The Night Series - Entire Series Boxed Set : New World Immortal Mayan Vampire Romance

by Lisa Kessler

  Nothing Calisto said seemed to sway her resolve.

  The two men watched the private jet roll away toward the runway before Lukas finally turned to leave. Calisto caught up after a moment, matching his stride.

  “You do not look well, my friend,” Calisto said.

  “So I’m your friend now?” Lukas attempted a smile but his chest tightened.

  Calisto raked his fingers through his hair, clenching his jaw. “Would you rather be my foe?”

  Lukas shook his head. “Do you ever answer a question without asking another one?”

  “I do not want to make this trip.” He stopped, his gaze locked on Lukas. “I have to keep her safe.”

  In the blink of an eye, Calisto was gone, and a large raven soared through the night at an impossible speed, following the chartered plane to Mexico. Lukas watched him for a moment before shifting and taking flight himself. He took solace knowing that Gretchen was safe in San Diego, far from the Yucatan jungle.

  Lukas followed a few steps behind Calisto and Kate as they walked through the parking area of the small airport in Cancun. Watching them together made it tough to ignore the bitter pit in his stomach. He’d left Gretchen without even saying goodbye. But there’d been no other option. He couldn’t put her in danger again. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the red, angry marks on the base of her neck, marring her soft creamy skin.

  The Demon almost convinced her to kill herself.

  But seeing his maker moving through the lot with his hand at the small of Kate’s back made Lukas’s chest hurt. He rubbed absently at the ache. He’d been alone for more than a century; he knew better than to form relationships with mortals.

  And wishing for something he could never have was not only painful but also a waste of energy. It didn’t seem to make him stop wishing he had Gretchen beside him, though.

  Outside, lightning shot across the night sky, and the warm wind wrapped them in its humid embrace.

  “It looks like it’s going to rain,” Kate said. “Maybe we should find a place in Cancun tonight, and tomorrow night Lukas can take us to see the altar.”

  Lukas frowned. “It will be daylight soon, and a hotel isn’t a good option for…our kind.”

  He could almost see the light bulb pop on over her head. “Sometimes I forget I’m—” Kate stopped herself mid-sentence, glancing at all the people passing by. “Well, old habits can be hard to break.”

  Calisto nodded, but his attention was on a young boy selling newspapers. “Please excuse me for a moment.”

  He returned with a newspaper and a frown.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, glancing at the Spanish headlines. “What does it say?”

  Calisto scanned the article. “More mass suicides. The body count has now passed two thousand.”

  “In less than a week?”

  “It’s the Demon,” Lukas said quietly. “It has to be.”

  “How can you be so certain?” Calisto folded the paper and tucked it under his arm.

  The image of Gretchen curled up on her bed with blood all over her neck splashed through his mind. Lukas clenched his jaw. “Because I’ve seen what it can do.”

  Gretchen reached the water’s edge and gasped. Zafrina started transforming, but unlike Lukas, she didn’t become a bird. Her skin rippled, no longer smooth, until her entire body was covered in scales. Her face elongated, and razor-sharp teeth jutted out of her jaws. Gretchen rubbed her eyes, her mind still resisting the impossible scene before her.

  Zafrina no longer stood beside her. In her place was an enormous alligator. It snapped its jaws and slithered into the dark water.

  Come.

  Gretchen heard Zafrina’s voice, but not with her ears. The sound didn’t come from the alligator. Zafrina spoke directly into her mind. Just like the Demon…

  She patted her pocket of flares and tucked the flare gun into her belt. They were supposed to be waterproof, but after watching a woman shift into an alligator right in front of her, whether or not a flare gun would be adequate protection seemed laughable.

  Panicked laughter threatened to bubble from her throat. Gretchen swallowed it back, her rational mind reclaiming control. If this Night Walker, or whatever she was, wanted to kill her, she would have done it already, flare gun or not.

  No time to hesitate. She wakes. Come!

