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  Dawnkeepers

  ( Nightkeepers - 2 )

  Jessica Andersen

  Though a Nightkeeper, Nate Blackhawk refuses to allow others to control his fate. The gods have even tried to influence his love life, sending him visions of Alexis Gray, a sleek blonde who is everything he’s ever wanted in a woman.

  The two warriors can’t deny their attraction. But a frightening vision leads Nate to distance himself in spite of the intense passion he feels. Thrown together once more, they must reassemble seven Mayan artifacts that hold the key to preventing the end of the world…

  Dawnkeepers

  Nightkeepers 2

  by

  Jessica Andersen

  This book is dedicated to the readers who have made these books their own.

  Thank you so much for joining me on the roller-coaster ride to 2012!

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  The Nightkeepers’ world is well hidden within our own; bringing it to light isn’t always an easy process. My heartfelt thanks go to Deidre Knight, Kara Cesare, Claire Zion, Kara Welsh, and Kerry Donovan for helping me take these books from a dream to a reality; to J. R. Ward for critiques and help each step of the way; to Suz Brockmann for being a mentor and an inspiration; to Angela Knight for her friendship and encouragement; to Marley Gibson, Charlene Glatkowski, and my many friends in the New England Chapter of Romance Writers of America for being there for me every day without fail; to Sally Hinkle Russell for keeping me sane; and to Brian Hogan for too many things to name in this small space.

  Just as the few surviving Nightkeepers live among us today, their ancestors lived with the ancient Egyptians, Olmec, Maya, and Hopi during the course of their twenty-six-thousand-year history; they left their imprint on each of these cultures, and were influenced in turn. Thus, while their culture is best reflected in the myths and beliefs of the Maya, the parallel is not absolute. For a full list of references and recommended reading on the ancient Maya and the 2012 doomsday prophecy, and to explore the Nightkeepers’ online community, please visit www.JessicaAndersen.com.

  GLOSSARY

  Like much of the Nightkeepers’ culture, their spell words come from the people they have lived with throughout their history. Or if we want to chicken-and-egg things, it’s more likely that the other cultures took the words from the Nightkeepers and incorporated them into their developing languages.

  As such, some of the words have slightly different meanings and/or spellings in the old tongue of the Nightkeepers compared to their acknowledged meanings in the languages of ancient Egypt, the Mayan Empire, the modern Quiche Maya, and elsewhere.

  Entities (people, gods, demons, and other creatures) Banol Kax —The lords of the underworld, Xibalba. Driven from the earth and locked behind the barrier after the last Great Conjunction in 24,000 B.C. by the many-times great-ancestors of the modern Nightkeepers, the Banol Kax seek to pierce the barrier and wrest control of the earth from mankind. boluntiku —The underworld minions of the Banol Kax, the boluntiku are lava creatures that draw their energy from the molten mantle of the earth. They can come to earth only when the barrier is very thin (during a solstice or eclipse), and then only at the expense of great magic. The creatures are killing machines that can sense magic and royalty; they travel in an insubstantial vapor form, turning solid in the moment they attack, using six-clawed hands and wicked teeth.

  Camazotz—A member of the Banol Kax also known as Sudden Bloodletter, Camazotz is the ruler of night, death, and sacrifice. His sons are the seven death bats responsible for ensuring the completion of the demon prophecies.

  Daykeeper—A Mayan shaman-priest responsible for keeping track of the calendar and using divining rituals to make horoscope-like predictions.

  First Father—The only adult survivor of the Nightkeepers’ exodus from Egypt, this mage bound the slaves into winikin, and codified the Nightkeepers’ beliefs into the writs and the thirteen prophecies, in order to guide his descendants over the next five millennia until the end-time.

  Godkeeper—A female Nightkeeper who has undergone a ritual near-death experience followed by a sexual encounter with a Nightkeeper male, leading to her being bonded with one of the sky gods.

