Out of the Night

by Robin T. Popp

  If you purchase this book without a cover you should be aware that this book may have been stolen property and reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher. In such case neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  Copyright © 2005 by Robin T. Popp

  Excerpt from Seduced by the Night copyright © 2005 by Robin T. Popp.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  Warner Forever is a registered trademark of Warner Books.

  Cover design by Diane Luger

  Book design by Giorgetta Bell McRee

  Warner Books

  Hachette Book Group

  237 Park Avenue

  New York, NY 10017

  Visit our Web site at www.HachetteBookGroup.com

  First eBook Edition: September 2005

  ISBN: 978-0-446-55421-3

  The “Warner Books” name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  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

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  More Robin T. Popp!

  THE EDITOR’S DIARY

  This was not a dream . . .

  Mac could not escape the creature that held him so effortlessly in its front claws. With his arms pinned to his sides, the gun he held was useless.

  Horrified, Lanie watched the creature draw him close and lower its mouth to his neck. She saw the fangs pierce the skin, but it was the sound of blood being sucked from Mac’s body that catapulted her into action. Lying on the ground where it had fallen was the search lamp. She grabbed it and turned it back on. The sudden brightness of the beam pierced the night and the creature reared back, releasing its hold on Mac.

  Lanie held the beam steady with one hand and wrapped her other arm around Mac as he fell against her. She wasn’t sure if he was alive or dead . . .

  *

  Please turn to the back of this book for a preview of Robin T. Popp’s upcoming novel, Seduced by the Night

  To Adam, with love—I can shoulder the weight of the world as long as I know you’re there to catch me should I fall.

  And to Mom and Dad—Mom, for sharing her love of all things paranormal; and Dad, for being the example of perseverance that taught me to never give up on my dream.

  Acknowledgments

  There are several people I have come to rely on as I undertake each writing adventure. Their creativity, friendship, and support sustain and motivate me. I would like to thank Donna Grant, Mary O’Connor, Georgia Ward, Corkey Sandman, Adam Popp, and Marlaine Loftin for brainstorming plot ideas, reading various drafts, keeping me on track, and just generally being there for me.

  Also, I would like to thank Michelle Grajkowski for being such a terrific agent and having such enthusiasm for my writing.

  And I would like to thank Karen Kosztolnyik for taking a chance on me and my writing. I appreciate this opportunity more than you’ll ever know.

  INVICTUS

  by William Henley

  Out of the night that covers me,

  Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

  I thank whatever gods may be

  For my unconquerable soul.

  In the fell clutch of circumstance

  I have not winced nor cried aloud.

  Under the bludgeonings of chance

  My head is bloody, but unbowed.

  Beyond this place of wrath and tears

  Looms but the Horror of the shade,

  And yet the menace of the years

  Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

  It matters not how strait the gate,

  How charged with punishments the scroll,

  I am the master of my fate:

  I am the captain of my soul.

  Chapter 1

  Great tongues of fire leaped from the structure, more brilliant against the night sky than any fireworks display; beautiful, mesmerizing—and deadly. Lanie Weber stood close, feeling the heat beat at her, her skin burning despite the protection of her gear.

  “Lanie’s crew takes left; Marcus—center. We’ll take right. Let’s go.” The fire chief’s muted voice carried to her over the roaring of the flames, and she nodded to let him know she’d heard.

  With the fire hose cradled along her right arm, Lanie gripped the nozzle securely with both hands. Her second lineman braced her with his elbow, offering resistance against the pressure of the water, which tried to propel her backward as soon as the water started to flow.

  Lanie adjusted the stream until a focused, narrow torrent shot forth. She concentrated on the left side of the structure, her only goal to contain the flames and protect the exposure of the house next door, because it was too late to save the one-story home. At least no one had been hurt.

  Though she couldn’t hear anything beyond the noise of the fire, Lanie was aware of the family’s devastation. In their minds, they had lost everything, but Lanie knew what real loss was. Houses, clothes, possessions—those things could be replaced. The loss of a loved one . . .

  Shying away from the thought, she turned her full attention back to fighting the blaze. After ten years as a volunteer firefighter, the heat of the flames, the acrid smell of smoke, the camaraderie of the other volunteers, even the mechanics of putting out the fire—these things were familiar to her. Tonight, of all nights, she needed the comfort of familiarity about her.

  Hours later, Lanie shut off the water for the last time and eased the hose to the ground. Leaving it to the rookies, she walked to her truck, the evening’s adrenaline rush long since spent. It had been a long mop-up, and the sun was already climbing high in the sky. Removing her helmet, she tossed it into the back, then opened her jacket and welcomed the cool breeze against her hot, sweaty body.

  “Don’t you have a flight to catch?” The chief came to stand next to her, angling his raised arm to show her the time on his watch.

