Twice as High: Order of the Dragon, #2

By Tina Glasneck

Every decision comes with consequences, even for a new vampire.

 

Leslie Love thought she'd simply sail back to the life she once knew as a romance writer, after her being turned into a vampire.

 

She's dropped in the supernatural tidal wave and can't swim: Alistair, her sire and fated mate, is missing; the Greek god, Poseidon, has threatened to flood New York City if she doesn't return his stolen Trident to him; and, a powerful dragon from beyond has decided today's the day to start the apocalypse, he only needs her help. Blech.

The stakes are sharp and high.

It's either kill or be killed. And this time, the dead won't rise.

Grab your ghostly gimlet or schnapps, and take a vampire nose dive right into Twice as High, a funny, fast-paced, and gripping adventure, by USA Today bestselling author Tina Glasneck.

 

Readers who enjoy magic and mayhem with a heroine in her mid-thirties, as well as slow burn romance and supernatural mysteries, will enjoy this thrilling and adventurous tale.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tina Glasneck
• Release date: Nov 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393345664

Tina Glasneck

TINA GLASNECK can't imagine a world without books. Her works have been classified in several genres, including mystery, suspense, fantasy and paranormal romance, and new adult.Yet for Tina, it is all about the characters and their journeys. An avid reader with a love of traveling, meeting new people and exploring her world, her interest in law, religion, history, fantasy, and dragons, made writing about it an “easy” choice. Give her a castle to enchant her, and tell her a funny story to make her snort with laughter, but please don’t serve her cake with red icing. Tina takes joy in beautiful architecture, lively cities and world travel. She enjoys creating make-believe worlds where she sometimes resides, and is often thinking about and tinkering on her next story. Sometimes she feels like a real life Cinderella, without the ashes or the fairy godmother; and, at other times, she is just a girl, looking for a chance to tell that next great story.

Book preview

Prologue

Leslie

Aperfect day required hilarious company, and nothing could make me forget the trials and tribulations of being a newly formed vampire, like chilling on the beach with my sister and sometimes personal assistant, Claudine.

I’d situated my chair and slathered my body in sunscreen. Being a different sort of vampire, turned by dragon’s blood, it came with certain benefits—like not bursting into flames and exploding into a pile of ash as if doused with holy water (well, that really wasn’t a thing, anyway). It also came with the negative side of drinking blood—in my case, fish blood. The juice of the sea? Blech.

Yeah, way too early in the day to even joke about slurping down fish blood.

Claudine, in her polka dot two-piece, finally collapsed onto her beach chair, after dragging half of her apartment to our shady spot, under our bright-blue sun umbrella. Seagulls rose and dove. I swore they were rats of the beach.

I take it there’s a reason you wanted to sunbathe today? I asked. Besides ‘letting’ me have a day off?

Claudine cast me a sly smile. Yes, I’m putting in my notice. I got in! She clapped in giddy excitement. I can’t wait to head back to school.

She seemed like she was over the moon, and what wasn’t to love about heading to grad school? She must have been holding on to this secret for a while. Of course, surely, she dreamed of more than being my assistant, and I couldn’t blame her for that. But I also knew my sister, and the campus life with young men as a smorgasbord? Well, that was likely a factor, too.

It’s all about that college-campus experience again. You’re getting too old for this, I said with a slight smirk.

Ha! I’m only twenty-seven, and I have my entire life ahead of me. Professor Mason’s recommendation helped push me over the top for sure. Now, I have to apply for a few TA positions, and boom, Amherst here I come.

I smiled, but it dimmed at realizing the loss of Claudine. Whenever I needed her, she’d not been far. How would I adjust without her snark? I’m happy for you, baby sis. And I really was, even if a bit heartbroken at having one less person to count on.

So, are you finally going to tell me about you and the handsome gazillionaire? Claudine chided but also waggled her eyebrows, in that little sister way of hers that said, Dish out all the dirt.

She’d been bugging me about Alistair for a while now, and things between us were still off. Although tied to each other, fated even, a part of me hated that we couldn’t get over this hump and work together. Instead, since I’d left the supernatural compound, he’d found ways and hired help to assist me: a doctor to ensure my health, guards to protect and train me even, but nothing hands-on from the one I wanted, him. We were like two ships drifting through the night, in a long-distance relationship—him in Scotland and me here in New York, trying to piece this back together. Whatever this was.

I rubbed on a fresh layer of sunscreen. There isn’t much to say.

"Hmm, sounds like you’re embarrassed, and we don’t do bashful."

No, I simply have nothing to say.

Claudine squinted. I could feel her laser-like gaze on me, waiting for me to cringe or break. Reminds me of David.

