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Copyright © March 2012, Penelope Rivers
Cover art designed by © Mina Carter March 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937394-36-3

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this novel are
fictitious or used fictitiously. All rights reserved, including the right to
reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

Amira Press
Charlotte, NC
www.amirapress.com

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For Andy, who is too awesome to be human.

Prologue

A gun exploded to his right, and Mark Jacobs ducked and covered. There

was the sound of loud screaming, and he swore under his breath and looked
around. He saw that there was a woman on the ground, curled up and silent.
Her head was bloody. He leaned down and ran his hand down her neck.
There was a bloody gouge there. The crimson trickled down his fingers and
made him all sticky. He fought the urge to vomit.

There was another yell, and he rushed forward, desperate.
Mark and two other police officers rushed to cover while checking the

surroundings. There were dead people everywhere—on the floor, dangling
out of the shattered windows, slumped over the counter. One of his fellow
officers was vomiting.

A shadow moved gracefully before him, and gunshots filled the night. A

bullet sliced through the flesh of his arm, and a second bullet caught him in
his bulletproof vest. He slumped over sideways and was silent. As he lay
there, moments before he lost consciousness, he swore that he felt
somebody’s hot but gentle hands tugging him forward.

Then everything went black.

Chapter One

“I am almost one hundred percent certain that it was Alec, that bastard,”

the sixty-something woman said. “He took my jewels, and I want them back.
They were worth a fortune. I was planning to sell them.”

Mark stood in front of Sylvia Call and pressed his hand to his chest. He

did that whenever he was stressed and had lost his ability to breathe. There
was a lot of pressure involving this case. She had paid to fly him out from his
childhood home a state over, and if he succeeded in getting evidence that
Alec had stolen her jewels, then he would be rolling in dough—a finder’s fee
for a detective like him was not cheap.

“And you went out with this Alec person often?”
Sylvia stepped in closer and wrapped her arms around his body. He

shuddered in disgust and shook his head. He looked determinedly away.

“I saw Alec often enough.” Sylvia patted his pecs to grab his attention. “I

don’t have enough young things around anymore.”

He ignored her statement. He was twenty-nine and had no interest in

women, especially ones who were twice his age.

“Alec was your escort, correct? He worked at a club, and you sometimes

paid him extra money to take you places?”

Sylvia sighed dramatically. She ran a hand through her brownish gray hair.

Her thin lips were pursed over her teeth. This made him wonder whether she
wore dentures. He also wondered what she was doing with an escort to begin
with.

“Alec is a hunk of man, a bit like you,” she said, nudging his pecs again.

If she weren’t paying him so much, he would have shoved her away. “He was
worth the money—until he stole my diamonds. That bastard!”

“How can you be so sure that it was him?”
“Listen, how could it not be him? I came home a little drunk—talked

him into coming home with me, you see—and then he puts me in bed. The
next thing I know, my jewels are all gone. What a dumb man. How could he
steal something and think that I wouldn’t notice?”

He hesitated. It did sound like Alec was the perp, but Mark had been a

police officer long enough to know that things were not always as they
appeared. Of course, maybe he should stop being so cynical about things.
With luck, it would be Alec and all he would have to do is snoop around.

“Think that you can do it? I flew you here because I know you’re the

best. You’re the third investigator I’ve hired. None of them can figure out a
damn thing.”

“Did you talk to the police about this?”
“Here’s the thing,” Sylvia squeezed his biceps so hard that he winced.

With her breast, she forced him to turn into her vast garden. “I want to get
my diamonds back, understand? I don’t want any of these court problems.
The cops couldn’t manage that.”

He understood at last. She wanted him to steal the diamonds back. That

was why she was paying him so much.

“You honestly don’t care that he keeps stealing from other people?”
Sylvia grinned. “Honey, I wouldn’t give a rat’s ass if he murdered

someone—just get me those diamonds.”

They paused before a massive birdbath that had two lovers curved

around one another. As he stared at the water where goldfish swam, he
sighed. It was a hard choice—on the one hand, he cared if Alec was running
around ripping people off, but then again, he wasn’t a cop anymore. He had
stopped being a cop when somebody had shot him in the chest and had
killed thirteen people. The police had called it the Nielsen Incident. His eyes
narrowed.

“I can make it worth your while if you do this for me,” Sylvia said.

“Really worth your while.”

What does it matter, anyway? Mark thought. He turned around and cocked

his head to show that he was interested. Sylvia grabbed his arms and led him
to the large glass doors that were at the back of the house. They went inside,
and even he was overwhelmed by the beauty of the cold marble floor and the
gorgeous kitchen that was the size of his apartment back home. He
wondered what Sylvia’s husband had done before he died.

Sylvia grabbed her purse and plopped it down on the table. She pulled

out her checkbook and opened it. She wrote 100,000 dollars on the check and

showed him the amount. He was already charging her a couple thousand just
to look for the necklaces to begin with. Even seeing the number made his
mouth water. A hundred thousand dollars for some necklaces? He nodded
his head.

“Good,” she said. “I’ll give it to you once you find the necklaces and

bring them back to me, understand?”

“Crystal clear.”
“On top of that, you stay here with me while you investigate. No hotels,

no costs. Just bring me my stuff back.”

He nodded.
“I might throw in a little more if we do something extra.” She pressed

her hand against his chest and grinned at him. He felt sick to his stomach.
“What do you say?”

“I’ll get to work on finding the necklaces—you’re going to have to take

care of that problem yourself.”

As he turned to leave, he saw her expression darken.

* * * *

I’m fucking lost, he thought, looking down at his phone that had a map on

it. He was a detective without a sense of direction. He flipped the phone
upside down and looked at it that way, trying to see if that would help. It
didn’t. He half debated calling a cab just to have the driver show him where
Alec’s club was.

He swore and put his phone away and glanced around the busy street.

There were clubs on both sides of the road, which did not help his sense of
direction. There were also a ton of people. I’ve been to so many different places and
worked the streets, so why the hell is this place so confusing? Mark wondered.

That was when somebody rammed into him from his left and he looked

up, startled. He used to be a cop, so he had always prided himself on being
aware of those around him. The man before him, though, had taken him by
surprise—and managed to scare him. He gasped when he looked into two
sharp blue irises that looked so intense that they made his heart beat in fear.

He subconsciously reached down for his gun, but before he could pull it out,
the blue-eyed man was gone and he was standing in the middle of a crowd
looking like a moron. There was something familiar about that guy, he thought,
scratching his head.

“You lost?”
Mark jerked around and came eye to eye with a man who had dark

auburn hair. The man grinned at him, which made Mark gasp. He recognized
him upon sight because of Sylvia’s pictures—it was Alec.

His mind scrambled to find logic after being rammed and then suddenly

running into the person that he had been looking for to begin with. He
thought fast.

“Yes, I am looking for Club Ambrosial.”
Alec’s eyes glistened, but he did not look surprised. Mark wondered why.

He would have been taken aback if their situations were reversed.

“I’m going to the same place. Why don’t you follow me?”
He nodded.
Originally, his plan had been to be quiet and watch as a bystander. It

looked like that wasn’t going to work now. Alec was probably going to ask
him his name next.

As they walked, Mark could tell why Sylvia had paid Alec extra to take

her around town. Alec had one of the best bodies that he had ever seen, and
he had been a cop, where some of the rookies had gone to the gym daily to
be in shape in case it was their turn to play hero. For most of them, that day
would never come—being a cop was not a glorious job.

On top of being built like a god, Alec had sexy bed head and smoldering

eyes. Even his saunter looked too graceful to be real. Mark’s eyes dropped
low so that he could check out Alec’s ass—that was gorgeous too. It took all
of his strength to not sink his teeth into it.

“So, what are you doing at Club Ambrosial?” Alec asked. Mark was

overwhelmed by how angelic Alec’s voice sounded. It was godlike too.

“I’m just there for a drink.”
“I’m sure that’s it.” Alec had a teasing glint in his eye.
“Why wouldn’t it be it?”

But their conversation was soon halted because they stopped before the

bar. The bar’s sign was a bright red and had the slogan The Sexiest Men Alive
written underneath it. Mark stared. He couldn’t believe that Sylvia hadn’t told
him that the bar she had been going to was a girl version of Hooters. He
slapped his forehead with his palm. No wonder Alec had been teasing him.

Alec chuckled. “Not quite what you thought?”
“No, not at all.”
“There are other bars around.”
But no bars where Alec is working, he thought, rolling his eyes. He chanted

one hundred thousand dollars in his head over and over again. That money was
going to be his only incentive to go into the bar with all of those swooning
women. He had been to a place like Club Ambrosial only once, and after all
the funny looks that he had received, he knew better than to retry it of his
own free will. It had been only gay bars from then on out.

Mark took a step toward the bar, and Alec once again did not look

surprised. Alec followed after him. Mark realized that it was time that he
pretend to be confused about Alec’s company.

“So, what brings you to this place?” Mark asked.
“I work here.”
“Really?”
Alec grinned at him. He shivered.
They both went inside of the bar, and Mark was overwhelmed by

flashing lights. It was every cop’s—and detective’s—worst nightmare. The
place was stuffed to the gills with people drinking, eating hot wings, and
singing songs. The lights were dim. It would be very hard for Mark to track
Alec’s movements.

Alec surprised him by walking him over to the bar and waving the

attractive male bartender in jeans over. The man grinned at Alec and raised
his eyebrows. Alec leaned in close and said something in the bartender’s ear.

“What do you want to drink, Mark?” Alec asked.
What the hell! How does he know my name? A chill ran down his spine.
Normally, he didn’t drink on the job. It would be obvious that he was up

to something if he went to a bar and didn’t drink, though. He ground his

teeth and said, “Bourbon.”

A drink appeared before him. He reached for his wallet, but the

bartender was already walking away. Alec laid a hand on his shoulder and
leaned in close. Mark could smell his sweet breath and was shocked that it
was incredibly hot. His breath smells like barley or even grass, he thought.

“It’s on the house tonight, Mark. I’m buying.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I want to. I have plans for you.”
Alec ran one hand down his back and then curved the other around his

neck, going underneath Mark’s hairline. He shivered and felt his cock harden.
No, no, no! Mark thought. I am on the job. I can’t hit on the man that’s stealing my
client’s jewelry. . . .Yet that might make it easier for me to search his house.

Yet there was something about Alec that suggested sleeping with him to

look for the necklaces would be dangerous. On top of that, he wasn’t the
sort of man who would use such underhanded methods in order to get his
way, even for one hundred thousand dollars. Of course, he had never had to
steal anything for his client before either. For the first time ever, he was on
the other side of the law. He inwardly argued with himself and furrowed his
eyebrows.

“It’s okay,” Alec soothed, moving his hand from Mark’s waist to his face

as if he knew what worried him. He couldn’t have, though. “I’ll be back later,
okay? You’ll wait for me?”

Mark lifted up his drink and nodded. Alec grinned.
Half an hour went by as Mark scanned the room. Alec finally reappeared

shirtless and wearing a pair of tight jeans and a leather belt. His muscles had
been greased up, and he was carrying a tray laden with drinks. Mark realized
that a dark red drink appeared to be immensely popular. He wondered if it
was the club specialty.

Because he had been a cop, everything made him uneasy. The red drink

did too. Maybe they were putting drugs in it. It was impossible for him to tell
from a distance, but he couldn’t ignore his fast-beating heart, which
suggested that something was wrong. He called the bartender back over, and
he leaned forward, up close. It was strange, but the bartender’s breath was

hot too.

“What is that drink that everybody’s ordering?” Mark eyeballed Alec as

he placed one before a black-haired woman.

“That’s a house special. I make them personally. Want to try it? Might as

well. Alec’s paying for your drinks.”

He hesitated. “Give me a small one.”
“Trust me, it doesn’t matter the size—you’ll always come back for more.”
That heightened his suspicions even more. When a dark red drink

appeared in front of him before he had time to blink, he picked it up, took a
sip, then gasped. It was good, in an overly sweet kind of way. It tasted like an
extreme version of alcoholic fruit punch, but there was something else there,
too. Something citrus. He sniffed it and waited for a sign that he was getting
high.

“How do you get it so red?” Mark examined the color.
“Grenadine. It looks cool, doesn’t it?”
Mark nodded. The bartender eyeballed him and then grinned. Mark

didn’t like that grin. It was almost as if he were being laughed at.

“You’re a cop of some sort, aren’t you?”
Coughing in shock, he sprayed down the counter with his drink. The

bartender grabbed a towel and started wiping up the mess, including his own
face and bare chest, but his eyes never left Mark’s face.

“What makes you say that?” Mark coughed again. He had been on

several undercover missions with gangs, yet nobody had ever called his bluff.
It had taken this man a little under an hour to see what others had not. “I’m
not a cop.”

Not anymore, anyway.
“Just the manner in which you behaved.” The bartender picked up a glass

and grinned. He cleaned it with a new rag. “I take it you’re investigating Alec,
then, eh? Did the old lady send you after him?”

“I’m not a cop!”
“Just to warn you, Alec plays dirty. He’s smart too. Probably he already

knows what you’re up to. Take advantage of the free drinks, though. As the
bartender, I can personally tell you that we overcharge.”

Before he could protest again, the bartender wandered away to take the

order of a blond-haired woman at the end of the counter. Mark couldn’t
believe how quickly the bartender had picked up on his intentions. Sure,
Mark was suspicious-minded, but he had always prided himself on his ability
to maintain a cool facade. Worse yet, if the bartender knew who he was, then
maybe Alec really did too.

He laid eyes on Alec and watched him flirt. Alec grabbed a strand of a

plump woman’s hair and held it up to his nose, and she turned as scarlet as
her drink and giggled. Alec caught him staring and smirked at him before
turning around. Mark ground his teeth in nervousness. The problem with
being caught snooping was that sometimes his quarries could be dangerous.

Maybe I should leave, he thought. It’s not safe here. I need to come up with a new

battle plan—maybe use my resources to get Alec’s address and search through his place
while he’s here. He grabbed his red drink and chugged it, thinking drugs be
damned. He didn’t feel any different now than he had before.

