Piercing the Darkness Read online

  Love knows no bounds.

  Cursed by the dark mage who killed her, Hilda Janssen has wandered the Earthly plane as a ghost for fifty years, finally finding her place as an IRT hunter, policing supernatural misfits trapped on Earth after a brutal war.

  When a demon attacks, putting her team in mortal danger, Hilda sacrifices herself to save her friends. She’s already died once; what difference will doing it again make? But instead of meeting a final death, Hilda is cast into the Void, a magical prison from which there is no escape.

  Her only hope is Cade Kerrigan, the lover she left behind after her first death. Their bond and his magic are the only things strong enough to pull her through the Veil. But Cade has no idea his soulmate came back as a ghost, and he isn’t too happy to have been left in the dark.

  They must put aside the baggage of the past to save Hilda from a fate worse than death.

  Warning: Contains star-crossed lovers destined for a second chance, a whirlwind of powerful magic, and a love so strong it defies even death.

  Piercing the Darkness

  Angela Dennis

  Dedication

  So many people go into the making of a book, each equally important in different ways. Many thanks go to everyone behind the scenes at Samhain Publishing who make all of this possible, and to my editor, the incomparable Jessica Corra, whose wisdom, support and guidance have made me a better writer.

  To my best friend, critique partner, beta reader, baby wrangler and all-around good guy, my husband, Jason. Truth be known, I couldn’t do this without you.

  And to Alison, for beta reading your heart out even though we were in a time crunch. You’re the best! I owe you one.

  Last, but far from least, to my son who inspires me each and every day. You have my heart, now and for always. And to my little pumpkin, you’re in my thoughts, now and forever.

  Chapter One

  Hilda couldn’t stop staring at her reflection as she twirled in front of the antique mirror. She stopped, glancing around the living room to make sure she was still alone. The rest of the Interspecies Relations Taskforce, the IRT hunters, had taken the field. She and Agnes were the only ones left at the boarding house. Turning to the side, she ran her fingers through her thick blond hair and pushed it away from her shoulders, checking out her profile. It was weird. She hadn’t had a body in fifty years. It was too bad she’d have to go back to being a ghost.

  Oh well, she’d enjoy it while she could. Grinning, she struck a pose. If Cade could see her now, he’d swallow his tongue. He’d always liked her in skin-tight black leather, hair unbound. Said it was sexier than lingerie. She’d prance around him, shake her ass and flash her breasts before dancing away. She could almost feel him grab her by the waist to toss her onto the bed.

  The memory made her smile, but it was tarnished with regret. Cade was gone. He had been the love of her life, and she had lost him. She hadn’t gone to him after her death because she didn’t want him to cling to her ghost. An immortal from a different dimension, Cade never would have let her go.

  “Don’t get too excited. That body is only temporary. I can’t give you a real one. My sister is the only person I’ve ever known remotely strong enough to pull that off, but she’s…gone.” Agnes’s voice broke, but she covered it quickly with a smile. “Thanks for doing this, Hilda. I owe you.”

  Hilda turned, pushed back all thoughts of Cade and gave the witch her full attention. Agnes was an outsider, but her daughter had been a hunter. Hilda trusted her, although it was against her better judgment. “You shouldn’t have to die to beat this bastard. The spell needs a sacrificial lamb, and I’m already dead. Do what you have to do. I can take it.”

  She gave her reflection one last glance, but it no longer interested her. Agnes’s appearance had reminded her what was at stake. The past few months had been filled with death. The war with the deviants had escalated, and now the demons had introduced a deadly toxin into the human water supply. If the team didn’t beat the demon Ga’loh, they wouldn’t get the cure, and the humans would die. Failure wasn’t an option. And the only way they were going to win was if she had a corporal body so she could cast the spell. A little dragon blood, some powerful magic and, boom, she was human again, at least for the time being.

  “You have to do everything exactly the way I explained.” Agnes grabbed a bag of herbs from the table at her side. “If we don’t do this right, Ga’loh will have us for lunch.”

