Night Myst (43 page)

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Authors: Yasmine Galenorn

BOOK: Night Myst
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—Yasmine Galenorn
3 Doors Down: “Loser”
Alice in Chains: “Man in the Box”
Beck: “Scarecrow,” “Dark Star”
The Bravery: “Believe”
CC Adcock: “Bleed 2 Feed”
Chester Bennington: “System”
Chris Isaak: “Wicked Game”
Cobra Verde: “Play with Fire”
David Bowie: “China Girl”
Dead Can Dance: “Yulunga,” “Indus”
Death Cab For Cutie: “I Will Possess Your Heart”
Depeche Mode: “Personal Jesus,” “Dream On”
Everlast: “One, Two”
Gabrielle Roth: “The Calling,” “Dolphin,” “Raven,”
“Mother Night,” “Luna,” “Seducing Hades,”
“Black Mesa,” “Stone Circle,” “Rest Your
Tears Here,” “Totem,” “Night Whisper,” “Zone
Unknown,” “Avenue A”
Gary Numan: “Innocence Bleeding,” “Prophecy,”
“Crazier,” “My Breathing,” “Before You Hate
It,” “Dead Heaven,” “The Angel Wars,” “Noise
Noise,” “Stories,” “Telekon,” “My Brother’s
Time,” “Hunger,” “Devious”
Gorillaz: “Clint Eastwood”
Jace Everett: “Bad Things”
Jay Gordon: “Slept So Long”
King Black Acid: “Great Spaces,” “Rolling Under”
Ladytron: “Black Cat,” “Ghosts,” “I’m Not Scared,”
“Burning Up,” “They Gave You a Heart,” “Predict
the Day,” “Versus”
Led Zeppelin: “When the Levee Breaks”
Lenny Kravitz: “Fly Away”
Little Big Town: “Bones”
Live: “TBD”
Low with Tomandandy: “Half Light”
Metallica: “Enter Sandman”
Nine Inch Nails: “I Do Not Want This,” “Sin” [long],
“Get Down, Make Love”
Nirvana: “Heart-shaped Box,” “You Know You’re
Right”
Oingo Boingo: “Dead Man’s Party”
Orgy: “Blue Monday,” “Social Enemies”
PJ Harvey: “This is Love”
Puddle of Mudd: “Psycho”
Red Hot Chili Peppers: “Blood Sugar Sex Magik”
Saliva: “Ladies and Gentlemen”
Seether: “Remedy”
Steppenwolf: “Jupiter’s Child”
Tangerine Dream: “Dr. Destructo”
Thompson Twins: “The Gap,” “All Fall Out”
Toadies: “Possum Kingdom”
Tori Amos: “Little Amsterdam,” “Professional
Widow”
Wayne Static: “Not Meant For Me”
Ween: “Mutilated Lips”
Zero 7: “In the Waiting Line”
Dear Reader:
 
