright. Had he heard me? What kind of creature was he?

  “Come in,” I called when I heard the sound of the light tapping against my office door, “Father,” I exclaimed, “what are you doing here?”

  “I came to see how my daughter’s new life was going, Patty Deville” he smiled warmly, “and to send a message from your mother,”

  “Is she alright?” I asked worriedly staring at my father trying to decipher why he was really here and why he’d used my full name. He only did that when I was in trouble and hadn’t done it since I was a child, “Do I need to come home?”

  He laughed, his world was entirely human, nothing magical or dangerous existed inside his own bubble and he refused to think inside the bubble that I survived in.

  “She’s fine Patty,” he chuckled, “she wants you over for dinner. I see you have a small neat office.”

  He made a particular emphasis on the word ‘small’. He’d been hurt beyond repair when I’d announced I was leaving to join my birthright, the realm of the witches. He hadn’t understood what had made me want to start in what he referred to as the ‘hocus pocus’ way of life.

  My adoption had been handled with delicate care and detailed attention, so much so that I had no idea what I actually was. I only knew I exhibited certain powers when I needed them the most. Somehow though, Matace had seen through my rather floundering and uncomfortable approach and invited me to join the realm with a warm welcome, keeping me close and away from the worst of the danger.

  “I can’t go to dinner,Dad,” I said, “I’ve got a lot of work to do. Besides you two have more than enough coping with the grandchildren, you don’t need me there with my cell ringing every five minutes,” I joked.

  “Well, if you want to explain to your mother why you’re letting her down again,” He said. “I understand. I know this is important to you although I can’t understand what it is you do all day.”

  “Work dad,” I smiled gently, “and you know exactly what I do here so don’t try and pretend that you don’t.”

  I watched my father leave after several more attempts to get me to go over for dinner. Maybe he didn’t understand the true extent of the murder that had happened and heavily captured me, but I did and it was one thing I wasn’t willing to release only for someone else to find the perpetrator. The killer or killers would pay for this terrible mishap according to the rules and laws that had been written for all races to co-exist.

  Time to leave and get myself home I guess, I thought, shaking my arms to loosen the bunched up muscles that had built since this morning’s phone call that had deeply distressed me.

  “Patty,” the elder had called earlier in her usual demanding voice, “I need you on the front line, and more importantly where’s your report I asked for?” I’d groaned at the time, miserable with the prospects of working with a person I didn’t feel earned the title of the power that came with it.

  Struggling to heft the cases of files and close the door juggling them both, I eventually managed it; I left the office and headed towards the elevator to take me down the stairs to the lobby. I jabbed the button with my forefinger while balancing the large box of files, and I listened to the soft whirring sounds it made as it came up the shaft behind the doors. When the doors opened, hands reached out to relieve me of the files and made me jump as I looked into eyes that had held me captive inside my dreams. This seemed impossible because I’d known Luke for some time although he remained aloof to any of my reports. He seemed to dodge the dangers or the calls for help, and it didn’t sit right that it would be him terrorising me every night and making me toss and turn inside my bed.

  “You,” I snorted, “eh...I mean thank you.”

  He grinned mischievously and carried the files while I rubbed frantically at my arms. I smiled warily focused on the fact I didn’t really know him and he was, after all and above anything else a complete stranger to me although eyes similar to his had appeared in my dreams many times.

  “How are you Luke?” I asked as I stepped into the elevator ahead of him, “How’s the office move going?”

  “It's going great thanks for asking;” he responded. “How about you?”

  Very good tactic! I smiled, changing the subject back to me when I was trying to tactfully obtain information about where his office was actually located. There didn’t seem to be a record of him anywher
e on the office lists and yet he appeared when I least expected it. Luke Granger was a paradox in his own right, nothing seemed to faze him and neither did information miss his ears.

  Nice try there Luke,” I said when he entered into the elevator behind me; “anyway, didn’t you say you had date tonight or something?”

