Seeking Serena (The Complete Series Books 1-5): Paranormal Vampire Reverse Harem

by Lily Levi

  I reached down and unbuttoned my own pants, even while I ate her, and let myself free from the confines of the fabric. I pressed myself down against the bed as I tasted her and felt my own hunger grow.

  She lifted her hips for me and I pressed my tongue deeper inside of her sweet hole.

  “Take me,” she whispered headily.

  I moved my mouth slowly from her wet slit and up to her stomach, lifting her shirt and jacket away from her as I went. I stopped at her breasts and sent my tongue gently around one of her hardened nipples.

  She lifted her hips again, as though beckoning me further, unable to wait.

  I nibbled gently against her skin, just waiting to be pierced with teeth again, but the time wasn’t right.

  Not yet.

  Instead, I pierced her with the the thickness of my hardened shaft. Oh, how I had been craving her since the moment she walked from the mansion, alone and dazed. I would’ve followed her out then. I would’ve seen her home. I would’ve fucked her in her own bed again and again. I was nothing if not a gentleman.

  I growled my pleasure into her neck and she dug her nails into my back.

  “You’re mine,” I groaned, feeling myself rise within her. “You’re fucking mine, Serena Moon.”

  Serena

  I closed my eyes and pressed my face into Orlando’s bare chest. His body lacked the mortal warmth I was used to, but there was still something overwhelmingly comfortable about letting myself be held by him - overwhelmingly dangerous, too, but that had been the plotline of my whole life.

  I breathed in his dark scent and let myself indulge in the gently forming fantasy that I carried his slow-growing spawn deep within my belly; that I was his now; and that he would protect me from the fate I had been dealt by the Master himself.

  But here we were, defying fate together. He’d been sent like the others to play the Master’s game, yet he refused because he had nothing to lose. Could I not also refuse?

  I kissed his chest lightly and imagined a world where it was not only me against Master Deadmourn and the stalking dead, but me and the dead - his own spawn - against the Master. It was inevitable we would be overwhelmed, but I stood more of a chance now than I ever did before.

  “Are you sure?” I whispered into his chest.

  He breathed deeply. “You never need to ask me that,” he said and pressed his hand against the back of my head to hold me closer against him. “I have made my choice. I have claimed you and whatever grows inside of you.”

  I bit my tongue to stop from telling him that I didn’t want to be claimed, not really. I wanted to be free, strong, and alive… but I couldn’t be those things without his protection to begin with. I was weak and vulnerable. I always had been.

  “Thank you,” I said, though the words came out strange and contorted, rusted from misuse.

  The growing light of morning colored the room a soft gray. He kissed my forehead. “You sound significantly less bitter. Does this mean that you trust me?”

  “Trust you,” I repeated the words. “No, I can’t say that I trust you.” I chewed on my lower lip and thought how best to temper what I was saying. I needed his protection, and though it wouldn’t possibly be enough to fend off whatever it was the Master had in mind for me, it was a better start than where I’d started.

  “I’m willing to give you a chance, though,” I said at last. “Though I’ve only got one chance to give. And maybe that’s why.”

  “Fair enough,” he said. “I will prove myself to you no matter how long it takes.”

  I swallowed back a second ‘thank you’. It simply wasn’t in my nature and I couldn’t force it out again, at least not so soon.

  “I’m surprised the others haven’t come through that door,” I said, still halfway steeped in my own uncaring. I had gone along with fate for so long that turning against it felt surreal. It would take some getting used to.

  Orlando’s muscles tightened against my body. “Have any of them come to you?”

  I licked my lips. “Ambrose, yes. Theron. Cain. Pollux.”

  “What did they offer you?” he asked.

  “Offer?” I said. “Cain was especially generous in his offer of death, but Ambrose wanted a second chance, much like yourself.” I smiled to myself. It was possible that my version of the game had worked that night of our first meeting, though I hadn’t let myself believe it right off. It felt impossible, but there it was.

