Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell

by Paul Kane

  Juliet had almost been caught once, when Laurence returned home from work unexpectedly, and she’d had to feign illness to keep him away from the attic room; to keep him from discovering her secret. She’d play the dutiful wife role a little longer, then she and Francis would leave and nobody would be any the wiser.

  Except Laurence had told her then that he’d made arrangements for his daughter to finally come and stay with them, for a short while at first and then maybe permanently. Plans expedited by the fact he was probably lonely, with only Juliet for company.

  “We can be a real family,” he’d said, beaming – the idiot. Little realising that Francis was already plotting to take his skin and complete himself, something he had only just informed her of. If it was the only way, then it was the only way.

  This time, when they were almost caught, it was by Kirsten. Fresh-faced and over in this country for the first time, she was more woman now than girl. And, Francis had managed to convince her to begin with that he was Laurence, in spite of the way Laurence’s skin only just fitted at his hairline and around the eyes. For her part, Juliet had balked at the way he was looking the girl up and down, but dismissed this – if Francis now wanted them to be a family, then there was a chance they could make the situation work.

  It was only when he said to her, “Come to your father,” opening his arms, that Kirsten had realised he was not who he claimed to be. She probably did not know exactly what was wrong, but something told her to run; to get away from that place. Which she had promptly done, wrestling herself out of Francis’ grip, and practically diving out through the front door. This made her dangerous, a threat to their future life together. What if she told the authorities, what if the Cenobites or their agents on Earth caught wind of it? Francis would be taken back and all this would be over.

  That was not tolerable. But Juliet would find a way to fix all this – to fix what was broken. She’d promised Francis, and in turn he’d promised to be with her for an eternity.

  It was all she cared about. It was all she would ever care about.

  This was not over yet. In fact, it was only just beginning...

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  THANKS TO JONATHAN Oliver and the Solaris team for taking a chance on this book, and seeing the same potential in the crossover that I could. A huge thank you to Mark Miller at Seraphim and, of course, to Clive who not only put his full support behind this project but graciously offered some excellent insights – even down to suggesting I change the names of the original clients to Cotton, to foreshadow later events; something we did elsewhere in the book as well, as you’ll have seen. A big thank you to Sam Gretton for the superb cover, and to Christian Francis for his input. Thanks to Charles Prepolec, Holmes expert who published my first ever Sherlock horror story, for taking a look at the manuscript before I sent it in, and fellow Holmes author Mark Latham for not minding my niggling questions. A big thank you to Barbie Wilde, not only for the introduction but for allowing me to use some of her kick-ass female Cenobites from her SST collection Voices of the Damned. And thanks to Sarah Pinborough, Simon Clark, Tim Lebbon and Nancy Holder for doing the same with ‘The Confessor’, ‘The Lord of Quarters’, ‘The Gardener’ and ‘The Ravisher’ from Hellbound Hearts, plus Gary Tunnicliffe for allowing fan favourite ‘Spike’ to cameo. The same goes for Nancy Springer, who kindly gave permission for me to use the name of Enola Holmes – Sherlock’s little sister – from the excellent YA mysteries that she writes. Thanks also to everyone who has kept the Hellraiser mythos alive for thirty years and have been such an inspiration, especially people like Doug Bradley, Pete Atkins, Stephen Jones, Ashley Laurence, Simon Bamford, Tony Randel, Nick Vince, Dan Chichester, Tony Hickox, Ben Meares, Rick Bota, Phil & Sarah Stokes and the Leviathan guys. Lastly a big-words-are-not-enough-thank-you to my lovely family and especially to my wife Marie, who not only offered support and encouragement during the writing of this one, but also truly wonderful edits. Love you sweetheart.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Paul Kane is the award-winning, bestselling author and editor of over sixty books – including the Arrowhead trilogy for Abaddon (gathered together in the bestselling Hooded Man omnibus, revolving around a post-apocalyptic version of Robin Hood), Ghosts, Monsters and Nailbiters. His anthologies include the Hellraiser-themed book for Simon & Schuster, Hellbound Hearts, The Mammoth Book of Body Horror for Constable & Robinson and Beyond Rue Morgue for Titan, while his popular Holmes stories ‘The Greatest Mystery’ (Gaslight Arcanum) and ‘The Case of the Lost Soul’ (The Mammoth Book of Sherlock Holmes Abroad) have been well received and critically acclaimed. He has been called ‘the resident Hellraiser expert’ by Clive Barker himself and ‘the world’s leading expert on the Hellraiser films and their mythology’ by Peter Atkins (who wrote Hellraisers II-IV), while Pinhead himself, Doug Bradley, said in the introduction to the bestselling The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy, ‘It would be, perhaps, facile of me to say that he has such sights to show you, but the simple fact is, he has’. Paul also designed his very own puzzle box, ‘The Scribe Configuration’, for the Pyramid Gallery complete with its own mythology.

