The Slayer

Book 2: Legend Chronicles

by Theresa Meyers

Genres: Paranormal Romance; Steampunk

Synopsis

Brothers Winchester, Remington, and Colt know the legends--they were trained from childhood to destroy demon predators, wielding the latest steam-powered gadgetry. It's a devil of a job. But sometimes your fate chooses you. . .

Chasing Trouble

Winn Jackson isn't interested in hunting nightmares across the Wild West--even if it's the family business. Unlike his rakehell brothers, Winn believes in rules. As sheriff of Bodie, California, he only shoots actual law breakers. That's what he's doing when he rescues the Contessa Drossenburg, Alexandra Porter, a lady with all the elegance of the Old World--grace, beauty and class. And then he sees her fangs.

Alexandra isn't just some bloodsucking damsel in distress, though. She's on a mission to save her people--and she's dead certain that Winn's family legacy is the only way. Luckily, aside from grace and class, she also has a stubborn streak a mile wide. So like it or not, Winn is going to come back with her to the mountains of Transylvania, and while he's at it, change his opinions about vampires, demon-hunting, and who exactly deserves shooting. And if she has her way, he's going to do his darnedest to save the world. . .

"Meyers puts the steam in steampunk."--Cherry Adair

Release date: October 24, 2011

Publisher: Zebra Books

Print pages: 352

Sample

“Put down the gun, Hoss, ’fore I blow that oversized melon of yours to kingdom come.” Winchester Jackson’s cold, steady voice cracked through the canyon sure as a shot. Although Hoss Dalton, seated on his horse, had his rifle stuck under the leather flap of the stagecoach window, Winn knew the outlaw never robbed alone. Somewhere, hidden by the rock walls, sagebrush, and dead grasses of the canyon, Hoss’s ragged band of fellow thieves lay in wait.

The stage perched precariously on the shaley edge of the dirt road leading from Carson City to Winn’s town of Bodie. Inside, a woman whimpered and a small dog yipped.

This was getting old. It really was. And it was unlikely this would end well. Hoss was two bricks shy of a load and perpetually half-drunk. But then anyone who’d seen and done the things an old Hunter like Hoss had would want to drown himself in whiskey most of the time. “Hoss? You hear me?”

The female whimper was cut off instantly. Even the hot desert air scented with creosote and sagebrush in the rocky chute of the canyon stood still.

Hoss turned slowly. His rifle, which was pointed at the occupants hidden within the dark interior of the steam stage, wavered at the I-won’t-tell-you-again tone of the sheriff’s voice.

Attached to the front of the stage, the mechanical horses, big copper beasts the size of Clydesdales, pinged, hissing steam through their venting nostrils as the metal and gears cooled.

Winn kept Hoss in his sights. The old man’s eyes, rheumy from too much rotgut whiskey, flicked to the star-shaped silver badge on Winn’s chest, his rifle slipping an inch. Sonofabitch, was the old fool going to shoot a stage full of people right here, ten minutes from town, for a measly payroll?

The brilliant sun hung white-hot overhead in a cloudless field of brilliant blue.

“Countdown is at three, Hoss. Drop that, or swear to God, I’ll shoot you where you stand! Tommy Sutton? You stay right where you are!” he yelled. He didn’t know if Sutton was there or not. Didn’t have eyes in the back of his head either, but the rustle in the grasses off to his right stopped.

“Damn, Winn. You ain’t nothin’ like your old man.” Hoss’s tone conveyed his deep disappointment born of familiarity.

Winn peered down the length of his rifle barrel aimed at his quarry’s heart. “Thank you for the compliment.” Fact was, anything that distinguished him from his notorious outlaw father and supernatural Hunter, Cyrus “Black Jack” Jackson, pleased him enormously. He didn’t want any part of that life. Not now. Not ever again.

“Cain’t you jest let me go, for old time’s sake?” Hoss and his group of bandits had once been Hunters alongside his father. But tough times had turned them from protecting humanity to protecting their own self-serving interests. They’d robbed this stage four times in the last month, hoping for a payroll run for the Black Gulch Mine.

Winn was damned if he was going to let it be five. He had a murder a day, sometimes more than one, to contend with in the rowdy mining town. Having the miners’ pay stolen and travelers threatened on a regular basis was a pain in his ass. He’d stuck Hoss and his cronies in jail three times for doing exactly this. And every time, Hoss’s nefarious connections had gotten them out. But enough was enough.

