Ozark Destinies

Mari Layton should have died when she slid into the ravine. She still will. Learning a blood feeding saved her isn't the most shocking news, but that dying won't be the end, just a new beginning. As a vampire. She'd think the beautiful young man she feared was tailing her the past few days was crazy to believe they were real, but she can't deny feeling the beginnings of the change. And the first sight of his fangs drives home the reality of it all. For over two hundred years, Troy Pontnoir has never wanted a beneficiary, or any involvement with a woman again. Certainly not one he wasn't authorized to awaken. No telling who she belonged to; who had implanted the latent genetic code while she was still in the womb. And there are hints from immediate abilities that she could be a legacy, a child of a latent sleeper. But he is responsible now to indoctrinate her into this society, to train her in developing the supernatural abilities that could be at her command, including shapeshifting and invisibility; to teach the necessary mind control for feeding and maintaining the secrecy of their existence. To learn the combat skills that may be needed against enemy clans. He regrets the disruption of her life, the need to sever her human relationships and invent a public demise. And Mari's independent nature makes that a challenge. Drawn to her despite himself, not getting too close should be easy; he'd expect her to resent him for awakening her. Though Mari would miss the sunlight, she's had a lifelong love of caves. She's delighted to discover that she'll be living in a literally underground society, as most of a shocking number of vampires that have also roamed the earth since prehistoric times live hidden away from man in excavated and expanded cave systems. Ready to accept the inevitable and embrace her destiny, she conspires with a rival of Troy's to hasten her transformation. The regular blood trading with Garlin is addictive in the passion it induces, and confusing. Attracted to him from the start, she doubts that his interest in a budding neophyte goes beyond the physical, or besting Troy who refuses any intimacy with her. To the extent that Troy tries to pawn off training her to others at the local colony. Hiding abilities from him and attempting to understand the levels she should be displaying starts weaving a web of secrecy. She doesn't know who she should trust but everyone in this world has something to hide and her real fate may be beyond any of their control.

Now in the hands of her progenitor at the Springfield enclave, Mari struggles with this new relationship and Christoph driving her to develop the gift of foreshadowing. Rare as the ability is, it seems an absurd expectation, even having learned that he'd specially bred her over four generations in order to use her visions as an advantage in battle. But it's in her own interest to try. Seeing into the future could mean seeing a way of escaping him, of returning to Troy. Though guarded as she is, there's little doubt it would be a life forever on the run. It seems the only way she'll ever see that way out is by not fighting Christoph's rights to her and appearing to accept her place in the clan. As her sight begins unfolding, she finds her visions not only aiding Christoph but resulting in her own unexpected rescue missions with the help of Tiara, her new handmaiden. Considering Mari lost to him, Troy pursues a coldhearted course of revenge against the woman who betrayed her. Leading her down the path of a future together, his discovery of Hannah's hidden past will bring her to her downfall. That is, if he can keep her in the dark long enough as he tries to stay a step ahead of David. Still under Mari's captivation, he's intent on prosecuting Troy for her murder after Christoph fabricates her death in human society in order to sever all ties to her old life. Mari's having planned for her future only makes matters worse. Disgusted with Troy's appearing to have abandoned Mari, Garlin begins implementing his plans to abduct her from Springfield, even at the cost of renewing the war between the Kansas City and Ouachita Colonies. Involvement with the warriors at the Joplin enclave for their military intelligence is risky business. With the help of a friend and an unexpected ally in the cause, getting in to the Springfield enclave, however, may not be quite as hard as getting back out.

The failure to retrieve Mari from Springfield having left Garlin a prisoner, Troy now knows she feels her destiny lies with Christoph, as his foreshadower, but has also become his lover. Hoping she may not have given up on them, even so, he can sense the presence of her mind as she often watches him holed up in her old house. He won't leave for fear of missing these visits, does nothing but sculpt marble effigies of her day and night at hyperspeed. Succumbing to dream deprivation madness, he's also beginning to desiccate, barely feeding on packaged blood. Calling on Caron one night to come to his aide, Troy can't hide his true nature and they come to an arrangement for ongoing feedings. Only after circumstances require him to feed her does he realize she's pregnant. So shocked by what he's done, he reveals she now carries a sleeper. With David still under Mari's captivation and mourning her death, their marriage is failing and Troy finds himself increasingly drawn to taking care of both mother and child. But the surprising discovery of his future progeny's heritage isn't as great as finding that his blood has awakened something even rarer in Caron. The war between the Colonies heating up, Mari's foreshadowing abilities start really being put to the test, even with Garlin now cooperating with his knowledge of Joplin. But as preparations get underway for the assault, seizing the Ouachita enclave is no longer her biggest worry. When her visions unexpectedly throw her to Italy, Mari discovers Christoph's plans to sever ties to their chieftain in Kansas City, in fact, means going renegade from the clan's true monarch, a major power in the vampire world. And worse still, trying to stay a step ahead of his legendary foreshadower. Her personal life presents no fewer challenges. Securing her hand, Christoph begins to allow Troy weekly visits, but every time he arrives, Mari finds him more caught up in an extraordinary life he's creating on the outside with Caron.

Life as a vampire is getting no easier for Mari, despite her newly awakened brother joining her in the Springfield enclave. Now that their chieftain knows of Christoph's plans to go renegade, doubts arise over who in the household is to be trusted. Whether Gianni has a hidden agenda isn't the only worry. Or who may be spying for whom, for the escalating war with the Ouachita colony has drawn their monarch out of Italy, and Uziel well guards his knowledge and intentions regarding the schism, her own foreshadowing abilities, or the appearance of a powerful elemental. Mari has her own secrets, as she has to keep from Ben his having fathered a superhuman child with her former best friend, now Troy's fiancée; that reunion seeming finally lost. Furthermore that Caron is the one in jeopardy from Gianni's challenge to release Christoph's fealty in exchange for the mysterious familiar. This no less a worry for Troy and Caron, they must contend with troubles closer to home with David fighting the divorce and trying to hide the rapidly developing, unique new life inside her. The danger to Caron and the baby prompting them to form a coven of witches around them creates more family issues with Troy acquiring a new beneficiary to rival Mari and bringing out Caron's immortal mother -who's already had more of a hand in their lives than they knew. All the while, preoccupied by the past, Troy's downplaying of the prophesized danger to his future will have deadly consequences.