What she knows may save his people. Or destroy them.
Vampire Mythicals Book 4
Still depressed after the death of her best friend, Joanie Alekhine finds herself lost. Everything was changing, and she was caught in the middle, with no place to be.
Her boss doesn’t trust her to do the job.
Her friends treat her like she’s glass and will shatter at any moment.
And then the prince calls...
Prince Maksim needs help. And he knows of one person who can help him. As a dragon prince, he has duties to live up to for his clan.
Yet he’s not ready to marry and align his dwindling clan with another, stronger clan. His clan would lose everything if he did. But if he pretends to be involved with someone highly inappropriate, like a certain sexy female vampire, he should be able to postpone any obligations for a bit longer.
When Joanie agrees to return and be his fake lover, she thinks the change of scenery might help her mood. That, or the spying on the other dragon clans, to see what she can learn.
What she knows could change the dragon’s way of life.
Can she trust Maksim with her knowledge?
Or will he take it and run?
Grab this epic conclusion to the Vampire Mythicals Series today!
Series Order
- Vampires Don't Babysit
- Vampires Don't Protect
- Vampires Don't Date the Boss
- Vampires Don't Fall in Love
Excerpt
Prince Maksim Kuznetsov was having second thoughts about this mission. Brought in by the alleged allies, the Romanian vampires to remove a threat for them, he’d taken the job as an act of good faith.
Maksim had done housekeeping jobs occasionally over the years. Especially when he was the spare.
Now, however, things had changed.
No longer the spare, he should not be doing these sort of things.
And this particular target was not what he thought.
However, he had a reputation. The Kuznetsov clan of dragons did not fail.
He did not fail.
He stood outside the house—a modest American brick home.
It was simple enough.
He could see them inside.
The target.
And a werewolf.
He watched them conversing on the couch. The fire in him began to burn under his skin.
He saw the wolf move.
The wolf sensed him. Smelled him.
She pushed the target to the rear of the house.
For a moment, Maksim considered going in the back and grabbing the target, but he hesitated.
For more than one reason. But the biggest one being the werewolf. She was going to fight, and he was going to have to deal with her, whichever door he went through.
The wolf readied, shifted, and Maksim took that moment to leap through the window.
Blindsiding her.
While the wolf was tough, it wasn’t much of a fight.
He shoved the animal down, slamming her into the wall a couple of times.
He wasn’t there for her.
This girl.
That was his target.
The heat poured off him as he moved toward her.
The girl clutched a bag and purse, frantically typing a text. She looked back at him and began to sweat.
The wolf, however, wasn’t giving up. She kept coming back. They fought. He flung her away again, and the gesture set a table on fire.
The wolf lunged at the dragon.
Back and forth they went.
He wasn’t in the mood for this.
He knew this was a very “gray area” assignment when he’d taken it. Housekeeping, he’d done. And had for vampires before. It was part of the agreement between his clan and the Romanian vampires. He didn’t think, at least not at first, that this was a child he was supposed to eliminate, though.
No one had mentioned that.
Maksim heard her mutter, and he glanced at her.
The girl backed up against the sink.
The dragon threw the wolf across the room. His skin partially morphing into scales, the heat like fire-hot trim outlining the scales.
The girl tried to spray him with water.
It didn’t quite reach. At least not at first.
“Go!” she shouted.
Then the water shifted and headed straight for him.
What the hell? Maksim wondered. What was this girl? No one mentioned what she was.
He closed in on her.
She shot more water, and when it hit him, it flash-steamed.
She started to dart away in the fog that the steam had created.
Maksim, however, kept up.
“You get away from me,” she said.
“What are you going to do to me?” Fire glowed all around the dragon, intimidating her.
She shot more water at him.
He steamed.
She took off.
He reached out and grabbed her arm.
The girl cried out, dropping her bags. “Let go of me! Do you know who I am?” Smoke and fog filled the house. Everything around her was burning.
“You can’t do this to me,” she spat at him, wincing from the burns on her arm.
“Yes, I can.” Maksim drug her outside. He wasn’t about to just walk away from this. But he wasn’t about to not fulfill his deal, either.
When they stepped away from the house, he saw the wolf, crawling toward the door. She was almost outside.
He heard fire trucks in the air, they would be there soon. He had a moment to cover his path.
Several quick, controlled flame bursts set the house fully ablaze. And covered his tracks.
Wings popped out of his shoulders as he held the girl.
“Hold on,” he said.
“You’re burning me.”
“Be thankful that’s the only thing I’m doing to you.” The wings spread out, and he rolled his shoulders. The wings moved.
He shot into the air; his prize found.
Though he didn’t complete the contract as requested.
* * *
“You did not tell me what she was,” Maksim snapped at Don Romano when he arrived back at the castle in Romania.
“You were supposed to eliminate her.”
“A child! You wanted me to kill a child!”
“A very dangerous child,” Romano said.
“She’s not human,” Maksim said. “Do you know that?” To look at her, she looked like any ordinary human teen, but her eyes. They were violet. Not blue silver, not some trick of the light.
They were violet.
Only one known species of mythical had violet eyes.
Vampires of the First. Direct descendants from the bloodline of Cain, the First Vampire and Lilith.
Powerful vampires—the most powerful on Earth.
Yet this child, she could stand in the sunlight, and be unharmed.
Possibly a special power of the Vampires of the First?
Maksim didn’t know, but it was quite frightening to learn that there were still Vampires of the First walking around the planet.
Especially if they could walk in the sunshine.
They were supposed to be dead.
“I know,” Romano said.
“You gave me nothing,” he snapped. “Nothing to go on, no idea what she was, what I was dealing with.”
“And what have you concluded?”
Maksim narrowed his gaze on the old vampire. “That dragons don’t kill children. No matter what they are.”
“You should do what you’re told, Prince of Kuznetsov. You don’t want to extend the debt owed,” Romano said,
“Even my father, bastard that he is, wouldn’t send me to kill children. There are lines even we do not cross.”
Romano raised his eyebrow. “Are you sure, dragon?”
Maksim crossed his arms.
Romano glanced around. “So, where is she? Where is this child you refused to kill, and my son thought was so damn valuable?”
“She’s below. In one of the chambers. I ordered guards on her room.”
Romano nodded. “Perhaps I need to go speak to her. Fix this situation.”
The old man got up and glided past Maksim.
“You do that,” he muttered.
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