Chapter 1

Jacob

New Orleans, Louisiana

Jacob moved deeper into the shadows of the dead-end street, the old buildings around him damp in the fog found so often in New Orleans. His black hair and eyes, paired with his black clothing, helped him to blend into the darkness. Pulling his hand away from something slimy on the wall, the tall man wondered how much more of his life would be spent in the shadows. They were a welcoming place for Jacob, a normal habitat for the middle Alexander brother, but he preferred the warmth and light of sunshine. Always in the shadows, always playing the caretaker, Jacob now found himself once again doing as his older brother, Cade, bid him.

Of late, Jadrian was at the center of Cade’s bidding. As if it weren’t bad enough that the entire clan and the shifter world were in danger, Jadrian was messing around with vampires, using their blood as a drug. The vampires had always known their blood could cause euphoria and intoxication to non-vampires but had kept it secret, until five years ago.

As the non-magical world sought better and more exotic drugs to make their reality disappear, the vampires started to use their own blood for astronomical profits. The international magical community had criticized the vampires’ attempts at ensnaring humans into yet another drug habit and the vampires had finally agreed that only the most discreet and richest of humans would have the luxury of purchasing the drug, their very own blood.

As though addicts are ever truly discreet, Jacob thought to himself, as he softly stalked along the wall, finally spotting his quarry.

He could have shifted into a tiny insect or a blackbird to make his endeavor stealthier, but Jacob preferred to stay in his human form. He didn’t like the way his thoughts turned animalistic when he shifted, less human, and less compassionate. At times animalism was needed, it would likely be needed in the future, but for now he preferred to keep his human form.

Trying to resist the urge to pull away from the damp wall, the night air hot but still somehow cold, he listened to the conversation taking place in the box shaped dead-end, using the corner of the building as a blind.

“You’re needing more than usual Jadrian, what’s getting to you?” The vampire, typical black-haired and pale skinned, asked his brother, his lacy cuffs swinging as the vampire swept back his black hair.

Jacob rolled his eyes at the effeminate gesture. Geez, these vampires and their affectations, could they be bigger stereotypes? Jacob wondered if he dyed it. Could vampires dye their hair? He realized he needed to learn more about the group than what he’d learned through overheard conversations, films, and books over the years. In his early thirties, Jacob didn’t have much time for reading anything that wasn’t about business matters, but decided he’d have to look in the library of the Sanctuary, an old monastery, when he got back there later.

“It’s been a tough time lately. Just give me what I came for and fuck off with the chitchat, Aidan, I don’t have time for it tonight.” Jadrian was tall and Nordic-looking, with the physique to go along with it. He brushed Aidan’s hand away from his own blonde hair. Jadrian was staring daggers at the vampire when Jacob peeked around the corner.

Standing in the shadows, wondering if it was a slug he had just squished beneath his hand, Jacob cringed. Jadrian was usually calm but when somebody pushed his hothead button he could go nuclear. Jacob, always calm, a kinder and gentler version of his brothers, would have dealt with the situation differently, but he wasn’t the one buying vampire blood. Jadrian was, and his rush to get back to the cloisters could prove deadly if he didn’t calm his shit.

Jadrian’s eyes were as cold as his words as he flicked the vampire’s hand away, their green depths so icy they were almost clear. Jacob knew pissing off the vampires wasn’t a good idea. He saw his brother’s eyes go blank and quietly shook his head in satisfaction.

There you go, brother. Calm, collected. Don’t piss them off. Jacob’s thoughts cut off once again as the vampire gave Jadrian a sultry smile, the light amber of his eyes almost painful looking. Jacob wondered if the light hurt the pale orbs but decided it didn’t matter when the vampire spoke again.

“Jadrian, you know you can get this at a much cheaper price, you just need to…” The vampire waved a hand slowly in front of himself, using his eyes to give Jadrian a decidedly sultry look.

Jacob had to assume Jadrian knew the rest of the request because he didn’t. The vampire could be asking for anything; sex, information, anything. The dark-haired brother, the adopted brother of the blonde god in the alley, leaned in closer, trying to catch the vampire’s meaning.

