The Night Series - Entire Series Boxed Set : New World Immortal Mayan Vampire Romance

by Lisa Kessler

  What would the Demon look like? Would there be a fight?

  Worry gnawed at her as she watched Lukas. She didn’t want to consider the danger he’d just gotten himself into. She took a deep breath, watching the four men standing around the altar. The three immortal brothers chanted, passing the lit torches over Mulac’s body, bathing him in thick smoke.

  Gretchen glanced to the right of the altar, to the large cenote. It resembled a deep well, but according to the glyphs, this cenote led directly to the center of the earth. Near the edge, the Guardian stood tall, with Marguerite at his side. The blond woman looked tiny next to his hulking form. A gust of wind stung Gretchen’s face as electricity and tension swirled around them. Nature felt…furious. Charged with anger.

  Mulac stirred on the altar, drawing her attention back to the sacrificial ceremony.

  “Now!” Kane screamed to the Guardian over the howling wind.

  On command, the Guardian’s deep voice boomed through the night as he chanted ancient words over and over again. “Ko’oten in tial Camalotz.”

  “What’s he saying?” Kate asked.

  “He’s calling the Demon.” Gretchen met Kate’s eyes. “He’s saying, ‘Come to me, my Camalotz.’”

  After sending out the call for his mate, the Guardian turned his eyeless gaze down to Marguerite. “We must say goodbye.”

  Her voice trembled with her plea. “You will be trapped with her. Forever.”

  He cupped her cheek with his large hand. “You have been a friend to me. Now let me be one to you. Go wait with the others.”

  Her hesitation to retreat made something in his chest ache. She knew there was no other way, no one else to call the Demon, and yet, she still stood at his side. He’d been created for this moment, but this porcelain-skinned Night Walker treated him as an equal.

  Finally, he heard her move away, but in an instant she returned and wrapped her arms around him. Again, something in his chest tightened, but this time he recognized it.

  The Guardian lifted her from the ground, embracing her tightly. “Thank you,” he whispered into her hair.

  “I am the thankful one. You saved my life.”

  “And you gave my existence life. They created me, but I never lived. You changed that, my friend.”

  She kissed his cheek, and for a brief moment, he wished he could stay in this world. But there was no other way.

  He lowered her to the ground. “Now go.”

  The moment her feet touched the soil, the entire jungle trembled, the earth shook with a powerful tremor. A deafening screech of pure evil pierced through the roar of the storm.

  His deep voice rumbled like thunder. “Run!”

  Gretchen caught movement out of the corner of her eye, just as the earth tilted. The ground shook, knocking her over, as a high-pitch shriek deafened her ears. In the distance, Marguerite ran toward her, but the mud and sideways rain slowed her down, causing her to stumble.

  “Hurry!” Gretchen screamed into the storm.

  Thick smoke from the ritual stung Gretchen’s eyes and nose. She heard pieces of the chants from Lukas and the immortal brothers, then the wind would howl and steal the sound of their voices. Lightning, fire, rain—it all combined into pure chaos.

  Another tremor shook the jungle, and Marguerite fell to the ground. A roar rumbled from the thick vegetation, and an enormous black jaguar with bright-red eyes leapt into the clearing. It swung its large head toward the altar, back toward the Guardian, growling and exposing sharp, white teeth. The ultimate predator.

  Marguerite scrambled across the ground, but the jaguar struck with a large paw, her claws impaling Rita’s leg like daggers.

  Gretchen gasped. She wanted to rush to the rescue, but her anemic muscles refused to respond. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Calisto leaning on Kate to stay upright, and her heart sank.

  Marguerite kicked at the jaguar’s head, struggling to break free, but the beast retaliated, burying its claws in her other leg. She stopped fighting.

  Marguerite wasn’t going anywhere.

  “Rita, no!” Kane halted his chanting and started to rush to her aid, but Issa’s hand caught his arm in an iron grip.

  Issa’s eyes burned with intensity. “We only have one chance, Kane. We need you here.”

  Kane maintained his position beside Mulac, forcing out the ancient words, but his stare was not on the altar. Issa twisted to see over his shoulder, narrowing his eyes to see through the thick, perfumed smoke. The huge black jaguar kept Rita pinned on the ground, but that was only half the horror.

