The Next Vampire King

© Copyright 2023 by Nikki Grey All rights reserved. In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved. Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher. The Next Vampire King Protector Thriller Romance By: Nikki Grey Table of Contents Foreword Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Here’s a FREE Preview to Nikki Grey’s best seller “Hunted By The Vampire Prince: Dark Academy Romance” Come Stalk Me! Foreword Have you ever wondered how many secrets can a small town have? As it turns out, as many as there are people in it. They all know my secret. They all know it, and they live their lives as if nothing happened, especially the vampire king and his family. They laugh, they love, they live… what about me? A trail of mysterious letters draws the vampire prince out and leads him to me. A vampire and a shifter. Who would have thought? I have always been my own protector. Life taught me to never trust anyone. My own obligation to my family, leads me along a dangerous path of forbidden love, where the impossible looms over me like a dagger about to strike: do enemies ever truly become lovers? The Next Vampire King Chapter One Orien (20 years later from the end of Losing The Vampire King) I read the letter again, thinking I must have misread something. I must have. It just doesn’t make any sense. My vision gets a little blurry, as the text materializes before me again, like morning mist after darkness. Only this morning doesn’t bring the much yearned for daybreak. It only brings more confusion, more mystery. The text is incomprehensible, not in words, but rather in its meaning. You have enjoyed your life long enough. It is time for you to pay what you owe. I frown. Pay what I owe? What is it that I owe? I hesitate for a moment. Is the letter even for me? A million questions start swarming inside my mind angrily pricking me for not knowing the deeper meaning behind these cryptic words. Someone is obviously mad. Furious even. Why else would you take the time to write a threatening letter and send it? My brows knit in confusion. I wonder if the letter is even meant for me. I turn it around, in search of some clues. Nothing. No recipient’s name, not on the letter itself, not on the envelope. Just a typewritten message. It wasn’t even handwritten. So, someone took great efforts to make sure the message is received, without revealing the sender. I’m guessing that it was simply slipped into my mailbox, without a stamp, without a sender, without anything that might point me in the direction where it came from. That means that someone walked the distance to my home, to deliver it by hand. That shows commitment. That also means that the message must be extremely important, at least to the sender. I inhale deeply, wondering if it might be just a prank done by one of the town kids. That’d be the first, but I guess there’s a first time for everything. I walk over to the door, opening it, half-expecting to see a stranger standing in front of it, who would immediately explain what the meaning behind this mysterious letter is. But there is no one there. Just a quick, refreshing gush of wind, reminding me that I’m looking at the same town that I’ve always lived in, with the same people who have surrounded me my entire life. I close the door, and the moment I’m about to throw the letter in the trash, hopefully forgetting all about it, there’s a knock on the door. My heart lurches inside my chest. I turn around and open it, once again, half-expecting a stranger to reveal the hidden meaning of the letter, but it’s only my mother. “Oh.” The words escape me, before I can bite them back. “Is that how you greet your mother?” she frowns, but there is no offense in her words. “Sorry, I thought you were– “ I say, stopping mid-sentence. If I tell her about the letter, she will freak out. Not only that, but she will tell dad, which is even worse. The two of them have always been overprotective of me and my younger sister, Rose. I felt like we’ve always lived under a glass dome, where they watched over us like two hawks. It was mostly good, but sometimes, I feel like I miss that part of my life where I make my own mistakes and I’m forced to fix them on my own, instead of being prevented from making them in the first place. “I was who?” she asks, interrupting my train of thought. She walks past me, looking around the house. Her once blonde hair has now turned to streaks of ash, merged with leftover blonde, giving her a royal look. To me, she’s always looked like a queen, unlike dad, who always resembled a warrior, and not really a king. But I guess that’s what a vampire king should be, a warrior. “Rose,” I tell her the first name that comes to mind. “She said she’ll be dropping by today.” She turns to look at me, and something tells me she doesn’t believe me. Mother’s intuition is a helluva thing, inexplicable to everyone but mother’s. Her eyes look downward, in the direction of my hand, which is still holding the letter. “What’s that?” she wonders curiously, taking a step closer. “Oh, this?” I glance down at my hand, instead