“If I let you go, then I wouldn’t be doing my job, now would I? Get your hands where I can see them.” Winn pulled down the lever on his repeating rifle, preparing it to fire.

Click. Click. Click. Click. Four other guns cocked and pointed at Winchester’s head as the rest of Hoss’s group emerged from the jagged, tan rocks of the canyon. A perfect place to stage a holdup.

Damn.

“Not this time, Winn.” His wide smile a mess of gaps and yellowed teeth, Hoss stepped forward and pulled the rifle from Winchester’s hands. “No one would have figured you for the rotten apple in the barrel. A lawman!” His lip curled with contempt. “That would jest make your pa spit nails.”

Winchester resisted the urge to tug on the hardened tips of his heavily waxed black mustache, a habit he’d developed when agitated during his last five years as sheriff of Bodie. “My pa would have spit anything he could chew.”

A metallic clink and rattle of gears alerted Winn that the steps of the coach were being lowered. “Stay inside,” he shouted to the fool preparing to alight on a mountain pass with five armed men waiting mere feet away.

A rustle of taffeta accompanied a length of silky calf and dainty half boot onto the first step. From the dim recesses of the stage stepped an elegant woman.

Winn felt a rush of unwanted heat as she emerged into the dusty sunlight. Dark, glossy curls were capped with a jaunty little top hat sporting a cloud of black feathers. Her expensive-looking bustled gown, the blue-black iridescent color of raven wings, hugged her slim waist and suggested a silhouette that was amply curved by nature rather than artifice. But more stunning than her figure was her face.

Seeing her beautiful, exotic features made Winn’s heart knock uncomfortably and caused his palms to sweat. Sure he’d seen women. Plenty of them. But nothing like this roamed the likes of Bodie. Lips, a shade too full to be fashionable, and high cheekbones accented a pair of piercing whiskey-colored eyes that stole his breath away.

The woman’s dusky beauty was both dark and alluring, but an undercurrent of danger surrounded her like a storm cloud charged with lightning. Upon the black kidskin leather of her gloved hand was a large ruby ring, which matched the blood-like droplets of rubies at her ears. Her every mannerism screamed wealth and privilege.

“Is there a problem, gentlemen?” Her voice was soothing and rich like warm honey, and her heavy Eastern European accent made “gentlemen” sound more like “zhentlemen.”

Hoss gave an impatient jerk of his head toward the stage, even though his gaze lingered on the woman. “Wait your turn, missus. Get back in that coach. We’ll have us a fine time when I’m done with my business.” His suggestive tone made Winchester want to punch him—hard, and preferably more than once.

“I think not,” she replied smoothly.

The hair pricked up porcupine fashion on the back of Winchester’s neck as the scent of sulfur tainted the air. Something about this situation wasn’t right.

He turned away from the woman, focusing instead on taking down Hoss. Sure, he’d probably get shot by one of the Dalton gang, but if he did it right, it wouldn’t be more than a flesh wound, and Hoss would take the brunt of his gang’s shots. He bent his knees slightly, preparing to lunge at Hoss’s middle, but before he could even move, all hell broke loose.

The woman’s face warped, her brows protruded, her eyes turned crimson, and her full lips bracketed a pair of perfect, pearly fangs. She hissed, and every head turned.

“Vampire!” Hoss yelled to the others.

Taken off guard, they fumbled with their weapons, trying to exchange regular bullets for silver, but they weren’t fast enough. In a blink she had stripped the Dalton gang from their horses and savagely ripped out their throats with her delicate gloved hands and razor-sharp fangs. In a cloud of dust, the horses ran down the canyon, back toward town, their frightened whinnies echoing off the rocks.

Only he and Hoss remained. Winchester grabbed his rifle out of Hoss’s loose grip and trained the weapon on the monster in taffeta. She turned back, facing them, her lips slicked with bright red blood. The tip of her soft pink tongue stroked one fang, making Winchester’s gut contract involuntarily.

“A bit rustic, and a little too well marinated in whiskey, but substantial,” she said, as if discussing the vintage of wine. She pulled a black silk handkerchief from the sleeve of her gown and dabbed at the blood remaining around her lips and chin, removing the last traces of her unladylike activity.

“Well, don’t just stand there, goddammit, shoot her!” Hoss yelled, shuffling behind Winchester. Winn stood his ground, the rifle pointed straight at the vampiress’s heart. Not that it would do much good. What he really needed was a machete or a broadsword to lop that lovely dark-haired head from her slim shoulders.

