Dangerous Sacrifice
By Morgan Kelley
Copyright © 2016 Morgan Kelley LLC All rights reserved. Without limiting rights under the copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, introduced into a retrieval system, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including without limitation photocopying, recording or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. The scanning, uploading, and/or distribution of this document via the internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and is punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized editions and do
not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials.
For permission requests, email [email protected]
Content Advisory: This book is intended for mature audiences and contains graphic violence, explicit sexual activity and disturbing imagery
©Copyright 2016 cover by Laura Gordon* for Morgan Kelley LLC
Other works by Morgan Kelley:
Standalone Thrillers
The Junction
Serial Sins
The Blood Betrayal
FBI Romance Series
The Killing Times (Book 1)
Sacred Burial Grounds (Book 2)
True Love Lost (Book 3)
Deep Dark Mire (Book 4)
Fire Burns Hot (Book 5)
Darkness of Truth (Book 6)
Devil Hath Come (Book 7)
Consumed by Wrath (Book 8)
Redemption is Here (Book 9)
Dead Shall Speak (Book 10)
Pledging to Die (Book 11)
Slay Bells Ring (Book 12)
Past will Haunt (Book 13)
Blood shall Run (Book 14)
Act of Blood (Book 15)
Croft & Croft Romance Adventure Series
Celestia is Falling (1)
Vegas is Dying (2)
Christmas is Killing (3)
Love is Bleeding (4)
Heaven is Weeping (5)
Hell is Burning (6)
Justice is Dead (7)
Croft Family Mob Justice Series
Dark Justice (Book 1)
Littlemoon Investigations
Blood Red Rage (Book 1)
Lost & Broken (Book 2)
Unthinkable Games (Book 3)
Truth is Found (Book 4)
Haven of Nightmares (Book 5)
Forbidden Secrets (Book 6)
The Carter Chronicles Trilogy
Sinner Repent (1)
Sinner Realized (2)
Sinner Reborn (3)
Oracle/The Phoenix Files
Oracle Rising (book 1)
Oracle Seeing (book 2)
The Harcourte Vampyre Society series
Dangerous Revelations (1)
Dangerous Choices (2)
Dangerous Misery (3)
Dangerous Retaliation (4)
Dangerous Influence (5)
Dangerous Sacrifice (6)
Behind Closed Doors Anthology
Illegal Fantasies ~ Behind Closed Doors (1)
Romance Under Arrest~ Behind Closed Doors (2)
Holiday Reinforcements ~ Behind Closed Doors (3)
~~~~ About the Author ~~~~
Morgan Kelley lives in the beautiful Pocono Mountains with her husband and two children. After attending college at Penn State University and studying Criminal Justice, Morgan knew her only true passion in life would be murder and books. She put them both together and began her career as a writer. Other than books and writing, you can find Morgan hanging out in her garden and digging in the dirt.
Her other works include: The Junction, Serial Sins, The Blood Betrayal, The Killing Times (1), Sacred Burial Grounds (2), True Love Lost (3), Deep Dark Mire (4), Fire Burns Hot (5), Darkness of Truth (6), Devil Hath Come (7), Consumed by Wrath (8), Redemption is Here (9), Dead Shall Speak (10), Pledging to Die (11), Slay Bells Ring (12), Past will Haunt (13), Blood Red Rage (1) Lost & Broken (2), Unthinkable Games (3), Truth is Found (4), Celestia is Falling (1), Vegas is Dying (2), Christmas is Killing (3), Love is Bleeding (4), Heaven is Weeping (5), Hell is Burning (6), Dangerous Revelations (1), Dangerous Choices (2), Dangerous Misery (3), Dangerous Retaliation (4), Sinner Repent (1), Sinner Realized (2), Sinner Reborn (3), Oracle Rising (1), Illegal Fantasies (Anthology 1), Romance Under Arrest (Anthology 2), and Holiday Reinforcements (Anthology 3)
Please feel free to visit Morgan at her website: www.morgankelley.com, email her [email protected], or visit her blog at www.morgankelley.blogspot.com.
∞ Prologue ∞
Three Months Later
His frustration was building. What he wanted was to start killing everyone around him. The incompetence was making him angry. No, that’s not true. The lack of skill to do the job was taking him from angry to full of rage. What he wanted was one simple task. With an army of killers at his disposal, one would think they could pull this off.
How hard could it be to find one human and two vampyres in Europe? In theory, with his network, it should be simple.
He put out his feelers, waited for the chatter, and then would move.