  Ambrose had approached me looking for forgiveness and Orlando had pledged himself to me and my womb. Of Theron I wasn’t so sure, but Cain and Pollux seemed to encompass more of what I’d expected when they finally showed themselves to me - hatred, violence, and a keen sense to destroy the thing that they had been unable to kill with their bites alone.

  Perhaps it wasn’t so much about tradition at all. I’d undermined their power and it had infuriated them.

  But not all of them.

  I craned my neck upwards to kiss Orlando full on the mouth.

  He kissed me back and brushed the hair from my face. “Do not let Ambrose in,” he said. “He can’t be trusted.”

  I locked eyes with him in the growing light. “I wonder if he would say the same about you.”

  Orlando only frowned. “Of course he would, but he wouldn’t believe his own words. Ambrose talks. It is his best attribute and it has won him many things, but don’t let it win you.”

  I shook my head with a sadness I almost felt. “We won’t survive, just you and I. We’ll need others.” It was strange to feel hope, as small as it was, but I’d tasted it and I wanted more.

  Orlando’s pale eyes held firm. “They can’t be trusted, especially Ambrose. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain by aligning myself with you, but Ambrose is not situated like I am. He is closer to taking the Master’s seat than anyone else. You must’ve seen it that night.”

  I put my head back down on the pillow beside him. “And what if his claim isn’t supported? Who will give themselves to something they don’t believe in?”

  Orlando was quiet for a moment. “Did you believe in giving yourself to us?”

  “Yes,” I said, not needing to think about my answer. I had, in fact, believed in it. But now… now…

  “Well,” he said. “I don’t. I won’t give myself to Ambrose to feed on if he’s chosen, nor any of the others.”

  I pulled the blanket up to my chin and stared at the peeling ceiling above us. “You’ll regret this when they come for us,” I said. “Because they will. I’ve been waiting for them - for you - for years. And now you’re here and so are they. They’re not just going to let us go. I should know that better than anyone and so should you.”

  Orlando turned in the bed beside me and wrapped his arm around me. “Well then I suggest you put on some clothes, though there’s no terrible rush. They’re taking their time, I know them well. They’re playing a game.”

  “But we’re not going to play it,” I said.

  “No,” he whispered into my neck. “Because I have a better idea.”

  Serena

  Orlando moved beside me. “Are you sure there’s nothing you want to take?”

  I eyed the room, already heavy with a new dawn. The vanity, the bed, the blankets, the photos on the wall, none of it was mine. I could only claim the skeletons in the closet, but those would have to stay behind.

  “No,” I said. “Nothing.” I didn’t tell him that there was nothing I had ever considered mine in the first place. I traveled light because it made little sense to hoard the things that would be lost to death, things and people alike. None of it mattered when I knew how easily they could be lost. The pain just wasn’t worth the effort it required to hold fast.

  I turned to him and pushed my hands into his. I wanted him so much to be telling the truth about his desire to protect me from the other twelve, heirs as they were, his own brethren, and the Master himself. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about his claim that I was carrying one of their own inside of my belly, but if
it served to spark an interest in my protection, then I wouldn’t fight it.

  Not yet, at least.

  “Do you trust me, Serena?” His pale eyes glistened in the growing daylight.

  “You’re not used to the sun,” I said, ignoring his question. “Too long in that mansion.” There would need to be an extraordinary show of sacrifice on his part for me to allow trust in a creature I’d always believed was out to end my existence, as dark and pathetic as it had been.

  As hot as it had been, a single night in bed was hardly enough to convey allegiance. All it proved was that he wanted me, but that would have to be as good a starting point as any. I would take what I could get and right now, all I had was Orlando and the threat of twelve other furious vampiric spawn lords and their Master - our Master.

  “You’re not being naive,” he said, reading me better than I would’ve hoped. The angled lines in his long face softened. “You’re right to have some hope. Even the darkest life deserves a little light.”

