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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Caris Roane is the New York Times bestselling author of thirty-four paranormal romance books. Writing as Valerie King, she has published fifty novels and novellas in Regency Romance. Caris lives in Phoenix, Arizona, loves gardening, enjoys the birds and lizards in her yard, but really doesn’t like scorpions! To find out more about Caris, visit her website at http://www.carisroane.com.
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BOOKS BY CARIS ROANE
Guardians of Ascension Series – Warriors of the Blood crave the breh-hedden
Dawn of Ascension Series – Militia Warriors battle to save Second Earth
Blood Rose Series – Only a blood rose can fulfill a mastyr vampire’s deepest needs
Blood Rose Tales – Short tales of mastyr vampires who hunger to be satisfied
Men in Chains Series – Vampires struggling to get free of their chains and save the world
The Flame Series – Vampire Border Patrol officers battle the flame drug cartels
Diablo Springs
by Erin Quinn
If you listen hard enough, you’ll hear their whispered warnings…
When she escaped Diablo Springs years ago, Gracie Beck swore she’d never return. But all that changes on the night of her grandmother’s tragic death when Diablo Springs lures Gracie’s teenage daughter to its treacherous border. Fearing the threat of that haunted place and the danger it poses to her daughter, Gracie races to the rescue—only to find herself trapped in the turbulent current of a hundred year old curse and the menacing spirits that have terrorized the town’s dusty streets for a century.
Author Reilly Alexander has ghosts of his own in Diablo Springs—ghosts he needs to lay to rest before he can move on. Tempted by the promise of a bestselling story, he reluctantly returns to Diablo Springs only to find Gracie Beck waiting there. At first, Gracie wants nothing to do with the man who betrayed her years ago, but feelings she thought long gone spark to life when she sees Reilly again. She is drawn to his quiet strength and the burning desire he ignites within her. Reilly is determined to help save Gracie’s daughter and prove his to love the woman he’s never forgotten, but they’ve come to a dangerous place where even the dark waters are sinister and every lurking shadow should be feared…
Table of Contents for DIABLO SPRINGS
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
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
About the Author
Other Books by Erin Quinn
CHAPTER 1
A voice, deep inside, told Brendan to turn around. Go back. No good could come from taking Analise to Diablo Springs.
The certainty made his shoulders tighten and anxious spots blur his vision.
It did not lift his foot from the gas, though. Nor did it turn the wheel or alter his course. Nothing would. Nothing could.
And that’s what scared him the most ... that sense that someone else was at the helm.
But they’d already lied to Analise’s mom. It had been ridiculously easy because Analise was such a good kid that her mother never even questioned the fabricated sleepover at a friend’s house. Turning back now, would only expose the lie and get Analise in trouble. There’d be enough of that when it came time to tell her mom about the baby.
He shifted uneasily, unsure if the convenient reasoning had been planted in his head, like so many thoughts that compelled him of late, or if he really believed it. A couple of weeks ago, he’d taken an unexpected detour that landed him in Diablo Springs. Ever since, it had been like this. Like the town had infected him, working insidiously through his body until the time spent away from it became unbearable. Until the thoughts that filled his head drove him to one, irrevocable destination.
He had to get back to Diablo Springs. Now.
It felt more important than breathing. And bringing Analise with him? A command he couldn’t resist. He knew it was a mistake. A dangerous one. Still, he accelerated.
Tomorrow they’d be breaking the news to Analise’s mother that her sixteen-year-old daughter was pregnant, but tonight ... tonight, they’d be sleeping under the stars in the back of his pickup. In Diablo Springs.
“We’re almost there,” he said, glancing at Analise as she shifted restlessly beside him.
“I wish you’d tell me where there is,” Analise said, chewing her thumbnail, eyeing the deserted highway with obvious misgiving.
The dark stain of a gathering storm seemed to swallow the road where it met the horizon. They were driving right into that blight.
Turn back, you moron.
“Just a little farther,” he said too loudly. “It’ll be worth the wait. I promise.”
Analise’s mom had grown up in Diablo Springs and her great-grandmother still lived there, but Analise had never even visited. Every time she’d asked about it, her mother got cagey and shut her down. Not a big deal, except Analise suspected her father lived in Diablo Springs, too, and that her mom had been lying about not knowing how to find him.
He cleared his throat, eyeing the sky. Lightning snaked out of the festering black pit and slithered beneath the brooding clouds. They scraped the mountains, teasing the parched desert floor. The air felt electric.
Brendan felt electric, too. Juiced up and powered by a force greater than himself.
At last a sign appeared, Diablo Springs, Next Exit. Analise leaned forward, her lips moving silently over the name as she read it.