  The Demon’s abdomen was swollen. Camalotz had truly used his brother to impregnate her, and the immortal offspring was growing at an inhuman rate.

  The jaguar bent her large head toward the back of Rita’s neck, her lethal jaws stretching open as Rita screamed and struggled for freedom. The scent of her blood hung thick in the air. Sensing Kane’s urge to rush to her side, Issa caught his wrist again, forcing him to meet his eyes.

  “Help me finish Camalotz. This is the only way to save your mate now.”

  The Guardian felt the Demon’s presence the moment she came out of the jungle, but without his eyes, he couldn’t find her. The sound of Marguerite’s screams changed all that.

  With a growl of fury, his body mutated until he, too, became a monstrous black jaguar of his own. He lunged forward, sinking his sharp, feline teeth into the Demon’s neck, drawing her away from her prey.

  The two jaguars wrestled, rolling over one another. He fought viciously in the darkness, hoping he had intervened quickly enough to save his friend. The Guardian clawed blindly, reaching for the eyes that were once his own. Pain ripped through his entire body as she tore open his chest, gnawing at his exposed muscles and tendons. He roared and slashed through her silken coat. When he connected with her head, he felt her body rapidly shift back to her natural form. Her human shrieks confirmed her transformation.

  The Guardian remained in his Jaguar body and paced around Camalotz, using the sound of her voice to keep himself close enough to pounce if it became necessary.

  Are you clear of her?

  Yes. Marguerite’s voice whispered into his mind. And you are no longer the only one who is blind.

  He had successfully taken the eyes she had stolen. He gave a nod of approval and felt his rage lessen enough for him to cage the beast within. He transformed back to his human-like form.

  Opening his arms to her, he growled softly, “Ko’oten in tial yaah.”

  Gretchen stood, awestruck, unable to pull her gaze from the scene. The Demon was no longer a black jaguar—she looked like a woman. A beautiful, almost too perfect, pregnant woman. Camalotz’s rich mocha skin was marred only by the deep lacerations the Guardian had dealt her, but Gretchen could see those were already beginning to heal. Except where her eyes had been. There, the skin healed, but like the Guardian, there were no longer orbs for the eyelids to cover.

  Squinting through the driving rain, she watched the obviously pregnant, bleeding creature stumble toward her mate. After their bloody battle, after the Guardian slashed her eyes out, blinding her, Camalotz still rushed to his arms when he beckoned her to come, and his words were not those of an adversary, but a lover.

  He had called her “my love” in the ancient language of the Maya.

  This wasn’t love in any form that Gretchen could relate to, but she didn’t have time to ponder the notion. Marguerite wasn’t moving.

  Blood puddled on the moist earth, and Gretchen crawled over to Marguerite, trying to assess her injuries as best she could during the brief flashes of lightning. Marguerite’s calf still oozed blood, and the white of bone was visible in the deep crevices on her other leg, gashes left behind from Camalotz’s razor-sharp claws.

  “Help me. Before she comes back,” Marguerite gasped.

  Gretchen nodded, but her own blood loss still left her too dizzy to get back up. She groaned at her own weakness and took Marguerite’s hand, yelling over her shoulder to Calisto
and Kate. “I can’t get her up.”

  Gretchen almost screamed when Kate suddenly appeared at her side. With Kate’s help, Gretchen got to her feet again and waited for Kate to lift Marguerite. They brought the wounded Night Walker into the shadows, and Kate carefully set Marguerite down beside Calisto.

  While Kate offered her wrist to Marguerite, Gretchen fought to see through the thick sheets of tropical rain. She could barely make out the familiar silhouette of Lukas and the others. The wind howled through the jungle trees, stealing the sound of the ancient chants Lukas and the immortal brothers spoke.

  With a loud crack of thunder, lightning arced through the black sky, illuminating the sacrificial table. Mulac regained consciousness, and hatred contorted his timeless features as Issa slowly raised his hand and pulled his arm back in preparation.