  I frowned up at him and took my hands from his. “You wouldn’t be saying that if you knew what kind of life I’ve lived.”

  “A bad one,” he said, voice lifting. “One full of hate and fear, I imagine.” He took my hands again. “You’re meant for something greater than what you thought you were. You aren’t fodder for other vampires, Serena Moon. You’re a whole different creature and a beautiful one at that.” He leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine. “But we do have to hurry if we’re going to preserve your beauty and the little bit of hope that we actually have.”

  “Hurry,” I said, giving him my best coy smile. “I’ve never hurried in my life.” I hoisted the leather bag over my shoulder and nodded to the room that had served me as well as any other for the several weeks I had stayed.

  “You will now,” he said. “We have an appointment to keep.”

  “Appointment,” I said, following him from the room. I wasn’t particularly keen on letting Orlando move me about, but I couldn’t afford to be more than playfully rebellious. I needed to endear myself to him. If he was telling the truth about wanting to protect me, then he was the only one on my side. I couldn’t risk losing my one safeguard against the Master and the others by embracing my own small pride.

  But if he was lying… there was little enough to be done about that. My choices consisted of two hardly palatable paths: trust Orlando and risk everything or risk everything by not trusting him.

  I shut the bedroom door behind me out of habit and habit alone. There was no reason for it. Something told me I wouldn’t be coming back and that was good. At the very least, it meant I stood a chance and I hadn’t stood a chance in hell - quite literally hell - since that first gray morning in my mother’s broken home a hundred years ago.

  I was born to be consumed by the Master’s heirs. We all were, wherever we existed, beneath the snows, between the trees, in abandoned one-bedroom apartments. It didn’t matter.

  But now… what if?

  I pressed my hand to my stomach and Orlando’s pale eyes lit down on me in the dim hallway. Whether or not I carried his spawn was irrelevant. If he believed I did, which seemed to be the case, it was possible that he would fight to the bitter end for that belief.

  He opened the metal door to the complex stairwell and I stepped inside of its chamber, cool despite the cruel summer heat that I knew already would have consumed the city streets below.

  He stepped down the stairs in front of me and I followed. The back of his broad shoulders sat straight and he held his head level despite the steep descent downwards. He was sure of something, but whether it was my capture or my safety, there was no way to tell.

  We stepped into the dingy green lobby and then out into the hot light of morning. Orlando shaded his eyes against the sun, not yet fully risen.

  “You’re like a bad cliché,” I said.

  Orlando raised his brow at me and I noted how truly pale his eyes appeared in the light of day. “I will never understand why you would choose to subject yourself to the fire between the stars when you could spend your time exploring the fire between your thighs.”

  I readjusted the bag over my arm. “Poetic,” I said. “Now which way is this appointment of ours?”

  He took my bag from me and I let him. If he wanted to feel like I needed his help for even the smallest things, I wouldn’t interfere. I’d need him for bigger things soon enough and, despite my pride, it was best if he had some practice.

  “This way,” he said and took my hand. His grip was strong and cold.

  We walked side-by-side down the long street and towards the main thoroughfare where the small shops and delicatessans would just be opening their shutters.

  I eyed the shadowed alleys between the gray apartment buildings and iron-screened duplexes, more than half-expecting to find Pollux and Cain’s pained faces staring after me down any one of them. I wondered what Orlando would do if they showed themselves, because surely they watched, if not followed.

  And then, of course, there was Ambrose and Theron. I had left them in the bar and they had let me go without so much as a word to stop me. Why was that? Why did none of them jump to interfere even as Orlando pulled me away from them?

  Unless he wasn’t taking me from them at all.

  “Where is this ‘appointment’?” I said as nonchalantly as I could manage.

  “You’ll understand my discretion,” he said. “The others listen.” He squeezed my hand as if for reassurance.

  “Why don’t they stop us?” I asked, pressing him. “That is, if you’re not with them.”

