The Lurkers Within: (A Havenwood Falls Novella) Read online

  About This Book

  Welcome to the secluded mountain town of Havenwood Falls, home to sexy men, strong women, and neighbors who bite. Discover supernatural mystery, thrills, and romance in a place where everyone has a deep, dark, and often deadly secret.

  Spirit Agent Tasha Young has never fit in. Her talents as a modern-day ghostbuster make her a loner by necessity. Her job is an easy one. Enter a haunted house, remove the misbehaving spirit, collect the cash, and move on to the next city. When she and her team are invited to Havenwood Falls for a special case, she quickly discovers that this retrieval isn’t a simple bag and tag.

  What lurks within is not one aura, but hundreds, and they all have their sights set on Tasha. With only five traps in her possession and a team member already sucked into the spirit world, Tasha is forced to come face to face with her greatest enemy: the Indrori.

  If she can’t find her way out of the spirit realm in time, the Indrori will win the prize he’s been waiting centuries to claim. The future of Tasha, her team, and all of Havenwood Falls rests on the sultry black-haired beauty with the snake tattoo.

  The Lurkers Within

  A Havenwood Falls Novella

  Danielle Bannister

  Contents

  Havenwood Falls Books

  Also by Danielle Bannister

  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

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Havenwood Falls Books

  Forget You Not by Kristie Cook

  Old Wounds by Susan Burdorf

  Fate, Love & Loyalty by E.J. Fechenda

  Covetousness by Randi Cooley Wilson

  The Winged & the Wicked by T.V. Hahn & Kristie Cook

  Alpha’s Queen by Lila Felix

  Ink & Fire by R.K. Ryals

  Lose You Not by Kristie Cook

  Tragic Ink by Heather Hildenbrand

  Nowhere to Hide by Belinda Boring

  Flames Among the Frost by Amy Hale

  Rock Me Gently by Susan Burdorf

  From the Embers by Amy Miles

  Defying Gravity by Kallie Ross

  Gypsy Heart by Randi Cooley Wilson

  Break Me Not by Kristie Cook

  How the Dead Lie by Stacey Rourke

  The Lurkers Within by Danielle Bannister

  The Collector: Awakening by Kristie Cook, R.K. Ryals, Belinda Boring & Nadirah Foxx (December 2018)

  Addicted to You by Belinda Boring (January 2019)

  More books releasing on a monthly basis

  Also try the YA line, Havenwood Falls High, and the historical paranormal line, Legends of Havenwood Falls

  Stay up to date at www.HavenwoodFalls.com

  Subscribe to our reader group and receive free stories and more!

  Also by Danielle Bannister

  Pulled: Book 1 in the Twin Flames Trilogy

  Pulled Back: Book 2 in the Twin Flames Trilogy

  Pulled Back Again: Book 3 in the Twin Flames Trilogy

  Short Shorts

  The ABC’s of Dee

  Enigma

  Doppelganger

  Must Love Coffee

  Netherworld: Book 1 of The Hallowed Realms Trilogy with Amy Miles

  Hollow Earth: Book 2 of The Hallowed Realms Trilogy with Amy Miles

  Copyright © 2018 Danielle Bannister, Ang’dora Productions, LLC

  All rights reserved.

  Published by

  Ang’dora Productions, LLC

  5621 Strand Blvd, Ste 210

  Naples, FL 34110

  Havenwood Falls and Ang’dora Productions and their associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Ang’dora Productions, LLC.

  Cover design by Regina Wamba at MaeIDesign.com

  Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the owner of this book.

  Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

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

  This one goes out to my mom, Sharon Estes, who is my one and only alpha reader. She has to love me no matter what crap drafts I send her way. She reads them all—every single version—to help me find my “oopsies.” Love you, Mom!

  Chapter 1

  “Want me to take point?” Adam asked. His trap was raised high, like you might raise a gun going into a drug bust. His muscles flexed, showing delicious chocolate biceps. There were no two ways about it—that man was fine, but also not on my radar. Poor boy wanted some quaint Christian girl. That’s definitely not me.

  “No need,” I said. “It’s only a Class C spirit. It’s not going anywhere.”

  Generally speaking, Class C spirits were harmless and confined to the places where they died, unless they were way older than this dipshit ghost, who chose to spend his afterlife tormenting a politician. We had him right where we wanted.

  I was the last thing a pissed off ghost wanted to see, for good reason, too. I was the best spirit agent around. When a spirit felt me walk into a room, they knew their time was up. What can I say? I was infamous for being a bitch in both the human and spiritual realms. I wouldn’t apologize for my skills. Or for being the best in my field. I was paid quite well by the feds for handling these “classified” cases. My job was simple: enter a haunted house, remove the misbehaving spirit, collect the cash, and move on to the next city. The world was none the wiser as to just how many ghosts they walked the earth with. Most were harmless. I only went after the ones that became a problem.