  Hilda rolled her eyes. “Brenna’s one of the best hunters on the team. Nothing is going to go wrong.” Not that this fight wasn’t important, but Agnes was approaching it like a martyr. Hell, she’d even dressed in head-to-toe white. Who did that? She looked like an angelic barbarian with her long raven hair tied in a tight braid and silver blades strapped to her thighs and calves. “Kinda hard to hide in white, isn’t it?”

  “By the time he sees me, I won’t need to hide.” Agnes opened the front door and stepped outside. “Trust me. We’ve got one chance at this. I’m damn well not going to blow it.”

  “You better not. I’ve got no desire to end up cursed into an alternate dimension, playing Barbies with a demon. Don’t let him take me with him.”

  Agnes turned. “You know the risks. But if it happens, Brenna and Gray won’t stop until they get you back. They’re Shadow Bearers. They can pull you out.”

  “Maybe. But I’d rather avoid the journey, so kick that demon’s ass.” She pushed past Agnes, skipping down the porch steps to the vehicle. No point in dwelling on the negative.

  About an hour later, they rolled up beside the caves at Red Rocks. One of the many victims of the Fall, the amphitheater was little more than a pile of stone. Years ago a human war had ripped the Veil that separated the planes of reality. The force of the tear had pulled supernatural creatures the humans called deviants onto the Earthly plane, trapping them there. Humans and deviants alike had been forced underground, away from the toxic atmosphere. As a result, human survival had depended on the assistance of the sympathetic deviants who had protected them. When the atmosphere had become livable again, the species had struck a tentative truce while they rebuilt. But that truce had made the humans complacent. They had become too comfortable with their deviant counterparts, and demons like Ga’loh were taking full advantage. The IRT policed the deviants and protected the humans, but their reach was limited.

  “You’re zoning out again. Is that a ghost thing?” Agnes tossed Hilda a bag of candles she had pulled from the cab of the truck.

  “Nah. Having a body is screwing with my head. Making me remember crap.” She pulled the candles from the bag and stuffed them in her duffel. It was a steep hike up the mountain. The fewer bags she had to carry the better.

  “I can imagine.” Agnes shut the truck door. “Let’s go. We’ve got a demon to banish.”

  The journey to the caves was treacherous. It was an unmarked path covered in loose stones and dirt, and Agnes set a breaking pace. When they reached the top, Hilda stopped, hands on hips, to catch her breath. She was starting to get nervous. “Just so I’m clear, when Brenna gives the signal, I stay hidden while you start the spell to banish Ga’loh through the Veil. You’ll motion to me when you’re ready, and I’ll join you. Then we spill my blood in the most painful way possible.” She plastered on a false grin. “Piece of cake.”

  “It’s blood magic. The spell won’t work without the appropriate sacrifice, and it’s greedy. Blood isn’t enough. There has to be suffering.” Agnes stepped into the cave. “I promise it’ll be over quickly.”

  “Said the spider to the fly,” Hilda replied, but followed without hesitation.

  T
hey walked in silence until they reached the portion of the tunnel where they would wait. There was a clearing ahead overlooking the cavern where Brenna, Seraph and Mira were confronting Ga’loh. When the time came, Hilda and Agnes would step up to the ledge and make their presence known. But as they unpacked the ingredients for the spell, Hilda felt a sliver of unease. Brenna’s voice rang out in the darkness, raised and filled with anger. She was demanding the cure from the demon. And he wasn’t cooperating. Something was wrong.

  “Work the spell,” Brenna yelled. “I don’t know how much time we have.”

  “Damn it, I’m not ready.” Agnes grabbed at the herbs she had tossed in the dirt.

  “Brenna’s spell isn’t holding. We have to do this now.” Hilda squeezed Agnes’s hand. “I’ll see you on the other side.”

