Sever the Crown: Vampire Reverse Harem Complete Series

by Mysti Parker

  No, not a blanket at all. A silver net I’d never seen before.

  A knock sounded at the door, and the detective rose to answer it. “You tell me, Ashe. It’s your apartment, isn’t it?”

  “Don’t say a word more,” my lawyer muttered.

  The officer outside handed the detective another folder, this one white.

  As he strode back to the table, I looked at him straight-on so he could see I was telling him the truth. “That’s not mine. Someone put that there. I don’t own any nets.”

  Without sitting, he opened the new folder, his gaze pinned to me. “So you do know what it is.”

  He had to be shitting me, or trying to trick me into some kind of confession. Just not the crime I’d been accused of.

  I threw my hands up and sat back in the chair. “I know what it is because I just looked at the goddamn picture you showed me.”

  “Do you know whose blood is on it?” he asked and waved the white folder in his hands. “I have the report right here.”

  “Blood? No.” What the hell were we even talking about now? We’d gone from poisoning to bloody nets, and I had no clue why. “Look, I didn’t kill anyone. There were a bunch of people at that party, and Devin was already a pile of goo in his bedroom when I found him. There weren’t any silver net marks on him, so I don’t know why you’re showing me a net that’s not mine.”

  My lawyer cleared his throat. “Mr. Jensen, I strongly urge you to—”

  “I didn’t do anything,” I said.

  “Were you aware the net has blood all over it?” the detective asked.

  So this was what it was like talking to a wall. More like bashing my head against it for shits and giggles and probably some jail time. More than some. Shit.

  “How could I be aware of the blood if I’ve never seen the net before?” I asked.

  Detective Nuyen lifted an eyebrow as he glanced down at the folder. “Did you know much about Devin’s past other than what I’ve told you?”

  I knew enough to want him dead and to never feel sorry about it, especially if it was by my own hand but even if it wasn’t. “No.”

  He flipped to the second page in the folder. “About twenty-five years ago, he schmoozed with the upper levels of the Southern Clan society. Upper, upper levels. He was part of the Southern Clan queen’s harem, the last of them alive.”

  The same queen who’d vanished and then later turned up murdered. Bronwen was her name, a real beauty, at least she had been when I happened to catch her on VTV, and ruler over the Southern Clan. After she died, her sister took over, and everything went to shit. So was Bronwen’s murder what had triggered Devin to poison himself to become immune to its effects? Because he was afraid someone was going to murder him, too, like the rest of her harem?

  I shrugged, completely clueless as to why I was suffering through a history lesson that had little to do with me when there was a strange silver net in my apartment. “I didn’t know that. Good for him, I guess.”

  The detective flipped to the third page. “But it didn’t end so good for him, did it?”

  That depended on who you asked, I supposed. For Jessica, it was damn good because she’d never have to see the fucker ever again.

  A burst of heat shot across my inner wrist, on the other side of where the sun had hit me through the window earlier. What the hell? On top of everything else, was the sun slowly baking through my bones?

  A long silence fell over the room, thick and uncomfortable. The only sound was Mr. Phillips’s clicking pen, slowing like a dying heartbeat, as he frowned down at the notes he’d taken. Detective Nuyen stood there unmoving while staring at the third page in the white folder.

  Finally, he looked up at me and laid the folder on the table with great care. “It’s also not looking good for you, Ashe. Not at all.”

  The solemn note in his voice charged a rush of unease up my spine. “Yeah. I can see that.”

  “Can you? Because that silver net in your apartment…” He studied me as he began to pace like I might be able to finish his sentence for him.

  I tracked his movements, trying to decipher where he was going with this. No fucking clue.

  My inner wrist sizzled again, sharp and painful, but I had other things to worry about besides my baking bones.

  “The silver net had trace amounts of blood on it.” His size devoured the room while he paced, seeming to pull in the walls around me. “So I’ll ask again. Do you know whose blood?”

  I shook my head. “You’d have to ask whoever planted it there.”