  “Yeah, I guess so.” Her tone sounded as weary as she felt. She briefly considered canceling, but arrangements were already made.

  “Thanks for coming,” he added. “It would have been a lot tougher without you here.”

  She shrugged. “I didn’t feel like sitting at home last night anyway, and three calls in a row kept me from dwelling on other things, you know?”

  He nodded, wrapped an arm around her shoulders, gave her a fatherly hug, and then walked off, leaving her to climb into her truck and drive off to face her future—alone.

  Truly alone, because her father was dead.

  She knew the pain of his loss would hit sooner or later, but right now, she felt numb. It was like standing on the precipice of a great, bottomless chasm while the wind beat at her, pushing her until, eventually, she knew she would fall. But not yet. There was too much to do.

  Arriving home, she saw the light blinking on her answering machine. Playing the message, she heard her employer’s sympathetic voice urging her to take off as much time as she needed. Grateful, she showered and changed into fresh clothes
, then saw that it was well after noon. She’d been too depressed last night to eat dinner and too busy fighting fires all morning for breakfast. Now there was no time for lunch.

  Grabbing her duffel bag, she set the security alarm on her house and climbed back into her truck, navigating the Houston traffic until she was on the freeway headed out of town. She tried to focus on the road, but her thoughts pulled her back to a faded but never forgotten memory.

  She was twelve years old, and her father had left her in the cold, sterile waiting room of the city morgue while he went in, alone, to identify her mother’s body. He’d not wanted Lanie to carry the image of her mother’s battered body with her for the rest of her life, wanting her, instead, to remember her mother as she’d last seen her—energetic, happy, and full of love and vitality.

  Lanie had remembered her that way. So much so that for years, she’d suffered from the belief that her mother’s death was all a huge mistake; that her father had identified the wrong body and any day now, her mother would return—because a woman so full of life would never have surrendered to death.

  Now, sixteen years later, she was having to accept a loved one’s death again. This time would be different, she vowed. This time, there would be closure. Yesterday afternoon, when she’d gotten the phone call from Admiral Charles Winslow about her father’s accident, she’d been insistent. If her father was dead, then she wanted to see the body, and she didn’t care how difficult or impossible it was to arrange. If her father’s body couldn’t be flown back into the United States, then she would go to South America.

  Fortunately, the admiral had understood. A friend of the family for years, “Uncle” Charles was the one who’d talked her father into accepting the top secret research position earlier that year. He was also the one to suggest the private charter company that would fly her to the town of Taribu in the northern part of the Amazon, making the arrangements himself.

  Bringing her thoughts back to the present, Lanie concentrated on driving. Three hours later, she steered her truck onto a narrow side road and drove for several minutes before spotting the gate with the large ANYTIME—DEY OR KNIGHT PRIVATE CHARTERS sign across the top. Pulling across the dirt lot, she parked in front of the plain white building that seemed so out of place in the middle of the endless open stretch of land. Behind it were two smaller buildings.

  Getting out, Lanie was struck by the absolute silence. She found herself questioning the wisdom of driving out here alone, much less traveling alone to South America.

  Trying to discount her sense of foreboding as nothing more than extreme fatigue and an acknowledged fear of flying, she took a deep breath and headed inside the building.

  “Hi.” A young woman, almost wearing a low-cut tank top and tight blue-jean shorts, greeted her with a hundred-watt smile and eyes as warm as spiced ginger. “You must be Ms. Weber.”

  Lanie tried to return her smile, but couldn’t quite manage it. “That’s me.”

  “We spoke yesterday. I’m Sandra.” She walked behind a counter and picked up a thin stack of papers that she quickly leafed through. “Everything seems to be in order. I’ve got you flying to Taribu today with a return trip day after tomorrow—is that correct?”

  Lanie walked closer so she wouldn’t feel like she was yelling across the room. “That’s right. Did you have any problems getting the authorization from Admiral Winslow?”

  “No, you’re all set.” She picked up a two-way radio and spoke into it. “Mac, your charter is here.” There was a crackling of some response a moment later that made Sandra smile. Then she turned her attention back to Lanie. “Mac’ll be here in a second. Can I get you something while you wait? No? Okay, if you change your mind, just holler. I’ll be in back.” She gestured to the door behind her, replaced the stack of papers on the counter with a smile, and then disappeared through the door.

  Lanie wandered to the far wall where she took a seat in one of the chairs. The clock above her showed that she had less than an hour before her scheduled departure, and conflicting emotions warred inside her: grief, depression, anxiety. She glanced out the side window, hoping to distract herself, and spotted a single white jet. Compared to the commercial planes she was used to, it was a toy—surely incapable of the long flight to Taribu. Wherever the hell that is. Her ignorance slammed into her like a fist. She should have shown more interest in her father’s work. Maybe if she had . . .

