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Prologue

 

  Limani

  Inside all men and beasts is the eternal desire for a haven. Some place free of persecution, free of being hunted or harmed. But long ago there was no such place to be found for those who were both men and beasts. Those who could walk on four legs by day and two legs by night.

  They were hunted by all, with no refuge to be found.

  Their story, like all stories, had a beginning-a beginning of eternal love gone afoul. Aeons ago there was an ancient Greek king who had a queen who meant more to him than all the world. But his queen harbored a dark secret. She was born of a cursed race.

  More than two thousand years before her birth, her people had made a tragic mistake. They had killed the mistress and child of the Greek god Apollo. In retaliation for the murders, the Greek god cursed her people with three things. They would have to drink the blood of their own in order to live. They could never again walk in daylight. But it was the third curse that was the most harsh. They would all die slowly and painfully on their twenty-seventh birthday.

  True to the god's curse, the young queen painfully decayed into dust the day she turned twenty-seven. Helpless to stop it, the king watched as his beloved died, calling out his name. Once she was gone, he realized that his two sons were destined to meet the same horrific fate as their mother.

  Unable to bear the loss of them, too, the king set out to magically elongate their lives. Using the darkest of magicks, he gathered up his wife's people, who were called Apollites, and he experimented on them. Splicing their cursed humanlike life force with that of the strongest of animals, he created two races. The Arcadians, who possessed human hearts, and the Katagaria, who possessed animal hearts.

  The Arcadians were basically humans who were able to take animal form once they reached puberty-an event that for them occurs around the age of twenty-five. The Katagaria were animals who could take human form once they reached puberty at the same time. Two sides of the same coin, both species were born to wield magick and travel through time under the light of the full moon.

  At long last, the Greek god's curse was lifted from at least those Apollites who had been transformed into both human and animal. No longer true Apollites, they could not be held to Apollo's curse. Or so the king thought until the ancient Greek god complained to the three Fates.

  "Who are you to thwart the god's plan?" the Fates demanded as one voice.

  The king answered defiantly. "Like any father worth his salt, I have protected my sons. No one will take their lives needlessly over something they had no part in. "

  But that wasn't good enough for the Fates. They were angered by the king's hubris. How dare he seek a way to alter the fate of the Apollites he had experimented upon. As punishment, they demanded that he kill the Arcadians and Katagaria, beginning with his own sons.

  He refused.

  "Then there will never be peace between the two," the Fates decreed. "From this day forward, the Arcadians and the Katagaria will know nothing but strife from each other. They will hunt and kill each other until there are no more of their kind left. "

  So it has been for thousands of years. Arcadians killing Katagaria who in turn kill Arcadians. Their war has lasted even unto this day. . .

  And even beyond it.

  But as with all wars, over time, small truces were needed. Savitar, the impartial mediator between the Arcadians and Katagaria, set up limanis or sanctuaries where human and animal could go without fear of being hunted. In these few designated places, both the Katagaria and the Arcadians can rest for a time before they rejoin their ranks and begin warring anew.

  It isn't easy to be recognized as such a place, but once that has been achieved, no man or beast can ever breech the limani's sanctity. Not without incurring the wrath of all branches of Arcadians and Katagaria alike.

  It is a sacred honor to be a sanctuary and it is a heavy burden. Peace always comes as a result of sacrifice. And few have sacrificed more than the bear clan who controls the Sanctuary bar in New Orleans. . .

 
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