- Autum.

Title: Eternal Nights

Author: V.S. Nelson

Series: Sekhmet’s Guardians Series Book 2

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Self Published

Release Date: May  2013

Formats: Paperback/Large Print Paperback/E~Books

Synopsis:

Central Theme

To save the small infant’s life, Chenoa, her grandmother, did the unthinkable. She merged her life force with a tiny wolf cub then gave the cub to Jennifer, her other grand daughter to take care of. Too bad, Chenoa died before she was able to undo the spell or tell anyone what she had done. For twenty years Jessica watched the world pass her by through the eyes of another creature. Most of the time, the things humans did didn’t concern her, unless of course they told her to get off the couch or sleep on the floor. Thank the heavens above for Jennifer, who still doesn’t know who she truly is, or she’d still be eating raw meat. 

Jessica was content and happy for the most part until she laid eyes on Raphael who came to pick her up from the wolf rescue center a few weeks ago. Since then, her primary focus has been to stay by his side and find away to undo her grandmother’s powerful magic. 

In the meantime, Jessica has developed her natural Selkie abilities and has started communicating with Raphael. At night while he sleeps she enters his dreams under the pretense of what she should be – a human woman who has two arms to hold him and stands on two legs, not four. 

Convinced he is going mad; Raphael privately searches for the angel who haunts his dreams. With an ivory face as soft as velvet, radiating both pure innocence and sexual seduction at the same time, what else could she be if not an angel? His search is interrupted when the Guardians discover the Legions latest endeavors; they’re kidnapping unprotected women and lifemates across the world. A call goes out and the Guardians once again implement their recruitment policy. The war is escalating.

Raphael takes Nowaki, Jennifer’s wolf with him to interview prospective candidates. Board with interviews he decides to take Nowaki on a run in the forest. Taking a break from running they stop by a near by stream. He doesn’t hear the gunshot but feels the blast as it hits his chest and falls to his knees. 

Nowaki takes off after the assailant and gets her revenge but not until after the attacker mortally wounds her. Jessica takes over Nowaki’s body and pulls herself back to Raphael convinced they will die together. Lying on top of him to keep from getting cold, she has in reality, saved his life. The blood from her wounds drips down into his open mouth. 

Jennifer along with Gabe, Thomas, Michael and Roger arrive on the scene. Michael tells Jennifer,” he’s sorry but Nowaki won’t make it back to the helicopter, much less the compound.” Jen, who was visited by Chenoa the night before now knows about Jessica and Nowaki but has yet to say anything to anyone. She shares her secret with Michael who immediately steps in and attempts to save the wolf. They all make it back to the where surgery is performed on both Raphael and Nowaki. Jennifer shares her grandmother’s secrets with Alice, her best friend, and Gabe. 

When Raphael wakes he demands to go back to the forest. His Angel saved his life and no one will believe him. Gabriel finally tells him the truth, Jessica, his angel, and Nowaki are one in the same. The only problem is how to separate the two? 

Chenoa shared a bit more with Jennifer… They must return to the cabin where Jessica was born in California and Jennifer must complete the ritual. Only problem is, she doesn’t know how. She waits for her grandmother to show her what to do.

(Secondary stories)

(1)  While they wait for Chenoa to reappear the Guardians rescue several women from the Legion and bring them to the estate where Michael can care for them. 

(2)  Ronan, Jennifer and Jessica’s, Selkie father has an adverse reaction to the scene and everyone witnesses Selkies are not always the gentle creatures they appear to be. 

(3)  Michael believes they brought an air born virus into the compound with the women. All of the men are ordered to take up residency in the barracks since they are the only ones showing signs of infection. A female physician is brought in to care for the women. She soon discovers one of the women is not what she appears to be. Although human in appearance, Tshering Snow’s blood is feline in nature and she is in heat. 

(4)  Gabriel distraught without Jennifer decides to make something for Raphael and him to eat, only to destroy Jennifer’s new kitchen in the process.

(5)  Ronan and Jessica continue on with their romantic relationship.

(6)  Legion soldier Alan Roberts turns coat and returns Guardian soldier Peter Armstrong and his love interest, ballet dancer, Alison to the Guardians. He waits to hear the Guardian’s decision—will he be put to death or not?

(7)  Lance is captivated by the lovely Tshering Snow.

A small group consisting of Jennifer, Alice, Gabriel, Raphael, Michael and Nowaki head to the Sierras to find the location where Jessica was born. The group sits around the campfire drinking their morning coffee when Nowaki is attacked by a cougar. Jennifer has no choice but to do the ritual without any preparation. She falls to the ground and passes out once the ritual is completed. Nowaki and Jessica are both bleeding out from wounds received by the cougar. Rather than take Jessica back to the motor home, Raphael asks her for his forgiveness and bites into his own wrists and forces his blood down Jessica’s throat in an attempt to save her. He is successful but is worried about the repercussions—will it bind them forever? The group spends an additional week in the mountains where Jessica learns how to walk, eat and be human. It’s soon discovered that Jessica is mute although she has no problem communicating with anyone; she merely utilizes her natural Selkie ability. 

Upon returning to the Illinois, Jessica and Raphael are finally lifemated but not before they must overcome another language barrier. 

Michael said something to the effect that he was all theirs then made like a ghost, disappearing down the hall.

