by Rob Thurman
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Epigraph
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Epilogue
About the Author
Teaser chapter
Also by Rob Thurman
PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF ROB THURMAN
Chimera
“A touching story on the nature of family, trust, and love lies hidden in this action thriller. . . . Thurman weaves personal discovery seam-lessly into the fast-paced action, making it easy to cheer for these overgrown, dangerous boys.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Thurman delivers a fast-paced thriller with plenty of twists and turns. . . . The characters are terrific—Stefan’s wiseass attitude will especially resonate with the many Cal Leandros fans out there—and the pace never lets up once the two leads are together. . . . Thurman shows a flair for handling SF/near-future action.”
—SFRevu
“A very enjoyable and engaging book that kept me turning the pages.”
—BSCreview
“Chimera is a kick-ass story about characters that will steal your heart and a plot that will keep it pounding.”
—The Book Lush
“A gut-wrenching tale of loss and something so huge that the simple four-letter word ‘hope’ cannot begin to encompass it. . . . Chimera grabs the reader’s attention and heart immediately and does not let go through the many adventures, twists, and betrayals on the long ride to redemption. . . . Rob Thurman has created a haunting and eloquent testimony to the power of love and brotherhood, as well as a mystery that enthralls and keeps the reader on the edge of his seat ALL the time. The characters are so solid and vital, they almost walk off the pages and into your home. This is a masterpiece of . . . great storytelling.”
—Bitten by Books
“The end of Chimera is a brilliant Machiavellian twist that surprised, saddened, and elated me.”
—Smexy Books Romance Reviews
“If you enjoy powerful stories of intense relationships [and] diverse challenges, you’ll enjoy Chimera, as well as Rob Thurman’s other books. Her first series, which centers around two brothers, one of whom is half monster—literally—is a wonderful story that includes the perfect mix of action, adventure, horror, and the love that can exist between two brothers placed in dire circumstances through no fault of their own.”
—HubPages
“This was a very entertaining book with plenty of action, a character-driven plot, and a surprising twist at the end. It was one of my favorite books of the year.”
—Fiction Kingdom
THE CAL LEANDROS NOVELS
Blackout
“Thurman delivers in spades. . . . As always, a great entry in a series that only gets better with each new installment.”
—SFRevu
“Blackout is a snarky and entertaining page-turner. Cal Leandros is an engaging hero who draws you into his story from the moment he awakens. . . . Funny, adventurous, and appealingly irreverent—the semidead cats got me every time—Blackout is one for the to-be-read pile.”
—Romance Reviews Today
“If you’re looking for a powerful dark noir urban fantasy that promises an excitable read but delivers so much more, then look no further than the Cal Leandros series.”
—Smexy Books Romance Reviews
Roadkill
“Readers will relish this roller-coaster ride filled with danger. . . . The unexpected is the norm in this urban fantasy.”
—Alternative Worlds
“Thurman has broken new ground, expanding the mythology of her world in new and ingenious ways while offering new challenges to her heroes. . . . The finale of the story is perhaps the most emotionally moving bit of writing I’ve read this year. . . . Roadkill is a great addition to the series and will delight Thurman’s growing legions of fans.”
—SFRevu
Deathwish
“Fans of street-level urban fantasy will enjoy this new novel. . . . Thurman continues to deliver strong tales of dark urban fantasy.”
—SFRevu
“The action is fast-paced and exciting, and the plot twists are delicious.”
—Errant Dreams Reviews
Madhouse
“One of Madhouse’s strengths is Cal’s narrative voice, which is never anything less than sardonic. Another strength is the dialogue, which is just as sharp and, depending on your sense of humor, hysterical.”
—Dear Author . . .
Moonshine
“[Cal and Niko] are back and better than ever . . . a fast-paced story full of action.”
—SFRevu
“The supernatural elements meld seamlessly into the gritty urban setting. . . . Cal continues to be a wonderful narrator, and his perspective on the world is one of the highlights of this book. . . . The plotting is tight and fast-paced, and the world building is top-notch.”
—Romantic Times
Nightlife
“A roaring roller coaster of a read . . . [it’ll] take your breath away. Supernatural highs and lows, and a hell of a lean over at the corners. Sharp and sardonic, mischievous and mysterious.”
