Free Dealers of Light by Lara Nance

don’t know how we ended up with this gift, but hey, you can’t deny what’s happened. Whether these dudes are ancient or not, someone’s sucking the Light out of people and killing them.”
    “I think we need to keep all options open,” Cara added. “We can’t ignore this information Alistair ’s uncovered.” She gave Shana a meaningful stare, and her friend’s shoulders slumped.
    “All right, all right.” Shana waved her hands over her head. “But I’m not buying this ancient evil business. I think modern evil’s bad enough.”
    “ What are we going to do about it?” Cara swirled her wine. All this speculating about origins was fine, but it didn’t solve the problem. “And who was the man Amber and I saw?”
    “Obviously , a powerful Light-dealer. Whether good or evil is impossible to tell at this point.” Alistair drained his snifter. Cara stood and carried the brandy bottle from the coffee table to him. The amber liquid sloshed into the glass, and Alistair gave her a wink.
    “You know, he seemed like he came from another era.” Cara handed the full glass back to Alistair. “His mannerisms, like bowing to us, the way he spoke, were all very formal.”
    “ It’s true.” Amber nodded. “Could he be one of these ancients you’re talking about?”
    “It’s possible, I suppose. Our group has stayed isolated here so I don’t know about other areas.” Alistair sipped his brandy and crossed one leg over the other. “We have to assume there are Light-dealers in other cities.”
    “Wait, he told us his name, Rolf something .” Amber put a hand to her chin. She gazed at Cara for help.
    “Van...Rolf Van...” Cara searched her memory . Why hadn’t she remembered? This was vital.
    “ Not Van Helsing, please.” Shana rolled her eyes.
    “No, Van Ha rding. That’s it: Van Harding.” Cara snapped her fingers.
    “How can we find out about him?” Amber turned to Alistair.
    “Yeah, it’s not like there’s a national organization for Light-dealers, or anything,” Shana said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “How would you go about finding a BD unless it was by chance?”
    “BD?” Cara blinked.
    Shana shrugged. “Bad Dealer.”
    “ Well, I’ll just Google Mr. Van Harding and see what we find.” Cara went to her desk in the corner behind Marc and slipped into a chair before it. She flipped up the laptop lid and hit a key to wake it. “Okay, Rolf. Van. Harding.” Her nails clicked on the keys. 
    Tor cleared his throat. “ Thinking as a cop, we should investigate all the questionable deaths and see if there are any similarities. Like where those people worked, lived, exercised, whatever. If we come up with a pattern, we head in that direction.”
    “Do you really think we should get so involved, sweetie?” Amber placed a hand on his arm.
    “We have to, babe. That’s how we roll.” Tor patted her hand. “To the police they’re all unrelated deaths. Only us Dealers know the truth.”
    “ It might be dangerous,” Marc said.
    “It’s creepy, there’s absolutely nothing on anyone named Rolf Van Harding.” Cara turned in her chair and faced the group. “We need more information. Alistair, keep at it. We need to know more about these beings if they’re real.” Everyone nodded. “Tor, Marc and Shana can get information about the people who died, then we can get back together and see if any pieces fall into place.”
    Cara knew her friends were committed to this plan, but it didn’t lessen her fear. Where would all this lead?
    For her part, she had no trouble believing some ancient evil could appear in modern day. Too many unexplained paranormal events existed in the world to completely rule it out. They were about to walk into dangerous secrets of the past, and, she had to admit, Rolf Van Harding might be one of them.
    That made his allure all the more disturbing.
     

 
     
    Chapter Seven
     
    Cara’s car hit a deep pothole on Virginia Beach Blvd., jarring her teeth and her