Demon Lights Read online

  Demon Lights is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  A Hydra Ebook Original

  Copyright © 2017 by Michael M. Hughes

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Hydra, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

  HYDRA is a registered trademark and the HYDRA colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Ebook ISBN 9780553390254

  Cover design and illustration: Susan Schultz, based on images © goran cakmazovic/Shutterstock (woods); pixelparticle/Shutterstock (lightburst)

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  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Dedication

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  Ray walked alone through the woods.

  He was dreaming; that he knew. It was the same dream every time, and yet despite knowing it, he couldn’t wake up, and he had long since given up trying. The nightmare had its own logic, its own rules. He was its captive until it was finished with him.

  Ahead of him, in the clearing, was the gnarled, sharp rock formation the Blackwater locals called the Hand, each finger casting long shadows from a fire burning within it. In the center of the grasping stone circle, as always, bound and naked on a stone slab and illuminated by the flames, was Ellen.

  Every time he saw her his heart broke all over again.

  Behind her, in a deep red robe that hung to the dirt, stood Lily. She held up an obsidian knife that flashed in the firelight and her bright red lips curved in a smile. “So happy to see you again, Ray,” she said, grasping the haft of the blade in both hands and raising it above Ellen’s bare flesh. “But we really should stop meeting like this.”

  “Ray?” Ellen cried. “Ray, is that you?”

  He tried to call out, but his mouth was frozen, the words stuck in his throat.

  Lily laughed, a shrill witch-screech that cut into his guts. “He’s a little too late, my dear Ellen,” she said. She winked. “He’s always too late. Aren’t you, my love?”

  “Ray?” Ellen’s voice slurred. “Where are you?” Her eyelids opened, but her eyes were glassy and sightless.

  “Shh,” Lily whispered. “This will only hurt a little bit.”

  Ray tried to run toward them but felt a chain bite into his neck. Always the chain holding him back. Nothing ever changed. He knew what she would say next.

  “You never learn, do you?” she said.

  Please, no, not this time, not again.

  “See you soon,” Lily said. She muttered something guttural beneath her breath then brought the knife higher. “Goodnight, Ellen. I’m sorry to say your prince has failed you again.”

  The blade came down. As he heard Ellen’s anguished cry, the flames exploded, searing his vision.

  And then he was somewhere else, lying on his back in a dark, tiny hut. The fire here came from a tiny woodstove, the smoke curling through branches and leaves hanging from the low ceiling. An old woman with a cloudy eye leaned over him. Sabina, the curandera. Her breath smelled like spoiled milk. And even though he was dreaming, he felt the dark, potent surge of the hallucinogenic mushrooms she had fed him, sparks of energy from his bones to the ends of his nerve cells. He tasted blood—the blood of a dove from the potion she had forced down his throat. To take away the poison eating away at his soul. Poison against poison.

  She laughed. Quietly at first, then in hissing bursts. Her rotten breath made him gag. And then he felt the pain, like fire, in his hand. Despite knowing what was coming, when he held up his hand and saw the missing ring finger, and the torn, bloody nub where it used to be, he began to scream.

  Sabina held up his amputated finger. Wiggled it like a worm.

  Again, fire filled his vision.

  “Ray.” Ellen again. Calling to him from darkness. “Ray, please help me. She’s going to kill me. Can you hear me? She has William, too. I’m afraid for him. Please, you need to come now. Ray? Ray?”

  “Ray.”

  A woman stood above him. Pretty, with an angular face and black hair piled high on her head. She was wearing the standard Brotherhood white unisex pants and shirt. It took him a moment to realize where he was. Not in Blackwater, not in Guatemala, not in any of the dozens of places he’d stayed while on the run.

  “Ray, are you feeling okay?”

  He had fallen asleep in a lounge chair in the gardens of Eleusis while watching a group of children splashing in the main pool. It was late afternoon, and the shadows of the trees were lengthening, but it was still hot, and he’d been dropping in and out of a lethargic, sweaty slumber before the nightmare overtook him.

  “Yeah,” he said. He was still trembling.

  The woman eyed him curiously. “I’m Claire. One of the Council.” She had a British accent.

  Ray held out his hand. She shook it firmly. “Nice to meet you, Claire.”

  Her gaze burned into him. “Bad dream?”

  He sat up and ran his fingers through his hair. “Was I mumbling or something?”

  “No. You just seemed…disturbed.”

  He waved his hand. “Nothing major.”

  She didn’t buy it. “Well, I’m sorry to wake you. But Jeremy would like to see you. In the Grove.” She held out her hand. “Come on. I’ll take you.”

  —

  Claire led him to the Grove, Jeremy’s circular office at the center of Eleusis. All things revolved around Jeremy, including the literal layout of the compound. Ray still wasn’t used to the deceptive ambience of the place, how it looked like an exclusive spa resort above the ground, full of frolicking children, elaborate gardens, and couples doing yoga, but concealed a network of tunnels and rooms beneath the surface. In fact, most of Eleusis was underground, though he’d only seen a fraction of it. It was a brilliantly engineered ruse, hidden from satellite photos, disguised as a playground for the perpetually vacationing elites, while the Brotherhood did its real work below—the plotting, secret meetings, psychic training, and coordination of its covert operations around the globe.

