No Sleep till Doomsday Read online

  ALSO BY LAURENCE MACNAUGHTON

  It Happened One Doomsday

  A Kiss Before Doomsday

  Published 2018 by Pyr®, an imprint of Prometheus Books

  No Sleep till Doomsday. Copyright © 2018 by Laurence MacNaughton. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the internet or a website without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Silhouette cover image © Panic Attack / Shutterstock

  Lightning cover image © Andril Symonenko / Shutterstock

  Car cover image by Liz Mills

  Cover design by Liz Mills

  Cover design © Prometheus Books

  This is a work of fiction. Characters, organizations, products, locales, and events portrayed in this novel either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Inquiries should be addressed to

  Pyr

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  Amherst, New York 14228

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: MacNaughton, Laurence, 1975- author.

  Title: No sleep till doomsday / by Laurence MacNaughton.

  Description: Amherst, NY : Pyr, an imprint of Prometheus Books, 2018. | Series: A Dru Jasper novel ; 3

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018023964 (print) | LCCN 2018024094 (ebook) |

  ISBN 9781633884977 (ebook) | ISBN 9781633884960 (paperback)

  Subjects: LCSH: Fantasy fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Fantasy / Urban Life.

  Classification: LCC PS3613.A276 (ebook) | LCC PS3613.A276 N6 2018 (print) | DDC 813/.6—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018023964

  Printed in the United States of America

  For Cyndi.

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Also by Laurence MacNaughton

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  1: Nothing Lasts Forever

  2: Where Your Demons Hide

  3: Streets of Fire

  4: Steel Demons

  5: Darkness Rising

  6: Lips Like Sugar

  7: Bombshell

  8: When the Ghosts Come Calling

  9: Salem’s Ladder

  10: Still of the Night

  11: Sign of the Demon

  12: Somebody’s Watching Me

  13: On Through the Night

  14: Silver-Tongued Devil

  15: Dance with Me

  16: Lucretia, My Reflection

  17: Glue Guns Blazing

  18: How to Find Your Inner Mermaid

  19: Doomsday Writings

  20: Bat Mobile

  21: Wolf Whistle

  22: I Will Survive

  23: Incense and Insensibility

  24: Long Cool Demon

  25: Cheater Slicks

  26: Atomic Ghost Town

  27: City in Dust

  28: What You Know Is True

  29: Rane of Terror

  30: This Demon Goes into a Bar

  31: The Name of Vengeance

  32: Where It All Ends

  33: Start with an Earthquake

  34: Burn with Me

  35: Every Day Is Doomsday

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  1

  NOTHING LASTS FOREVER

  For some reason, Dru had always assumed doomsday would fall on a Monday. Not on a nice, easy summer Friday night. The universe just didn’t seem to be that cruel. Then again, Dru had been wrong about doomsday before.

  When the energetic knock sounded at her door, she opened it to find Greyson standing on her threshold. He held a lush bouquet of red peonies in one hand, and an expensive-looking bottle of wine in the other. He had replaced his usual white T-shirt and black leather biker jacket with a pressed button-down gray shirt and designer jacket. For once, he was freshly shaved, and he smelled great.

  Dru’s jaw dropped open in surprise, and she quickly shut it.

  His eyebrows crept upward. “Am I early?”

  She folded her arms across her ragged sweatshirt and turned to look at the shambles of her apartment, feeling her cheeks redden. For the last few days, she had locked herself inside with her ancient books of magical knowledge, determined once and for all to discover a way to break Greyson’s curse. Every flat surface was covered with tall stacks of smelly, old texts and multicolored crystals. The floor was dominated by a shimmering seven-pointed star made of copper wire. The stubby dregs of candles burned at each point.

  Greyson gestured with the bouquet of flowers. “When I called, you said you were lighting candles, so . . .”

  “Ohh! Candles, yes, but . . .” Dru chewed on her upper lip, struggling to explain all of this in a way that wasn’t completely awkward. “You see, the candles are for work . . .” She gestured toward the copper star, painfully aware of the essential oil stains on her sleeve. She tried to hide them by pretending to fix her hair, which was a hopeless disaster. With a nervous laugh, she said, “I thought you were coming over on Friday night.”

  His rugged face showed utter confusion. “It is Friday.”

  “What? Nooo.” She checked her phone. “Oh, fudge buckets. Look, um, just give me a few minutes to straighten up and—”

  “It’s okay. It’s work. I should probably just go.” He hesitated, as if he wanted to say more, then held out the flowers. “These are for you.”

  “No! No, you don’t have to go. Come in, come in.” She took the flowers and wine, and quickly set them aside. Racing around like mad, she picked up stacks of dusty medieval manuscripts and a couple of creatively misplaced yoga pants, staggering under the combined weight of it all. “Sorry. I’ve been doing all this research. Obviously. And I’m so close. So close. I found this thing in one of the padlocked Stanislaus journals where he made kind of a poetic reference to Tristram banishing a ‘demon of the horse,’ which isn’t precisely the problem you have, but let me just—whoa!” She accidentally kicked over a lit candle with her bare foot, spilling hot wax across the hopelessly scarred wood floor.

