Night Season Read online

  PRAISE FOR

  BLOOD LINES

  “Another winner from Eileen Wilks, Blood Lines will leave many aching for more long after the last sentence is read, and I have no doubt the next installment will be just as enjoyable!”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  “The world Ms. Wilks overlays against the one we know is an exciting one that becomes more fascinating as layers of it are revealed…Moreover, Ms. Wilks shows just enough sensuality to give us romance to go along with the fast-paced, tense action…Ms. Wilks is a true master of her craft.”

  —The Eternal Night

  “Fast-paced and nail-biting reading…I really like this story line and the characters, so I highly recommend you add Blood Lines to your library.”

  —Fresh Fiction

  “The magic seems plausible, the demons real, and the return of enigmatic Cynna, along with the sorcerer, hook fans journeying the fantasy realm of Eileen Wilks.”

  —The Best Reviews

  “Intriguing…Surprises abound in Blood Lines…A masterful pen and sharp wit hone this third book in the Moon Children series into a work of art. Enjoy!”

  —A Romance Review

  “If you enjoy beautifully written, character-rich paranormals set in a satisfyingly intricate and imaginative world, then add your name to Eileen Wilks’s growing fan list and savor Blood Lines to the very last page.”

  —BookLoons

  “Quite enjoyable, and sure to entertain…A fast-paced story with plenty of danger and intrigue.”

  —The Green Man Review

  “Those in search of paranormal tales that are rich and multifaceted will get exactly what they’re looking for in the brilliant Wilks’s exceptional supernatural stories.”

  —Romantic Times

  MORTAL DANGER

  “Terrific…The cat-and-mouse story line is action-packed…A thrilling tale of combat on mystical realms.”

  —The Best Reviews

  “Mortal Danger is as intense as it is sophisticated, a wonderful novel of strange magic, fantastic realms, and murderous vengeance that blend together to test the limits of fate-bound lovers. An intricately crafted, loving, lavish tale.”

  —Lynn Viehl, USA Today bestselling author

  of the Darkyn series

  “A dramatically told story…It is this reviewer’s hope that this series will have many more stories to come.”

  —Romance Junkies

  “I’ve been anticipating this book ever since I read Tempting Danger, and I was certainly not disappointed. Mortal Danger grabs you on the first page and never lets go. Strong characters, believable world-building, and terrific storytelling make this a must-read for anyone who enjoys werewolves with their romance. I really, really loved this book.”

  —Patricia Briggs, USA Today bestselling

  author of Moon Called

  “[A] complex, intriguing, paranormal world…Fans of the paranormal genre will love this one!”

  —Love Romances

  “A thoroughly enjoyable read. I’ll be looking out both for the previous volume and the next book in what promises to be a series well worth following.”

  —Emerald City Fantasy and Science Fiction

  “Gripping paranormal romance.”

  —Fresh Fiction

  TEMPTING DANGER

  “A story whose characters I remember long after the last page is turned.”

  —Kay Hooper, New York Times bestselling

  author of Blood Dreams

  “An exciting, fascinating paranormal suspense that will have you on the edge of your seat. With a mesmerizing tale of an imaginative world and characters that will keep you spellbound as you read each page, Ms. Wilks proves once again what a wonderful writer she is with one great imagination for her characters and the world they live in.”

  —The Romance Readers Connection

  “Fantastic…Lily and Rule are a fabulous pairing…Ms. Wilks takes a chance and [her] readers are the winners.”

  —The Best Reviews

  “Wilks’s heroine is so top-notch.”

  —The Romance Reader

  PRAISE FOR THE PREVIOUS NOVELS OF

  EILEEN WILKS

  “Fun [and] very entertaining!”

  —The Romance Reader

  “Should appeal to fans of Nora Roberts.”

  —Booklist

  “Fast-paced.”

  —All About Romance

  Books by Eileen Wilks

  TEMPTING DANGER

  MORTAL DANGER

  BLOOD LINES

  NIGHT SEASON

  Anthologies

  CHARMED

  (with Jayne Ann Krentz writing as Jayne Castle, Julie Beard, and Lori Foster)

  LOVER BEWARE

  (with Christine Feehan, Katherine Sutcliffe, and Fiona Brand)

  CRAVINGS

  (with Laurell K. Hamilton, MaryJanice Davidson, and Rebecca York)

  ON THE PROWL

  (with Patricia Briggs, Karen Chance, and Sunny)

  NIGHT SEASON

  EILEEN WILKS

  BERKLEY SENSATION,NEW YORK

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  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 Group 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, North Shore 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

  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 websites or their content.

