The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition)

by Elizabeth Dunlap

  He didn’t answer at first, every silent second that passed making me feel sick to my stomach. “Because you belong with Knight. He can make you happy. He can protect you, and raise your daughter with you.”

  And I can’t.

  His unspoken words somehow hurt more than the ones he’d said out loud.

  I braced my hands against my knees and stared out at the party going on in front of us. “I’m going to say something you don’t want me to, so shut up and listen.” Sighing, I brushed at my skirt to distract me. “You know if things had been different, I would’ve stayed with you,” I said quietly, watching the couples dancing in each other’s arms. “It would’ve been impossible without him, but you made me sane again.” He remained his quiet self, his shoulders taunt and indifferent. “And… I want to tell you something else.” His head turned ever so slightly towards me, as perked up with interest as he could be. “I couldn’t have made it through without you.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” he said, so quiet I almost didn’t hear. “You didn’t need me. You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met. You don’t need either of us to be who you are. You led us through this war on your own.”

  A smile came to my face and I looked down to hide the flush on my cheeks. “Want to dance?” I offered, turning my head to look at him.

  “No,” he answered, and I laughed to myself. “Go back and dance with your mate.” We watched Knight holding Kitty as Balthazar pouted at her being taken away. “If he betrays you, I’ll kill him.” Other people joked when they said that. Arthur was not joking.

  “I’d rather you didn’t.”

  “Just go dance and let me enjoy my ex-lover’s bonding ceremony in peace.” Oh yeah, I’d forgotten he used to have a thing with Olivier, a thing that they were both so over that they never talked about it and if you didn’t know about it you would’ve never known. He glanced over at me, but I didn’t budge. “You’re not going to leave, are you.”

  “Nope. Not without a dance.” I stood and held out my hand to him. He stared at it like it was a grenade.

  “I don’t want to touch you.” The look on his face made me want to grab him to my breasts in a hug.

  “Fine. I just didn’t want you to be by yourself at a party.”

  “I’m always by myself.”

  I bent to stare into his icy blue eyes and noticed him glancing at my cleavage before he met my gaze. Pervert. “No, you’re not. You’re here with me, in whatever capacity that might be. I’m not saying we’ll go get perms and French manicures. It’s just a dance.” He hesitated and took my hand, then I led him to the dance floor, putting my hand around his waist.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m leading. You don’t have to touch me very much, just my shoulder and my hand.” We moved side to side, awkwardly, but smoothly.

  “I feel stupid,” he complained.

  “And you are. Stupid. Stop talking.”

  Being that close to him, with our hands together and his hand on my shoulder, I felt… so warm, so safe. Ignoring any protest he might’ve had, I put my arms around his waist and laid my head against his chest. I felt part of me breaking off, knowing he didn’t want me, but at least I knew of one thing I wanted, if I couldn’t have him as my mate.

  “Don’t ever leave my side, Arthur,” I whispered. “I’m going to be selfish for once in my life.”

  “Is that an order?” he cheeked, one of his hands just barely twisting around the end of one of my curls.

  “Yes.”

  “You’re a terrifying woman.”

  “Aww, you say the sweetest things.” We swayed from side to side in each other’s arms, the music setting our rhythm. “Arthur…” I hesitated, lifting my head up to stare up at him.

  His fingers ran across my scalp, his eyes vulnerable and unguarded. “Don’t say it. It won’t change my mind.”

  I love you.

  My lips didn’t move, but he heard it, his nostrils flaring, his jaw clenching, and I had to look away to steady myself enough where I wouldn’t cry.

  My eyes moved up to look at the sunset when I saw something. I pulled away from Arthur to look closer. “What is that?” He saw what I was seeing and grabbed me to him to protect me, but it was a useless gesture, as the objects in the sky were not aimed at us.

  They were missiles. And they were aimed at the castle.

  25. The last stand

  The explosion rocked the earth when the bombs hit our home. Chunks of stone broke off and fell to the ground. A second round of projectiles came, but these were on fire. They followed the explosions and lit the castle in flames.

