A Daughter of Nyx Read online

  A Daughter of Nyx

  A Haunted Series novel

  By Alexie Aaron

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

  ~

  Copyright 2018 – Diane L. Fitch writing as Alexie Aaron

  ALSO BY ALEXIE AARON

  HAUNTED SERIES

  in order

  The Hauntings of Cold Creek Hollow

  Ghostly Attachments

  Sand Trap

  PEEPs Lite: Eternal Maze 3.1

  PEEPs Lite: Homecoming 3.2

  Darker than Dark

  The Garden

  Puzzle

  Old Bones

  Things that Go Bump in the Night

  Something Old

  PEEPs Lite: Checking Out 9.1

  PEEPs Lite: Ice and Steel 9.2

  The Middle House: Return to Cold Creek Hollow

  Renovation

  Mind Fray

  The Siege

  NOLA

  Never Forget

  The Old House

  Restitution

  A Rose by Any Other Name

  The Long Game

  Given Enough Rope

  The Return

  Risen

  The Candle

  Book of Souls

  A Daughter of Nyx

  Coming Soon: Sideshow

  CID GARRETT P.I. SERIES

  Cid

  High Court

  Tiny Houses

  CIN FIN-LATHEN MYSTERIES

  Decomposing

  Death by Saxophone

  Discord

  The Wages of Cin

  Unforgivable Cin: An Opera in Three Acts

  To all the daughters of Nyx:

  Women who have wielded great power, be it motherhood, friendship, intelligence, beauty, honesty, compassion or empathy, I am humbled by your striving to make this world a safer, better place to be. May others see your beacon and follow your lead. Thank you.

  Table of Contents

  Rough Seas

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Glossary

  Alexie Aaron

  Rough Seas

  The heavy-lift cargo ship bounced against the hastily constructed wharf. Its size was in direct contrast to its name Toy Boat. True, it was the smallest of the fleet, but what it lacked in size, it made up for in speed. Toy Boat could cruise at a considerable rate, considering the tons of cargo in its hull. Also, it could function with little difficulty moving down the St. Lawrence seaway and through the various locks that it would encounter on its way to Chicago.

  Charles Cooper stood on the bridge and supervised the loading of the artifact. He knew it would be difficult getting the artifact out of the ground. Transporting it over the recently exposed permafrost proved to be an eye-opener, but moving it off the newly discovered island made him wish they had never discovered it in the first place. The expense was staggering. It had all but depleted the grant money. If it wasn’t for the deal he made with the Royal Norwegian Navy to turn the ownership of the wharf over to them when they left, there wouldn’t be enough funds to cover the cost of unloading it and moving it to the Chicago Field Museum.

  There, they would crack the code and open the enormous vault. He hoped to get help from his son-in-law, Theodore Martin. There was no smarter man in Charles’s eyes. He had yet to request his help, but he knew he could play the family card at any time. After all, Ted was married to Charles’s daughter, Mia.

  The reason for not alerting anyone of the upcoming favor had more to do with the secrecy of the project than being an inconsiderate field academic. Charles had been selected for the Icelandic team because of his knowledge of pre-Christian civilizations north of the equator. His wife, Amanda, was brought on because of her meticulous detail in her reporting on Charles’s previous finds. This professional duo constituted a third of the team of experts. The other four disciplines were pre-permafrost botany, beasts, and Norse mythology. It was from clues given in these ancient texts that the treasure trove was located.

  Five years ago, no one knew this island existed. As global warming began to melt the ice, satellites picked up a land mass under the snow. Only a prior treaty put the island underneath the banner of Norway. Otherwise, Russia was ready to settle the island. If this had happened, the treasure would have been lost, as an airbase was scheduled to be built over the remains of the old city.

  The cheaper course of action would have been to open the vault on the island, but after months of trying, the team had decided that, when they left the island because of the winter weather closing in, they would leave with the vault. International treaties could not be depended upon, especially in the recent political climate. Accords had been broken for what seemed like whims. The world was looking for advantages if the peace fell apart. The island not only had a strategic location for a military base but a way to control future shipping routes as the ice floe continued to break up.

  Charles watched as the captain hurried his crew. They had to be ready to leave the island before the remains of Hurricane Helena hit the area. The seas were already showing signs of the agitation caused by the storm. Large blocks of the broken ice floe began to move into the area. This would have made navigation a nightmare at best. Amanda had already left with their team of experts for Chicago.

