Skywatch—The Nightkeepers’ training compound is located in a box canyon in the Chaco Canyon region of New Mexico, and is protected by magical wards.
Xibalba—The nine-layer underworld, home to the Banol Kax and makol.
Things (spells, glyphs, prophecies, etc.) barrier—A force field of psi energy that separates the earth, sky, and underworld, and powers the Nightkeepers’ magic. The strength of the barrier fluctuates with the positions of the stars and planets; the power of the magi becomes stronger as the barrier weakens in the years leading up to 2012 . . . in theory, anyway. jun tan—The “beloved” glyph that signifies a Nightkeeper ’s mated status. library—Created by farseeing Nightkeeper leaders, this repository supposedly contains all the ancient artifacts and information the magi need to arm themselves for the end-time war.
Solstice Massacre—Following a series of prophetic dreams, the Nightkeepers’ king led them to battle against the Banol Kax in the mid-1980s. The magi were slaughtered; only a scant dozen children survived to be raised in hiding by their winikin. skyroad—This celestial avenue connected the earth and sky planes, allowing contact between the Nightkeepers and the gods. Since Iago’s destruction of the skyroad, the gods have been unable to directly influence events on earth, giving sway to the demons and tipping humanity’s balance dangerously toward the underworld.
Triad—The last three years prior to December 21, 2012, are known as the triad years. During this time, the Nightkeepers are prophesied to need the help of the Triad, a trio of übermagi created through a powerful spell. writs—Set down by the First Father, these delineate the duties and codes of the Nightkeepers. Not all of them translate well into modern times.
The Nightkeepers and their winikin coyote bloodline—The most mystical of the bloodlines. Coyote-Seven, known as Sven, can move objects with his mind and wears the warrior’s mark. His winikin , the senior statesman Carlos, also watches over Nate Blackhawk. Carlos’s daughter, Cara Liu, is supposed to be serving Sven. Instead, she has returned to the human world. eagle bloodline—A bird bloodline, and therefore connected with the air and flight. The current members of this bloodline include Brandt, his wife, Patience (who has the talent of invisibility), and their twin full-blood sons, Harry and Braden. On the king’s order, Brandt’s and Patience’s winikin, Woody and Hannah, have taken the twins into hiding. harvester bloodline—Although the harvesters most often worked behind the scenes, the bloodline’s last remaining member, Jade, is a spell caster with warrior-level talents. She and her human mate, Lucius, are the guardians of the Nightkeepers’ vital library. hawk bloodline—Also connected with air and flight, this bloodline can be aloof and unpredictable.
Nate Blackhawk, the surviving member of this bloodline, was orphaned young and trusts few. He is a shape-shifter whose potentially destructive power is kept in check by his love for his mate, Alexis, and the steady guidance of his winikin, Carlos. jaguar bloodline—The royal house of the Nightkeepers. The members of this bloodline tend to be loyal and fair-minded, but can be stubborn and often struggle between duty and their own personal desires. The current members of the jaguar bloodline include the Nightkeepers’ king, Strike, and his sisters, Anna and Sasha. Strike is a teleporter, Anna a seer who denies her talents, and Sasha a wielder of the life-giving chu’ul magic. They are protected and guided by the royal winikin, Jox. Strike’s mate and queen, Leah Daniels, is full human, a former Miami-Dade detective who now leads Strike’s royal council. peccary bloodline—The boar bloodline is old and powerful; its members ruled the Nightkeepers before the jaguars came to power. The last surviving member of this bloodline, Rabbit, lives with the stigma of being a half blood, and commands wildly powerful magic. His human lover, Myrinne, is at times a questionable influence. serpent bloodline—The masters of trickery. Newly released from prison, Snake Mendez has not undergone any of the proper ceremonies, yet already wears his Nightkeeper marks and commands some of his powers. His winikin, Louis Keban, is seriously unstable. smoke bloodline—Often seers and prophets. However, the surviving member of this bloodline, Alexis Gray, has shown neither talent. Instead, she wielded the power of the goddess Ixchel, patron of weaving, fertility, and rainbows. With the destruction of the skyroad, she has lost her Godkeeper connection but remains a fierce warrior. stone bloodline—The keepers of secrets. The members of this bloodline are known as great warriors, although the last surviving bloodline member, Michael, is a master of the shield spell as well as the killing silver magic called muk. His winikin, Tomas, and his mate, Sasha, combine to keep him balanced when the deadly magic threatens to tip him toward darkness.
Earthly enemies Iago—The leader of the Order of Xibalba, Iago is a mage of extraordinary power, capable of
“borrowing” the talents of other magi. Iago hopes to gain additional power by allying himself with the might of the bloodthirsty Aztecs through the soul of their mighty god-king Moctezuma.
Do you like bad boys, big magic, and high stakes? Then don’t miss the next sizzling
installment in Jessica Andersen’s Nightkeepers series,
STORM KISSED
Dez and Reese’s story is coming to you from Signet Eclipse in June 2011.
Cancún, Mexico
Reese Montana had always thought wedding venues were tacky as a rule, but this one took the freaking multitiered, pink-frosted cake.
As if the velvet sombreros and striped serapes plastered on every available surface of the hotel lobby weren’t bad enough, when she followed a series of cringe-inducing signs to the wedding chapel, she found the entryway decorated with what she suspected was meant to look like an ancient Mayan temple, but came across as papier-mâché gone horribly wrong. Inside the chapel, a faux-stone archway took the place of the usual flower-and-lattice bower, the aisle was lined with fake palm fronds, the rank-and-file chairs were wearing parrot-hued slipcovers, and the rollaway screen behind the main stage was painted with an art student’s version of Chichén Itzá in its heyday, with the city intact, the temple ruins unruined, and people thronging in the foreground, staring at the stone archway with creepy, goggle-eyed intensity.
Thank Christ the room was empty. It was bad enough Reese was semicrashing. Be worse if she laughed her ass off during the “I dos.”
“Not exactly what I was expecting,” she murmured. Then again, it was her own fault that the moment she had opened the FedEx to find a plane ticket to Mexico and a request for her to come talk about a job, her brain had gone to a tropical fantasyland far from Denver’s drab gray winter. Hell, it was probably just a run-of-the-mill deal for an aging paterfamilias who had lost track of a kid and was feeling depressed about it amid the sib’s wedding prep. Typical locator gig.
But it still paid better—and was way safer—than her old job.
Following the low drone that said “The party’s over here,” she crunched across the fake leaves, tucked herself into the shadows, and took a look through the back door, to where a couple of dozen bodies thronged in an open-air dining area.