  “It’s Bronwen’s, Ashe.” Detective Nuyen stopped and stared me down, the implication in his words like the snick of a lock. “Former Queen Bronwen’s blood is on that net in your apartment. Which means I’ll be charging you for her murder as well.”

  Mr. Phillips began talking a mile a minute, but I couldn’t hear anything. I had too many questions, too many impossibilities running through my head, so I just sat there, completely stunned.

  Charged for murdering clan royalty and a member of her harem. Two royal murders I didn’t commit. That crime carried the harshest punishment—death. Swift if I were lucky. Prolonged torture if the current queen had anything to do with it.

  I needed to get the fuck out of here.

  Chapter Five

  Wren

  “How many guards do you see?” Zac asked, squinting into the darkness like his human eyes could catch something mine couldn’t.

  “Two. Humans with rifles. Likely more inside and around back.” With the buzzing cicadas and relentless chirping crickets, I had to speak at a louder volume than I wanted. If it were only humans out there, it wouldn’t be an issue. I, on the other hand, could hear an ant fart if I concentrated hard enough. It was safe to assume other vampires could do the same.

  “When are visiting hours?” I asked, but I had a growing suspicion that visiting hours wouldn’t matter.

  “Who said we’re visiting him?”

  I smacked my forehead and groaned. “I should have killed you back in Silversage. This is suicide.”

  “This is perfect,” he said. “It will be sunrise soon, the perfect time to break a vampire out of jail since the vampire guards can’t follow. We just have to make it to your car and not get separated.” He held my gaze. “And we won’t.”

  “Like I said…” I looked to the eastern horizon, already shaded with a ribbon of blue and the faintest hint of orange. “Suicide.”

  Zac held his cell phone and spoke quietly into the speaker like a doctor taking notation. “This is Detective Zac Palmer, here with Melody…” He looked up at me. “What’s your last name?”

  “Songsmith. At least that’s what it says on my ID.”

  “So you don’t know for sure?”

  I shook my head, again feeling like an idiot for not having known something so basic. When you’re eight, you tend to believe whatever your mom tells you, so I never thought to question it. Like one Christmas when she happened to find a tiny Christmas tree we decorated with snowflakes cut out of newspapers and a foil fast-food wrapper star. I woke up Christmas night to find a Barbie doll dressed in a pink ballerina tutu and no shoes and some scuffed snow boots. She had smiled brightly and said, “Look what Vampire Santa left! You’ve been a very good girl this year.” Later I realized she had probably robbed the thrift store. We’d been sleeping in their basement for a couple weeks.

  He spoke into the phone again. “Here with Melody Songsmith at an unnamed facility in Brightwell, Louisiana, approximately half a mile south off the three-eighty-two bypass at mile marker fifteen. Time is 0530 hours, the twelfth of August, 2019. Target, a male vampire, first name Ashe, last name unknown. Two guards visible, unknown number inside the location.”

  “Who are you reporting to, exactly?”

  “That’s classified.”

  “Okay. Whatever.” If he knew my real name, he was good at hiding it. I’d let him call me Melody for now. Hell, he might be using an alias, too, for all I knew. We we
ren’t chummy enough for real first names yet.

  Mosquitoes buzzed by my ears. They never bite me because I’m not exactly alive and all. But they were homing in on Zac. He smacked his cheek, and with that smack came the scent of his fresh, hot blood.

  Shit, it smelled good. I paced far enough away to smell the decaying leaves and sickeningly sweet honeysuckle in the woods around us. Between that and this need to find a vampire I had never met, my cold blood boiled, throwing all my senses into overdrive. I could hear the wet splatter of tobacco juice from one of the guards who stood watch outside the jail. Disgusting.

  “Did you have a plan of action in mind, Detective, or are we just going to storm the castle? Because right now, I think I can rip all the doors off their hinges.”

  “If this is the kind of facility I think it is, we’ll need more than your vampire strength.” He opened Birdie’s passenger door and rummaged through one of his bags, then buckled a duty belt around his waist like Batman. He now had two guns holstered and had removed his blazer. Damn, he looked even more lickable all armed and dangerous.

  Sniffing the air, I detected the distinct smell of…

  “Silver bullets,” he said, smiling.