  My team was called in this morning to remove a less-than-friendly Casper. This one was trapped in the attic. In a matter of minutes, the job would be over, and I could go back to the hotel, where I planned to sink into their hot tub. It really was the world’s easiest job.

  More often than not, I got assigned a Class B spirit. Those assholes became strong enough to emit sounds but were mostly harmless. Sure, I might end up with a scratch or two from the older ones, but those went away by the end of a day. Because they were so powerless, demonic spirits specialized in the psychological mind-game damage they could do to the humans they’d been forced to live with. This type of auras wrongly blamed humans for the reasons they were trapped between realms. These were the douchebags I specialized in. Grumpy spirits who liked to bite. That didn’t scare me. I was into the rough stuff.

  “Room is clear. Waiting on your call, Agent Young,” the voice in my headpiece said. Ah, Winston was on today’s mission. How wonderful. He was scared shitless of me. As he should have been.

  “We go in when I say we go in, Winston.”

  Winston bumbled an apology, and I focused back on the door.

  Beside me, Adam and my other team member, Eduardo, were all business, their traps poised and ready. They were so serious on these missions. For them, I imagined, this was pretty scary shit. Going up against a spirit
wasn’t as simple for them, mostly because they couldn’t see them the way I could. The imagination was always worse than reality when it came to fear. I could see what I was after, so ghosts didn’t frighten me in the least. The rest of the world was less fortunate.

  To be clear, I couldn’t see a ghost in the same way I could see a human. Spirits were not of this realm anymore, and therefore didn’t hold the same shape as living, breathing humans. Instead, I saw the fragments of what was left of them—their auras. Their souls. It was sort of like looking at humans with heat-seeking glasses. A blob of pulsing energy. It wasn’t crystal clear, but it was enough to be able to aim a trap accurately.

  This baddie in the attic would be a cake walk. Normally, I wouldn’t be called in for such an easy bag and tag but when this spirit took up residency at a VIP’s place, my team was called in by the feds. Of course, if the FBI was asked about its Soul Searcher program and my place on it, it would deny any and all knowledge of me and the other spirit agents. Such was the risk of a confidential job. I was like a ghost myself. Now you see me, now you don’t.

  Only a few dozen teams like mine existed around the world, though most of them didn’t have a team member like me. They had to rely on malfunctioning gadgets and incompetent tech to bring a spirit down. They didn’t actually remove the spirit permanently. They simply pushed them somewhere else, but that wasn’t my concern.

  There were only five of us that the feds had in their employment who were also Recoverers. There were likely dozens more, but none of them wanted to be controlled by the bureaucracy. I didn’t mind. It paid well. Being a Recoverer was another special skill of mine. I could bring back the recently crossed over. Well, I could bring them back if I could get to them within a few hours. I couldn’t bring back anyone long dead like Elvis or Prince, though I totally would if I could.

  Hell, a lot of those “near-death experiences” you read about? Nine times out of ten, it wasn’t a miracle. It was a Recoverer sent to bring the soul back to the human realm. These souls weren’t fully dead. They were stuck in the spirit realm and hadn’t officially crossed over. Like purgatory, I guess. We snatched them out of the waiting rooms of death to live another day. I’d like to say why we brought back who we did had to do with noble reasons like true love, or they had the formula to cure cancer, or some shit like that, but it was usually because they owed money to the mob or were a family member of someone important. The feds charged a pretty penny for a recovery and only those with power could pay it.

  I was recovering more souls than I trapped these days. It’s like all the Recoverers decided to go on vacation at the same time. Lazy fuckers. No one had a strong work ethic anymore. But that was just fine by me. I’d happily take their fees.

  Just then, Eduardo lifted his trap as he winked at me. Unlike Adam, he got off on this part of the gig. He knew the men on this team were there only for show. I was the star, and he liked seeing me in action. Well, Eduardo liked seeing every aspect of me.

  I don’t say I was the star player merely because of my ability to see the spirits and bring back the dead, though those were pretty kick-ass skills. No, I was the leader of the team because I was the only one who could actually use the trap properly. I don’t know if they were just slow on the trigger, aimed wrong, if their guns weren’t calibrated right, or what. Whatever the reason, whatever the job, my traps were the only ones that took the spirits down. Adam and Eduardo were basically my backup dancers. I didn’t need them at my side, but it sure made an intimidating picture to the spirit.

  Nodding, I gave Adam the signal to kick down the attic door. Did we need to break the door to get to the spirit? Hell no. Breaking shit was for the politician’s benefit. Might as well make him believe it was harder than it looked, right? Smoke and mirrors. That’s all ghost hunting and politics were, after all.