  Gretchen waded out into the water, her heart pounding in her ears as she stared at the huge alligator. The reptile slowly moved in front of her, the water swishing quietly around its tail. It looked back at her, and Gretchen took a tentative step forward, deeper into the water.

  Did it want her to climb on its back?

  She scanned the blackness of the rainforest. She couldn’t go back alone, not this late at night. With a determined breath, Gretchen faced forward again and slowly lay down on the alligator’s back, cringing as the cold water seeped through her clothes.

  Seebak! Zafrina’s voice spoke in the ancient Mayan language inside her mind, telling her to hurry.

  Gretchen wrapped her arms around the alligator’s neck, and in an instant, the creature swam with as much speed as a boat. Impossible speed for a reptile, but this wasn’t an ordinary alligator.

  Salt water stung her face, spraying back through her hair as Zafrina swam through the dark sea. All Gretchen could do was hold on. She didn’t know where they were going, or if she would be safe once they got there, but she would face that future when she found it. For now, she focused on her grip, hanging on tight until they reached land.

  When the alligator finally drug her up onto the sand, Gretchen’s arms were screaming with pain, her muscles knotted and aching. She let go of Zafrina’s neck and rolled off to the side with a groan.

  The sound of grinding cartilage made her turn. Zafrina’s powerful tail split down the middle, and gradually the scales smoothed into two tanned legs. Her entire body contorted and reshaped itself until Zafrina was once more a woman who stood right at Gretchen’s feet. She stared down at her with a curious half-smile.

  “You know of Camalotz, yet you still come back to this place. Why?”

  Gretchen got up, trying in vain to dust some of the sand off of her wet body. “I needed some answers.” She met Zafrina’s eyes. “But I don’t know Camalotz. What does that mean?”

  “The Demon.” Zafrina gestured for her to follow. “Come.”

  Gretchen made her way through the palms and ferns. “Where are we?”

  “My home,” she said. “Cozumel Island.”

  “Are there other Night Walkers here?”

  “No,” Zafrina answered, leading her deeper into the jungle toward a stone wall. “This is my home.”

  Gretchen followed Zafrina until the forest thinned and they reached a clearing. The ground still had remains of what was probably a road at one time. Gretchen squinted in the darkness, struggling to keep up with her guide. Zafrina moved at a brisk, sure-footed pace, leading Gretchen to believe the other woman had heightened night vision. Did all Night Walkers have that? Did Lukas?

  Just keep up with her, Gretchen reminded herself.

  “I will not leave you behind,” Zafrina said. “We have much to talk about.”

  Gretchen was grateful for the cover of night. Surely her surprise was written all over her face. Zafrina could read her thoughts just as Lukas had.

  They passed under an ancient stone archway and continued until they were again lost in the thick of the trees. After what felt like hours, Zafrina finally stopped. Gretchen’s body ached and itched all over, but scratching only added to her misery. The salt water and sand in her clothes further irritated her skin until she wanted to scream.

  “Come. I have fresh bathing water,” Zafrina said quietly as she led Gretchen to another small clearing.

  Gretchen looked around, but there didn’t appear to be a pond or water of any kind. Instead, there was only a slope of earth rising from the ground with a jagged opening. Zafrina walked toward the cave, and Gretchen followed close behind.

&nb
sp; “Shield your face,” Zafrina warned.

  Gretchen didn’t need to ask why. Vampire bats were indigenous to these tropical forests, and dark, stale-aired holes like this one were their most favored resting places. She raised her arm up, tilting her face down against it, and held her breath. She hated bats.

  It was highly unscientific, but the thought of a furry, erratically flying animal with sharp fangs that fed on blood frightened her. The irony that Lukas admitted to drinking blood didn’t escape her. Sometimes life had a sick sense of humor.

  Gretchen knew these bats didn’t often attack humans—they usually preyed on cattle and other large slow animals—but none of that knowledge changed her feelings for them. Bats scared the crap out of her, plain and simple.