“Don’t come any closer,” he warned.

She tilted her head slightly, like an inquisitive bird of prey, her eyes returning to their original amber color and her face returning to its regal profile. Only the fangs still remained.

“You have nothing to fear from me. Look around you, Hunter. Have I harmed the innocents in the coach? Have I harmed you? No. I took only the lives of those who were contributing nothing to your society in the first place. Hardly a crime.” She peeled the soiled black gloves from her fingers one at a time, then tossed them into the air where they disappeared in a swirl of dark smoke.

Winn’s finger rested heavy on the trigger, just needing a finite amount of pressure to fire the rifle at the vampiress. Only one thing held him back.

Everything she’d said was true.

He glanced at the wooden, steam-powered stagecoach. The occupants huddled inside, whispering and peering with wide, frightened eyes from behind the dusty leather window coverings, afraid to come out; but they were unharmed. Hoss’s men lay in crumpled bloody heaps, and Hoss himself was still cowering behind him, but she hadn’t attacked him.

“What d’you want, vampire?”

“I am the Lady Alexandra Porter, Contessa Drossenburg, emissary of His Vampiric Imperial Majesty, Emperor Vladimir the Fifth. I’ve come to seek out the eldest of the Chosen, Winchester Jackson. I was told he resides in Bodie.” Her gaze flicked to the cluster of sun-bleached wooden and brick buildings down in the valley below, then drifted to the star on his chest. “Do you know him?”

“Lady, I am him.”

Her eyes widened slightly. “Then we have business to discuss.”

Winn slowly lowered his gun, but not his guard. Apparently Hoss was stupider than he looked; he tried to wrestle the repeating rifle away from him. But Winn had lost his patience. He clocked Hoss on the side of the head with the butt of his rifle, and the other man slid unconscious face-down into the powder-fine dirt.

Winn glanced up at the vampire. “I don’t do business with supernaturals.”

She gave a shrug of her petite shoulder, her fangs retracting completely, leaving behind a row of even, white teeth. “I expected as much, but the emperor does not share my view. He thinks it is time for vampires to join with the Chosen if we are to defeat a mutual enemy.”

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend?”

“Da. But perhaps it is best if we discuss this elsewhere.” She threw a meaningful glance over her shoulder at the stunned occupants of the steam stage. “May I have your leave to glamour them? It is not safe for them to know so much. Don’t you agree, Mr. Jackson?”

Much as he didn’t like it, she did have a point. The last thing he needed was a stage full of frightened travelers to come rolling into Bodie spouting off about a vampire killing the Dalton gang. People, as a general rule, were panicky, stupid, and rash. And chances were ten out of ten, if the travelers talked, the town would come beating down his door demanding that he fix it. No, it was far better if she glamoured the lot of them and made them forget this unpleasantness had ever happened. He nodded his approval.

The vampire dipped her head as she bent in a curtsey, then gingerly picked up her skirts and turned back to the stage. The low, husky quality of her voice rustled like the taffeta she wore, sultry and smooth, completely absorbing the total attention of the travelers.

“You have had a most pleasant trip, with only the slightest delay for a mechanical horse that needed an application of oil,” she said slowly. Winn tried to block out her voice, but glanced over her shoulder to see the wide, glassy stares of the occupants of the stage. She certainly did know how to throw a glamour. Good thing he was practically immune.

That was the second thing Pa had taught Winn about hunting. The first had been never to trust a supernatural being. The Darkin were the scourge of the universe—children of the night—dedicated to eliminating humans so they could claim the earth for themselves.

No matter how elegant, sophisticated, or well-mannered the contessa seemed, she was still just a damn vampire, and sooner or later he was going to have to slay her.

The knowledge bit down deep and hard into his bones, refusing to let go. Winn silently cursed in four different languages. As the oldest Jackson brother, he’d been exposed to the life of a Hunter the longest. Pa had started drilling the rules into him from the time Winn could toddle.

Which made all of this so much worse. Because ten years ago he’d given it up, walked away, and vowed to stay good and gone from Hunters and anything to do with the Darkin. He’d tried to lead a normal life—be an upstanding citizen with a clean reputation—something neither of his brothers would know about. For while the Jackson brothers looked similar on the outside, with their pa’s jet hair and broad shoulders and their ma’s blue eyes and winning smile, they were as different as could be on the inside.

Winn turned away from her as she bid the travelers a kind good-bye. She shook their hands, and waved to them while the horses gained steam and began to huff and chuff, ready to resume their journey into Bodie.

