Dragon Marked: Supernatural Prison #1 (8 page)

My mouth fell open. Well … that was unexpected. Why had he not just said
that when he’d first introduced Mischa?

He continued before I could ask: “No one knew we had twins. The moment
both of you were born, Lienda and I recognized that we had to protect you.”
Jonathon didn’t fidget, except for his head swiveling in my direction. “Twins
are rare in our world, about one per a hundred thousand supernaturals.” He
already knew what I was thinking. “Quads are almost unheard of. It has happened
only one other time in our history. That’s how we know the Compasses will be
the strongest, and the leaders.” Lienda was silent, letting Dad do the talking,
but I could feel her examining me.

“So what if we’re rare?” Mischa said. She’d moved and now stood side-by-side
with me, facing our parents. “Why would we have to leave? I’ve spent my entire
life running from city to city with Mom, all the while thinking I was a freak.
Just to hide the fact we’re twins? That makes no sense.”

Yeah, what she said. Because the quads hadn’t had to run or be separated.
Why would we have to just because we were twins? I crossed my arms over my
chest, my bare feet scuffing at some of the dead leaves.

Jonathon continued to move his head, listening and scenting, making sure
it was safe to keep speaking. “It wasn’t just that you were twins, it was that
you were twins born with the dragon mark.” The last two words were said so
softly I only just heard them.

Mischa didn’t react, but I couldn’t stop from gasping. I raised a shaky
hand and covered my suddenly dry lips. “What?” My voice was a strangled
whisper. “You’re mistaken. I’ve never seen the mark.” Yeah, stupid seemed to be
falling from my lips today.

Mischa’s voice hardened. “Wait, what’s a dragon mark?” She had her hands
on her hips as she leaned her upper body forward.

I liked that she had some fire. It made me think she might actually be my
sister … uh, twin.

I started to explain. It was either talk or go quietly crazy in my head.
“It’s a legend in the supernatural community,” I said. “Like a thousand years
ago some crazy ass dragon shifter tried to rule all five races. He gathered a
dragon army and a major war erupted.” According to the history books it had
been bloody. “When they finally captured him they found out why he was so
powerful – he was a hybrid sorcerer and dragon-shifter.” I cleared my throat.
“Just before his head, and the heads of many of his followers, were removed, he
cursed the supernatural world. He said that the dragon marked would rise and
they would finish what he had started.”

Jonathon added more details. “Nothing happened immediately, but our
history records indicate that within a month of the kings death, supernaturals
of all different races started to be born with the mark. They have been killed
off ever since.”

This was also why dragons were so rare. Many dragons died in that long
ago battle, and for years the rest were hunted. Kind of like the human witch
trials, but supernaturals targeted dragons. Thankfully, that shit had halted a
few hundred years ago; otherwise I wouldn’t have my Braxton. Well the
dragon
slaying part had halted; the dragon-marked on the other hand were still hunted.

Lienda hugged her arms tightly around herself. “Any child born with the
mark … they were taken from the family and never seen again. We would not let
that happen to you two. Jessa was born first, and the moment we saw the mark we
knew we had to hide it. Then Mischa came next and she also bore the mark. It
didn’t matter that your father was a council member, they would have taken you …
killed you.”

Jonathon rubbed at his temples. “We pretended Jessa was the only one born
– twins are thoroughly examined for the marks, since almost all twins have
them. A very close friend of mine – a sorcerer – spelled the marks, and Lienda
disappeared with Mischa. Everyone thought she ran away because she didn’t want
kids, and I did nothing to discourage the rumors.”

At some point during this conversation, tears had started running down my
cheeks. I’d hated my mother for so many years, cursing her existence and her
abandonment of me and my father. But she’d run to save our lives. I should have
known this story. I was half sad and half pissed off. I hated being kept in the
dark. I slapped at my cheeks, removing the traces of moisture.

“Why is it okay for us to return now?” Mischa asked, her voice husky. She
had a few tears too.

Lienda walked forward and wiped a tear off her daughter’s cheek. “You
turned twenty-two last month. The spell keeping your wolf contained is due to
wear off soon.” She turned, and with the slightest hesitation gently wiped at
my cheeks also. I closed my eyes at the feather-light touch. “You need the
community to help you, you need a pack.” She glanced at Jonathon. “We figure
most of the danger of detection has passed.”

