Chapter 1

Kane

“ M eet me at the library when the moon is at its highest point,” the wizard said. “I can’t let anyone in my family see me speaking to you.” They were both at the vegetable market, and Kane had been looking at avocados when the old wizard came up beside him. The wizard didn’t look at Kane, but picked through the selection of tomatoes.

Kane swore in a few different languages. “So your family sided with the dragons from Texas.”

“They did,” the wizard said. “I tried to talk them out of it…” He lifted his hands. “But it was pointless in the end.”

“It’s not your fault. Brennan and his minions brainwashed everyone here. They now think my business is evil.”

The wizard pointed to himself. “Not everyone.”

“Right,” Kane said. “Not everyone. I’ll see you tonight.”

Holy hell. Kane stepped away from the vegetable display. He couldn’t believe what those American shifters had done to him. They had sabotaged his entire operation. He wasn’t going to let them get away with it. He had to admit, their threatening display a few weeks before had been impressive.

Brennan, who was a shifter from Texas, and a freaking sheriff as well, had found out about Kane from his buddy who’d gotten stranded on the island. The buddy, some kind of boat tour guide, had the nerve to spy on Kane and figure out what he was doing. Then he’d ratted Kane out to all of his friends, and they’d showed up, a freaking home-grown army of shifters, circling him in the sky. They’d threatened him, and now Brennan was the self-appointed law enforcement on the island as well.

Brennan had mistaken Kane for a kid. He’d thought Kane was twenty, but Kane was twenty-nine, almost thirty. He hadn’t corrected the other shifter, because being thought of as young might give him some kind of advantage. For some reason, Kane hadn’t aged as quickly as the other shifters in his clan, and none of them were as muscular and broad as the Texas shifters.

Had these island vermin cursed them again with a spell making him not age? Or had spending so much time on this rotten island affected them somehow?

Venenum Island… the name even meant poison. The island was a force unto itself. No one could control it. And no one could control Kane either.

There was no way for him to stop dealing in dark artifacts and black magic potions. Not even if he had wanted to. Who did Brennan think he was? Yeah, the sheriff had told him that he lost his entire clan because of some horrible witch, but he and his brothers had swanned right over to Texas, and one of them was now a billionaire. A billionaire. Kane had no concept of what that kind of money could even be like. He barely had enough to keep his boat running most of the time.

And sure, shifters didn't need a lot to survive. That was true. But he owed money. He owed a lot of money to quite a few groups. Not just shifters either. He owed money to Fae, to witches and wizards, both on the island and off, and to a few cutthroat vampires. Kane’s crew even dealt with some humans too. And like the saying went, money was power.

Without money they couldn’t buy houses or cars or fly on planes. He couldn't keep his boat running. Sure, he could go be feral and live in the woods somewhere, but then he couldn’t run his business or support his family.

Brennan thought he was a tough guy, but where was he from? Cedar Lake, Texas. It was a two-bit town outside of Dallas with a bunch of pretty parks and playgrounds and a neighborhood school. Brennan had no idea what Kane was facing. If he had, he would have known how unrealistic it was for Kane to stop dealing in artifacts.

Kane’s latest client was currently living in Romania, although no one knew where he was actually from. And he was known for being very unforgiving, so Kane had to deliver on his promises. And he had promised an enchanted knife well before Brennan stuck his nose in their business. If Kane added the knife to whatever the old wizard was bringing him at midnight, then he would probably be doing okay for the month.

He met the wizard that night, collected a batch of potions that allowed the user to be able to temporarily count cards while gambling. Those would sell very quickly. The next morning Kane dragged his ass back to Lima, and got on a plane.

For his flight to Romania, he paid for a first class ticket. He wouldn't allow anyone to see him sitting in coach. It was unlikely that he’d encounter anyone he knew on the flight, but he couldn't take the chance of looking weak. He was a big guy. Sure he was smaller than the Texas shifters, but he was still tall and still broad compared to an average human male. He could not cram his tall frame into a small rickety commercial plane seat. He would make him look stupid. He wasn’t going to play the fool.

If a vampire saw him sitting in coach they would know that something was wrong and they would try to exploit it. It happened before; the vampires saw someone skimping, and they knew they were short on money. That’s when the vampires moved in. The vampires weren't particularly brutal, despite what the legends said. The group he knew just liked the money and they liked a lot of it. And they never wasted an opportunity to make some. They wouldn't even have to kill him to do it; they would just find a way to blackmail him.

The flight was long and tedious. He shifted in his seat, unable to relax. The knife was in a holster against his leg. Daggers weren’t allowed on planes, and neither were potions. But he refused to have them slung around in the cargo area, so he kept them with him. One of the witches who’d worked for him was able to cast a spell that enchanted the dagger so that it didn’t show. But sometimes spells faded.

He exhaled. Only a few more hours to go, and he’d have his money in hand. In front of him, a couple made eyes at each other and held hands.

Kane rolled his eyes. He had to stop himself from asking them to quit. There was no point in romance or love. It only made you weak, and it only slowed you down. He was never going to fall into that trap.