David, her ex-fiancé, had a laundry list of all of the things Claudine should do: how to dress, talk, walk. I knew she’d tried it all to please him until they were carjacked on the way to Jersey. David, the coward, pushed her into the arms of the robber to escape.

You see, no man is worth losing yourself over, Leslie. I might be younger than you, but I’ve also lived a lot more. If you’re going to waste time on this man, make sure he’s worth it. Ride the cowboy before you buy the bull.

"Claudine, you’re just nasty. Now hush. That is not how that idiom goes."

It does for me. She shrugged. Time is precious, and I need to make sure the man I’m with is worth one of my most valuable assets: my time. I can always get a new job, a new apartment, even new hair—She tossed her black ponytail over her shoulder for emphasis—but time is something I can’t ever recoup.

Not everything is just about sex, Claudine. There has to be a connection.

"Then connect with him and send him some pics. You know, maybe pics of the girls, but not too revealing. Just a taste of what he’s missing. Let him know you’re interested."

My mouth fell open. My sister was crazy, but I loved her. Um, no. And, he doesn’t have a cell phone, anyway.

She turned and gawked at me, like I’d worn the most awful of outfits. "What? Who doesn’t have a cell phone? She paused for a moment. Oh, he’s one of those off-grid billionaires, right?"

Uh?

There has to be something you can do to make sure he knows you’re interested in him. Drop him little clues.

I had no idea how to seduce Alistair, the dragon-shifter. But it seemed like Claudine might have a suggestion or two. So, I decided to just go with it. See what she had to offer, without exposing my breasts, thank you very much.

I squeezed another palmful of sunscreen into my hand. Let me guess: you have skills and options.

There are two things that never go out of style: sex, and good sex. Now, it doesn’t matter if you’re dealing with mushrooms, baby carrots, or bananas, if he doesn’t quite know how to scratch your itch.

I stopped applying sunscreen and just stared at her. Mushrooms? Baby carrots? Where did she come up with this stuff? Claudine, I don’t need this type of lesson.

Out of all of us, you’re the prude. How you can write about sex and not be getting any is beyond me.

The power of the imagination. I didn’t watch porn, soft or hardcore. My characters connected with their hearts, minds, and souls. That was what I longed for, too.

Although a part of me blamed Alistair for my current predicament, I knew it was also partly my fault—I just wasn’t ready to deal with it yet, to heal from it. That was the thing about pain: rubbed raw, it persisted, gnawed for attention. I’d have to deal with my disappointment in order to let that magnificent man in. I just hoped he realized how great I was, too.

At that moment, the sunscreen bottle sputtered loudly, alerting me to the fact I’d need to open the next one right away. I reached into the striped beach bag, grabbed the new bottle, while tucking the old one inside. My fingertips landed on a book, which I pulled out, called The Vampire Next Door.

Someone’s been doing some reading. I held up the book with a grin.

"I’ve been looking up all the vampire lore, and you seem to be an exception to the rule, not like these normal vampires who can only be out at night. Yeah, well, with all the recent purchasing of sunscreen to apply all damn day, I was interested. But is it good for your new vamp skin and all? Will you go through another round of something akin to vamp puberty, you know, being a baby vamp? Like unable to make good decisions, body sweat, and glamorous hair?"

"Oh, my god, Claudine. My hair was always glamorous." I totally loved my spiral curls and the flexibility to do all the twists, braids, up-and-down-dos. I could wear it straight or create a faux-mohawk. The possibilities were endless, although the time was not. Heck, I could change my hair every day, even before Alistair’s venom changed me. Now, it just came with this natural sheen and hair-commercial bounce.

Well, that’s better than vampire menstruation. I’m not sure if that would be like foreplay or dessert.

I shuddered. The logics of how that would even work—sippy cup, drinking from the tap, or like fondue.

The clouds gathered, and the nagging seagulls took their leave. They must have felt the coming storm approaching.

What the hell? Claudine pointed at the sea. Is that a water man? She glanced down at her water bottle and back out to sea. I knew we were celebrating, but did you spike my drink? This can’t be happening.

I raised my hand and squinted. Sure enough, a wall of water approached, and it didn’t break, charging quickly closer. My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. I immediately turned to Claudine. Get out of here!

She stood there like she didn’t hear me, staring at the ocean until the one-hundred-foot water man towered over us and moved in ever closer.

Leslie? Claudine questioned. Her face, usually so serene, was now ashen, wide-eyed, and terror-stricken. A wave in the shape of a hand crashed onto us, swallowing Claudine up.

Bring me the thief, seer! he demanded, and I could no longer see Claudine. And your sister will be returned to you. Deny me and lose everything.