That was when a person walked by him. It was the same blue-eyed creep

who had rammed him on the sidewalk. He went very still and felt his heart
pound in fear in his chest. He once again grasped his gun, but he fought
down the urge to whip it out. If Alec didn’t know that he was up to
something before, then he certainly would if he shot somebody. One thing
that he had had to learn as a cop was to never get too trigger-happy.

The blue-eyed stranger walked to the side of the bar and leaned against

the wall. Mark jumped off his stool and went to leave, but the bartender
grabbed his arm with a hot and painfully strong grip. Mark stared at the tan
hand that held him and tried to shake it off, but the bartender did not let him
go.

“Stay here,” the bartender said. “You’re in danger.”
“What the hell? Let me go!”
Alec appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the bartender’s wrist with

one hand and Mark’s shirt with the other. The bartender let him go. Mark
struggled and discovered that Alec’s grip on his shirt was just as strong as the
bartender’s had been on his arm.

“What are you guys playing at?” Mark tried to shake Alec off some more.

“Stop it! Let me go!”

Only a few heads swiveled in their direction, the plump girl’s being one

of them. He was stunned by the number of people who kept looking straight
ahead, uncaring. He noticed with his ex-cop senses that these people all had
red drinks. He wondered whether there really were drugs in the drinks after
all. Maybe he was in danger because he would be on a deadly high.

Alec said, “I need you to come with me, Mark, and don’t struggle—

you’re my boyfriend and we’re having a good time. Manuel, will you be okay
without me serving?”

“I’ll call Hue. He owes me, anyway. Watch the stalker.”
“Okay. Come on, Mark.”
Wait a second, he thought. What stalker? They headed forward, Alec forcing

him to stay at his side even though he was squirming like crazy, and went out
the door looking like a couple. Alec wasn’t even looking in his direction, even
though Mark had hit him in the stomach and then close to the groin. He had
learned a ton in his karate classes and self-defense courses, but it was as
though Alec was made from steel.

“What is going on?” Mark hit him with his elbow. “Tell. Me. Now.”
“Act like we’re a couple. Just do it.”
They were on the street now and were going fast. Mark wondered where

they were going and who they were moving away from. Maybe it’s the blue-eyed
guy that came into the bar a moment ago, he thought. He looked behind him and
saw nobody.

It was Alec’s turn to hit him in the stomach. Mark hissed, even though

the punch had been a light one. Alec’s groin wasn’t the only thing made from
steel—apparently, his fist was, too.

Alec said, “Don’t. You don’t sense anybody. We are two lovers.”
“I don’t understand why you’re dragging me around! If some guy is

following you, it’s your problem.”

“It’s not me that he’s following. It’s you.”
“That’s impossible.” Mark felt a chill run up his spine regardless. “I mean,

I have seen some weird people today, but right now you are the more
dangerous one—and besides, why would he want me?”

Alec ignored the question. “You were a cop, correct?”
“How did you know that I was a cop? Maybe I am one.”
“You aren’t a cop anymore. You are now a private detective—this way!”
Mark was stunned by how much Alec knew. He was even more stunned

by how quickly he was pulled into an alley and then behind a foul-smelling
dumpster. As if Mark weighed ten pounds instead of one sixty, Alec hoisted
him up against the wall and pressed their cocks together. Mark instinctually
wrapped his legs around Alec’s slim hips to keep from falling, and the next
thing that he knew, he was holding onto Alec like a forward-facing backpack.
Alec’s sweet breath erased the smell of the dumpster, and it was not so hard
to pretend that they were lovers anymore.

Before Mark had time to digest what position he was in, Alec’s hot lips

met his own. He squirmed at first, pounding his fists against Alec’s chest, but
Alec’s tongue was as strong as his arms. With a force that Mark didn’t know
was possible, Alec pushed his way past his lips and was in his mouth, tangling
his tongue with his own. The heat caused his mouth to burn.

At first he fought, but Alec’s technique was too good. He moaned and

finally shut his eyes. Alec chuckled heartily against him and ran his hot hand
up his chest. Mark shuddered.

Alec laid kisses along his cheek and then wandered to his ear.
“He’s watching.” Alec nibbled on his earlobe. “Keep it up.”
“I don’t see him.”
That didn’t appear to matter to Alec, who kept exploring. Mark shut his

eyes and whimpered when Alec breathed on his neck and then sucked at the
sensitive skin there. His skin got goose bumps from the pleasure, and he
whimpered, squirming, as Alex ran his tongue over them. Mark could still
not understand why Alec’s mouth was so hot. It was like he had drunk
boiling water or had sucked on a burning ember.

Mark ran his hand over Alec’s bare chest. That was hot, too, and he

quivered out of pleasure and wonder. Alec had to have worked out or
something. He was gorgeous, toned, and tan. If Mark didn’t know better,
then he would have thought him to be a moving statue.

“Mmm,” Alec moaned against his neck.

He reached downward and massaged Mark’s cock, which was straining in

his jeans. He held still for a moment and then whimpered. That was when a
bang interrupted their touching. There was a side door that Mark had not
noticed before, which seemed to lead to the inside of a dance club. A girl fell
out of it and onto her knees, vomiting loudly. Even Alec’s sweet barley
breath and hot touches could not distract him from the smell of sour throw-
up and the look of the orange, chunky liquid. He grimaced.

“That’s perfect,” Alec said.
“You better not be talking about vomiting.”
Alec did not reply. Alec whipped around with Mark hobbling behind

him, his hard-on full mast. They came to a stop before the door, and Alec
rushed in but was stopped by a very angry-looking bouncer. Alec didn’t look
intimidated; instead he pulled out his wallet. When Alec opened it, Mark saw
the large amount of bills inside of it. Maybe he really did steal the necklaces and is
playing me for a fool, Mark thought, eyes narrowing. His hard-on shrank.

The inside of the dance club was loud and bustling. Alec kept his hold on

him and hauled him forward, into the crowd. People gave them strange looks
as they went by, and Mark realized that it was probably because of Alec. He
was shirtless and looked like he belonged in a magazine.

Alec then grabbed his ass and pulled him close, dancing against him.

Now that Alec had stopped kissing him, though, he was no longer thinking
with his cock. Something was up here. He was a seasoned law enforcement
official. There was no way that he could have not seen that somebody was
following him.

But there was that time, Mark thought. He felt his heart pound painfully in

his chest.

He remembered getting the phone call from his mother.
“Something’s wrong, Mark. Somebody’s in here.”
A chill went down his spine.
Mark had been walking down the hallway at his office, going to turn in a sales report.

Everything in his world went still—his breathing and the people around him. He wasn’t
sure if they really had stopped moving, or whether his brain had chosen to focus all of its
energy on the phone.

“I’m coming,” Mark said, whipping around. “I’m coming, Mom. Are they in the

house?”

“I don’t—I don’t know, Mark. I hear somebody, but I . . .”
“You don’t actually see anyone?”
His heart calmed down. He knew that his mother always worried about things. She

had been paranoid after his dad had died in a car accident when he was in the third grade.
She called the cops at least once a year, convinced that somebody was after them.

“Mom, you’re being silly,” Mark said. “I’ll be done with work in forty-five minutes.”
“Come back now. Please, please, Mark.”
“Oh, Mom! You’ll be fine. Last time it was just the cat. You live in a perfectly good

neighborhood. Statistically, the chances of somebody robbing our house in the middle of
broad daylight are slim to none.”

“I guess you’re right.”
But I hadn’t been right at all, he thought, the pounding music drawing him

away from the memory.

“You don’t actually see somebody?” Those words hung in the air. He had

abandoned his mother. He was the reason why she had died. If only he had
been a little faster, a little less of a wiseass, then she might still be alive. She
hadn’t deserved to die like that, not in such a horrible way. He shuddered.

“It’s not your fault,” Alec said.
“What the hell do you know?”
Mark blinked and stared into Alec’s face. His question had been well-

placed. How had Alec even known that he was feeling guilty? There was no
way that Alec could have known about his mother or anything else. But that
didn’t stop Alec from pulling him even closer and embracing him in a
comforting way.

Before, when Alec had held him close, it had been purely sexual. Now, as

Alec wrapped his arms around Mark’s chest, he felt incredibly warm. He
willed himself not to find comfort and failed. It didn’t matter how cold and
unfeeling that he tried to be. The emotions always managed to sneak back up
on him.

He shut his eyes. There was a hand on the back of his neck. At first he

thought that it was Alec, but then he realized that that couldn’t be true. That

would require three hands. Both of Alec’s were on the small of his back,
nestled above his ass. He leaped skyward and looked around, frightened.

“What’s wrong?” Alec asked.
“I feel like somebody’s touching my neck.”
Alec released Mark and threw his arm forward, straight into a patch of

empty space. Somebody appeared out of nowhere and flew backward,
bowling dancers down like pins. The man hit the wall and left a dent in the
brick. Mark looked around. The dancers had all gone still, the people who
had been run over were unconscious on the ground, and Alec was grinding
his teeth. Impossible, he thought. This is impossible.

Alec flashed his teeth at him. “Not quite. Let’s go.”
This time, Mark followed him. He was frightened and confused, and he

had a feeling that if Alec could punch a man so hard that he broke brick with
his back, then that same man could get up and follow without a problem. He
seized Alec’s hot hand and started to run.

Chapter Two

“Who was that? And how did you punch him that hard?”
They were in the middle of green woods and were walking forward

briskly. Every so often, Alec would peer behind them intently. When he
seemed satisfied that there was no one there, he would look forward again.
Mark was left stumped and followed behind him.

“I’m not sure that you would believe me if I told you,” Alec said.
“Try me.”
They walked forward in silence, and Mark thought that Alec wasn’t going

to reply. They stopped in front of a green pond filled with quacking ducks
that smelled strongly of mold. Alec sat down on the grass. As Mark stared,
Alec patted the ground beside him. Mark joined him.

“Do you really want to know?” Alec asked. “Once you learn this kind of

information, it can’t be undone.”

“That man is after me, isn’t he? Then I want to know.”
“Well, let’s start like this, then—have you ever seen someone that

appeared unmatchable? Somebody too fast and strong to be human?”

He shivered as the memory haunted him. Of course he had—he

remembered it as clear as day. The day that he received the phone call from his
mother, he opened his front door and stepped inside. He was overwhelmed by blood. It was
everywhere.

“Mom? Holy fuck, no!”
He followed the blood trail into the kitchen, holding his hand over his mouth to keep

from retching. At first he didn’t see her body, but when he did, he wished that he hadn’t.
She was laid across the table, streaming crimson everywhere. Her eyes were pale and blank
and sad. Her mouth was wide open, and a trickle of red flowed from it.

He rushed forward, a chill running down his spine. He grabbed her hand and tugged

at it, but he discovered that she was already cold. She had been dead for a while.

There was the sound of thudding on the second floor. He looked up.
Guilt and pain flooded him, and he discovered that he could hardly breathe, much less

think. He ground his teeth, determined to kill the son of a bitch who had done this. The
gun, he thought. Mom always kept a gun to protect herself. He rushed into the room to the

right and opened the fireplace—that was where she had kept the gun hidden in the past.
Sure enough, the pistol was there. He wondered why she hadn’t had it on her.

He grabbed the gun and pulled it out, holding it erect. He raced to the stairs and

stared up them. There was the sound of movement, but he couldn’t see anybody. He rushed
upward.

At the end of the hallway, somebody was holding his family picture. He fired off a

shot and half expected it to embed in the wall, but it didn’t—there was the sound of loud
yelping, a hiss, and then struggling. The black figure turned toward him. He fired off
another shot in fear.

The black figure ran right toward him, going fast. The person hit him across his chest,

and he fell down. That was the last thing that he remembered.

“It’s not so different,” Alec said, drawing him back to reality. Alec looked

sad. “The man in your memory is the one that you’ve just seen.”

“You’re telling me that this man has something to do with my mom’s

death?” Mark stood up, shaking and enraged. “Explain. Tell me what’s going
on or I’ll—I’ll—”

Alec smiled sadly. “Calm down. I’m going to tell you. There isn’t much

that you can do to me, anyway. I’m much stronger than you.”

“Well, I’m much angrier. That man is the reason why I became a cop.

They never found out who did it.”

“That man is also the reason why you quit your job as a cop.”
“Huh?”
“The Nielsen Incident. I know all about you—a company got

firebombed, and you went to investigate. You were the only survivor.”

“But how? This is impossible—I’m investigating you!”
Alec smirked. “That’s what you thought.”
His heart pounded in his chest. He wasn’t sure what to make of Alec or

his smirk. What’s going on? Mark wondered, fidgeting.

“I’m sure that you’ve read stories about our kind before, or at least a

version of our kind. Vicious? Changes into animals?” Alec looked amused
when Mark’s eyes bulged from his skull. “Most of them aren’t true, but that’s
what they say.”

“You sound like a werewolf or something!”

He has to be messing with me, he thought. There is no way that this is happening.

He went to turn away. He didn’t care if there was supposedly a man
following him. He wasn’t going to dignify Alec’s heckling with a response. He
was a grown man, not a third grader.

As he turned around, though, he was startled to see that Alec was not

behind him on the ground anymore. He was five feet in front of him instead.
Mark blinked, defiant, and thought, It’s just a trick of the light. Nobody can move
that fast. He spun around and went in the other direction. Alec was there
again. He swore and ground his teeth.

“I’m not a werewolf,” Alec said. “I’m a Zodiac. We’re different.”
Alec leaped forward.
“Stop that, you son of a bitch,” he said. “I don’t know what you’re doing,

but, but . . .”

Alec was now so close that his breath was on Mark’s cheek. It had all

happened in the blink of an eye. Alec wrapped his arms around Mark and
held him in place. Though Mark swore and started to squirm, Alec did not let
him go.

“Listen to me. You go now and you’ll be killed.” Alec’s hot breath was in

his ear. “It’s my job to protect you right now.”

“No, you are fooling with me. You’re a necklace thief and a scam artist.”
“That old woman worked for us. She’s a go-between. She gave you

something that you would believe. The EAU knew that you were in trouble.”

