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
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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