  Dr. Bernard Wesley had been over the moon when Charles suggested the museum make a bid for the rights to the initial showing of what they were calling the Hidden Island Treasure. Crates of dirt, rocks, and bones had been loaded first before the massive vault. The samples they were bringing back would employ experts for a dozen years or more. This would be the find of the century, and the Coopers would finally get the fame Amanda worked Charles so hard for.

  A thick fog formed in the middle of the island. It moved outwards quickly, enveloping everything in a twelve-foot-high blue mist. Charles, from his vantage point on the highest part of the ship, could still see over the fog for a few miles. He saw an opening in the mist as if it were the Red Sea being parted by Moses. It advanced in a direct line towards the ship. He pointed this anomaly out to the captain.

  Captain Hansen looked at it for a moment and shrugged his shoulders. “Up here it could be anything, even a river of lava. We will pull away soon, so it shouldn’t be a worry.”

  Charles sighed. He could not wait to be underway. Between the approaching storm and the nightmares he’
d been having, the stress was taking a toll. He’d even been seeing the dead walking at one point. Nothing to excite anyone but his daughter’s PEEPs about, just a long procession moving towards the old city from eight directions. The people, for the most part, had been poorly clothed and many were in chains. He had a feeling once his experts came to a consensus, they would find the island had been used as a port for Germanic slave trading. He already could substantiate his theory with his visions, but for the non-sighted world, he needed cold hard evidence, evidence he hoped to find inside the vault.

  The ship had pulled away from the dock and moved a hundred yards towards deeper water when the blue fog broke at the wharf. Out poured a small army. They raised their rough-hewn weapons, and Charles thought he heard a battle cry. The army parted, and three Icelandic ponies moved at a tölt with riders on their backs. The riders turned the horses and followed the ship along the shore until they ran out of land. The riders wore clothing normally associated with royalty. Were these ghosts of slave owners? If this was a residual haunt, like the migration towards the old city, why hadn’t Charles seen them before? If this was a historic occurrence, what was taken of such vast importance that it would generate this kind of phenomena?

  It never occurred to Charles Cooper that it wasn’t a residual haunt or that he was the reason the dead had risen to try and stop him from removing the vault from the island.

  It should have.

  Chapter One

  The woman who waited patiently on the porch of the Lake Michigan mansion was striking. She was petite, but the way she stood seemed to make her taller. Her long, straight, Nordic blonde hair was professionally trimmed and was drawn back by a simple clip. Her clothes weren’t expensive, but she made them look as if they were couture. She smiled and waved at the familiar faces of the men and women who were planting fall flowers in the massive concrete urns that the owner was so proud of.

  The door opened behind her.

  “Mrs. Martin, you have a key,” Baxter scolded.

  Mia smiled. Her moss-green eyes looked up into the somewhat serious face of her mentor. His round glasses made his deep dark-brown eyes seem larger. The autumn breeze caught a lock of his salt-and-pepper hair, and it fell lazily across his forehead.

  Mia wanted to move it away from his face, but she stopped herself. She had to learn that this simple gesture could be misunderstood. She had much to learn. This was why she was here in the first place.

  “I didn’t want to presume. You and the nymphs could have been having an orgy.”

  Baxter’s stern face crinkled, and he smiled. “If we were, you know, you would have been welcomed.”

  “That’s a fib,” Mia said and walked past him into the beautiful foyer.

  “Well, maybe a small one,” he said, closing the door after them. “Let’s have a session in the library this morning.”

  Mia nodded and walked into the large, spacious book-shelved room. She smiled seeing the coffee service setting on the side table.

  “Help yourself.”

  Mia turned and looked at Baxter, taking in his casual uniform of polo shirt, cotton pants, and handsewn leather moccasins.

  He looked at her and asked, “What are you thinking?”

  “I’m trying to find a way of speaking about your clothing without sounding like I’m hitting on you.”

  “I see our last session hit home,” he said.

  “I’ve been doing my homework,” Mia said, pouring herself a cup of coffee. “I never realized how inappropriate some of my comments were until I stopped and thought about the reaction I would receive if I said them.”

  “For example…”

  “Mike was wearing a wonderful, scented aftershave. It was light and spicy. My first instinct would have been to say, ‘You smell good enough to eat.’”

  “And what response would that initiate?”

  “He’d invite me to do just that.”

  “What did you say instead?”

  “Nothing. He didn’t wear it to be noticed. He probably wore it because he liked the way it smelled on him.”

  “I’m quite proud of you, Mia.”

  Mia blushed.

  “I’d like to compliment you on your outfit today. I think you have a great eye for color.”

  “Thank you, Baxter.”

  “Again, I’m impressed. The old Mia would have jumped up and twirled around.”

  “That habit I developed from going shopping with Ralph.”