Seer? Oh, hell, here we go again.

Who are you? I demanded.

He stopped. "Foolish girl, I am Poseidon, and your sire has stolen my trident."

How was I responsible? I’d wanted to reconnect with Alistair, but not like this.

Claudine was in danger, and I’d risk everything to save my sister: my life and even my heart.

Lesson learned: Be careful what you pray for. You just might get it.

Chapter 1

Leslie

Monday, Four Days Ago

Manhattan, New York City

Time quickly ticked away, and I was going to be late if I didn’t get my half-dead ass into gear.

This was all too much. I slammed my closet door shut.

Yep, I’m done with this mess.

But I couldn’t leave my apartment without getting rid of one of my biggest problems: my grimoire.

Taking a steeling breath, I hefted up the book which had changed my life, and not for the better. As a grimoire, a magical journal, I wasn’t yet ready to dive deeper into its pages to learn the ancient magic which called to me.

As a baby witch, something like this, something so magical shouldn’t even be in my possession.

I longingly fingered the worn leather, and for a moment, a feeling of divine hope embraced me.

Shaking free, that hope wasn’t enough.

I dropped to my knees and pushed the heavy grimoire under my bed, as far back as it could go—where only dust bunnies lived—and scurried away. The sound of nails clawing across a blackboard, mixed with the gnashing of a heavy metal record being played backward gave chase. Nope. I was done. You hear me. Done.

Hell, let me just catch you up on things. This damn book had convinced me to try and raise my dad—the jerk he’d been—from the dead. That had unleashed a horde of bloodsuckers to put me on their menu. Now my best friend Sunflower was still missing, and the asshole who was upset about my not liking him attempted to kill me on a cruise ship. Hypothermia gave way to death.

And not the good kind.

There were no golden gates for me to stroll through and talk to Peter, Paul, or even Solomon. Nope. All I got out of the deal was a dragon sire, the ability to live if I consumed the delicious fish juice (blech), and get this, a fated mate who returned to Scotland, leaving me behind in Manhattan—but let me be clear, I’d told him to go. Because I needed to sort out my feelings and find out who I was again, find out how this new me was supposed to live a life so foreign, yet bring some semblance of normalcy back into my world.

When I tell you I was done, I was so dunzo with everything supernatural.

Instead, I was going to focus on the silver lining of this new chance at life—making money and writing romance novels.

And they might as well be steamy as hell, as I didn’t see any sex-capades happening anytime soon except what was in my imagination. I was an unwilling participant, and if the supernatural world might listen, I’d tell them to remove me from their narrative. So far, no one gave a rat’s teat about what I wanted.

Okay, I might seem bitter, but I wasn’t.

My cup overflowed with sewage. Every day I walked these streets being foreign in my body, craving the life I used to have. To be honest, I was a wet spaghetti noodle away from slipping and becoming feral. One bad decision away from destruction.

This inner struggle of ethics against pure hunger over responsibility, versus selfishness distressed me. I wasn’t going to tell him the truth of what it meant to be a shot of gin away from having my monster unleashed.

I slipped on my shoes and raced toward the front door of my Manhattan apartment, slipping out before my ghostly gran could shimmy or keep me longer with her gossip from Apartment 19b.

Pushing down this anger, I forced myself to concentrate on the positive, which helped me to mentally stomp on my rising rage. I longed to reach out to Alistair, my sire. But what could I say? Could I admit that I’d been wrong and wanted him here with me?

Recognizing the problem was the first notch on dealing with it, right?

Suddenly, I could breathe again as if an invisible force released me.

Yep, leaving the supernatural behind me was my choice, my only choice right now. I could surely remain in my current world, and not be beholden to everything that happened with my transformation.

By the time I’d made it to my appointment, I’d settled down.

It took death for me to find life and live again. After all, I wasn’t really a vampire.

Finally, seated in the Order’s doctor’s office in a Charming Industries Building, Sethos, my new primary care physician, filled a vial of blood from the syringe in my arm. His ancient gaze rested heavily on me. I instead focused on the replica Titanic ship pushing out to sea that was broadcast on the flat screen television, reading the subtitles. A drone flew above to give the full view of the majestic eight hundred- and eighty-three-feet passenger liner, updating the audience on its departure and progress.

On what some considered being as close to a replica of the grand Titanic, everything is like the ship of its former glory, including the voyage route. The news anchor held her mic tightly as wind whipped around her.

I turned my attention back to Sethos.

You know, Leslie, you are truly special. He seemed to be amazed by me, as much as he wished to poke and prod me. "I cannot recall one of your abilities