—Simon R. Green
“A subtly warped world compellingly built by Thurman. . . . This book has an absolutely marvelous voice in Cal’s first-person narrative. The combination of Chandleresque detective dialogue and a lyrically noir style of description are stunningly original. The reader’s attention is captured and held from page one.”
—The Green Man Review
THE TRICKSTER NOVELS
The Grimrose Path
“Thurman’s comic timing is dead-on, well targeted in Trixa’s cynical, gritty voice. Her crisply honed writing skills take us on a hilarious ride but humor is never allowed to get in the way of the story, instead enhancing scenes throughout the book. The Grimrose Path is a fast-paced urban adventure that will have you cheering Trixa’s wild take on balancing life, the universe, and everything; and clinging on with your fingernails till you reach the final page. . . . I loved this book. Love, love, loved it.”
—Fresh Fiction
Trick of the Light
“Rob Thurman’s new series has all the great elements I’ve come to expect from this writer: an engaging protagonist, fast-paced adventure, a touch of sensuality, and a surprise twist that’ll make you blink.”
—New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris
“A beautiful, wild ride, a story with tremendous heart. A must read.”
—New York Times bestselling author Marjorie M. Liu
“A terrific premise. It’s got Vegas, angels, demons, and a hunt for a mysterious artifact that by comparison makes Indiana Jones look like he was grubbing in the dirt for Precious Moments kitsch. If I had only three words to describe this book? They’d be: Best. Twist. Ever.”
—New York Times bestselling author Lynn Viehl
“Thurman weaves an amazingly suspenseful tale that will have readers so thoroughly enthralled from the first page that they’ll be unwilling to set it down. Trick of the Light is meticulously plotted, completely fresh, and one of the best books I’ve had the pleasure of reading. Readers are in for a wonderful treat!”
—Darque Reviews
“[An] inventive new series. . . . Trixa comes off as a strong-willed heroine with a long-standing ax to grind, yet that is only one fa
cet of her character. The plot is suitably complex with enough clue dropping along the way to point attentive readers toward Trixa’s true nature while still packing plenty of surprises.”
—Monsters and Critics
Also by Rob Thurman
The Cal Leandros Novels
Nightlife
Moonshine
Madhouse
Deathwish
Roadkill
Blackout
The Trickster Novels
Trick of the Light
The Grimrose Path
The Korsak Brothers Novels
Chimera
Basilisk
Anthologies
Wolfsbane and Mistletoe
EDITED BY CHARLAINE HARRIS AND TONI L. P. KELNER
ROC
Published by New American Library, a division of
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto,
Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2,
Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.)
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124,
Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.)
Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park,
New Delhi - 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632,
New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue,
Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published by Roc, an imprint of New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
First Printing, August 2011
Copyright © Robyn Thurman, 2011
All rights reserved
REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.
ISBN : 978-1-101-51716-1
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
http://us.penguingroup.com
To my characters—I am so damn sorry for the things
I do to you.
But what the hell? I do have to pay the bills.
Acknowledgments
To my mom, who suggested why not give my old dream of writing a go. Who knew she harbored such inner rage toward her own child? To Shannon, best friend and sister with a black belt in tough love; to my patient editor, Anne Sowards; to the infallible Kat Sherbo; to Brian McKay, ninja of the dark craft of copy writing; to Agent Jeff Thurman of the FBI for the usual weapons advice; to talented artist Aleta Rafton; to Lucienne Diver, who astounds me in the best possible way at every turn; and to great and lasting friends Michael and Sara, as well as Linda and Richard (who give new meaning to “Been there, done that, then went to China and did it again during a total eclipse of the sun”).
“Fantasy abandoned by reason creates impossible monsters. . . .”
—Francisco Goya, 1799
“Genius might be described as a supreme capacity for getting its possessors into trouble of all kinds.”
—Samuel Butler, 1835–1902
Prologue
On the day a nine-year-old boy killed Stefan, he didn’t see his life flash before his eyes.
It’s what they say you’ll see, but not him. Clichés, who needed them?