“Good to see you’re awake. You gave us quite the scare, ya know?

Raphael rubbed his forehead before answering him.

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t my intention.”

“So you want to tell me what the hell you were doing out in those woods?”

“I just needed some space. I use to go hunting near there and thought the fresh air would do me and Nowaki some good, so I took her for a run. I forgot it was hunting season. God, Nowaki… you found her…she’s alright, right?”

“Yeah, we did. Nowaki will be fine. She was lying with you when we got to the scene. Michael called in the vet and he took care of her while Michael was operating on you.”

“Wait a minute… she was hurt?”

“Guess you don’t remember much, do you?”

Raphael reached up and finger combed his hair out of his face, and then felt his five o’clock shadow while rubbing the sides of his face.

“Not that much. Guess I’m still a bit fuzzy from all those drugs Michael gave me. I remember… we were taking a break at the creek. Nowaki was drinking then something spooked her... I felt a little burn in my chest, looked down and saw the blood. I’m not even sure if I heard the gunshot before I blacked out.”

He reached up and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands.

Jennifer sat down in one of the chairs in the room. He plopped down on the side of the bed.

“Christ, did a hunter mistake me for a deer or something?”

“No it wasn’t a hunter.

“Wait a minute… What happened to the woman?”

“Raphael, you have been jabbering about some female for two days. We found no sign of a female or anyone else in the area, well other than the guy who shot you. You must have hit your head or something when you went down… Did Michael check your head for injuries?”

“Fuck, if I know what he did. I’ve been kind of out of it, remember? You sure there wasn’t a lady out there?

Man, I remember her more than I remember being shot.”

“Must have been one hell of a dream, the way you’ve gone on about her. Michael had to knock you out in the helicopter because you kept insisting we go back and find her.”

“Sorry about that, but man, what a dream. I could still swear she was there… So how did you find me anyway?”

“When you didn’t report in, Lance worked his magic and zeroed in on you through a satellite feed. Jennifer, Michael, Thomas, Roger and I flew up to Duluth and caught a chopper out to your location. When we …”

“Wait a minute…You brought Jennifer along?”

Raphael’s head snapped over to look at Jennifer who was paying close attention to the conversation from her chair. She smiled up at Raphael nodding her head.

“Yeah, well, she was in the control room when Lance had your pretty mug up on the monitor. She took one look at you and Nowaki and there was no stopping her… So anyway, we took the chopper out to your location.

Thomas and Michael found Nowaki lying across your chest. She was hurt pretty bad. Guess that wolf has a thing for you because she took out the vamp that shot you. Michael said if it wasn’t for Nowaki’s heavy weight lying on you, you might have bled completely out.”

“Shit, you sure she’s going to be alright? Jennifer, I’m really sorry. You know I would never intentionally…”

“Raphael, shut up! I know how much you love Nowaki. It’s not your fault. It was a freak accident.”

Raphael laid his head back and the pillow and nodded at Jennifer.

Gabe was amazed at the sudden change in Jennifer’s demeanor after she embraced her Selkie side. When he first met Jennifer, she was a bit on the reserved side; not quite shy but close enough. Some things seemed to intimidate her, including him. That was no longer the case. The woman he loved was a spitfire  hell bent on having her way and was afraid of nothing.

“You said it was a vamp that shot me?”

“Yeah, while we were working on you and Nowaki, Roger patrolled the area. He followed Nowaki’s blood

trail and found him. He bled out from where she ripped his throat out. We took his body back to Duluth with us thinking maybe it was a hunting accident and the hunter just happened to be an immortal. Turned out none of your recruits recognized him. He was identified later as a member of one of Set’s small units from Winnipeg who’d gone

AWOL a week or so ago. Roger removed his head and turned the sucker into a pile of ash after he was identified earlier today.”

“How the hell did you find that out?”

“That’s another long story. While you were out on your little recruitment binge, Peter Armstrong called in. To make a long story short, he brought home with him a female and his most recent roommate, a member of Set’s Legion. I’ll catch you up to speed on that later. Anyway, the guy identified him. The female is staying here, so if you run into a strange blond, her name is Allison and she is a guest of the estate.”

Jennifer got up and walked over to the side of the bed.

“Raphael, tell me about the woman.”

“Jennifer, I don’t think we need to upset him again… he’s been through too much…”

“No, I need to hear about her, please.”

Jennifer gave him one of her famous, Shut up, I need to know looks.

He nodded at the two of them. He wasn't sure why it was important to her but she evidently had something on her mind.

“It’s important, please, Raphael, tell me about her.”

Raphael blushed like a highschool girl then admitted he dreamed about the young woman more than once. He didn't go into the intimate details of his dreams but he could see his friend had it bad for her.

“The first time I saw her in person was in the woods when she appeared from out of nowhere and offered her wrist to me. The second time was when I woke and she was asleep on my chest. Guess from what you and Michael said, my sub-conscious mind was playing one hell of trick on me.”

Jennifer, without saying a word turned and started to walk out the door. He picked up on Jennifer’s thoughts immediately. He stopped her from leaving the room by placing his massive palm on her arm. “Are you thinking what I think you're thinking?”

She nodded, “ I'll be right back.”

Standing on her tiptoes  she kissed him on the cheek, left the room and went next door. He didn’t hesitate to follow her. “Jennifer, please don’t.”