  The man who greeted him, dressed all in white, was one of the tylers, the nonspeaking “mystical muscle” as Mantu called them, who always surrounded Jeremy. Claire smiled at Ray, nodded politely to the tyler, and left them.

  The tyler opened the door and directed Ray inside. Jeremy’s office was enormous and more garden than workspace, full of spiky-leafed trees, ferns, grasses, and vines. A fountain gurgled from somewhere within the greenery. The ceiling was an enormous glass dome, so clear it seemed that there was no roof at all. Statues stood around the room, ancient Greek and Roman and Egyptian, and Ray was pretty sure they weren’t reproductions.

  Jeremy stepped from behind a circular desk arrayed with computer monitors. He was thin but muscled, his long hair tied behind his head and a bushy beard hanging to his chest. “Have a seat.” He pointed to two chairs beneath a statue of Mercury. “Thank you for coming, Ray.”

  Ray nodded. Not like I had much choice.

  “It’s been, what…four months?”

  “Almos
t five,” Ray said.

  “Ah, yes. I hear your studies are going well. What do you think of the program so far?”

  Ray sat silent for a moment. “I’m doing it because there’s not much else for me to do here, honestly.”

  “But the meditations are going well, yes? Sister Diana says you’re a natural.”

  He didn’t feel like a natural, but he had been enjoying the meditations. It was strange stuff, full of words and concepts he didn’t understand. You don’t need to understand it, Sister Diana had told him. Just do it and eventually it will all make sense. He ran his fingers along the smooth marble of Mercury’s winged sandal. “They’re keeping me busy, I suppose. But you know my concerns.”

  Jeremy nodded. “Yes. Of course. You’ve made that quite clear. I can assure you we are doing everything in our power to find the two of them.”

  “I hope so,” Ray said. He wanted to dislike Jeremy, but it wasn’t easy. He was weird, like most of the brothers he had met, but he seemed honest. “I appreciate your hospitality. But I’m not here for a vacation. Or a meditation retreat.”

  Jeremy sighed. “I know, Ray. But while you are here, while we’re looking for them, you can help us and we can help you. As Sister Diana has explained, your abilities are uncontrolled. What we call feral. The program I’ve created for you—the meditations and the physical exercises and studies—can help you channel and use those inner gifts for your benefit. There are a number of ways you can collaborate in the Great Work we do here at Eleusis. In particular, if you would just accompany me and the other members of the Council—”

  “No,” Ray said. “I’ve told you I don’t want any part of that.”

  Jeremy clasped his hands as if in prayer and closed his eyes. “You are gifted, Ray. With very rare and important abilities. Even though the circumstance of their awakening was unpleasant, to refuse those gifts would be a terrible waste.”

  “I told you—”

  Jeremy ignored him. “You came into contact with some extraordinary beings. As a child in Blackwater and then again as an adult when you returned. And with the witch Sabina, you broke through to another level. Few have experienced such direct, unfiltered contact.”

  Ray held up his maimed hand. He still sometimes felt the ghost of its missing ring finger. “Yeah. And look what it did to me.”

  Jeremy nodded. “I understand your reticence—”

  “Reticence? I’m done with it. All of it. No more spirits, aliens, witches, none of that shit. I’ve suffered enough.”

  Jeremy pursed his lips. Breathed deeply. “I do understand, Ray. And the last thing I want to do is force you if your heart isn’t in it. But we need you as much as you need us. Your perspective as one whom we call a traveler is critical for the success of our work.” His eyes narrowed. “One day at the excavation site is all I ask of you. You show up, you give us your read on the artifact and its energies, and you’re done. That’s my promise.”

  Ray shook his head. “No. I’m not doing it. Sorry, Jeremy. Call it my intuition, call it common sense. Taking the chance of something like that getting in my head again…taking me over…Just, no. Every time I get talked into doing something I don’t want to do I get fucked.”

  “That’s not going to happen this time. There’s been no indication the artifact is malevolent, first of all. We’re just having a hard time getting a read on it, and your particular talent would be especially useful.”

  “I don’t think so—”

  “The process will be strictly controlled. All you need to do is let us know your impressions when you are in its presence. How it feels, or any thoughts or images that come to mind.”

  Ray stood. “I told you no.” He turned. A tyler had stepped through the doorway and was staring at him without expression. “So let’s move on. What about Mantu? You said I could see him.”

  Jeremy stood and motioned to the tyler. “Of course. He is your friend, and a good man, despite the way he broke his obligations to our order. You can see him, but he is still under detention until judgment is passed.”

  Ray nodded. Mantu had broken a dozen or more of the Order’s rules to help him on his journey from West Virginia to the jungles of Central America. He was currently imprisoned and no one could tell Ray when he would be tried.

