Stroke of Midnight: A Midnight Breed Novella (The Midnight Breed Series) Read online

  Stroke of Midnight

  A Midnight Breed Novella

  By Lara Adrian

  1001 Dark Nights

  Stroke of Midnight

  A Midnight Breed Novella

  By Lara Adrian

  1001 Dark Nights

  Copyright 2015 Lara Adrian,

  LLC

  ISBN: 978-1-940887-31-9

  Foreword: Copyright 2014 M.

  J. Rose

  Published

  by

  Evil

  Eye

  Concepts, Incorporated

  All rights reserved. No part of

  this book may be reproduced,

  scanned, or distributed in any

  printed or electronic form without

  permission.

  Please

  do

  not

  participate in or encourage piracy

  of

  copyrighted

  materials

  in

  violation of the author’s rights.

  This is a work of fiction.

  Names, places, characters and

  incidents are the product of the

  author’s

  imagination

  and

  are

  fictitious. Any resemblance to

  actual persons, living or dead,

  events or establishments is solely

  coincidental.

  Book Description

  Stroke of Midnight

  A Midnight Breed Novella

  By Lara Adrian

  Born to a noble Breed lineage

  steeped in exotic ritual and familial

  duty, vampire warrior Jehan walked

  away from the luxurious trappings

  of his upbringing in Morocco to

  join the Order’s command center in

  Rome.

  But when a generations-old

  obligation calls Jehan home, the

  reluctant desert prince finds himself

  thrust into an unwanted handfasting

  with Seraphina, an unwilling beauty

  who’s as determined as he is to

  resist the antiquated pact between

  their families.

  Yet as intent as they are to

  prove their incompatibility, neither

  can deny the attraction that ignites

  between them. And as Jehan and

  Seraphina fight to resist the calling

  of their blood, a deadly enemy

  seeks to end their uneasy truce

  before it even begins….

  About Lara Adrian

  LARA ADRIAN is the New

  York Times and #1 internationally

  best-selling author of the Midnight

  Breed vampire romance series,

  with nearly 4 million books in print

  and

  digital

  worldwide

  and

  translations licensed to more than

  20 countries. Her books regularly

  appear in the top spots of all the

  major bestseller lists including the

  New York Times, USA Today,

  Publishers Weekly, Indiebound,

  Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, etc.

  Lara Adrian’s debut title, Kiss

  of Midnight, was named Borders

  Books best-selling debut romance

  of 2007. Later that year, her third

  title, Midnight Awakening, was

  named one of Amazon.com’s Top

  Ten

  Romances

  of

  the

  Year.

  Reviewers have called Lara’s

  books

  “addictively

  readable”

  (Chicago Tribune), “extraordinary”

  (Fresh Fiction), and “one of the best

  vampire series on the market”

  (Romantic Times).

  With an ancestry stretching

  back to the Mayflower and the court

  of King Henry VIII, Lara Adrian

  lives with her husband in New

  England, surrounded by centuries-

  old graveyards, hip urban comforts,

  and the endless inspiration of the

  broody Atlantic Ocean.

  Connect with Lara online:

  Website

  Facebook

  Twitter

  Pinterest

  Also from Lara Adrian

  Click to purchase

  Midnight Breed Series

  A Touch of Midnight (prequel novella FREE eBook)

  Kiss of Midnight

  Kiss of Crimson

  Midnight Awakening

  Midnight Rising

  Veil of Midnight

  Ashes of Midnight

  Shades of Midnight

  Taken by Midnight

  Deeper Than Midnight

  A Taste of Midnight (ebook novella)

  Darker After Midnight

  The Midnight Breed Series

  Companion

  Edge of Dawn

  Marked by Midnight (novella)

  Crave the Night

  Tempted by Midnight (novella)

  Bound to Darkness

  Stroke of Midnight

  …and more to come!