“I don’t think so, Aidan. Just give me the VB and let’s get out of here. This damp is starting to annoy me.” Jadrian stepped back, his hands going to the back of the tight skinny jeans he wore, sliding down into the pockets in a manner that screamed he didn’t give a fuck what the vampire had on offer. He shifted on booted feet and held out his hand, the paleness of his skin not coming anywhere near to matching that of the vampire’s.

“Very well, Jadrian. But be careful. Too much of anything is not good for you.” The vampire held a long-nailed, slim finger in front of his own face and shook his head disapprovingly. With a nod of his head the vampire indicated to the four gathered goons he’d brought with him that it was time to give Jadrian what he came for.

Jadrian handed over a thick envelope and looked inside the velvet bag the vampire handed him.

“There are only three vials here. I gave you enough for five!” Jadrian’s features, relieved only seconds before, rearranged to an angry glare, staring down the phlebo.

Jacob knew Jadrian would not use the term around the vampire, a shortened form of the term phlebotomist, used disparagingly for the vampire blood dealers. He could see Jadrian was stringing it along with other nasty words in his mind though. This could get tense.

“The price went up. Demand is growing. Take it or leave it.” Aidan shrugged nonchalantly and Jadrian clenched his jaw, the hard line not taking away from the beauty of his features. The massive size of the human, or the strength within his mass, didn’t frighten the vampire and Jadrian knew it. Jacob could see Jadrian struggling to control his anger but finally he did.

Jacob sighed, knowing it was done now. He could leave and report back to Cade at the cloister in Bayou Rose, just outside of the city. His mind went to the coming confrontation, and his elder brother’s anger, when he turned to walk out of the alley.

A woman stood behind him, watching him curiously with her head cocked. She was pale, as pale as Aidan, and quiet. Her dark hair just as Gothic, but blue eyes lined in black eyeliner and heavy dark shadow. Rather than making her appear awkward and messy, the makeup highlighted how beautiful she was, and her beauty was captivating. Jacob instinctively knew she was a vampire and therefore dangerous. He kept his mouth shut and prepared to shift.

“What is it you hope to see, little spying blackbird?” Her voice was controlled, tight, but somehow high. But pleasingly so, femininely so.

She must be with the dealer, that Aidan guy, Jacob thought. His heart started to pound so loudly in his chest he wondered if she could hear it. She was so very… captivating. He was so enraptured by her that he couldn’t speak, he could only stare. He didn’t know if it was her disconcerting gaze, her beauty, or fear of being caught that made his heart race but his instinct told him to shift. His instinct screamed at him to shift, to fly away quickly, but she was so lovely in her black leather pants and light blue bustier that he couldn’t think. Her breasts overfilled the top, more than even his own large hands could take in and he stared for a moment before his gaze moved. Her pale shoulders were exposed to the damp night air, as she stood on six inch, knee-length black leather boots. Her long black hair covered her back down to her waist, and long black feathers on delicate silver chains adorned her ears. Jacob decided she was a formidable picture of deadly innocence. She should look like some ridiculous caricature of a Hollywood blockbuster but the look suited her. She wore it all well.

Her beguiling gaze, her alluring body and her enchanting voice were dangerous, a danger he couldn’t afford to be enthralled by. Vampires were weapons of seduction, meant to entrance their victims. Jacob knew this wasn’t a weak woman; she was a vampire that could snap his neck in the blink of an eye and if she was with the phlebos then he was in grave danger. She glided up to stand close to him, her breasts just barely touching his own chest. If he breathed hard enough to expand his chest he would actually touch the gorgeously pale globes. She was tall as well. He looked into her eyes and shivered. He couldn’t look away.

“You are a handsome fellow, blackbird, but I thought you were someone else. All of you Alexanders look so alike. It is intriguing, wondering just how alike you are.”

The unnamed vampire brushed a finger down his face, the nail long and tapered. He felt drawn to her, a desire coursing through him unlike anything he had ever felt before.