“First off, I’ve worked for the government for years and have never

heard of the EAU.” Mark squirmed, and Alec squeezed his chest. “And
secondly, I don’t believe in Zodiacs. You hear me? I. Do. Not. Believe. You.”

Alec growled under his breath and pushed him to the ground with

enough force that his arm popped painfully. He stared up at Alec with wide
eyes and shuddered. Mark had never seen anyone that strong before, but he
refused, as a grown man, to believe what Alec was saying. It was ridiculous.

Alec said, “I was trying to get you to listen to me gradually, so that way

we wouldn’t have this fight. Looks like it didn’t work.”

Mark opened his mouth, but Alec shot him a look that earned even his

obedience. It would have done his mother, had she still been alive, justice.

She had been able to give him looks like that, too.

“The EAU stands for the Extra Abilities Unit. We are a group of people

with special gifts, aka Zodiacs, that work for the government. Our abilities
are hidden from regular people for multiple reasons. The main one is that
when somebody turns for the first time, at thirty or so, they have to be
stabilized because the hormones from the change drive them into madness.
They kill people. We can live forever as long as nobody kills us, but we don’t
pass it along through a bite. We can change into animals according to the year
of our Chinese Zodiac. It’s a disease that passes down from generation to
generation. The original strain began with Empress Wu Zetian. She had a
lesser version of the disease that drove her to insanity. She gave birth to an
unclaimed bastard child and made an attempt to throw the baby away. Thus,
our strain began.”

“We have passed strains of the virus through the centuries. Along with

being stronger, faster, and smarter than normal humans, most of us have an
extreme sense of justice and unity. It’s a genetic personality code. In short,
we are a superhuman police force that works at extremes that normal
humans can’t. Unfortunately, while we are powerful, so are some of our
adversaries. Not all of us wanted to be so helpful.”

Mark’s thoughts swirled. He still didn’t believe Alec. If there was really an

EAU, wouldn’t he have heard of it as a police officer? On top of that, there
was no way that Zodiacs could stay hidden from people for so long. Mark
believed that Alec had sold the necklaces and had taken to sniffing cocaine
that scrambled his thoughts.

Alec grinned. “I haven’t sniffed cocaine. Trust me, I feel bad for you—I

really do. This is all incredibly hard to digest.”

Once again, it appeared as though Alec had delved into his mind. Mark’s

blood ran cold, and he stared at Alec. He wasn’t sure what to do. Alec was
much stronger, so fighting was futile, and he figured that it probably wasn’t
wise to run away either. He shivered.

Alec placed a hand on his cheek, and he flinched. A hurt look crossed

Alec’s face. Though Mark tried to stop himself, he felt guilty. He shook his
head. This man is fucking with you, he thought. Don’t feel bad for him.

“I’m really not,” Alec said as he leaned close to him. “How else could I

get into your mind, Mark? How else would I know what haunts you that you
tell no one about? Like your mother’s death and the explosion and the hands
that grabbed you—the ones that saved your life.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. I just don’t know. Maybe you’ve been

following me around.”

Alec touched his head, and this time he did not move away. “What can I

do to convince you to believe me? I know it’s impossible, but I need to have
your full cooperation with this. The man that’s after you, he’s dangerous.”

There was nothing that Alec could do to convince him. Even if he

guessed every thought in his head and broke a tree in half with his bare
hands, it would not convince him. He ground his teeth some more.

“I can, you know. Break a tree in half.”
I don’t believe you. He kept his thoughts to himself on purpose. If Alec

could truly get into his mind, then he would read his thoughts.

To his horror, Alec proved himself yet again. He leaped over to some

nearby trees, grabbed one of them by the roots, and then ripped it out. He
held up the tree, which was twice as wide as he was and ten times as tall, and
broke it over his knee as if it were a twig. Alec hurled the two pieces into the
duck pond, and birds flew into the air. Some quacked defiantly at the splash.
Mark stared.

“Believe me now?” Alec called to him. Mark shook his head and felt

dizzy.

Alec walked closer to him. His features began to change—his face

became longer, his hair began to grow, and his body started to extend. With a
small cry, Alec grasped his head and held it in his hands. In a blink of an eye,
Alec was there no more. Instead there stood a large black horse with two
white socks and a lightning bolt on its forehead. The horse reared up on its
hind legs and let out a powerful neigh that sounded more like a shriek.

Mark fainted.

* * * *

Mark was sitting at a bar and stared ahead, his hand nurturing a beer. He was

depressed after his mother’s death and was cold to the bone. He felt as though he would
never be whole again. This was all his fault. How could he have let his mother die? He
hung his head in sadness and shivered. It would have been better if he had never existed to
begin with.

As he chugged another drink, a hot hand grasped his shoulder, and he turned slowly

around. There was a blue-eyed person behind him with dark hair and pale skin. He
looked thinner, and he had day-old growth and a broad smile. His clothes looked outdated
by fifty years, but he was still extremely attractive. If his mother hadn’t just died, then he
might have gone for him. But not now, never now.

“What do you want?” Mark said, trying to be standoffish.
The man raised an eyebrow and smirked. “A little harsh, aren’t we?”
Mark fought off the urge to hiss. He turned back around and nursed his drink some

more. In the mirror on the ceiling, Mark saw that the man smirked as if he had not just
snapped at him and sat down. The bartender shot Mark a concerned look and then asked
the blue-eyed man, “What do you want to drink?”

The blue-eyed man shook his head and continued to stare at Mark eagerly.
“What the hell are you doing?” Mark barked. “Leave me alone!”
The blue-eyed man continued to stare at him. “I’m pursuing a target. I want you

tonight.”

“Go to hell!” Mark said. “I’m not interested.”
“Oh, but I think that you are. You think I’m very attractive. You were thinking that

only just a moment ago. I can help you ease your loneliness, you know. Sex can heal a lot
of things—pain, grief. Won’t you let me help you?”

For a moment Mark was silent, and then he choked back a sob. He knew that he

shouldn’t have, but when the blue-eyed man wrapped his arm around his shoulder, he
curled up against him. Mark noted how warm the blue-eyed man was, but when he looked
into his eyes, he did not find comfort there. Yet the blue-eyed man was telling him everything
that he thought that he wanted to hear.

“Okay,” he said. “I guess you can try to help me, if you want.”
The blue-eyed man grinned at him. “I’m Jeremy.”
“I’m Mark.”
Jeremy stood up, and Mark tried to follow suit, but he wobbled and nearly fell over.

Jeremy grabbed him underneath his arm and chuckled. Normally, Mark would have been
embarrassed, but now he was too drunk to care. All that he wanted to do was have a good
fuck and then go to bed.

They wobbled out the door and headed onto the street. There was a big, black, mean-

looking vehicle parked in front of the bar. Mark moved to go to the bus stop because he
was too drunk to drive, but Jeremy pulled him toward his black car. They climbed inside
of it.

They drove for a while, and Mark was subdued. He kept thinking about his mother,

about what he wished that he could have stopped. He still blamed himself. Mom, he
thought, feeling sick to his stomach. He didn’t want to have sex with the blue-eyed stranger
anymore. Getting into his car had been a bad idea. He should have gotten on the bus and
gone straight home.

He looked at the blue-eyed stranger and contemplated asking him to let him out, even

though he had no idea where he was. He shook his head and then continued to stare out
the window. They turned right and then stopped in the middle of a dark, empty park in
front of a school playground. There was nobody around now, nobody but them.

“I don’t think that I want to do this anymore,” Mark said, his brain fuzzy.
The man was suddenly straddling him—Mark had no idea how he had moved so fast.

Mark’s brain felt like it was a bunch of jumbled pieces being shoved together. He was
confused and sick and wanted to go home. Tears were streaming down his face as he silently
cursed himself for deciding to go with a stranger. He began to struggle, and the man held
him down, getting in his face.

“Calm down.” The blue-eyed stranger peered at him in frustration, as if he was trying

to peer through something but couldn’t. “My God, your brain is like muddied water. Just
stop squirming. You agreed to go with me, didn’t you?”

Mark nodded.
The blue-eyed stranger forced him forward and licked his bottom lip. Normally Mark

would have been excited by this, but the alcohol was making any hope of an erection a
joke. He moaned and squirmed. He was getting sicker and sicker. He needed to get out of
the car now, or else he was going to barf.

“Stop it,” Mark said. “No! Let me go! This is rape, man or woman!”
“Shut the hell up! I’ve wanted you for a long time—too long.”
“Huh?”

The blue-eyed man did not speak to him further. He grabbed him beneath his jaw and

forced his head up, pulling it back. He shoved his tongue into Mark’s mouth. Shit, shit,
shit, he thought. I am going to barf. His mind jumped between that and the hot hand that
was trailing down his pants. He shivered in fear and sickness, straight before he felt his
stomach squelch.

He leaped forward, clacking his teeth against the man’s, and threw up straight into his

mouth. The blue-eyed man swore, leaped backward, and then cracked the windshield with
his back, causing spiderweb-like hairs to form. His mouth, chin, and neck were dripping
from Mark’s vomit. The blue-eyed man choked.

In panic, Mark stumbled from the car and teetered to the woods. He heard the blue-

eyed man screech behind him. Holy shit, Mark thought. He broke his own windshield.
I’m dead. I’m so dead.

The alcohol was making his thoughts fuzzy, and he stumbled down a large hill

without contemplating the rushing river that was a few feet below him. He slipped and fell
over a rock and plummeted into the rapids. It was cold and caused him to suck in air. He
sobered up but was still too weak-brained to do much swimming. He had to fight just to
keep his head above the water.

A moment later his head plunged beneath the surface of the rapids, and he thought

that he was going to die. He resurfaced again a moment later and did not recognize where
he had gotten swept off to. He crawled onto the muddy, rocky river bank, shivering, and
collapsed, trying to catch his breath. That was close, he thought, shutting his swollen
eyes.

Chapter Three

When he awoke from his dream—or more rather, his memory—he was

disoriented. That was the first time that he had seen it all so clearly. Usually,
that drunken night was disguised by post-alcohol fog that only let him get
small glimpses of what had happened. He had remembered being picked up
by a man and then the rushing river and the fear of drowning. He had also
remembered waking up the next morning with small children sticking rocks
in his hair.

That was the blue-eyed man that I saw yesterday, he realized. His eyes widened.

Suddenly, yesterday came rushing back to him. He recalled Alec and the tree.
He pressed his hand to his mouth and wondered whether that had been a
terrible nightmare, too. He pressed his hand to his forehead to check for a
fever. He felt normal.

He glanced around the room and realized that he was where he should

be. He was at Sylvia’s house in the bedroom three rooms away from her own.
He didn’t remember how he had gotten there.

There was nothing out of place in the room. The valuable paintings still

hung on the rose-colored walls, there was a rich jewelry box lying on the
dresser, and there was a large stereo tucked in the corner. He dug his hands
in his pants and found that his wallet and cell phone were still there. If he
had really met with Alec yesterday, then he had not been robbed.

There was the scent of pancakes and fried meat—probably sausage or

bacon—in the air. His stomach rumbled. He glanced at the red clock and saw
that it was noon. He had slept a long time, which was unlike him. Maybe he
really had dreamed the whole thing. That’s right, he thought. It would make sense.
Zodiacs. What a joke!

He stood up and felt how sore his legs were, as if he had run a marathon.

That made him feel uneasy. He ran his hands down them and massaged some
of the soreness away before changing into a new pair of clothes. After that,
he stumbled from his room and headed out the door and into the hallway.

The smell of food was more powerful out there. He inhaled deeply and

felt his stomach moan hungrily. He rubbed it.

He headed down the stairs and peeked his head around the corner. He

wondered whether he was even allowed in there. Sylvia had not said if food
was a part of his additional job perks.

But it was not just Sylvia.
Alec was standing by the refrigerator. He laughed with the bartender

from last night. Sylvia was talking with them and was smiling. His stomach
churned in horror. Did that mean that last night was real after all? Had he
really been stalked by a blue-eyed man who he now realized had tried to rape
him a few years ago? He was just about to sneak outside to run for his life
when a lightning-fast being grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled
him into the kitchen.

“Don’t be dumb,” Alec said, hauling him backward. “You are now

officially under the care of the EAU. I was trying not to scare you because
you just woke up. Sit down, have some breakfast, and meet your
bodyguards.”

“Huh?”
Mark checked his forehead again and sighed. Sylvia rolled her eyes and

pushed Alec away. Alec held up his hands in defeat.

“Don’t let this idiot get in the way. He’s always been too fast at scaring

poor humans to death.” Sylvia shot Alec a dark look, and he gave her a
sheepish grin. “Just sit down and have some food first, and then we’ll explain
some more. I can make Alec leave, if you want. I heard that he not only
sexually harassed you, but he also made you faint in fear.”

His mouth opened and shut several times. Normally, he would have

protested when she said “fainted in fear,” but he was too stunned to do much
other than gape. Sylvia turned around and began to flip over two eggs on the
stove. They were over easy. She added a side of bacon and shook the pan
around a little. The food no longer appealed to him. He felt like he was those
eggs—he was in the frying pan with no hope of escape.

“I’m really sorry for tricking you, but we had to get you here,” Sylvia said.

“It’s closer to our main unit.”

“Are, are you saying that you’re—” He took a deep, shaky breath and had

to begin again. “Are you a weird animal shifter, too?”

“Did Alec give you the correct term? Zodiacs?” She nodded her head

toward Alec and the bartender, who were silently watching Mark with their
arms crossed. It unnerved him. “I’m a carrier, but I don’t have the genes. The
second idiot—not Alec—is Manuel, my son. He’s part of the EAU. He’s a
rat.”

Mark looked back and forth between them. It didn’t make any sense.

Then again, the whole situation didn’t. He gulped.

“How does that work? You aren’t one, but he is?”
Sylvia deposited the eggs on a plate and added three previously prepared

pancakes. She plopped them before him. He pushed the plate away.

“The majority of the strains—the extra abilities—are given through men.

There are only a few oddball females out there with special abilities.”

“The abilities are sexist?”
Alec cut in. “I suppose that’s one way to put it. It means that the thing

that infects us has something to do with the chromosomes that determine
the gender of the child.”