Only that wasn’t working.
Already, he’d executed four of his right hand men. They’d failed, and if he allowed that incompetence go, he’d look bad, so he’d taken their lives and made them dust.
With each new assassin in place, the promises were the same.
Know what else was the same?
The freaking failure.
It was impossible.
This whole thing was beyond his comprehension. What was he going to have to do?
Find them himself?
It wasn’t as if he was asking the impossible. One pregnant vampyre and her two consorts should turn up. He tracked their money, he’d watched their accounts, and yet…nada.
Heads were going to roll.
As an ancient vampyre, he expected more from his Tueur than this. If anything, this mess was nothing less than a farce.
He was being made into a joke, and there was no doubt that Jolie Harcourte was laughing as she hid in plain sight.
This had to end.
This was more than he could take.
One more failure, and someone’s head would roll.
Literally.
Standing before him was yet another of his minions, and he suspected, from the look on his face that he, too, had horrible news.
He braced for it as he uttered the one sentence that no one had been able to answer to his satisfaction.
Here he went again.
“Have you located them yet?” he asked impatiently, as he glared at the vampyres standing before him.
Yeah, he already knew that answer.
Someone was going to die.
“We are trying, Master, but it has been difficult. They are off the grid. Jolie Harcourte and her mates have made it almost impossible to find her.”
Yeah, that’s not what he wanted to hear.
In fact, he’d heard it so much that his eye was beginning to twitch. He was the head of the Tueur. These vampyres were supposed to be the best of the best. They were killers, merciless, and filled with the lust for blood.
Instead of that, he’d picked a bunch of pussies to do the job. This was why he had wanted the likes of Jacques Degaul as one of his Tueur. The man knew how to kill without the guilt. Then again, he was an old school guardian, and there was nothing like them in the world.
>
Hell!
Jacques was one of the last of the originals.
He was pretty sure that’s why they couldn’t find Jolie Harcourte. She was being hidden by the best of the best.
Jacques Degaul was a force to be reckoned with and here was his proof. The man was outmaneuvering his killers.
Shit!
It was frustrating him to no end.
What good was it to be the Tueur, let alone the head of it, if you couldn’t find three people?
Seriously?
This was destroying his street cred.
Those babies had to die, and soon. There was no way he could allow them to be born.
“Master, you have to believe that we’re trying. I’m not sure what they’re using, but it has to be the same Voodoo we are. It’s like they’re hidden.”
He listened, his eye twitching.
This vampyre was wearing on his last nerve.
Someone was going to his grave, at any second, in a puff of dust. He could see it coming.
Did he have to kill all of his Tueur to get them? Was that going to be the ultimate outcome?
“You don’t say,” he finally got out.
“We have been searching for her for the last three months, and nothing. She’s left no electronic trail, no calls in, no calls out, no credit cards, and no bank transfers.”
He didn’t buy it. Someone had to have dropped the ball. How could they survive in the manner they were accustomed without money?
This was Jolie freaking Harcourte. She wore jewels, they drove nice cars, and they were accustomed to luxury. He knew from personal experience that you didn’t give that up.
Well, not easily.
“You’re not trying hard enough. You’re killers. So is she. We should be able to think like her.”
The vampyre only wished. No one liked to let the master down. It never ended well for the killer who did.
“Master, she is hidden away so no one can get to her and the unborn babies,” he answered in fear for his life. “That has to be her plan. She’s hiding until she can give birth.”
Oh, he was well aware.
That’s why at the beginning of this, it had been amusing.
Now…
Yeah, not so much.
Again, was there not one competent Tueur there who could find an eight hundred year old pregnant vampyre and her two mates?
That one question drove him insane.
How hard could it be?
It wasn’t as if she could have just vanished off the face of the earth and hidden from them.
“Marco, I’m trying to be patient. I really am, but look at it from my perspective. Others have failed. You’ve failed. I don’t get it. Really, how can you not find them? I do not understand how this is possible.”
The vampyre swallowed.
The man in power cracked his knuckles and menacingly paced the room. “There must be a way,” he screamed, his face going red with anger. “Can no one find this woman for me?”
The vampyre went to speak, trying to calm their boss. He could feel the vampyres around him were scared. He could smell it in the air.
Then again, maybe that was his fear.
“Master, give me a chance.”
He sighed.
“Okay, I will give you a chance.”
He headed toward his killer. He looked calm, and the vampyre relaxed.
That was his big mistake.
As he stood in front of the next failure, in a long line of washed out killers, he whipped a blade from his sleeve and took the vampyre’s head clean off.