  NIGHT SEASON

  A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author

  Copyright © 2008 by Eileen Wilks.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  ISBN: 978-1-1012-0700-0

  BERKLEY® SENSATION

  Berkley Sensation Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  BERKLEY SENSATION and the “B” design are trademarks belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  CONTENTS

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN
>
  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  PROLOGUE

  IN the east, dawn smeared a promise across the inky sky, but air and earth were dark yet. At an abandoned house just outside Midland, Texas, a pair of headlights shut off. A man and a woman climbed out of a 2005 Toyota Corolla.

  “I keep thinking we’ve forgotten something,” the woman said as she popped the trunk. She was tall and angular, with a runner’s build and with strong shoulders—not pretty, but striking. She wore jeans, hiking boots, and a dark sweater. No makeup. Her hair was long and straight, a medium brown; her skin, an indeterminate tan that looked more Anglo than not; but she had the broad, high cheeks and strong nose of her mother’s people, the Diné. Navajo, as outsiders named them. “I always forget something.”

  The man gave her a singularly sweet smile. He, too, was tall, angular, and athletic; his only remarkable facial feature was his eyes. The gray of a winter sky, they were heavily lashed and set off by the dark slashes of his brows. Some might guess him to have Native American blood as well, based on his coppery skin and black hair. They would be wrong.

  “We have everything on our list,” he said as they pulled camping equipment from the trunk. “If we failed to plan for some need, we’ll make do.” He paused. “You’re frightened.”

  She nodded, though she looked and sounded almost placid. “Not all the way to real panic yet. About a six on the ohmygod scale.”

  “Well, then.” He put down the duffel bag he’d been holding and folded her in his arms. “Let’s see if we can get it down to a four, at least.”

  “Mmm,” she said after a moment, the sound muffled by his neck. “Yes, but we won’t get much done like this. My anxieties say inaction would be fine, the lying rats. That we can just can stand around and nuzzle each other. But your queen is going to expect promptness, I think.”

  “Among other things. She’s a great one for expectations.” He let a few inches come between them without releasing her. “You’re all right, Kai?”

  “I guess I can be scared and okay at the same time. Excited, too. It’s a whole new world, after all. I’m all boggled about it.” Kai drew air in through her nose, sighed it out, and nodded once. “Let’s get moving.”

  She shrugged into her backpack and tucked the sleeping bags beneath her arms. They’d not be afoot long, so the weight wasn’t a major issue. Still, he carried more of their gear, which was sensible. Nathan was probably five times as strong as she normally was, and she wasn’t normal now. Hunger gnawed at her, a hunger food couldn’t satisfy since it wasn’t hers. She tired quickly.

  Not for much longer, though.

  Kai’s backpack held a change of clothes, thermal underthings, plenty of clean socks and underwear, their medical kit, and a few more odds and ends. Nathan’s carried the heavier items—their cleverly compact tent, camping tools, and trade goods: several packets of cinnamon; a roll of zippable plastic bags; a pair of small, sharp axes; four very fine knives; two boxes of nails; a hammer and a small spade; and a pound each of gold and silver made up into chains.

  Nathan lifted the oversize duffel and they walked slowly away from the car. Kai’s friend Ginger would retrieve it later today. Ginger knew Kai was leaving with Nathan, but had no inkling just how far they meant to travel. The story Kai had given her for abandoning the vehicle out here was pretty lame, as Ginger had pointed out several times, but Kai was used to Ginger’s inquisitiveness. And Ginger was used to not getting all of her questions answered.

  Kai hoped hard that she would see her friend again. “You’re looking forward to this.”

  “Parts of it, yes. Your home is lovely, but I’ve been here a long time. And even with the recent influx of magic, it’s still a bit thin here for me.” Without breaking stride or changing tone he added, “You’ll do, Kai. I know you’ve doubts, and that’s as it should be, for this quest is a testing. But you’ll do.”

  And that, of course, was where the ohmygod scale came from. Not a fear of running out of tampons. Though she sincerely hoped she’d packed enough; if she hadn’t, she’d make do. The fear that she couldn’t learn enough, understand enough, to do what she was supposed to—oh, yes, that was huge.