“And it sucks,” Manuel said.
Mark cocked his head.
“That’s why a great deal of the EAU turn to finding a male partner, if

they aren’t adamant against it,” Manuel said. “It’s not so much a sexual
disposition as it is looking for a permanent partner. We have to watch our
lovers repeatedly die. It’s fucking depressing.”

There was silence for a moment. I don’t believe them, I don’t believe them, I

don’t believe them, he chanted. Yet there was something about Manuel’s
expression that made him want to. On top of that, Sylvia was now on Alec’s
side, which didn’t make any sense. He stole looks at both of them.

“Sure, listen to them,” Alec said, shaking his head.
“He’s just jealous. Alec doesn’t normally molest humans.” Manuel

grinned.

Alec gave him a dirty look and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking

about. I molest everybody.”

Though Mark tried to fight it, a sense of disappointment filled his mind

before he could stop it. Alec stared at him, and he felt his cheeks get

extraordinarily hot. He knew that if Alec was as good at reading emotions as
he was at reading thoughts, then he knew exactly what Mark was going
through.

I don’t believe any of them, he lied to himself. And I don’t care whether or not he

molests anyone on the street. It’s none of my business, anyway. He sniffed in disgust
and then stood up, moving to head to his room again. Alec was behind him
before he could even blink, and his breath was hot in his ear.

“You are so good at lying to yourself,” Alec said.
“Shut up.” His cheeks got even hotter.
“You aren’t going anywhere. We’ve got to protect you from Jeremy.”
Ignoring Alec, he thought, I am going to get to the bottom of this myself. Screw

them all. Alec followed behind him, not saying anything. Mark pretended that
he was not there and could not read his thoughts. He reached his bedroom
door and stared at it, instantly feeling uncomfortable.

He didn’t want to bring Alec in there. The kiss that they had shared in the

back alley rose to his mind, and the heat that already tainted his cheeks grew
stronger. Mark stole a look at Alec and saw that he was smirking. That was
enough to make him push the thought aside. He had self-control. Alec was a
nutcase, as were Sylvia and Manuel. There was no way that he was going to
have sex with a nutcase, even if he was extraordinarily sexy.

Once he got inside, the sexual tension got even worse. He was well aware

that Alec had his eyes glued to his ass because he stole a look at him out of
the corner of his eye. It would be so easy to push Alec onto the bed and kiss
him from neck to cock. He imagined what it would be like to undress him.
Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Mark thought, close to banging his head on the wall to
escape his own fantasies.

“I would do that,” Alec said. “It would be fun. What we did in the alley is

just the beginning.”

“Like hell!” Mark threw up his hands and grabbed for his duffel bag. The

contents of it were strewn around the room where he had stored them. He
grabbed his things and started to shove them back inside. “Now leave me
alone. I’m trying to pack.”

Alec sidled up behind him. Mark could feel Alec’s hard cock, which

grazed his right butt cheek, and tried to ignore the passion that filled his
stomach and pelvis. He gnashed his teeth.

“No!” Mark pushed Alec backward. “I don’t want this.”
“I really like you, you know. Job or not.”
His heart pounded in his chest. Had Alec seen his dream, too? It

certainly seemed so. The idea made his blood run cold. He gripped his duffel
bag harder and pushed his way past Alec. It didn’t matter if Alec saw every
dream that he had ever had, he was going to get out of here before he
became a nutcase himself. He was a full-grown man. He did not believe in
vampires, fairies, werewolves, or goblins. He believed in the clear and logical.
But then, how can he read my thoughts? Mark wondered.

“Where are we going?” Alec asked as they headed down the stairs.
“We are not going anywhere. I am going to look for logic in this whole

damn mess. Go away.”

“I can give you logic,” Alec said, still following him. “Jeremy is after you

because he fell in love with you—think of him as a stalker with super
abilities.”

“Bullshit.” Mark stormed toward the front door. “You are a stalker with

super abilities.”

There was the sound of clanking in the kitchen, and Sylvia peeked her

head around the corner. She was holding his uneaten plate of eggs in one
hand. Two more people peered around the corner. One was her son and the
other was a bald African American man. They both appeared to be smirking.
Mark had to fight down the urge to shoot them.

“Have a nice date, you two,” Manuel teased.
“Don’t have sex in any public places!”
Mark wanted to scream, “Go to hell!” Instead, as he ground his teeth, he

opened the front door, then slammed it shut behind him to keep Alec from
following. By the time that he turned around, Alec was waiting for him,
grinning, in the driveway. He had a pair of car keys in his hand. Behind him
was a bright red BMW. Mark sniffed and brushed past him.

There was the sound of husky laughter as Alec chased after him. Mark

sent evil thoughts in his direction—I hate you. Go to hell, you bastard! Why aren’t

you leaving me alone? His anger intensified as Alec laughed again.

“You are the most stubborn person I’ve ever had to guard,” he called.

“What is it going to take to convince you!?”

“Jump off a cliff.”
Mark and Alec boarded the bus and headed back to the street where

Club Ambrosial was. He was hoping that by going there, Jeremy would
reappear again. He wanted to know the real reason why Jeremy was following
him. The fact that he was his stalker seemed like it was only a half-truth.

Once there, Mark walked down the street. Everybody recognized Alec

and greeted him, which made Mark’s job extremely frustrating. He hated the
reminder that he had an unshakable tagalong.

When a pretty, blond-haired girl walked up to Alec and said, “Hey, Alec,

baby, what are you up to tonight?” Mark took off running as if his life
depended on it. He ran so hard that his lungs felt as though they were going
to burst. Unfortunately, that was when he spotted Alec again—three feet in
front of him. His arms were crossed, and he was grinning.

Disbelief filled him. No way, he thought. Maybe he really is a Zodiac after all.
“Took you damn long enough,” Alec said.

* * * *

“I don’t understand,” Mark said, spearing noodles onto his fork. “Why is

Jeremy following me?”

Silence filled the kitchen. Mark was sitting at the counter with his large

plate full of noodles. It was topped with some sort of orange, tangy cream
sauce Mark couldn’t identify. Sylvia, Alec, Manuel, and Hue, the African
American man, were in the kitchen, too. Though Mark fidgeted with his
food, Sylvia was the only person actually eating.

“We can see your thoughts, right? Well, my job is reconnaissance. We

have a general timeline of events, but we can’t seem to figure out what
happened before he saw you at your mother’s house,” Manuel said.

Mark felt his stomach sink at the thought of his mother. Alec squeezed

his arm and gave him an apologetic look. He stubbornly moved his arm

away. If Manuel noticed Mark’s discomfort, then he did not verbally
acknowledge it.

“He probably fell in love with you—or thought that he was in love with

you—then. He followed you and pursued you. Apparently you threw up in
his mouth,” Manuel let out a bark of laughter, “which was probably the only
reason that you were saved from being kidnapped. He couldn’t track you
because you were drunk. Having too much to drink, music players, and cell
phones can keep us from tracing people’s thoughts.”

“Technology is a bitch,” Hue said. “It makes life that much harder.”
Hue and Manuel nodded their heads. Hue wrapped his arm around

Manuel’s waist and then squeezed. Mark realized that they were likely lovers
and stole a look at Alec again before he could stop himself. Alec reached
over and put his hand on Mark’s knee, then squeezed it. He did not push him
away this time.

“You know for sure that that son of a bitch killed my mother?” Mark

asked. “Then why the hell don’t you stop him? You can read thoughts,
right?”

“That’s what we’ve been trying to do. Unfortunately, he has learned how

to block us out.” Alec shot Mark a look. “Don’t even try it, Mark. You’re just
going to end up hurting yourself.”

Mark ignored the gibe and said, “I am going to kill him myself.”
All of the Zodiacs exchanged looks. He balled his fists. Hatred poured

through his veins like never before. If he had known when Jeremy had
approached him in that bar what he had done . . . He imagined pounding
Jeremy’s face in until it bled. The police had searched and searched after his
mother died and had never found anything. Now, he knew why.

“Don’t try to go after him,” Alec said, squeezing his knee harder. “Don’t.

You’ll just get yourself hurt. You aren’t powerful enough to do that. As far as
we know, you’re human.”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass! That man killed my mother!”
Alec opened his mouth to say something, but he was cut off by Manuel.

Manuel tore away from his lover’s arm and approached the counter. He
grabbed Mark’s free hand in his own. His eyes were pleading.

“You can’t go after him. I saw your thoughts, and it’s not a good idea. Let

us handle this.”

“He killed my mother!”
“You’ve had your chance to kill him before! Do you think the Nielsen

Incident was a random killing? Who do you think it was that saved you from
being crushed alive? It was Jeremy—Jeremy killed all of those people and
pulled you out to save you. You’re just lucky that he wants to keep you alive.”

His stomach squelched. No, he thought. I remember somebody grabbing me and

pulling me out of the building that time, but . . . He couldn’t remember the rest. He
had woken up fine in the middle of the sidewalk. His thoughts ran a
thousand miles per hour.

He searched his memories and thought about what had happened when

he woke up that day.

His butt hurt as he sat up, and his eyes were fuzzy. His arm was sore, but he

assumed that was from holding his gun aloft. There was the sound of crumbling stone, a
man was yelling, and there were bright flashes in his eyes. It took him a moment to realize
that the bright flashes were from a police car.

His boss, Sherriff Conrad, stood before him. His face was concerned. It took Mark a

moment to realize that he was on a stretcher. It took him another moment to look straight
into hell itself—the building was burning down. He looked around for the other men who
had come into the building with him and saw none of them. His heart pounded, and he
began to panic. He tried to scramble off the stretcher, but the paramedic stopped him.

“What happened?” he cried. “What happened?”
Sherriff Conrad shook his head.
He knew then that all of his fellow officers had died. He felt tears stream down his

face—Officer Kermer with his son, Officer Mareen, who had just gotten engaged. They had
had so much going for them. He couldn’t understand why he was the only one who had
survived.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” he screamed, pounding so hard against the metal bars of the

stretcher that his hands began to bleed.

The paramedic had had to sedate him.
He shook his head to clear his mind and stared at Manuel. He knew that

he had seen the memory, just like all the other Zodiacs in the kitchen. Manuel

backed off and hung his head. Hue wrapped his arms around Manuel’s waist
against and rubbed his back.

Mark pushed Alec away and hopped off the bar stool, ignoring the

remaining food though his stomach was still empty. He could feel Alec’s eyes
burning holes into his back and ignored it. With a heavy heart and even
heavier legs, he went to his bedroom and flopped onto his bed, belly-down.
Though he did not cry, he wished that he could. He buried his head in the
pillows and smelled fabric softener. This reminded him of his mother even
more.

Why did she have to die? Mark thought. Why did Dad have to die, too? He

scarcely remembered his father, though he had been a kind man, but he
clearly recalled the horrified look on his mother’s face when she had heard
that he had died. Too much death, he thought, flipping over onto his back. The
smell of blood that had permeated the Nielsen Incident still filled his lungs
to this day.

He sat up and ran his fingers through his hair. He stared at his duffel bag.

Though he knew it wasn’t the best thing, he wanted to escape the world, if
only for the moment. He pulled out a bottle of sleeping pills and stared at it.
Even though they had been prescribed to him, he always tried to avoid using
them at all costs. Who gives a shit, anyway? Mark thought. Everyone that I love is
dead. I have no one at all, no one who would care enough about me to keep me from
disappearing. I could eat this whole bottle.

But he only took two.
Within minutes, his eyes got heavy and he crawled into bed. That night,

he had dreams of a river and thick smoke that smelled of blood.

Chapter Four

When he awoke, the first thing that he thought was that he wished that

he hadn’t taken the damn pills. He could scarcely remember what he had
dreamed about, but the dreams had been frightening enough that he still felt
horrified the next morning. He moaned and tried to shake the feelings away.
That was when he felt something hard pressing against his leg.

He began to panic. Am I still dreaming? Mark thought. He felt the hard

thing press against his leg again. He went very still. He looked at his bedside
table where he usually kept his gun and discovered that he had left it in his
pants that were on the floor. He swore.

What if it’s Jeremy? Mark wondered.
The idea that it was the man who had killed his mother drove him to

anger quicker than anything else. He didn’t care that Jeremy was faster and
stronger. He lifted himself halfway off the bed and raised his fist. He jerked
around and hit the hard stomach of the man at his side. It was not Jeremy.

Mark’s fist seared in pain. He felt as though he had just driven his fist

into a brick wall. He swore and breathed on it, and then he glared down at
the man he had just punched. It was Alec, who continued to sleep. The fact
that Mark hadn’t even managed to wake Alec up was discouraging. He was
glad that Alec hadn’t been awake to see it.

Yet . . .
He ground his teeth. “Alec, why the hell are you in my bed?”
Moaning, Alec finally opened his eyes. Mark was caught off guard by

how beautiful they were up close. Alec’s massive morning wood rubbed his
thigh a third time, and he backed off, knowing that if he felt it one more
time, there was a chance that he was going to respond.

“Good morning, Mark.” Alec grinned at him. “I like seeing your face first

thing in the morning, even if you look a little angry.”

“Why the hell are you in my bed?” Mark repeated.
“Because you were having such awful nightmares and kept calling for

help. I figured that I would oblige you. You flailed around a lot, but it was
definitely worth it.”

His face got hot. He did remember some parts of his nightmares—like

running away from a dark demon. In the dream, he had called for help. He
didn’t want to admit that to Alec, though, even if he could read his thoughts.
Some things were just better when they were not spoken out loud.

“I did not ask you for help,” Mark said.
For the first time, Alec was serious. “That’s right. You think that you

don’t need anyone, don’t you?”

That made him feel sick to his stomach. He gazed at Alec out of the

corner of his eye and shook his head before stumbling out of bed. He was
aware that Alec was still looking at him because he could feel it. Shit, he
thought.

“Why do you do that?” Alec asked him. “Why do you pretend that you

don’t care what I think when it’s obvious that you do?”

“Don’t pretend that you know everything just because you can read my

thoughts.”

He stumbled over to his duffel bag, disoriented. The pair of jeans that he

was looking for weren’t there, and he got frustrated. Soon, he was throwing
down his clothes and undoing all of his folding. Panicked thoughts were
building stronger and stronger inside of his head.