There was a gasp.
It was from him and the vampyres around him. It was clear who the boss was, and why no one dare challenge him. The man would kill his own kind.
To them, it was scary.
“Now who here is going to do this job, and do it right?” he asked.
He looked from face to face of his men. No one said a word. It wasn’t as if he could blame them. This was the fifth dead vamp in three months. Who would want to take on that job?
It was a death sentence.
Still, he needed someone to man up.
As he was about to pick the next vampyre to play leader in this clusterfuck, he heard the voice.
It was unfamiliar, and that of a woman.
“I can find her.”
Everything paused.
The vampyre killers all turned to look at the one small voice that came from the back of the room. It was so shocking that she was even there.
This was a boy’s club.
This female had gall.
“Who are you?” he asked, a little shocked to see her there. With her pretty smile, silky hair, and sparkling eyes, he didn’t think she had it in her.
Then again, looks could be deceiving. Jolie Harcourte looked harmless, and she was a killer.
“I don’t think that matters. You have a problem, and I have a solution. If you want her found, I’ll do it. I know how to locate her.”
The man enthusiastically rubbed his hands together.
Could the solution be this woman?
Really?
As she headed toward them, one of the vampyres tried to stop her. She smiled up at him, and then reached into his chest and stole his heart.
There was a gasp.
He began laughing at her gall and fearlessness. That took balls, and he enjoyed a woman with great callousness.
“I think you might have a chance,” he stated. No one saw that one coming. This woman was depraved. He could see it in her eyes.
“Sorry about him, but I don’t like when someone tries to intimidate me. It pisses me off.”
He understood that.
“So, you really think you can find Jolie Harcourte for me?”
She nodded. “Yes, I can.”
“Name your price, my friend, and if you manage to find her for me, I will grant you anything you wish. Hell! I’ll make you the first female Tueur.”
There was another gasp and a wave of murmurs at his offer to her.
Yeah, he was desperate.
Maybe it took a woman to catch a woman.
“I’m not doing this for the money. I simply want her dead. That’s my only wish. I want to remain anonymous when she is killed.”
“So, this is revenge for you?”
That could work for him.
Great!
At this point, why not go with it. What could happen? Well, other than she could fail. He knew what her fate would then be.
“I can taste the bitter revenge across my tongue. I will find her, and I will deliver her to you.”
Finally, someone who might stand a chance.
His day was looking better and better.
“Very well. I do need to ask you one thing.”
“Yes?”
“How will you go about finding her?”
She moved closer toward him, and she could tell he was watching her with wariness.
She loved that.
It fed her need for power.
“I have my ways, but if I tell you, do I have your word that you’ll give me a shot?”
She held out her hand.
He stared at it.
“You have it, but after what you just did to one of my Tueur, I think shaking your hand would be a mistake.”
She grinned. “Very wise.”
“Yeah, that’s what they say about me—wise and very angry.”
She laughed, her voice tinkling across the flesh of all of the males in the room.
“A few months ago, Jolie Harcourte found out that the brother she thought she had lost was still alive. His name is Alexandre, and he is currently hiding in Italy. Give me access to your killers, and I’ll have him brought in.”
That piqued his interest.
“Really? I do recall his name, but I wasn’t aware he was still alive.”
He glared at his minions. “She found it out, but you couldn’t?” he asked.
They all stared at the ground.
&nbs
p; “So, is it a deal?”
He took her hand despite his fear. “It’s a deal.” He headed back to his desk, leading her there. When he offered her a seat, she hopped up and sat on the corner.
“I like this perch better.”
So be it.
As long as she got this done, she could sit anywhere she wanted, including on his dick.
“Tell me about this,” he stated.
“Well, she is hiding him in hopes that he’s never discovered.”
That sounded like the bleeding heart vampyre.
That alone made him angry. Softness had no place in their lives.
NONE.
“If we want her, we start with him.”
The man’s heart soared in hope. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, but as you can see…I’ve been dealing with incompetent morons. You know this for certain?”
She smiled.
She totally got that. In her life, men were quite the waste of time.
“Oui, I know this for certain.”
That was all he needed to hear.
She was the woman for the job.
Pointing at the door, half the room left in a rush, obeying his wishes. There was no way he believed they were disappointed. In fact, his killers looked relieved.
What a sorry bunch of idiots.
“We don’t have much time.”
“Why do you want her?” she asked, filing her nails.
Dangerous Sacrifice (The Harcourte Vampyre Society Book 6) Page 1