Charlotte MacQueen sat in the elegantly designed lounge of the Brotherhood of the Blood Moon. The front desk was a dark matte gray, where a young woman with metallic-framed glasses stared at a computer screen. Charlotte pivoted the black leather armchair around to watch the water feature across the lounge. It was a wall of crystal with water running endlessly down its surface, and she could just make out the shadows of people through it.

This was a world she was never supposed to be a part of. It was the world of the paranormal, full of danger and excitement. Her two older brothers—Damien, who headed the organization, and Jason—monitored those creatures that posed a threat to humans and, if need be, hunted them down. Charlotte had never been allowed to follow in their footsteps. She’d had to live a normal life and had almost finished earning her PhD in chemical engineering.

If her brothers knew she was here right now, they would be upset. She wasn’t supposed to come here, but she’d gotten a call from her friend Meg Stratford, one of the Brotherhood’s best hunters.

“Charlotte!” A woman exited from a door close to the front desk, grinning.

Charlotte rushed over to embrace her friend. “Meg!”

Meg Stratford was one of her closest friends. But they hadn’t always been friends. Meg had been a junior hunter for the Brotherhood and assigned, covertly of course, to follow Charlotte around on her dates when she was in high school. Her brothers had been real jerks when it came to trusting her to date nice guys. Meg had seen how timid Charlotte had been and given her a lot of great advice on how to deal with guys and especially how to deal with her brothers. They’d been fast friends ever since.

“I’m so glad to see you. I just got back from London, and I swear I’m still jetlagged. But this is important.” Meg tucked Charlotte’s arm in hers and led her out of the waiting room.

“What were you doing in London?” Charlotte asked. She and Meg walked down a hall and entered a small private conference room. It was clear Meg had been working here for several hours. A stack of Diet Coke cans lined one side of the table, and a few containers of Chinese takeout littered another part of the table. There were files everywhere and a clear plastic bag that contained a syringe, and another bag that contained ancient leather journals.

“I was dealing with dragons, if you can believe it. Scary things. Sexy…but scary.”

“Dragons?” Charlotte whispered the word in awe. It was one thing to know they existed, but it was another thing entirely to think of her friend being around them. “Do they really breathe fire?”

“Umm.” Meg tilted her head. “I’ve heard so, yes. But I’ve only ever seen them in human form. They just dress in expensive suits and go about London bedding women—who, by the way, just fall at their feet, begging for it. I think it’s something to do with dragon pheromones. I’m not really sure on the science there. I try not to get too close to those guys.” Meg chuckled. “There’s nothing worse than a dominating man, right?”

Charlotte blushed, not wanting to admit she’d give anything for a boyfriend with a bit of a dominant streak. “Right…” It had been ages since she’d even had a date, and thanks to her overprotective brothers, who saw threats around every corner, she was still a virgin. It was not a good thing.

“So here’s the thing. I need your help. I know how Damien wants you kept in the dark when it comes to this stuff, but you’re the only one I can trust with this.” Meg picked up the bag with the syringe in it.

“What’s that?” Charlotte leaned forward, nudging her chair closer to the table.

“This is a drug that I believe subdues the dragon part of a shifter. I’ve been poring over these journals written by a man named John Dee. He was Queen Elizabeth’s court magician and advisor way back. It seems that he researched dragons for some time and came to some interesting conclusions about their physiology. He came up with a means to affect the shifting ability of a dragon, and another drug which ‘both loosens their tongue and makes them stay on the path of truth,’ as he put it. We found this sample, or what’s left of it, and these books at Conrad Sinclair’s house, a member of British Parliament, who it turns out was a dragon himself. He refined Dee’s formulas and seemed to be using them against his enemies. Unfortunately, his notes aren’t completely readable, and some of the ingredients we can’t identify. We believe Sinclair had firsthand knowledge of the formulas and was able to fill in the gaps, but we’re lacking that advantage. I want you to analyze the sample I recovered from his residence and see if you can replicate it. Do you think you can do that?”

“Sure, but…” Charlotte bit her lip before continuing. “Doesn’t the Brotherhood have top-notch labs that can handle this?”

Meg nodded, but her expression made Charlotte’s stomach churn. That was her “bad news” face.

“I’m worried that in the wrong hands, this could be used poorly. It might even be weaponized. This version seems to dampen a dragon for only about a day. The oath of the Brotherhood is to watch first and hunt only if we must, but not everyone sees that oath the same way. Some believe in a more ‘proactive’ approach. Remember what happened with Serena? A large minority of the Brotherhood voted for an all-out war against all vamps after she was killed.”

Charlotte closed her eyes. God, she wished Meg hadn’t brought her up.

Serena had been eighteen, fearless and beautiful, and more importantly, the love of Charlotte’s oldest brother’s life. Damien hadn’t voted for war on the vampires, but the vote by the hunters had come dangerously close. If the majority had voted death, then the Brotherhood would have been obligated to kill all vampires they encountered, and Charlotte knew Damien couldn’t stand for that. He knew many vampires who were good men and women who never killed or hurt humans.

“I want to make sure we know what this is before anyone starts using it.”

The syringe’s tip was covered in a green liquid that almost seemed to glow.

“Okay, I’ll check it out,” said Charlotte. “But Damien and Jason can’t know.”

“That’s the plan.” Meg handed the bagged syringe to Charlotte, who tucked it into her purse.

“I want to know everything about that drug,” Meg said. “It might help us stop a dragon war from breaking out.”

Charlotte nodded. A dragon war? That sounded like a really bad thing, but it almost faded from her mind in importance. The only thing that mattered right now was that she finally had a chance to make a real difference alongside her brothers—even if they couldn’t know about it.