  Taking a tentative step inside, Gretchen stayed close to Zafrina without raising her head to take in her surroundings. She could look later. For now, she was perfectly happy to just scoot along the cool rock wall without alerting a swarm of bloodthirsty bats.

  The air felt thick and moist. When Zafrina finally came to a stop, Gretchen lowered her arm from her face with a tentative sigh of relief.

  “You fear bats,” Zafrina said, reminding Gretchen again that she should be mindful of her thoughts. Night Walkers could read them as easily as if she spoke them aloud, apparently.

  “Not always,” Zafrina said matter-of-factly. “There are ways to hide your mind from others.”

  Zafrina lit a tiny clay oil lamp. A flickering firelight rose up in the darkness, making their shadows dance on the walls around them. Gretchen’s eyes ached for the light, struggling to see through the dim glow. An underground river filled a long-forgotten cenote in the center of the floor, but it wasn’t the fresh water that had Gretchen’s attention. The cavern was covered in Mayan glyphs. She turned in a circle, surrounded in centuries of lost history. Her heart pounded in her ears when she finally met Zafrina’s eyes.

  “Did you paint these?”

  “He’le’,” she answered in her native tongue. “Yes.”

  Gretchen swallowed the lump in her throat, her gaze moving to the walls again. “You know the written language of the Maya. You never forgot.”

  Zafrina nodded in the shadows. “Many tried to erase our world, but some of us still live.”

  “Night Walkers…”

  “Yes. Gods and goddesses, priests and priestesses, forgotten long ago.”

  “How did you learn my language?”

  “I learn much from the minds of the people nearby. I speak in many tongues.”

  Gretchen looked back over her shoulder. Zafrina was gazing into the shadows, her orange eyes distant, almost haunted.

  “You knew Lukas and I were here all this time. You knew we were at the altar, didn’t you?”

  Zafrina turned to meet her eyes, sending a chill down Gretchen’s spine. “Many nights I swam to the mainland and watched you work.”

  “What do you know about the Demon?”

  “Camalotz was the beginning of our end,” she answered. “And your world will be next if we cannot stop her.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Colin paced the length of the pyramid, his usually lighthearted expression dark with worry. “It is nearly daylight. Where is he?”

  “Kane is strong, brother. He will be here.” Issa tuned his gaze skyward. “He worries for the safety of his woman across the sea. It gives him more reason than we have to find Ch’en and end this threat. He will search until there is no darkness left in the sky.”

  “Perhaps Kane has found the goddess.” Issa turned to find the God of the North approaching, the faint moonlight glowing against Mulac’s white hair.

  “No.” Issa shook his head.

  Colin crossed his arms over his chest. “He would have called to us, Mulac.”

  “Someone else called to him.” The white-haired immortal stopped between Issa and Colin, his eyes moving between the two. “You did not hear the voice in your minds?”

  Colin frowned. “Who called?”

  “I do not know, but the mental call was from a female and she sounded exhausted.”

  “Could it be his mate? He told us she stayed behind.” Issa’s gaze narrowed.

  “We left her back in Paris.” Colin pulled his red hair back from his forehead with a frustrated sigh. “Why would she follow us? Kane should have told us—we could help him locate Rita. Maybe it is not too late.” He started toward the jungle when Issa caught his arm.

  “The sun will rise within the hour.” Issa wondered whom he was convincing, himself or his brother. “We are too vulnerable to help him now. As soon as the sun sets, our search will begin.”

  Colin jerked his arm free. “By then it may be too late.”

  “Issa is right,” Mulac interrupted. “The sunrise is too close. Kane is strong. He will find shelter.”

  Colin shook his head. “If it were one of us, Kane would act with his heart, not his head.”

  “You are probably right.” Issa nodded. “That does not change the rising of the sun.”

  Issa waited. If Colin insisted on hunting for Kane, no one would be able to stop him, but if the Demon found any one of them alone, they would be at risk. Together, they could face her. Apart, she could bring them down.

  Colin looked back toward the jungle and finally whispered, “Be well, my brother.”

  Slowly, the three gods retreated into the darkness of the pyramid, through a secret chamber known only to them.

