The Vampires' Blood Mate: A Paranormal Reverse Harem Romance

by Lili Zander

For the moment, I need to play along.

  I follow him warily. “They’re here to train the enforcers,” I reply, searching my memory for Saber’s words.

  He gives me a look of utter contempt. “I can’t believe Prince Ragnar bought that excuse. No, Raven. On the order of their boss, General Harek Levitan, they came here to search for the woman that Ottar Thistle bit in Sector 21. You.”

  No. That’s not possible.

  Even in the outer colonies, we’ve heard of Harek Levitan. How could we have not? The General is on the Ruling Council. He’s the Regent until Empress Astrid comes of age later this year. Prince Ragnar is formidable, but General Levitan is the most powerful man in the Empire.

  The Overlord continues talking, a wry smile playing about his lips. “I should have pieced it together when they were so possessive of you. After all, Saber never takes a human lover.”

  I’m still reeling from the Overlord’s earlier statement. He’s lying, I tell myself desperately. But something tells me he’s not. He’s too confident. Too relaxed.

  “Oh, you didn’t know that either?” His smile is mocking. “No, of course, you didn’t. You don’t know anything. Pathetic. The next pertinent question is: Why were they looking for you?”

  Because of my blood.

  Once again, he doesn’t wait for me to answer. “Because my former partner, Harek Levitan, told them to. Harek knew I was beginning to have second thoughts about what we were doing. Such a powerful weapon. What would happen to us if the disease got out of control?” He bares his fangs at me. “Levitan couldn’t risk that I’d talk to Ragnar or to the Empress. So, he decided to clean up the mess. He sent his best team to do the job.” He fixes me with a cold stare. “We’re the mess, Raven Unnuk. You and I. Saber has already been ordered to kill me. And you? The moment they get you back to Starra, Harek Levitan will take what he needs from your blood. And then…” He makes a slashing movement across his throat.

  A cold fist grips my heart. “I don’t believe you.”

  He pulls a small screen from his coat and hands it to me. “Proof.”

  It’s Saber on the screen, having a conversation with a man I don’t recognize. I’ve found the human woman, he says. It was a lucky stroke, really. She walked into the Overlord’s palace, asking to enter the Night of the Shayde.

  My blood turns to ice, and my hands begin to shake.

  Saber continues talking. Word after damning word oozes from his lips. Zeke and Nero are keeping an eye on her. As soon as the tournament is done, we’ll be on a shuttle back to Starra.

  “I take it, from your expression, that Saber forgot to mention any of this?” Overlord Zimmer shakes his head. “Of course, he did. After all, you wouldn’t have been quite so trusting if you’d discovered that he was taking you to your death, would you? You’d have hidden on Glacis and made his mission much harder than it needed to be.”

  Every damning word slaps my face. I could have hidden on Glacis. I could have moved from shack to shack, from shelter to shelter. I could have traveled by day, when the vampires were in slumber. On the ice, I would have been safe.

  “How naïve you are.” Zimmer keeps twisting the knife in my heart. “Saber Hafsson comes from a prominent family. His lineage is impeccable. His career, legendary. Did you really think he’d throw it all away for you? For a lowly human? What do you have to offer? You’re not even good for food.”

  My throat closes, and intense grief rushes through me. I want to burst into tears. I’ve been such a fool. Alone and lonely, starved for love and affection, I’d believed their sweet words. I’d trusted them.

  I was wrong.

  I’ve always been alone. I’ve been alone ever since my parents died. Trust is weakness. Hope is a fool’s game, and love is just a tool for your enemies to use against you.

  “What do you want?” I’m surprised at how steady my voice is.

  “I could use compulsion to get you to do my bidding, but there’s no reason. Our goals are aligned. I want you to come with me to Ragnar.”

  “So that he can kill me?”

  He raises an eyebrow. “Is that what Saber has led you to believe? Ragnar isn’t going to kill you. He’s an honorable man. He’ll take you to Starra. Take a blood sample or two, so that his scientists can start devising an antidote, and then he’ll let you go. You heard him back at the starting line of the tournament. You remember what he said? ‘I have no desire to watch another person die.’”

