Prologue -
The night was still as Devereux Peltier scanned the new territory thoroughly, feeling for anything with intent to harm; anything deadly, anything predatory. Anything, he thought, like him.
But the night was calm and the gentle hum of the night bugs in the bayou was incredibly soothing to Dev's troubled, grief stricken mind. The wound that had torn open his heart at the loss of his two older brothers was still raw even though a good many months had passed now since their deaths. Dev cringed as unwanted memories racked him, of running terrified through the forest trying to get his family and the cubs to safety, of Aimee pleading with Bastien to go back and get her favourite doll; Monique. He had practically threw her into Dev's arms and run back to the house that was rapidly going up in flames, howls and vicious noises only a bear in serious agony could cause, erupted from their former home. Before Dev's could move or deposit a screaming Aimee into someone else's arms, Gilbert had sped past him, shouting orders over his shoulder to move on, he would save Bastien. Gilbert's grin of pure devilment was etched deeply, painfully in Dev's mind, he had thought they would be fine; they were strati just as he was. If they couldn't fight their way through a bunch of Arcadian sentinels then who could?
The fetid stench of the rotting mud of the bayou wafted over Dev, blowing back his long curly blond hair that fell down his back. So this was home from now on, he thought, staring around New Orleans, he sighed, looking up at the million stars and wishing for things that truly could not be.
Suddenly Dev's head pricked up, so did that of his three identical twin brothers who were guarding the perimeter of their new home. A woman, Arcadian by scent was running flat out to their door, she was in bad shape Dev noticed. Yet for the offence and tragedy her people had struck on his family he could not at that moment feel pity or sorrow for her. She collapsed at their front door, at Quinn's feet, Remi snarled, Dev merely stared.
"Please," she begged, "please help me."
"Get away from this door, Arcadian whore!" Remi roared, making to kick her from the steps, his grief and anger making him more volatile then usual. Dev caught Remi before he inflicted any damage on the woman, her wretched looking body tugging his heart unwillingly.
"This is sanctuary," Dev reminded Remi sternly, "We have been granted an duty and honour that we must uphold."
Remi looked like he wanted to fight but relented, his family had never seen Dev truly angry or serious, it wasn't his nature. They knew when to draw the line.
Dev and his brothers stepped back and allowed the woman entrance, his mother, Nicolette Peltier met her at the door before she collapsed again. Like all were hunters, Nicolette and her family were devastatingly beautiful and handsome, powerful and strong, yet for all her beauty the latest sorrow of losing her sons had caused her to look gaunt and older. She had vowed that night when Gilbert and Bastien had been murdered that she would never allow any mother, Arcadian, Katagari, human or demon would never feel the agony of losing a child if she could help it. So it had begun, she had requested permission from Savitar to establish a Limani or a sanctuary for all those hunted or in need.
Her haunted eyes locked on to Dev's and their beneath all the misery was a shimmer of pride for him. It was that night that the doors of the Sanctuary had first opened and they didn't close for over more then three hundred years.