  “For brotherly love,” he whispered down at me. “Honor among the worst of us, but honor only lasts so long.”

  We walked in silence for a time until we reached a yellow sedan parked on the side of the street.

  Orlando dropped my hand, gave me back my bag, and went to work with the lock on the driver’s side.

  I crossed my arms and stared at him through the passenger side window. “This one?” I said. “Of all of them, you want this one?”

  He shrugged at me and pulled the door open. “I’ve always liked yellow. Don’t you have a favorite color?”

  I pulled open the passenger side door and sidled into the leather seat, already warm with the growing day. “No,” I said and reached beneath the steering wheel to help him spark the car to life. “Favorites mean attachments. Unlike yourself - there you go, those two wires, take this one - I can’t afford attachments.”

  He put his hands on the wheel and gave me a long look. “Well Serena, let me change what you can afford.”

  I frowned at him but his gaunt face remained unchanged.

  “Better start picking out a favorite color,” he said and pulled the yellow sedan out into the empty street.

  My heart rose. I was taking a chance where there shouldn’t be one.

  Pollux

  I covered the bodies as we had found them, lying together on the living room couch, with their boxed television set on mute.

  “Cain,” I said, trying for his attention once more. “Is it just me or are they all starting to taste the same?” I looked to the television set. “Should we change their channel to something wildly embarrassing for when they’re found? Do you think they’ll be found? Do they look like people who were cared about?” I cocked my head down at them. “I can’t tell anymore.”

  But Cain was having none of it. He’d watched Serena and Orlando go from the open window and would’ve continued watching had his eyesight extended through the walls and doors between us and them.

  “Oh,” I said. “Let them have their fun. Orlando doesn’t get enough of it as it is.” I would not begrudge him a night with Serena, or even two or three if that’s what he wanted. The end game remained the same: return her to the Master and win with Cain under whatever command he could be brought down to. I couldn’t hope to go against him, but delivering Serena with Cain under my command would prove to be an invaluable boon to my standing with both the Master and the o
thers.

  Cain turned from the window, eyes heavy with hate. “He’ll bring her to him.”

  “Oh dear.” I clasped my hands in front of me. “Whatever shall we do? Orlando is so much faster, and smarter, and stronger than the both of us. If we don’t leave this place now, then I fear we have already lost.” I grinned at him to make sure he understood the joke. One could never be too certain with him and it was best to err on the edge of heavy-handedness.

  I moved forward and placed my hand on his shoulder though he was nearly a head taller than I was. “Singled out, none of them have much hope against us, though we must remember that they are our brethren. We mustn’t hurt them or Serena.”

  His muscles tensed beneath my hand and he turned his gaze back out the window though the two of them had long gone.

  “Unless we want to hurt them,” I added. “But threats of escalation only work if you can manage to escalate. Do you understand?”

  Cain eyed me as though he understood, but I wasn’t quite certain that he did. Perhaps his mind understood, but Cain had been himself for hundreds of years and he’d always been partial to following the desires of his flesh with violent lust.

  “I could’ve broken her,” he said.

  I nodded. He could’ve and it was good that he hadn’t. While the Master hadn’t specified whether or not he wanted Serena back alive, it was a simple thing to surmise. She was a thing of curiosity for him - indeed, for all of us - and I felt sure that he had no intentions of sitting across from her lifeless body, asking her questions that she could not answer.

  No, Master Deadmourn was bored. That was all. What hadn’t he seen? What hadn’t he done? Serena Moon was an enigma and a plaything that he would soon tire of, but he would certainly be disappointed if we were to ruin his fun so soon.

  “I want her,” said Cain, breaking my thoughts, though he spoke more to whatever lay outside of the window than to me.

  “We all want her,” I said, finding a failsafe against Cain’s violent urges within my own words. “But the game is this - are you listening at all?”

  He moved away from the window and stared at me, though it was difficult to tell if he were truly hearing my words or merely bathing in the sound of my voice.