True Death

TRUE DEATH VAMPIRES & VICES NO. 4 NINA WALKER ADDISON & GRAY PRESS Copyright © 2023 by Nina Walker All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Editing by Ailene Kubricky Character Illustration by Kalynne Art Cover by Clarissa at JOY Author Design Studio Ebook ISBN: 978-1-950093-36-6 Paperback ISBN: 978-1-950093-39-7 For The Booktok Girlies CONTENTS 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 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Epilogue A Letter From The Author Also By Nina Walker Acknowledgments About the Author CHAPTER 1 ADRIAN When you live as long as vampires do, time almost becomes irrelevant. Almost, because our existence is chained to an endless countdown. Sunrise is our constant reckoning, a reminder that we were made for the darker halves of this world. Trying to change that is like trying to change the speed of light. Impossible. “Two weeks,” Mangus grumbles. “How are we supposed to round them up in only two weeks?” My vampiric brother and I are hiding out in a decrepit basement somewhere in rural Ireland, waiting for the sun to set so that we can run. Mangus isn’t my real brother, but we have the same maker and he’s the only other prince I’ve ever considered a true friend. Now that I don’t know how much longer I’ll have him, I’m finally allowing myself to accept him as the brother I never had. He’s not doing well since Kat’s death. The man doesn’t want to be here anymore. I understand that because I felt the same way for ages after I killed Eleni. I wanted to crawl into the grave with her, to find her in the afterlife and beg her forgiveness, and then to burn in hell for what I’d done. But mostly, I wanted to kill Brisa for what she’d let happen to us. And that’s the other thing about being undead––we learn to be patient. Even when we don’t want to be, it’s forced upon us. Days. Months. Years. Centuries. Eventually the patience runs out, and when it does, someone always ends up dead. “Two weeks is not a lot of time, but it’s almost too much.” I hate to point out the obvious, but we’re in trouble if Isadora’s spell doesn’t work, and there are plenty of vamps who would love for the spell to fail. We can’t forget that the council wasn’t voted in unanimously. “It’s not going to be easy to contact the right people without leaking the location to the wrong ones,” he agrees. “Or to tip them off as to why we’re meeting in the first place.” That’s the other thing I’m worried about. Isadora said that we need to meet with the rest of the vampiric council under the full moon to complete her spell. That only gives us two weeks. The royal blood bond has already been transferred to the council, but the magic containing it is still unstable. If we fail to heed that fae witch’s instructions, the bond could be stolen or destroyed completely. That can’t happen. If anyone stole it––namely Brisa––I’m as good as dead. And God forbid it’s destroyed because then the only thing we will be able to rely on for some semblance of rule is the Vampire Enforcement Coalition, and there’s no way the VEC is strong enough to keep so many vampires under control. An inevitable bloodbath would follow, and with it, far too much death. The humans have more weapons and people than ever before. They’ll regroup and fight back, and the resulting war will be catastrophic for both of our kinds. “What are we going to do about Sebastian?” Mangus asks. I lean back against the stone wall and drag my boot along the dirt floor, casting up the stench of mildew. “Ah, the question of the day.” I curl my lip. Hugo used to be the thorn in my side, and now that Seb has shown his hand, he’s no better than his dead twin. “We don’t tell Sebastian about the meeting until a couple of days before. That way, if he’s still helping Brisa, they won’t have a lot of time to prepare an attack.” Mangus goes quiet, and I know what he’s thinking. He doesn’t want to tell Sebastian at all. But we have to, the entire council needs to be there. That, and even though we hate our brother, he was still voted into this position. He has a right to it, and to undermine that now would be to undermine the council as a whole. “We should wait to tell the others until a few days before. This is on a need to know basis.” Mangus is lying on his back on the dusty floor. He’s so still, he’d look dead if his mouth wasn’t moving. I know he’s still angry about what happened in Dublin. The coven was supposed to be our ally, but it turned on us for Brisa’s sake. We don’t know who to trust, but we never did. It gets old. I begin to pace like a damn dog. I’m so full of anxious energy that I can’t stop moving. Even my hands are flexing and unflexing, a habit from my human life that I thought I’d long since broken. Nine council members. The three remaining princes, and the other six council members, have all been elected with a seventy percent majority. The first official