Night Series Collection: Books 1 and 2

by RS Black

Lights and sounds flashed around and through us, making me feel cold and jittery. When she finally stopped, I knew immediately we were back in Mexico.

  Asher’s eyes zoomed around the barren landscape with the gleam of a predator. The fine hairs on my arms stood on edge as my demons, in tune to my emotions, slithered to wakefulness.

  The old woman stepped to the side, drawing out her arm and pointing to a large red rock off in the distance.

  “There?” I asked, but she didn’t answer or move, just continued to point like a compass needle toward true north.

  The world slept and white clouds in the indigo sky practically gleamed from the full moon, which hung like a bright, silvery orb. A shooting star flared past.

  “What do you think, Priest? Is there treachery afoot?”

  He didn’t laugh at my dumb joke. “If I say run, Pandora, you’d better do it this time.”

  “Not a chance, Ash. So don’t even bother.”

  Growling, he tugged me forward. I tried but failed to hide my smile.

  Although, the second we walked into the cave I was no longer smiling. Both Ash and I took several sniffs of air. There was no smell of rot—this place smelled like walking into an almond factory must.

  It was strong, but not overpowering.

  Frowning, still clearly anxious, he kept ahead of me. It was so cute when he tried to protect me. I’d been alone for years. Being taken care of wasn’t something I was comfortable with, but I was learning to accept it.

  Wall torches lit almost like magic whenever we passed one, lighting our way. A cool breeze caused their flame to flicker. The anticipation of being set upon made every creak and groan seem ten times louder and far more threatening than a couple of pebbles skidding across the stone floor should.

  But there was nothing waiting for us at the end of the long tunnel. The pathway opened up into a medium-size room carved out of the rock, and standing in the middle of it was the girl with the blue dress from the other night.

  Except this time she wasn’t dressed in blue, tonight she wore a brilliant gown of white that appeared to be threaded through with gems at the hem. Her feet were bare and her hair was plaited in an intricate mass of braids. Her face was painted with the skull mask.

  “You’re the queen?” I gasped. The girl was young. Extraordinarily young to have to wear such a heavy mantle upon her slim shoulders.

  She inclined her head. “Demon and consort, you are most welcome here.”

  Her voice was strong and passionate, her English perfect. Keen eyes—one brown, one green—landed on me.

  “It wasn’t you, was it?” I asked without preamble or even acknowledgement of her greeting, excited because I knew I was about to get some desperately needed answers. “Did you know what the hive did?”

  Her chin inclined a fraction of an inch, and though her bearing was regal, she hadn’t been able to hide her quick flinch from me. “I barely escaped with my life.” She swallowed hard. “You must understand that as queen, I should have been able to save my hive. Lorena discovered the generators and was able to whisk me to safety.” Her eyes grew distant. “The men took my children and destroyed them.”

  As she talked, I saw three figures emerge from shadows. It was the man from the bar, Juanita, and the young boy.

  My skin crawled as I realized that they’d been very much dead last I’d seen them. Noticing my wide-eyed look, she nodded.

  “I was able to save them because you buried them with such love.”

  The three sets of eyes looked down at the ground. None of them were savaged as they’d last been; all three of them looked like real, solid flesh. Not dead at all. Their skin gleamed and their eyes were bright.

  I shook my head. “But I saw him disappear at the taco stand, and you denied ever seeing him.”

  Brilliant white teeth flashed at me. “I never denied it, I simply did not answer. I sensed the evil upon him, the touch of the Triad. I could not change him at the time; he was infected with something. So I took him. But before I had a chance to secure him, he vanished again. I believe the Triad returned for him. Whatever happened, he was next discovered dead among them.” She pointed at the other two.

  “What do you mean that because of burying them with love you were able to bring them back?”

  The flickering shadows of candlelight played across her macabre-looking face.