It didn’t help that his little brother Colt, the hothead of the three and a self-styled outlaw, had come waltzing in that afternoon, determined to locate their pa’s long-lost piece of the Book of Legend. Winchester had told his little brother the truth. Only a Darkin could access the Book where Pa had hid it. And, nothin’, but nothin’, was going to change his mind about taking up arms as a Hunter again.

White puffs of steam and darker smoke from the carriage’s boilers mixed with the dust kicked up by the mechanical horses, creating a dark smudge in the otherwise cloudless clear blue sky as the stage clanked and rolled on down the hill into Bodie.

The vampire eyed him with a mixture of curiosity and respect mingling in the depths of her eyes. “You are not exactly what I expected, Mr. Jackson.” She clasped her bare hands together, the dark ruby ring winking on the ring finger of her right hand.

“What’d you expect?”

The corner of her mouth tipped up in a way that made his skin seem to shrink a size, and he had to keep himself from leaning forward to sample those tempting lips.

“From the legends we’ve been told”—her gaze raked him over, assessing him—“someone bigger.”

Winn’s lips twitched beneath the edge of his mustache. “Is that so?”

Her long, tapered fingers lightly brushed the velvet rim of her expensive little hat, which was sheltering her face from the sun. “Da. But then looks can be deceiving.” Even though she looked no more than twenty-five, she had to be an old and powerful vampire to be withstanding the intensity of the daylight.

“You got that right,” he muttered. Strip a bustle, petticoats, and corset off a woman and you were often shocked at what remained. But not with her. He could tell.

“His Majesty would like you to accompany us to his main palace in Europe and join in recovering the second third of the Book of Legend.”

“You know where another piece is?”

“We did. For six hundred years it had been stored within the royal castle. But recently it was stolen. If you are willing, His Vampiric Imperial Majesty’s envoy and I would like to return this evening to discuss retaining your services.”

Winn pressed his lips together. He wasn’t about to hire out to a vampire—imperial, majestic or otherwise. He didn’t work with supernaturals, and he sure as hell wasn’t about to work for them.

“Let’s get one thing straight, Lady Drossenburg. If I decide to help you, and I’m not saying I will, it will be on my terms, and not because I give a rat’s ass what your high and mightiness back home thinks. We clear on that?”

A fine little tic worked at the corner of her eye, but otherwise her face remained perfectly smooth. Clearly she was as uncomfortable with this little arrangement as he was. Good.

She bowed her head and dropped into an elegant curtsey, the pale dust marring the edges of her dark skirt. “Of course, Mr. Jackson.”

“We’ll meet at the jail in Bodie. Ten o’clock tonight suit you?” There was no point in making it too early. He’d need time to prepare, for one thing, and for another he wasn’t exactly anxious to go it alone with two vampires, possibly more. It might be a diplomatic mission, but he wasn’t some stupid, average hick. He’d been trained by the best Hunters around, and a man didn’t forget hard lessons like those.

She rose from the curtsey and lifted her chin with a defiant tilt. The blood-drop earrings at her earlobes danced with the movement of her head, calling attention to the smooth, supple skin just below her ear. “As you wish. We shall see you this evening.”

Winn nodded. He wasn’t happy about the appointment, but saying so wasn’t going to make the situation any better. With the coach gone, he had no idea how she planned to get back to—wherever she’d come from, or if she intended to walk the three miles into town. She strode, her bustle swaying, in a slow, graceful pace toward the open desert, away from Bodie. One second she was there, a dark mark against the too-tan landscape, and the next she turned into a spiral of dark smoke that dissipated on the breeze.

“Damn vampires,” Winn muttered to himself, looking at the mess she’d left behind. High overhead three buzzards, their naked pink heads barely visible, circled in the sky. He’d have to get a deputy to come out here with Mortimer Brewster, the mortician in Bodie, to collect the bodies of the Dalton gang before only their picked-over bones remained. Carefully Winn dragged the bodies closer to the rocks, making a tableau that looked more like the attack of a mountain lion.

Hoss groaned and stirred up a cloud of powder-fine dirt from the trail. Winchester grabbed him up by the collar of his shirt, hauling him to his feet. “Up and at ’em, Hoss.”

The bandit shook his head and wobbled. “What happened?”

“You were damn lucky, Hoss. Damn lucky. This time.”

“Where am I?”