Her eyes widened and she shot him a stunned glance.
“I saw the exit when I was driving home from my sister’s house a couple weeks ago. There was construction and I had to take a detour.” He shrugged, grinning, trying to ignore the fathomless hunger gnashing its teeth inside him.
Analise stared back, silent. The first glimmer of fear shifted in her eyes.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” she asked at last.
“I didn’t have time to stop. It was late and I had to work the next day. Besides, it would have ruined the surprise.”
More lies. In truth, he’d swerv
ed to take the exit, answering a call that had felt like a tug at his gut, a lure in his brain. He had stopped. More than that. He’d stayed so long that he never made it to work the next morning. Or the one after.
He couldn’t tell Analise that, though. She’d want to know what he’d been doing.
“I found something on the Web, too,” he said brightly. Another lie, but he couldn’t tell her the truth. “Your mom’s hometown has a lot of history.”
Her jaw dropped. “You researched its history?”
Flushing, he said, “I didn’t research it. I just saw some stuff.”
“Like?”
He’d been hoping she’d ask. “Apaches used to live there before someone found silver in the mountains and chased them off. After that, it was all gunslingers and whores. Like in the movies.”
His voice had grown wistful and a strange yearning formed in his chest. He could almost taste the air, as it must have tasted over a hundred years ago. He could almost see himself with a pistol strapped to his leg and a rifle to his saddle.
“The Apaches used the hot springs for sacred ceremonies. That kind of thing. The water’s gone now, though.”
“What do you mean it’s gone?”
He shrugged again. “I don’t know. Gone. There’s just a big dry hole there now.”
“How come?”
“I just said I don’t know.”
“Okay. Just asking.” Her eyes narrowed.
“Are you giving me shit because I didn’t read that far?” he countered, his voice sharp.
It stopped him for a moment. He never spoke to Analise that way. But it hadn’t been only him speaking, had it? He shied away from that thought.
Turn around. Go home.
“What’s wrong with you?” Analise said. “You’re acting weird.”
He swallowed, queasy from the conflicting emotions rioting inside him. His foot was hard on the accelerator, but the contradictory feelings made him want to hit the brakes, too.
“I just thought you’d be excited, is all,” he muttered.
Analise reached over and squeezed hand. “You’re freaked out about the baby, aren’t you? It’s okay. Me, too. I’m scared to tell my mom. She’s going to have a meltdown ...”
Analise kept talking but her voice faded and Brendan couldn’t stop his thoughts from returning to Diablo Springs. He could smell the dark lore, the sulfurous history, the hot violence.
“Did you hear me?”
Analise’s hurt tone snapped him out of his reverie.
“Everything’s going to be okay, babe,” he rushed to reassure her.
Apparently it was the right thing to say. She gave him her sweet smile and went back to looking out the window as they zigzagged into the mountains. Finally, they peaked and started down the other side into the basin where Diablo Springs squatted like a dirty smear on a pretty painting.
“It feels like we’re in the middle of nowhere,” Analise murmured, frowning.
It did. They were.
And as they crossed the town’s border, dread began to curdle in his stomach.
Turn back.
Instead, he hung a right onto Main Street where one traffic light blinked yellow in all directions. A few business seemed to be open—possibly even prospering—but others were just store fronts, staring out with blackened windows and boarded up doors. The occasional For Sale sign hung pitifully in the shadows. The entire town appeared desolate and ugly. It looked like the last place on earth he should have brought Analise Beck.
“Everything’s closed up,” Analise said, looking out the window. “It’s creepy.”
“I thought you were curious about where your mom came from,” he said defensively.
“Curious, yeah, but ... I didn’t know you were going to bring me here. I thought we were going someplace nice, you know, like a hotel.”
Brendan swallowed hard. Of course she’d thought that. Only an idiot would think a surprise trip to a ghost town would make a sixteen-year-old happy. Scowling, he clenched his hands around the steering wheel and kept driving.
***
Less than a quarter mile of open scrub and cactus stretched between the road and the place where the old springs had once flowed. A bridge and walkway used to lead from the Diablo Springs Hotel to the hot pools, and guests would make the short journey by foot. Brendan knew that decking had once surrounded the springs where bathers could sit and dangle their feet in the water.
Now the splintered railings poked up from the remnants like broken bones. It was all overrun, devoured by the hot sun and burning grit of the desert. As he pulled closer, he could see what was left of it, ruins around a black chasm.
Following the road to the huge hollow, he watched the horizon devour the last glow of sunlight. In the fresh dusk, he stopped and hopped out of the truck. Before he went around to Analise’s side, he took a deep breath of the seared air. Even the heat felt good.