  “The tyler will take you. It’s in the facility beneath Complex E.” Jeremy reached out and held Ray’s shoulders. “But please, I want to make something very clear to you. If you help us to study the object—just one visit, as I promised—it may very well help us to find Ellen and William more quickly.”

  “How so?”

  “As you are well aware, things outside of Eleusis…in the world at large…are in a state of terrible chaos.”

  He had stopped paying attention to news from the outside world. It was all too grim, with suitcase nukes exploding in the U.S., Russia, Europe, and the Middle East, followed by martial law, civil unrest, and rumors of emerging pandemics. He’d never liked apocalyptic movies, and now that reality had turned into one he was content to live in the comforting, if illusory, haven of Eleusis. At least until he could find Ellen and William.

  “We’ve lost an enormous number of brothers and allies, as you might imagine. Our enemies were smarter than us, unfortunately, and more numerous than we had suspected. In a purge that took place within three days, most of our highly placed operatives were murdered. Cut down mercilessly. And while our brothers were being slaughtered our systems were hacked. All of our communications—phone, Internet, satellite—are crippled or inoperative. So we need to increasingly rely on our networks in the Inner Realms.”

  “The remote viewers. Sure.” Sister Diana had told him the Brotherhood’s psychic spies were often more reliable than their agents in the field.

  “That’s one part of the operation, yes. But we utilize other means of contact. There are nonphysical entities that provide us with useful information, though communication is difficult. One can’t just call them on a phone. Such contacts require an enormous amount of personal energy to establish even the most rudimentary channels. However, one can boost that energetic connection by plugging into powerful objects or sacred places.”

  Now Jeremy’s request was starting to make sense. “And this thing you’ve found—this artifact—”

  “It can be used like a battery, to put it very simply. An astonishingly powerful battery. I’ve never encountered anything quite like it, in fact. We have been slowly tapping its energy to expand access to our contacts in the Inner Realms.”

  Ray ran his hands through his hair. “So you hook yourselves up to this thing, and it allows you to call your buddies in other dimensions. So they can spy for you.”

  Jeremy smiled. “You’re getting it.”

  “And that might help locate Ellen and William.”

  “And Lily,” Jeremy said. “That’s where our goals coincide, Ray. If we find and eliminate her, we have a chance of winning this endgame. And if she holds Ellen and William, as I believe she does, finding her means finding them, too. We both win.” His eyes brightened. “This is bigger than all of us, Ray. She is the orchestrator of the terrible nightmare. She is the black queen on the chessboard, and we are down to our last few pawns. If we don’t find her, and kill her, I don’t know how long any of us will last.”

  After the enormity of Jeremy’s words set in, Ray laughed under his breath. “Do you realize how ridiculous this sounds? All of it?”

  Jeremy nodded. “To the uninitiated, yes. But you know what’s happening outside of our little haven. And it won’t be long before she finds us.”

  Ray nodded. “Yes.”

  “So will you consider helping us?”

  “I don’t know.” He shook his head. “I want to talk to Mantu first.”

  Jeremy combed his fingers through his beard. “I’ll arrange for you to visit him. I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you.” He waved to the nearby tyler. “But first, go have something to eat and rest up. Claire will come for you at sundown.”
<
br />   —

  The Telesterion dominated the landscape at Eleusis. It was modeled on a classical Greek temple; round, marble-domed, surrounded by pillars and a grove of flowering trees. A solitary path led to it, wide enough for Ray and Claire to walk side by side. Ray’s legs trembled as they moved through the shadows of the trees. He had no idea why he was so uneasy, but a cold, creeping dread worked its way up his spine as they neared the open door.

  “Can you tell me why we’re here? Did they move Mantu?” he asked.

  “No,” Claire said, half-smiling. “After you.”

  He stepped into the darkness.

  It took a moment for his eyes to adjust, and then his breath caught in his throat. Jeremy approached from the shadows holding a burning torch, with the other seven members of the Council at his side, all in floor-length white robes.

  “Welcome, candidate,” Jeremy said.

  Ray held out his hand. “Wait a minute. Hold on. What the hell is this?”

  Jeremy smiled. “As in the times of our fathers and mothers, when yet the earth was young, those who were called to the Mysteries were brought before the Elect, to enter the womb of the Great Mother and stand before judgment.”

  Ray turned to Claire. Her eyes said it all: Don’t resist. You have no choice. Behind him the door closed. Two tylers stood guarding it, longswords held upright in front of them. “You have got to be fucking kidding me.”

  “Sister, lead him to the Chamber of Preparation.”

  Claire took Ray’s arm. “This way,” she whispered.

  The tylers followed them into a small room. “Take your clothes off,” Claire said. “Underwear and socks, too. Leave them on the bench, then put this on.” She handed him a robe and turned her head.

  Ray took the robe from her hands. He shivered. The room was cold and damp, like the inside of a tomb. “Fuck this. Seriously, fuck all this. I don’t want to be part of your cult.”