I hope you enjoyed
Night Myst
, the first book in my new Indigo Court series, and I hope you’re looking forward to reading
Night Veil
, the next book in the series, available summer 2011. For those of you new to my books, I wanted to take this chance to welcome you into my worlds. For those of you who’ve been reading my books for a while, I wanted to thank you for taking a chance on Cicely’s adventure. I loved writing
Night Myst
, but I also love writing my other series—The Otherworld series (aka Sisters of the Moon)—and want to assure my longtime readers that, yes, there are more books coming in that series.
And that’s why we’re including the first chapter of
Harvest Hunting
—book eight of The Otherworld series—in the back of
Night Myst
.
If you’re a new reader, you’ll get a taste for what my trio of half-Fae, half-human demon-hunting sisters are like. And if you’ve been reading The Otherworld series for a while, I wanted to give you a sneak peek at the first chapter of
Harvest Hunting
, available in November 2010.
So without taking more of your time, I’d like to present the beginning of
Harvest Hunting
, and I hope it whets your appetite for the next book!
Bright Blessings,
Yasmine Galenorn
My nose quivered. Something smelled wonderful. I followed the scent through the crowded hall until I found myself standing next to the buffet table.
My sister Menolly and I had just stood beside our sister Camille and witnessed her marriage to her third husband. Three—count ’em—three husbands. Simultaneously. Trillian had been decked out as the best goth groom ever, wearing black leather pants that matched the obsidian gleam of his skin, a black mesh tank, and a velvet cloak the color of blood.
Morio and Smoky had worn what they had to their first wedding with Camille: Smoky wore his long white trench with a blue and gold vest, a pale blue button-down shirt, tight white jeans, and his ankle-length silver hair coiling around him like dancing serpents. Morio wore a red and gold kimono, with a dress sword hanging from his side and his dark hair rippling down his back.
And of course my sister looked good enough to eat, her jet hair glistening against her gossamer priestess robes, so sheer I could see her bra and panties through them. Now that she was an official priestess of the Moon Mother, she was expected to don ceremonial garb for most important occasions.
The four of them had gathered before Iris, who again presided, and together they underwent a variant of the Soul Symbiont ritual designed to bring Trillian into their fold. Menolly and I had worn gowns—hers of black with shimmering crystals, mine of gold—and stood as witnesses again.
Now we were into the celebration part of the affair.
I glanced at the calendar on the wall. October twenty-second and we were well on our way to Samhain, the festival of the dead. It had been a month, almost to the day, since we’d unsuccessfully raided Stacia Bonecrusher’s safe house.
Thinking about Stacia forced me to face another thought, one I’d been trying to avoid. I glanced across the room at Chase Johnson. The detective was sitting at a table by himself, watching the celebration with a quizzical look on his face. Unable to help myself, I headed in his direction. He watched me approach, his expression carefully sliding into neutral. I took the chair opposite him.
“It’s a beautiful wedding.” I nervously played with the napkin resting on the table next to me. “Don’t you think?”
“Yes, lovely.” He blinked, long and slow, and I wondered what he was really thinking. “Camille seemed a little stressed, though. What’s up with that?” Even though his tone was normal, I knew there was nothing normal about Chase. Not anymore.
“Our father refused to attend the wedding. Not only does he disapprove of her marrying Trillian, but his official stance is that she’s turned her back on her duties for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency by becoming a priestess and agreeing to enter Aeval’s court. He refuses to condone her behavior by showing up, and the day she actually pledges under Aeval’s rule . . . I’m afraid of what’s going to happen.”
“Turned her back on her duties? That doesn’t seem fair, considering all she’s done for the OIA. I know Sephreh’s your father, but damn, that’s cold.” He sipped his champagne, sounding more himself than he had the entire past month.
I glanced at the fading scars on his hands. His body had healed remarkably fast from the deep knife wounds that had laced his skin and punctured several of his organs. But it would take a long, long time for him to heal from the potion that had saved his life. The Nectar of Life had torn his entire world apart and put it back together in a crazy new patchwork. And our relationship appeared to be a major casualty—on rocky ground, at best.
“When she promised to train under Morgaine, and
especially
when she agreed to dedicate herself to Aeval’s Dark Court, Father took it as a personal insult. But Camille doesn’t have a choice; she’s under direct order from the Moon Mother herself.”
“Yeah, I got that,” he said, fiddling with his glass.
“She did everything for us when our mother died, and without her the family would have been ripped to shreds. Father was extremely cruel to her last time they spoke and I’m pissed off that he didn’t show today. Our cousin Shamas has been trying to fill the void, but it’s just not the same.”
“What did he say?” Chase played with his goblet. “By the way, will alcohol hurt me . . .
now
? I haven’t had a drink since before the accident.”
“No, you’ll be fine. You can still eat and drink anything you want. It’s not like you were turned into a vampire.” I stared at my hands. As loyal as I was to our father, I couldn’t blind myself to the truth. “At his last visit, things went from bad to worse. By the time he left, Camille was on the sofa, curled up in a ball, sobbing. Smoky came in at the point when Sephreh threatened to disinherit her. In turn, Smoky threatened to shift into his dragon self and crisp our father.”
“Crap. The fallout from that can’t be good.”
“Things were at a standstill until Menolly stepped in, told Father to go home and Smoky to chill. But definitely
Not Pretty
. Not at all.”
“A mess all the way around, then.” Chase morosely picked up his champagne flute and downed the last of the sparkling wine. “And so . . . here we sit.” He stared across the table at me. “I don’t know what to say, Delilah. I don’t even have a clue on how to start.”
Part of me wanted to cry. Nothing seemed to be working out the way we hoped it would. I blinked back my tears.
“How about you start by telling me how you’re doing? We’ve only talked three times in the past two weeks.” I didn’t mention that we’d barely kissed since he’d healed up and returned to duty.
Chase contemplated the question, looking at me through those limpid, soulful eyes. They’d only grown more luminous since he’d drunk the Nectar of Life. His aura had shifted. Some spark, some force I couldn’t put my finger on, was changing him.
“How can I answer that when
I
don’t even know? What am I supposed to do? Jump up and shout,
Rah Rah
, now I’ll outlive everybody I’ve ever known in my life?” He slammed the goblet on the table so hard it almost broke.
Stung, I blinked back the tears. “Giving you the Nectar of Life was the only option we had—unless you prefer the thought of dying.”
Shifting in his seat, Chase let out a long sigh. “Yeah, I know. I know. And believe me, I am grateful. But damn, this stuff does a number on your head. It’s more than the realization that I’m going to live a thousand years. There’s something . . . nebulous . . . about it. The nectar ripped open a part of me. Something I’m afraid to face.” He slowly reached out and took my hand.
I stared at him for a moment, but he remained silent. Both Camille and Chase had come through the autumn equinox worn and weary, covered with blood. Camille had bathed in the blood of the black unicorn as she sealed a fate with which the Moon Mother challenged her: sacrificing the horned beast to his phoenix-like destiny while on the Hunt of her life. And then she’d been thrown under the wheels of Aeval, and would soon be forced to descend into the realms once ruled by the ancient Unseelie Queen.
And Chase . . . no less life-shaking. He’d been bathed in his own blood and was now—by human terms—practically immortal.
“Whenever you’re ready to talk about it—”
“What? You’ll play shrink to the mutant?”