  Channeling the gods’ powers with the help of their Nightkeeper mates, the Godkeepers are prophesied to form the core of the Nightkeepers’ fighting force during the 2012 doomsday. itza’at —A female Nightkeeper with visionary powers; a seer. The itza’at talent is often associated with depression, mental instability, and suicide, because the seer can envision the future but not change it. The visions will always come to pass.

  Ixchel—The goddess of rainbows, loomcraft, and fertility. May also be associated with medicine and the moon. Often depicted as an aged grandmother with jaguar ears, but may also be seen as a beautiful young woman.

  Kulkulkan—The winged serpent god, later known as Quetzalcoatl. An extremely powerful god, one of the creators, Kulkulkan has both light and dark halves. The light half is associated with learning, logic, medicine, and art, while the dark aspects are associated with war and rage. makol ( ajaw-makol )—The earthly minions of the Banol Kax, these demon souls are capable of reaching through the barrier to possess an evil-natured human host. Recognized by their luminous green eyes, a makol-bound human retains his/her own thoughts and actions in direct proportion to the amount of evil in his/her soul. An ajaw-makol is a makol created through direct spell casting by the Banol Kax or the human host. The ajaw-makol can then create lesser makol through blood rituals on earth. nahwal —Humanoid spirit entities that exist in the barrier and hold within them all of the accumulated wisdom of each Nightkeeper bloodline. They can be asked for information, but cannot be trusted. In the Mayan culture, they came to be known as nahual (or uay), and were feared as shape-

  shifting sorcerers and devious alter egos of the Mayan ruling elite.

  Nightkeeper—A member of an ancient race sworn to protect mankind from annihilation in the years leading up to December 21, 2012, when the barrier separating the earth and the underworld will fall and the Banol Kax will seek to precipitate the apocalypse.

  Order of Xibalba—Formed by renegade Nightkeepers long ago, the order courted the powers of the underworld. Its members, called Xibalbans, drew their power from the first layer of hell. The order was wiped out by the conquistadors . . . or so the Nightkeepers believe. winikin —Descended from the conquered Sumerian warriors who served the Nightkeepers back in ancient Egypt, the winikin are blood-bound to the Nightkeepers. They function as the servants, protectors, and counselors of the magi, and have been instrumental in keeping the bloodlines alive through the centuries.

  Places Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) —A system of subterranean waterways and caves in Belize that contains numerous ceremonial relics of the Mayan shaman-priests, as well as a series of hidden submerged tunnels and caves sacred to the Nightkeepers.

  Chichén Itzá—Arguably the most famous ruin of the Yucatán Peninsula, this city was a religious center built and inhabited by the Maya in the seventh through tenth centuries A.D., and later incorporated the more blood-thirsty practices of the Toltec through the thirteenth century. Today it is a huge tourist attraction aboveground. Belowground, the Nightkeepers practice their rituals and magic in a series of subterranean caverns that run beneath the ruins.

  Skywatch—Built in the 1930s and renovated when the Nightkeepers were reunited, the training compound is located in a box canyon in the Chaco Canyon region of New Mexico.

  Xibalba—The nine-layer underworld of the Mayan and Nightkeeper religious systems, home to the Banol Kax, boluntiku, and makol. The spiritual entrance to Xibalba is found in the darkest spot at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The religious (metaphorical) entrances are the passageways at the tops of Maya
n pyramids, as well as natural caves, especially those leading to subterranean rivers.

