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  There had been several times someone, probably sex traffickers, had followed me and I ended up riding around on a city bus most of the night until they gave up and left.

  The thought of being locked up and used by strangers terrified me nearly as much as the idea of Kevin finding me. Though I knew in the brothel, at least they would keep the men from beating me.

  “There’s no brothel in town, is there?” My voice was so soft, I wondered if he’d hear me.

  His body stiffened immediately. “No,” he replied sharply. “There used to be more human inhabitants of Sanctuary, but things changed after the riots in Los Angeles. We convinced them all to leave.”

  “You influenced a whole town?”

  “No, just a few of the men. The rest followed easily once the leaders were convinced. We already owned most of the town. Rose founded it in 1920. Cohabiting with humans wasn’t ever an issue until that stupid drug surprised us all. No one knew it would affect supernaturals the way it did. Our bodies usually metabolize drugs so quickly they don’t matter. But this one exposed an entire pack of wolves. There were public sightings, maulings, even a few deaths.” His voice faded away for a moment. “It’s so sad when the mistakes of a few can completely alter the course of history for the entire planet.”

  I’d read about the laws changing when I was in high school. The general population rose up in outrage that Others might be mixing with humans. Martial law was declared in 2047, one year after the Los Angeles riots. Everything in the country changed overnight. Soldiers patrolled the streets and the country broke into pieces. We were taught that it was for the better. Better for whom? What they failed to teach was anything about life before 2047.

  The U.S. had been drastically different. I knew, because I’d found that precious stash of contraband books in an abandoned barn in Tennessee. Some were fiction—fantastic stories of love and devotion that I couldn’t imagine existing nowadays. Some had been textbooks of American history going back two centuries.

  Taking the books with me hadn’t been an option, but I had camped there almost a week, reading and absorbing everything I could before I ran out of food. I’d been fascinated and disgusted by the turn the country had taken. Lots of people said Europe hadn’t changed as much, but America had become a closed country. International flights had been banned since 2050. In 2052, the Mexican and Canadian borders were closed.

  The knowledge eventually propelled me toward the tolerant states of the Texas Republic where politicians support Others’ rights instead of eliminate them. They encourage acceptance of and cohabitation with Others, and that citizens shouldn’t fear them but accept them as our friends and neighbors. They viewed Others as an asset to the country. Of course that probably wasn’t the whole story. Governments never shared everything.

  Now I was curled up on the lap of a Vampire—a man who had seen centuries of change and still lived. What stories he could tell. And I wanted to hear all of them.

  “Will you tell me about what it was like before the riots?”

  He leaned down and kissed my forehead. “You wouldn’t have been running from a jerk of an ex. The police would have arrested him. You could work in any type of field you wanted and go to college and study any subject your heart desired.”

  “Is it true that Europe didn’t change much?”

  He chuckled. “Much of Europe is the same, yes. Though some countries did adopt some of the same intolerant policies you find in the other U.S. republics. Supernaturals were more established there and had a better foothold in most of the governments. And, once we knew about the drug, we prepared our people and they knew to avoid it.”

  “So no riots.”

  “Exactly.” He rubbed her back, tracing his thumb around and around her shoulder blade. “People don’t like change. Because there had been no obvious direct threat in their own countries, it was much easier to convince citizens of their safety. Life goes on.”

  “But you are stuck here.”

  Another chuckle rumbled in his chest. “We are not stuck, kjaere. We are in Sanctuary for a reason. It is our home and we will not leave it.” He slid his hands under my arms and pushed me back, meeting my gaze with his beautiful blue eyes. “You know a lot for a human born after the riots.”

  “Knowledge is power.”

  He nodded. “Very true.”

  “I listen and I read a lot. When I got away from Kevin at the beginning, I ran to Tennessee. People there saved a lot of old books from the government burnings. Then I went to Florida. There are a lot of old people there who like to talk.”

