Before the Negotiator, there were the long-held covenants of the Old Races: Do not mate with humans. Never tell them of our existence. And never kill one of our own. For time immemorial, these laws were adhered to… …except when they were not. Delve into the secret history of the Old Races and discover the truth behind Saint George and the dragons, the origins of the mysterious selkie race, and the djinn betrayals that shape the world of the Negotiator Trilogy. These stories and more are revealed in this collection of five Old Races short stories!

Revisit the world of the Old Races and discover the pieces that set the Negotiator Trilogy into play… Four hundred years ago, master vampire Eliseo Daisani and dragonlord Janx both fell in love with Sarah Hopkins, an extraordinary beauty born in London's slaughterfields. Caught in their ancient and complex bond, Sarah glimpses the world as it might be... ...and her choices will ravage a city. This is the story of London burning in 1666—the Year of Miracles.

Margrit Knight has broken the long-held covenants of the Old Races. Ancient rivals are scattered, friendships are broken, and the dragons, djinn, selkies, vampires and gargoyles are beginning to step out of the shadows and into the light. But the new world may not be what they expect. Dragonlord Janx faces more than he bargained for when human magic interferes with his own. Half-vampire Ursula Hopkins is only starting to understand what she may have unleashed by awakening her brethren, and Margrit Knight herself still has debts to pay after the death of a djinn… Watch the aftermath unfold in these five new stories of the Old Races!

WHAT SECRETS LIE SHROUDED IN DARKNESS? Okay, so jogging through Central Park after midnight wasn't a bright idea. But Margrit Knight never thought she'd encounter a dark new world filled with magical beings—not to mention a dying woman and a mysterious stranger with blood on his hands. Her logical, lawyer instincts told her it couldn't all be real—but she could hardly deny what she'd seen...and touched. The mystery man, Alban, was a gargoyle. One of the fabled Old Races who had hidden their existence for centuries. Now he was a murder suspect, and he needed Margrit's help to take the heat off him and find the real killer. And as the dead pile up, it's a race against the sunrise to clear Alban's name and keep them both alive....

Margrit is summoned to negotiate a peace treaty amongst rival factions in the Old Races, but even as she does so, her own mortal world threatens to fall apart. Caught between a ruthless vampire mobster, a dragonlord who won’t take no for an answer, a group of subversive selkies, she finds herself alone – because the gargoyle who brought her into their world won’t return her calls…

War has erupted among the five Old Races, and Margrit is responsible for the death that caused it. Now New York City's most unusual lawyer finds herself facing her toughest negotiation yet. And with her gargoyle lover, Alban, taken prisoner, Margrit's only allies�a dragon bitter about his fall, a vampire determined to hold his standing at any cost and a mortal detective with no idea what he's up against�have demands of their own.Determined to rescue Alban and torn between conflicting loyalties as the battle seeps into the human world, Margrit soon realizes the only way out is through the fire.…

Ancient rivals, worst of friends, best of dragonlord Janx and master vampire Eliseo Daisani are the threads upon which a tapestry of lives and loves are woven across the centuries. From the coldest Russian nights to the heat of Chicago's greatest fire, nothing brings the immortal adversaries together—or tears them apart—like a woman. And there is always a woman. Vanessa Grey has been at Daisani's side for decades, but the secrets borne by a witch may be her undoing. Baba Yaga's daughter has plots that are decades in the hatching, but they may only succeed if Margrit Knight, named 'the Negotiator' by Daisani and Janx themselves, will work with her. And there are the deadliest vampire hunter mankind has ever known, and a woman for whom the Old Races are a wonder to walk away from. Revisit C.E. Murphy's world of the Old Races with ten stories that delve into the past and future of the two most beloved characters from her urban fantasy trilogy The Negotiator!

REVEL IN THE CHAOS OF THE AFTERMATH The laws that governed the Old Races for time immemorial have been broken. Ancient rivals are scattered. Friendships are ended. What was hidden begins to step out of shadow and into the light. And after millennia of imagining this moment, the Old Races discover they are unprepared for what it brings. Human magic subtly infiltrates the world as dreamwalkers face down dragonlords and Orpheus' mythical songs resonate through ancient bloodlines. Through it all, pirate, queen, and vigilante Grace O'Malley is drawn back into the world she was banished from centuries ago: the world of the living. Cursed by a witch, the deepest of all human magics, she searches for the impossible, the one thing that even the Old Races agree doesn't exist: The kiss of angels....