PROLOGUE
Violet slid off her backpack and set it on a small boulder next to her before stripping off the rest of her clothes.
A cool breeze kicked up, making her shiver as the stream bubbled past her. The sound of the small waterfall thirty or so yards away was consistent, soothing. All this land had once been part of a national preserve but that didn’t matter anymore. The federal government, as she and her small community knew it, was gone, destroyed.
For months after The Fall they’d kept waiting for someone to show up and help. The National Guard or…someone. When it had become clear that they were on their own, their small farming community had banded together and taken stock of the situation. Things had been running smoothly enough but today had been long and she needed to be alone.
Didn’t matter how cold the water was at this point, she needed the shock to her system anyway. Biting back a gasp, she waded up to her waist, then shoved out a shaky breath. She had an actual shower back home, but something about being in the stream always cleared her head and— She froze as she saw a man at the top of the small cliff’s edge.
He was covered in red clay and naked. He blinked down at her, his eyes a little wild. There were red streaks across his chest that looked darker than the natural clay around here. Oh God, had he been hurt? She held up her hands to show him that she meant no harm.
“Are you okay?” she called out, already hurrying from the water as she called up to him. “I’m a doctor, I can help!” She grabbed a towel and glanced down at herself as she started to quickly dry off, but when she looked up again, the huge man was gone.
They hadn’t had many strangers traveling through the Robichaux parish in the last year, but the ones who had, had stayed for the most part. A couple had simply left in the middle of the night with no goodbyes, but that was just the way it went. Some people wanted to explore, see what was left of the world.
“Sir?” she called out again as she rapidly dressed, shoved her feet back into her hiking boots. As a precaution, she tucked one of her younger sister’s knives in the back of her pants as she made her way over the rocky terrain toward the edge of the waterfall.
They were only a couple hours from what had once been Baton Rouge, Louisiana and most people didn’t realize that there were waterfalls in the state—what had once been the state. She wasn’t even sure what they were anymore. A state, a country? A territory? They didn’t have a government anymore. Not that she knew of anyway. Not that it mattered now, she thought as she hiked up the small rocky incline that looped around the cliff’s edge to where the waterfall started.
Where the man had been.
But when she got there, she saw muddy, reddish footprints on one of the boulders, and…nothing else.
No footprints on the surrounding boulders, and it was too far for the man to have jumped to the grass and rocky area a good thirty feet behind the pooling water and boulders.
Frowning, she glanced around the underbrush, looked into the clear water, then even up in the trees. She contemplated trying to find the man, but what was the point?
If he’d wanted to make contact, he could have. Clearly he didn’t want her help. But it was the doctor in her—she wanted to help when she could.
Sighing, her private bath ruined now, she started the climb back down and continued hiking until she reached her family’s farm. She shouldn’t have left anyway, but she’d gotten in an argument with one of her younger sisters over…something stupid.
Rolling her shoulders, Violet slid her backpack off as she stepped inside the farmhouse she and her sisters had inherited from their parents.
“Hey, you’re back.” Mari hurried out of the kitchen, her expression a mix of excitement and worry as she carried Violet’s medical bag. “Ava’s in labor. Contractions are ten minutes apart, so everything is still good, but she’s ready for you.”
“Where’s Luke?” Ava’s husband.
“Still hunting, but I sent someone to grab him.”
Violet nodded, taking the bag from her, already going into doctor mode. Thankfully Ava’s pregnancy had been fairly easy, but she was weeks early and anything could happen.
She shelved thoughts of the stranger she’d seen in the woods, but made a note to tell her sisters and the others later.
Right now it was time to deliver her neighbor’s baby.
CHAPTER ONE
One year later
Orion slowed his descent, cupping his wings slightly as he watched the darts of movement through the trees below.
Too fast to be human. And the scents wafting up from the forest and hiking trails weren’t ones he recognized.
His dragon silently snarled.
Vampires. Predators.
And they were making their way toward the humans he lived with, the ones he protected. Soft, kind beings who’d opened up their home to him without knowing what he was.
They were far too trusting.
That was okay, he kept them safe.
On a burst of speed, he flew ahead of the vampires—six, he counted—then silently dove into a thicket of trees, hooking his backpack onto a branch high up in one of the pine trees before he landed and shifted to his human form.
Though they were quick and fast, Orion could hear the vampires moving in his direction.
Using a bit of ancient magic, he created a ball of light in his hands, then threw it up into the air, illuminating the nearby trees. It was as if he’d turned on what the humans he lived with called a lamp.
The movement in the trees stopped, the forest going eerily still.
“I know you’re there. Show yourselves.” Orion stood where he was, naked as the day he was hatched.
A moment later, a male vampire with long, blond hair and ice-cold eyes the color of rich amber stepped into the spotlight. He wore dark navy pants and a matching T-shirt, no visible weapons on him. Other than his fangs.
Orion could sense the others moving around him, likely thinking to trap him, then attack. His dragon smiled darkly, ready for a fight, though deep down he knew this would be over quickly. He’d had no real fights since rising from his long Hibernation. Because these vampires weren’t a true match for his strength.
But he would give these vampires a chance to leave if they meant no harm. “You’re in my territory. I suggest you turn around and return whence you came.”
“Whence?” The male snorted, swaggering forward, flashing his fangs. “I suggest you shut the hell up and listen to what’s going to happen. We take what we want, when we want. And we’re going to drain and probably fuck everyone in this territory, starting with you.” The male’s eyes flashed bright and Orion sensed the vampires in the trees jumping down on him.
He mentally extinguished the light even as his beast took over, the wildness of his magic pushing out in a rush of sparks and power.
He kept his wings pulled in tight as he chomped his jaws down on the obnoxious mouthpiece, ripped the vampire in half.
“Hell,” one breathed out as he landed on Orion’s back.
“Shit,” another muttered as the sound of feet racing away greeted Orion’s ears.
He turned, whipping his tail out behind him, striking the fleeing vampire as he bit down on another that raced at him, fangs out. What did this tiny vampire think he was going to do? Chomp through his scales? Fools. All of them. Bloody fools.