  Lukas landed in front of the research tent, once more returning to his human form. When he saw a Jeep parked beside the door, he froze. Panic shot through him.

  “What is it?” Calisto asked, walking up beside him.

  “I told her to go home,” Lukas said, more to himself than Calisto.

  His heart raced. It had to be Gretchen’s. She was the only other person who knew where their research area was located. But she knew the danger here, she knew about the Demon. He’d told her to stay away…

  He rushed inside the tent and his heart sank. Her things were on the table, but her bed wasn’t being slept in. She was gone. His stomach knotted up so tight he felt ill. He came out of the tent, his pulse pounding through his veins. “I have to find her.”

  Kate walked toward him, no longer a wolf, but a woman reaching out to him. “The sun will be up soon. You don’t have time.”

  He bit back the frustration that threatened to strangle him and forced himself to speak. “She’s all alone. I can’t just wait until tomorrow night.”

  “Who?” Calisto asked.

  “A friend. She’s a scientist, a mortal.” Lukas sighed before meeting his eyes. “I can’t let anything happen to her.”

  “We will help you search for her at the next nightfall,” Calisto said. “You cannot help her if you are burned by the sun.”

  “He’s right.” Kate nodded. “If you want to help her, we should wait.”

  Lukas found himself vacillating from sick with worry to burning with rage. What part of “go home” did she not get? How could Gretchen put herself in danger like this?

  How would he go on if something happened to her?

  “This tent has too many seams for the sun’s rays. Do you have a resting place nearby?” Calisto asked.

  Lukas nodded and started walking. His hands trembled. He found no hope to cling to; instead, dread suffocated him. The same panic that had seized him when he found her unconscious at the hotel overwhelmed him again.

  She deserved better than this mess he had tangled her up in. He had to get her out of it somehow…

  If it wasn’t already too late.

  Zafrina held the oil lamp up beside the north wall of the cavern while Gretchen took in the story painted on the stone.

  “Am I translating this part right?” Gretchen asked over her shoulder. “You were a Priestess?”

  “He’le’.” Zafrina nodded. “How do you read my language? You have no teacher.”

  “A few years ago, someone deciphered the Mayan calendar, and gradually we st
arted to translate more of the glyphs.”

  “So you guess.”

  Gretchen laughed with a shrug. “Yes, you could call it educated guessing. But I’m glad to see that we’ve been pretty close on our translations.” Her laughter died away as she stared at Zafrina through the shadows. “Why are you helping me?”

  “I have not helped you yet. I bring you here to this place so we can talk without fear of the Demon. She does not know you are here. Not yet.”

  Gretchen couldn’t hold back the shiver that ran through her body. “Why does she care about me?”

  “We will talk later, after you have learned to keep your thoughts your own.”

  “But why—” Gretchen tried to ask again.

  “Because I know something about the Demon the others do not. You are wise. You will tell them and make them listen.”

  “There are no others, Zafrina. It’s just me this time, and I’m in no position to cage a Demon. A week ago I wouldn’t have even believed there was a Demon.”

  “You are wrong.” Her eyes sparkled in the dim lamplight. “There are others. The immortal brothers have returned. Our Gods of the North, South, East, and West have joined together again after millennia of separation. They are here, and you will find them.”

  “The priests who trapped the Demon a thousand years ago…the Night Walkers.” She met Zafrina’s gaze. “They could kill me.”

  “Camalotz has already tried.”

  “How do you know that?”

  Zafrina tapped her temple. “Your mind is open to me. I am a Night Walker. I can see your fear of her.” She lowered the lantern. “First you must learn to hide your thoughts. Then we will talk about the past.”

  “If you know the gods are here, why don’t you find them and tell them what you know yourself? They’d be more likely to believe you, anyway.”

  “I have my reasons,” Zafrina answered, turning her attention to the cenote in the center of the chamber. “Come. Wash in the fresh water, and I will fetch you some dry clothes. Then we work until the sun rises.”