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  Stranger than Fiction

  W.R.A.I.T.H

  R.T. Lucas & LJ Halkett

  Stranger Than Fiction

  Copyright © 2014

  Published by Dark Hollows Press

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  Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, is forbidden. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law.

  WRAITH: Stranger Than Fiction

  Copyright © 2014 R.T. Lucas & LJ Halkett

  ISBN 10: 1940756855

  ISBN 13: 978-1-940756-85-1

  Author: R.T. Lucas & LJ Halkett

  Editor: Ashley Kain

  Original Publication Date: June 2014

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2014 by Dark Hollows Press

  Cover Design by 3 Rusted Spoons

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  W.R.A.I.T.H

  Witness Recovery and Inter-dimensional Tactical Hunters.

  There is world just beyond our own. A world where Fairies and Demons rule, where Fae and Paranormal creatures exist in a dimension parallel to our world.

  It is the Vargr Realm.

  The Vargr have known about our world for thousands of years and have, in the past, crossed dimensions to prey on it. In recent centuries, however, the Vargr Ruling Council has tried to put a stop to it. Humans have become more technologically savvy and some human scientists have even come close to cracking the barriers that exist between the realms. But there are those who disobey the law…

  The Vargr are attracted to humans. Some like to eat humans. Some come to have sex with us. Some travel to our world to obtain items that are common on Earth, but priceless on Vargr. A special Vargr task force has been established to retrieve those of the Vargr Realm who travel between the dimensions unlawfully and to neutralize any human witnesses who come in contact with these travelers. The Vargr Ruling Council has contacted the governments of our world and they have agreed to cooperate in order to protect human citizens. But there is a war brewing in the Vargr Realm…

  As a civil war begins to brew in the Vargr Realm, the agents of WRAITH find themselves caught in the crossfire. Can the agents - human and Vargr - find the common ground needed to see that the order between the world is preserved?

  Chapter One

  My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun –

  In Corners - till a Day

  The Owner passed - identified -

  And carried Me away

  —Emily Dickinson

  A feeling of satisfaction swept over Maddy Scott as she rubbed the swollen joints of her hands. She had exhausted herself, but her smile at her accomplishment was undeniable. It was a feeling that was mixed in equal measures with relief.

  Some seventy thousand words had been hammered out on the battered, outdated laptop she used for her work, and it had taken months of struggle, obsession and inspiration to put them all there. Not forgetting the bathloads of coffee

  Maddy had just completed writing the third of her best-selling series of books and within hours of her publisher’s deadline. As was her custom, she waited until she had finished her books before naming them. She considered them her ‘babies’ and thought it bad luck to choose a name before they were full term.

  An idea popped into her head and she gave a small shriek—Hunting for Love. That was it, the name of this book. Hurriedly typing it and saving the document, she sent a cover note with the email and felt a little empty as she watched it go to her editor. The jubilation of finishing a book was always short lived for Maddy—because as soon as one story finished, she was already mentally moving on to the next one.

  Her readers were loyal and committed to her and their thirst for her books almost matched the thirst her characters had for blood and magic. She didn’t know where her ideas came from—that was the most common question she was asked by readers and bloggers. The world that she created was as real to her as the one she lived in, but it was full of demons, vampires, paranormal beings with super powers and strange talents. Sometimes she wished that the world she wrote was real and she could live there and be a part of the excitement and thrills. ‘Be careful what you wish for.’ Her gran’s words echoed in her head.

  Maddy pushed away from her writing desk and wandered into her kitchen, where she opened the cupboard and pulled out a bag of chips and a chocolate bar the size of her hand. This was also part of her postpartum ritual. The sweets were a treat for all her hard work, and a comfort at the inevitable nerves that this time the editor would come back to request numerous changes. Self-doubt was her constant companion. Well, that and her ragdoll cat Henry.

  Just as Maddy was about to nosedive into her bag of chips, her phone rang. Puzzled, she walked over to answer it. No one ever called her this late at night. Hell, no one ever called her at all, unless it was cold-calling salesmen or wrong numbers. Putting on her telephone voice, she answered, but there didn’t seem to be anyone on the other end. Dropping the receiver back on the cradle, she was about to return to the sofa when it rang again. By now, she was annoyed and snatched up the receiver. After a few seconds of silence a muffled male voice on the other end spoke to her. His voice was distorted and so deep she couldn’t even make out an accent.

  “They are on to you. You have been careless, Maddison Scott. Heed this warning and run for your life.”

  As quickly as the message had been given, the mysterious caller rang off. Maddy stood with wide eyes still holding the receiver as the repetitive beep-beep-beep of the ringtone sounded in her ear.

  Had she just been threatened? Maybe it was one of the crazy ‘Misery-Readers’ that her online author friends had often discussed and laughed about. Surely not—how could they have gotten her number? Uneasy, Maddy walked back to sit down. She wasn’t laughing now.