  Masters of Seduction Series

  Merciless: House of Gravori

  Priceless: House of Ebarron

  Phoenix Code Series

  Cut and Run (Books 1 & 2)

  Hide and Seek (Books 3 & 4)

  Historical Romances

  Dragon Chalice Series

  Heart of the Hunter (FREE eBook)

  Heart of the Flame

  Heart of the Dove

  Dragon Chalice Boxed Set

  Warrior Trilogy

  White Lion’s Lady (FREE eBook)

  Black Lion’s Bride

  Lady of Valor

  Warrior Trilogy Boxed Set

  Standalone Titles

  Lord of Vengeance

  Acknowledgments

  I am thrilled to be part of the

  1001 Dark Nights collection for a

  second time with this novella in my

  Midnight Breed vampire romance

  series. My thanks to the awesome

  and endlessly creative Liz Berry,

  MJ Rose, Jillian Stein, and

  everyone else working behind the

  scenes at Evil Eye Concepts to

  make the project a success. Big

  hugs to my fellow 1001 Dark Nights

  authors as well. Every year, the

  lineup gets more impressive and the

  depth of talent more amazing. I’m

  grateful for your support and

  honored to call so many of you my

  friends.

  And I have to send out lots of

  love and heartfelt thanks to my

  readers. I can’t tell you what it

  means to me that you continue to

  embrace my characters and my

  work. I hope you have fun reading

  this new Midnight Breed adventure,

  and I hope you enjoy all the rest

  still to come!

  With love,

  Lara Adrian

  Sign up for the 1001 Dark Nights Newsletter

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  As a bonus, all subscribers

  will re
ceive a free

  1001 Dark Nights story on

  1/1/15.

  The First Night

  by Lexi Blake & M.J. Rose

  Table of Contents

  Book Description

  About Lara Adrian

  Also by Lara Adrian

  Author Acknowledgments

  Foreword

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Also From 1001 Dark Nights

  An excerpt from Bound to Darkness

  by Lara Adrian

  Rising Storm

  Special Thanks

  One Thousand and One

  Dark Nights

  Once upon a time, in the future…

  I was a student fascinated with

  stories and learning.

  I studied philosophy, poetry,

  history, the occult, and

  the art and science of love and

  magic. I had a vast

  library at my father’s home and

  collected thousands

  of volumes of fantastic tales.

  I learned all about ancient races

  and bygone

  times. About myths and legends

  and dreams of all

  people through the millennium.

  And the more I read

  the stronger my imagination grew

  until I discovered

  that I was able to travel into the

  stories... to actually

  become part of them.

  I wish I could say that I listened to

  my teacher

  and respected my gift, as I ought to

  have. If I had, I

  would not be telling you this tale

  now.

  But I was foolhardy and confused,

  showing off

  with bravery.

  One afternoon, curious about the

  myth of the

  Arabian Nights, I traveled back to

  ancient Persia to

  see for myself if it was true that

  every day Shahryar

  (Persian: رﺎﯾﺮﮭﺷ, “king”) married

  a new virgin, and then

  sent yesterday’s wife to be

  beheaded. It was written

  and I had read, that by the time he

  met Scheherazade,

  the vizier’s daughter, he’d killed

  one thousand

  women.

  Something went wrong with my

  efforts. I arrived

  in the midst of the story and

  somehow exchanged

  places with Scheherazade – a

  phenomena that had

  never occurred before and that

  still to this day, I

  cannot explain.

  Now I am trapped in that ancient

  past. I have

  taken on Scheherazade’s life and

  the only way I can

  protect myself and stay alive is to

  do what she did to

  protect herself and stay alive.

  Every night the King calls for me

  and listens as I spin tales.

  And when the evening ends and

  dawn breaks, I stop at a

  point that leaves him breathless

  and yearning for more.

  And so the King spares my life for

  one more day, so that

  he might hear the rest of my dark

  tale.

  As soon as I finish a story... I begin

  a new

  one... like the one that you, dear

  reader, have before

  you now.

  CHAPTER 1

  Screams shot up from one of

  the

  many

  narrow,

  cobbled

  alleyways in the heart of Rome’s

  quaint old Trastevere ward. The

  shrieks of mortal terror pierced the

  night as effectively as a blade.

  Or, rather, a pair of razor-

  sharp fangs.

  Like the ones on the gang of

  lethal predators who’d shredded the

  throat of a human civilian in a

  dance club across the city only

  minutes ago.

  Shit. Jehan swung an urgent

  look over his shoulder to the two

  other Breed warriors currently on

  foot behind him. “They’re getting

  away.”

