Dragon Marked: Supernatural Prison #1

by Jaymin Eve

  DRAGON MARKED

  To my sister-in-law Laura, Aunty Coll and Marice. My favourite betas and friends.

  DRAGON MARKED

  Supernatural Prison #1

  Jaymin Eve

  Dragon Marked: Supernatural Prison #1

  Copyright © Jaymin Eve 2015

  All rights reserved

  First published in 2015

  Eve, Jaymin

  Dragon Marked: Supernatural Prison #1

  1st edition

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. All characters in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental

  Chapter 1

  My head hit the desk with a loud clunk. I jerked upright, blinking rapidly. What the hell had just happened?

  “I’m sorry, Miss Lebron, am I boring you?” Tall, dark, and deadly was my teacher as he loomed over my desk.

  Shit, I’d fallen asleep in class again. Damn those Compass brothers, keeping me out all night in the forest. We’d been searching for the prison again. Another fruitless search.

  “Sorry, sir,” I said, slinking lower in my seat. I rubbed a hand across my mouth to make sure I didn’t have sleep-drool on my face.

  Like a lot of older vamps, our history teacher, Mr. Vendir Vamissa, hadn’t forgotten the last supernatural war – when shifters and vampires had fought on opposite sides – so I wasn’t surprised when he hissed before dismissing me with a flick of his bald head. When he reached the front of the class he leveled another dark look in my direction. I was too strong for compulsion to roll me. Still, all vampires were scary when they locked you in their gaze. Thankfully, he started lecturing again, picking up where he’d left off about the origins of the Slothman. No wonder I’d fallen asleep.

  Jacob Compass – one of the quadruplets who were my best friends – nudged me. “Nice one, Jessa, pissing off the vamp before dinnertime.”

  I narrowed my eyebrows at him, a slight growl rumbling my chest. “You’re an asshat. Why didn’t you wake me?”

  The amusement in Jacob’s grass-green eyes was clear. “Hey, I wanted to stay home last night, but everyone follows Tyson when he reveals his brilliant plans.” He flicked a small orange flame between his fingertips. Jacob was fey, with power over the elements, although he was extra obsessed with fire.

  Tyson spun in his chair, pointing a long finger at Jacob. “I’m sitting right here, dick.”

  I knew the brothers as well as I knew myself, and there was no doubt Tyson, who was a wizard, wanted to punch his brother. The only thing stopping a fistfight was our current awkward seating arrangement. Tyson was in the row in front of us.

  Jacob, Tyson, Braxton and Maximus Compass had been my best friends for most of my twenty-two years. They were quads who – through a quirk in nature or genetics – somehow contained the souls of four different supernatural races.

  Our little pack had gone through early learning, special training, and now attended a private supernatural, ‘supes’ college together. Six thousand members of the supernatural community lived in our town of Stratford, Connecticut. Witch magic protected our borders and repelled humans from entering, and there was a very important reason for this. Our town was a gateway, a guardian community, protecting those very fragile and innocent humans from the darkness they never even knew existed. Stratford was a supernatural prison community, the keepers of your worst nightmares.

  Maximus, the vampire, was the daredevil of the group. “So are we heading out tonight?”

  Braxton growled from my other side. “No. Jessa’s tired. And we have a council meeting after class.”

  Our continued conversation had the teacher hissing in our direction again. In a room this size, vampire hearing didn’t miss anything. We shut our mouths and pretended to listen, but it was too late. Vendir’s expression indicated that I needed to be taught a lesson in respect. Or fear. Of course he didn’t try that shit with the Compasses. Sometimes I hated being small and female. Although, to be underestimated … well, sometimes that was deliciously ironic.

  With super speed, Vendir was beside my desk again, the eyes of our classmates following him.

  “It’s in your best interest to stop interrupting my lesson, Jessa. You don’t want to push me too far. I can make life very difficult for you.”

  Oh shit.

  Reprimanding me was one thing, but threatening me in front of the Compasses … bad idea. In a single movement the four of them were on their feet. I followed because my alpha wolf didn’t like the men towering over me, although most of them were a foot taller than my five feet four – yep, I was small. My height was another thing which gave me an air of vulnerability, right up until I opened my mouth.

  Braxton sounded casual. “You might want to back the hell off of Jessa.” But his dark blue eyes were flashing. “I’d hate to get vamp on my clothes.”

  “Brax.” I laid a hand on his arm, hoping to calm him. Braxton was a dragon shifter, and if he lost control, more than a few supes would die. “Forget it. I’m okay, and more importantly my wolf is fine.”

  It might have been a different story if the vampire had pissed off my inner animal, but her energy had barely even swirled inside. We considered the weaker vamp teacher to be nothing more than an annoyance. If it came down to it, I didn’t need the quads to take on Vendir.

  The vampire knew when he was out-powered, and lowering his head, he backed to the front of the room. His features were expressionless, but his narrowed eyes flashed fury, fang was showing and his hands had formed claws that he couldn’t seem to straighten. The brothers stood for a few extra moments just to reiterate their point, before retaking their seats. The tension that had descended over the thirty students around us started to dissipate. Most of them looked disappointed. They’d been hoping for a throw-down. What can I say, many of us were predators, and we had a predisposition for the enjoyment of bloody warfare.

