Find Me: Faeries Lost

§ FIND ME §

  Grace Brannigan

  Faeries Lost Series

  Find Me Book 1

  Whisper Me Book 2

  Hear Me Book 3 coming 2014

  Women of Strength Time Travel Series

  Once Upon a Remembrance Book 1

  Soulmates Through Time Book 2

  Treasure So Rare Book 3

  Women of Character Contemporary Series

  Echoes From The Past

  Once and Always

  Heartstealer

  Wishing on a Rodeo Moon

  Romantic Shorts

  Two Babies, a Cowboy and Sara

  Deception - romance with a touch of suspense

  http:/www.GraceBrannigan.com

  All characters, places and events are fictitious and are not associated or inspired by any person, living or dead. The author was not striving for historical accuracy as all places and events are purely fictional and not intended to be historically accurate.

  Find Me

  by Grace Brannigan

  Copyright 2014 Elaine Warfield

  ISBN: 978-1-939061-35-5

  All rights reserved. This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means whatsoever, mechanical, photographic, electronic or in the form of an audio recording or stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or otherwise be copied for public or private use -- other than for brief quotations in articles and reviews -- without prior written consent from the publisher Questor Books.

 

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Questor Books, P.O. Box 100, East Jewett, New York, 12424 USA

  About Find Me ~ Book 1

  Pandimora loves the faerie realm Aisywel, but she's a bit of a rebel, has little interest in the rich faerie history, loves to listen in on private conversations and hops portals into the earth realm against the advice of the high elders.

  All in all her independent spirit isn't going so well in the faerie realm, but what she knows about herself as a faerie will be sorely tested when she is kicked out of her beloved Aisywel. Forced to confront a terrible crime by one of her own high elders, a crime that involves the family she never knew she had, Pandimora must decide how far she will go to expose the truth, even if it means she will be forever exiled from the place she calls home.

  Private investigator Drew Maddox deals in the hard facts of life, so when a faerie falls in the middle of the highway, his world is knocked off kilter. He pursues the mystery of who she is, putting his human life at peril as he follows her to a hidden world he never knew existed, a world he could get lost inside forever if he makes a wrong choice.

  Chapter One

  The naked woman lay on the road thirty feet ahead of Drew Maddox's truck. He hit the brakes, then fought desperately for control as his tires kept turning in the fresh snow. He turned the wheel and his truck slid precariously close to a flimsy guard rail, the only thing between him and a sixty-foot drop. When the truck finally shuddered to a stop, his headlights were a beam in the night, hitting the steel bridge just ahead. He'd never expected to see anything in the road this far out of town, certainly not a woman.

  Thin strings of blue light snapped like electricity in the night sky, sparks showering down like a pyrotechnic display.

  His truck rattled ominously, then went dead, killing the headlights. He shoved open the door and a scream cut through him like a dull filet knife. The eerie quiet that followed settled a shiver across his shoulders.

  Grimly, Drew grabbed a flashlight and exited the vehicle. The woman lay with one arm propping her up, head down, deep red hair hanging to the pavement. Blood stained her neck and temple and her skin appeared wet. Her lower body appeared bound by strips of dark fabric from her hips to her feet.

  Keeping the light on her, he ran toward her as she lifted her head. He stopped. Her eyes reflected the light like a cat's eyes, gold reflecting back at him. His years in law enforcement had made him pretty much shockproof, but now he dropped the light.

  Scrambling furiously, he retrieved the flashlight and shone it back over the area.

  She was gone.

  The only thing left behind was the black binding and a scorch mark easily six feet in diameter.

  Drew hurried to where he'd seen the woman. The scorched area was bone dry while the rest of the road was covered by several inches of snow. Inside the scorched area lay black strips of material, which had already begun to disintegrate.

  He touched the dry pavement, but quickly pulled back as residual sparks jumped along the surface. "What the -- Don't tell me aliens," he muttered. Where was the woman?

  Hearing something behind him he turned quickly, but saw nothing except shadows beyond the guard rail. "Anybody there?" He ran his flashlight up and down the road.

  The air had a weird pulse, pushing at him, and he ducked his head as snow pelted him. When it finally abated, he lifted his head and blinked hard. The woman was lying in the road again.

  Stuff like this didn't happen.

  The electrical sparks seemed to have dissipated, so he quickly moved into the scorched circle to kneel beside her, the pavement warm even though the air was frigid. Snow swirled viciously around them. "Hey, can you hear me? We have to get you out of here. Can you get up?"

  She lay unresponsive, eyes closed, her skin almost as white as the snow.

  "Good God, you're going to freeze to death." Drew shrugged out of his jacket, lifting her shoulders to place it under her and buttoning her into it. Her flesh felt like ice. He kept an arm around her as she sagged against him. In stark contrast to her pale skin, scarlet seeped from horrific burn marks at her temple and right shoulder. In a quick assessment, he took note of a possibly infected tattoo on her arm. At least she appeared to be breathing. The burn marks at her temple distorted her cheek and jaw, the skin swollen and fiery red. It looked really bad and he worried about injuring her further in moving her, but she'd die out here, there was no choice.

