Lupi 09 - Mortal Ties

Reviews
    “Fun [and] very entertaining!”
    —
The Romance Reader
    “Should appeal to fans of Nora Roberts.”
    —
Booklist
    “Eileen Wilks [has] remarkable skill. With a deft touch she combines romance and danger.”
    —
Midwest Book Review

Books by Eileen Wilks
    TEMPTING DANGER
    MORTAL DANGER
    BLOOD LINES
    NIGHT SEASON
    MORTAL SINS
    BLOOD MAGIC
    BLOOD CHALLENGE
    DEATH MAGIC
    MORTAL TIES
    Anthologies
    CHARMED
    (with Jayne Ann Krentz writing as Jayne Castle, Julie Beard, and Lori Foster)
    LOVER BEWARE
    (with Christine Feehan, Katherine Sutcliffe, and Fiona Brand)
    CRAVINGS
    (with Laurell K. Hamilton, MaryJanice Davidson, and Rebecca York)
    ON THE PROWL
    (with Patricia Briggs, Karen Chance, and Sunny)
    INKED
    (with Karen Chance, Marjorie M. Liu, and Yasmine Galenorn)

MORTAL
TIES

    E ILEEN W ILKS

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
    Published by the Penguin Group
    Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
    375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
    Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3,
     Canada
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London
     WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland
     (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road,
     Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.)
     • Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—
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     Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.)
     Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
    Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the
     product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance
     to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is
     entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume
     any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
    MORTAL TIES
    A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author
    PUBLISHING HISTORY
    Berkley Sensation mass-market edition / October 2012
    Copyright © 2012 by Eileen Wilks.
    Excerpt from
Ritual Magic
by Eileen Wilks copyright © 2012 by Eileen Wilks.
    Cover art by Tony Mauro.
    Cover design by George Long.
    All rights reserved.
    No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or
electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy
     of
copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized
     editions.
    For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
    a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
    375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
    ISBN: 978-1-101-61150-0
    BERKLEY SENSATION®
    Berkley Sensation Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
    a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
    375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
    BERKLEY SENSATION® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
    The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
    PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
    10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1
    If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is
stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither
     the
author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
    ALWAYS LEARNING
    PEARSON

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    Special thanks go to M. David Lugo, cemetary manager at Mount Hope, who helped me
     get some of the details right.
    I also want to send a shout-out to my Watercooler sisters (you know who you are).
     Thanks for the hand-holding, commiseration, and for celebrating with me when it was
     time to break out the confetti.

ONE

    L ILY Yu hadn’t planned to visit the graveyard at sunset. It just worked out that way.
    Mount Hope’s main gates closed at three thirty, but the pedestrian gates stayed open.
     People liked to stop by after work, the guy at the cemetery’s office had said, especially
     on the deceased’s birthday or other important dates. No parking available at this
     hour, though, except for what you could grab along the street.
    Lily pulled her