was devoted to keeping her safe.
He hissed when Walsh narrowly
avoided a collision with a car drifting
into his lane. And when another near-
miss snapped off the SUV’s passenger
side mirror, Lazaro shouted a furious
curse. He saw a break up ahead—a
chance to get in front of Walsh and force
him into the median. Lazaro buried the
gas pedal and flew past.
But Walsh saw the maneuver
coming.
Instead of letting himself catch up
to Lazaro, he hung a hard right and
gunned it for an upcoming exit.
An exit that was under construction,
littered with barrels and an obstacle
course of concrete barriers.
Walsh was going too fast, too
frantically.
Lazaro stomped on his brake and
was whipping around to give chase
again when the SUV clipped one of the
barriers and went airborne, rolling into a
hard crash.
All the breath seemed to suck out of
Lazaro’s lungs in that instant. The entire
world seemed to stop breathing. Dust
went up in the darkness, the haze
illuminated by the beams of passing
vehicles on the road.
Then, a spark of flame.
“No,” Lazaro moaned, his blood
screaming for Melena. “Goddamn it,
no!”
He threw his vehicle in park on the
shoulder and hit the ground running.
Even with his preternatural speed,
he’d barely gotten within arm’s reach of
the wreck before the ruptured gas tank
ignited. A blinding wall of flames shot
skyward, heat blasting his face.
“Melena, no! ”
* * * *
She couldn’t breathe.
Heat all around her. Splitting pain
in her skull, ringing in her ears. She
opened her eyes and saw a churning,
thickening cloud of gray smoke. And
flames.
Oh, God. Fire everywhere.
Melena tried to move, but her arms
wouldn’t work. Her wrists were tied.
She
remembered
now,
awareness
coming back to her. Derek had bound
her. He’d driven away with her.
He and his Opus Nostrum comrades
were going to kill her.
“No,” she gasped, choking on
smoke and heat. “Oh, my God...no!”
She started kicking, screaming,
trying frantically to get free of the
restraints. She couldn’t loosen them.
And something was crushing her in the
back of the SUV. She looked up and saw
the floor. Beneath her, the roof of her
father’s GNC vehicle.
The smoke was rolling in front of
her eyes, burning them. She couldn’t
keep her lids open. Hurt to see, to
breathe...
“Melena.”
The
deep
voice
penetrated the fire and sooty air that
surrounded her. She wanted to reach for
it—for him—but she was trapped,
unable to move. “Melena, I’m going to
get you out of here, sweetheart. You stay
with me, damn it!”
There was a great, groaning howl
as the vehicle rocked where it had
fallen. A gust of cool air, followed by a
rush of hot, intensifying flame.
“I’m coming in to get you,” Lazaro
said.
She couldn’t see him, but she felt
him
climbing
inside
the
inferno.
Crawling all the way to the back, where
she lay broken and half-conscious.
And then she felt his strong hands
make contact with her.
“Ah, Christ,” he hissed, and she
knew what he saw couldn’t be good.
Another metallic roar filled the air,
then the crushing weight that had pinned
her down was lifted. Tenderly, Lazaro
took hold of her. Started pulling her free
“I’ve got you now, Melena. I’ve got
you.”
She didn’t let the first sob go until
she felt the warmth of his chest against
her cheek. She buried her face in that
comforting strength, breathed in the scent
of him even as her throat screamed with
pain from the smoke that choked her
lungs.
And then he scooped her up in his
arms and he was running. Away from the
smoke. Away from the heat and the fire
and the horror.
Cool night air enveloped her, filled
her nose as she braved a cleansing
breath. And circled around her were
Lazaro’s strong arms, holding her close,
keeping her safe—carrying her away
from certain death.
He set her down in the crisp, moist
grass, while behind them came a jarring
roll of thunder as a plume of fire and
smoke shot up into the moonlit sky.
Horns blared out on the highway. Tires
screeched as traffic came to a halt at the
scene of the accident.
But all Melena knew was the
haggard, terrified face of the man she
loved, staring down at her as he held her
in a careful embrace. He tore off the
lamp cord that bound her wrists and
tossed it aside on a vicious snarl. When
he reached down to smooth a hank of
limp hair from her face, his fingers
trembled.
Melena tried to speak but couldn’t
push sound through her lips. Her body
ached everywhere, some of the pains
searing, others a dull, relentless throb.
Lazaro’s dark eyes were sober in
his handsome face. His beautiful,
sensual mouth was a flattened, grim line.
“You’re going to be all right, you hear
me? I’m not letting you go.”
She wanted to argue that he already
had. That her heart was still breaking
from the thought of him pushing her out
of his life. Out of his heart.
He stared down at her, misery
swimming in his gaze. “I’m not going to
lose you, Melena.”
On a curse, he brought his wrist up
to his mouth and bit into his own flesh.
No hesitation. No asking for permission
before he put the punctures to her parted
lips. “Drink.”
She tried to shake her head. This
wasn’t the way she wanted him, coming
back to save her when he had been
determined to leave her. Whether he did
this out of some noble sense of
obligation or guilt, or simply under the
power of his bond to her, she didn’t
want it. Not like this.
She wanted to reject the gift of his
blood, of his bond, but the instant the
wet, spicy warmth came in contact with
her parched tongue, she greedily drank
him in.
And oh, it was incredible.
Lazaro’s Gen One blood f
lowed
down her throat like pure light. She felt
it strengthening her body, feeding her
cells. Mending her injuries.
He tipped his head back on a
strangled moan as she swallowed more
of his eternal gift, his fangs gleaming, his
broad shoulders and immense body
silhouetted by the flames he’d walked
through to save her.