  “Is this a rescue mission or an assassination?”

  “Depends on how it goes.” At my stop-the-bullshit look, he added, “Rescue is the plan, but we’re likely to encounter some hostiles.”

  The symbol on my arm vibrated, sending pinpricks all along my spine. “Let’s get this over with.”

  “Okay, so first we should take out the two guards there in –”

  I didn’t wait for him to finish. Whatever this sensation or instinct was, it wouldn’t let me linger any longer. Not when Ashe was in there, whoever the hell he was.

  The chirps and buzzes of crickets and cicadas became one shrill scream as I zipped along the narrow dirt road through the darkness. I let my senses take over, veering off the path through the brush, where I easily dodged trees and thorns and hurtled over fallen logs and crumbling fence posts that housed half-buried rusty barbed wire. It wasn’t much different than hunting my mother’s killers. Hell, for all I knew, maybe these people had something to do with it. That thought made what I was about to do even easier.

  I moved so fast, it must have sounded like a mini tornado. The first guard spun around just as I collided with him. He made an “oomph” sound as I pinned him against a chain-link fence. Though he held his rifle with an iron grip, I ripped it from his hands and flung it aside. The dim security lights reflected the fear in his lazy eye and a rounded chipmunk cheek full of tobacco. I didn’t recognize him, but he reeked of the same stench as Rusty and the other rednecks I’d crossed off my list.

  “Terry!” he managed to scream before I plunged my fingers into his neck and tore his throat out.

  I flung him to the ground, where he gurgled and flailed on the gravel.

  His partner, whom I assumed was Terry, aimed a flashlight at me. I squinted into the light and hissed with my fangs fully emerged. Totally for dramatic purposes. It always freaked humans the fuck out.

  “Shit!” Terry dropped the flashlight and pointed his rifle with its red laser sight at me.

  I darted straight for him. A soft, hollow pop came from somewhere in the woods as I knocked him to the ground and held on. We skidded along the gravel like I was riding a human skateboard. I raised my hand to rip his throat out, but his eyes rolled back in his head. Foam bubbled up from his mouth like a mini science experiment volcano. A very thin dart stuck out from his neck. If that was poison, it sure was some powerful shit.

  Zac emerged, running into the clearing from the dirt road, lowering his gun which looked like a Colt .45 with a fat telescopic sight. “What the hell? I didn’t mean like that.”

  “What is that? A dart gun?”

  “Yeah, with tranquilizers that would keep them out for a few hours, and you should have let me use it on both guards. If the rest of them didn’t know we’re here, they do now.”

  “You said take out the two guards. They’re taken out. Now how do we get in this place?” I slung my hand to remove the bits of flesh from the first guard’s neck and touched the chain-link fence. It stung like a hornet, but it wasn’t electrified. “Shit. Is that –?”

  “Silver plated. I told you this was no ordinary jail.”

  The more I looked around, the more I saw that he was right. The silver-coated fence surrounded a solid concrete building that had tiny slits of windows near the roof. I suspected the shingles also contained bits of silver, considering how they sparkled. Cautiously, I stuck my hand into a sickly yellow shaft of light from one of the security lamps overhead.

  “Don’t –” Zac said a moment too late. It was fiery hot, like passing your finger through the flame of a candle.

  “UV lights.”

  “Yeah, I thought so. High-powered, too. Like the sun times five.”

  I paced like a caged animal along the fence line, careful to avoid direct light. “So how do I get past the silver and sunlamps on crack?”

  “What do you feel right now?”

  “I…feel...” Closing my eyes, I concentrated on the energy that throbbed in my arm and pressed against my subconscious mind. “He’s scared, confused, ashamed?” I turned to Zac with a helpless shrug. “All I know is that I have to help him. Why am I feeling this?”

  “I’m not sure, but I can get you in there, if you can take out anyone that gets in our way.”

  “Deal. But if there are any hostile vampires anywhere in the vicinity, that dart gun is useless.”

  “I know. That’s what you’re here for. This is for the humans. We don’t need any nosy neighbors or cops complicating things.”