  “He makes you twirl around?”

  “No, he does.”

  Baxter laughed. “I would really like to meet Ralph.”

  “I think that can be arranged. Do you want to meet him in his natural habitat or at my house?”

  “Next time you have a gathering, please invite me.”

  Mia smiled warmly. “I would love to have you.” She frowned.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Did I step too far?”

  “Mia, when you’re with friends, you don’t have to be so withdrawn. It’s strangers I’m concerned about. You’re a beautiful woman, and it’s natural that you attract the attention of men and women who are looking for a sign that you want to be with them sexually. You’ve told me you want to stay faithful to Ted, which is good since you’re married. I’m just showing you why there are so many misunderstandings. Your present friends and workmates are used to the way you act. To distance yourself too quickly would alarm them, and I’m not sure it would be correct.”

  “I see you have thought about this,” Mia said.

  “Yes, I take my job quite seriously.”

  “I’m glad you agreed to help me. There is so much that is broken about me. I’m surprised that Ted still wants to be married to me.”

  “That’s because Ted was raised on comics. He’s a good fit for you. You’ve chosen well.”

  “I wish you could tell him that. Too often, he’s being told he isn’t worthy. I hate that word…”

  “Worthy?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s so exclusionary. Why do we have to be worthy in order to have good things happen, wonderful people to be with, or just belonging?”

  Baxter just nodded. He was quiet for a while.

  Mia sipped her coffee and looked around the room. She saw small changes: a few new books, new flowers in the vases.

  “Mia, Quentin wants to come home.”

  “That’s wonderful!”

  “His coming home is going to cause you problems.”

  “I love Quentin. How can he be a problem?”

  “No, not him and you. Aside from Ted and those on the island, who knows he’s still alive?”

  “Oh, you’re talking about the birdmen,” Mia realized.

  “Yes.”

  “Nicholai is going to be hurt because I didn’t tell him the complete truth. Victor is going to be angry, and Angelo… I don’t really know how he’ll react.”

  “You were supposed to kill Quentin the Nephilim. You found a way to pull Quentin’s human soul out of the twisted form of the monster. You killed the monster but saved the man. This is what you’ll tell them. I suggest you travel to where they are and meet with the three of them soon, tonight if possible.”

  Mia twisted her hands but didn’t speak.

  “What are you thinking?”

  “Oh, that they aren’t going to be happy. Victor may lash out, and I’m fearing that this will sever my relationship with the Brotherhood.”

  “Why?”

  “I didn’t kill Quentin as ordered.”

  “You killed part of him, the bad part.”

  “I didn’t tell them right away.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I feared Victor would have found him and finished him off. Quentin was very weak. I took him to the island where I knew that He-who-walks-through-time would protect him while Refugia healed him.”

  “That’s Ed and Judy…” Baxter confirmed.

  “Yes, I’m sorry. I should have sai
d so.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “Because this is how I think of them. This is who they were when I first met them.”

  “Tell me about meeting Ed.”

  “Ed had abducted my father, Charles, who is an archeologist. He-who-walks-through-time was on a quest to find out why he wasn’t considered a god in this time. He’s a superhuman and, in his day, had a following, but in this time, no one knows who he is. My father was dragged or carried from place to place until he discovered the reason why Ed wasn’t a god. The reason was somewhat tragic. It started with a regime change, and an effigy of him was destroyed in Cahokia. But he still would have been a person of importance if not for a simple error on the part of an ancient artist. Someone had used inferior dye on a cave painting that told his story. It didn’t last through the ages. It was the color yellow that determined that Ed would not be a god, even though he could and did kill birdmen when Cahokia was thriving. In his time, birdmen were considered pests. I’m ashamed to say that I was attracted to him because he could teach me to do exactly that. I wanted to be able to defend myself when Angelo pressed his advantage.”

  “I see you’ve thought about this. Refugia?”

  “She is the spirit who was hiding out in my mind house. She is a Gray Lady who, after 500 years, wanted to escape the order. While she hitched a ride in my body, I think she activated the birdman gene. From what I know now, it would have happened eventually, but I was heartsick when the feathers appeared.”

  “Much like a tomboy feels when she develops breasts, I imagine.”

  Mia’s face filled with realization. “Yes, I had just accepted that I would always be seeing the dead and was enjoying being a PEEP when the black, moving tattoos appeared on my back. I fell back into feeling like a freak again.”

  “And now?”

  “I’m on my third set of wings. I missed them at one point and find them very useful, but I worry, what’s going to happen next?”

  “I don’t want you to worry. We will work on this together.”

  “Thank you, Baxter.”