Description:
Yvgeny Breznik, the CEO of a large corporation in New York City, has a laundry list of problems. A micro-managing aunt, a cousin who doesn’t know the meaning of the word restraint, and a new employee who occupies far too much of his attention. Samantha Dubets is his onsite medic, and she doesn’t know when to stop trying to protect the city’s most vulnerable citizens from their own mistakes. It’s all he can do to keep her out of trouble and his hands off her.
Oh, and he’s an eight-hundred-year-old vampire. One of less than two hundred in the entire world. Over the years, fewer and fewer people have been born with the genetic quirk necessary to become one, which means vampires are on the brink of extinction and desperate to enlarge their numbers.
Samantha’s blood reveals that she has the best chance of becoming a vampire of any human in a couple centuries. As a result, old alliances, treaties, and promises are tossed aside for the chance to take her. Other vampires want her to have children, as many as possible, then change her. But none of them are going to ask nicely. Yvgeny isn’t going to allow any of them to touch her because she belongs to him.
Samantha, however, has other plans…
Prologue
Bazyli Breznik looked at the shiny yellow cab parked in front of him, not a dent in sight, and shook his head. “This is not my car.” A new car like this was attractive, pleasant, and worst of all…trackable.
His cousin, Yvgeny Breznik, frowned at him.
Yvgeny was the same height as he was, about six feet, same dark hair and eyes, but where Baz preferred shaggy hair and a beard, Yvgeny kept his hair short and was clean shaven. He also wore a suit that probably cost more than what Baz made in a month driving a yellow cab. Expensive watch and a fancy tie, too. He looked like the kind of mark any pickpocket would love to bump into. Except for one thing. The clean-cut businessman exterior was a thin veneer for what he really was: a killer.
The same as Baz.
“Your old car is flat as a pancake.” Yvgeny glanced at the new vehicle and gestured at it. “What’s wrong with this one?”
“It’s too new.”
“It’s two years old.”
“It doesn’t even need a key.” Baz waved his hand at the car. “You just have to stand there with the black box thingy in your pocket, get in, and push the big stupid button to start it.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
Baz crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t trust machines that are smarter than I am.”
“There are lamps smarter than you are,” Yvgeny said with a laugh. He shook his head and sighed. “Why do you always have to be so difficult?”
“Just give me the oldest car you have. Something I can hotwire if the occasion calls for it.”
“You are worse than a wife,” his cousin said as he pulled out his phone and texted something to someone. “Complain, complain, complain. Nag, nag, nag.”
“How would you know?”
“I’ve seen a lot of good men, independent, strong bastards reduced to whimpering fools by a woman.”
Baz snorted. “They hadn’t met the right woman then.”
Yvgeny didn’t reply.
Baz looked at him. Normally his cousin would continue to make wise cracks, but instead he looked oddly serious. “What?”
Yvgeny put his phone away. “Still in the honeymoon stage?” he asked as if concerned about the answer.
“You mean, me and Nika?” Baz frowned. Did Yvgeny think he and Nika were just playing house? “This isn’t a game or a short-term thing for either of us.”
It had been two weeks since he and Nika had decided to try to have an actual relationship. Two weeks since she’d been kidnapped by human traffickers. Two weeks since he’d nearly gotten her killed. Two weeks since she’d found out that he and a small group of others weren’t quite human anymore. Well, they were human, but they were suffering from an auto-immune disorder that had changed them.
They didn’t get sick or age and healed in seconds what would take weeks for a normal human. They had to drink blood to obtain sustenance.
Two weeks since she found out Baz was a vampire. She should have tried to kill him, should have tried to shoot as many bullets as possible into his brain.
Instead, she’d backed him up and put those bullets into other vampires’ brains. She’d kissed him, loved him, and was working to hide what he was from the rest of humanity.
Yvgeny’s gaze flicked between Baz and the house behind him. “Are you sure she won’t betray you? She’s a cop, they’re all about the rules, and we broke a lot of them.”
“If she were going to do that, she’d have done it already, while she still had some semblance of proof.”
Yvgeny’s mouth flattened into a thin line. “What happens when you two…part ways?”
Ah, that was the real question Yvgeny wanted answered.
“I can’t predict the future any more than you can, Yvgeny.”
His cousin’s expression soured. He’d never liked mights, maybes, or conditions. You’d think after being alive for eight hundred years he’d learned to be a little more flexible in his thinking. Unfortunately, most vampires went the other direction the older they got.
“I’m not the same man now than I was when my wife died.” Baz said. “The world around us is different in many profound ways as well.” He shrugged. “My choices will be different.”