Not to mention that anyone with eyes and a heart could see that she and
Jonathan could not stay apart any longer.

Jonathon moved to her side. “Your wolf will break free, Mischa, but don’t
worry about the spells muting your marks. They are much stronger, and should
last your lifetime.”

I wondered then if the dragon mark had something to do with my demon.
Could the mark be something I felt inside just waiting to explode? Was it only
the spelling to hide and mute its energy keeping it contained?

There were still so many things I didn’t understand. “Why did you
announce that we were sisters?” I knew why he hadn’t said twins, but it might
have been better to pretend there were no familial ties.

He bestowed a gentle smile on me, a familiar twinkle in his blue eyes.
“Because there was no hiding your similarities, we decided to stick as close to
the truth as we could. But no one knows that you’re twins. Mischa is twenty
according to her identification.” Jonathon moved even closer until the four of
us were in a tight circle. “I told the council that I left Stratford once and
found Lienda.”

“And that from our union came Mischa,” Lienda added. “They think Jonathon
didn’t know of the second pregnancy, and that’s why he didn’t demand I return. I’m
a pariah in the community but I don’t care. As long as you two are safe, it’s
all worth it.”

“What are the dragon mark abilities?” I asked.

They both exchanged glances before shrugging. Jonathon tried to explain.
“We don’t know. There have been none that we know of make it past the age of
one. A few parents managed to hide their children until then, but they made the
mistake of only spelling the mark, not the abilities also. There are trackers
trained in the arts of detecting the dragon mark energy. They are strong and
lethal and will stop at nothing.”

He paused and my heart froze in my chest. His eyes shimmered as he met my
gaze and I knew bad news was coming my way. He crinkled his eyes and his lips
thinned to a single line. “You can’t tell anyone about this, Jessa, not even
the Compasses.”

I just stared at him. He knew I told those boys everything. I trusted
them with my life a hundred times over. Finally I shook my head. “I can’t
promise that. Why would you even ask me to? What do you know?”

“Remember how I said there had been one other set of quads born to the
supernatural community?”

I nodded. Mischa also bobbed her head a few times.

“The Craiz men, which the supernatural world call the Four. They are the first
quads, and are the most vicious dragon mark hunters in existence. Even though
they’re very old and powerful, they still actively hunt.” His eyes bore into me
and I felt he was trying to warn me.

“What are you saying?” My voice was barely above a whisper and my eyes
widened at a sudden thought. “That based on one other instance in history, all
quads become dragon mark hunters and the Compasses are going to hunt me one
day? That they’ll want to kill me and Mischa?”

Nothing in this world would make me believe that.

Jonathon’s features tightened. “I don’t know. Part of the reason I’ve
always encouraged your friendship is the hope that your love for each other
would keep you safe. That if they did become dragon mark hunters – because that
seems to be the calling of the quads – the boys would protect rather than
hunt.”

My head was hurting, I reached up and rubbed my temples, hoping to
relieve the tension. I was on information overload, and honestly wasn’t sure I
could process one more thing. Quads became dragon mark hunters, twins were
always marked. This was confusing and heartbreaking and…

“I need to go,” I mumbled, not even caring that Jonathon was there and he
had forbidden running alone. Lucky for him, he didn’t say anything.

I had my shirt halfway over my head when I noticed Mischa’s wide eyes on
me. I halted. “Do you want to see me shift?”

I felt a kindred spirit in Mischa now. The circumstances of our birth had
shaped both of our lives. But somehow I thought she’d gotten the worst, never
knowing who she really was and never having her animal to fall back on. It kind
of made me sad to think about it.

She swallowed loudly. I could see her throat working as she attempted to
speak. She looked at our mom. “I’m going to be forced to shift soon?” Her voice
was low and breathless.

Lienda nodded.

Mischa moved closer to me. “Does it hurt?” She locked me in her gaze. My
nose was telling me that she was nervous and excited.

“The first time it does.” I gave her a half smile, tilting my head to the
side. “It’s like the magic has to learn how the cells change, the way we will be
different in wolf form. The first shift takes a while and you’ll probably pray
for death.”

“Jess, come on,” Jonathon groaned. “Stop scaring her. I’ll help you,” he said
to Mischa.