Winn clenched his jaw, waiting to see exactly what Hoss remembered as he walked Hoss back toward town. He didn’t want to have to glamour him, but he would if he needed to. Pa’s theory had been that the best way to take down a Darkin was to know what made them tick and learn how to use it against them, so he’d trained Winn to cast a glamour, and a few other things he preferred not to think on too much.

“Where’s the boys?”

Winn gazed at Hoss through the corner of his eye. “You were hiding up in the rocks waiting for the stage, weren’t you?”

Hoss stumbled slightly. Winn caught him by the upper arm and kept him walking.

“The stage—”

“That mountain lion must have had its fill ’fore it got to you.”

Hoss looked at him, his bloodshot eyes narrowing with suspicion. “There weren’t no mountai—” Winn locked gazes with Hoss, and the man went blessedly mute.

Winn carefully modulated his voice, keeping it low, slow, and even, letting the power well up from his gut and resonate in his throat as the glamour took over. “A large mountain lion attacked you and your gang before the stage with the Black Gulch bankroll came through. You were knocked unconscious after your gun backfired and slammed your head up against the rocks. And because it was so traumatic you’re never going to hold up that stage again.”

“... backfired ... traumatic ... never again ...” Hoss repeated softly, his eyes glazed.

Throwing a glamour over the man made a kind of sickening feeling slosh about in the pit of Winn’s stomach. He didn’t like resorting to Darkin tricks, hadn’t even when he was a Hunter. But it was better this way, he assured himself. Better for Hoss. Better for the town. There was no need for these folks to be afraid of vampires, or even know they existed.

The walk back into town was slow going and damn hot. But thirty minutes later, Winn trudged up the sagging wooden steps of the Bodie jailhouse and led Hoss inside.

“Now you’re going to sit down here for a bit till that sunstroke wears off you, you hear?” Truth was Winn was a might concerned the glamour might wear off before Hoss was fully functioning again, and he might relapse and remember everything. Winn needed to keep a close eye on him for a bit.

Hoss shook his head again. His eyes cleared as the glamour faded, and he dutifully sat down in the only ladder-back chair on the front side of Winn’s large, scarred desk.

Winn sat in his office chair and opened the left side drawer of his desk, pulling out a brown glass bottle of whiskey and a shot glass.

“You mind if I have some of that?” Hoss eyed the bottle longingly and licked his cracked lips.

“Yep. I do.” Clearly Hoss was back to normal and good to go.

Hoss scooted to the edge of his seat and closer to the bottle. “But I’m mighty parched.”

Winn refrained from bodily just shoving Hoss out into the street and instead jerked his head toward the door. “Plenty of saloons in town. Go take your pick. Just make sure you tell Brewster to go take care of your boys up there first. No need for the buzzards to pick them clean.”

Hoss got up from the chair, not needing further encouragement. The door swung shut behind the older man, and Winn kicked back a slug of the old Kentucky Red Eye, letting it sear a path down his gullet and chase away the chill in his stomach. He thought twice about taking another shot. If the vampires were coming, he’d have to have his wits about him for certain.

Winn set the shot glass on his desk, then leaned forward and scrubbed his hands over his face. He pulled on the hard waxed ends of his mustache.

It had been bad enough that his little brother Colt was bent on stirring up demons, but now there were vampires to contend with, and who knew what else might be dredged up by Colt’s danged obsession with the Book of Legend.

Pa had hid his piece for good reason. The three brothers who had started the Legion of Hunters—Cadel, Haydn, and Elwin—had hacked the Book apart for good reason. And as far as Winn was concerned, he had one damn good reason for keeping himself out of hunting.

If that was even possible. He rubbed at the tight rope of scars across his thigh. Perhaps he’d been deluding himself for the last ten years. Ever since he’d had the run-in with that demon who’d nearly drowned Colt, and got an axe imbedded in his own leg for his troubles, he’d realized he wasn’t cut out to be a Hunter. There was too much at risk. He poured another jigger of whiskey into the glass and swirled the tawny liquid around.

It reminded him of the contessa’s eyes, so clear and pure a color they were almost translucent amber. They were very unusual. Very pretty. But where there were Darkin, Hunters died. Where there were Darkin, the loved ones of Hunters died.

Years ago, his mother’s blue eyes had gone wide with shock, her hand shaking and slick red with her lifeblood as she pulled it away from the spot the bullet had struck. Winn’s legs wouldn’t move. He couldn’t even speak. The demon he’d meant to shoot had laughed, then turned into a black smudge in the air. The bullet had passed straight through it. His mother had sunk to her knees and fallen forward in the dirt, her honey-colored hair coming loose from the twist she always kept it in.

