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same man, no?”
    “No. I will never be that man again.”
    The Old One rose from the fire with ease seldom seen in one so aged. Gregorio watched as he retreated into the shadows and returned with a pipe and clay goblet. “We will make a trade this night.
    I will give your body the strength to face the centuries. You will be ageless. Immortal.”
    “If that were truly possible, what would you take from me in 34 LISA KESSLER
    exchange?”
    “You will give up the sun, and you will help these people regain their land and their culture. These priests baptize them and take away their names and their beliefs. You will help them to free themselves from the bonds of a God they do not understand.” Gregorio wanted to refuse. Both sides of this trade were impossible. No man lived forever. Only God was immortal. And how could he honor his end of the bargain? He was no warrior. How could he help the native people to reclaim the land the Mission now declared its own? He wouldn’t know where to begin.
    Seeming to sense his reluctance, the Old One sat beside him, placing the smoking pipe in Gregorio’s hands. “Look into the fire.
    What do you see?”
    He stared at the flames and puffed the pipe, letting the peyote smoke fill his lungs.
    “I see her,” Gregorio said. “Her long black hair is falling down her back. She has the Romneya I gave her tucked behind her ear, and the moon is in her eyes.” His voice shook with emotion as his jaw clenched, fighting to hold back tears. “She is laughing, splashing through the waves on the shore.”
    “You can see her again,” the Old One whispered. “Love her again.”
    Was the fire getting hotter? The flames grew, and the peyote smoke filled the cavern. His head spun and his eyesight blurred. He could no longer distinguish reality from illusion.
    The Old One danced around the fire, his shadow circling the walls of the cave. Everything spun like a whirlwind, each image blending into the next. Nothing made sense, and he wondered if he might be dreaming. The Old One lifted him to his feet with one hand. A sudden burning pain shot through him, and his heart raced.
    He saw a lush jungle and triangular stone structures. And blood, so much blood. Chants echoed through his mind in a language he had never heard. His legs crumpled under him, but he didn’t fall. The Old One brought a clay goblet to his lips, and he drank until the cup was empty.
    Night Walker 35
    Somewhere deep within, Gregorio’s soul cried out in warning, and the last remnants of his faith clutched at his mind. For a moment he hesitated, but then he saw Tala smiling up at him and heard an echo of her laughter. He needed to see her again. To love her again.
    Gregorio took the cup once more, but instead of quenching his thirst, the lust for more grew. The Old One filled the cup again and again, and Gregorio drank until he fell to the ground.
    “Live forever,” the Old One whispered. And the shadows swallowed him in their suffocating embrace.
    36 LISA KESSLER

Chapter Four
    Calisto rushed toward the Mission de Alcala with preternatural speed. He listened intently, not only to the night sounds around him, but to the mortals he passed. Long ago, he learned to close his mind to the internal feelings of men and women, shielding himself from their intrusion, but tonight he wanted to hear them.
    Tonight he hunted.
    The Fraternidad had violated his home while he slept. Calisto ground his teeth. They would pay for their intrusion.
    He didn’t know how they had masked their presence from him.
    He hid his true nature from the mortals, but somehow the Fraternidad learned to hide from him as well. But this time, they had come too close while he lay defenseless beneath the earth.
    Calisto rolled his shoulders back, loosening the knot of fury building within his muscles. They wouldn’t threaten him again. He would see to that. The zealots would respect his power, or they would die. He didn’t care which. He’d finally found Tala again,