  He hit speed dial on his cell and waited to be connected to 911.

  No cell service.

  Swearing under his breath -- she wasn't very big but she was all dead weight -- Drew managed to lift her into his arms, carrying her with her left side against him. A thick, twisted braid of red hair swung against his neck as he carried her. The jacket was the only thing protecting her, and he sure knew it wasn't going to be enough. An intense pulsing energy throbbed where her body touched his, but otherwise she felt wet and intensely cold.

  "Drew."

  He didn't think anything could shock him anymore, but hearing his name on this woman's lips did, and the fact that her voice struck a familiar chord.

  "I'm going to get you help," he said, his thoughts racing. Who was she? Why did something about her seem familiar?

  Wasting no time, he managed to get the passenger door to his truck open and lay her on the cloth seat. Running around to the driver's side, he yanked the door open and jumped inside, hoping it would start. He turned the key and got lucky as the engine turned over.

  Cranking up the heater, he reached behind his seat and pulled out an emergency thermal blanket. Carefully, he maneuvered her onto her side with her bare feet against the passenger door. That's when he saw by the interior light hundreds of tiny, oozing blood spots from her hips down to her feet. The burn marks on her right side were horrific. Adrenalin racing, not sure what he'd stumbled into, Drew feared time was not on her side. He tucked the thermal blanket around her and reversed his truck. A bright flash of light behind him, almost like an explosion, had him hitting the brakes. He put out a hand to
keep the woman from falling off the seat, then drove forward to get away from the billowing smoke.

  Once clear, he again reversed the truck, glancing repeatedly in his rear view mirror to see if anyone was following him.

  Tonight it was one freakish occurrence on top of another. He glanced at her in the dim light and took in a full bottom lip, the curve of her left, unmarred cheek, almost-black lashes in contrast to her bright red hair. She was somewhere in her twenties. As a private investigator he never forgot a face and something about her pulled at strings of memory. He'd remember in time.

  Cynically, Drew hoped the past wasn't coming back to bite him. There'd been a time about a year after Deborah's death that he'd gone on a bender, dating pretty much all the eligible females he came into contact with. He wasn't particularly proud of that time in his life, but ultimately he'd come to realize he needed to focus on work instead of jumping into a new relationship. His ex, with her clinging dependence, had at least taught him that. These days, work seemed an easier solution than a personal life.

  Her eyes. What had eyes like that except for cats and other animals? His glance fell to her face again. Annoyed at himself, he looked back to the road. Trying to figure out her identity would have to wait until she woke up. If she woke up.

  Meanwhile, the road was snowy and dangerous; he'd better pay attention and not land them in a ditch. He'd get her to the hospital and then get back to his business. He was in the middle of an important investigation and he'd been on his way out to meet with his client Mary Palmer when all this happened.

  Mary was gravely ill and all she wanted was for him to find her husband Rick. The job had a short timeline but promised a big payout. Drew needed that money to finally settle Deborah's bills and then he'd have that stress off his back forever. Mary had photographs waiting for him and then he could get going on the case. Mary was a sweet old lady struggling with each breath, an around the clock nurse, and her old man was missing in action. Not his normal investigative case, but the money was right so who was he to quibble over the details?

  "What the --" Drew hit the brakes again as he swerved away from a man standing in the road. Luckily he hadn't been going fast. He turned in his seat to look behind him but didn't see anything or anyone. This was playing too much like déjà vu out here.

  He had the weirdest notion the guy had vanished just before he would have hit him. The whole thing left him feeling pretty uneasy.

  He checked the woman. She'd worked one of her arms out of the thermal blanket. The arm with the tattoo. He stared at it, perplexed. It was no longer swollen, but there was something different ... he counted the points. Eleven. He was good with details. There had been fewer points on the tattoo when he'd seen it earlier. This was getting freakier by the moment. Tattoos don't change on their own.

  Her breath was so shallow it almost seemed as if she weren't breathing at all, but she did move her head.

  "Are you awake? I'm taking you to the hospital," he said, tucking her arm back under the blanket. "I'm Drew Maddox. I found you on the road out by Dell's Bridge. You're pretty badly injured," he added, then began to drive once more, peering with difficulty through the blowing snow.

  "No." Her voice came out a dry croak.

  Drew glanced away from the road a moment. He could just make out the gleam of her eyes, now looking normal, in the gleam of the dashboard lights. "A hospital is the place you need to be. You're in rough shape."

  "Take me back." She struggled to sit upright. "Back to where you found me." Her voice came out a thin thread.

  "There's nothing out there," he said patiently. "We're in the middle of a blizzard. You'll die."

  She shook her head.

  "What's your name?" he asked.

  She put her head back against the truck seat, her blue eyes having an unsettling intensity. "Pandimora."

  "Pandimora." Drew shook his head. "I get the feeling I know you."

  The wind hit the truck with unbelievable force, shaking it.

  "He's coming for me."