  Things (spells, glyphs, prophecies, etc.) ajawlel —The slave-master’s glyph, worn by a Nightkeeper who has formed a reciprocal blood link with a human servant. 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 increases as the barrier weakens. chac-mool —An iconographic idol dedicated to the rain god, Chaac, the chac-mool is formed in the shape of a seated human figure, and may be used as an altar, a throne, and/or a place of blood sacrifice. copan —The sacred incense of the Nightkeepers. This is a variation of the Mayan incense, copal, and is associated with the great ruined city of Copán, located in modern-day Honduras. demon prophecies—A cycle of seven prophecies that will be triggered in the final four years before the end date. If a prophecy is fulfilled, the barrier thins slightly. If it is thwarted, the barrier strengthens to the same degree. These prophecies, revolving around the seven death-bat sons of Camazotz, are inscribed on a series of Nightkeeper artifacts that were sold off to fund the Nightkeepers’ activities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Now those relics must be recovered if the Nightkeepers hope to thwart Camazotz and his sons. hunab ku —A pseudoglyph associated with the 2012 end date, in modern times the hunab ku is not a glyph within the Mayan writing system, but rather is the mark that the Nightkeeper king wears on his biceps, denoting his proximity to the gods. intersection—Located in the sacred tunnels beneath Chichén Itzá, this is the one point on earth where the earth, sky, and underworld come very near one another, and where the barrier is its weakest.

  This is where the gods can come through to create Godkeepers, and where the underworld denizens focus their attacks during each solstice and equinox. jun tan —The “beloved” glyph that signifies a Nightkeeper’s mated status. k’alaj —The slave mark worn by a human who is blood-bound to a Nightkeeper master or mistress. pasaj och —Roughly translating to “open door open,” this, coupled with a blood sacrifice, is the basic command a Nightkeeper uses to form an uplink to the barrier’s power. starscript—Ancient writings carved into temples or artifacts in such a way that the glyphs do not reflect normal sun- or moonlight. They are visible only by starlight when the moon is dark. thirteen prophecies—A long-term prophetic cycle describing milestone events leading up to the apocalypse. The last of these mentions the Nightkeepers’ king making the ultimate sacrifice in the final four years before 2012. tzomplanti —A ceremonial pile formed of stacked human skulls, used as a beacon or a warning sign. writs—Written by the First Father, these delineate the duties and codes of the Nightkeepers. Not all of them translate well into modern times.

  On December 21, 2012, the world will end.

  At least, that is what some believe the ancient Maya intended to signal when they set their five-

  thousand-year backward-counting calendar to zero out on that day, at the exact moment the sun, moon, and earth will align at the center of the Milky Way in a cosmic dark spot the Maya believed was the mouth of the underworld, Xibalba.

  Modern scientific support for the 2012 doomsday theory comes from astronomers and physicists, who predict that this Great Conjunction, which occurs only once every twenty-six thousand years, will trigger magnetic reversals, terrible sun-spots, and potentially cataclysmic planetary events. This has caused historians and spiritualists alike to credit the Maya with a level of astronomy not seen again through history until modern times.

  However, the ancient Maya’s knowledge of the Great Conjunction—and the havoc it will bring—

  comes from a far older people: the Nightkeepers.

  Descended from the only survivors of a great civilization wiped out in 24,000 B.C. during the last Great Conjunction, the Nightkeepers are mortal magic users sworn to pass down their skills from generation to generation until the 2012 conjunction, when they will be the only ones capable of defeating the Banol Kax , a group of all-powerful demons who were bound in Xibalba by the Nightkeepers’ ancestors, and will be released on December 21, 2012. On the day of the Great Conjunction, the demons will break through the barrier separating the earth and underworld. They will destroy mankind and rule the earth . . . unless the Nightkeepers stop them.

  Ancient prophecy says that there should be hundreds of Nightkeepers at the end of the age, and among them will be the Godkeepers, a group of incredibly powerful warrior-females, each of whom will be able to wield the powers of a god with the help of her blood-bound mate and the Nightkeepers’ magic, which is based on bloodletting and sex.

  Together, the legends say, the Godkeepers and their mates will be instrumental in the Nightkeepers’ battle against the Banol Kax and the 2012 doomsday. But in the final four years before the zero date, when the demons begin their assault on the barrier, the Nightkeepers number less than a dozen scattered and untrained magi. The last king, Striking-Jaguar, reunites the surviving Nightkeepers in time to block the Banol Kax from attacking the earth. In the process, however, he claims a god-bound human woman as his mate rather than sacrificing her, defying an ancient prophecy and triggering the final countdown to the end-time.

