Instinct

Sherrilyn Kenyon

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Table of Contents

About the Author

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In loving memory of Fred Grimm, whose last name was the biggest misnomer of all. Nick proudly dons his bright Hawaiian shirts in your honor, my brother. You are and will always be missed.

To Stephania, for being another bright and shining light in this world. God bless and keep you always, my sister. I love you dearly! And I think of you every day.

For Mama Lisa, Greg, and Sister Kim, for keeping me sane and for reasons y’all know. I couldn’t have done it without you! And for Judy, Loretta, Paco, Carl and Jacs and Pam and my two nurse Kims! And always Red Kim. :)

Last, but never, ever least, my husband and boys, for inspiring me and putting up with my most forgetful ways and long, solitary hours of writing time. I couldn’t make it through my days or life without you.

And to my awesome agent and team at SMP, and especially my wonderful editor, who hasn’t used her voodoo doll on me yet. Thank you! I’m so blessed to have all of you in my life and I’m so glad all of you are part of my world!

A good friend once told me not to dread the future. One way or another, it would come. The trick was to meet it with open arms so that when it ran me over, it wouldn’t break anything.

—Renegade Waya Mayan Dark-Hunter

PROLOGUE

It wasn’t easy being Death. Made it hard to make friends. Harder still to keep them. No one was ever really happy to see you. Being around anyone tended to make them nervous and jumpy. Really sucked most days.

And today in particular, Grim was … well …

Grim.

Sighing heavily, he glared at his hulking henchmen, Pain and Suffering. Instantly terrified of Grim’s intent and mood and what it might cause him to do to them, they skittered from the room like two roaches caught trying to pilfer a bite of cake. As if he was going to kill them while they were cleaning his office.

Later, he might be tempted. But he seldom killed anyone while they were doing something for him.

Even more agitated by their fear, he skimmed his hand over the large crystal skull on his table. Time was being tampered with. He didn’t know why and he didn’t know who.