At Nite

The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of a copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by fines and federal imprisonment. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in, or encourage, the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Red Sky at Night Copyright  2023 by Lilo Quie Digital ISBN: 978-1-68361-872-0 Print: 978-1-68361-873-7 All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher. Table of Contents Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five About the Author By Lilo Quie at Decadent Publishing Cat familiar and smart aleck Australian Midnite has been stuck as a cat for years, traded from human to human dabbling in the magical underground. When a new drug, stardust, saturates the market, Nite knows he needs out, but he’s bound by a collar and helpless. They may have taken his claws, but they’ll never take the sass. Rexford Redsky, probationary covenmaster of Red Sky has been dealing with humans dabbling in mage business for too long, in between bouts of cleaning up the messes left behind by the mass deaths of his kind. Families destroyed, covens burned to the ground, Rex is left with a little boy who nobody wants to claim. When a little black cat decides his leather jacket is now his home, the key to stopping their deaths is at hand. It started with an idea, an explosion in my mind. “Mages on motorcycles.” I couldn’t get the image out of my head of a sassy little black cat riding in his owner’s jacket cracking jokes that humans can’t hear. When someone asked me to describe my book, badly, in one sentence it all came together. “Mages on motorcycles getting raptured after snorting their kind’s remains.” Dedication This one goes out to my ADHD medication, without which I’d— Red Sky: At Nite by Lilo Quie Chapter One Rex Lightning flashed, bringing with it the roar of thunder. Orange hues of the evening sky gave birth to another flash and a boom that rattled the windowpanes of the clubhouse. Every jarring smash of the gods in the skies brought with it additional sets of hiccupping wails. A child. Despite fresh caulk on all the windows and relatively new frames, they still rattled in their carpentry with another clash and bright burst of light. “Shh, come on, Vince.” Rex paced his living room and pulled the thin form of a toddler off of a play blanket, hooking him onto his hip to bounce with soothing words. It quieted Vince’s cries as the fair-haired boy clung to his side, snot bubbling, tears flowing. Rex would have to change his shirt, but he didn’t mind. A warning rumble had Vince tensing again. “Shh, it’s just the spirits. They’re fighting up there.” Rex hoisted Vince up and pressed his nose to soft, thin curls, taking in the scent of baby shampoo. The little runt had grown on him. “Rex…” Vince whimpered his name like a security blanket, smearing his sticky face into Rex’s shirt some more. “I know. No bad magic. Just thunder.” Rex pulled his recliner nearer to a window as patters of rain danced across his west-facing glass, throwing little citrine gems of color across the floor. “Want me to tell you a story? Where the thunder comes from?” Vince gave a whimper that could have been equal parts no and yes, but Rex continued anyway. Thunder reminded him of what he feared most. Explosions. Magic. But Rex had to make him realize they were different. Bringing good memories to stormy evenings. “A long time ago, when the spirits themselves were little boys, the sun and the clouds chased one another in the sky like old friends, maybe even brothers. The sun would rise and hide behind the clouds and the first people would shout up, ‘Where has our sun gone?’ But the sun would always come out, making everyone smile. But nobody ever smiled for Cloud. They’d stare at him and name all the things he looked like. Is he a duck? A monster? Never anything flattering. He’d give them ponies, and they’d see wolves.” “He was probably bad at it,” Rex added conspiratorially, catching Vince’s unwavering gaze. “Cloud refused to cry, kept holding back his tears, sucking the water from the land, making himself grow big and tall! He filled the skies, sealing up his misery, and the sun shouted to him. ‘Cloud! I dried all the water up. Give it back! You’re too fat, and nobody can see my glorious shine!’ “‘I don’t want them to see me cry!’ Cloud called to the skies, but Sun wouldn’t listen. So, Sun threatened Cloud, shouted at him and threw his light, making lightning sparks that zapped his cloud booty to give him booboos, but Cloud didn’t cry. “‘I’m too tough to cry!’ Cloud announced, and so the sun shouted at him and hit him with light. But Cloud hit back! So when you hear the second booms in thunder, it’s Cloud hitting Sun. And then big old Sun looked down upon mankind and saw a boy, standing at a river bed, tinkling into the mud. He’d never seen such a thing and peeked between pieces of Cloud to shine upon the