He tried to make a reply, to tell her to leave him alone, but he could only stare because his tongue was too heavy to move, hoping the reaching finger would touch his lips, quench his need to know what she would taste like.

“You are intriguing enough on your own, blackbird. Shall I take you home with me? Make you mine in your own gilded cage? Or maybe you should fly away before it’s too late.” She had somehow stepped even closer, her breathy words making him ache deep in his groin, in his heart, in his mind. He wanted to reach for her, he wanted to run away. But he also wanted to find out if she tasted of the peaches her breath smelled of.

Jacob fought with himself, fought to move, to control his flaming desire but felt as though he was losing. Shifters and vamps do not mix, after all. She continued to stare at him, her eyes imploring, drawing him in, and he knew he could drown in those eyes if he allowed himself.

Wake up, move damnit! Jacob screamed the words in his mind but couldn’t move and he couldn’t speak. He was frozen in place and panicking. She wasn’t the best company he could keep and her magnetic stare proved that more than anything; in fact, he was in a whole lot of danger.

Realizing he was being hypnotized by the vampire, her staring gaze her best weapon, Jacob finally shifted. For a fraction of a second he feared he would not be able to shift but he felt the whoosh as his body changed and he flew away.

Up, swiftly up, Jacob flew in the blink of an eye. There was no long, scream-filled bout of adjustment as his bones and muscles twisted into his new shape. Jacob simply made a decision and he was what he wanted; a flying shadow in the darkness. Although his shadow cast a much larger, much darker shape than he had intended.

Rather than shifting into the blackbird she had accused him of being, as he had intended in a sarcastic “fuck you” to the vampire, he had shifted into the shape he was most at home in. The black and red speckled shape of the dragon he knew only he could become.

Beginning to lose his own human thoughts to the dragon-form, Jacob flew in the direction of home and his brother. Cade was safety, Cade was power, Cade would keep the vampire at bay, even in the heart of the American Magical Court. He needed to get back to Cade.

* * *

Jadrian

Jadrian wanted nothing more than to head back to Kansas, where he could buy all the VB he wanted without greedy vampires stiffing him for the drug he needed to keep up with his shifter brothers. He knew he shouldn’t be buying VB but he needed it sometimes, to keep him going, to give him the stamina humans simply didn’t possess. He needed the hit of power, strength and euphoria the vampire blood offered. Tonight was a big night.

As a human he didn’t have the stamina of his brothers, but he would never tell them that. He would never admit his weakness to them, so he used VB to get him through the hardest times. Jadrian knew he needed it now more than ever; a lot was riding on his shoulders. The pressure was building inside of him as the weight became heavier, the need for the blood growing with each day.

The Mungons, his family’s long time enemy, destroyer of his parents, and hopeful destroyers of the world, had finally come out of hiding and the motorcycle gang they were using as operatives were on the warpath after Cade turned some of their clan over to the magical court. He was on his way there to testify, he just had to get some VB first. Anything to get him through all of this.

As his driver drove the car away from New Orleans, Jadrian caught his reflection in the black tinted window. Tall, handsome and powerful looking, he doubted anyone would guess he had a VB habit. Not one so strong, anyway. He knew he was playing a dangerous game, but he had to. Sometimes his brothers were awake for days, their bodies only needing sleep after a solid week without rest. They could battle for hours but Jadrian couldn’t. They’d discovered it during the practices they held every day, that is until he found VB.

Jadrian’s body wasn’t so strong as Cade’s, Kane’s or Jacob’s. He was trained, physically and emotionally, to withstand a lot of stress and to be able to cope in battle situations, but he just didn’t have the stamina. Not without VB anyway.

The driver pulled into the portico hanging over the part of the drive that went by the house and stopped. A doorman opened his door and Jadrian stepped out of the car, straightening the slim black suit he wore, the tight pants tighter than he would like but apparently the current style. Cade had insisted the brothers wear only the best, and that they make an impression, so here he was in the ugliest pair of pants he’d ever seen, something a man should never wear. Presumably the ladies liked the monstrosities though, even if he did feel like his voice kept going a few octaves higher when he shifted and the pants pinched his testicles.