  Arthur still held me against him and I clung to him until I could get my bearings. Our ears were ringing from the blast. I got little breaks of sound now and then of people screaming and Kitty crying. Where was Kitty? Balthazar promised. He promised he would take her away to protect her, and if he didn’t I was going to wring his neck. When my ears cleared up, I took Arthur to the group of Hunters that had been sitting in a huddle playing dominoes, Olivier and Renard among them.

  “Get the humans and children to safety,” I told the Hunters over the shouting. “Check the castle if anyone was inside.” They nodded and were off, Arthur taking my hand as more missiles came every second. I heard Kitty screaming again but her cries got quieter. Where was she? I searched everywhere and couldn’t see her. Knight was by my side in an instant, taking me in his arms and holding me close.

  “You okay?” he asked me as he checked me for injuries, and I nodded, still looking for my daughter. “Arthur, we need to find where they’re at. Maybe we can use the bombs on them.”

  “The bombs were in the castle,” Arthur told him. Our weapons, our bombs, everything was in the castle. Half of the packs had gone home, we had no army now. We were fucked.

  “We need to retreat,” I said. “We can’t fight them and win.” I saw Castilla’s body in a bloodied heap where my friends had said their vows, a chunk of the castle on top of her.

  Olivier came holding Renard’s hand, ducking through another explosion. “We couldn’t get the humans out. There’s turned vampires everywhere blocking the way.”

  Arthur looked this way and that, probably using his power to see what we were up against. I was too unfocused to assist. “We’re surrounded.”

  “By?”

  “The turned. Thousands.”

  No. It can’t be. It can’t be where we end. I took Knight’s hand and tried to push past the overwhelming shock.

  “We uhh…” I squeezed my eyes shut. “We need to protect the humans. Make a circle with the benches for them to be in that we can surround. If we have to die, we will die protecting them.”

  We got to work with the circle and getting all the humans inside it. Kitty and Balthazar were gone, and it was my only comfort now. She would continue living long after we were gone. Lycan beside vampire, we stood outside the circle and waited.

  I kissed Knight one last time, just in case one or both of us died. Probably both. What did positive thinking matter now? We were done for. All that effort, all the planning, the alliance, all of it for nothing.

  In one last thought, I turned to Arthur and he reached for my hand as I reached for his. He offered no apology, no promises for if we made it out alive. Either he knew we wouldn’t, or it still wouldn’t have changed his mind. But he was still here by my side as I’d asked. That was enough for now.

  More missiles came, making very sure there was no part of our castle still standing, and then the turned came in waves upon waves to surround us. At their head, there was a vampire I didn’t know, wearing a coat that looked very expensive. Was he the one who started this?

  “Welcome all,” he said humorlessly in a British accent, “to the end of Born vampires. I trust you all had fun at the party? We saw a little slow dancing in front of the fire. Someone got handsy a few times, am I right?” He laughed. “You probably don’t know who I am, but that’s fine.”

  “Alistair?�
� Knight asked in my ear. I shook my head. This vampire had red hair.

  “My name is Kent.” He waited for a reaction and got none. “That’s fine, that’s fine. I am not surprised. Annoyed. Not surprised. You see, I came from this Order. This one right here, the one I just blew up. This Order used to be in England, did you know that? They moved over during one of those silly human wars, I forget which. They were afraid they would be discovered. And while everyone was packing up their little bobbles and fancy clothes, my colleagues and myself assumed we would be coming with our vampire family. Only, when the time came, the leader of the Order told us we were mistaken. They weren’t taking turned vampires with them. Only the superior Born vampires, our betters, as it were.”

  I remembered that. We’d left the turned vampires behind because we couldn’t have assured their safety from the sun in the voyage and the building of our new home. We were trying to protect them.

  This was why the rebellion had happened. It all clicked into place for me. A simple misunderstanding about why we left the turned vampires in England. That idea had grown inside them for over a century until it cascaded into full-blown war.

  Wars had been fought for less.