  Hilda held her breath as Agnes stepped into the light. Her voice cut through the air, building the chant they had rehearsed over and over. It was time to be brave, or at least not think too hard about what was going to happen. At Agnes’s signal, she stepped forward, her newly beating heart racing. Closing her eyes, she lost herself in Agnes’s chant. But then she heard the demon’s bitter cackle. The harsh sound scratched at her skin like a thousand thorns.

  “Must feel nice to have a body again, but you’re still a ghost,” he snarled.

  Unnerved, she opened her eyes and glared at the demon, even as he knocked her on her ass with a cloud of dark magic. Damn it to hell. She was back on her feet when she felt a surge of power. Ga’loh had broken Brenna’s binding spell. Frozen in place, both by the spell and her own fear, she watched him slice his wrist with an elongated fingernail. Spreading the tarlike blood across his finger, he flicked it in her direction, a curse spilling from his lips.

  Pain exploded through her body. Flames danced across her skin, searing the flesh until she could smell herself burning. She tried to distance herself, pull her spirit from the flesh, but Agnes’s spell held tight, trapping her inside. As the pain swallowed her breath, she fell to the ground, consumed by darkness.

  Everything hurt, even her teeth. Hilda eased to her hands and knees, spitting dirt from her mouth. She had no idea how much time had passed, and she didn’t really care. All she wanted to know was where the hell she was.

  She tried to stand, but pain brought her back to her knees on the damp ground. Rubbing at her burning eyes, she shook her head. Her vision was blurry at best, and all she could see for miles was dirt and darkness. The air was thick with humidity and stank of wood smoke, burning her lungs each time she inhaled.

  Wait. She was breathing. Ghosts didn’t breathe. And they didn’t hurt.

  Her legs gave out and she collapsed onto the ground. She ran her fingers through the soggy earth at her side, realizing she could feel it. Fighting back her growing alarm, she brushed her fingertips across her face. She could feel that too, and it felt solid.

  Holy shit, she still had a body. She had no idea how that was possible, but she was going with it. This time when she stood, she was prepared for the instant pain and weakness, so she managed to stay on her feet. She spun around, searching for something, anything, other than the endless darkness.

  She definitely was not still on the Earthly plane. This place felt different. The air was gritty, felt dirty against her skin. And something about it seemed…wrong.

  As her eyes adjusted, she realized there were globe-like fixtures scattered beneath the ground. They shimmered with pale blue light that barely penetrated the dense atmosphere. But it was bright enough she could make out the outline of a hillside in the distance. Maybe if she climbed to the top she could get a better look around.

  She wrapped her arms around her chest to try and get warm, realizing she was naked. How she had missed that was anyone’s guess, but it was irrelevant. It wasn’t as if she could pull a pair of pants and a sweater out of thin air. She’d figure it out later, once she got her bearings.

  Bare feet dancing across the rough, pebbled landscape, she kept her eyes focused on the hill in front of her, confident her salvation lay on the other side. The farther she walked, the more confused she became. This plane didn’t fit the description of any plane she’d heard of, and the education Brenna had given her had been fairly extensive. There was a tingle of doubt in the back of her mind, a part of her that was convinced she was finally completely dead and this was her afterlife. But she refused to believe that.

  So she moved forward, step by painful step, against the wind’s resistance, through the thick layers of fog, until she was only a few yards from the hillside. Now that she was close, she realized the hill was made of a series of jagged stones, jutting out at various dangerous-looking angles. It would take a miracle for her to reach the top, but she was known for beating the odds. She’d never know if she didn’t try.

  Her hand was clutching the first notch in the rock when she heard it. A mix between a growl and a hiss echoed through the night. It was so loud, she unconsciously released the rock, pressing both palms over her ears to block it out. The ground shook with the force of whatever was coming and the wind stopped abruptly as if it too was running away.

  The fog parted, giving her a glimpse of the creature stomping across the field and heading her way. Nearly seven feet tall, it was a humanoid monster, with glowing yellow eyes and purple skin that looked like it was molting. But as it moved closer, she realized its skin wasn’t molting, but covered in scars as if someone had taken a knife and tried to skin it.