  He and his teammates from the

  Order’s Rome command center had

  been in pursuit of the four blood-

  thirsty Rogues since their patrol had

  been alerted to the killing at the

  club. They had contained the

  situation before any of the other

  humans had realized what was

  going on, but their mission wouldn’t

  be over until they ashed the feral

  members of their own race.

  “Split up,” he told his men.

  “Damn it, we can’t lose them!

  Close in from all sides.”

  His comrade and good friend,

  Savage, grinned and gave a nod of

  his blond head before veering right

  to take one of the other winding

  alleys on Jehan’s command. The

  other warrior, a hulking, shaved-

  head menace called Trygg, made no

  acknowledgment to his team leader

  before vanishing into the darkness

  like a wraith to carry out the order.

  Jehan sped like an arrow

  through the tight artery of the

  ancient street ahead of him, dodging

  slow-moving compact cars and

  taxis who were getting nowhere fast

  in the district that was clogged with

  tourists and club-hoppers even as

  the hour crept close to midnight.

  The public out and about

  tonight was a mix of human and

  Breed civilians, something that

  would have been unheard of just

  twenty years ago, before the

  Breed’s

  existence

  had

  been

  revealed to mankind.

  Now, in cities around the

  world, the two populations lived

  together openly. They worked

  together. Governed together. But

  their hard-won peace was fragile.

  All it might take was one horrific

  killing—like the one earlier tonight

  —to set off a global panic.

  While every Breed warrior of

  the Order had pledged his blood

  and breath to prevent that from

  happening, others among mankind

  and the Breed were secretly—and

  not-so-secretly—instigating war.

  Tonight’s Rogue attack had the

  stamp of conspiracy all over it. And

  it wasn’t the first. During the past

  few nights there had been a handful

  of others, in Rome and elsewhere in

  Europe. While it wasn’t unusual for

  one of Jehan’s kind to become

  irreversibly addicted to blood, the

  spate of recent slayings in all-too-

  public places by Rogues torqued up

  on some kind of Bloodlust-inducing

  narcotic had fingers pointing to the

  terror group called Opus Nostrum.

  Just a f
ew days ago, the Order

  had scored a staggering hit on Opus,

  taking out its newest leader, who’d

  been headquartered in Ireland. The

  cabal was hobbled for now, but its

  hidden members were many and

  their machinations seemed to know

  no bounds. They and all who served

  them had to be stopped, or the

  consequences were certain to be

  catastrophic.

  Jehan was a blur of motion as

  he leapt over the hood of a standing

  taxi to vault himself up onto the

  tiled rooftops above the thick

  congestion on the streets.

  His heavy black patrol boots

  made no sound as he traveled with

  preternatural stealth and speed over

  the uneven terrain of the buildings.

  He jumped from one rooftop to the

  next, following his instincts—and

  the trace, metallic scent of fresh

  blood that floated up on the night

  breeze as the Rogue attempted to

  escape his pursuers.

  He lived for this kind of

  action. The adrenaline rush. The

  thrill of the chase. The conviction

  that came from doing something

  with real purpose, something that

  would have true and lasting impact

  on his world.

  A far cry from the posh wealth

  and useless decadence he’d been

  born into with his family in

  Morocco.

  That old life was still trying to

  call him back, even though he

  hadn’t

  stepped

  foot

  on

  his

  homeland’s soil for more than a

  decade.

  It had been twelve months and

  a day since he’d received the

  message from his father. Jehan

  knew what that meant, and he

  couldn’t pretend he hadn’t heard

  every tick of the damned countdown

  clock in the time since.

  With a growl, he pushed aside

  reminders of the obligation he’d

  been pointedly ignoring. Right now,

  his focus was better spent on the

  more urgent mission in front of him.

  Down below in a twisting

  alleyway, Jehan spied one of the

  fleeing Rogues. Fingers gripping the

  handle of one of his titanium blades,

  he drew the weapon and let it fly.

  Direct hit. The dagger nailed the

  Rogue in the center of his spine,

  dropping him in his tracks.

  Ordinarily, it took more than

  that to disable one of the Breed, but

  the titanium was toxic to vampires

  who’d

  gone

  Rogue,

  and

  as

  corrosive as acid to their diseased

  bodies. In minutes or less, the

  corpse would be nothing but ashes

  in the street.

  Jehan didn’t wait to see the