“But after that, when your wolf calls, or when you need her, you’ll be able
to shift without effort or thought.” And with those words I stripped naked.
Bringing up my wolf energy, I let it wash over me. Dropping to all fours, the
power was visible as it coated my naked skin, then I shifted. It wasn’t
instant, but within two beats of my heart I was a silky black wolf.

The world changed. My senses were stronger; my brain morphed into that
place of instinct. I hadn’t noticed before, but there’d definitely been some
recent sex going on in this spot. Two shifters and a vamp if I was correct. I
sneezed a few times to rid myself of the scent.

I realized three sets of eyes were locked on me. Mischa took a step away
when I approached. My lips curled up at the thought of chasing her. I liked
chasing.

Jonathon placed a hand on Mischa. “Don’t back away. Wolves like to stalk
and chase weaker prey.”

“Does she know who I am?” she asked him.

“You don’t lose the person to become the wolf. We are one and the same.
She knows you.”

I was sick of this now. I needed to run. It felt good to be wolf, to forget
about my worries for a little while. I spun around and took off into the forest,
leaving all thoughts of the others behind.

I ran for
a long time before returning to Stratford. I’d passed others in the wolf-pack,
but I’d stayed solo for this journey. It was almost lunchtime and I’d more than
burned off breakfast. As I shifted to human form, my worries flooded back in.

I was at the front of my house. I wanted to wear my own clothes for once.
We lived in a double-level bungalow-style residence, two blocks from the
Compass boys. I loved my home. It was all wood and slate inside, everything
very earthy and natural.

Climbing the stairs I pushed open the door to my room. Stepping inside I
was so consumed with my thoughts I never noticed or scented that I wasn’t
alone. Not until the shadow zoomed across the room and to my side.

I shrieked. “Braxton, what the frick? Are you trying to give me a heart
attack?”

His head was sweeping awfully close to the ceiling as he stared at me,
his eyes firmly locked on my face, which was good considering I was butt naked.
I quickly grabbed underwear and clothes, slipped into my bathroom and slammed
the door in his face.

“Can’t a girl get some privacy?” I grumbled, knowing he’d hear me.

“I’ve been worried about you, Jess.” I could tell by the muffle of his
voice that he was resting his head against the door. “You disappeared with your
parents hours ago to hear this bad news and … well, let’s just say I was
worried.”

How could anyone as caring as Braxton be meant to take innocent children
and slaughter them? I could not believe that. Stupid dragon mark, stupid
hunters. I examined myself in the mirror, wondering where the hell this mark
was hidden. My body looked the same, but now I felt as if I didn’t know myself.
As if there was something hidden on and under my skin.

“Jess?” His husky tone washed over me and I shook off the melancholy and
dressed quickly.

As I opened the door he pretty much fell in on me. He must have had all
his weight leaning on the poor frame. He steadied himself – thankfully, because
I’d probably have died if he’d actually landed on me – and reaching out gripped
a big hand around each of my biceps.

“What the hell happened, Jess? You’re as pale as anything and I can feel
your sorrow.”

I shook my head and pulled myself free. “Please don’t. If you’re nice to
me I’ll cry and I don’t want to cry.”

“I’m always nice to you,” he said, bunching his eyebrows together. Then
he smiled, flashing both dimples at me.

For a moment he looked like a little boy, the same little boy who’d been
with me my entire life. So beautiful and innocent he’d been as a child, and now
he was beautiful and hard. All man. But still my Braxton.

I attempted to smile. “Come on, I’m starving.”

For once I actually wasn’t hungry but I needed to do something normal.

“Can you tell me anything?” he asked, as we walked toward the dining
hall. I should have known he wouldn’t leave it alone.

“Um…” I thought about it. “Well, Mischa is my younger sister.” Not
completely a lie, just an exaggeration … a really big one – our age gap was
about two minutes. “Apparently our parents have had a few rendezvous over the
years. It was a mutual decision to be apart and now they’ve decided to try and
be a family.” I wasn’t certain when I would tell them the truth. I was heeding
Jonathon’s words for now, but it would come out eventually. I sucked at keeping
secrets.

Braxton’s features were hard as we continued to walk. “Still sounds like
Lienda’s a selfish bitch.” His voice was low. “I don’t understand how anyone
could leave their child behind. At least she had the decency to raise Mischa.”