  “Got it.” Moving quickly, Greyson steadied her and stooped to right the candle. The flame guttered and went out, releasing a curl of smoke.

  “Oh, good. Nothing’s on fire.” Dru set the books down on top of another stack, pausing a moment to make sure the whole thing didn’t topple over. When she turned around again, Greyson was smiling down at her.

  “Looks like I need to get you out of this apartment,” he said. “How about a fancy dinner to shake things up?”

  “Oh, shoot.” She adjusted her glasses and squinted at the microwave. “I heated up that burrito like . . . Wait, was that lunchtime?” The grumble in her belly told her that she hadn’t eaten it. “I’m sorry, everything is such a mess. It’s just that I’m putting everything else on hold until I find a way to break your curse. So you can be normal again, and not one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”

  At that, Greyson’s smile vanished. Though he didn’t move, he suddenly seemed miles away from her, as if her words had driven an invisible gulf between them.

  Her empty stomach clenched up with worry. “What? What did I say?”

  He just shook his head and walked over to the window. In the evening sky beyond, the distant sparkling lights of downtown Denver glowed peacefully. Dru’s apartment was on the upstairs floor over her s
hop, the Crystal Connection. Outside the window, metal stairs ran down to the parking space behind her store. It wasn’t the most glamorous place to live, and she certainly hadn’t meant Greyson to see it like this for the first time.

  But that didn’t seem to be what was bugging him. “You really want to make me normal again?”

  “For sure. Yes. Absolutely.” She studied the tension in his shoulders, wondering at the sudden change in him. “Why, what am I missing?”

  He let out a long breath and hung his head, then looked at her. The light of the candles reflected in his blue eyes. “Everything that exists between me and you, everything, it’s all because there’s something wrong with me.”

  At first, she thought he was joking, and she started to laugh. But the hard look in his eyes made the laughter dry up instantly.

  She cleared her throat. “Well, that’s just not true. We have plenty of things in common besides, you know, doomsday problems.”

  His gaze didn’t waver. “Name one thing.”

  She opened her mouth to reply, but nothing sprang to mind. Her entire life revolved around musty books, dusty rocks, and an encyclopedia’s worth of knowledge about healing herbs and potions. His life, on the other hand, involved old cars, engines, wrenches, tires—and being cursed with the destructive powers of a Horseman of the Apocalypse.

  His gaze softened. “The strange powers I have, that’s the whole reason we met. That’s why we’ve been so close. Because you’re worried that at any moment, I could crack. I could become a monster again.”

  For a moment, Dru visualized the creature he’d once been. Looming horns, vicious fangs, rippling leathery skin as black as midnight, and eyes fiery red as hot coals. With an effort, she pushed that unsettling memory aside and focused on the handsome man standing before her.

  “Let’s not jump to the worst-case scenario just yet, okay? Things are under control. There was a time, not too long ago, when you were running around with horns growing out of your head.” With both index fingers, she pointed at her own temples for emphasis. “And right now, you look great, okay? More than great. Fantastic. Amazing.” She looked him up and down, drinking in the sight of him, then shook her head, trying not to get distracted. “The point is, we’re making progress, and that’s what counts. I’m not giving up. Somewhere inside all of these books, there’s a cure. And I will find it.”

  “And then what?”

  “Then you’ll be normal again. Isn’t that what you want?” She stepped closer to him, acutely aware that on a deeper level, he was asking a question she didn’t quite comprehend. “How could that possibly be a problem?”

  His lips pressed into a thin line. “If you fix me, if you get rid of my Horseman powers, then what am I? Just some mechanic with an old car.”

  The anguish in his voice cut through her. She laid a hand on his strong arm. “Greyson, no. It’s not like that at all.”

  “Before I met you, I never believed in magic. Or monsters. Or any of this.” His voice grew husky. “And now I’ve seen what you can do. I know the world needs you and your friends. People like you, born with powers that can save lives, fight the bad guys, keep everyone safe.” His forehead creased with worry. “But once my powers are gone, I won’t fit into your world anymore.”

  “That’s not true,” she said softly. But obviously he believed it. Her eyes stung with tears. “Is this . . . ?” Her voice cracked. “Is this you breaking up with me?”

  How could she make him understand that they were meant to be together? They had a connection that went deeper than just their day-to-day interests. There was something about his very presence that affected her on a fundamental level. Being near him made her feel like everything was right with the world.

  Earlier this summer, when she thought she had lost him forever, it had nearly destroyed her, and she’d gone half mad trying to find him again. She’d risked getting herself and her friends killed in order to save him. She had even put the fate of the world second in line to getting him back. But she couldn’t explain why, not in any way that made sense.

  Explaining her feelings wasn’t her strong suit. She knew that by most people’s standards, she probably spent too much time in her own head. In fact, she’d been told exactly that on more than one occasion, mostly by Rane. Dru would be the first one to admit she was more cerebral than was maybe socially acceptable. In her line of work, that was usually an advantage, but not now. She knew what she felt, deep down inside, was true. But she couldn’t explain how she knew.