There was the sound of a body sliding out of bed. Alec padded over and

stood behind him, engulfing him in hot arms. Alec’s calm hand tenderly
stroked the pounding pulse in his neck. Despite how he tried to fight to get
free, Mark felt Alec’s hand soon begin to drive the panic from his body. He
whimpered.

“Don’t be scared,” Alec said. “I’m here.”
“I’m not scared.”
“You’re a terrible liar.”
Now that he was calmer in one way, he noticed that not only did Alec

have a hard-on, but he had a hard-on without any clothes on. It was the most
massive one that he had ever seen. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do
about that.

Alec whipped him around until they were face-to-face. Mark’s hand

pressed against Alec’s washboard abs, and he felt his pulse begin to pound

for an entirely different reason. This isn’t the time for this, Mark thought. It isn’t.
Please, Alec, let me go.

“Let me comfort you, Mark. I know that you’re scared of me, but I like

you and won’t hurt you.”

Hot lips pressed against cool ones. His mind fumbled for reason and

distorted thoughts jumped across his mind that he knew that Alec could
hear. Please . . . stop . . . but it feels so good. God . . . Alec tenderly ran his fingers
down his back. He shivered in response. It had been so long since he had had
a lover. Years. Alec pulled back and stared at him, his playful grin returning.

“Has it really been that long? God, you are good at playing hard to get.”
“Shut up!” Mark cried.
He feigned walking away but was stopped. Alec stepped behind him,

holding him at a standstill and keeping him close. Tenderly, Alec ran his
hands underneath Mark’s pajama top and fondled his waist. Mark felt his
cock throb and grow. He moaned underneath his breath.

“It’s okay,” Alec whispered, his breath causing him to shiver. “I haven’t

had a real lover for years, either.”

His tongue traced the outside of Mark’s ear. It felt incredible. Chills and

goose bumps began to creep up his skin, and he shivered as Alec chuckled
deeply and caressed them with his fingertips. Alec lowered his mouth to
Mark’s neck and began to suck where his vein throbbed beneath the surface.

Alec ran his hands underneath Mark’s shirt more as he sucked, and then

he began to fondle his nipples playfully in turn. Normally, Mark didn’t like it
when his lovers did that, but there was something about the way that Alec
did it—every move being so masterful and complete—that made it
incredible. Regardless of what Alec had said, Mark got the distinct feeling
that Alec had had many lovers. That made him feel uneasy.

Alec whipped him around so quickly that he gasped.
“Don’t.” Alec stared him straight in the eye. “I care about you. Don’t

start thinking anything different. You aren’t one of many, trust me.”

Mark ground his teeth together again. Though he wanted to feign that he

didn’t care about Alec’s past, he knew that his thoughts were beacons. He
hated that.

“It’s okay.” Alec kissed his forehead. “Really. Your thoughts are far more

pure than you can imagine.”

He shuddered. “Let’s just pretend for right now that you can’t tell what

I’m thinking, okay?”

With a hoarse laugh, Alec leaned forward and kissed him once on the lips

with no tongue. It was tender and sweet, and Mark knew that it was a yes,
even without being a mind reader. The next kiss that Alec gave him was far
more intense and caused his stomach to bubble with hot fire. Alec’s tongue
slipped into his mouth again, and he rubbed it against his own. Alec’s tongue
was as smooth as silk and tasted mildly sweet, a flavor that Mark had come to
recognize as Alec’s own. He shut his eyes and enjoyed the flavor.

Alec’s hands were quick. Before Mark had time to compute what was

going on, Alec had unbuttoned his pajama top and then slid it over his
shoulders. Alec tenderly stroked Mark’s neck, using his thumb to push gently
against his pulse point again. Mark shuddered as Alec ran his tongue from
chest to pelvis.

“Are all of you this hot, temperature wise?” Mark asked.
Alec grinned. “Yes. You like it, don’t you? Don’t pretend like you don’t.”
“We were pretending that you can’t read my thoughts, remember?”
With another chuckle, Alec paused at Mark’s crotch and pulled down his

pants. He did this with one hand and then pulled down his underwear, too,
revealing his swollen cock. The pants and underwear tangled around his
ankles. A drop of precome poured down his tip and hit the floor.

Alec leaned downward and gave his tip one firm lick, and Mark cried out

in pleasure. Though he had experienced blow jobs before, having one with
such hot breath was something that he had never experienced. He groaned.
Alec leaned forward and took all of him in his mouth before pulling
backward with a pop. Alec snuck his hand around to Mark’s ass and played
with him, sticking his fingers in one by one. These were also hot.

“Do you want me to stop?” Alec asked him, gazing up at him with

smoldering eyes.

No, he thought. Don’t stop. He didn’t want to say it out loud, though. He

was far too embarrassed. He bit his bottom lip.

Alec grinned and shoved into him more with his fingers. At the same

time, he lapped at Mark’s tip but did not go further, as he had before. Mark
wasn’t sure what he wanted to do first—grab Alec’s head to make him stop
teasing or push his ass out so that Alec could get in deeper. With the pleasure
coming in at both sides, he was hard-pressed to tell what he enjoyed more.
He let out a loud cry.

Alec thrust harshly into him with his hands, which caused a hot, burning

sensation. His eyes widened, and he had to grasp onto the bed for support.
Alec moaned and gave his tip one last solid lick before pulling away. Mark
didn’t like that. He whimpered and grabbed his head, trying to pull him
forward.

With the same strength that he had used before, Alec flipped Mark

around with his finger still in his ass and positioned him so that he was on all
fours on the bed. He let out a yelp of surprise and pleasure. He had never
had a hand do a three-sixty inside of him before. It would have been
impossible for a human.

Alec continued to thrust in him with his fingers as Mark tried to recover

from being flipped in the air. His vision was spinning. Alec clambered behind
him and chuckled again, but Mark realized that it sounded much more like a
nicker now.

Alec stopped thrusting into Mark and yanked at his pants, which had

been around his ankles like shackles. Mark tried to turn around, but Alec
pushed at his lower back to symbolize that he should remain forward facing.
Nervously, Mark turned back around.

That was when Alec leaned down and shoved his tongue into Mark’s

asshole. He arched his back and squirmed. It was always disorienting at first.
Alec thrust inside of him with his tongue again and again, and Mark knew
now what he would feel like if he pushed a hot rod into himself. He quaked
some more, feeling hot from his core outward. It was painful and pleasurable
all at the same time. He did not want Alec to stop, not even if he ended up
bursting into flames.

Alec pulled his tongue out of Mark’s ass. He pushed himself upward and

nuzzled his ear.

Alec pushed his body against Mark’s, and he shuddered. Alec’s body was

so hot and hard that it was incredible, possibly the best that he had ever been
with.

Alec chuckled. “Thanks for the compliment. You can’t fake thoughts like

that.”

His face got hot again.
“You are amazing,” Alec whispered in his ear.
Mark could feel Alec pushing his tip against his asshole. He squirmed

nervously and whimpered when Alec snaked his hand around, grabbing
ahold of his throbbing shaft. Drops of sweat streamed down his face as he
squirmed.

“Relax, or else I won’t be able to get into you,” Alec said.
Mark shut his eyes and just breathed. He did his best to relax his back

and to not think about the hulking pole that was about to be shoved into
him. Alec pressed harder, his hot tip causing Mark’s anus to burn. After one
firm thrust and the sensation of tingling, Alec filled him. He yelped loud
enough that it filled the entire room.

As Alec thrust inside of Mark, his hand continued to stroke his shaft.

Every thrust was so deep that it caused Mark’s body to surge forward, and he
felt Alec’s balls beat against his ass cheeks. Alec made rhythmic grunts. Mark
was surprised by how much that aroused him.

Alec moved so powerfully that Mark felt like he was losing control of his

own body. Oh God, he thought, as Alec hit his prostate zone again and again.
He stuck his ass out farther so that Alec could plunge in even deeper. Alec
replied to Mark’s actions with enough forceful thrusting that Mark’s arms
started to shake in an effort to hold himself up.

I’m close, he thought. Oh, God, so close.
Alec responded with a hot jet that sent streams of pleasure throughout

Mark’s entire body. The pleasure traveled through his balls, and he came into
Alec’s hot hand. He cried out and then panted wildly. Alec leaned on top of
him and held him at his waist before pulling him, shaking, into his lap.

“You feel so cold to me,” Alec panted as he grabbed the blankets and a

pillow and gathered them up. He wrapped Mark in a cocoon, even though

Mark felt boiling hot.

They were both silent for a moment. Mark did not know what to say or

think. That had been the most incredible thing that he had ever experienced.
He was still having trouble breathing.

“It was incredible,” Alec said, tenderly playing with Mark’s neck again.

His other hand remained at Mark’s waist.

There was the feeling of something gently brushing the bottom of his

foot. Mark shot a confused look at Alec, who was very still. Alec grabbed
Mark by his waist. Mark nearly tripped over the blankets in response.

“Okay, Manuel. What the hell?” Alec said.
Manuel? Mark wondered in horror. Alec reached forward and grabbed at

the pillow, pulling it to the side. He saw an odd sight there. A brown rat and a
snake were curled up together, and they peered up at Alec. The snake
remained still, but the rat appeared to be making a getaway attempt. Alec
leaped forward and grabbed the rat by its tail and held it up in the air as it
squealed madly. The snake, which was about the size of Mark’s forearm,
raised itself up and tasted the air with its pink tongue. The snake was all
black.

“You were blocking your thoughts from me,” Alec growled. “And Hue, I

expected better from a snake.”

The snake curled up and then began to change. It was a bubbling, dark,

churning mess that stretched. The snake disappeared and revealed Manuel’s
lover. He was sitting there, bare-assed. If his nudity bothered him, then it did
not show.

Mark swore loudly again and fell back against the wall. Alec shook the rat

several times. It squeaked violently, scratching at Alec’s hand.

“Wh-wh-who is that,” Mark said. “M-Manuel?”
Hue gave him an apologetic glance. “I’m sorry that we frightened you.

My idiotic lover here got an idea that watching you two have sex would be
stimulating for our relationship.”

Alec grinned. “Well, let’s see how stimulating he finds this.”
Alec walked over and picked up an empty flower vase that was on Mark’s

dresser. He dropped Manuel into it. He then flipped over the vase and left it

on the table, butt end up.

“Let’s go get some breakfast, Mark. Shall we?”
Mark stared at the rat scampering up the vase and then at Alec and Hue,

who were both stretching as if running around the house naked was no big
deal. His face paled. I should have listened to my original instincts and ran away, he
thought, eyes wide.

“Not a chance,” Alec said, handing him his pants. “You’re mine now.”

* * * *

Mark and Alec were side by side. Sylvia was there, too. And Hue, now

fully clothed, was also across from them at the counter. Though there was a
dining room table, nobody appeared to ever use it. Alec was eating eggs and
toast smothered in jelly, and Mark was sipping orange juice. Everyone else
but Mark was sitting. His ass felt too sore to do so.

There was the sound of glass shattering upstairs, but Mark was the only

one who looked up. Manuel ran through the hall bare-assed and then went
down the stairs. He stood before Alec, his eyebrow twitching in rage, and
stared him down. Alec didn’t so much as glance up from his eggs.

“You, you!” Manuel said. “For crying out loud, you could have killed me!

I used up all of my oxygen. And look—look!”

Manuel pointed at the oozing cuts on his chest. Mark cocked his head

and saw that there was a large gash on his ass as well. Though Alec snickered
and Sylvia grinned and gave him the once-over, Mark felt his insides churn
with guilt. But why should I feel guilty? Mark thought. I didn’t do it.

Grinning, Alec reached over and squeezed his leg. He said, “Don’t worry.

It’s all my fault.”

Manuel waved his arms and squealed, “Yes, it is your fault, you dumb ass!

This is going to take at least four hours to heal.”

“Heal?” Mark raised an eyebrow.
Ignoring Manuel’s rage, Alec turned around in his seat and then picked

up a jagged knife that was used for cutting bread. He ran it across the length
of his finger without flinching. Mark reached for his hand at once, but Alec

pushed him away and then stared at his finger.

It was as if he was reversing time. The skin began to grow back together

and the bloody dewdrops remained on a completely unwounded finger. Alec
grinned and wiped the blood on his pants and then continued to eat. Mark’s
mouth dropped open. Holy shit. What the hell was that?

“It’s a bit of the reason why we Zodiacs are practically invincible.” Alec

wiped his face on a plain napkin. “Our cells regenerate at a faster rate than
everybody else’s. They get replaced so quickly that we don’t age. At least
that’s what the scientists told me. I don’t know. All I know is that I can
change into a horse.”

Mark nodded as if this made perfect sense.
There was silence as Manuel, who was ignored even by his lover,

stomped up the stairs. Everyone shoveled food into their mouths at lightning
speed, Mark included. The exercise this morning made him ravenous. Once
he was done, Sylvia swept up his dish and turned around to clean it.

“So, what are we doing today?” Mark asked.
“There is no we.” Alec gave him an apologetic but firm look. “You will

stay here with Manuel while I go off and search for Jeremy.”

Anger filled his stomach. Alec didn’t appear surprised.
“That man killed my mother! Please let me help you.”
Alec shook his head.
Mark couldn’t believe that he was going to use his role as Alec’s lover to

his advantage, but he had to. He wanted to be in the action with the rest of
them. Grabbing Alec’s hand, he held it close to his heart and stared him
down. I’ll do anything that you want, he thought. Anything. I mean it. He sent him
a vision of their sex-filled morning.

Everyone around audibly sucked in breaths and suddenly appeared very

busy. Alec was the only one who continued to look at him. Please, please, please,
Mark thought. Then he sent him a thought of walking in on his mother’s
dead body, even though it stung him just as much as Alec. Alec’s hand was
suddenly gone.

“I’m sorry, Mark,” Alec said, standing up. “You aren’t a Zodiac. You can’t

fight him.”

Mark stood up, too. “This isn’t fair!”
“I know that it isn’t. I would take you along, if I could—but I can’t.

You’ll end up just like your mother. I can’t have that.”

