Age of Blood

PROLOGUE

Emily Withers had been partying a little too hard the last few days. In fact, she could honestly say she’d drunk more tequila than water, which was why she was determined to stay sober for at least the next few hours. Four days in Cabo San Lucas, living the vida loca like the end of the world was around the corner, wasn’t enough for her to forget that she was the daughter of a serving United States senator; there were people who were just dying to get a picture of her they could use to embarrass her father.

It had happened only once before, during her freshman year in college. Her sorority sisters had dropped her and the other pledges on the other side of campus, with the command to run back to the sorority house. Running fast wasn’t a problem. That she and the other pledges had been naked was. As it turned out, there’d been only a blurred image of her naked backside as she rounded the corner of the math and science building. But the papers ran the picture alongside one of her father’s speeches on funding public education. The late-night talk show hosts had a field day. Her father was less than impressed and spoke to her at length about the need to pay attention and how she wasn’t like other girls. She could have ignored it, but she loved and respected her father. She was serious when she told him it would never happen again.

Which was why for at least the next twelve hours she was going to behave like a nun assigned to the Vatican. No booze. No sex. No cavorting. Just clean living.

She’d been sitting on the balcony all night, staring at the deep blue water of the Sea of Cortez. Everyone else was passed out. She’d stopped drinking around ten and instead had spent the evening listening to those around her, watching the lights of the passing ships, and feeling oddly self-aware.

Now, with the vacation resort asleep behind her, she approached the water. She’d left her shoes and shorts in a pile, along with her cell phone and room key, and wore only the two-piece bikini she’d bought especially for this trip. She dipped a toe in the gently lapping water. It was warmer than she’d expected. She’d thought it might be bracing, but protected from the Pacific by the Baja Peninsula and fueled by the Mexican sun, the water was bathtub warm.

She decided to go for a swim and clear her head. She backed up a few feet, then ran into the water, hopping over and through the waves until she was deep enough that she couldn’t feel the bottom. Then she began to swim, her lurching stroke anything but graceful. She carved through the water for a full minute, then stopped, out of breath. She turned as she bobbed up and down in the sea and stared at the many pinpoints of brightness that were Cabo San Lucas. The glittering lights of the Pueblo Bonita Resort and Club Cascadas de Baja across the water became storybook in her tired vision. They looked nothing like the bacchanal palaces they really were. From here they could have made up a princess’s castle. They could have been her castle.

She bobbed gently for a moment.

Who was she kidding? She was too old to be a princess. Hell, she was too old to be trying to relive spring break. She was twenty-seven, had an MBA from Vanderbilt, and was acting like a girl straight off the farm. Somewhere between her fifth shot of the night and the game of beer pong, she’d looked up and realized that she wasn’t having any fun.

A wave beneath her made her rise gently, then fall back.

She was suddenly aware how far out she was. Were there sharks in the Sea of Cortez? After seeing Jaws, she used to think there were sharks everywhere.

Another wave. This time she rose higher.

She began to paddle madly back to shore. She felt the adrenaline rush as fear shot through her muscles. She could see the white line of surf where it met the beach, and farther up, her pile of clothes.

Something touched her foot.

She shrieked and sucked water into her lungs. She couldn’t continue. She hacked and coughed.

Something touched her other foot and caught it, jerking her down. She disappeared below the water for a second, then popped back up, gasping.

She reared her head back to scream, but was suddenly jerked beneath the water again. She felt a tremendous pressure against her legs. She began moving forward at high speed, her mouth open as she swallowed the entire ocean. For one brief moment she was lifted out of the water, the lights of the resort like a beacon of hope. She glanced down to see the scales of a creature reflecting those lights. Then she was down, into the water, deeper, deeper, until she couldn’t see anything, couldn’t feel anything at all.