“Such silly, sissy things these pants. Ugh, where’s my assistant, I need to change out of these atrocities.” Jadrian looked around but rather than seeing his assistant he spotted Cade and his wife, Jacqui. There was a woman with them, a tall redhead with a penchant for flowy green dresses, it seemed. She was beautiful, breath-taking, a Celtic queen with blue eyes if he had ever seen one.

He watched the way she stared at Jacqui and Cade rapturously but Jadrian knew she was barking up the wrong tree there. Cade and Jacqui only had eyes for each other; nobody could intrude on those two. Jadrian shook himself as they approached him, the woman still staring at Jacqui as she spoke quietly to her.

“There you are Jadrian. You will be called momentarily, do you need a moment?” Cade didn’t even introduce him to the woman, just shuffled him to the bathroom, whispering quickly.

“Do not volunteer information, speak truthfully, and be sure to keep your answers short here, Jade. These people can make you disappear with a snap of their fingers.”

Jadrian nodded and disappeared into the bathroom, his hands going to his suit pocket to pull out the vials. One was good enough for now. Jadrian emptied the vial down his throat and stared into the mirror, waiting for the blood to work its magic. The transformation was instant, so quick he could see it happening as the lines disappeared from around his eyes and mouth and his cheeks took on a healthy color. Even the tiredness that had hollowed out his eyes and cast shadows there was gone.

Feeling restored once more Jadrian straightened his suit and walked out, ready to meet his fate. And the beautiful woman all but sniffing Jacqui’s lovely blonde hair. He snorted to himself, she could bark all she wanted to, she wasn’t getting up that tree.

Of course, he told himself, she wasn’t going to go for him either, no matter how appealing she might find him. If she would ever look away from Cade long enough to see Jadrian she would look right past him. Shifter women didn’t marry or mate with non-shifters. It just never happened. Shifter males might marry non-shifters, but the females they chose were usually independent and strong, traits not always valued by human males.

Jadrian watched the woman, her walk more of a strut than a glide, her hips pleasingly wide and along with her long hair, proclaimed her all woman but her bearing and her gaze said there was far more to this woman than her gender. Was she an Alpha’s wife? She had the kind of regal bearing many females with Alpha mates took on.

Jadrian’s nostrils flared as he caught her scent, something about the gentle flowery scent not only contradicting but alluring. He felt as though he were being tugged into her and when her eyes crashed into his he felt his heart stop. Shifter or not he knew this woman had to be his; she was most definitely the one. Whether he was ready for settling down or not fate had just changed his entire path and put this woman into his story.

“Ready?” Cade looked at Jadrian nervously and for a moment Jadrian examined his brother’s face with a hint of worry.

Had Cade finally figured out how Jadrian was keeping up? Did he use too much? He felt extraordinary, powerful, virile, but perhaps he’d overdone it. He shifted on his feet uncomfortably and nodded.

“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be, brother. Show me the way.” Jadrian followed Cade, nodding his head at both women as they passed.

Jadrian walked down the long stone passage reminiscent of old English castles, and almost laughed. If they’d only put in torches the effect would be perfect. He even felt a chill in the air that shouldn’t be there. He nodded his head at his brother Kane and his wife, Damesha, and carried on down the long hall. Finally they came to a side door and Jadrian was ushered into a room that had recessed lighting.

A large dimly-lit room, the area was filled with rows of tables and had obviously been furnished to bring the eye to the front dais. On the dais were two ancient thrones of carved oak decorated with gold-leaf that had all but worn off. The seat and part of the backs were covered in red velvet and upon them sat the current heads of the magical world. Not royalty but more than simple elected officials. The magical world had had no royals for over a century, this couple stood in their place.

Rumors had swirled for centuries about who the couple was but there was no name in any language for what they were. Many thought they were vampires because the couple was so pale, but they also gave off an aura of shifter. Others said they sensed something else about the couple and could only name it as dread.

