The centuries long conflict of Morgaine the Witch and Michael the immortal knight with the demon Asmodeus continues in the third book in this popular new series that features the occult, magic, witchcraft and alchemy. Raven Lenore, a tough young former cop, private investigator and Wiccan, must investigate the mysterious disappearance of renown psychic, Michael Ellul.
Raven stumbles on a fantastic tale about the suicide of Michael's associate, Morgaine Fabiano, which involves black magic, demon summoning and ritual human sacrifice. She also learns that a Father McGuillicutty also committed suicide on the Ellul's estate, and discovers a daguerreotype from the nineteenth century in which one of the people has a strong resemblance to Michael, the missing psychic. Jack Westcott, a computer scientist, dismisses the notion of supernatural happenings, but informs Raven that the missing Michael studied alchemists such as Doctor Dee to find out the secret of eternal youth. Soon, what started out as an ordinary missing persons investigation turns into a dangerous game against mysterious demonic forces. In the course of the investigation, Raven encounters gunmen, a decomposed corpse, a computer printout that claims that Doctor Frankenstein was a real person, a pagan chapel with a bloody altar surrounded by human bones. What Raven doesn't realize is that even if she survives, it is a case that will leave a multitude of loose ends and unanswered questions.
Excerpt
The storms continued throughout the evening. When we left the hotel, however, they had quieted to a misty drizzle. I told Keith to check the rearview mirror often to ensure that no one from the institute or those government agents followed us. The last thing we needed is to lead these people to the place that I was certain held the answers to the various puzzles. The roads were empty at that time of night, and I was relieved that not one car turned down the secondary road after we left the main highway.
Since our destination was in the mountains, as we drove up a narrow curved mountain highway, the fog and mist increased to the point where we could barely see ahead. As the road became steeper and fog heavier, I said, "Go slow Keith. These mountain roads can be tricky. I'd hate it if you drove off a two hundred foot cliff."
He grunted. "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. Just watch for the entrance to Ellul's estate, there's not much room to make a U-turn."
I supposed we were carping at each other like this because we were nervous. Besides, I was pissed about the way he acted around that damn Van Best woman. Finally I cried, "There it is on the right. By that post." Keith slammed on the brakes, causing the rear end to shimmy and send out a spray of mud in our wake. We ground to a halt inches from the post. What a driver! To make sure that the rutted dirt trail, which was barely wide enough for the car and which disappeared into dense woods, actually led to Moonwood, I got out of the car and read the sign that dangled from the gallows-shaped post. "Moonwood, Welcome seekers after the unknown."
Ellul's driveway was barely wide enough for the car. After we bumped along for several minutes, we came to a six-foot stone wall topped with barbed wire. One side of the rusty wrought-iron gate lay broken across the road. Keith got out of the car and moved it. The rest of the driveway was paved with potholes and wound around and up a hill for a long way. It amazed me that Melody let so much property go to ruin.
After a hairpin turn past a stand of trees, the house loomed into sight. We parked on a curved driveway in front of the porch. I gaped in awe. The massive Victorian structure was like a medieval castle, with many wings, towers and porches spread out before us. With the fog and drizzle, it seemed a fearsome wicked monstrosity out of a Boris Karloff movie.
"Geez Raven, the place is huge. How are we ever gonna search it? We don't even know what we're looking for."
The rain became steadier and harder. Lightning lit up the ominous building looming above us like an evil giant.
"We'll figure that out after we get inside. C'mon, the rain is coming down harder. Run for it."
We scrambled up the front steps onto the roofed but leaky porch. The front door was locked and bolted with boards nailed across it. Since the side entrance was also boarded up, we returned to the main entrance, and I took out a glass cutter from my purse, scratched a four-inch square in a glass side panel, tapped it out with a tack hammer, reached inside and released the lock. Keith pried loose one side of the boards, and we squeezed passed them. With my tack hammer I reached around and tapped the nails back into place and locked the door again. Anyone coming by, unless they noticed the square piece of glass missing, would not be able to tell that the house had been broken into.