  Now, standing among the clutter of her apartment, looking up into the anguish etched into Greyson’s candlelit face, she didn’t know how she would ever be able to make him understand. Maybe it was already too late.

  Dru gently spread her fingers across his broad chest, feeling the smooth fabric of his blazer, so different from the usual black leather and zippers of his motorcycle jacket. This close, when she looked deep into his blue eyes, she could see the faint sparks of demonic energy lurking deep inside, waiting to be fanned to life again. At the first sign of danger, they would erupt into a hellish red glow.

  And every time they did, she had to wonder how close he was to once again becoming one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, driving the world toward extinction.

  She had a duty to break his curse. As a sorceress, she was responsible for doing whatever it took to keep the world safe from doomsday. But once she found a way to fix Greyson, would she lose him forever?

  Without saying a word, Greyson pulled her to him. The heat from his body enveloped her, so familiar and yet still strange and new. The rugged scent of him intoxicated her. He looked into her eyes, and suddenly she had trouble swallowing. Her heart drummed in her chest.

  He bent down, and her head tipped back. She lifted her lips toward his.

  A resounding thump from the crystal shop downstairs interrupted them. Dru pulled back, suddenly alert. Someone was down there.

  A swirling fiery red glow lit up Greyson’s eyes, as if someone had stoked the embers of a nearly cold fire and brought it to roaring life again. His chest swelled, and a dark shadow passed across his features. “What was that?”

  The grid of powerful protective crystals Dru had placed strategically around the old brick building was strong enough to keep out any intruders, short of someone crashing a truck in through the front window. Dru winced at that particularly painful memory, which was still too raw in her mind. With these potent crystals in place now, anyone who tried to break in without using a key would suffer a distinctly unpleasant magical surprise.

  Yet no magical backlash shook the building, which meant that someone had unlocked the door normally. Only Dru and her business partner Opal had keys. Dru realized her mistake and inwardly groaned. “I just remembered. The other day, I gave Rane a key to the shop.”

  Greyson squinted his glowing eyes, as if trying to decide whether she was joking. “That’s . . . brave.”

  “Well, you know, it’s kind of self-defense. Rane has this bad habit of breaking in anytime she wants to,” Dru said.

  He appeared to consider that, but he didn’t look too happy with his conclusions.

  “Before you say anything, I want you to know it’s complicated,” Dru said. “I mean, I love her, but oh, my God.” Dru took a deep breath, trying to calm the conflicting emotions that raced through her. “Just give me five minutes. Don’t go anywhere. If she finds out you’re here, she’ll want to play chaperone, and then things will get awkward. More. Awkward.”

  He nodded once.

  “I’ll be right back. I promise.” It took a force of willpower to pull herself free from his arms and head down the stairs that led to the back room of the shop.

  As she padded down the old brick stairwell, feeling each gritty step beneath her bare feet, she cursed silently to herself. Why did Rane have to show up right this very second? Why did Greyson have to worry so much about becoming a normal guy again? Why did she have to get so wrapped up in her work that she never got around to sh
owering today?

  Plus, she was pretty sure there was a cold, dried-out burrito stinking up the microwave.

  Other than that, for the first time Dru could remember, everything was finally coming together. After much struggle, Rane and Salem were an item again, Opal was happily dating Ruiz, and Dru had Greyson back safe and sound.

  She’d even been able to pay all of her bills this month, because of the recent surge of business. As word had spread that Dru could cure magical afflictions, dozens of new faces had started showing up at her crystal shop. That included the sorcerers who had lost their powers to the spiked drinks in the underground masquerade a couple of weeks ago.

  Dru had cured so many of them that she’d run out of cave calcite and had to rush order an entire new shipment from her supplier in South America. In the process of treating the sorcerers, she’d run her hands across so many of the white, lumpy, brain-shaped crystals that her palms felt permanently exfoliated.

  Now she had enough money in the bank to pay the rent for several months. Even better, she also had the undying gratitude—and, at long last, the hard-won respect—of dozens of sorcerers. Finally, she felt like she was somebody. As if she’d earned the right to truly call herself a sorceress.

  Now, she just had to figure out what Rane needed. Hopefully there wasn’t any new drama with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Salem. The self-proclaimed most powerful sorcerer around. Maybe she could shoo Rane out the door, put on some makeup, slip into clothes that didn’t feature an elastic waistband, and finally go out on her first official date with Greyson.

  Dru paused midstep, realizing how strange it was that she had never actually gone out with him, not even once. The closest they had ever come to a date was when he had crashed a business dinner with her ex, then promptly turned into a demon and started tearing up the city.

  Not exactly a fairy-tale start to a relationship. No wonder the poor guy was having cold feet.

  She resolved to make tonight special. She would tell him just how she felt. Somehow, she would make him understand that whether or not he had magical powers, he was the guy she wanted to be with.