  Glancing to the side, I noticed how motionless Braxton was in his chair. His face was perfectly calm but I knew him better than that. He was pissed.

  Braxton was the most protective of the group. Maybe it was the fact we were both shifters, but he had my back even more than his brothers. Although all of them could be annoyingly over-protective. Luckily, my wolf thought of them as pack, although as an alpha it still annoyed her when they tried to control me. I was a dominant shifter through my father’s bloodline: Jonathon Lebron, alpha of the wolf shifters, high council leader of all shifting races, and all around badass. He was training me to take over the pack. I was powerful, one of the most powerful wolf shifters born in the United States.

  This was probably the reason the Compass quads and I were so tight; they were powerful too, set to be the next American high council members. In three years’ time they would take over from the current council members.

  Maximus was vampire, Braxton was shifter, Jacob was fey, and Tyson was a magic user, a wizard. So they would hold four of the positions on the council. The fifth race was the demi-fey: mermaid, gargoyles, trolls, boggarts, pixies, imps, centaurs and the like. Basically any group who would never be able to blend into the human world. The demi-fey were the only supernatural race that the Compasses didn’t have a representative in.

  My attention was drawn back to the head of the class and a sudden subject change to a myriad of famous wolf shifte
r deaths through history, with particular and detailed attention spent on our weaknesses. I silently chuckled; the vampire could not be more obvious. He was probably plotting my murder while he lectured, but was too weak to ever do more than play it out in his head.

  Next to me Jacob started mumbling under his breath, singing. The fey love to belt out a ballad. His voice was sweet as; I could listen to him sing for days. All four brothers stared off in different directions around the room. The lucky asses were geniuses and never paid attention in class. Truth be told, they were a mystery in the supernatural community. Being the children of two rare hybrids – a vampire-sorceress mother and shifter-fey father – was unusual enough. Hybrids producing offspring, it was pretty much unheard of. But no one had a freaking clue how the quadruplets had come to possess four different supernatural abilities. And in pureblood form, no less.

  Vendir finished summing up the six strike-points for a kill on a wolf–dumbass–before waving his hand and turning his back on us. “Class is dismissed early today. Make your way to the town hall.”

  I moved aside as a short, broad troll barged down the aisle. Don’t get in the way of trolls, they’re like steam trains. Our class was a mix of supernatural creatures. We attended college until twenty-five and after that we had to choose a career. There were a wide variety of jobs, including many that had reference to the prison. Vanguard was the United States’ supernatural prison, hidden, secret, and protected somewhere deep in the forest which bordered Stratford. No one knew the location unless they were initiated into the council. Or if your career was within the walls. The boys and I spent a lot of time searching for it, but so far, nada. That’s where we’d been last night; Tyson thought he had a lead. As future council leaders it pissed them right off that they were excluded from information on the prison. This was their way of taking things into their own hands.

  But since I’d ended up with mud in unmentionable places and a tick on my ass, the wizard had clearly missed the mark. It wasn’t the first time the Compass brothers had led me astray and it wouldn’t be the last.

  After class I wandered along with the hundreds who were heading toward the town hall. The boys would catch up with me soon, they all had things to do. Things I probably did not want to know about. The town meeting was due to start in about thirty minutes, so they’d have to haul ass to make it in time.

  Stratford wasn’t huge, and it was set out in a circular pattern, everything revolving out from the large, towering-into-the-air fountain at the center. The town hall was a stone and brick building with old-style architecture that included a pair of large hand-carved stone statues out front, and heavy window frames. The building sat off to the right of the fountain, taking up a pretty decent section of land.

  My father caught up with me just before I entered the huge double doors and draped an arm across my shoulders, leading me back to the grassy area off to the side. I smiled as I stared into his dark blue eyes; they were the same color as mine. His hair was blond though, whereas mine was so black it almost looked blue in the sunlight. My father didn’t look much older than me. Supernaturals age very slowly. Most live a good eight hundred years or more.

  “Hi, sweetheart.” Jonathon leaned down to give me a hug. He wasn’t tall for a shifter, but height wasn’t important when his power followed him around ready to deliver a swift boot in the ass. My father ruled our pack with an iron fist, but toward me he was a fluffy puppy … with claws. He placed both hands on my biceps. “I need to tell you something before the meeting. We have some new and disturbing information.”

  I opened my mouth, but was interrupted by a shout.

  “Jessa!”

  I spun my head to see Jacob wave. He was with his brothers and they were making their way across the paved center arcade. The vamp and shifter girls around me started giggling like morons. For some reason these men turned cold-blooded predators into silly human females. It was quite amusing to watch as the quads brushed them off. Most of them were just looking to snare the future leaders of the council. We were a bit superficial like that. And while the Compasses were not exactly picky, groupies were not their thing.