  No. Ragnar’s not going to let me walk free. My blood is too dangerous. Zimmer’s words are a lie, but a clever one. The kind that someone with hope would believe.

  I have none left.

  I’ve always been a tool to the vampires. I’ll never be anything else.

  It’s time to take control of my own destiny. I crumple to the floor, my head lowered, my shoulders shaking with a grief that I won’t let myself feel, and I reach for the gun that’s strapped to my thigh. In a smooth movement, I grab it and point it at the Overlord’s face.

  “You think I’m going to believe that the Empress will take a blood sample from me and let me walk free?” My voice is admirably steady. “That she’d let a weapon that could annihilate her people fall into the wrong hands?”

  He stares at the weapon, his eyes wide with shock. “Don’t even think about using compulsion,” I warn him. “There’s a split-second before I am forced to obey, and I will use that time to squeeze this trigger.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  I smile at him coldly. “I’m getting the hell out of here, Overlord Zimmer, and you’re going to help me do it. We’re going to the spaceport. Take the back way, please, because if we get caught, I tell Ragnar everything.”

  Nero planned to steal Zimmer’s ship. I’m going to stick to that part of the plan.

  Breathing hurts. My heart is an empty husk. The magnitude of the vampires’ betrayal has hollowed me from the inside out.

  But I am, above all, a survivor. Heartbreak or not, I will find a way forward.

  39

  Saber

  Boarus 4

  Past Midnight, TwelfthDay of FourthMonth

  “Where’s Raven?”

  I’ve been engaged in a conversation with Ragnar about troop movements in the Aven system. When I look up, Raven’s missing.

  At my softly-whispered question, Zeke’s eyes widen in alarm. “Zimmer’s not in his chair either.”

  Ice trickles down my spine. Once Raven had won her tournament, I’d assumed that the Overlord wasn’t a threat anymore. I’d taken my eyes off him.

  Big mistake.

  “Go look for her,” I tell Zeke out of the corner of my mouth. “I’ll join you in a second.”

  Zeke nods. He rises to his feet, swaying a little, and lurches into the table. Nero catches on, getting up quickly and propping him up with a steadying shoulder. “Zeke here has had too much to drink,” he says, sounding exasperated. “I’m going to get him out of here.”

  Nicely done. Ragnar looks up. “A soldier who can’t handle his alcohol?” His lips twist into an amused smile. “That’s new.”

  I pretend to be annoyed. “Dunk him in the ice,” I tell Nero, my voice hard. “Maybe that’ll teach him better control.” I turn back to Ragnar. “My apologies. Zeke still has some learning to do.”

  Ragnar chuckles. “I’m sure he’ll get there.”

  It takes me a few minutes to make my escape from the banquet hall. As soon as I can, I hurry outside. Zeke’s head is bent over his screen, and Nero’s pacing impatiently.

  “She’s not in the palace,” he says. “Zeke’s cycling through the camera feeds, hoping he can spot a glimpse of her.”

  “Where could she have gone?” I fret. “Where could Zimmer have taken her?” Something’s badly wrong, but I push away my paralyzing fear.

  I need to act. But doing what? “Let’s split up. Search for her on foot.”

  “No need,” Zeke interrupts, his voice tense. “I found her.”

  He tilts his screen t
oward us. Two familiar figures flash by. “Zimmer,” I breathe. “Where is he taking her?”

  “To the spaceport.”

  If Zimmer takes her off-world… If we lose her… My mind shies away from the magnitude of that loss.

  We take off in a run.

  She’s standing next to Ragnar’s gleaming silver ship, and she has a gun pointed at Zimmer. When we enter, she turns her head in our direction, and then she turns away.

  My premonition of doom grows stronger. “Raven?” I call out hesitantly.

  “Ah. It’s the three of you.” Her voice is flat and lifeless. “I was wondering if you’d show up. Let me guess, you’re going to tell me how you’re going to protect me, right?”

  I grit my teeth. Something seriously doesn’t add up. What the hell has Zimmer told her? Is he using the compulsion? “We are going to protect you,” I reply. “We care about you, Raven.”