  He suddenly remembered the previous conversation when he’d ventured to ask for pointers on being a great host to a house party coupled with the best way to treat his chosen female mate. With me not being a vampire or classically known as the un-dead, it didn’t bother me to speak about such things although I could only give a human perspective as opposed to the one he was truly looking for.

  “I do have a date.” he grinned boyishly. “She’s human; did you know that?”

  I stared at him from inside the elevator, my mind in turmoil and troubled with unanswered questions of what to do? Logically it shouldn’t be allowed for him to permit himself to accost a human for his own greed; whether it was good or bad, it was still forbidden.

  Oh no!, I thought, what should I do? I have to report it but he’s a friend of sorts, and how can I do that?

  Stuck in a no win situation between the protocols of my agency and the friendship bonds I’d succeeded in building with a vampire, I shrugged and pretended not to hear. Instead I consoled myself with ‘hear no evil see no evil’.

  Luke,” I cleared my throat cautiously. “You know the rules behind you dating a human, and you’re a vampire for fucks sake!”

  “I love it when you swear,” he grinned impishly not taking the slightest bit of notice to anything I’d said. “Anyway,” he shrugged, “humans are better company than the dead, don’t you think?”

  I laughed at his expression, screwing his nose up and protruding his fangs dramatically.

  “I guess so,” I laughed, “so you’re still having your party then?”

  “Yes,” he agreed. “You coming or not? Are you working late?”

  “Sorry,” I sighed, “No can do. I have to work late on a report that is way overdue. If the newly appointed high witch Lilly finds out I haven’t actually started it, well let’s just say I’ll be gone out of the agency before you know it.”

  “That sucks,” he grinned, although a bad choice of words he didn’t seem to notice. “I can’t think of them throwing you out; you’re far too valuable to them.”

  “I wouldn’t put it past her,” I said. “The others don’t understand why I’m even appointed in the first place.”

  “How so?”

  “Because they don’t think I come from a magical family like they do,” I said, “My folks adopted me and I was brought up as a human without any idea of who my real parents are; I have no idea who they are or whether or not they had powers.”

  “Wow,” he said, “well they’d be fools to cut you out. Besides, you can always work for the vampires, you know?”

  I smiled and shook my head; he was truly incorrigible and certainly dynamic. He always seemed to have an answer and he brightened my day when I was feeling at my lowest. Somehow he always sensed my inner turmoil and bad humour, and appeared with a smile and hopeless but fun words.

  “Anyway,” I said taking the files. “See you soon. Enjoy your party.”

  “Take it easy,” he said. “If you change your mind just call”

  “And I suppose you’re going to tell me that with your hearing you’re going to be able to hear me, right?”

  He grinned boyishly and looked younger than most of the vampires I’d seen in real form. They appeared rugged; the air surrounding them had been aristocratic and I’d been frightened and bored at the same time. When I was in the same room as these people, I felt like I was waiting to be the next meal and meet my own death. They seemed to smell of dust and olden clothes that were musty and way older than the fashionable clothing available nowadays. This set them at a wide berth from ‘fitting’ in with the mortal world.

  While trying to juggle the files I had to take home with me to my very quaint apartment, I waivered slightly. It was usually forbidden to take files out from under the spell protecting the building from intruders both mortal and immortal. Just this once, I counteracted the spell and made sure I covered my tracks so I could get the report back to Lilly in time.

  She’d asked me to scrutinise the files to see who had been in contact with Matace recently, shortly before his untimely death. I was almost certain it was her way of keeping me out of the real investigation because she’d never liked me from the beginning when Matace had first employed me. Hopefully I would find something that might hint at who Matace had been dealing with during the last few months of his life. I knew he was into something heavy but he hadn’t disclosed anything to me; he always maintained the barrier that I couldn’t breach of employee and employer.

  After dealing with the rush of traffic, I stopped by the store to get some food. I finally arrived home to see my moggy cat, Herbert. He was waiting patiently by the door, purring and rubbing himself against my leg; it seemed a slight conundrum for a witch to have a cat but I’d had him since my childhood. Witch or not, he was the most faithful friend anyone could ask for.