“That,” Yvgeny said slowly. “Is actually more frightening.”
Really?
Baz studied his cousin. What could be worse than going on a rampage, destroying churches and other property, and killing hundreds of people?
“What crawled up your ass and died?” Baz asked. “You must have gotten some shitty news.”
Yvgeny let out a gusty sigh. “I’m trying to hire a new assistant.”
“I figured, since the last one died in the explosion that destroyed your office.”
“Yes, well, so far at least two undercover cops and three FBI agents have applied.”
“Huh. Well, would any of them be any good at the job?”
Yvgeny turned to stare at Baz with exasperated wide eyes. “Why would I hire one of them?”
Baz bumped his shoulder against his cousin’s. “Because you’d have control over what they see and don’t see. Or did your human assistant know about the family business?”
“No, but…” his voice trailed off. “Damn it, why didn’t I think of that?”
“You’re off your game, Yvgeny. Ever since the fight at your hotel, you haven’t been your normal confident, asshole self. What gives?”
“There are a lot of eyes on us, Bazyli, many of them not family. None of them friendly.”
“Have you heard anything official?”
“What, like a knife between my eyes?” he asked, his voice rising. “Or maybe my office blowing up? Or getting shot inside my own damn motel?”
“Has someone been throwing knives at you?”
“No, but it’s next, seeing as how the other two have already happened.”
“You killed the assholes who shot and blew you up.”
“There are always more assholes, Bazyli,” Yvgeny said like he was a priest giving a sermon. “Always.”
“True.”
Baz didn’t say anything else.
After a few seconds Yvgeny grunted. “But, no, nothing beyond the orders we were given two weeks ago.”
“The standard bullshit?”
“Conform to societal norms, stay out of hospitals, and attract no attention?”
“Yeah, that’s the bullshit I’m talking about.”
“Baz,” Yvgeny said in a tone that offered both sympathy and censure. “You’re usually hip-deep in so much shit, it’s hard to tell what’s new and what’s been stinking up your life for a while.”
Baz studied his cousin. “I’ve kept my head down and stayed out of trouble for a very long time, so we both know that isn’t true. You’re anxious about something, more than usual.”
Yvgeny stared at the pavement beneath their feet for three long seconds. “Something feels off,” he said slowly. “I can’t put my finger on it, but something feels off about the city.”
“You’ve got eyes and ears all over the place,” Baz pointed out. “What are they saying?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary. Business is good right now, lots of new construction.”
“The construction arm of your business has gotten bigger?”
“Yes, a couple of big companies pulled out two or three years ago when the price of lumber doubled.”
“So business is good, but you’ve noticed something that doesn’t fit?”
“I’d probably be able to figure it out if my office hadn’t gone up in smoke along with my assistant.”
Baz thought about Yvgeny’s predicament. “Are you doing anything illegal these days?”
Yvgeny snorted. “Aside from family business you mean?”
At Baz’s nod, Yvgeny continued. “No actually. Your mother instructed me to divest myself of anything hinky about five years ago.” He paused. “Outside of family business.” He shook his head. “Maybe she saw all this coming.”
“My mom is a strategic thinker.” An idea occurred to him, and he grinned. “Hire one of those law enforcement types to be your new assistant, then get them looking for what ever is bothering you.”
“I need an assistant for both businesses.”
“So, bring in a family member to help you with family stuff. Or get my mom to send you somebody. Someone to train even from an allied family.”
“I don’t think she’ll go for that.”
Baz shrugged. “Won’t know until you ask her.”
“You could help me,” Yvgeny said in a diffident, small tone that didn’t fool Baz for a second.
“Taking on that much responsibility would not be wise.”
“But—”
“No.” Baz threw the word at his cousin, hard.
It had taken him five hundred years to get to a point where he could allow himself to love again, to trust anyone again. He was not ready for more responsibility than that. Besides, they were still waiting for the other shoe to fall. Baz, Nika, and Yvgeny had killed several vampires from South America after they tried to kidnap Nika. That many deaths would cause unease, unrest, and possibly retaliation within their small community of obsessive compulsive, blood-sucking weirdos.
His mother, for one, had already graced them with a visit, and issued a few threats.
More were sure to come.
“Fine.” Yvgeny sighed like he’d been caught in a lie by his teacher. He took a couple of steps away, then turned. “I’ll see if I can find a car matching your incredibly low standards.”
Baz watched him walk away and get into his limo. Watched as the long, black vehicle drove away, and knew he was going to have to keep watching Yvgeny closely.
His cousin was subdued and distracted. Both were dangerous for men in their position. None of them could afford to make any costly mistakes, or they could all end up dead or worse.