  A laugh resonated from deep in his belly, shaking me a little. “The land of sunshine has long been a destination for retirees.”

  “I got a job at one of the few retirement centers still operating. They gave me an apartment on the property. I was there almost a year before SECR investigators came sniffing around.

  There was one sweet, old lady who always told me stories, and she let me know there was a detective looking for me. I kissed her and told her I had to go. That was the first time I ran with nothing but the clothes on my back … but not the last.”

  “Your ex is part of the police force? Where?”

  “Montgomery, Alabama.”

  A grimace turned his lips downward. “What is his name?”

  “Kevin Holt. After I ran from him in Florida, I knew I’d never be safe. What kind of man continues to hunt a woman years after she disappears?”

  “A sick one,” he replied, his voice cold and angry. “Why does he want you back so badly? Why didn’t he just find another woman?”

  “He told me the first time I tried to escape that no one leaves him. I know too much. Even though the police wouldn’t listen to me, I suppose he fears some sort of public exposure.”

  “How often did you try to get away?”

  “Twice.” I sighed, rubbing my shoulder. “The first time I made a timing mistake and paid dearly for it. He at least had a doctor come set my broken bones. The doctor told him I should rest in bed for four to six weeks.” Scorn and bitterness flowed through my voice, darkening it to something I barely recognized. I rarely let myself dwell on these memories and hated that he dredged them up. “I really don’t want to talk about this.” I pushed away from his chest and tried to move off his lap.

  “Bailey, please. If I’m going to protect you, I need to know.” He held my hips tightly, refusing to let me go.

  “Don’t beat me, chain me, or cage me and I’ll be fine,” I spat out. Anger welled inside my chest like a pool of molten lava. “I’ll die before letting him touch me again.”

  If a vampire’s face could pale. His did.

  He released his grip on my hips immediately and I got off his lap and walked to the other side of the room. I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t have a place of my own. I couldn’t very well go hide in his bed. It was his.

  Even as my emotions warred inside me, I knew his scent would be the only thing on the planet that could calm me.

  A knock on the door jarred me from my thoughts and a small squeak of surprise slipped from between my lips. Erick took a deep breath and his eyes widened ever so slightly. I was good at watching people. Year of running had taught me to watch everyone. The knock had surprised him.

  Another heavy knock sent vibrations shuddering through the house. “If you don’t want to meet anyone else right now, you should go upstairs, kjaere.”

  I sucked in a breath and fled across the foyer and up the staircase, two steps at a time. His door was still ajar and I went inside and closed it not quite all the way, leaving enough of a crack to allow me to hear some of what was said downstairs.

  The front door swung open and two male voices entered the foyer mixing with Erick’s. Curious, I opened the door farther and crawled on the floor to the edge of the banister, peering between the rails at the scene below. What I saw stole my breath. I’d thought Erick a large man, but the two standing across from him were at least half a foot taller.

  “R
ose said you brought in a human woman this morning,” one of the men spoke. His skin was tan and his hair was as black as night. “She also said Darius was tracking you again.”

  “She’s upstairs. As far as the Djinn, Darius has made trouble before. Nothing has changed because of her.”

  “She’s a distraction, Thorson.” The first black-haired man glanced around and I ducked back, hoping he hadn’t caught sight of me. “I can smell her all over you. Look, just have your fun and send her on her way tomorrow when the next bus runs through town. We don’t allow humans to live in Sanctuary for a reason.”

  Tomorrow? That barely gave me time to catch my breath, but Kevin would be searching every travel route out of Fort Worth. It was only a matter of time before he found the footage of me in that bus station. Maybe it would be better if I did leave. Even thinking about it made my heart hurt. How had I fallen for him so hard, so fast?

  “Human or not, Bailey is mine and she is welcome in this town and my home as long as she desires.”

  “Last time you hooked up with a human woman and things went south, you went off the deep end, Erick.”