They shot daggers at each other, and then Alec walked out of the room.

He shut the front door behind him with a solid click. Mark stared after him,
as he clenched his fists in frustration. The stool in front of the counter
caught his attention. He kicked it and then swore because it caused hot pain
to travel up to his ankle.

Hue trained his eyes on him. “You’re the year of the dragon, aren’t you?”
The question threw him off. He was too busy being mad at Alec to even

remember what year he had been born. After a moment, he computed it
enough to nod.

“Yeah, I guess I am. I’ve never given much credit to stuff like that.”
“I thought as much.” Hue nodded.
“Why? What does that mean?”
After shrugging his shoulders, Hue turned and started to help Sylvia

wash the dishes. Mark stormed upstairs and threw himself on his bed. He
glared down at the bedspread. He was twenty-nine years old, and he knew
how to handle himself. He had dealt with all sorts of street problems in the
past.

But they weren’t Zodiacs. He buried his head in his arms. He was filled with

sadness. There was no control in anything that he did. He had fought for so
long to become a stronger person. He remembered when he had first joined
the police after being trained at the academy.

He was at the gym after working a twelve-hour day. There was no point in going home

to the house after his mother had died. Nothing awaited him there but terrible memories.
Half of the time he expected to find his mother dead on the table when he went into the
kitchen. It was as if the air still stank of blood.

Sheriff Conrad walked in, carrying a black duffel bag. The police station had weight

rooms available to certain departments. His was one of them.

“You push yourself too hard,” Sheriff Conrad said, watching him lift weights. “How

long have you been here?”

Two hours, he thought.

“Not too long,” Mark said, sitting up. Sweat streamed down his face. “You just got

off a long shift too, Sheriff. Are you ever going to go home to see your family?”

Sheriff Conrad shrugged and lay down at the bench press. “Haven’t you heard? My

wife hates me—think she’s screwing the neighbor. I don’t know. We’ve been divorced for
ages.”

This was the first time that Sheriff Conrad had ever told him this. Even though

Sheriff Conrad was his boss, he was also his friend. Mark stood up and stretched,
ignoring the sharp pain that went through his overused muscles. His back was also
screaming in agony.

“I’m sorry to hear that, Sheriff.”
There was silence for a moment as Sheriff Conrad grunted and lifted a heavy weight.

He was more bulky than Mark, with short hair and sharp blue eyes. His mouth was a
thin line as he pushed up the weights.

“Do you miss your mother, kiddo?” Sheriff Conrad glanced his way.
If somebody else had asked him that, Mark would have punched them. Sheriff

Conrad was the one who had told him to become a police officer to avenge his mother’s
death. Sheriff Conrad had also been like a father to him ever since he had gone to the
academy and then, finally, to the station.

“Yes,” Mark said, wiping sweat off his forehead, “I miss her so much—too much to

say.”

Tears welled in his eyes.
“Don’t work yourself too hard. She wouldn’t want that.” Sheriff Conrad put down

his weights and stared at him.

“Thank you, Sheriff.”
He shook his head to clear his thoughts.
Well, a lot of good all that hard work got me, he thought. I could weight train all

day and run all night and still wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell to beat Alec. He
gritted his teeth and stood up, continuing to search through his duffel bag.
He found his iPod and earbuds and shoved them into his ears and turned on
calming music. He fell back and then hissed in pain. He had forgotten how
sore his ass was.

After he closed his eyes, the sound of the door bursting open startled

him. He looked at Hue and Manuel, who were standing at the other side of

the threshold. When his eyes met theirs, he saw relief. He didn’t understand
why.

“What are you doing?” Hue asked.
“Listening to music. What does it look like?” He removed his earbuds.

They stared at him.

“That’s all?” Hue asked.
“Well, I was planning on strangling Sylvia with the cord, now that you

mention it.”

Hue gave him a grim smile and then turned around, dragging Manuel

with him. Mark rolled his eyes and thought, What the hell was that all about? I’m
sitting here like a good little boy, aren’t I? After that, he shoved the earbuds back in
and lay down once more. The music was doing little to calm him after the
interruption. He crossed his arms over his chest and then gritted his teeth.

The thoughts spiraled in then, though. He remembered what Manuel had

said: “Alcohol, music players, and cell phones can keep us from tracing
people’s thoughts.” His eyes widened, and he sat up, allowing the blankets to
fall around him. I can get out, he thought. Alec thought that he got the better of me,
but he didn’t. I know that he thinks that I’m being stubborn, but he isn’t the one with a
dead mother. He isn’t the one that had to watch all of those people die.

Tears filled his eyes at the thought of his mother lying on the table,

lifeless. He wrapped his arms around himself. He looked at the window and
got off the bed, tiptoeing just in case Manuel and Hue were listening to him.
He looked outside and grinned. The roof was right next to a tall brown tree.
All he would have to do is get onto it and climb down.

He was just about to open the window when somebody loudly knocked

on his door. He half jumped out of his pajama bottoms and then jerked
around. He almost tugged the earbuds out of his ears, but he stopped
himself just in time. The moment that he removed them, Manuel and Hue
would be able to access his thoughts and his escape plan.

The door opened, and Sylvia came inside. She was carrying something in

her hand, and it took him a second to realize that it was a plate of cookies.
He laid his eyes on them and then grimaced.

“What’s the matter? My homemade cookies look like shit to you?”

He shook his head. “No, they look good.”
For a moment he was confused about why she visited him. That was

when he heard rhythmic thumping on his wall. There was then a loud bang
and some loud moaning. A moment later somebody hissed. They’re having sex,
and she’s probably trying to distract me from that, he thought. His eyes darted to the
window. I can escape now, if only Sylvia would get out of here.

“Sorry about that,” Sylvia said. “Idiot son of mine. He must have gotten

it from his father.”

Mark shuffled his feet and thought, What is she doing, making sure that I

don’t leave or something? His fists clenched, and he did his best to stay calm. He
contemplated all the places that he was going to check when he got out of
here: the street where Alec worked, the club, and the park where Alec had
transformed. If he was going to look around, he had to leave now.

Sylvia stared at him. “Have a cookie, will you?”
He selected one and shoved it into his mouth. He almost choked on it.
“That’s a boy. I’ve noticed that you haven’t been eating.”
I’ll eat that whole damn plate if you’ll just get out of here. There was the sound

of more banging. Sylvia wrinkled her nose and looked up, and then she
grimaced at him. He stared back at her with narrow eyes.

“You okay?” Sylvia asked. “You’re being quiet. Might help if you take

them earbuds out of your ears. Can you even hear what I’m saying?”

“I can hear you just fine. It’s off.”
He was lying, but she didn’t appear to realize it. She nodded her head and

then turned to leave. She left the cookies on his bed. The moment that the
door clicked shut, he charged for the window, opening it. He lunged out and
jumped onto the roof and then ran forward, across the shingles. The tree
limbs extended toward him, inviting, and he reached for them. That was
when Sylvia walked out of the house with her purse in hand. He stared at her
and withdrew his legs.

As she walked, Sylvia whistled a happy tune. He watched her progress

and waited until she was around the corner before he wrangled the tree again
and used his arms to slowly lower himself from the top of the tree to the
thick limb underneath. Once he was on the tree limb below, his earbuds cord

caught on one of the branches and nearly ripped it from his head. He held
onto it and almost let go of the tree. He managed to get a hold on the
branch just in time and lowered himself to the ground without a problem.

Once on the ground, he stuck his head around the corner and looked at

where Sylvia had gone. He saw her car in the distance, turning right at the
end of the road. He grinned and darted outside and started to run. He found
the bus stop and checked the schedule that was posted on the metal pole. It
said that a bus was due to arrive in thirty minutes. He could only pray that
Sylvia would be gone shopping for that long.

What the hell am I doing? This is stupid. Alec has a good reason to protect me. Yet

another part of his brain screamed, He killed your mom. That man deserves to die,
at my hand. Alec doesn’t have anything personal with him.

He bit his bottom lip.
Suddenly somebody yanked out his earbuds. He whirled around,

expecting that he had been caught by Manuel or Hue or even Alec. Instead it
was the blue-eyed man, Jeremy, who was staring at him and grinning. He
cocked his head to the side and took a step toward him, and Mark almost fell
backward into the gutter in his haste to get away. Mark thought, This man
killed your mom. Get him!

After advancing forward, Mark swung his right hand forward and hit him

square in the stomach. It caused his hand to burn in pain. He swore but tried
again. This time Jeremy caught his wrist and held it above him, with a grin.

“You’re just like your father,” Jeremy said. “You don’t know when to

quit.”

“You didn’t know my father,” Mark spat.
“Really? That’s funny. I think that I did.”
Jeremy held on with one hand and kept Mark still with unflattering ease.

Mark bared his teeth. A moment later Jeremy pulled out a picture of Mark’s
father. Jeremy was at his side, arm in arm. They looked almost like they were
. . .

“Lovers,” Jeremy finished. “We were lovers. And your whore of a mother

took him from me. She should have married that sheriff when she had the
chance. I want my dues. I want you.”

Mark’s eyes widened, then everything went black.

Chapter Five

Everything was dim.
Mark glanced around and tried to remember why he was panicking. Then

it all sunk in. He had stupidly escaped Sylvia’s house, and then Jeremy had
kidnapped him. Now he was trapped somewhere. But where is this somewhere?
Mark wondered.

He tried to sit up but discovered that he was shackled to the bed. Horror

filled him. He looked around more and discovered that he was inside of a
dimly lit room with a big bed, tarnished furniture, and old pictures on the
wall. The house had a Victorian feel. He noted a window on his left side, but
it had been barred shut. Use the information, Mark thought. Put it together, Mark.
Put it together. Once a cop, always a cop.

There was the sound of thudding beside him and then Jeremy appeared

again, smirking, with his arms crossed over his chest. Jeremy’s eyes glinted
hungrily. Mark stared at him and pulled at his shackles. He was frightened,
which drove his heart to beat harder.

“You!” Mark said.
Jeremy walked over to him and sat on the bed. The weight caused the

bed to sink. Jeremy reached forward and ran one hot hand along Mark’s
cheek, and he tried to bite him in response. This made Jeremy smirk further.

“It’s okay, Mark,” Jeremy said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass! You killed my mom! You killed her, you sick

bastard. You killed all of those people in the building, too! Why?”

“I told you why,” Jeremy said quietly. “And regarding those people in the

building, I had to stop you from being a police officer. I couldn’t let you get
hurt—a few foolish humans meant nothing to me. Not compared to
protecting you. Now you’ve involved some annoying pests that I’m going to
have to get rid of.”

His mind cried out before he could stop it: Alec, no. Jeremy’s eyes flashed,

and Mark could swear that they glowed red. He squirmed and whimpered,
and Jeremy pressed his hand to his chest and pushed down. The force caused
his breath to be chased from his body.

“Yes, your lover. I was very angry when I saw you two get so close. That

was what made me come out to get you.” Jeremy released some of the
pressure and then stroked his chest tenderly. He coughed in panic. “It doesn’t
matter. I’ll get rid of him, and then the two of us can be together, forever.
How do you feel about that?”

Mark saw all of the people that Jeremy had killed in his mind, including

his mother. Inhaling, he sucked in and then released a wad of spit directly
into Jeremy’s face. It hit him right in the eye, and he growled in anger and
then toppled backward, wiping at it. Mark shivered at the angry expression
that crossed his face but was determined not to be pushed around.

“You dirty little creature,” Jeremy said. “I’ll have to spend some more

time taming you later.”

Mark growled at him. It was low and powerful and throaty, rumbling

deep from within himself. He was stunned. A sound like that had never left
his throat before. Jeremy smirked but kept his distance.

“I’m going to have to get you some better shackles.”
Mark cocked his head, confused. Jeremy smirked and walked away.

Chapter Six

Blood gushed from his arm as he yanked at the shackles again and again.

He tried everything from yanking so hard that he swore that his arm was
going to fall off to drooling all over his wrist in hopes that the chains would
get slick. Nothing worked. He was still trapped on the bed.

My dad couldn’t have been lovers with Jeremy, he thought. He couldn’t have been.

He loved my mom, didn’t he? But yet, his dad hadn’t been around very long. His
eyes widened, and he shook away the thought by yanking at the chains some
more. Deep down, he prayed for Alec and hoped that he was okay. Mark had
never been kind toward him. He regretted that now.

He continued to fight with his shackles.
As he pulled and yanked, he thought about something that he usually

tried to avoid—his mother. Even thinking of her face made him sick to his
stomach and happy all at once. It was like he had eaten too much of his
favorite food and had vomited it up. It tasted good in general, but thinking
about it would always bring a sour taste to his mouth. He ground his teeth.

Mom and Dad did fight a lot, he thought. I remember it. Dad had always been

very kind to me, but to her . . . He stopped fighting with the shackles and panted.
He stared at the floor and thought so hard that his mind ached. There was a
memory there, beneath the surface of his skin.

He was sitting behind the door of the kitchen, curled up. His parents thought that he

was asleep because his bedtime had been two hours ago. The sound of their arguing had
brought him downstairs. It made him sick inside. He didn’t like the idea that his parents
might get a divorce.

“Where were you last night?” his mother asked. There was the sound of slamming on

the wooden table. Mark jumped.

“I was out.”
“That’s obvious.” His mother also said this quietly, as if she was poking a sleeping

lion in the eye. “Listen, this isn’t a part of our deal. You know that. You’re supposed to be
home at a normal hour—”

“I’m allowed to go out, you know!”
“That isn’t what this is about. It’s about Mark, about what he sees.”

There was silence for a moment. Mark shivered. He hated it when he heard his name

in their fights. Even though he was only seven, he understood things well enough all the
same. He tightened his grip on his knees and fought back the urge to sob.

“Mark is fine,” his father finally said.
There was more slamming. It sounded like a plate was breaking. There was crying—

his mom. Mark fought the urge to go inside to comfort her. There was the sound of sighing
and somebody standing up.

“I shouldn’t have done this.” His mother’s voice became muffled as she sobbed. Mark

assumed that it was because his father was hugging her. “I should have listened to my mom
and married Conrad. This is ridiculous.”