Yvgeny Breznik, the CEO of a large corporation in New York City, has a laundry list of problems. A micro-managing aunt, a cousin who doesn’t know the meaning of the word restraint, and a new employee who occupies far too much of his attention. Samantha Dubets is his onsite medic, and she doesn’t know when to stop trying to protect the city’s most vulnerable citizens from their own mistakes. It’s all he can do to keep her out of trouble and his hands off her.
Oh, and he’s an eight-hundred-year-old vampire. One of less than two hundred in the entire world. Over the years, fewer and fewer people have been born with the genetic quirk necessary to become one, which means vampires are on the brink of extinction and desperate to enlarge their numbers.
Samantha’s blood reveals that she has the best chance of becoming a vampire of any human in a couple centuries. As a result, old alliances, treaties, and promises are tossed aside for the chance to take her. Other vampires want her to have children, as many as possible, then change her. But none of them are going to ask nicely. Yvgeny isn’t going to allow any of them to touch her because she belongs to him.
Samantha, however, has other plans…
Prologue
Bazyli Breznik looked at the shiny yellow cab parked in front of him, not a dent in sight, and shook his head. “This is not my car.” A new car like this was attractive, pleasant, and worst of all…trackable.
His cousin, Yvgeny Breznik, frowned at him.
Yvgeny was the same height as he was, about six feet, same dark hair and eyes, but where Baz preferred shaggy hair and a beard, Yvgeny kept his hair short and was clean shaven. He also wore a suit that probably cost more than what Baz made in a month driving a yellow cab. Expensive watch and a fancy tie, too. He looked like the kind of mark any pickpocket would love to bump into. Except for one thing. The clean-cut businessman exterior was a thin veneer for what he really was: a killer.
The same as Baz.
“Your old car is flat as a pancake.” Yvgeny glanced at the new vehicle and gestured at it. “What’s wrong with this one?”
“It’s too new.”
“It’s two years old.”
“It doesn’t even need a key.” Baz waved his hand at the car. “You just have to stand there with the black box thingy in your pocket, get in, and push the big stupid button to start it.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
Baz crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t trust machines that are smarter than I am.”
“There are lamps smarter than you are,” Yvgeny said with a laugh. He shook his head and sighed. “Why do you always have to be so difficult?”
“Just give me the oldest car you have. Something I can hotwire if the occasion calls for it.”
“You are worse than a wife,” his cousin said as he pulled out his phone and texted something to someone. “Complain, complain, complain. Nag, nag, nag.”
“How would you know?”
“I’ve seen a lot of good men, independent, strong bastards reduced to whimpering fools by a woman.”
Baz snorted. “They hadn’t met the right woman then.”
Yvgeny didn’t reply.
Baz looked at him. Normally his cousin would continue to make wise cracks, but instead he looked oddly serious. “What?”
Yvgeny put his phone away. “Still in the honeymoon stage?” he asked as if concerned about the answer.
“You mean, me and Nika?” Baz frowned. Did Yvgeny think he and Nika were just playing house? “This isn’t a game or a short-term thing for either of us.”
It had been two weeks since he and Nika had decided to try to have an actual relationship. Two weeks since she’d been kidnapped by human traffickers. Two weeks since he’d nearly gotten her killed. Two weeks since she’d found out that he and a small group of others weren’t quite human anymore. Well, they were human, but they were suffering from an auto-immune disorder that had changed them.
They didn’t get sick or age and healed in seconds what would take weeks for a normal human. They had to drink blood to obtain sustenance.
Two weeks since she found out Baz was a vampire. She should have tried to kill him, should have tried to shoot as many bullets as possible into his brain.
Instead, she’d backed him up and put those bullets into other vampires’ brains. She’d kissed him, loved him, and was working to hide what he was from the rest of humanity.
Yvgeny’s gaze flicked between Baz and the house behind him. “Are you sure she won’t betray you? She’s a cop, they’re all about the rules, and we broke a lot of them.”
“If she were going to do that, she’d have done it already, while she still had some semblance of proof.”
Yvgeny’s mouth flattened into a thin line. “What happens when you two…part ways?”
Ah, that was the real question Yvgeny wanted answered.
“I can’t predict the future any more than you can, Yvgeny.”
His cousin’s expression soured. He’d never liked mights, maybes, or conditions. You’d think after being alive for eight hundred years he’d learned to be a little more flexible in his thinking. Unfortunately, most vampires went the other direction the older they got.
“I’m not the same man now than I was when my wife died.” Baz said. “The world around us is different in many profound ways as well.” He shrugged. “My choices will be different.”
