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Nikolai finally gets his happily ever after

With the recent release of The Vampyr’s Husband, the question that keeps popping up is who shot James? Since the humans remain uncooperative and the crime scene was horribly muddied, the sentinels have no suspects. Whether we discover the culprit in a future novel is uncertain, but there are several people close to James who aren’t content with the mystery. 

As far as the animosity that exists between humans and the Council, there is no easy fix. The Council remains uninterested in investing time and resources in what they see as an unsolvable issue and the humans barely acknowledge that sorcerers and shifters exist. We’ll have to wait to see if any bridges can be built to narrow the large chasms that separate them.

James and Nikolai were a treat to write. It’s ironic how things work out sometimes. Nikolai was a foundation character who pre-dates much of the series. The first version of him had him as the nephew of the vampiric leaders who were pretty horrible people. His relationship with Sebastian was a contentious and complicated affair, and Nikolai and James never left DC. 

But everything morphed when Grigori appeared ready to be mated to Delaney. Nikolai had zero siblings at that point, so Grigori stunned me. His personality and how he related to his parents morphed everything about the vampires and Nikolai. Grigori’s bright presence had profound effects on Nikolai’s situation and helped crystalize his brother’s formerly convoluted story. Originally, there were so many twists and turns that it probably would’ve taken three books to get it all in.

I’m happy that James and Nikolai kept the core of their personalities when they fit together properly in the D’Vaire universe. I don’t think I would’ve remained interested in them if Nikolai wasn’t the smooth, romantic vampire dedicated to his mate and James lost any of his human skepticism about the Council and the entire mate business.

When I sat down to write James and Nikolai’s story, the next project was slated to be a short story. My plan was to tie it into the vampires and take a journey back to when Tigglesworth met Charlie. Unfortunately, by the time I wrapped up The Vampyr’s Husband, the couple refused to cooperate with me and I had to scrap the plan. That doesn’t mean the story won’t be written, I’m very fond of Tigglesworth and Charlie and would love to share their romance. Hopefully, they’ll allow me to do that in the future.

It left me scrambling for a short story and, luckily, a couple who’d been hanging around since before I wrote my first book hopped into the driver’s seat to tell their tale. That couple is next up and their short story will be released in late October. One character is a dead guy you’ve met, and the other belongs to a race mentioned in the series, but they're mostly a mystery to us. I can't wait to hear your guesses about who you think might be in it!

I recently wrapped up the thirty-first book in the series which will be published later next year. After finishing, I started a new novel featuring two characters you’ll get to meet soon. It’s slow going because my schedule is a bit too hectic right now. The next three months are busier than my characters would like, but I hope to wrap up the entire book list for next year by the end of December. Wish me luck!

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