That this was the second time in his life he’d thought the same exact thing would’ve been worth mentioning . . . if it hadn’t been for the actual process of dying. That tended to be distracting from pithy observations. He was aware that he was lacking in the last-thoughts, much less last-words, department. He knew . . . but what could a guy do?
Life is like that. Sooner or later, it boils down to “What the hell can you do?”
His brother, Michael, once told him that when he had no hope, he dreamed of sun, wind, and horses. They were a part of his past—in a way, the best part. Every night he had dreamed of them—sun, wind, and horses. When Stefan had no hope, because dying doesn’t leave a person much, he saw the same.
Sun, wind, and horses.
Stefan felt his heart stutter and skip. He wouldn’t have thought that one or two missed beats would hurt that much, but they did. Invisible fingers of agony fastened around that beating hunk of muscle and squeezed once, twice, as his lungs staggered in sync. Then red, as scarlet as a field of poppies, bloomed behind his eyes, and he was on the beach. There were pounding waves, pale sand, and a sky so blue it couldn’t be real. It was a child’s painting, carefully covering every bit of the paper; it was blue and dense enough that you could probably scrape a thick peeling of color away with a thumbnail. He could smell the salt that stung his nose, feel the water that soaked his legs, and the warmth of the horse beneath him, the coarse mane he hung on to as he galloped through the surf. The wind in his face made him feel that he could fly. It was one of those moments no one forgets; the exhilaration, the sensation of wind, water, and sun branded forever in the mind of the fourteen-year-old kid.
He couldn’t see his brother, but he could hear him laughing in the way only a seven-year-old can laugh—with all his being. He was on his own horse behind Stefan, sharing the adventure. It was a great memory, there, then—before the blood. Before the red coated the rock and sand, it was better than great—it was the perfect memory. Time spent with the strippers in his old Mafiya haunts didn’t beat that. Even the first time he fell in love didn’t conquer that. Didn’t come close.
The next flash was when he’d saved his brother ten years after his abduction on that same beach. Stefan didn’t see him through his own eyes this time. He wasn’t Stefan anymore. He was his brother. He saw himself from his brother’s point of view—a stranger all in black standing in the doorway of his prison, then pulling him out of a place of horror. He felt his confusion, his lack of trust, but years of brainwashed obedience had him allowing the grip on his arm and the tug and the run to freedom. The gravel and glass under his bare feet, the pain of the cuts, the ear-ripping explosions of firing guns, and the stars; Stefan felt and saw it all. Pain, blood, and flying bullets; he’d thought that would be what would stick with the kid—Michael—but it was the stars he remembered the most. The students—the prisoners—of the facility weren’t allowed to wander the grounds at night, and they didn’t have windows in the small cell-like rooms. Death behind him, and, for all he knew, death in front of him, but it was the stars that he saw. Far from any city, deep in the Everglades, the sky might be the color of the Grim Reaper’s cloak, but Death’s robe did make the ideal background for a hundred stars.
Brilliant light that shone down on you and could almost ma
ke you believe in miracles.
A light that could almost make you believe escape could be real and life was more than being trained to kill, turned into a weapon with no will of your own.
A light that was worth dying to see.
Only Michael had it in him to think that, which was unbelievable too. A wonder. He was a good kid. A damn good kid. The best. Even while dying, Stefan knew that as well as he knew anything in the goddamn world.
Michael left the bullets and the stars behind. The next was a string of emotions: fear, confusion, exasperation, more confusion, bewilderment, denial, annoyance, finally a reluctant acceptance, contentment, and a sense of belonging. All those emotions had been caused by Stefan, and while he wished the ones at the beginning could’ve been avoided, he was damn proud of the ones he felt . . . that his brother felt at the end.
Aside from emotions, there was also life in the world outside a concrete/razor-wire wall of the worst of prisons. Movies, TV, books, people that weren’t instructors or torturers, restaurants, pizza, girls, a smelly ferret, making his own decisions—a life. A real life, something he’d thought impossible. And family, something he thought a fairy tale. Michael had been stunned by that. Amazed. He had family, a concept that even a genius like him could barely comprehend and could never have imagined applied to him. Someone cared about him. Someone told him he belonged. Someone would give up everything for him. Someone would give up their life for him. He wasn’t alone.