It was the last thing Melena saw
before a bone-deep exhaustion rose up
to claim her.
CHAPTER 13
He had lived for more than a
thousand years, long enough that few
things still held the power to amaze him.
The sight of Melena finally opening her
eyes to look at him, after lying in bed
unconscious for two days, was one of
those rare pleasures for Lazaro Archer.
The worst of her injuries had
healed. Her burns were gone. She was
alive, and he’d never seen anything more
welcome in all his life.
He smiled at her and gently stroked
his thumb over the back of her hand as
he held it. “Hello, beautiful.”
“Where are we?” she asked, her
voice thready.
“Still in D.C. I brought you here
after the accident. I’ve been waiting for
you to wake up so I could ask you
something.”
Lazaro shook his head. “I’m sorry,
Melena.”
“He was part of Opus Nostrum,”
she said quietly. “He arranged for the
attack on Turati and my father to prove
something to his superiors. He was
trying to win their recognition. And he
was afraid if I ever saw him again, I’d
know all of his secrets.”
Lazaro and the Order had already
surmised that Derek Walsh likely had
ties to Opus, but hearing Melena confirm
it made his blood seethe with renewed
rage. “If he’d survived the accident the
other night, I swear, I would’ve killed
the bastard myself.”
“He seemed so different. He’d only
been away for a year, but he wasn’t my
brother anymore. And he had strange
tattoos I’ve never seen before. Symbols
of some kind, and a black scarab on his
back.”
“A scarab?” Lazaro thought back to
conversations he’d had with Lucan and
the other warriors. Reports out of
London about human bodies in the
morgue bearing the same kind of unusual
tattoo.
“Does it mean something?” she
asked, worry creasing her brow.
“It might,” Lazaro said, seeing no
reason to shield her from his world. But
he would bring her into that part of his
life slowly, after they returned to Rome.
If she would be willing, that is. “We
need to talk about what’s happening with
us, Melena. About our bond.”
She turned her head on the pillow,
looking away from him. “You shouldn’t
have done it. You didn’t need to come
back to save me.”
“Yes, Melena, I did.” He reached
out, catching her chin on the tips of his
fingers. He brought her gaze back to him.
“Do you think I could’ve left, knowing
that you were in danger? I feel you in my
blood now.”
“I’m not your obligation, Lazaro. I
won’t be your burden or a regret you’ll
carry around forever.”
“No, you won’t,” he agreed
solemnly. “But will you be my mate?”
She stared at him for a long
moment. Then slowly, she shook her
head. “No. No, I can’t do that. You’re
only saying it because your honor
compels you to.”
He swore a harsh curse. “Melena,
listen to me. See me. I know you can
read my intent, so open your eyes and
hear me out. I love you. I want you in my
life, by my side. Forever, if you’ll have
me.”
“What about everything you said
before? You didn’t want another mate
under your protection. You didn’t want
that responsibility ever again.”
He blew out a bitter laugh. “And as
you so accurately pointed out for me, I
was being a coward and an idiot.”
“I don’t think I said you were an
idiot,” she murmured, looking up at him
from under her long lashes.
“Well, I was. And as soon as I
realized that, I came after you.”
“Because you were worried about
me. You knew I was in danger and your
blood wouldn’t let you stay away
without trying to help me.”
“No, Melena. Because I love you.”
He stroked her cheek. “And because I
realized the only thing worse than loving
you and dreading that I might know the
pain of losing you in the future, was the
idea of losing you now. Before we’ve
even begun to know what we can have
together.”
He leaned over her on the bed and
kissed her tenderly, deeply, with all the
love in his ageless heart. “I love you,
Melena.”
“And I love you,” she whispered.
She held his gaze, her own so open-
hearted and trusting, it took all of his
control to keep from crushing her in a
fierce embrace. “You’ve saved my life
three times now. If I’m going to be your
mate, that means you’re going to have to
let me save you sometimes too.”
“Oh, love,” he murmured. “Don’t
you know? You already have.”
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FOREVER WICKED
A Wicked Lovers Novella
by Shayla Black
CRIMSON TWILIGHT
A Krewe of Hunters Novella
by Heather Graham
CAPTURED IN SURRENDER
A MacKenzie Family Novella
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SILENT BITE: A SCANGUARDS
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A Scanguards Vampire Novella
by Tina Folsom
DUNGEON GAMES
A Masters and Mercenaries Novella
by Lexi Blake
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A Demonica Novella
by Larissa Ione
NEED YOU NOW
by Lisa Renee Jones
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A Masters of the Shadowlands Novella
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A Midnight Breed Novella
by Lara Adrian
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by Christopher Rice
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Acknowledgments from the
Author
Several years ago, my editor at
Random House forwarded me an email
from a reader who’d just discovered my
books and then tore through the entire
Midnight Breed series in a matter of a
week. Those are my favorite kinds of
emails, and what made this one even
more special was it came from the wife
of a bestselling thriller writer whose
books I also happened to love!
What a thrill and an honor it is to
now call the lovely Liz Berry a dear
friend, and a wonderful colleague. I’m
delighted to be part of the 1001 Dark
Nights collection with this novella in my
Midnight Breed vampire romance series.
My thanks to Liz, MJ Rose, Jillian Stein,
my fellow authors and friends in this
collection, and everyone else working
behind the scenes to make the project
possible. Can’t wait to do it again next
year!
Heartfelt thanks, as always, to my
family, friends, and colleagues, and to
my readers. None of my books would be
possible without all of you!
With love,
Lara Adrian
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