Analise opened her door and Brendan hurried over to help her down. She was so small and fine boned; he couldn’t touch her without wanting to protect her. And now, with the baby coming, he had that much more to worry about.
And, still, he’d brought her here.
He knew her mom thought he was too old for her. Too old with no future. He couldn’t blame her. He worked for a landscaper, which was a fancy way of saying he mowed other people’s lawns for a living. What mother wanted her superstar daughter attached to a man with dirt under his fingernails and grass stains on his clothes? Once they told Ms. Beck about the baby, she’d hate him. Actually, she’d just hate him more.
The air was thick and close, still a hundred degrees even at sunset. The low scrub crept down the surrounding mountains and right up to the sides of the dirt road. Beyond, a wild assortment of spiky and thorny desert plants sprawled out on the abandoned grounds, some blooming with wild pinks and corals. Not a blade of grass was in sight. The land was tough, barbed, dead inside. Abandoned and hard to love. He’d felt an instant bond with the place.
Analise looked around with something akin to horror. What had she expected? Picket fences and petunias? There was a reason her mother had left and never looked back, right?
He pointed to the black ravine sloping down just ahead. It had shocked him the first time he’d seen it. It opened so suddenly, like a hole straight to hell. As dry now as the crackling air. Hard to imagine it had ever held healing waters.
Analise turned away from the dirt fissure and stared out at the silhouetted town. A few lights twinkled in windows as night worked its way into homes. Her expression, her reaction to his surprise, wasn’t at all what he’d imagined. Anger stirred beneath his breastbone.
He reached in the back seat and pulled out a blanket, which he spread over an unlikely patch of even ground. As he smoothed it down, he discovered a miniscule sprouting of what looked like grass. Feeling somehow betrayed, he twisted it until its grasping roots snapped and hurled it away.
“Sit down, babe. I brought us a little picnic.”
Analise gave the blanket a nervous look. She held her self stiff as a doll, seemingly undecided about which way to face. The town and the ravine were like warring poles and she the metal pin in between. Brendan frowned.
“I don’t like it here, Brendan. Let’s go.”
How like his little princess to find this place that welcomed him as family, distasteful. It was nothing but dirt. Just like him.
“Go where?” he said bitterly. “Maybe to the Ritz? You think I got that kind of money?”
Analise looked instantly contrite, which only made him feel like a bigger shit.
“Brendan, I’m sorry. This was a great surprise. I do want to see it all, but it’s getting really dark.”
“So?”
“It’s ... I mean ... Don’t tell me you don’t feel it.”
In fact, as she spoke, pointing out the clustering darkness, he did feel it. A disturbance, rippling through the air like the hot and gritty breeze. It held a tension, a feeling of violation, a sense of
aggression. And he liked it. Brendan shook his head.
“You afraid of the dark now, babe?”
Her smile was small and forced.
He got up and went to the truck where he rummaged for his flashlight, hoping its batteries were still good. He turned it on and a pale, buttery beam chased back the shadows. It waned after the initial burst, but held.
“Better?” he asked.
Analise nodded without much conviction. “I guess. It’s just really creepy here.”
It didn’t matter that she was right, it riled the simmering anger inside. “Do you know how hard it was to get off work so I could bring you here?”
Tears made her eyes shiny and luminous. “I know, I’m sorry. It’s just ... I’m scared, Brendan.”
“You’re scared of everything. You—” He stopped abruptly and scanned the area around them. He’d heard something.
“What?” Analise said.
“Shh.”
He searched the murky landscape. The feeble glow of the flashlight reached only a foot or two in front of him. Past that it was all huddled shadows and looming shapes. He strained with the effort to hear. The quiet folded in and stretched out in a hiss. Then a slight, slithering sound reached his ears. Like dirt spilling into an empty hole.
In unison, he and Analise looked to the ravine. He took a step closer.
“No. Brendan, no. Let’s just get out of here.”
He waved her off and took another step. Frozen, Analise watched. The sound came again. Loose soil and rock sliding down the side. As if something were climbing up.
“What do you see?” she whispered.
Brendan shook his head and moved closer to the edge of the chasm. A rock joined the slight avalanche of dirt. It clicked and thumped down and down and down. Analise made a whimpering sound and, for a moment, his foggy mind cleared with a suddenness that made him stagger. What the hell were they doing here?
Analise was right. This place ... It wasn’t natural. It felt wrong. Something rank hovered in the air like a layer of dust.
Bad Boys of the Night: Eight Sizzling Paranormal Romances: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set Page 167