  “To reanimate that which was killed with evil would bring back a fractured, broken mind, one I cannot control. There must be love present in order for my powers to work at their height. You cared enough to see them buried properly and that was enough to heal them.”

  “What of the other zombies? They looked nothing like them,” I said, because these bodies in front of me looked fresh, not even dead. As did Lorena—none of them looked like horror-movie props.

  She shrugged. “As I said, to bring someone back who wasn’t buried with the proper reverence would cause the mind to be fractured, destroyed. That is what you saw. Some of them were mine.”

  I remembered the corpses that seemed as alive as myself— I’d wondered at the time at how different they were from the others.

  “But many were not.” She stopped talking as if taking a moment to regain her composure. “They were slain by evil hands and brought back with corrupt magic. I tried to warn you, but I couldn’t get too close. The eyes watch me constantly.”

  Licking my lips, I took a step closer. At this the zombies lifted their heads and circled their queen in a protective circle.

  Holding up her hand, she nodded. “It is okay, my children. You may relax.”

  The girl before me acted far more mature than her years.

  Making sure to keep a safe distance from her, I spread my arms. “Why are you telling me all this? I was sent here to kill you. You shouldn’t trust me.”

  “And yet I do.” She smiled. “I’ve been waiting a long time for you, Pandora. You must understand. Unlike other monsters of this world, I am completely mortal. I live the lifespan of a human.”

  “I had no idea.” As I’d mentioned before, zombies were a mystery to many of us, but certainly knowing a queen to be mortal would be a secret she’d desperately wish to keep concealed. So why was she telling me this?

  “And why should you?” she continued. “To be queen isn’t an easy job. It is why the hive is so loyal, going as far as to lay down their lives down for mine. They are strong where I am not. But within me”—she tapped her fist to her chest—“lies the beginning of my line. Our oral tradition means that in a sense, we are as immortal as you.”

  “So why have you been waiting for me? And if you know about the Triad, do you know about their prophecy concerning me?”

  She nodded, causing the mum in her hair to float gracefully to her feet. “Yes. I’ve heard of the prophecy. Once I determined that it was you they sought, I tried to gain access to you.”

  “How do you know so much?” Asher finally spoke up.

  Her eyes zeroed in on him immediately. “Because we too have a prophecy. It was taught to me by my mother and grandmother both.” She pointed to Lorena and I suddenly realized the old woman had to be her grandmother, but not only that, she was also a zombie now. So clearly a queen didn’t truly die, she simply became one of the next queen’s children when the succession passed on. It was a creepy thought.

  Pulse racing with anticipation, I leaned forward on balls of my feet, wanting to shake the truth out of her. “And?”

  “You are not alone in this fight, demon. My numbers are decimated right now, but once they recover, we shall be your right hand.”

  “Why? Because of your prophecy?” I was so sick of everything coming back to superstition, but in this, I couldn’t deny that having such a powerful ally wasn’t the best thing I’d heard in weeks.

  She inclined her head. “You are the key.”

  “Key to what?” I almost growled. “To releasing Wrath? How?”

  Asher’s palm pressed into the center of my back and I leaned into his touch.<
br />
  “The Triad is evil, it is why we never joined with the Order. Because of who controls them. You are the key to destroying the three.”

  I shook my head. “So now I’m going to destroy the Triad too? This just keeps getting better.”

  “Understand we all have a capacity for evil and good. The choices you make, those you align yourself with, that is the side that will win. You can bring about the end of ages or you can usher us into an era of peace.” She held out her hand. “Join me, demon, let us defeat the darkness.”

  “How are you so certain that I’m the right woman? How can you know for sure?”

  She shrugged and for a second I saw the flash of youth that betrayed her mortality. “Because I know you ingested Pestilence. You were born with Lust. You proved to me that night that you are the sin eater spoken of in our legends.”

  “Sin eater?” Asher’s lips turned down. It surprised me a little that he genuinely seemed shocked by that.