  A week passed. Maddy checked her emails for the hundredth time, and bit her bottom lip nervously. Her editor had sent a reply. Screwing her eyes up, she blindly hit the key on her laptop to open the email, then opened one eye, then the other and started to read quickly.

  She jumped in her chair, and gave a hearty “Ya-hooo!” Her editor, Clara Remington, thought it was her best work yet and would have the edits back to her within the week. She was convinced it would outsell the other books in the series and there was the old familiar question. Just where do you get your ideas from girl? I swear if Vargr really existed, and the men were that hot, I’d be relocating there in a heartbeat!

  It wasn’t ego that was fueling her reaction, just pure and simple relief that she hadn’t written a turkey and made a fool out of herself. She trusted her editor’s opinion. Clara never said anything other than what she really felt, and Maddy valued that.

  At age thirty three, Maddy had never had a long-term relationship. She had always been categorised by her male friends as the ‘dependable’ one—the girlfriend who was a good listener, the advice giver, the one who was always good for a laugh. She was always there for them when they were suffering from unrequited love, or their own relationships were hitting trouble.

 
; When she was in her twenties, she despised her reputation as dependable and wished that just once someone would see her as desirable and sexy. For once she wanted to be noticed as a woman.

  It was when she hit the mid-twenties when Maddy gave in to society’s whims and undertook every fad diet that was on the market. She saved up hard from her job as a hospital receptionist, and paid for a total make-over. Her old clothes were sent to the charity store to make way for a whole new wardrobe; she was plucked, waxed and exfoliated in places she didn’t even knew existed on her body; she took lessons in how to do her hair and makeup—she learned all about the torture contraptions known as ‘posture-control’ panties and Spanx.

  Broke, defeated—but with silky smooth skin and a bra that defied gravity!—Maddy came to the realisation that love, lust and happily ever after just didn’t happen to girls like her. And so, she went back to her nine-to-five and slipped all too easily back into the ‘dependable friend’ role again.

  That coincided with the start of her writing career. It was a way of bringing to life another world where she could escape...a separate reality to the humdrum of her real life.

  Ever since Maddy could remember, she had always had such vivid dreams and a wild imagination. She was so immersed in her daydreams as a child, and spoke about them with such startling detail, that her mom and dad had taken her to a child psychologist. They were frightened she was hallucinating or had some sort of schizophrenia.

  She didn’t, and the psychologist sent them on their merry way telling her parents it was a phase and she would ‘grow out of it’. Maddy hadn’t, however, and as she grew older the world in her head became as real as watching a soap opera on the television. She could zone in on particular characters, get into their heads and read their thoughts. It was a wonderful world where nothing was as it seemed. Each person had a supernatural gift and there was never a dull moment!

  So when Maddy started to write, she used her imaginary world as the basis for her fiction—and named it Vargr. That name had appeared in her head about age thirteen and she had never bothered to question what it stood for. But the Vargr series of supernatural whodunits were international best sellers. She had a group of readers who called themselves the Vargr-Vixens and she received letters and emails from all around the world. Her publisher had also mentioned the possibility of the series being picked up by some TV exec, although Maddy would believe that when she saw it.

  ****

  Troy Nabu was just over six feet in height, slight of build with sky blue eyes and short black-blue hair. His slender appearance was deceiving: he packed a powerful punch, and there was a long line of meatheads who thought they could pick on him to score points for their egos—and who limped away nursing their wounds and pride afterwards. He was a Sylph, one of the air spirits who lived in the Vargr Realm.

  Sylphs were fine-featured like the faerie, with small iridescent wings that folded back into their shoulder-blades unless being displayed or used as extra limbs. The Sylph were renowned as being sympathetic to the human kind. They were drawn to others who were creative or artistic and were a noble race. If a Sylph gave their word of honour, then they swore to protect and defend until death.

  Troy Nabu stood to attention as the orders were read out from the Captain. Troy was a prison officer in Vargr’s notorious Caer-Sidi Detention Centre which housed the most dangerous supernatural and mythical creatures for crimes against humans as well as their own kind. Occasionally it also housed mortals from the human realm who had been deemed ‘persons of interest’—which usually meant that they had witnessed some sort of supernatural event of beings and were intent on spreading the news amongst other mortals. The WRAITH agents tried to wipe their memories, but some proved more resistant than others. Then they remained behind bars until the authorities could figure out just what to do with them.

  Of course, there were creatures from Vargr who also defied the treaty and ventured forth into the human world usually intent on causing mayhem, mischief and -rarely, but significantly- murder. That was why King Egill had set up the Witness Relocation and Inter-dimensional Tactical Hunters—WRAITH. It was the military arm of the World Protection and Detection Agency, and this organisation comprised of both human and supernatural agents to ensure justice was served on both sides of the realms.

