Lara Adrian - Midnight Rising

Contents

With my humble gratitude and deepest respect
to all veterans of war

CHAPTER
One

T he woman looked completely out of place in her pristine white blouse and tailored ivory pants. Long, coffee-dark hair cascaded over her shoulders in thick waves, not a single strand disturbed by the moist haze that hung in the air of the forest. She was wearing tall elegant heels, which hadnt seemed to keep her from climbing up a wooded path that had the other hikers around her huffing in the humid July heat.

At the crest of the steep incline, she waited in the shade of a bulky, moss-covered rock formation, unblinking as half a dozen tourists passed her by, some of them snapping pictures of the overlook beyond. They didnt notice her. But then, most people couldnt see the dead.

Dylan Alexander didnt want to see her either.

She hadnt encountered a dead woman since she was twelve years old. That she would see one now, twenty years later and in the middle of the Czech Republic, was more than a little startling. She tried to ignore the apparition, but as Dylan and her three traveling companions made their way up the path, the womans dark eyes found her and rooted on her.

You see me.

Dylan pretended not to hear the static-filled whisper that came from the ghosts unmoving lips. She didnt want to acknowledge the connection. Shed gone so long without one of these weird encounters that shed all but forgotten what it was like.

Dylan had never understood her strange ability to see the dead. Shed never been able to trust it or control it. She could stand in the middle of a cemetery and see nothing, then suddenly find herself up close and personal with one of the departed, as she was here in the mountains about an hour outside Prague.

The ghosts were always female. Generally youthful-looking and vibrant, like the one who stared at her now with an unmistakable desperation in her exotic, deep brown gaze.

You must hear me.

The statement was tinged with a rich, Hispanic accent, the tone pleading.

Hey, Dylan. Come here and let me get a picture of you next to this rock.

The sound of a true, earthly voice jolted Dylans attention away from the beautiful dead woman standing in the nearby arch of weathered sandstone. Janet, a friend of Dylans mother, Sharon, dug into her backpack and pulled out a camera. The summer tour to Europe was Sharons idea; it would have been her last great adventure, but the cancer came back in March and the final round of chemotherapy several weeks ago had left her too weak to travel. More recently, Sharon had been in and out of the hospital with pneumonia, and at her insistence Dylan had taken the trip in her place.

Gotcha, Janet said, clicking off a shot of Dylan and the towering pillars of rock in the wooded valley below. Your mom sure would love this place, honey. Isnt it breathtaking?

Dylan nodded. Well e-mail her the pictures tonight when we get back to the hotel.

She led her group away from the rock, eager to leave the whispering, otherworldly presence behind. They walked down a sloping ridge, into a stand of thin-trunked pines growing in tight formation. Russet leaves and conifer needles from seasons past crushed on the damp path underfoot. It had rained that morning, topped off with a sweltering heat that kept many of the areas tourists away.

The forest was quiet, peacefulexcept for the awareness of ghostly eyes following Dylans every step deeper into the woods.

Im so glad your boss let you have the time off to come with us, added one of the women from behind her on the path. I know how hard you work at the paper, making up all those stories

She doesnt make them up, Marie, Janet chided gently. Theres got to be some truth in Dylans articles or they couldnt print them. Isnt that right, honey?

Dylan scoffed. Well, considering that our front page usually runs at least one alien abduction or demonic possession account, we dont tend to let facts get in the way of a good story. We publish entertainment pieces, not hard-hitting journalism.

Your mom says youre going to be a famous reporter one day, Marie said. A budding Woodward or Bernstein, thats what she says.

Thats right, Janet put in. You know, she showed me an article you wrote during your first newspaper job fresh out of collegeyou were covering some nasty murder case upstate. You remember, dont you, honey?

Yeah, Dylan said, navigating them toward another massive cluster of soaring sandstone towers that rose out of the trees. I remember. But that was a long time ago.

Well, no matter what you do, I know that your mom is very proud of you, Marie said. Youve brought a lot of joy into her life.

Dylan nodded, struggling to find her voice. Thanks.

Both Janet and Marie worked with her mother at the runaway center in Brooklyn. Nancy, the other member of their travel group, had been Sharons best friend since high school. All three of the women had become like extended family to Dylan in the past few months. Three extra pairs of comforting arms, which she was really going to need if she ever lost her mom.

In her heart, Dylan knew it was more a matter of when than if.

For so long, it had been just the two of them. Her father had been absent since Dylan was a kid, not that hed been much of a father when he was present. Her two older brothers were gone too, one of them dead in a car accident, the other having cut all family ties when he joined the service years ago. Dylan and her mom had been left to pick up the pieces, and so they had, each there to lift the other one up when she was down, or to celebrate even the smallest triumphs.

Dylan couldnt bear to think of how empty her life would be without her mom.

Nancy came up and gave Dylan a warm, if sad, smile. It means the world to Sharon that you would experience the trip for her. Youre living it for her, you know?

I know. I wouldnt have missed it for anything.

Dylan hadnt told her travel companionsor her motherthat taking off for two weeks on such short notice was probably going to cost her her job. Part of her didnt really care. She hated working for the cut-rate tabloid anyway. Shed attempted to sell her boss on the idea that she was sure to return from Europe with some decent materialmaybe a Bohemian Bigfoot story, or a Dracula sighting out of Romania.

But selling bullshit to a guy who peddled it for a living was no easy task. Her boss had been pretty clear about his expectations: if Dylan left on this trip, shed better come back with something big, or she didnt need to come back at all.

Whooee, its hot up here, Janet said, sweeping her baseball cap off her short silver curls and running her palm over her brow. Am I the only wimp in this crowd, or would anyone else like to rest for a little bit?

I could use a break, Nancy agreed.

She shrugged off her backpack and set it down on the ground beneath a tall pine tree. Marie joined them, moving off the path and taking a long pull from her water bottle.

Dylan wasnt the least bit tired. She wanted to keep moving. The most impressive climbs and rock formations were still ahead of them. They had only scheduled one day for this part of the trip, and Dylan wanted to cover as much ground as she could.

And then there was the matter of the beautiful dead woman who now stood ahead of them on the path. She stared at Dylan, her energy fading in and out of visible form.