I guess you could leave your children to save their lives. It was
actually a very good reason, as reasons go. I wished Braxton knew the truth, I
didn’t want people to hate Lienda anymore. Did I agree with what my parents had
done? I wasn’t sure, to be honest. I guess it’s hard to know if they’d stayed
together whether I’d have been taken and killed. In that case, they’d
definitely made the right decision, but maybe simply spelling the marks would
have been enough. I’d missed so many years with my full family. I wanted those
years back.

“No point dwelling in the past,” I mused. “I can’t change that, all I can
change is the future and how I decide to handle the return of my mother and
sister.”

Braxton laughed. “Gee, that’s very rational of you. Did some sort of mind
meld happen in the forest?”

I punched him; it was like hitting a rock wall. Dammit, why did I
continue to punch these men? It was killing my hands. He laughed again, shaking
his head like I was the funniest thing he’d ever seen. I needed a better way to
smack some sense into them.

Braxton suddenly shifted directions, steering me off the main road and
toward their place. “Let’s stop in and grab the others. They’ve been worried
too.”

As we neared the front door my sensitive ears picked up the sounds of
cursing and shouts.

“Great.” Braxton started moving. He had the front door open and disappeared
inside faster than I could track.

I followed his path inside. Exiting the hall, I ground to a halt at the
sight of Tyson and Maximus fully going at it. The four boys didn’t fight a lot,
they were as close as any siblings I’d ever met, but they were hot tempered men
and on occasion disagreements erupted.

“Don’t talk about her like that again,” Maximus bellowed as he slammed
his big fist into Tyson’s jaw. “This was not her fault.”

Maximus was bigger, but Tyson was a brilliant fighter, fast and strong.
Tyson spun once and elbowed Maximus across his cheek, knocking the vampire back
a few steps.

“I don’t trust her, and if you’d stop thinking with your dick you’d
realize I’m right.” He launched onto Maximus, knocking him down. “Her arrival
couldn’t be more coincidental … fey dead … prison breakouts.” He was punching
his brother in between each word. “And it’s not just us to worry about, Jessa
is right in the thick of this.”

With a roar, Maximus jumped to his feet, sending Tyson flying backwards
across the room, then using vampire speed he followed.

Braxton was leaning against the wall, all casual-like. “Don’t make me
break you up,” he said.

He wouldn’t get in the middle unless it got further out of control. Which
it easily could. They’d let their inner hunters free and probably wouldn’t stop
without serious bloodshed. Both of them had cuts and bruises, but nothing major
yet.

Maybe it was the fact I was so out of it over the dragon mark
revelations, but I decided to do something I’d never done before. I darted
across the room, and with barely a moment’s hesitation jumped between the
brawling men. If my sudden appearance didn’t shock them into stopping, I was
going to be in a world of hurt.

“Jessa!” Braxton roared. He was reaching for me, but I was too far away.

The world seemed to hold its breath as the air swirled between the two of
them. It almost seemed to be in slow motion as Maximus’s fist swung toward me. He’d
been aiming for a body shot on his brother. Horror and fear crossed his
features as he realized it was going to hit me and not Tyson. I closed my eyes
and prepared for the hurt.

Silence descended over the room. I flicked my lids up to find a trembling
fist right in front of my face.

Somehow he’d halted his punch a hair’s breadth from me. My heart was
pounding rapidly, and my fear flooded the room, so potent I could taste it.

“Don’t fight, please.” I was begging. I had so much turmoil inside that I
just couldn’t see them smash each other to pieces right now.

Maximus’ hands were still trembling as he reached for me. “Jess…” His
voice wavered. “I could have killed you.” Then he was shaking me and roaring
even louder than Braxton had. “I could have killed you! Don’t you ever do
anything like that again, don’t ever get in the middle of a fight between us.”

I closed my eyes, willing my pulse and heart rate to slow. Then his
strong arms were around me and Maximus’ scent was everywhere. “I’m sorry,
Jessa.” He held me tight enough to cause discomfort and I knew by the way he
continued to shake that he was full on freaking out.

“It’s okay, Max.” Braxton was behind us, I could feel him. “You stopped,
you didn’t hurt her.”