  To the left of the altar, the Guardian caressed and kissed his lover’s blind face. Each step took them closer to the edge of the cenote, the well that led to the center of the earth. Neither of them could see the bottomless hole, but maybe they both sensed its location.

  Part of her still couldn’t believe the scene playing out before her. It was something out of a folktale or a myth. It couldn’t be real, but it was. Gretchen really was soaking wet in the middle of the rainforest, watching an ancient ritual sacrifice to banish a Mayan Demon from the world of men.

  Issa raised his executioner’s hand toward the heavens, preparing for its gory descent into Mulac’s chest. He watched Kane’s face for the signal, waited for the Guardian to maneuver Camalotz closer to the edge of the cenote.

  They had only performed this ceremony once before, and this time there was no one to command the Demon into the earth. Mulac would not utter the words to banish her, so the Guardian would need to force her into her prison.

  Issa stood, breathing heavy. Being the executioner was his burden to bear, his place in this world, but taking Ch’en’s heart all those centuries ago had changed him forever. The raw pain and guilt left him hollow inside. Issa never spoke of that night again. Instead, he had been the first of his brothers to board a ship and abandon their homeland after the Spanish began slaughtering their culture and conquering their people. Issa never looked back.

  He forced his mind back to the present. In order for the blood magic to work, they needed to pluck the heart of the one who called the Demon just as she descended into the cenote, away from this world and into her prison. The blood of the one who called her would flow into the earth with Camalotz, the magic binding them together and imprisoning the Demon until the immortal who commanded her lived again to call her back.

  Blood from his head wound dripped down Issa’s wet forehead. He still wasn’t certain that Mulac’s sacrifice in Ch’en’s place would imprison Camalotz, but he refused to take her life again. He had to believe Mulac’s blood would seal the door. The world depended on it.

  Their chanting reached a fevered pitch as the moment drew near. Issa’s muscles tensed, ready to plunge his hand down. But before the Guardian could step off the edge and pull the Demon into the cenote, her piercing shriek cut through the roar of the storm around them.

  Kane craned his head to see, and Issa lowered his hand, turning to see the struggle going on behind them. He frowned. “He must get her inside the earth,” he shouted over the storm.

  “Camalotz will never go willingly into the earth, and I will not command her!” Mulac cackled, his wild eyes glowing in the darkness. “You have already lost this world, my Brothers. Help me rule in the next one.”

  Kane’s hands flew to Mulac’s throat, squeezing it until his brother’s windpipe collapsed under his fingers. Issa reached for him, pulling his hands away from their sacrifice. “We need his heart still beating.”

  Kane jerked back, hatred burning in his eyes. “It will not kill him, but it will keep him silent…” His words died away as his brow furrowed.

  Issa looked over his shoulder, following Kane’s stare. Marguerite stumbled out of the shadows, limping toward the cenote, where the battle between the Demon and the Guardian raged on.

  “No!” Kane bellowed. “Rita, go back!”

  His eyes widened as she lumbered closer.

  Issa growled at his brother. “Stay focused. We need you here.”

  The Guardian shoved Camalotz blindly, her body hitting the ground just short of the opening. He crawled toward her, his hands searching for what his eyes could no longer see.

  Meanwhile, Rita moved even closer.

  They started their chants again, and Issa raised his mighty arm once more, awaiting the moment Camalotz fell into the pit. But instead of falling into the cenote, the Demon scrambled to her feet just as the Guardian grabbed her in his arms. Her powerful hand exploded through his chest, plucking out the huge shard of enchanted jade they had used to construct his heart.

  A gasp escaped the Guardian’s lips as his body gradually transformed into lifeless stone once more. His arms were still wrapped tightly around his mate, and Camalotz struggled to break free of his now-stone grasp.

  Marguerite screamed, running toward them in spite of her injured leg. Her shoulder connected with the Demon’s back, knocking Camalotz off-balance. The Demon let out a furious hiss as the weight of the Guardian pulled her over the edge.

  In the blink of an eye, Issa’s hand plunged deep into Mulac’s chest, extracting his still-beating heart and yanking it free. Issa held the organ high above his head and uttered the sacred rites as Mulac’s body contracted and then went limp. His immortal blood poured down the altar, soaking into the earth, sealing the Demon inside.