  Frozen, breath trapped in her lungs, she tried to force herself to move. But the message wasn’t getting through. Sweat broke out on her forehead, her heart pounding erratically. The creature screamed, the sound slamming into her consciousness and waking her unresponsive body. She scrambled up the rock face, moving quicker than she had thought possible. Halfway up she glanced back, convinced the creature would be at her heels.

  But it wasn’t. It merely stood, arms crossed, at the bottom of the hillside and watched her with creepy golden eyes. But Hilda didn’t stop to catch her breath, not trusting the creature to stay put. She collapsed at the top of the hill, exhaustion taking over both her body and mind.

  She’d never imagined she’d end up here. Not in a million years. But that creature bore too uncanny a resemblance to the creatures that had played a key role in the stories Cade had told her when they were together. She’d merely laughed at him, refusing to believe such places existed, much less that he’d seen them. But as she stared down at the creature mocking her from below, she realized that ignoring his warning might have been the stupidest thing she’d ever done.

  Chapter Two

  Cade jerked awake, cursing. It’d been two weeks since the dreams had come back and he’d lost so much sleep, he felt like a zombie. He thought he’d put all this behind him years ago. Yeah, he still remembered Hilda from time to time. Who wouldn’t? She was his soul mate, his dead soul mate. And replaying her death night after night was far from healthy. But he had no idea what had stirred up the memories. It had been more than fifty years.

  He swung his legs over the side of the bed and took two deep breaths, inhaling the distinct smell of salt and sand. When he had come to Taos, New Mexico to bury Hilda, he’d never intended to stay. But he loved this place. It was his Mecca. The only problem was it fell smack dab in the center of a territory dispute between humans and deviants.

  Satisfied his head was clear, he rose and walked barefoot across the threadbare tent to the pine chest on the far side. A flick of his hand and it opened to reveal piles of neatly folded clothes. He grabbed a white T-shirt and a pair of old jeans and slipped them on. He had better things to do than dwell on the past.

  Rhys was waiting for him when he stepped outside. The young mage held a stack of papers in his muscular arms. “Hey, boss. You ready? The troops are gathered and waiting for your orders.”

  Surprised, Cade glanced at the sky. Damn. He’d overslept. The sun was lower t
han he had expected. He had to get the dreams under control; their interference in his life was getting ridiculous. He stepped forward, cloaking himself in confidence and passion because that was what the men he led needed from him. As he walked through their ranks, the swell of their anticipation was unmistakable. It danced in the air around them, spreading on the wind. Their bodies quivered in anticipation of the upcoming battle.

  They bowed their heads in deference, their black cloaks billowing behind them. As human witches, trained by supernatural mages, they stood a chance against the deviant hordes. But it wasn’t an equal fight—the deviants would always hold the advantage. Each time Cade sent them out, he said a prayer most of them would come back alive.

  When he reached the center of the line, he stopped and motioned them to stand around him. “The deviants are pushing our flank; they want this land so they can pull power from the vortex. If they succeed, we’re done. We can’t come back from that. The IRT knows and is sending a group of hunters to reinforce the lines. They’ve finally decided to take a side, and it’s ours.”

  The witches cheered. Cade glanced at Rhys, his second in command, who was more than ready to take over. And it was time. Cade was fed up. He’d been fighting the same battle for half a century. It was time to move on.

  “Rhys is coordinating things with the hunters. He’s in charge of this mission, so treat his words like they’re mine.” Cade bowed his head, giving them the respect they deserved for risking their lives. “Now go kick some ass. Tonight we celebrate.”

  They were still cheering as they transported out using the incantations Cade had taught them. These weren’t your average humans. The combination of their natural abilities as witches had been intensified by the power of the vortex. Mother Nature had helped them in their fight against the deviants. And it was a good thing. Without it they’d already be dead.