  The peace between the Vargr Realm and the human realm was tenuous at best. A secret treaty between both Realms had been secured under the rule of King Egill and the human’s government leaders. As long as a tribute of one human was made to the Vargr King every five years, then he would ensure that all supernatural beings would be kept from entering the mortal world.

  Of course, all of that had been before the recent and brutal coup d’état by the new king. He was Marek, king of the Fairies and now the high king himself.

  Caer-Sidi Detention Centre was a sub-division of WRAITH. At just over six feet in height, Troy had only just made it through the selection process for the Vargr Guards. He was slight of build with sky-blue eyes and short black-blue hair. His slender appearance was deceiving—he packed a powerful punch, and there was a long line of meatheads who thought they could pick on him to score points for their egos—and who limped away nursing their wounds and pride afterwards.

  Troy looked at the comms pad in his hand and read down the list of names and their crimes which had just been distributed. Glancing at the list as he listened to the captain, Troy’s mind wandered. Each shift change they went through the same routine but he had noticed that since King Marek’s rise to power, the crimes seemed to be the same, only the names had changed.

  As his eyes lazily scanned down the page, he stopped and stared as one name jumped out at him from all the others. Maddison Scott. The name seemed somehow familiar to him, but he couldn’t place it. Checking against her name he was surprised to read that she was a human. Troy read the charge she was accused of —‘Exposing classified secrets and putting the Realm in danger.’ She was labelled an ‘enemy of the state.’

  The penalty, if the charges were proven, was death.

  Troy listened intently to the end of today’s address. The Hunters from the WRAITH division had been deployed and it wouldn’t be long before the accused would be tracked. In the case of Vargr citizens, they would be put to trial and imprisoned or executed. In the case of any humans being tracked, they would either be neutralised or brought back to Vargr for relocation. It was extremely unusual for a human to be put on trial.

  Troy’s eyebrow arched as he noted that the Hunters were under instructions not to neutralise or relocate Maddison Scott. She was to be imprisoned and prepared for trial as soon as she was apprehended.

  This wasn’t only unusual, but Troy couldn’t remember a single other instance when that order had been given.

  Chapter Two

  And now We roam in Sovereign Woods -

  And now We hunt the Doe -

  And every time I speak for Him

  The Mountains straight reply

  —Emily Dickinson

  Standing in his freshly pressed black uniform with the WRAITH badge bright against the darkness, Storm Alaziel checked his weapons and waited for the wizard to cast his spell and open the Blood Gates—the mystical portal between the two realms.

  For as long as Storm could remember, he had always wanted to be a Hunter. He was six feet five inches tall in human measures and worked hard to keep his body in optimum shape. His roped muscles and taut body was almost a work of art—and he needed the power and strength to keep him at the top of his game. It was a matter of pride that he had never lost a target, or been unable to track one down.

  Storm Alaziel was a cobalt sprite, like his father before him. Cobalt sprites were usually invisible, but could materialise into the form of a human. His gifts were invaluable to his line of work, but he chose to maintain his corporeal form most of the time. He just preferred it that way. His twin brother, Tempest favoured their mother, a stone sprite.

  Half o
f Storm’s comrades were envious of him, the other half in awe and treated him like a rock star. The envy he could understand, but the hangers-on and wannabe’s merely puzzled and irritated him. It was simple, focus and dedicate your life to your work, and the results would speak for themselves.

  Instead his comrades all wanted to have lives separate from WRAITH—drinking, socialising and some even mating with one or more partners. They only had themselves to blame when their retrieval and arrest scores were below par, Storm thought dryly.

  That life was not for Storm. He loved Vargr and was prepared to die for it. He couldn’t understand why no one else thought that way.

  Today’s target was a human female charged with being an Enemy of the Realm. Each Hunter had his own targets, and as he read the profile of Maddison Scott, he felt cheated and disappointed. The charge indicated a highly valuable catch, but she was a human with apparently no weapons training, posed no physical threat and didn’t have any history of violence or terrorism. The fact that this seemingly harmless human had been selected for him was almost insulting. Storm was renowned for bringing in the hardened criminals who had committed the most despicable deeds—the sociopaths and psychopaths, serial killers, mutilators and of course, the bombers. The chemical experts; and creators of weapons of mass destruction. The type of creatures that the other Hunters tended to shy away from.

  Smoothing his hand over his recently shaved head, Storm took off his shades revealing the steel grey of his eyes. Storm bowed before his squadron leader, Dola. Each division of Hunters had a leader and Dola, who was a Fate Spirit, was one of the most highly respected in the organisation. “Dola, what’s the deal with this human? Surely I should be dealing with something more challenging?” His square jaw ticked slightly as he waited for an answer.