Chapter One
Damien LaRue slowly, somewhat reluctantly, descended the wide stairway of his antebellum home. From the sounds of it, the mating ceremony between the latest of his brethren lucky enough to have found his mate had already begun. It wasn’t because he begrudged his friend and comrade his happiness that he had put off making an appearance tonight, it was simply a desire to save himself the stark reminder that he would not claim his own mate or the pleasure he knew he could find with her. Hushed voices and soft cries greeted him as he stopped at the double wide doorway that led into what used to be a grand ballroom. The huge, ornate room with its wall of French doors, glittering chandeliers and old world elegance had once hosted cotillions and balls for the wealthy and elite of Louisiana, had held election parties for political candidates whose influence and legislation still lived on even though it has been decades since their passing. The Civil War put an end to that era as assuredly as Isabelle had put an end to his life the way he remembered it.
Shoving aside his melancholy, he leaned against the doorway and watched the end of the mating ceremony between Beau and his mate, Emma, taking place on the small raised platform at the front of the room. It was only at gatherings like this that the ballroom got used anymore and right now the comfortable seating groups around the dais were taken by the members of his brethren that were mated. Having a penchant for bondage, Beau had Emma strapped down on a padded bench, her bare body glistening with oil, her nipples standing erect, her legs splayed for all to see how much Beau excited her. Her denuded labia already sported the telltale gold loop piercing that labeled her taken and off limits to any brethren who was still unmated. Of the fifteen of them that bore a crescent shaped, red birthmark on their right palm labeling them one of a chosen few who could survive the transformation from human to vampire without eventually going mad, there were only five who hadn’t claimed that one woman who not only bore a similar mark somewhere on her body but whose mark responded to the nearness of her mate as only those destined to be together did.
Damien watched Beau step between Emma’s legs, stroke her soft flesh from her neck down over her quivering breasts then underneath her to cup her buttocks. Lifting her, he sank his cock into her pussy in one smooth stroke, her welcoming cry getting drowned out by the congratulatory applause that erupted in the large room.
Damien joined in, smiling at his long time friend’s pleasure and good luck. The now ten mated couples all knew first hand not only the exalted pleasure that could be found with one’s true mate, but the males finally knew the pleasure of coming into their full strength and power, enabling them to take on even more challenges against their fight against evil. He hoped Jacob, Mason and the twins, Jon and Luc, were all lucky enough to find their mates soon, thus completing their circle. Even though his own body had found and welcomed his mate years ago, Damien had no intention of claiming her. Once the remaining four come into their full power, he would seek the dawn as his final atonement for his sins. After all, if it hadn’t been for his cowardice and his lack of control, these men would not have been sought out and changed by Isabelle and the horrendous death of an innocent woman would not be on his conscience even now, almost two hundred years later.
“Damien! Quit scowling and join us,” Luc called out from where he sat at a table with Jacob and his brother, Jon.
Damien took a seat, smiling in actual pleasure when Beau increased his thrusts, making Emma cry out in climax. “It’s a good match,” he said as he leaned back in his chair and tried to ignore the decidedly noticeable lack of strength in his body. If he didn’t pay a visit to Marie soon, he would be of no help to his brethren when out on patrol. Since their strength and power was enhanced by sex, twofold if it was with one’s mate, they fucked frequently. He, on the other hand, tended to wait until his body was almost depleted before seeking out Marie, a longtime acquaintance who has been seeing to his needs for almost thirty years. He knew some of his brethren liked variety before finding their mate, but ever since discovering three years ago that Abrielle was his mate, he has been reluctant to seek his pleasure with anyone except Marie, and he now sought her out only when he absolutely had to.
“If you’re happy for them, why don’t you show it?” Jacob eyed his best friend with worry clouding his green eyes. He noticed the signs of Damien’s depleted state, the slower movements and drawn look, and knew he was going to have to browbeat him into going to Marie again soon. They all knew Abrielle was his mate, yet none of them knew why Damien refused to bond with her. Jacob had seen the differences in both of them the past few years and it was obvious that she not only wanted Damien, she knew what he was and had no problems with the fact the man she was so attracted to was a vampire. For himself, Jacob would give anything to find his other half, the one woman who could make the endless years ahead of him worth sticking around for.
“Sorry, I’m just tired. Didn’t sleep well,” he drawled. Since they slept like the dead, literally, they laughed and relaxed, letting him slide by once more without explanation. “Mason’s a no show again tonight?”
“Yeah. That son of a bitch sure has been elusive since moving into town. Still don’t get why he wanted to leave the estate before he hooked up with a mate,” Jon said, smiling when Emma shouted out with yet another climax, this time Beau joining her as he culminated their fucking with a few hard thrusts, his head thrown back as he erupted in pleasure so intense they who haven’t had the experience with a mate could only imagine.
“I’ll have a talk with him, see if there’s something going on I need to know about or can help with.” As their leader, the one who had inadvertently put each of them in Isabelle’s path but who had also rescued them from her powerful hold, it was Damien they usually sought out when struggling with the problems that arose with their long existence or need for blood to survive.
When he and Jacob had arrived too late to save the twins from being converted by Isabelle, they had taken advantage of her bloodsucking distraction, coming at her from opposite sides, wielding their titanium, eight inch blades with precision and strategically aimed cuts. Jacob had only been turned a year, but he was still grieving for his past life, grief that fueled his rage and lent an added viciousness to his attack. By the time she was lying helpless on the ground in the yard of Jon and Luc’s Texas ranch, she was bleeding out from numerous severed major arteries. Neither one of them was of a mind to be merciful, so, knowing she was too weak to teleport or dematerialize, they left her to perish by the hellish heat from the rising sun, an appropriate sentence for one who was so evil.
For the last one hundred and forty-eight years Damien has been able to focus his energies on uniting the fifteen men who bore the mark that told Isabelle they could survive being turned without going mad within a year of conversion. After celebrating her death, they had sworn a pact to do good with the gifts being undead gave them, their goal to make amends for all the evil Isabelle had unleashed during her long reign of terror. Most of them have scattered, taken their mates and made their homes in places that suited them, moving every twenty or thirty years to avoid any suspicions when they didn’t age. There remained
only the four of them and Mason who still resided in Louisiana. Jacob and the twins still lived with Damien on his private plantation nestled deep in the marshes of the bayou that has been his family home since he and his parents fled France in 1789 in fear of their lives. Being of the aristocracy, they knew it was either give up their homeland or give up their lives.
As Beau released Emma, everyone started to get up and mingle. “You up for patrol tonight?” Jacob asked as the twins, Jon and Luc went to offer their congratulations to the couple.
“I’m fine,” Damien replied tersely, hating the way the others hovered over him.
Jacob didn’t flinch from the anger in Damien’s dark brown eyes. “Don’t snap my head off. You know Mardi Gras always brings out the crazies. We’re going to have to be on our toes for the next week.”
Decades ago, they all had agreed to do what they could to keep their cities safe. It seemed the best way to not only keep in touch as they slowly scattered, but to put to good use the special abilities their transformation gave them. Longevity gave them the time to amass wealth, so none of them were in need of money.
“Yeah, I know,” Damien answered on a sigh, knowing he was going to have to make a stop at Marie’s so he could ‘tank up’, as they jokingly referred to it when they were in need of sex to boost both their energy and powers. “You still fucking those two best friends?”