  Now the Nightkeepers must recover the Mayan antiquities that bear the seven lost demon prophecies, which will guide them in battle as the end-time approaches.

  However, they’re not the only ones on the hunt for the missing artifacts. . . .

  PART I

  PENUMBRAL LUNAR ECLIPSE

  The earth shadows the moon, making it appear orange or bloodred. May be associated with shifts in the earth’s electromagnetic fields, heightened spiritual sensitivity, and rebirth.

  CHAPTER ONE

  February 6 Present The smell of death hit Nate Blackhawk the moment he pushed open the door to the seashore cottage, letting him know why Edna Hopkins hadn’t answered his knock.

  “Hell.” Mouth breathing, Nate crouched down, fumbled with his ankle holster, and pulled out a snub-nosed nine-millimeter loaded with jade-tipped bullets.

  The jade would be overkill if he met up with bad news of the human variety, but the sacred stone was one of the few things that made a dent in the underworld nasties he’d gotten to know up close and personal over the past seven months, ever since his life had swerved off Reality Road and plunged into something that bore more than a passing resemblance to the quest fantasies he wrote for a living. Or what’d used to be his living.

  “Mrs. Hopkins?” he called into the cottage. “It’s Nate Blackhawk; we spoke on the phone yesterday.

  Are you okay?”

  He didn’t expect an answer, didn’t get one.

  There was a dead Christmas wreath hanging on the door, and jingle bells tinkled as he let the door swing shut at his back. The decoration was six weeks past its prime, suggesting that the old lady hadn’t been kidding when she’d said she was having trouble keeping up with her house, living alone.

  The Cape Cod beachfront cottage was one level, maybe four or five rooms, tops, decorated right out of the Yankee Candle catalog, with an added dose of doilies. The place made Nate—at six-three, two hundred pounds, amber eyed, dark haired and sharp featured, wearing a black-on-black combination of Nightkeeper combat gear and don’t scare the old lady casual wear—feel seriously out of his element.

  It wasn’t exactly the first place he’d look for an ancient Mayan artifact that’d been out of circulation for nearly eight decades, either, but this was where the trail had led.

  “Mrs. Hopkins?” He moved across the main room to a short hallway, where the air was thicker.

  “Edna?”

  There was a bathroom on one side, followed by a closet and a neat-as-a-pin guest room done in Early Ruffle. On the opposite side was a single door, open just enough to show a slice of pale blue carpet and the edge of a lace-topped mahogany dresser. He used his toe to nudge open the door and then stepped inside, grimacing at the sight of a sunken-cheeked woman
tucked into a queen-size adjustable bed, with a lace-trimmed quilt pulled up to her chin. Her eyes were closed, her skin gray, her face oddly peaceful. There was no blood, no sign of a struggle, but next to her sat a polished keepsake box Nate recognized from her description as the one that had held the small figurine she’d inherited from her grandmother, who’d gotten it from hers.

  The box was open and empty, the statuette gone.

  “Shit.” He felt a beat of grief for the seventy-something widow, along with a serious case of the oh, hells at the realization that the Banol Kax had known what the Nightkeepers were looking for, and had somehow gotten there first.

  Or had they? he wondered, frowning at the neatly smoothed quilt, the carefully positioned body.

  Th e Banol Kax and their blood-bound human emissaries, the makol, weren’t big on subtlety; he would’ve expected her to be hacked up pretty good if they’d been the ones to steal the statuette. But if not the demons, then who had offed the old lady and taken the artifact?

  Not your problem, Nate told himself. You’re just the courier. But still, he stared down at the dead woman.

  “I’m sorry,” he said to her. Less than twenty-four hours ago they’d spoken by phone about the statuette, and the things she could do with the money he’d offered for it. She’d wanted to move south, where it was warmer in winter, and go into assisted living, because her daughters had no time for her and even less inclination to get involved. Nate had figured he’d offer to help her with the move; he knew what it felt like to have nobody give a crap where you were or what you were doing. That wouldn’t be necessary now, though, because whoever had taken the statuette had taken her life with it.