Time had seemed insanely slow as he stumbled toward her, falling beside her. “Mama?” He’d turned her over, but it was too late. Her eyes were open, but they were hollow. All the life in them was gone.

His stomach roiled at the memory, bile rising up in the back of his throat. Winn struggled to bring his shaking hand under control. He slammed the glass on the desktop, making the whiskey slosh over the rim. He cupped the back of his head with his hands and closed his eyes, breathing out in a slow, steady stream to calm his raging heartbeat.

His pa had spouted off the platitudes of it not being his fault. He hadn’t known what the demon could do and that it took special bullets to wound one. He’d meant to do the right thing. But the distance between what Winn had meant to do and what had actually happened was from Bodie to the moon. Winn had never stopped blaming himself. His world was black and white. He’d killed his mother, and he’d only been twelve. Only he and Pa had known.

The disaster with the demon almost drowning Colt ten years ago, then hitting Winn with an axe that almost cost him his leg, had been the last straw. Much as Pa wanted him to be a Hunter, he wasn’t fit for it. He wasn’t about to be the reason he lost his brothers too.

That vampire was just going to have to find some other poor sap Hunter to help her.

The heavy thud of boots on the worn wooden steps outside the jail two hours later was the first clue Winn had visitors.

He pulled the pistol from his hip holster, cocked it, and held it level to the top of his battered desk, far more wary than he had been when his day had started. His brow furrowed and his eyes grew dry as he refused to blink. The seconds seemed to stretch in the late afternoon heat.

The door flew open as it was kicked inward. Winn’s shoulders relaxed when he recognized the silhouette. His little brother Colt formed a dark shadow in the doorway, the bright sunshine outlining him. A smaller silhouette—that of a woman whose backlit red hair turned to flame in the sunlight—was close on his heels. Colt and the woman looked as though they’d been dragged behind a stage, maybe even trampled by the horses. Their torn, dirty clothing was splattered with dried blood.

Winn’s heart stopped beating for a second as he tried to ascertain if it was his brother’s blood or someone else’s. By the pissed look on Colt’s face he guessed it might be a bit of both. But he was relieved his brother was still standing.

Colt pulled the woman in with him. The dirty blue calico hung limp and ragged from her shoulders, and her hem was torn clear up to the thigh, exposing long, shapely legs in torn fishnet stockings. Colt had his hand manacled about her wrist, and she didn’t seem to be resisting. Who the hell was she, and what had she done to his brother down in the mine while he searched for the Book?

Winn shoved his Stetson back to get a better view. “What happened?”

Colt threw him a dirty, accusatory look. “We found the damn door. We got in. We got the wooden box open. There was nothin’ in it! Nothin’ but this scrap of paper.” He threw the yellowed bit of paper on Winn’s desk. “And we nearly got killed for our troubles.”

Winn picked it up, unfolding the aged, brittle parchment with care. His eyes narrowed as he angled the paper first one direction, then the other, looking at the odd words scribbled into a spiral, trying to make sense of it. “It’s in code.”

There’d always been the chance that Pa would have taken extra precautions when he’d hidden his part of the Book down in the depths of the Dark Rim Mine, but apparently he hadn’t trusted Winn enough to be completely honest about the location of the Book, or what would have to be done to reach it.

Fire erupted behind Colt’s eyes, and the air shivered with his palpable rage. “No shit, Winn. What’d you do with Pa’s part of the Book?”

Winn’s gaze lifted from the page, boring deep into Colt. He counted slowly from ten to one in his head to keep from cuffing the boy for his attitude. “I didn’t do a damn thing with that Book. Pa just said to keep watch over the thing. I haven’t seen it since he hid it down deep in that mine when we were kids.”

Unspoken hostility eddied between the Jackson brothers, making the air crackle. “You’re tellin’ me somebody else got to it first?” The accusation was there, hanging between them unspoken, and it cut Winn to the core that his brother thought he’d do anything to hurt him.

Winn’s gaze shifted, landing squarely on the woman beside his brother. He hadn’t seen her before, but he knew a Darkin when he saw one, even if the telltale scent of sulfur hadn’t followed in her wake. Her eyes were unnaturally green, like fine, clear emeralds. An ethereal beauty, she was too perfect to be a mere mortal. Dollars to pesos, she. . .