  “My vampire brother and I, Alistair.” There it was. “We asked ourselves, how can we punish such insolence? Such disrespect. Such callousness from the ones that made us what we are. We bring them to their knees, and we grind them into dust. A fitting end for a fitting crime, don’t you think?” Was he James’s son? I felt the stink of that kind of crazy. “First, before we slaughter you, we have a special guest.” He flicked his fingers and someone brought out a very fragile looking Othello and dumped him at Kent’s feet. “Your fearless leader. The very one that gave the order to abandon us. We made him pay, I can assure you. All those values and rules all of you drummed into our heads, we made him break them all, and watched as his humanity slipped further and further from him. It was quite enjoyable, I must say.”

  Othello didn’t move from the ground. He was broken inside from what they’d done to him. I felt sadness at the sight of him, but the rage overcame me until I was seething with it. If we were going to be killed, I wanted to take Kent with me. Slowly. Painfully.

  “Now comes the fun part. We’re going to kill you. We’re going to rid the earth of the stink of Born vampires, and then, when your bodies are lying on the ground and your blood runs cold, we will kill your Lycan friends. And after that, we will feed on the humans until they are dead too. Even the little ones.” He waved at the humans and we all growled in response, moving so he couldn’t see them anymore. It wouldn’t protect them, but we certainly would, with our dying breaths.

  “If you touch them, we will end you,” Olivier shouted to him, hissing out her anger.

  Kent laughed. “No, sweet one. You’ll be dead. Did you not hear me? Must’ve been the explosions. I admit we got a bit carried away on those.” He grinned sheepishly like explosions were adorable. “So, who’s dying first? Oh yes, I know. That one.” He pointed to me, but then his finger moved to Knight. “Kill their leader’s mate. I want her to watch all of this happen before I end her. Bring him to me.” I stepped in front of Knight and hissed threateningly, but that only made Kent laugh again. Not one of his soldiers moved to take Knight. He noticed a few seconds after I did. “I said bring him to me. Are you all dead? I’ll get him myself.” He took one step before he too was frozen.

  “What’s happening?” Knight asked, looking around. None of the turned were moving. They strained against invisible bonds.

  I felt something behind us. Something was coming. A power like I’d never felt before. A being that radiated vampire force. With the levels I was feeling, this vampire could do anything. Anything. This vampire was holding the entire turned army captive, thousands of bodies frozen under their grasp. Every step this vampire took was a jarring pulse through my body. I felt the approach like I felt hunger or pain.

  The turned army parted underneath the vampire’s power until a figure emerged.

  Mother.

  26. Mother

  She entered like a strike of lightning. Everyone felt the power coming from her in a sickly wave. It was unnatural, like a dead thing in a forest of life. No one should have that much power. Her face was flushed, her eyes sunken and hollow. This was Anastasia after a blood binge, and I was shuddering with terror at the prospect of her being near me. Would she be as unstable as James and I had been? She was already unstable, this might tip her over the edge. Even so, her power made her terrifyingly beautiful. Her skin radiated with it and I tried not to gape.

  Kent looked appropriately surprised at her arrival. “Who are you, bitch?” His second mistake was his worst one so far.

  Walking further into the clearing, she blinked at him like he was an annoying fly, her long cape swirling behind her. “I am Anastasia Bathory.” Her voice sounded strange, almost like an echo. “I am here to save my people.” Who better to save us than the one who almost destroyed us? Loving the irony, mom. She came closer to the center where we stood. For a split second, she caught my eye. “The humans can leave.” We moved one of the benches so the humans could get out. Olivier and Renard went with them to ensure they got to safety.

  Kent still managed to laugh as he strained under Anastasia’s control. “Not going to kill us all at once, love? Disappointing. I would’ve—” She held out a hand and cut him off with her powers.

  “Don’t speak again,” she ordered. “Your voice makes my spine rattle, and I dislike that. One word and I will snap your worthless neck.” I felt her power diminish slightly. She couldn’t keep this up forever. “We will accept your surrender.”

  Kent laughed again. “You really think you are in a position to—” Her hand still out, she cut him off a second time, this one permanently, and when her fist closed, his neck broke with a sickening crack.