  I growled at a very blond wolf shifter. “Get some pride.” Damn, she was like three seconds from drooling.

  The blonde lowered her eyes, not dominant enough to meet my glare for too long. I turned away with a shake of my head. Silky strands of my straight inky hair brushed against my bare shoulders. In true shifter style I was only wearing a tank and short shorts, clothes easy to shed if my wolf needed to run.

  “Try and remember, Jess,” Jonathon said, drawing my attention again. “You don’t see the guys the same way as the other females.”

  Narrowing my eyes, I spun my head to observe the four of them as the crowd parted to let them through. I had no idea what my father was talking about, I saw them perfectly fine. I had outstanding vision, almost as good as the eagle shifters.

  The brothers stood heads above everyone else. All of them looked alike and yet were all so different. They were exceptionally beautiful, with olive skin, chiseled jaws, straight perfect noses, and dimples in their cheeks. Yes, the smug bastards had dimples too. But in no way were they cute; they were gorgeous and hard, and you knew they could destroy you if you crossed them the wrong way.

  Braxton was a little in front. At six and a half feet he was a massive shifter, which made sense for a dragon. His skin was a few shades darker than his brothers’ and his hair was as black as night, contrasting beautifully to his eyes, which were as blue as a flawless spring sky. Tyson, the wizard, had brown hair with that hint of auburn threaded through. He wore it a little longer than his brothers, but still only brushing the bottom of his ears. His eyes were a honeysuckle brown, soft and sweet, except when he was using his magic. Then they turned gold and you knew it was time to haul ass. Jacob, the fey, was a little shorter, and finer than his massive brothers, but was still big. He had green eyes, like a newly-turned leaf in spring, and hair so blond it was pretty much white. Bringing up the rear was Maximus, the vampire, the hugest of the four. His hair was dirty blond, falling into his dark brown eyes. You knew when he was vamped out, fangs descended and his eyes turned black.

  Yes, they were all exceptional, but if I had to pick the most exceptional, well, Braxton held a little more of my heart than the other three. He was my absolute best friend.

  I’d die or kill for any of them in an instant and I knew they felt the same way. I’d never made friends in my pack. Sure, it was probably because of my sunny personality, but even if I didn’t have an attitude problem, being the alpha’s daughter inspired fear and respect but not friendship. I was lucky to have the boys.

  Jonathon looked calm, but for the first time his wolf was peering out of his eyes. The blue had darkened and yellow threaded around the pupil. “I have to go. Kristoff is calling the council inside.”

  Ah, that explained the wolf. He hated taking directions from that asshole.

  Stratford and Vanguard were ruled by the American Supernatural Council, the very council the boys would take over in a few years. Kristoff Krass was the current head of the magic users, and as I said, an asshole. The tall, thin, and slimy sorcerer was hella powerful and totally in love with his own awesomeness. His daughter, Giselda, was a witch and my BEF, bitch-enemy-forever. We’d thrown down on more than one occasion. Having Tyson in my corner had probably saved me from her sneaky ways. Magic was underhanded, slow moving, and hard to detect. Luckily, wolf senses could detect the stirring of a spell, not to mention lies when they fell from forked tongues.

  I stopped my father as he turned to leave. “Wait, what did you have to tell me?”

  He fixed me in his gaze again. “Right, sorry, I don’t have much time, but I can’t have you blindsided, your wolf will lose it.”

  Great, that sounded promising.

  “Your mother has returned,” he finished in a rush.

  I stared at him blankly, before a burning hot flood of lava started in my chest and blew upwards
to my brain. By the time the fury reached my mouth I was ready to explode.

  Shouts and curses fell from my lips. “How could you let her come back here? She abandoned us! I don’t want to see that bitch ever again!”

  She was a wolf, so bitch was literal. Jonathon met my gaze and more of his wolf peeked out. I was alpha enough to challenge him, but I never would. Reluctantly – my emotions screaming for further release – I lowered my gaze.

  His hand left my arm and cupped my chin, lifting my face to meet his eyes. He was giving me equal status with him in this fight. “I needed her to return. There is much you don’t understand, but she’s always your mother.”

  I was shaking my head violently.

  “I have to go, Jess.” He dropped a kiss on my cheek and took off for the hall.

  My hands were trembling as my wolf fought for control. Just thinking that that woman was close by had me wanting to shift and run far away. I didn’t care what Dad said, I had no mother.

  “What happened?” Braxton dropped one of his large hands on the bare skin between my shoulder blades. The contact was comforting and my trembles lessened. But I still couldn’t answer straight away.

  “Lienda has returned,” Maximus said. Strike one for vampire hearing.

  “Fuck,” Braxton growled. “What’s Jonathon thinking letting that bitch back into Stratford?”

  You needed council permission to enter or leave our town. There were many protections weaved around Stratford and the surrounding forest, mainly to stop humans from entering, but also to prevent any supes from trying to break out their criminal brethren from the prison.

  “He said he had to allow her in for a reason.” My choked voice was low and growly. “If she’s inside, I think I’m going to need some help – don’t let me kill her.”