  No, he still would have gone, and in her heart she knew he’d understood. How many years had he dragged her all over the place in pursuit of his studies? The remote wilderness areas of Florida, the mountain regions of Washington, the desert plains of southwest Texas—even the impoverished farmlands of Puerto Rico.

  She’d helped him research and catalog his findings to the extent that becoming a librarian seemed a natural choice of careers for her when the time came. She’d also liked the stability of staying in one place while attending college. Later, having settled in with the local fire department and taken a job with the university library, her days of traveling with her father stopped for good. She’d wanted her own life.

  The creaking of a screen door being opened, followed immediately by the sound of it slamming shut, broke into her recriminations. She looked up to see a man walking toward her, tall and muscular, with broad shoulders. His features were dark, and he moved with the ease of a large jungle cat stalking its prey. Only the slight limp kept him from appearing totally predatory. As he drew closer, Lanie saw that the thick, nearly black waves of his hair fell so long, the ends brushed the back of his neck. The sun had tanned his skin to a rich, healthy glow and his dark chocolate-brown eyes seemed to miss no detail as they quickly came to rest on her.

  “Ms. Weber?” His deep voice washed over her, sending chills racing down her spine and making her suddenly very conscious of her appearance.

  “Yes.” She fought the urge to run a hand down her hair in order to smooth the errant strands she knew must be sticking out from her head. The smoke from the fire had irritated her eyes, so she’d put on her glasses instead of her contacts and now felt as if she were staring out from behind a thick wall of glass.

  “I’m Michael Knight, but folks call me ‘Mac.’ I’ll be your pilot.” His outstretched hand caught her attention, and she realized that she’d been gaping at him.

  “It’s nice to meet you.” She took his hand and felt the warm, rough texture of it against her skin. His grip was firm and solid, giving her the impression of controlled strength. This was a man who could handle any situation and remain unfazed.

  “We have a long flight ahead of us,” he said, releasing her hand so he could glance at his wristwatch. “You understand that we’ll have to fly to Brasilia first, since we’re not technically a government aircraft. That adds about eight hours to our flight time, plus a short layover to take care of the administrative details.”

  She nodded, knowing that the unavoidable delays still had her arriving at the research facility long before she’d have been able to through standard commercial means.

  “Fine, then let me check the flight plan once more and then we’ll be on our way.” He didn’t even wait for her response, but turned and walked behind the counter where he flipped through several sheets of paper.

  At that moment, Sandra appeared, moving immediately to his side. “There you are.”

  “Hey, Babycakes.” For the first time since he’d walked into the room, Mac smiled, causing Lanie’s breath to catch. He was gorgeous, and Lanie wondered about the nature of his relationship with Babycakes. Were they married? Sleeping together? Just really close friends? The speculation cast her own solitary life into sharp relief.

  “Time to go.”

  Mac’s announcement sent a spurt of adrenaline shooting through her, and she watched as he leaned down to give Sandra a chaste kiss on the cheek.

  “Be good while I’m gone.”

  “That’s no fun.” Sandra smiled as she returned his hug, but then her tone grew serious when she added,
“Be careful, okay?”

  “You know me.”

  “That’s what worries me.”

  Mac chuckled as he released her and crossed to the door, which he held open for Lanie to walk through. Outside, he stopped to put on his sunglasses and then glanced at the duffel bag in her hand.

  “Where’s the rest of your luggage?”

  “This is it.”

  “Good.”

  His response was curt, delivered in a cool, distant tone that contradicted the warm laugh he’d just given Babycakes. Lanie tried to judge his expression, but couldn’t see past the image of her own pale, unkempt face reflected in his mirrored lenses. Once again, Lanie was reminded of a predator, studying its prey, and when he moved toward her, she couldn’t stop herself from taking a quick step back. His expression changed to one of obvious irritation, and she felt like a fool when all he did was take her bag.

  “Follow me. Plane’s over here.” He walked off, seemingly unconcerned whether she trailed after him or not.

  Already nervous, she refused to allow this man to intimidate her further. Hurrying so she could fall in step beside him, she tried to ease the situation with conversation.

  “Admiral Winslow speaks very highly of you.”

  A grunt was his only response. Undaunted, she tried again.

  “Have you known him long?”

  He glanced at her, his look telling her that he suffered her questions only because he had no other choice. “Ten years.”

  “Were you in the Navy?”

  “Yes.”

  “But you’re not now.”

  “Correct.”

  Lanie sighed. She wasn’t one of those people who could make conversation easily, and his lack of cooperation was frustrating.

  “I’m a librarian.” She cringed as soon as the words left her mouth. It made no sense; a random comment born of desperation, and she prayed that he ignored it.

  “Really?” His tone revealed his complete lack of interest.

  Up ahead, another fifty yards, stood the small white jet she’d spotted from the building. Seeing it up close, it still looked tiny, and another shiver ran down her spine.