  I was constantly feeling a step behind in everything, but that he now seemed surprised worried me for reasons I couldn’t put my finger on.

  She reminded me of a bird in the way she stared at us—stutter-stop movements interspersed with blinks.

  “Did you know that to consume an LCD soul as you have would naturally make the host turn gradually insane?” she asked.

  She looked dead at me and I felt compelled to tell her the truth. “To be honest, I don’t know much about possession since this was my first time.”

  Her teeth looked sharp when she smiled. “But not your last. To become the key, you most become powerful. Incredibly so. By the time you are through, Pandora, you’ll be Legion. We start in Tennessee—it is their home.”

  Finally, a tangible clue. It wasn’t much, but it was enough.

  And this time when she extended her hand again, I took it. In that moment, I really believed it. That we’d be a shining beacon of good against the gates of Hell, that because I chose to fight for light, that fate and destiny would make it so, that even the angels would sing my praise.

  God, I was so naïve.

  Chapter 24

  I was so exhausted by the time we exited that cave, like the weight of the world had come crashing down upon me, I moved into Asher’s arms. “Fly me home, Priest.”

  He didn’t object, simply took me into his strong arms and flew through the clouds. It might have been faster to trace, but I really just wanted to just be with him a little while longer.

  He gave me the silence I craved as his powerful wings glided us home.

  Asher was fast, but it still took him a few hours to get to our glade. When he did, the lights were out and the world fast asleep. Dawn approached soon.

  Crawling onto our bed, I watched as he stripped down for me. Strong fingers worked his shirt over his head, revealing the pack of muscles that gleamed bronze from a shaft of moonlight kissing them; the V shape of his waist led to strong, powerful thighs. His cock sprang free when he shoved his pants down, and that piercing almost seemed to cry out my name.

  My throat went dry and my pulse started hammering. The mattress dipped when he crawled to me, moving with the skill and grace of a stalking panther.

  “Priest?” I grabbed his face and inhaled his spicy warmth, letting it saturate my lungs and fill me from the top of my head to the tips of my toes.

  “Hmm?” His brown eyes swallowed me up. I shivered, because when Asher looked at me, he wasn’t just seeing me, he was absorbing me. Sucking me into his soul, opening himself up to me in a way I knew in my heart he’d never done with another and would never do again.

  The beat of our hearts moved in tandem.

  “I couldn’t possibly sleep.”

  I knew he was tired; he hadn’t slept in days now. We might be immortal, but we weren’t immune to the pull of the sandman.

  “What do you need from me, little demon?” He tenderly brushed at the curls framing my face.

  I smiled because he was always saying things like that, and I didn’t feel like they were just idle words that meant nothing. Asher meant every word he said. “No, it’s what I want to do for you. I want you to know me. Can I play you a song?”

  I waited with bated breath. I’d never really done this for anyone else. Only for Kemen, who’d, for whatever reason, seemed soothed by the warble of my voice. I didn’t exactly suck, but I wasn’t going to be playing in Central Park anytime soon either.

  “I would like that very much.” He smiled.

  I kissed the center of his chest, scooted off the bed, and jogged into the living room, returning a second later with one of the few treasures in this world I truly valued.

  Blowing out an anxious breath, I took a seat. “Don’t laugh at me.”

  “Can I tell you something?”

  I nodded at his serious tone. “Anything.”

  “The night you awoke from the coma, I watched you sing. Your voice was so haunted, so full of pain and hurt that it was a physical blow to me not to rush to your side. I’ve always hoped that someday you’d actually know I was around and would sing for me the same way I heard you sing that night.”

  Cheeks turning hot, I closed my eyes. “Priest, I…”

  But the words wouldn’t come, not as easily as they had with Luc. Because I’d been saying good-bye, and this wasn’t good-bye and I wasn’t sure I could trust my instincts. Not where this emotion was concerned.

  He nodded. “Me too.”