  Heaving the files through the front door, I dropped them heavily onto the table in my study. Herbert promptly made a sound of disgust at being ignored.

  “Hello boy.” I bent and stroked his fur while he flopped himself onto his back for usual tummy rub. “That’s right,” I laughed. “Want some dinner now huh? How about salmon tonight?”

  Hearing his sniffles and small mewing noises and taking them as appreciation and acceptance for the proffered meal, I went and prepared it for him while heating my ready meal for one in the microwave. If my mother saw me now she’d be incredibly upset at my reluctance to return home for a family meal.

  It wasn’t like I didn’t want to; it was simply the demands of my work load and the sudden death of one of the most defined witches who was so high up in the echelon of the order of the witches. It seemed unreal sometimes to think that he’d been murdered.

  Lilly had released the file that contained the pictures of his body and the details of who had found him, along with the usual strict instructions of not to take it away from the office block so it could be retained under the spell.

  The sound of the microwave bleeping and the rumbling of my stomach brought my attention from staring out of the window into the now darkened small garden at the back of my apartment. It seemed eerily quiet in the complex block tonight. It was almost as if everyone else that lived here had gotten up and left for the night leaving me the solitary peace that I needed to be able to delve my complex mind into the files to establish some details.

  “Right Herbert.” I pulled my attention back to the present, “got to do some digging for the witch.”

  Leaving him happily tucking into his meal while I carried my own into my study, I felt the luxurious deep red carpet under my feet when I kicked off my shoes; I sighed with the relief of removing terribly high heeled shoes wondering why I and so many other women brutalised ourselves everyday by being so uncomfortable. I slipped behind my desk and planted my tray to the side while I waited for my laptop to spring to life with the files to cross reference details for inconsistencies. Whether Lilly liked it or not, I was going to delve into the death of the one person who’d believed in me from the beginning; I would find the murderer.

  I chewed absentmindedly and read the testimonies of some potential witnesses that had been around in the area at the time of his murder; none of them maintained relevant information the same as the evidence that been linked. I paused in mid air with my fork when the photographs of Matace flew free from the pile I’d grasped in my hands. His body appeared tortured with lash marks sprayed across his back. The second picture showed his torso, deep nail marks cut their way across, marking the symbol of an ancient group that had long since stopped entering out world. It was like someone was leaving a calling card, maybe to let us know they were back?

  The group belonged to th
e wolves’ clan. Their own symbolisation to take the claim for a kill was either nail marks trailing on the bare torso or the ferociously deep gruelling bite marks along the neck and the head leaving no doubt in the mind of the viewer that they were on a hunting killing spree.

  However, something wasn’t quite right. The marks were left but didn’t strike me as deep enough for any of the wolf clan. They had differences between them and as far as my knowledge stretched no new breeds had been reported.

  Nothing struck me as out of place. The time and the setting were normal according to the mannerisms of all the creatures that would be the most likely to try and kill Matace for banishing them into the other dimensional world where they would be exiled for the entirety of their life.

  “Nothing.” I muttered shaking angrily when Matace’s face stared back at me from the picture. “Tell me what happened to you? You’re so strong.” I whispered to his image; knowing he’d been killed and tortured was agonising and caused me the strongest of pain that threatened to tear me apart.

  Finally, I came to the photos of the scene taken by our ministry experts who were the ‘clean up merchants’. Their main priority is to clean up before the mortals catch a sniff that something paranormal is happening on their doorstep.

  The dark alleyway I recognised, its dead end had been notoriously claimed for being the place where mortals carried out their own private deals of drug paraphernalia. One of the mortals had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, Tom Simmons. The young mortal of no older than sixteen had been removed, his body massacred beyond recognition. They’d cross referenced his dental records with those of the mortals’ data base to trace his identity. I immediately ruled him out. There was no way that Matace would have a mortal involved in anything to do with the agency; it was preposterous.

  My computer made me jump; the message clearly displayed from Lilly requested her report and demanded to know why the protective spell had been disrupted momentarily. How she knew, I had no idea. She was obviously clearly perplexed and incredibly angered by my decision to remove the files.