  One step at a time, she reminded herself, following him through the darkness around the side of the old house. He could see here, she thought. She couldn’t, not yet—certainly not in the shadow of the derelict building. She couldn’t hear his footsteps, either. Just her own.

  They reached what she would have called the backyard had it possessed anything other than dirt, trash, and dead weeds. Kai could see those weeds now, their rustly skeletons smudging air on its way from black to gray. The sky had lightened from ink to charcoal overhead, with a band of steel along the horizon. She moved up beside Nathan.

  Like Grandfather said, swallowing tomorrow’s troubles will give you gas today. And yet…“I don’t see why we’re doing it this way. You could find it. That’s what you do.”

  “I could, once I got the scent. But that isn’t what my queen wishes. And no,” he said with a sideways smile for her, “while her wishes are sufficient for me, I don’t expect you to accept them without a question or two. I imagine she saw something that led her to send us this way about things, rather than another.”

  “By ‘saw’ do you mean foreseeing? Or farseeing?”

  “Likely both. Odds are, she has her hand on a pattern developing there, and this is the best way for it to proceed.”

  “Or she may just want to make this as hard as possible on me.”

  “That’s also possible. Eh.” He rubbed his nose with his free hand. “You’re all puckered with worry, and a bit angry, too, and I’m still giddy with relief, which is a bad match in our moods. But it will work out, Kai. You’ll see.”

  Nathan was giddy because his queen hadn’t killed her six days ago. Kai had been pretty relieved herself at the time. The queen and her brother had thought she was a binder, a rare and dangerous type of telepath who could bind others to her will. Nathan had stood for her, placing himself between them and her, though he couldn’t have stopped them. They’d all known that.

  But he’d bought a pause, one in which the queen had listened, because she loved him enough to give him that much. In the end, Kai was allowed to live—for now. But not here. Not where people couldn’t protect themselves from her.

  She felt the bitterness coating that thought. She also saw it, strings of greasy gray wrapping the thought as if to mummify it. Oh, she’d seen what happened if you held on to such thoughts, seen people trapped by bitter thoughts too long hoarded, how the grayness strangled all the color out of them. She took a breath and did her best to let the thought and the bitterness go, and was rewarded as they faded away.

  Kai wasn’t exactly a telepath. She wasn’t a non-telepath, either, just as she wasn’t exactly a binder, yet could do some of what binders did. Her Gift baffled everyone, including herself. Maybe herself most of all. She didn’t read minds, but she saw thoughts and the emotions connected to those thoughts. And sometimes, when conditions were just right—or wrong—she changed minds. Literally.

  After a lifetime of suppressing that particular talent, now she had to learn how to master it. Quickly. Before it mastered her.

  S
he felt the purr before she heard it, a low rumbling in her mind. A moment later a lumpy spot ten feet ahead of them shifted and stretched, becoming eight feet of dappled gray cat. Kai smiled. “Dell’s purely glad about this, anyway.”

  “She understands we’re leaving now?”

  “Oh, yes.” The bond they’d formed was very new, the intimacy of it sometimes unsettling, and some concepts didn’t travel well between minds so different. But Kai knew Dell understood that her long hunger was nearly over.

  When Dell’s hunger ended, so would Kai’s.

  They’d reached the rendezvous. Kai set one of the sleeping bags down so she could rub behind one tall, tufted ear as the big cat stropped herself against Kai’s legs. Dell had learned that her human was easily unbalanced, so her affection was tempered by care. “She’s eager.”

  Dell would be much better off where they were going, and that gave Kai a happiness to hang on to. If the magic here was somewhat thin for Nathan, it was starvingly low for the chameleon-cat—which was why Kai had begun to tire. The familiar bond ran both ways, and the power the queen had generously offered Dell to sustain her while Kai and Nathan readied themselves for the trip was gone now.

  “Best pick up the sleeping bag. It’s time, Kai.”

  “What?” But she stooped to retrieve it. “I don’t see…is she here?”

  “She doesn’t have to be here. It isn’t a true gate. I explained that.”

  He had, but that wasn’t to say she understood. Somehow Nathan’s queen was reaching him though she wasn’t even in this world, broadening his innate ability to cross between realms so he could take with him things that were his—clothes, gear, and Kai. Who would bring Dell with her.