  “Is that how you feel too, Eli? Do you think I’m going to go off the deep end? Should I mention Diana? Or am I the only one to be guilt-tripped over the loss of a woman I loved.”

  I leaned forward again. Who was Diana?

  He was focused on the two identical giants. Both had shoulder-length black hair, tan skin, and honey-brown eyes, like liquid gold.

  “Diana was our kind.” The dark giant on the left pointed straight at me. “She is a human. She has already been told too much.”

  My chest tightened painfully and I gasped for a breath. The vehemence in his voice burned. The air around me seemed warmer than usual and I gasped again, drawing in another scalding breath. I backed toward the bedroom door, but froze when I heard a scuffle downstairs.

  A flash of bodies and growling moved up the stairs at the speed of light. Suddenly Erick stood in front of me, blocking their advance and the two men from downstairs were staring angrily down at me from the top of the landing. More growls were exchanged back and forth. The twins’ golden eyes were glowing almost orange like a fire burned within their very beings.

  “She is a guest of Sanctuary and she is mine,” Erick snarled. “Stop.”

  “You haven’t taken a mate in three centuries. Why her?” The giant on the right spoke again, reining in his anger, his eyes changing back to a light brown.

  I couldn’t see Erick’s face, but his shoulders were pushed forward and his stance was solid, ready to lunge at the other men. He stood between them and me, protecting me from people he knew. Perhaps even men he called friends.

  Standing slowly, I approached Erick’s side and the men’s gazes softened. One twin cocked his head to the side. His nostrils flared as he took a deep breath and I noticed his eyes narrow in on my neck. I brushed my hand across the place where Erick had bitten me, but couldn’t feel anything. He’d healed it completely. Did something still show?

  “The bite is gone, but the smell of your blood remains fresh, little one.” His voice was deeper than Erick’s, darker and kind of scary.

  “You both need to go. Now.” Erick’s chest rumbled.

  I touched his arm and felt the rigid tension in his muscles. “I’m okay.” I glanced back at the two men, poised, breathing like bulls about to charge. They were only trying to protect their own. Protect their town. “If Rose didn’t want me here, wouldn’t she have said? She welcomed me to the town and I promise I will do nothing to endanger anyone here.”

  Their eyebrows rose ever so slightly. It was almost comical.

  “Brave little thing, Viking.” The giant on the left spoke again.

  The last thing I wanted was Erick having to fight his comrades, but I really didn’t want to pack up and leave tomorrow, either.

  “If Rose didn’t ask her to leave, then she stays,” the other man rumbled. “We shouldn’t have tried to interfere. It’s obvious the woman means more to you than a passing whim. We should have spoken with Rose before jumping to conclusions.” His gaze refocused on Erick, whose shoulders had relaxed slightly.

  Tension released from the muscles in Erick’s arms and he relaxed his stance. He wrapped his right arm around my waist and pulled me in tight. It was an embrace more than a restriction and I allowed my body to melt into his.

  This man, this supernatural being, wanted me with him enough to fight two giant, probably ferocious men … supernaturals of some sort. Their eyes didn’t speak to any species of Other I’d learned about in school, but that didn’t mean anything. I’d already learned about sirens and pixies today—two species that had obviously remained hidden after the riots. More unknowns weren’t surprising. I still didn’t know what Rose was.

  “You guys really need to work on your tact,” Erick snorted. “No wonder Rose sends me out to do the sensitive work.”

  One of the twins snarled and I couldn’t help a squeak slipping out. Though the sound was terrifying, I was shocked to see his face split into a wide grin.

  “Quit scaring her,” Erick snapped.

  “Sorry.” The other man frowned and stretched his neck from side to side.

  “Bailey. These assholes are men I’ve called friends for a very long time.” Erick gestured to one and then the other. “The Blackmoor brothers, Miles and Eli.”

  I stared, trying to find some point of reference to tell them apart. Finally, I noticed a thin scar above the right eye of the man on the left.