“Conrad couldn’t have made you happy. You wanted a baby—he couldn’t give you

that. We wanted the same things.”

She was silent. More sniffling filled the air.
“I thought that I did.” Her voice had a panicked edge to it. “Not anymore. I don’t

know. Something is wrong here. It’s only a matter of time until—”

“Don’t say that. Things will work out just the way that we planned it. We’re going to

have a happy life, together.”

There was quiet again. Her sobbing was dwindling. Hope roared in Mark’s stomach,

and he felt himself grow even fonder of his father. They were going to stay together;
everything was going to be fine. He squeezed his legs happily. His mother wanted that, too.
She would not mess their family up. She couldn’t.

“Do you love me, Giles?” his mother asked.
“Of course I do.”
“Then don’t go out anymore.”
The sound of shattering glass brought Mark from his memory. He

jumped and felt his shackles dig harder into his wrist. He looked around
wildly, half hoping to see Jeremy so he could interrogate him about the
memory. Instead there was the sight of a large brown rat that had knocked
down a vase that was in the corner.

“Manuel!” he cried. “Thank God.”
The creature got up on its hind legs and let out loud squeaking sounds.

Mark grinned. Never before had he been so happy to see a rodent. He
struggled harder against his bindings, but it was no use. He swore in

desperation and shot Manuel a despairing look.

Manuel transformed into a naked human. The transformation and his

nudity no longer bothered Mark. He was too busy being horrified by the fact
that he was trapped.

“Thank God we found you,” Manuel said. “Zodiacs can block

thoughts—Jeremy is really good at it. We couldn’t figure out where he took
you. I was sent here to search the house. I never thought that I’d see you on
the bed, tied up like that. I broke the vase in shock.”

Mark nodded. His heart was pounding hard in his chest.
“How’s Alec?”
Manuel rolled his eyes. “Figures that you’d ask that first. He’s been going

nuts ever since you disappeared. I’ve never seen him like that. He must really
like you.”

A pleased blush filled his cheeks. It disappeared quickly, though. Now

was not the time to worry about something like that. He had to get out of
these shackles and get off the bed. He didn’t want to be raped by Jeremy.

Manuel read his thought and leaned down to help him. He yanked on

one chain as if Mark had not been trying the same thing all day. Manuel
swore in frustration when nothing happened. No, he thought. I thought that
Zodiacs were supposed to be superstrong. I thought you could break these right away.

Manuel shot him a sheepish look. “I’m stronger than a human, but

honestly, I’m a rat—my skills lie in being sneaky. I’m better at shielding my
mind and getting into places like this uncaught. Alec is the one that’s good at
breaking things.”

Great, he thought, struggling more. He pulled so hard that his arm

popped and he let out a loud cry of pain. Manuel pressed his hand against
his shoulder to stop him.

“Don’t hurt yourself,” Manuel said. “Alec will kill me. I’m still stronger

than you. Let me see if I can get these away from the bed.”

With one hand, Manuel grabbed at the shackle that was attached to the

thick wooden bed post and put one of his legs against the wall. He began to
pull with all of his might, getting red in the face in the process. Mark grabbed
some of the remaining length and began to yank, too. Mark felt as though his

muscles were going to tear. There was the sound of the bed moaning, and
then there was swearing from both of them.

They would have gotten the shackles off, but there was the sound of

thumping downstairs. Manuel went very still, let out a frightened squeak, and
then transformed and scampered off. Mark gave him a despairing look but
kept his mouth shut. Right now, Manuel was his only hope for freedom.

Within seconds, Jeremy opened the door and stepped inside. Mark

immediately focused on the memory of his parents fighting and tried to
block out all observations of Manuel. Sweat danced down his brow.
Meditation had never been his strong suit.

“You—” He thought very hard of his father’s face and would not let it

go. “You evil bastard. I think that I’ve figured out about you and my dad,
now.”

Jeremy’s eyes widened, but he did not appear surprised. He took a step

forward and caressed Mark’s cheek. It made him queasy, and he focused with
all of his might on that feeling. That was even harder when he noticed that
vase on the floor. Jeremy noticed it too and frowned.

“What happened here?”
Oh shit, Mark thought. I broke it. I broke it when I was pounding at the bed. The

vibrations traveled through the wall and—

“I make you nervous, don’t I?” Jeremy said, chuckling. “You don’t like the

idea of having sex with me. It horrifies you.”

Mark thought, Yes, you sick bastard. Jeremy gave a twisted, crazy grin. Once

again, Mark focused on the memory. He wanted Jeremy to see it; he wanted
him to explain it. More sweat poured down his face. He had never
concentrated so hard in his entire life, not even during his academy exams.

“Ah, that memory,” Jeremy said. “Yes, that would make sense—you want

to know all about your twisted little family, do you? Well, it wasn’t real.”

“That’s not true!”
“But it is true.” Jeremy frowned. “I was your father’s lover for sixty-five

years. We were perfect together. I loved him more than breathing. Then one
day he decided that he wanted to have a kid. I couldn’t give him that. He
found your mother, a woman who was engaged to a man that could not give

her children. Her fiancé was a good man, a police officer, so her father urged
her to marry him. She didn’t love him. Your father and her made a deal—
they would pretend to be married so that her father could no longer pressure
her, they would have a child together, and they could fuck anybody else that
they wanted.”

Mark gasped. Now he didn’t have to force himself to chase out all other

thoughts. He was focused purely on the moment.

“But your mother fell in love with your father,” Jeremy said, a bitter look

in his eye. “Your father was gay—didn’t love her in that way at all. He loved
me more. But there was one thing that he loved more than me, one damn
thing. It was you.”

Mark’s eyes widened. His face felt hot. He knew what was coming, could

see it a mile away. Nausea curled in his stomach.

“He told me so. Your mother threatened to destroy everything they had

built, and he was so frightened to lose you that he told me to get lost. He
would pretend to be what she wanted.” Jeremy hissed angrily. “That was
when I killed him.”

Mark’s eyes widened. How could he kill someone that he loves, even if he can’t

have them? Mark thought. I could never do that, not to Alec.

Jeremy caressed his face some more. “You look just like him. I watched

you. I decided that I was going to have you in replacement of him. I killed
your mother, the bitch, and then you entered that damn police program. I
didn’t like that at all. You weren’t supposed to be in danger, so I chased you
out of that, too. Who would have thought that you would betray me so easily
for that Alec? That is why I have to be rid of him.”

There was madness in Jeremy’s eyes that he had never seen before, not

even during his years as a cop. He was scared. He gripped the blankets and
prayed that Alec would be okay. He didn’t care about himself nearly as much
as Alec. He had only known him for a short amount of time, but he had
never felt closer to anyone. Alec, he thought. Alec, be okay.

Anger filled Jeremy’s eyes even more so, and he grabbed Mark’s shirt on

two sides and tore it. Mark cried out and thought, No, I’m going to be raped.
Shit, shit, shit! He struggled against the shackles some more.

“Don’t bother,” Jeremy said. “You’re mine. You can’t escape me.”
He had been so close to escaping, so close. He thought of Manuel

coming through the wall for the first time, and Jeremy went very still. Mark
knew that he had fucked up now. The Zodiacs had been coming to save him,
but now Jeremy knew it, too.

“You little shit!” Jeremy raised up his hand and hit Mark across his face.

He tasted blood and spit it out on the pillows. Jeremy shook Mark, hard.
“You are so troubling, just like your father.”

Mark stared at him. Jeremy raised his hand to hit him again, and he shut

his eyes and waited for a flash of pain, but that did not come. Mark opened
his eyes again and saw that somebody had grabbed Jeremy’s fist an inch from
his face. He exhaled in relief and then focused on the person who had
stopped Jeremy.

“Alec!” Mark cried.
Alec didn’t even acknowledge him. His eyes were burning with rage as he

stared at Jeremy.

“Get off him,” Alec said. “Now!”
Jeremy gave an animalistic growl and then hissed again. In one quick blur,

Jeremy was off Mark and on top of Alec. There was the sound of clothes
ripping, and suddenly Jeremy was no longer Jeremy. He was a giant tiger with
its claws on Alec’s throat.

Mark meant to yell, “Get off him!” but something else came out

instead—an angry, ferocious growl that was far louder than Jeremy’s. Anger
boiled in his stomach. He didn’t have time to contemplate what was wrong
with his voice—he was too mad. All that he knew was that he wanted to get
out of these shackles.

There was the sound of metal ripping away from wood, and a big chunk

of the bed’s side post fell to the ground. He stared at the angry, red-eyed
tiger and was shocked that he felt no fear. He knew that he had to save Alec.

“My dad didn’t want you, and neither do I!” Mark yelled.
The tiger let out a ferocious growl and turned on him. Alec rose shakily

to his feet and stared. There was a flash, and suddenly Alec was a big, black
horse again. There was fire in his eyes, and he pawed the ground and gave a

demonic horse squeal. Alec charged the tiger. Mark leaped forward and
raised up his arm, and he planted a punch straight into the tiger’s throat while
it was distracted.

Normally, this would have done nothing other than make the tiger

angrier. Now, though, he was filled with something that he hadn’t been
before—a burning passion that was getting stronger and stronger, becoming
barely controllable. The tiger was lifted up and was thrown into the wall,
making a large dent as it yowled in pain and then fell. The tiger was injured,
but it gave a growl of madness and then stood up again.

“Give up!” Mark said. “We’re two against one.”
The tiger growled at him and crossed the bedroom in two strides. The

black horse squealed in anger, charging Jeremy, but was not fast enough. A
paw collided with Mark’s chest. There was a flash of pain as Mark was
knocked against the wall with enough force that no human could have
survived it. Books and a glass plate hit the floor. The tiger raised up its paw
again and scratched him across his face, which made blood fill his vision.

Alec let out another horse scream and leaped over the bed. Then he

reared up and hit the tiger in the head with a hoof. The tiger hissed and got
to its feet. Alec nickered in worry at Mark, but he needn’t have bothered.

Anger bubbled in Mark’s stomach, and incomparable power filled his

body. That was soon replaced by agony. It was as if his body was being
pulled apart by a torture device. He grabbed his head and started screaming
louder and louder. He saw red, and his head clanged. His voice was so deep
that it sounded demonic as it tore from him: “You will pay for toying with
me.”

The room appeared very small all of a sudden, as did the horse and tiger.

Both the tiger and the horse turned around to stare at him, and he saw their
eyes widen in fear. He didn’t know what they were seeing, but then again, he
didn’t care. The thoughts Rip, tear, kill! filled his mind. Mark could no longer
discern who was his friend and who was his enemy. All that mattered was
that flesh was beneath his claws.

“You will pay for toying with me,” Mark repeated.
He tasted blood and leaped forward, knocking into the tiger. The tiger

looked frightened. He raised a paw and tried to scratch Mark across his eyes,
but this only made Mark growl in rage. His own claw raised, and he tore at
the tiger’s chest and felt the fur rip. Blood spurted everywhere. The tiger
roared in pain and then went unconscious. He became a human being again,
lifeless.

Mark looked up and hissed in anger. There was a horse in his sight line

now. It nickered nervously at him and then pawed at the ground. He growled.

Two more shapes filled his vision, though they were smaller. They both

turned human again. He took a step toward them and let out a monstrous
growl.

“Stop it, Mark!” one of the humans said. “Calm down! Calm down! Fight

the instincts.”

The horse neighed and tossed its head.
He reached forward and hit the two humans. They both flew in opposite

directions and collided with the ground. He didn’t pay them any more
attention. The main threat right now was the black horse. He drew back his
lips and let out another demonic hiss. Rip and kill, he thought. Rip and kill.

The horse nickered and backed away. The horse did not so much as rear.

He growled in confusion and then got distracted by more movement—
something else was there. He turned and faced an even bigger creature than
the horse. It was a massive dragon with red scales and orange eyes. Its teeth
were gigantic. Rip and kill, he thought. He reached forward and sunk his
claws into it. The dragon shattered, and he hissed in confusion.

Even angrier now, he turned toward the black horse again. He aimed for

the jugular and threw his weight into his claws, only to find that there was
another body there that had not been there before. It was the tiger again,
bloody and panting. Mark hissed in rage. How many times would he have to
kill that creature?

The tiger turned human and stared at him with sad eyes. “Don’t do it . . .

loved your dad . . . won’t ever forgive yourself . . . for this . . . ”

He hissed in confusion.
“Don’t . . . ”
The man fell to the floor. Mark thought that he was dead. Sadness filled

him for reasons that he did not know, chasing out the anger. He looked at the
horse and felt terrified by the idea of killing him, which confused him even
more. Who am I? Mark thought. Why did I want to kill the horse again?

He caught sight of his own dragon reflection in the shards on the ground

and let out a hiss of surprise before falling into darkness.

Chapter Seven

He awoke in a state of confusion. His head was killing him. He grasped

it, wondering what had happened to him. Where was Jeremy? Where was
Alec? He sat up and was stunned to discover that he was not shackled to the
bed. He was back at Sylvia’s.

I got hit. He felt his face and discovered that he had no bruises. His eyes

opened wide in shock. Maybe it had all been a dream—perhaps he had
dreamed up Alec, too. The thought made him sick to his stomach.

He remembered only bits and pieces of what had happened—he had

been enraged beyond belief and things had gotten all foggy. There had been
a dragon—no, he was the dragon. His eyes widened. That just proved that it
was a dream. He couldn’t be a dragon. If he was a Zodiac, then he would
have realized it by now. He moaned and flipped over in bed.

He felt fear and embarrassment and worry. He was also very confused.

He wasn’t sure what was real or fake anymore. I wish that Alec was here, he
thought, though he would never dare to say it out loud.

“You don’t need to,” a voice said from outside the door.
The door opened, and Alec stepped inside. He wasn’t grinning like he

normally was, and there were pits underneath his eyes. Mark’s heart leaped in
his chest, and he thought, At least Alec is real. Mark did something then that
he never thought that he would do for anyone—he jumped out of bed and
landed in Alec’s arms. Alec didn’t even sway.

“Well, looks like I’ve been worried over nothing,” Alec said, nuzzling

him. “God, I thought that Jeremy had hurt you. I thought that it was all my
fault that he captured you. I should have realized that you felt strongly
enough to go looking for him.”