“That,” Yvgeny said slowly. “Is actually more frightening.”
Really?
Baz studied his cousin. What could be worse than going on a rampage, destroying churches and other property, and killing hundreds of people?
“What crawled up your ass and died?” Baz asked. “You must have gotten some shitty news.”
Yvgeny let out a gusty sigh. “I’m trying to hire a new assistant.”
“I figured, since the last one died in the explosion that destroyed your office.”
“Yes, well, so far at least two undercover cops and three FBI agents have applied.”
“Huh. Well, would any of them be any good at the job?”
Yvgeny turned to stare at Baz with exasperated wide eyes. “Why would I hire one of them?”
Baz bumped his shoulder against his cousin’s. “Because you’d have control over what they see and don’t see. Or did your human assistant know about the family business?”
“No, but…” his voice trailed off. “Damn it, why didn’t I think of that?”
“You’re off your game, Yvgeny. Ever since the fight at your hotel, you haven’t been your normal confident, asshole self. What gives?”
“There are a lot of eyes on us, Bazyli, many of them not family. None of them friendly.”
“Have you heard anything official?”
“What, like a knife between my eyes?” he asked, his voice rising. “Or maybe my office blowing up? Or getting shot inside my own damn motel?”
“Has someone been throwing knives at you?”
“No, but it’s next, seeing as how the other two have already happened.”
“You killed the assholes who shot and blew you up.”
“There are always more assholes, Bazyli,” Yvgeny said like he was a priest giving a sermon. “Always.”
“True.”
Baz didn’t say anything else.
After a few seconds Yvgeny grunted. “But, no, nothing beyond the orders we were given two weeks ago.”
“The standard bullshit?”
“Conform to societal norms, stay out of hospitals, and attract no attention?”
“Yeah, that’s the bullshit I’m talking about.”
“Baz,” Yvgeny said in a tone that offered both sympathy and censure. “You’re usually hip-deep in so much shit, it’s hard to tell what’s new and what’s been stinking up your life for a while.”
Baz studied his cousin. “I’ve kept my head down and stayed out of trouble for a very long time, so we both know that isn’t true. You’re anxious about something, more than usual.”
Yvgeny stared at the pavement beneath their feet for three long seconds. “Something feels off,” he said slowly. “I can’t put my finger on it, but something feels off about the city.”
“You’ve got eyes and ears all over the place,” Baz pointed out. “What are they saying?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary. Business is good right now, lots of new construction.”
“The construction arm of your business has gotten bigger?”
“Yes, a couple of big companies pulled out two or three years ago when the price of lumber doubled.”
“So business is good, but you’ve noticed something that doesn’t fit?”
“I’d probably be able to figure it out if my office hadn’t gone up in smoke along with my assistant.”
Baz thought about Yvgeny’s predicament. “Are you doing anything illegal these days?”
Yvgeny snorted. “Aside from family business you mean?”
At Baz’s nod, Yvgeny continued. “No actually. Your mother instructed me to divest myself of anything hinky about five years ago.” He paused. “Outside of family business.” He shook his head. “Maybe she saw all this coming.”
“My mom is a strategic thinker.” An idea occurred to him, and he grinned. “Hire one of those law enforcement types to be your new assistant, then get them looking for what ever is bothering you.”
“I need an assistant for both businesses.”
“So, bring in a family member to help you with family stuff. Or get my mom to send you somebody. Someone to train even from an allied family.”
“I don’t think she’ll go for that.”
Baz shrugged. “Won’t know until you ask her.”
“You could help me,” Yvgeny said in a diffident, small tone that didn’t fool Baz for a second.
“Taking on that much responsibility would not be wise.”
“But—”
“No.” Baz threw the word at his cousin, hard.
It had taken him five hundred years to get to a point where he could allow himself to love again, to trust anyone again. He was not ready for more responsibility than that. Besides, they were still waiting for the other shoe to fall. Baz, Nika, and Yvgeny had killed several vampires from South America after they tried to kidnap Nika. That many deaths would cause unease, unrest, and possibly retaliation within their small community of obsessive compulsive, blood-sucking weirdos.
His mother, for one, had already graced them with a visit, and issued a few threats.
More were sure to come.
“Fine.” Yvgeny sighed like he’d been caught in a lie by his teacher. He took a couple of steps away, then turned. “I’ll see if I can find a car matching your incredibly low standards.”
Baz watched him walk away and get into his limo. Watched as the long, black vehicle drove away, and knew he was going to have to keep watching Yvgeny closely.
His cousin was subdued and distracted. Both were dangerous for men in their position. None of them could afford to make any costly mistakes, or they could all end up dead or worse.