“I could have killed her,” he moaned.

I opened my eyes, meeting the deep brown of Maximus’. His anguish was
visible.

“Stop,” I said. “It was my own stupid fault. I know better than to jump
in between you all fighting.”

“Yes, you’re in big fucking trouble, Jessa.” Braxton’s voice had that
edge; he was close to losing control again. “And you are going to tell us what
happened with your parents. Clearly, it was something bad enough to make you
suicidal.”

Maximus still hadn’t put me down; he seemed unable to let go.

Jacob burst into the room then. All of our heads swiveled in his
direction.

“There’s been another death,” he said. “Someone killed a vamp.”

I exhaled. The quads might let me get away with my hedging on what had
happened with my family in the forest. Murder was a pretty big distraction.

As the
five of us ran toward the gathering in the forest, Braxton quizzed his brothers
hard, trying to determine the reason they’d decided to use each other’s faces
as a punching bag. The most we got out of them was that Maximus was defending
Mischa’s honor and Tyson was feeling a little distrustful toward the new
arrivals. Our stilted conversation halted as the stench of death reached us. We
were still a hundred yards from the scene. As we moved closer, the crowds came
into view; already there was a crowd of onlookers.

I found it a little odd that there were so many people around the corpse.
Generally the council would have cleared the evidence by now. I pushed through
the masses of supernaturals who were gathered in a circle around the kill zone.
I cursed as the scene came into focus. What the hell was going on? Vampires
were notoriously hard to kill. The constant influx of new blood gave them amazing
healing and regeneration abilities, but someone had cut off the victim’s head.
The body was slumped against the large roots of the redwood, and a long machete
had been speared through the skull, pinning it to the trunk.

“Is that Markus?” Jacob cursed. “Shit, he was like a hundred years old.”

Which meant whoever killed him had been strong and powerful, able to
resist his vampire compulsion. Not to mention crazy-as-hell, judging by the
scene we were seeing. Which was a scary concept.

“No blood and no bite marks.” Braxton was sidling closer for a better
look. “This is not the kill scene. He was moved.” He lowered his head close to
my ear. “Do you scent anything strange?”

I closed my eyes and tried to focus my nose on the scene, filtering out
all of the scents which had nothing to do with the murder. The most demanding
smell was still that of death. It was a recent kill so there wasn’t an
overpowering smell of decay and excrement, but it was still there. I wrinkled
my nose, moving past that to anything else strange. Forest smells and …
coconut.

“I smell coconut oil and something flowery,” I murmured as I opened my
eyes.

Braxton nodded, “Yes, coconut and lavender.”

He was right, they were was the underlying scents.

Why was that ringing with some familiarity in my head? That combination
was something I’d smelled before. I turned and saw Tyson. “Didn’t one of the
spells you used – to find the prison – use those two ingredients?”

“Yes,” Tyson bit out. “And it’s a spell I created. The scented oil was
designed as a trail marker to take us to the prison.”

I twisted my head back to the morbid scene. “Does that mean someone has
left us a trail to lead to the killer? Or are they trying to implicate Ty as
the killer?”

“Fuck!” Braxton clenched his fists. “Those marks on the tree, do they
look like claw marks from a rather large animal?”

I’d been so focused on the head speared to the tree I hadn’t noticed
there were two large gashes out of the bark. I examined them, and they were
definitely a familiar shape and size. I didn’t need to be an evidence magic
user to know those claw marks would probably line up perfectly to Braxton’s
dragon. There was no reason for the Compasses to have killed Markus. Note I did
not say they weren’t capable, they were more than capable, but they would need
a reason. Someone was staging this scene to implicate them.

At the moment of that realization, arms grabbed around me, tightening
across my chest and yanking me backwards. I was dragged ten feet away before
the boys realized I was gone. They spun as one, coming at me, but in unison
stopped when they saw who held me. I hadn’t scented him at all, he’d cloaked
himself so he could take me unawares. But the large ring on his middle finger
was familiar enough that already my skin was starting to crawl. Kristoff.

The sorcerer had one hand wrapped around my throat. “We left this scene
here to draw you Compasses into public. The four of you need to come quietly.”
He almost sounded gleeful. “I will keep a hold of Jessa until you allow the
council guards to cuff you.”