“Every birth and death is written in the stars,” I heard Hunter murmur, the mantra of our past chasing us still. But he smiled at me as he said it, and it didn’t sound as fatalistic as before. Maybe because the dark matter in between—no, the gray matter—was all up for grabs.
I looked out the window again, my man beside me, my baby nestled safely in my belly. I was here because of the choices I’d made, and even in hindsight, I’d choose each of them again. But today I’d take those lessons learned and choose something else entirely. I’d leave this world’s conflict and battle to those who wished for it instead.
Still.
When I spotted a movement at the side of the long, dusty road, one that turned out to be a homeless man stretching with the full length of his long day, I trained my gaze on the side mirror and watched him as we passed. My trigger finger twitched against my rounding belly as he watched us back, and I thought of the crossbow hidden beneath my seat, which I’d also chosen to bring with me.
You never knew. However unlikely, one of those who wished for conflict might someday end up inside my white picket fence. They might mistake happiness for weakness. And in that case the choices made in my past wouldn’t be enough. I might have to revisit my definition of a kairotic nature, and reassert who I really am.
But I’m willing to do it. Anyone tempted to come after me and mine should probably know that if they find me they will also scent an emotion as strong as any elemental fury. They will taste my resolve like a bitter lozenge on the tongue. They will touch the air I breathe and come away with scorched fingertips. Keep coming after that, and I swear, they will also finally see the world as I do—in a whorl of fierce and fiery color. And they will know . . . the hue is always red.
Acknowledgments
It’s with immense gratitude that I end this series as I began it: with Miriam Kriss and Diana Gill at my side. Tom Egner has poured his great creative talents into this series, while Will Hinton and Emily Krump have done much to keep me sane. (I’m not sure they could say the same of me.) Copyeditors Eleanor Mikucki and Peter Weissman have made me better by simply doing their jobs so well, and Pamela Spengler-Jaffee and Christine Maddalena have led every cheer. Finally, my thanks to James, whose innumerable additions to my personal and professional lives must be filed under Intangibles, lest they become another book entirely.
About the Author
The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Scent of Shadows, The Taste of Night, The Touch of Twilight, City of Souls, and Cheat the Grave, VICKI PETTERSSON was born and raised in Vegas. She still lives in Sin City, where a backyard view of the Strip regularly inspires her to set down her martini and head back to the computer.
www.vickipettersson.com
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Books by Vicki Pettersson
The Scent of Shadows
The First Sign of the Zodiac
The Taste of Night
The Second Sign of the Zodiac
The Touch of Twilight
The Third Sign of the Zodiac
City of Souls
The Fourth Sign of the Zodiac
Cheat the Grave
The Fifth Sign of the Zodiac
The Neon Graveyard
The Final Sign of the Zodiac
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
NEON GRAVEYARD. Copyright © 2011 by Vicki Pettersson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Cover art by Don Sipley
FIRST EDITION
EPub Edition June 2011 ISBN: 9780062079572
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