  The first one who’d spoken—the one who’d been angry when Erick brought up the woman named Diana—smirked at me as if he knew I was trying to figure out which brother he was. He was the one with the scar.

  “I’m Miles,” he spoke again. His deep voice made me shiver. I wanted to run and hide under Erick’s bed. The air seemed warmer again, stifling, almost as if the heat were coming off their bodies in waves. “My brother Eli is the polite one, apologizing for our shit-storm and all.”

  The one he called Eli laughed. His voice wasn’t quite as deep as his brother’s and his jovial mood set me more at ease, but his eyes were still the color of molten steel—bright yellow, swirling with red. “My words might be more polite than his, but my hands would find hours of pleasure torturing you until you screamed in ecstasy.”

  Erick’s arm tightened again. I gulped at the visual. These were the men who ran the club. The Castle.

  “With your permission, of course.” He grinned at Erick and then at me again.

  “I don’t like to share,” Erick’s softer, velvety reply rumbled back at them.

  “It never hurts to offer,” Eli replied.

  The two men turned and moved down the stairs with the same speed they’d ascended. Erick followed with me in tow. My feet were lifted from the floor and air rushed past my face. When he stopped we were sitting on the couch in his living room again.

  Miles and Eli were lounging in chairs opposite us. The furniture was large, but their size made it seem small. In fact, with all three of them in the room, I suddenly felt cornered. I took a deep breath and tried to focus on slowing my racing heartbeat. It wasn’t working. Instead, my breathing sped up, too.

  “Step outside, kjaere. Get a breath and then come back.” Erick pushed me up from the cushion and I looked back at him and the other two. It crossed my mind that they could attack me now. They were closer to me than he was. I shook it off and continued to the front door, opening it and stepping onto the porch.

  Erick trusted them. Eli had apologized for their behavior. I was fine. Safe. Right?

  I stood in the open doorway, drinking in the fresh air and sunlight. It helped. He’d somehow known exactly what I needed. I smiled. Was there a pheromone for everything?

  Chapter 6

  I turned back to the door.

  Erick was standing there. He hadn’t made a sound.

  My hands flew to my chest as I sucked in a quick gasp. The man certainly knew how to sneak up on a girl. “Yo
u all need to slow down a little.”

  “Are you all right? I know Miles and Eli can be overwhelming, but they usually growl before they think. I promise you will like them after you get to know them.”

  I nodded and he slipped an arm around me, guiding me gently back to my seat on the couch. The other men had beers in their hands now and smiled at me. They didn’t seem quite as scary as they had only a few minutes before. Granted, they weren’t growling and standing over me aggressively. Now they just looked like regular, albeit oversized, guys throwing back a couple of drinks. Friendly even.

  They looked completely human. No wonder they’d been able to hide their kind so easily. Whatever their kind was …

  “You know, I haven’t heard Erick call a woman kjaere since the Middle Ages,” Eli started, taking a swig from his longneck.

  Miles growled, sending his brother a look that would’ve frozen the blood in my veins.

  Erick waved his hand. “Elinor was very special to me. He does no disrespect by bringing that to light.”

  Miles relaxed back into his chair and nodded. I made a mental note of their ability to shift moods very quickly. And that they growled when a human man would have raised his voice and shouted.

  “Who was Elinor?” I asked softly—very curious about a woman who had lived more than a millennium ago. I didn’t know much about the time period. The concept that Erick and these two men sitting in his living room had lived for so many years was overwhelming. How does a person cope with so much change? So much loss.

  “She was my wife for a brief ten years. I loved her dearly and treasured every moment I had with her. Your strong spirit reminds me of her.”

  “Did she die?”

  “Yes,” he answered. His eyes held sadness, but so much love. “She was human and made me promise never to use my blood on her. Even when she lay dying in my arms, bleeding out, she reminded me of my promise. Losing her was the hardest thing that’s ever happened to me. Even harder than watching my family grow old and die until there was no one left who remembered me.”