Chapter 1

Chancellor Geoffrey Clarke was simply Geoff Clarke and only fifteen when he learned the truth about his parents. He’d always known, of course, that his mother was a respected journalist for the Fulton Daily Newsand his father, her mate, was a slave and aided in her investigations.

What he hadn’t known until that day when he was fifteen was that his mother wasn’t only a journalist. She had another equally important but highly secret position. Geoff, like all children his age, had grown up hearing stories of sentries, rough-and-tumble people, dangerous and predatory, who lived on society’s edge, guarding it from natural and supernatural threats alike.

Along with those stories were tales of a group of people referred to as recorders. These were the people who chronicled the history and activities of sentries, keeping their knowledge a deepest and most carefully guarded secret. His mother was one such person. She and others like her kept detailed records of not only the sentries, but also those who joined their ranks as slaves.

Most sentries never took slaves, but the few who did always did so for a purpose. In some cases, that purpose wasn’t known to either owner or slave, but they benefited from the union just the same. Many a slave taken into the ownership of a sentry was trained to the fullest, hunting and protecting right alongside his or her owner.

Geoff’s mother’s role had been to assist in placing the proper slave with the best owner to combine the talents and abilities of both in the best possible way. Geoff’s father was one such special slave. Raised and trained to not only protect his future owner, a recorder, but to assist her. They’d become friends, lovers, and eventually mates, a perfectly meshed working team.

Geoffrey Clarke was the vice chancellor of New Colorado Protectorate when he’d stumbled across another such perfectly meshed working team. They were two young men, owner and slave, sentries with unique gifts useful to not only each other, but to a government on the brink of war. The death of the chancellor before him came at the same time New Colorado Protectorate was pulled into a war with its neighboring protectorate, West Caldera, over water rights, and Geoff had been thrust into the position of chancellor.

He’d had no idea his mother had any sort of connection to Todd and Nick Ruger, only that they were more than capable of fighting in the sorts of battles Geoff faced. He intended to win this war, and he’d use every weapon, natural, man-made, or otherwise, at his disposal.

The new vice chancellor, Victor Raleigh, wasn’t as eager for victory over West Caldera. He was being assisted by creatures not human. Now he was conspiring with some of those creatures to smuggle weapons and gold into West Caldera, resources that would surely give West Caldera the advantage.

It was Todd and Nick Ruger, owner and slave, sentry and psychic, who Chancellor Clarke sent to thwart the plans of Vice Chancellor Victor Raleigh. Geoff couldn’t help but wonder if his mother had had any notion how important they would become to her only son when she’d arranged the bonding of Todd and Nick as children.

Geoff’s mother and father had long since passed, so it was a question that would remain forever unanswered. 1

“Could you be any more obnoxious about this?” Nick had a headache, a big one that was roughly Todd sized.

Todd stopped in his tracks and pretended to be deep in thought before saying, “Yes.” Then he started walking toward the pier once more.

“Of course you could, what wasI thinking?” Nick grumbled and trailed behind his mate, reminding himself yet again that Todd was his world, the love of his life, his everything. Right now, that everything was getting on Nick’s last nerve.

They walked along the boardwalk that led to the pier among an absolute crush of people. Being around so many strangers was giving Nick’s nerves a serious jolt and making him more irritable than Todd ever could. Their luggage had been taken right from the train they’d traveled south on to the section of the pier where their riverboat was boarding passengers.

Todd had wanted to walk to get the full “experience.” Nick could have done without any experience just fine.

Nick had to admit his mate cut a very dashing figure in his crisp black suit, white shirt, narrow black tie with the silver clasp, and wide-brimmed black hat. Glancing at the river, Nick wondered, if he grabbed that hat and threw it just the right way, would it sail clear to the other side?

“Oh, come on, we have to check this out before we board!” Todd grabbed Nick’s arm and hauled him along faster.

It was the third vendor they’d just hadto check out. Nick sighed and stood behind Todd as best he could while Todd looked over the selection this vendor showed off. At least it was weapons, guns and knives, so more interesting to Nick than the dice, fake lucky charms, and playing cards of the previous place. Todd tolerated Nick’s fascination with finding books everywhere they went, so it was only fair Nick returned the favor. He simply wished there weren’t so many people brushing by them.