  “We will accept your surrender,” she repeated, her strange voice echo growing stronger.

  “Release us,” one of the turned ground out. She contemplated for a moment, listening for something, and then she held out both hands, our enemies relaxing like she’d let go of their puppet strings. The turned were free, and they had no intention of surrendering. They charged at us, but Anastasia had her hands out for a reason. She made them both into fists and dozens of the turned fell with broken necks.

  My mom still sucked, but lame she was not.

  “We will accept your surrender,” I shouted, my own voice echoing in the clearing. “Kneel and you will be spared.”

  Half of the turned had been frightened into submission. The instant they knelt, the vampires next to them made sure they would not get up again.

  “So be it,” I declared stepping up beside Anastasia. “Mom, fucking smash ‘em.” She nodded to me, and as our enemies came, together we destroyed them until nothing was left except the few that surrendered, and our small army of survivors.

  The battle won and victory ours, Anastasia floated over to me. She said nothing, simply pressed a paper into my hand. Knight and Arthur came up, dragging a survivor from the carnage. I pulled the turned’s face close to mine.

  “Where is Alistair?” I demanded.

  He coughed up blood and had the nerve to smile. “Gone. And you’ll never fucking find him. The day you see him again is the day your world dies.” He laughed and gurgled when my claw swiped his neck open. I dumped him onto the ground with the other bodies.

  Anastasia was gone into the night, the phantom who saved our kind from destruction. The paper was still in my hand and I opened it to see she’d written three words.

  ‘I love you.’

  Lace and flowers reigned today. In a small, white tent, I checked my small bit of makeup in the mirror and adjusted a few hairs here and there where I’d pinned my curls into an elaborate style. I’d done it mostly by myself, with the unskilled help of Olivier and Merrick. My calf length dress was a simple thing, with embroidered flowers and sheer fabrics. Nothing fancy.

  Olivier was wearing
black like she usually did, and Merrick wore green to go with her bright, green eyes. She and I had come to a comfortable friendship, thankfully. I fluffed my curls one more time and breathed out some anxiety.

  “Jitters?” Olivier teased.

  “No. Not one bit.” Knight would always be the man I wanted to spend eternity with.

  Finished, I stood and slipped on my silver flats, and we left the tent. Outside lay the ruins of a castle that was once our home. Several months of work was turning it into a meeting hall for us to gather in. We didn’t live together anymore. Instead, we were forming a community around the area with our new brothers, the Lycans. Some of the rogue packs had decided to stay and become our neighbors, Jesse’s among them, one of the many Lycans who had helped us along the way and ensured the continuation of both our species.

  One wall had been finished of the new meeting hall, a wall with three large windows that pointed at the top. I liked the bright, open space and was glad our new designer hadn’t chosen hunter green to decorate it.

  Knight stood in the middle of the windows, looking very nice in a tux. I’d insisted he didn’t need to, but he insisted he did so I would tear it off him again later. Still, he looked handsome with his hair slicked back and a smile on his tanned face.

  Everyone stopped when they saw me. Olivier and Merrick stayed by the steps where there wasn’t a wall anymore, only bits of stone were left. I walked alone up the aisle to the man standing at the end.

  On the front row of the crowd was my father and aunt. Lucas sobbed beautifully into a handkerchief while Clara pat him consolingly on the shoulder. They were my third set of visitors, and after everyone had agreed to pardon Lucas and let them both stay, it had made me very happy, as Castilla said it would. Balthazar was next to them holding Kitty. She sat up on his lap and kept trying to climb into Clara’s, much to Balthazar’s chagrin. Toni sat on his other side and she gave me a blank nod. She and I would never be buddies, but Balthazar adored having her around so she tolerated me. Arthur was on the other side of the room, watching from afar. We’d been a good team since the war ended, as we always had been. I wasn’t sure what would happen between us in the future, because even when he had that glint in his eye, the one he had when we kissed, the one he had right at that moment as I stood before him in my wedding dress, he still insisted on pushing me away. I smiled at the icy warrior and continued up the steps to the real man of the hour.