Nancy Holder - Crusade

Also by Nancy Holder
and Debbie Vigui

Wicked
Witch & Curse

Wicked 2
Legacy & Spellbound

Resurrection

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people,
or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the authors imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

SIMON PULSE

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www.SimonandSchuster.com

First Simon Pulse hardcover edition September 2010

Copyright 2010 by Nancy Holder and Debbie Vigui

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Designed by Mike Rosamilia

The text of this book was set in Goudy Old Style.

Manufactured in the United States of America

2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Holder, Nancy.

Crusade / by Nancy Holder and Debbie Vigui 1st Simon Pulse hardcover ed.

p. cm.

Summary: An international team of six teenaged vampire hunters, trained in Salamanca, Spain, goes to New Orleans seeking to rescue team member Jenns younger sister as the vampires escalate their efforts to take over the Earth.

ISBN 978-1-4169-9802-0

[1. VampiresFiction. 2. Guerrilla warfareFiction. 3. SupernaturalFiction.
4. SistersFiction. 5. Horror stories.] I. Vigui, Debbie. II. Title.

PZ7.H70326Cru 2010 [Fic]dc22 2010009094

ISBN 978-1-4169-9808-2 (eBook)

To my daughter, Belle Holder. I would fight
a million vampires for you, my darling girl.
And I would beat them all.

N. H.

To my father, Richard Reynolds, who continually
teaches me that there are things in this world
worth fighting for.

D. V.

Im so grateful to everyone who has joined us on this crusade. A novel is a huge undertaking, and a new series is an even bigger one. Thank you to the legions who helped us on the journey, most especially our fantastic agent, Howard Morhaim, and our truly wonderful editor, Annette Pollert, as well as our Simon & Schuster family, including Bethany Buck, Mara Anastas, Paul Crichton, Taryn Rosada, Bess Braswell, Venessa Williams, Sammy Yuen, Mike Rosamilia, Katherine Devendorf, Karen Sherman, and Stacey Sakal. Gracias to Lawrence Schimel, who helped with the Spanish; any errors are ours. My deepest thanks and love to Debbie, my comrade in arms, my coauthor, and my dearest friend. My gratitude to Debbies husband, Dr. Scott Vigui, who kept us both sane. Thanks also to Katie Menick, and to Kate McKean, also included in our literary representation. Thanks to my family, and to Richard Dean Anderson for starring in my favorite show. And besitos to my homegirlsPam Escobedo, Amy Schricker, and Beth Hogan.

N. H.

So many people have joined us in bringing Crusade to the world, and their tireless efforts have ensured that this story was all it could be. I would especially like to thank Howard Morhaim, a great agent, and Annette Pollert, a wonderful editor, for their enthusiasm and support. Thank you to Nancy, the best collaborator anyone could ever wish for. Thank you as well to Belle Holder for her energy and encouragement. I would also like to thank my husband, Scott, my mother, Barbara, and my friends Calliope, Juliette, and Ann. I would fight vampires with you any day!

D. V.

On a dark night,

kindled in love with yearnings~

oh, happy chance!

I went forth without being observed,

my house being now at rest.

St. John of the Cross,

sixteenth-century mystic of Salamanca

For thousands of years the Cursed Ones hid in the shadows, fooling mankind into thinking they didnt exist. Then one day they just... stopped. Skeptics turned into believers one fateful dawn. And no one was ever safe again.

No one knows why they made themselves known. Why they chose a Valentines Day in the early twenty-first century to reveal their presence. Some say it had something to do with the end of the world. Others that they simply grew tired of hiding.

I was twelve when Solomon, the leader of the vampires, first appeared on TV and lied through his fangs to all of us. Thirteen when the war broke out. Fifteen when the United States declared a truce... when, in reality, we surrendered, and the nightmare really began.

Even after that, many of us couldnt bring ourselves to actually say the word vampire. It was as if once we admitted it, then wed have to believe in extraterrestrials or government conspiracies, too. Or in witches and werewolves... in anything and everything that could destroy us. Because we could be destroyed. We lost something so preciousour faith that eventually everything would be all right. Because it wasnt all right... and few believed it ever would be again.

So among those of us who swore not to abandon all hope, vampires came to be called the Cursed Ones. We learned that it was the name given to them long ago by those few groups who knew of their existence yet never shared the knowledge. But the vampires werent the cursed oneswe were. They had seduced us with their hypnotic smiles and talk of peaceful coexistence and immortality even as they had mounted a war against us. Then they sought to turn us into their slaves, and drink from rivers of our blood.

Im nearly eighteen now, and I have learned something about myself I might never have known, if Id been able to live an ordinary life.

But there is nothing ordinary about my life.

Nothing.

Including me.

from the diary of Jenn Leitner,
discovered in the ashes

THE VILLAGE OF CUEVAS, SPAIN
TEAM SALAMANCA: JENN AND ANTONIO,
SKYE AND HOLGAR, AND ERIKO AND JAMIE

Barely sunset, and death exploded all around Jenn Leitner.

It was a trap, she thought.

The sky crackled with flames; oily smoke choked the air and burned her lungs. Jenn struggled not to cough, fearing that the sound would expose her. On her elbows and knees, her dark auburn hair loose and falling into her eyes, she crawled from beneath the red-tiled roof of the medieval church as it collapsed in a crash of orange sparks. Fragments of tile, stone, and burning wood ricocheted toward the blood-colored moon, plummeting back down to the earth like bombs. She dug in her elbows and pushed forward with the toes of her boots, grunting as a large, fiery chunk of wood landed on her back with a sizzle. She fought to stay silent as the pain seared through her. Biting her lip hard, she tasted coppery blood as she rolled to extinguish the flames.