Alec hugged him tightly. Mark moaned. It felt so good to just be close to

him, but he also was filled with guilt.

“What happened?” Mark asked. “Is Jeremy still alive?”
“I’m not one hundred percent sure,” Alec said. “That’s part of the

problem—he got away. We were so busy attending to you. We were shocked
that you were a Zodiac. Your father was the missing link. I think that Hue

was the only one that suspected it.”

“My father was a Zodiac.” Mark stared at the floor. “I wonder why my

mom never told me.”

Alec hesitated. “Maybe if she hadn’t died, then she would have.”
Mark clenched his teeth, then shook his head.
“By the way, I’m sorry for trying to kill you. I completely lost control.

I’ve never experienced anything like that before.” Mark stared hard at the
wall. “I was just so angry, and everything was blurry. It was a thousand times
worse than being drunk.”

Alec grinned and ruffled his hair. “You were so much bigger than me

that I have to admit that I was scared shitless of you. Looks like you’re built
more for strength than for stealth, like Hue and Manuel are. Everyone goes
on a blood rampage at first. It’s always a bit easier to handle with a rat,
though. I can’t imagine what would have happened if you had changed for
the first time in a public place.”

“Why didn’t you try to fight me?”
“Because I love you, you idiot,” Alec said. “You didn’t know what you

were doing. I didn’t want to hurt you. I wouldn’t have fought back, even if
you had killed me.”

His eyes widened. Alec had just said that he loved him. His heart beat

harder, and he pressed his lips against Alec’s. They mingled for a second and
then Mark opened up his mouth, allowing Alec entrance. He discovered that
Alec’s tongue was now warm, not unbearably hot, so he blinked in confusion.

“You’re just warm,” he whispered against Alec's lips. “Normally I feel like

you’re boiling.”

“You’re a Zodiac now.” Alec slipped his hand underneath his shirt.

“You’re the one who’s hot like fire now. You just don’t notice.”

As Alec slid his hand up his shirt, Mark exhaled sharply. He realized that

before he could celebrate being reunited with Alec, there was someplace that
he had to go. He grabbed Alec’s wrist and stared into his eyes. Mark pictured
his father’s grave and knew that he was projecting his thoughts straight into
Alec’s mind.

Alec sighed. “I suppose that this can wait. You have to go see your dad.”

“Thank you, Alec.”

* * * *

The temperature was far cooler here, even if it was just a state away. He

hadn’t missed it at all. It was strange to think that it had been only a few
weeks since he had left this place to go find Alec.

He stood in front of the graveyard that held his parents and shivered in

melancholy. The streets were cobblestone, and there was a big, black fence
that surrounded all of the graves. Even during the day, the graveyard had an
air of sadness that could not be ignored.

A hand reached forward and grabbed his own—Alec’s hand. Now he was

glad that Alec had come. He remembered when he had been packing.

Mark reached for his shirts and pushed them into his duffel bag, and he was shocked

when Alec walked in with a black suitcase. Mark stared at him.

“It’s for me,” Alec said. “I like to bring a lot of stuff.”
“You’re coming?”
“Of course.” Alec tilted his head and grinned, cockily. “Isn’t it customary for the

boyfriend to meet the parents eventually?”

The current Alec squeezed his hand, and he was jolted back to reality. He

smiled at Alec, and the two of them walked together, into the graveyard. A
soft rain poured on their heads, but Mark hardly felt it. He wondered
whether it was another part of being a Zodiac—they hardly got cold.

They walked forward and went to two graves that were side by side. He

stopped and felt the pressing sadness that always came with seeing his
parents’ headstones. It was hard to imagine that the family that he had always
thought that he had was not real. He still loved his parents anyway, though.
He always would.

As Mark hung his head in sadness, wondering what it was that had called

him here, Alec leaned downward. Mark was not paying attention to him. He
was surprised that Alec stood back up holding an ornamental statue that he
had not noticed before—it was a Chinese dragon.

“Looks like we know why you were born when you were,” Alec said. “It’s

not scientifically proven, but Zodiacs say that the animal you are has a lot to
do with what your parents were.”

“But who left the statue?” Mark asked. “It was obviously left there for a

reason. The grave caretakers haven’t left anything on my mom’s grave.”

Alec flipped the statue over and inspected it, curious. There was nothing

there. Mark turned his attention to his father’s grave. He saw that there was
something else, something that Alec had missed because it had been washed
to the side of the gravestone by the rain. It was a bunch of tulips, the dark
purple kind. They were bound together with a red ribbon.

I know who brought these flowers and the statue, he thought. It was Jeremy. He

stared at the grave in sadness and gripped his stomach. Alec touched his
shoulder.

“He killed your dad,” Alec said. “Why would he bring flowers and a

statue now?”

“Because I woke him up.” Mark turned to stare at Alec. “I know that I

did. I saw it in his eyes. I think he was going mad with grief and guilt, which
made him kidnap me and kill my mother.”

Alec made a sound out of the back of his throat. “Are you really going to

forgive him so easily, the man that killed your parents and tried to rape you?”

He shook his head. “Don’t be ridiculous. Of course I’ll try to kill him if I

see him. All I’m saying is that I doubt that he’s going to come after me
anymore.”

Though Mark expected Alec to say something more, he didn’t. Instead

Alec slipped his hand into Mark’s and stared at the grave. When the two of
them turned to leave, Alec placed the dragon back on his father’s grave and
fixed the tulips so that they were right next to it. Mark smiled sadly.

The two of them walked out of the graveyard with their heads hanging

low. Mark was thinking about his parents, but Alec squeezed his hand to get
his attention again. He looked over, fighting the tears that were climbing up
his throat.

“So what are you going to do from here?” Alec asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you’re a Zodiac now. You can’t go back to the way things were

before, even if you want to. You have many abilities that are going to kick in.
That Zodiac transformation was an upheaval before the real thing—you’re
going to get stronger every day, you’ll be able to read minds, and you’re going
to get very instinctual. It’s not the sort of thing that should be handled
alone.”

He’s right, Mark thought. He looked around the graveyard and at the

neighborhood outside of it, where he had played as a child. There was no
way that he could look at things the same way. Also, he had become too
accustomed to having Alec’s hand in his own, even if they had been together
for only a very short time.

“I could always let you stay with me.” Alec cleared his throat. “I could

help you harness your powers, one Zodiac to another.”

Alec slid a glance over to him. Though Mark could not read his thoughts,

he realized that he was nervous because his hands were shaking. It was hard
to imagine Alec nervous. Cute, he thought. Alec turned pink in the face.

“Okay,” Mark said.
A nicker escaped Alec’s throat. “Really?”
“Really, really.” Mark grinned. “I was planning on staying here for a few

days, but I think that I want to go home—my real home.”

They grinned and headed to the airport. Mark thought, Thank God for

Smart phones, off-season flight plans, and charming boyfriends.

Chapter Eight

They should have had sex before they left Sylvia’s.
Hell, they should have stopped before going to the airport and hooked

up in the woods behind the graveyard.

On the way to the airplane, he had caught sight of a gay couple making

out. One thought had turned to another, and he started imagining the way it
felt to kiss Alec. Now he was in the middle of an airplane with a raging hard-
on and a smirking boyfriend. A pink glow tainted his cheeks.

Alec grinned at him wolfishly. “What kind of snack do you want? I’m

thinking something warm and salty.”

“Shut up.”
He squirmed, pushing at the blue blanket that was doing little to conceal

the tent that he was creating with his cock.

“Why are you getting so snippy?” Alec chuckled. “I was thinking of a hot

pretzel. Doubt they have them here, though. Do you know what I want to
drink?”

Mark rolled his eyes. He couldn’t handle it anymore. He stood up,

shielding his full-mast cock from the other passengers, though none
appeared to be looking at him. He went down the aisle and spotted the
bathroom. He hustled over to it, praying to God that nobody noticed what
he was doing.

He slid into the cramped room and shut his eyes. He was embarrassed by

the fact that he was about to jack off in an airplane. Nobody will know, he
thought. Nobody but Alec, that is. He shrugged his shoulders and dropped his
drawers. He reached down and felt himself throb beneath his fingers.

Just as he was about to begin rubbing himself, there was a knock at the

door. He ignored it. He knew that it was Alec—either that or it was an airline
steward telling him that he had been spotted. He shuddered and saw himself
shrink a little. Maybe that’s what I need to do, he thought. Imagine horrible situations
to calm down.

The knock came again, more persistent this time.
“Alec, what do you want?”

“I want to come in.”
“For God’s sake, not in an airplane!”
There was a chuckle. “Trust me, nobody is going to notice, and I thought

that you could use some help.”

He looked down at himself. The idea of Alec helping him, touching his

cock and making him come, made him swell again. He swore underneath his
breath and started to jack off as quickly as he could. The sooner that he
calmed down, the sooner that Alec would get joining the mile-high club out
of his brain.

There was the sound of fumbling with the door, and then there was a

crunch. The next thing that Mark knew, he was being squeezed against the
sink. His foreleg was crushed against the silver metal toilet. There was also a
very large, hard erection pressing against his bare ass. He swore.

“How the hell did you get in here?” Mark asked. “I locked the door.”
“Do you think that an airplane bathroom lock will do any good against a

Zodiac?”

Mark breathed in and out five times. Though he pretended to be

annoyed, his cock had other ideas. It was already watering with precome.
Alec reached around and tenderly stroked his tip with his thumb.

“You like that, don’t you?” Alec whispered in his ear, nibbling the bottom

of his lobe.

“Of course I do—but I don’t need an airplane full of people to know

what we’re doing.”

“Nobody noticed anything until I broke the door. If you had just let me

in at the very beginning, then nobody would noticed anything. It’s your
fault.”

Sweat ran down his back. He knew that he should shove Alec out the

door, but the hand that stroked the tip of his cock was causing shivers to run
down his spine. Alec ran his hand all the way down to his base, and he
shuddered with pleasure and bit his bottom lip to keep from crying out. Shit,
he thought. Alec knows just how to move.

“Is that permission?” Alec whispered.
“It looks like you don’t bother to ask for that.”

Alec chuckled huskily and continued. He rubbed him over and over

again, making Mark grab onto the counter for support. He felt Alec’s cock
press against his ass crack and that only made him hornier. He cried out
softly, panting, and pushing his forehead against the metal mirror in front of
him. As Alec playfully rubbed himself against Mark’s crack while stroking his
cock up and down, Mark forced his own arm into his mouth and bit down,
hard. The pain shot pleasure straight into his balls. It took every bit of self-
control that he had not to moan.

As Mark was driven over the edge, Alec nickered in his ear and rubbed

his clothed cock against Mark’s hole harder while pumping his shaft. He was
getting closer to erupting now, and more precome dribbled off his cock and
onto the counter before them. He swore and panted. Don’t cry out, he
thought. Don’t cry out—

“Oh, God! Oh, God!”
Come covered the counter. Alec chuckled into his neck. Mark pressed his

hand against his face.

“I hate you,” Mark said.
Alec did not respond. He was cupping the dribbling come that he had

caught. He used the semen as a lubricant and shoved his finger inside of
Mark. Alec kept his finger inside of him for as long as he could stand before
he wriggled around, hooking the prostate. Mark groaned again.

Alec moved to prepare him with his fingers, but the small bathroom and

the way that his pants kept his legs together made it impossible for Mark to
spread his legs farther. The result was unusual tightness of his hole. He was
not used to being restrained during sex, but Mark would be lying if he said
that he didn’t like it.

There was the sound of unzipping, and Mark felt cloth brush against his

bare ass as Alec pulled down his own pants. Mark felt Alec’s massive cock as
he pushed it against his butt cheeks and then, finally, the pucker in the back.
Mark held harder onto the counter as Alec grunted into his ear and thrust
into him, hard. He cried out before he could stop himself and was forced to
bite into his arm again to keep from being even louder.

Mark arched his back into Alec’s thrusting, and Alec leaned forward and

took the skin of his neck within his teeth. With every thrust, Alec nibbled at
him, only driving Mark farther to the edge. Alec grabbed Mark’s hand on the
counter and covered it with his own. They were now intertwined in more
ways than Mark could count.

Pleasure electrocuted his body. Alec thrust a few quick, final times before

coming himself. He moaned loudly and then swore, and then sunk his teeth
into Mark’s neck. Mark panted as he laid his head against the wall. Alec
chuckled and leaned against the wall, and Mark used the extra room to turn
around and press his face against Alec’s bare chest.

“Wasn’t that better than doing it by yourself?” Alec asked him, panting.
“I’ll give you my answer when the flight is over.”
Alec grinned and hugged him close. “Sorry. I just saw what you were

doing in here and couldn’t stop myself.”

Alec grabbed paper towels and mopped himself up, then Mark. The two

of them embraced for a moment before Alec leaned downward and buckled
up his pants. Even after the cleanup, his shirt was wrinkled and his pants had
a white stain above the knee. Anybody who looked at him would know what
they had done.

“I’ll go first,” Alec said, pecking his forehead. “See you in a minute.”
Mark watched him go. He dressed and then examined himself in the

mirror. There was still a healthy, after-sex glow to his skin. I think that I can get
used to this. Being wanted isn’t so bad, after all.

He opened the door and stepped outside. There was a stewardess there,

blond-haired and young, who stared at him. He grinned back at her. To hell
with it, he thought, waddling to his seat as people stared. He took his place by
Alec and felt his hand touch his kneecap.

Alec leaned in close and whispered. “You are definitely wanted—and you

will be, for the rest of our long, long lives.”

Mark pushed him away, flustered, and said, “Like hell.”
Alec chuckled. “Once a dragon, always a dragon—but I wouldn’t have

you any other way.”

The End

TuÉâà à{x Tâà{ÉÜ

Penelope Rivers is an erotic novelist of M/M romance novels and short

stories. A hopeless dreamer, she spends her day thinking about all things
fantasy, romantic and not. It is her view that when you start choking on the
occasionally dry bread of life, you need something sinfully delicious to chase
it down with. Currently, she lives in Utah with an abnormal amount of pets.