The interior was dark as midnight. I moved the beam of my flashlight beam around the immense foyer. It had oak paneling on all the walls, a theater-sized staircase in the middle, a domed ceiling at least three stories high with an enormous chandelier dangling from it, parquet flooring and several double-doors. A thick layer of dust covered everything, and enormous cobwebs hung like thin sheets from the corners and across the staircase.
An icy chill ran down my spine. I'm not usually frightened by anything, not even the supernatural, but Moonwood at midnight during a thunderstorm emanated an aura of evil. Thoughts of death, terror and torture whispered from the corners. My hand shook as I reached for the light switch. Click, nothing happened. "Damn, no electricity. We'll have to stick with flashlights."
"Where first, Raven?" Even Keith's voice quivered.
I screwed up my courage. C'mon Raven, I told myself, it's just an old empty house. There's nothing here that can hurt you. "If we don't want to be here all night, since the place is so big, we'll have to split up. You look around down here. I'll search the upstairs."
"Geez ... I don't know. Don't you think it'd be better if we stuck together. This house gives me the creeps."
I poked him and laughed. "Why the big brave Keith is chicken. Don't tell me you're afraid a ghost is going to jump out at you?"
"You know I don't believe in that stuff."
"Well, what the fuck are you afraid of -- the bogeyman?"
This got his dander up. "Shit, I ain't afraid of nothin'. Go on up. I'll start with that door on the left."
I slapped him on the backside, pushed away the sticky web blocking the staircase and stomped up to the second floor as though I was going up to my own flat. I didn't want Keith to know that I was feeling absolutely terrorized. I know him. He could easily panic and want to return to the motel. His mouth didn't believe in the supernatural, but his feet sure did.
Once past a landing the stairs forked. I crept up the right side whose threads creaked. In the hallway on the second floor, I opened every door I came to and played my flash around each room. Most of them were bedrooms, the furniture covered with sheets and thick dust. Enormous cobwebs were everywhere. Whoever was supposed to clean this place for Melody had shirked their duty.
As I was about to close the door to one room, I heard a low scraping as though an animal was creeping along the floor. The hairs on the back of my neck rose. I moved the beam around the room slowly. When it reached the bed, I shuddered. Staring at me with beady eyes was a large rat chewing on something. I cried, "Ugh," and it scampered away. I noticed a peculiar odor, the nauseating stench that you smell at a garbage dump, only not as strong. I squinted at the bed. Something lumpy was under the sheets. Clamping my teeth together, I slowly approached it, hoping that my guess as to what was under there was wrong.
It wasn't. I picked up the sheet. Lying on the bed was a badly decomposed body of a woman. I drew in my breath, fled the room and had dry heaves in the hallway. "Shit," I cried after I got myself together, "now we'll have to get the cops in on this." I thought, Before I notify the boys in blue though, I'd better call Melody. I recalled seeing a phone in the foyer.
I went back downstairs and called out for Keith. No answer. I shouted louder. Still no reply. Now, where the hell did he go? I thought. I shuddered and wondered where he had wandered off to. Nonetheless, I shrugged, not too worried. It was a big house. He was probably out of voice range.
I picked up a phone on the table next to the stairs. No dial tone. Damn, Melody had the phone service shut off. My cell phone was in the glove compartment of the car. I wasn't about to go out into the dark stormy night until I located Keith.
A great crash of lightning startled me. I hugged myself. I felt colder than ever and more than a little frightened. I wanted, needed, Keith by my side. Rain and wind tore at the house as I stood in the middle of that room feeling like a lost little girl. I mocked myself, but could not get the idea out of my mind that there was an evil presence here. Besides, the thought of that horrible corpse upstairs made my stomach churn again. I had worked myself to a point where I became frozen with panic. I couldn't get myself to move from that spot.
After a few moments in that state, I heard a noise coming from a room down the hall. Thank God, I thought, Keith, blundering around as usual. I almost ran for the closed double-doors where I heard the sound, threw them open and burst into a dark room. As I entered, something heavy and sharp hit me in the back and dug into my flesh.
All Carson Reno Mystery Series Books are standalone novels. It is not necessary to read them in any particular order.
When a Tennessee Highway Patrolman is mysteriously murdered, the clues are nonexistent. Police have the name of a possible suspect,
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