Both had long pale hair, almost white, and clear colorless eyes that gave them the appearance of being blind. Jadrian shivered as he looked at the pair. Their voice was the worst part. Voice because even though they were two separate people their voice came out as only one. Jadrian watched their discussion with the man before him, trying to figure out how, despite both mouths moving at the same time, only one voice came out. It was just too freaky and he had to look away.

“Jadrian Alexander! You are called before the court!” That creepy voice, not masculine but not feminine boomed loudly through the long room.

He moved up to a long blue carpet edged in gold, his head bowed as he approached the dais. Once he got to a spot marked on the carpet with two gold circles he knelt. Cade had taught him the procedure earlier in the day. Protocol was everything here and this wasn’t the place to display the cocky attitude he usually gave the world.

“And what do you come to tell us, Jadrian Alexander?”

The voice gave him the willies and Jadrian tried to repress a shiver. Yeah, these two weren’t getting his patented cocky smile that could make a woman’s panties fall off or a man doubt his sexuality for a moment.

“I have come to give witness about the Mungons and their activities over the last few weeks.” His head was still bowed, following the protocol that stated that he couldn’t look up until they allowed it. Fuck, this sucked, bowing and scraping before people who weren’t even royalty. Not cool.

“We know what they are doing. We have interviewed enough people about them now. You are not a magical, why are you here?” The voice sounded bored but curious and Jadrian shifted, his knees beginning to protest, even with the VB.

“You called me here.” Jadrian had to fight the urge to add “duh” to the end of his sentence. He usually wasn’t one for protocol or holding his tongue but, as Cade had said, these people could zap him out of existence.

“Indeed.” There was a bit of a harrumph, as though the voice knew he’d mentally added that “duh”, after all. There was a moment of quiet as the ancient pair shifted on their thrones. “What do you think of all of this, as a non-magical, Jadrian Alexander?”

“Pardon?” He couldn’t believe they were asking his opinion.

“You seem a brave but intelligent fellow. You are here, after all, before us. We are curious as to your thoughts, as a non-magical. How will their activities impact the non-magical world, and us?”

Jadrian was shocked enough to spread his hands out before him, not sure how to answer. They were waiting, though, so he tried to form an answer.

“I believe they want a war, majesties. The Mungons want to eliminate most of the shifters and whoever is left will be used as slaves, as will the vampires. For some reason they believe they can overthrow you, wipe out most of the non-magical population on the planet, and set themselves up as overlords. They want to enslave the world and set themselves up as the ultimate kings, with only the few needed to give them what they need to survive and control the remaining population.”

“Indeed.”

Jadrian was starting to see that the word was used as filler, to buy them a moment to allow them to think.

“They have to be stopped or we all face a stark and rather bleak future, if we survive to see it.” He spoke bluntly but carefully. “Whether they do the unthinkable and find a way to oust you or they only succeed in part, they will cause chaos between the magical and non-magical worlds with their machinations. They must be stopped before it gets that far.”

“Thank you, Jadrian Alexander. That is all. You words are blunt but honest and we appreciate your candor. You may take your leave.” The king waved a hand from his seat on the left as the queen nodded her head as though she had made a decision. “We shall take a break and return within an hour. You may all go.”

The room began to empty and Jadrian gave a sigh of relief as he stood. The windowless room had started to feel like a coffin the longer he’d knelt there but now he could breathe again. He’d kept his wits about him, answered honestly, and now he was done. Done and still alive, all a man could ask for really.

With a jaunty wave he found Cade in the crowd and joined him. Cade slapped his brother’s shoulder and shook his hand.

“You did great. Maybe more ballsy than you have a right to be but it worked. Good call.” Cade guided his brother into the crowd leaving the hall.

“What do you mean?” Jadrian had never been summoned for the king and queen before, he didn’t know he had done anything extraordinary.

“You told them the truth. Most would have chosen to keep most of that to themselves.”

“What?” Jadrian looked at his brother with shock, had he been nearer to death than he thought?

“People have been zapped for less. Sometimes they respond favorably to blunt honesty, but most of the time, it is the old zap. You must have impressed them.”

Jadrian felt his knees go weak but he steadied himself. Damn, that was close.