  Adam went in first, followed by Eduardo. Each of them shouted for the ghost to show itself. This was really quite a ridiculous thing to say to a ghost, especially with me on the job, but it made them feel useful and masculine to yell.

  The ghost was there, plain as day to me. Eduardo and Adam watched my face to follow where I was looking, so they would know where to aim their traps. Usually, I had to walk around to find the thing cowering in a corner, but this spirit was hovering right in front of me. Almost as if it wanted to be found. In fact, I swear it cocked its head when it saw me.

  “Why, hello,” I said with a smirk.

  Adam and Eduardo raised their traps to where I was focused, but my trap remained at my side as I studied the boldness of the spirit. This was unusual behavior for a spirit. They were typically more skittish when they knew their time was up. Color me intrigued.

  “Fire?” Adam whispered when I stalled the command.

  “Not yet. I need to check on one thing first,” I said, tapping against my earpiece. My eyes never left the aura. Though I couldn’t see actual eyes, I had the sneaking suspicion its focus was directly on me as well.

  “Go ahead, Agent Young,” Winston said in my earpiece.

  “Is my room ready at the Ritz?”

  “Yes. I have booked a king bed, just like you asked.”

  “Good,” I purred. “Eduardo and I plan on making good use of it later.” There was a silence on the other end of the com, which assured me I had made poor Winston blush. I knew full well all our conversations during missions were recorded. I didn’t say such things to torment Winston, but to annoy my commanding officer, Agent Duncan. He didn’t care for the fact that Eduardo and I were screwing around. It was jealousy, pure and simple. They all got that way when I tired of them.

  “I suppose it’s time to trap this spirit and go play, eh, Eduardo?” I whispered into his ear.

  His lips curled into a mischievous smile for a half a second, but then he refocused on the mission, like a good boy.

  I lifted my trap in one fluid movement, waiting for the spirit to make a run for it, but it didn’t move. It held its ground in front of me. Smart spirit. It would have been wasted energy trying to escape from me.

  “Your time is coming,” the female-sounding spirit said, though only I could hear it. I raised my eyebrows, impressed in spite of myself. They normally couldn’t communicate. It took too much energy. Those four words likely drained her completely. She was easy prey now. Not that she wasn’t before.

  “Yeah, yeah, we all meet our maker soon enough. Right now, though, it’s your turn,” I said, before walking right up to her. I pointed the gun to where her head was and pulled the trigger. My wrist singed a bit from the kickback of the gun, but it was a small price to pay.

  “Target acquired.”

  I handed the trap to Adam, who held onto it like it was worth more than gold. Spirits fascinated him. He longed to be able to see them as I did. He always took meticulous notes after each capture, begging me to describe each spirit in as much detail as possible. Apparently, saying it looked like colored smoke wasn’t enough for him. I wished he could see an aura, just once, so he’d get off my back about them.

  Eduardo was less professional about the completion of our mission and opted to grab my ass instead. He pulled me close for a congratulatory kiss. I wasn’t about to object. That man knew how to use his tongue.

  “Get a room,” Adam groaned. Eduardo and I did this sort of thing all the time, so you’d think he’d be used to it by now, but his prudish ways always left me feeling a little dirty. In the good way.

  “Great idea,” I said. I’d had enough work for one day. It was well past time to let off some steam. Eduardo was the perfect way to do it, too. We left the attic, arm in arm, leaving all thoughts of the job behind.

  Chapter 2

  Three months and nine captured spirits later, I still wasn’t tired of Eduardo, which was a record for me. I don’t know if it was because he was Latino and knew how to treat a woman, or if I might have been falling for him. It had to be the first option. I didn’t fall for anyone. I left them too soon to allow for that. Eduardo made me break my own
rule of no more than two dates. Working with a guy you were also sleeping with, however, complicated that rule. It wasn’t as though I could just disappear from his life, like I did with every other guy. It was easy to ditch guys I met when we traveled. Our team was never in one spot for more than a few days. Eduardo was a harder man to shake because he was paid to follow me.

  This thing with him was getting out of hand, though. I had to cut this off. I couldn’t be the monogamous partner he wanted. That just wasn’t me. I was too much of a flirt. After our Thanksgiving break, I’d call it off. It wasn’t fair to him. I’d spend the week screwing his brains out, then I’d toss him to the curb. It was a solid plan.

  That’s when I felt his hands press warmly against my breasts. The way he breathed hot against my neck alerted me to the fact that our morning coffee was about to be postponed.

  “You’re up early,” I teased, reaching my hand around to help him achieve his full potential.

  “I say we skip the gym and do our morning workout in bed,” he murmured.

  “You riding me sounds so much better than me riding the elliptical,” I said in my husky voice that drove him wild.

  For the next half hour or so, we “worked out” so hard it would have made even Jane Fonda proud. When we had finished, he rolled off me, slapping me on the ass as he did. He was still frisky. Good.