  Shivering, I couldn’t speak for a second. Because I had to let those unspoken words roll around, to fill every corner of my being, to understand that sometimes you just have to let go and be willing to believe in the impossible.

  It took barely any time to tune the strings, and then I played. I didn’t have a thought in my head of what I would play, but eventually my fingers seemed to settle on a song for me.

  “Cortez the Killer” by Neil Young, a lyrical recounting of Cortez’s crimes against Montezuma. It wasn’t a terribly romantic song. In fact, it was the opposite of it. But the mood it set was the one I was going for, a somber, spiritual tone that fit my needs right now.

  For his part, Asher just seemed pleased that I would trust him with this. Demons share only very rarely with one another and there usually has to be decades of trust built up between them; we never showed ourselves with an outsider. But nothing about Asher had ever felt like it was on the outside.

  From the moment I’d met him, I’d known him. Felt him move deep within me, fill the void that’d always existed in me. I’d craved his touch, his fire, and now he was mine and I never wanted to let him go.

  And as I sang the words, I held his gaze, and though I wanted to look away because it all seemed so overwhelmingly big, I knew that I had to show Asher all of me, hold nothing back. And when the last note died, I shuddered before gently laying my guitar down.

  Emotionally, physically drained.

  And then he was just there, and he was pulling me into his arms, and I didn’t fight him because he understood exactly what I needed even when I couldn’t say it. I clung and kissed his nude chest, so grateful that he’d found me. That I wasn’t ever going to be alone again.

  And when he began to take my clothes off, I didn’t argue. I watched as his sure fingers unzipped me, as he slowly worked them off my legs. He kissed my naked thigh, nipping and biting in a way that felt like a shot of adrenaline straight through me.

  His touch was loving and so tender. My skin prickled from his heat and Lust stirred, purring like a contented cat with a treat.

  “Sit up,” he directed.

  Smiling, I sat up and lifted my arms straight up. The pads of his thumbs licked at my skin like a trail of fire as he slipped the shirt off. Rolling my head back, I exposed my neck to him.

  “Lie back.”

  I didn’t know what my priest had planned, but it didn’t matter either. I’d do anything he wanted. Whatever it was he needed, there’d be no shyness from me. It’d been so long since I’d only wanted to please and not necessarily
have to be pleased that my belly rolled with excitement like it was my first time all over again.

  And for someone as old as me, that’s a minor miracle.

  “You own me, little demon. Everything I am is yours.”

  He kissed me, and oh the kiss was divine. It was spiritual. A surrendering, and I knew our time had finally come.

  Flooded with peace, with the knowledge that this moment had been inevitable from the day he’d walked onto my ride, I smiled up at him.

  I know this won’t last, nothing good ever does. But for tonight… it was enough.

  ~*~

  Keep reading for an exclusive sneak peek of Howler’s Night, Book 3 of the Night Series! Love my books? Make sure to sign up for my newsletter to discover new release dates and you might even get to win some fantastic prizes!

  About RS Black

  RS Black is the pen name for a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Crimson Night was a USA Today bestseller.

  RS Black Books

  Crimson Night

  All Hallow's Night

  Howler's Night

  Red Rain

  Spinoff Night books written as Selene Charles

  Forbidden

  Sneak Peek at Howler’s Night

  One moment I was lying in bed, about to get it on with the man I was hopelessly in love with. The next thing I knew, the world exploded into madness. Glass shattered and the sound of an explosion rocked the night. I was thrown into the air, Asher ripped from my arms. Light flashed and chaos, God, it reigned.

  There were screams, so many screams. Something sharp bit into my skin and I felt the hot warmth of blood flowing from my cheek. I must have fallen off the bed… into a lamp? I blinked because literally my brain felt like scrambled eggs. I coughed and hacked as the sensation of something heavy pressed down, centered in the middle of my chest, like my lungs couldn’t inhale deep enough.

  And then a shadow covered me. But it didn’t belong to my priest. Claws sliced through my shoulder blades.