No. I’ll listen.
As your girlfriend.” I stared at him, the virulence of his anger rankling me. “Chase, this isn’t fair. We’d planned on you drinking the nectar anyway—”
“I know that! But you told me that the ritual required preparation, and now I understand why. I’m
not human
anymore. I don’t know who—or
what—
I am. A thousand fucking years to look forward to and
I have no idea what to do with them
.”
Fed up and too tired to deal with his angst as well as my own, I pushed back my chair. “I guess . . . it’s hard for me to understand what you’re going through. I’m trying—I really am. But until you can figure it out, you don’t seem to need me around.”
“Wait! It’s just . . . Oh hell, I don’t know what to say.” He slumped back in his chair. “I want to say that everything’s okay. I feel like I should be thinking, ‘Wow, now my girlfriend and I can be together for centuries.’ But Delilah . . . I have to tell you the truth. I don’t know if I’m ready for that kind of commitment now that the opportunity is actually here.”
Tears stung behind my eyes, but I blinked them back. “It would seem that Sharah is doing a better job taking care of you than I am.”
The elfin medic who worked alongside Chase in the Faerie-Human Crime Scene Investigations Unit had been overseeing his care as the potion worked its way through Chase’s system, changing every cell, altering his very DNA.
Chase snorted. “Maybe that’s because she’s
not
taking care of me. Sharah is offering me advice, but she’s not coddling me or treating me like some freak who needs kid-glove handling.” A look of pain crossed his face and he dropped his head to his hands and rubbed his forehead. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Delilah. I love you, I really do, but right now it seems like I’m no good to either one of us.”

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