  More lights flared to life just then from the building’s roof. They moved spotlight-style along the ground. I dodged one, got clipped by another on the cheek, and took refuge behind Zac.

  He checked his phone, then pointed left. “That way. There’s a service entrance.”

  We ran around the corner of the fence. The gravel road dipped down to a flat area where a few vehicles were parked. We ducked between an old Toyota pickup with a bent chassis and busted taillight and an ugly sunflower gold van.

  Zac eased himself up and quickly peered through the passenger window of the van before squatting back down again. “Good. There are keys in the ignition.”

  “For?”

  “We may need a getaway vehicle if we can’t make it back to your car before sunup.”

  “I would say I wouldn’t be caught dead in that thing, but…”

  He chuckled then gently touched my cheek where the light had left a blistered streak. “Does it hurt?”

  “It’s fine.” I brushed his hand away. What was I supposed to say? That it hurt like a sumbitch and if he touched me like that again, I might drain him dry? I hadn’t had a proper meal for a couple days, and a hangry vampire wasn’t someone you wanted to hang out with.

  Between the sweeping lights, I peeked over the truck to scan the area. There was a wide gate with a thick lock and chain. A heavy silver-plated steel door opened, and out came another human guard, gun raised.

  “You’ll leave if you know what’s good for you!” the guard hollered. He half hid behind the open door and squinted into the parking lot, nervously searching for whatever had triggered the lights. The lights might be torture for vampires, but did nothing to help the humans’ already pitiful night vision.

  “Stay down,” Zac said as he steadied the dart gun on the hood and pulled the trigger.

  The guard fell out of the door and onto the concrete stoop. His body flopped like a dying fish sprawled on the steps. The door swung shut again with a bang that echoed through the night.

  “If you’re trying to keep this quiet, you’re doing a shitty job of it,” I said.

  A rat—spooked from all the ruckus, no doubt—scampered out from under the truck. I snatched it up and sank my fangs into its jugular, drinking deeply until its pulse faded. Tossing its carcass aside,
I wiped my mouth with a napkin I found discarded on the ground next to a crushed cheeseburger wrapper and foam cup.

  I looked up to find Zac grimacing at me. “What? I was hungry.”

  “A rat? I mean…that’s…”

  “Gross? Would you rather me eat you?”

  “No, but is that a normal thing for vampires?”

  I huffed a laugh. “How the fuck would I know?”

  “Is that what you ate when your mother…” He bit down on whatever he was going to say. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”

  A brief image of a spider web-dusted crypt and a scrawny rat ran a chill down my spine. “No, you shouldn’t have. Now shut up and get me in there.”

  He held my gaze for a moment before I tore mine away. Then he slipped over to the gate and took another tool that looked like a tire pressure gauge from his belt. A second later, a red laser started cutting through the chain. The lights circled back around, so I ducked down, feeling like a helpless little girl again.

  I’d never tried to explain my circumstances to anyone before. Now that I had to rehash the shit-fest that was my non-life, it all sounded so pathetic. Maybe I should have been like those bloodthirsty creatures in the movies, killing at will and not giving a fuck. My mother would have been no less dead. I would have been no less alone, and maybe I would have already met a special vampire by now. Especially now that I knew others like me existed.

  “Melody!” At Zac’s loud whisper, I peeked cautiously over the truck again. The insta-sunburn lights were out. He had gone through the gate and now stood by a silver-plated electrical box. He motioned me over.

  I breezed through the gate, careful to avoid the metal.

  “I cut the wires,” he whispered, grinning like he’d performed some magical feat.

  “What do you want? A cookie?”

  “No. But I’ve cut power to most of the building, I think. They wasted a lot of time and money vampire-proofing the place. Guess they didn’t think to human-proof it. Shall we kick some ass and find your vampire?”

  “I thought you’d never ask.” We opened the service door and sneaked inside. I led the way, since the only light came from very dim emergency lights on either side of what looked like a large storage room. Crates and boxes lined the walls. Shelves holding guns and ammo and various silver items – nets, locks, pliers, and a whole host of torturous-looking implements – took up one of the narrower walls.