  An expression of pain flashes across her face. “Please,” she says. “No more lies. I know the truth. The real reason you’re on Boarus 4. You came to find me, didn’t you?”

  Fuck.

  “Tell me,” she continues coldly. “At what point were you going to mention General Harek Levitan? Right before you turned me in?”

  Double fuck.

  Nero and Zeke give me sidelong glances. It doesn’t take a mind-reader to know what they’re thinking. This is my fault. I should have told her the truth days ago.

  I hadn’t been able to keep Marya from Levitan. The intensity of my feelings for Raven had taken me by surprise. They’d shaken me. And in response, I’d frozen in fear.

  I should have told her everything. And now, it’s too late, because Zimmer’s got to her. I can read her pain and her anger in every line of her body.

  She sees the way Nero and Zeke look at me. “You too,” she whispers, her face etched with pain. “All of you knew. All of you slept with me, knowing that at the end of the tournament, you would be taking me to my death.”

  How could she believe I could do that? We slept together. Does she not realize what she means to us? To me?

  “You think we would surrender you to Levitan?” I demand. “You think we care so little about you that we could see you die?”

  She stiffens. “I saw the vid, Saber. I heard you say it.”

  Nero glances at me. “Heard you say what?”

  I swear out loud. That’s how she knows about Levitan. Somehow, Klaus Zimmer has managed to record my conversation with the General, and he’s shown it to Raven.

  Triple fuck.

  “I was afraid Levitan would send another team,” I explain to the others, desperation coating my voice. “I had to stall him.”

  I turn back to Raven. “Once upon a time, I was in love with a woman. A human woman. Levitan took her from me.” My hands are shaking. “Some of the strongest forces in the Empire want you dead. I didn’t want to terrify you. I was afraid that if I threw too much at you, I’d lose you.”

  She doesn’t reply, but she also doesn’t tell me to shut up. “I was wrong. I should have trusted you from the start. You’re far stronger than I gave you credit for. You survived ten years in conditions that would have broken me. You’re far stronger than any of us.”

  Her grip on her gun wavers, just a little.

  Zimmer has been waiting for this moment.

  He moves faster than a rissi. He leaps for Raven, wresting the firearm from her hand. She flies backward, landing hard on the ground.

  “You know, Saber,” the Overlord says, the gun pointed at Raven, “You have terrible taste in women. What a lot of trouble this human is. Going to Ragnar with her could work in my favor, but it’s too much of a risk to take. Things would be a lot cleaner if I just shot her.”

  Time slows to a crawl.

  Zimmer’s finger squeezes the trigger.

  My heart hammers in my chest like a caged animal.

  I jump toward him, throwing my body between the bullets and Raven.

  Nero, predictably, is a half-step ahead. Always first to charge into a fight.

  Pain lances through my chest as a bullet makes contact, and I go down.

  So much blood.

  I promised to protect Raven. I’ve failed.

  40

  Raven

  Boarus 4

  Past Midnight, TwelfthDay of FourthMonth

  I stand on a precipice.

  Behind me is safety. The weight of the familiar. Behind me are loneliness and mistrust, fear and crystal rage. For fourteen years, ever since my parents were killed, this has been my life. These have been my emotions.

  But it comes at a bitter and corrosive cost.

  I don’t have to close my eyes to remember Ma Kaila’s face. To see the eager gleam in her eyes as she urged me to slaughter the vampires. All of them, the guilty and the innocent, because to Ma Kaila, they were all the same. They were all the enemy.

  This is who we are in Boarus 4. We work in the mines as slaves, giving our rulers our lives, our health, our strength, and our youth. But something more precious has also been taken from us.

  We’ve lost our humanity.

  If I stay where I am, I will become Ma Kaila. I will lay waste and bring ruin to every single vampire on this planet. I will kill Overlord Zimmer, but I will kill Lula Kenner as well because, in my eyes, they would have become indistinguishable.

  Who made us this way? That familiar voice inside me asks. Who taught you to hate?

  The answer hits me with the blunt, bruising force of an ice-ball aimed at my gut.

  This man in front of me. This man, who has ruled with ruthless determination and unflinching brutality.