  "Who? The person who did this?" He turned on one of the small overhead lights. Perplexed, Drew looked at her head and shoulder where he'd seen raw burn marks only ten minutes ago, but now there were only patches of red, as if she'd healed. "Those were pretty serious burns --" he stared at her suspiciously, slowing the truck and pulling to the side of the road. "What is this -- some kind of game? Real burns don't heal like that," he said.

  "This is not a game," she said. "I was burned."

  "Tell me what's going on," he said harshly. "I don't like being taken for a fool."

  He gripped the shifting lever to put the truck in drive, but she grabbed his wrist with surprising strength. He couldn't remove his hand. He stared down at wispy blue sparks snapping where she'd grabbed his wrist. His skin tingled.

  "Who are you?" he ground out.

  She released him and he was able to let go of the shifting lever. The blue sparks dissipated.

  "How did you do that?"

  Drew stared at her, then avoided her eyes. Looking into their clear blue depths, he had a disorienting sensation of falling. He blinked hard several times. "I've seen you before," he said. "I get a feeling I should know you, but the memory's just not there."

  "It doesn't matter now," she said. "I need to go back." She sat up and looked out the back window. "If I stay, he'll find me."

  "Who?"

  "The elder."

  "You'd have died in the cold." He stared at her searchingly. "Is this gang related? Or is it an abusive boyfriend?"

  "You might find the truth difficult."

  He gave her a cynical smile. "Trust me, I've heard all the stories."

  "An Aisywel elder tried to kill me." He noted the faint tremor of her shoulders. Drew, who had a high freak out threshold, got a chill up his neck.

  "What is Aisywel?" he asked.

  She spoke slowly, as if testing his reaction. "Aisywel is where the faeries live. Aisywel is -- was -- my home."

  Drew leaned back. Geez. He hadn't seen that one coming. "You're a faerie?" He rubbed his forehead, wondering if she was suffering from delusions. "Did you hit your head? I've got to get you to a hospital."

  "No. No. No!"

  "Calm down," he said as her agitation increased. For a split second he thought of Deborah. She'd do crazy things when she didn't get her way, like jump out of a moving vehicle or grab the wheel while he was driving down the interstate. She never thought ahead to the consequences of her actions.

  "I said you may find the truth difficult," she said flatly, shrugging. The thermal blanket slid down her shoulder. Drew pulled it back up.

  "You have to admit that's an unusual -- what kind of place is this Aisywel?" He'd humor her. Maybe she was trying to tell him something important in a round-about way.

  "Aisywel is a place of great joy and light," she said quietly, proudly, then added hesitantly, "At least it always has been."

  "And someone from this place of great joy tried to kill you?" he asked skeptically. "Kind of contrary, don't you think?"

  "But it's true. I managed to escape. Now please take me back. I'm too weak to get there myself."

  As he watched she pulled down the thermal blanket, let it pool at her waist. Before his eyes, a blouse and pants slowly appeared and covered her body under his jacket.

  Drew jerked back in his seat. "This is a trick. Either you're a magician or I'm dreaming," he muttered.

  "There are no tricks involved. Please, please take me back." Drew would swear her pleading was in earnest.

  "All right, all right," he said, "but if there's no one out there I'm driving you to town. You'll have to explain to the sheriff what's going on and get checked out at the hospital." She needed some kind of medical attention.

  She looked down. "This covering has my scent," she muttered, apparently distracted. She gathered the emergency blanket into a ball in her arms. "I must wipe away all knowledge of my presence here in this dimension. All strings of memory go to the place lo
st and not yet found," she said, frowning.

  "There's a lost and not yet found? Come on, this is too much," Drew said, driving back to Dell's Bridge. "I can't believe I'm driving you back out there."

  "The earth realm is the only place with such a dimension," she said seriously. "All things lost remain there until they are found at the appropriate moment. In Aisywel, nothing is lost."

  Pandimora, if that was her real name, needed help. At least now she was conscious but he was still worried about her condition. But he didn't need a woman who would harm herself either. He'd get back to Dell's Bridge as quickly as possible and then back to town.

  He felt vibrations beneath his truck and slowed to a crawl. "What now?" he muttered, peering ahead. "That felt like a tremor of some kind."

  "It's too late. The elder is getting closer!" she cried and put her bare foot over his on the accelerator pedal.

  Drew couldn't get his foot free and the truck jumped ahead on the slippery road, the rear end fishtailing. Quickly, he shifted into neutral as the engine revved high. "Stop!" he said. "You're going to kill both of us."

  She pressed back against the seat and pulled her foot away.

  Angrily, he turned to her. "Listen, you do this my way or I'm not taking you back out there. Keep on your own side of the seat. These conditions are hazardous enough without you getting crazy."

  Pressing her lips together, she nodded.

  "Have you taken any drugs in the last two hours?"

  "No. We are in grave danger from the elder. I'm sorry but I was desperate to get away." Her voice was now low. "Please forgive me."

  "Sit still and I'll get us there, but I won't have you messing around or pulling a stunt like that again. Do you understand?"

  Biting her lips, she nodded.