  He has been a Guest at Alt.Fiction five times, was a Guest at the first SFX Weekender, at Thought Bubble in 2011, Derbyshire Literary Festival and Off the Shelf in 2012, Monster Mash and Event Horizon in 2013, Edge-Lit in 2014, plus HorrorCon, HorrorFest and Grimm Up North in 2015, as well as being a panellist at FantasyCon and the World Fantasy Convention. His work has been optioned and adapted for the big and small screen, including for US network television. His latest novels are Lunar (set to be turned into a feature film), the YA story The Rainbow Man (as P.B. Kane), and the sequel to RED – Blood RED. He lives in Derbyshire, UK, with his wife Marie O’Regan, his family and a black cat called Mina. Find out more at his site www.shadow-writer.co.uk which has featured Guest Writers such as Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Charlaine Harris, Dean Koontz and Guillermo del Toro.

  AFTER THE WORLD DIED, THE LEGEND WAS REBORN.

  When civilisation shuddered and died, Robert Stokes lost everything, including his wife and his son. The ex-cop retreated into the woods near Nottingham, to live off the land and wait to join his family. As the world descended into a new Dark Age, he turned his back on it all.

  The foreign mercenary and arms dealer De Falaise sees England is ripe for conquest. He works his way up the country, forging an army and pillaging as he goes. When De Falaise arrives at Nottingham and sets up his new dominion, Robert is drawn reluctantly into the resistance. From Sherwood he leads the fight and takes on the mantle of the world’s greatest folk hero.

  The Hooded Man and his allies will become a symbol of freedom, a shining light in the horror of a blighted world, but he can never rest: De Falaise is only the first of his kind.

  This omnibus collects the novels Arrowhead, Broken Arrow and Arrowland, with a new introduction by editor Jonathan Oliver. The ebook edition also exclusively collects the stories ‘The Servitor,’ ‘Perfect Presents,’ and ‘Signs and Portents.’

  www.abaddonbooks.com

  THE WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS DETECTIVE, AS YOU’VE NEVER SEEN HIM BEFORE!

  This is Sherlock Holmes as you’ve never seen him before: as an architect in a sleepy Australian town, as a gentleman in seventeenth-century Worcestershire, as a precocious school girl in a modern British comprehensive. He’s dodging his rent in the squalid rooms of the notorious Chelsea Hotel in ’68, and preventing a bloody war between the terrible Lords Wizard of a world of fantasy.

  Editor David Thomas Moore brings together the finest of celebrated and new talent in SF and Fantasy to create a spectrum of Holmes stories that will confound everything you ever thought you knew about the world’s greatest detective.

  Featuring fourteen original stories by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Emma Newman, Gini Koch, Guy Adams, Ian Edginton, James Lovegrove, Glen Mehn, Jamie Wyman, JE Cohen, Jenni Hill, Joan de la Haye, Kaaron Warren, Kasey Lansdale and Kelly Hale.

  www.abaddonbooks.com
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  When Liz Drake’s best friend vanishes, nothing can stop her nightmares. Driven by the certainty he needs her help, she crosses a continent to search for him. She finds Blake comatose in a Vancouver hospital, victim of a mysterious accident that claimed his lover’s life – in her dreams he drowns.

  Blake’s new circle of artists and mystics draws her in, but all of them are lying or keeping dangerous secrets. Soon nightmare creatures stalk the waking city, and Liz can’t fight a dream from the daylight world: to rescue Blake she must brave the darkest depths of the Dreamlands.

  Even the attempt could kill her, or leave her mind trapped or broken. And if she succeeds, she must face the monstrous Yellow King, whose slave Blake is on the verge of becoming forever.

  ‘Amanda Downum infuses both Lovecraftian and Carcosian influences into Dreams of Shreds & Tatters, creating a variety of urban fantasy far darker and more dangerous than what we’ve been accustomed to.’

  Steve Rasnic Tem, author of Deadfall Hotel

  www.solarisbooks.com