  Overlord Klaus Zimmer.

  You stupid fool, he called me. And he’s right.

  Yes, Saber should have told me the truth. But do I really believe that he’s going to take me to Levitan?

  If I search my heart, I know the answer.

  The vampires should have trusted me, and they didn’t. They made a mistake. A big one.

  But there’s what Saber, Nero, and Zeke did, and there’s what Klaus Zimmer has done. These things are not the same. These things are not equal.

  The question is simple. Can I trust them again?

  I stand on a precipice.

  Behind me is fear.

  In front of me is hope.

  I just have to be brave enough to jump.

  I was afraid that if I threw too much at you, I’d lose you. Saber’s words hang in the air for an instant. Then they sink into me, and all my doubts vanish.

  We are not perfect, the four of us. We’ve all been wounded. We don’t trust easily, and sometimes, we screw up.

  I believe Saber. I believe Zeke. I believe Nero.

  I start to move toward them. For an instant, I forget about the weapon in my hand. I forget about Overlord Klaus Zimmer. I forget everything.

  Big mistake.

  One moment of inattention changes everything. The Overlord leaps toward me, attacking with his vampire strength and speed, wrenching the gun from my hands. I tumble to the ground in a bone-jarring thud.

  Zimmer points the gun at me.

  He says something that I don’t hear because blood is ringing in my ears.

  Then he presses the trigger.

  Death hurtles toward me, but my vampires are there. Just like they’ve been there for me from the moment I walked into the stadium and demanded a place in the Night of the Shayde.

  Saber and Nero leap in front of me, directly in the path of the bullets. And Zeke—who I thought was the most peaceful of them all—aims his own weapon at Overlord Zimmer.

  He squeezes the trigger.

  A hole appears in the middle of Klaus Zimmer’s forehead. His mouth opens in surprise, and then he slides to the ground.

  He’ll never be able to hurt anyone again.

  Nero slowly gets up, wincing in pain and cradling his right arm. Zeke holds his hand out to me, but I’m not seeing him. My eyes are locked onto Saber.

  Who is lying in a pool of bloo
d on the ground. Who is alarmingly still.

  Great Spirit, no. Please. He can’t be dead.

  I rush over to his side. “I’m sorry.” Tears stream down my cheeks. How could I have let myself be swayed by Zimmer? Now Saber is dying, and it’s my fault. “I’m so sorry.”

  His eyes flutter open. “I’m not dead yet.” His voice is weak, but his lips lift in a smile. “Zeke, help me up. Raven…” He takes a deep, shuddering breath. “We have not earned your trust. If you want to leave on your own, I understand. Take Zimmer’s ship. If you stick to the commercial lanes, you can engage the auto-pilot. Head to Merin. It’s a good place to hide, and you can buy and sell anything in their markets. Including a new identity.”

  I swallow the lump in my throat. “I don’t want to leave on my own,” I whisper. Great Spirit, there’s so much blood. The bullet has torn a hole in his chest. He’s still standing, so it didn’t hit his heart, but he needs help.

  “I should have told you everything,” he says, his voice etched with regret.

  “We all screwed up.” Nero clears his throat. “But as much as I want to clear the air, we need to get the hell out of here before someone finds us and finds him.” He gestures to the dead body of Klaus Zimmer. “And that’s not our only problem. One of the bullets hit Zimmer’s ship. The fuel tank’s dented. It won’t survive the rigor of deep space. We need a new plan.”

  Saber’s bleeding, and so is Nero, and my mind is whirling. Fear sits as heavy as a stone in my gut. I turn away from their wounds and see a gleaming silver ship, sleek and beautiful, in the corner of my eye.

  Zeke, still propping up Saber, is talking with Nero, his voice low and tense. I catch stray phrases. Exit plan. Glacis. Fallback option. Can’t hide on the ice forever. “Hey guys,” I interrupt them. “What about this one? Can we steal it?”

  Nero looks in the direction I’m pointing, and he starts to laugh. “The Valiant. Top of the line. Fastest ship in the galaxy.” Even though he’s hurt, his eyes dance with merriment. “Stealing Ragnar’s ship. I like the way you think, Raven.”