She set her fingers on his chest, straightening the collar of his tailored shirt. âThatâs okayâI donât think I could even begin to describe my first impression of you.â
He caught her hands. âBut itâs changed?â he asked softly.
âThe jury is still out,â she told him. It wasnât, though. Not really. He was dedicated. He wasâ¦noble, even, she thought. He was Elven, she was a Keeper. Elven could be anything, and he had chosen, like her, to protect and serve.
There were a million reasons she should back away. They were embroiled in a horrible situation together, surrounded by death and tragedy, by a threat to everyone and everything they knew, to the entire world of the Others and the city where they all hid in plain sight.
And yet the worst of it was that she was worried not for her world but for her heart and soul.
And not a drop of the fear tearing through her could save her.
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the world of THE KEEPERS: L.A. I hope you enjoy this new four-book foray into the world of the guardians of the supernatural known as the Keepers. Writing these booksâjoined for this go-round by Harley Jane Kozak and Alexandra Sokoloff, two very good friendsâhas been a true labor of love.
When Harley and Alex and I began to think about this second go-round, our first concern wasâ¦where else? And, again, the answer came to all of us at the same time: Los Angeles, City of Angels, City of Dreams.
And a city where at any given time you might see any kind of performance, any kind of costume, any kind of anything happening right there in broad daylightâor the dark.
Iâm actually in L.A. as I write this. Contestants for The Voice are scurrying around my hotel, all of them filled with hopes and dreams. And naturally, to sustain all the dreamers in the city, you have the exclusive clubs, the new âitâ places and all the people who own and run them. And then there are those with the true power: the producers, the agents and the directors, who are thrilledâand sometimes challengedâby the choices the producers make.
What better place for a few new Keepersâa bit disconcerted by their sudden call to dutyâto govern those denizens wearing masks beneath their masks?
I hope that youâll have as much fun reading about these new Keepers as we had writing about them.
Thank you, and enjoy!
Heather Graham
New York Times bestselling author HEATHER GRAHAM has written more than a hundred novels, many of which have been featured by the Doubleday Book Club and the Literary Guild. An avid scuba diver and ballroom dancer and a mother of five, she still enjoys her south Florida home, but loves to travel as well, from locations such as Cairo, Egypt, to her own backyard, the Florida Keys. Reading, however, is the pastime she still loves best, and she is a member of many writing groups. Sheâs currently vice president of the Horror Writersâ Association, and sheâs also an active member of International Thriller Writers. She is very proud to be a Killerette in the Killer Thriller Band, along with many fellow novelists she greatly admires. For more information, check out her website, theoriginalheathergraham.com.
Sometimes in life we get to meet people and in a few
minutes we feel weâve known them all our lives. Iâve known both Harley and Alex now for years, but from the time I met them I felt that Iâd known them since childhood. To my prized and beloved cohorts on this Keepers journey, Alexandra Sokoloff and Harley Jane Kozak. I cannot remember a time when we werenât friends, and I certainly canât imagine not having you in my life.
Perception, to paraphrase the old saying, is nine-tenths of the law.
And so the world happilyâwell, mostly happilyâaccepts the truth of that. And, perception, of course, is the main duty of those born to be Keepers and maintain order among the paranormal races.
As centuries slipped by, man became a âshow meâ species and lost his belief in what he couldnât see plainly with his own eyes, and that was good for all the decent and law-abiding creatures. As the twenty-first century progressed, populations exploded. Human beings covered the earth, with birth rates at an all-time high.
And other beings flourished, too, learning how to coexist in a world where the magic of the earth and skies was no longer recognized, and human credence was more and more limited to one particular sense: sight. Many people began to lose faith not just in the unexplainable or unknown, but even in their own omnipresent God.
While those of anâ¦unusual bent had once headed strictly to places like New Orleans, where even many among the human population believed themselves to be vampires or other denizens of the night, many places in the world became the destinations of choice for the truly different. The well-known among the racesâvampires, werewolves and shapeshiftersâwere ready to expand their territory, as were Others who had once chosen to remain in their native lands, the Elven, gnomes, leprechauns, fairies and more.