  The stone altar was once again bathed in blood.

  Kane scooped his brother’s lifeless body into his arms, snapping the bindings that tied him down, and followed Issa to the edge of the cenote. Issa chanted his final incantation with Mulac’s ancient heart clenched in his bloody hand. Kane hurled the body into the blackness of the cenote and looked over at Issa.

  Once the body was swallowed in the darkness, Issa carried the heart to the altar and lowered a torch to the slick organ. The inhuman flesh erupted into flames until the rain extinguished its final embers. The ash thinned, dripping down the stone just as the blood had minutes before. A final burst of lightning lit the night, and as suddenly as the rain had come, it disappeared, leaving all of them in a blanket of silence that felt as suffocating as the heat.

  It was done.

  Chapter Thirty

  Gretchen scribbled in her notebook, struggling to document all she had seen before the memories faded. Although she was fairly certain no one in her field would believe her report, she still wanted every detail to be preserved. If nothing else, she’d have a written record for herself of how much these beings, these Night Walkers, had sacrificed in order to stop Camalotz and save the world.

  By the time the ritual was completed, the stars had been fading with the oncoming sunrise, and all of Gretchen’s nocturnal companions had been affected. The journey back to the pyramid reminded her of the old westerns her father used to watch when she was a little girl. The battered and beaten good guys would drag their weary carcasses back to the saloon to lick their wounds and fight another day.

  Their haggard lot looked very similar.

  Calisto had limped along, leaning on Kate’s shoulder. Kane had walked quietly beside Marguerite. At some point Gretchen realized they were clasping hands, their fingers twined together like an older couple who had weathered too many storms to be knocked down by this one. Seeing them brought an exhausted smile to her lips.

  Gretchen was proud of herself for not allowing Lukas to carry her back. Her legs had still been wobbly, but Lukas seemed shaky and slower than normal, too, with the sunrise being so close. She didn’t want to add to his burden. Instead, she let him slide his arm around her waist, and they’d leaned on each other for extra support.

  Colin and Issa had walked ahead of the group in silence, Colin’s mangled arm hidden inside a makeshift sling. The back of Issa’s hair was stiff with blo
od from his earlier altercation with Mulac, and his hand was still stained with his brother’s blood. A gory reminder of what he’d been forced to do.

  Could she have done the same if she’d been in his position? Would she have sacrificed her own brother?

  Tough questions, and too much to think about when she was exhausted and anemic.

  Gretchen leaned back against the cold stone wall of the pyramid and closed her notebook. She peered at her watch with a sigh. It was eleven o’clock in the morning and it felt like midnight. Her inner body clock was completely turned upside down. She stretched with a yawn.

  Somewhere within these walls, the others slept, hidden from the sunlight. Lukas had explained to her that a Night Walker’s “sleep” resembled a human’s death. Their bodies shut down completely—no heartbeat, no breathing. Technically they were…dead.

  She shivered at the thought and closed her eyes. After seeing Zafrina “sleep,” she didn’t want to see Lukas that way. She loved the determination in his eyes, and the strength in his body. Seeing him lifeless was something she’d rather not endure.

  A sigh of exhaustion escaped her lips, and after a long drink from her canteen, Gretchen nodded off into the darkness of true sleep.

  Lukas awoke with a gasp, retching until he vomited blood. He wiped his brow, his hand stained with blood-tinged sweat. His pulse raced erratically. He hadn’t thrown up in over a century. As long as he’d been a Night Walker, he’d never been sick.

  Until now.

  He took a deep breath and rose to his feet. The room spun around him, and his knees felt like rubber as his stomach lurched. Something was very wrong.

  Once the room stopped spinning, Lukas took a tentative step forward, and then another, until he finally walked through the catacombs of the pyramid toward Gretchen.

  He found her in the main chamber, slouched against the wall, sleeping. He knelt down beside her, wincing at the overwhelming nausea that burned in his gut and dizzied his head. Reaching out to touch her fiery hair, he realized his hands were trembling, too. His brow creased as he fought to control his hands, but the tremors continued.