Sever the Crown: Vampire Reverse Harem Complete Series

by Mysti Parker

  With a small laugh, she laid her head on my shoulder. “If your goal is to change the way I walk, I have a feeling it’s mission accomplished.”

  I chuckled into her hair and then breathed her in, her sex smell, the clean soapy scent of her skin, the sexy rose smell of her hair. I couldn’t believe I was lucky enough to touch her. I had to admit, it made me want to pound my chest a little, but also hold her close.

  “What’s that sound?” she asked.

  When I let my mind drift away from her, I heard it too. Similar to the sound my phone had made before but slightly less annoying.

  “I think my phone might be ringing.” Maybe it was my landlord who was calling to say he did have backup tapes proving someone had forced their way into my apartment to plant evidence. Or maybe it was Jessica.

  “Oh.” Wren, still joined with me, reached over to get it from where I must’ve dropped it on the floor and then pressed a button. Her yellow eyes stuck on the screen, and then she froze. “Ashe.”

  The phone still rang, and I held out my hand for it. “Let me answer, and then I need to get rid of this phone.”

  She jerked the phone from my seeking fingers and climbed off of me quickly as if she couldn’t wait to get away. Her gaze was laser-focused on the phone, but then she finally flicked it up to me—sharp, lethal, fucking pissed. “When were you going to tell me you helped murder my mother?”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Wren

  Whoever had been calling had given up and left a text.

  Explain.

  A picture followed. It was somewhat fuzzy, a photo of a news broadcast taken with a cell phone camera. The call letters in the bottom corner read VTV. The still footage showed uniformed guards like those in the prison, holding up a silver net, darkened with old, dried blood. The news snippet below: Escaped prisoner Ashe Jensen being sought in connection with Queen Bronwen’s murder and the murder of Devin Newport, one of her mates. Suspect considered armed and dangerous. Last seen with unknown human male and female vampire.

  The image of the net’s tarnished mesh burrowed straight into the memories I’d tried to entomb in the recesses of my mind. Her screams still echoed in my ears. The image of her panicked eyes was something I’d never unsee. I was hidden in a dumpster, peeking from a tiny space beneath the lid. She projected her last words into my head—something she’d never done before.

  Stay hidden no matter what. I love you, Princess.

  Seconds later, a knife blade flashed. It tore through flesh and sawed into bone. Gurgling, thrashing, and blood followed. So much blood… The only thing I could do was to sink down onto the rotting refuse, hugging my knees, my fist pressed hard against my mouth to stifle a scream.

  I thought they might find me, but they didn’t. They must not have known I existed, which was probably why she had told me to hide rather than run from her attackers. I shuffled through my memories, painful as they were, to remember if Ashe’s face had been among her killers. But it had taken several men to restrain her. I didn’t get a good look at all their faces.

  Even so, I had eventually managed to kill most of them. Most, except for a few stragglers and a man I’d all but given my heart to already.

  Ashe sat silent, staring at me with wide, unblinking eyes, his face turning paler by the second. “I can explain.”

  “Is this why you were in prison?” I tossed the phone to him, giving him a moment to see the news blurb someone had texted him.

  His face paled. His gaze flicked toward mine, and his voice sounded shaky and hollow. “I didn’t kill your mother.”

  “How old were you back then?” My mother had been nearly a hundred years old, thanks to slow-burning vampire genetics. Ashe could very well be her age or older.

  He focused on the floor as though counting it up, then lifted his gaze to me again. “I was fifteen.”

  “Old enough to kill, then.”

  “No, I’m telling you, someone framed me for this. I haven’t killed anyone, I swear.”

  I dressed in a blinding two milliseconds, my skin still tingling and sensitive from being entwined with his. Everything about it had felt so right, but then what did I know about right when it came to vampires? Nothing. Zilch. A big fat zero except what I’d learned over the course of a few days. And I couldn’t even trust all that to be true. Not with the net that helped end my mother’s life connected to the name of someone destined to be my mate.

  Ashe dressed in a blur as well and was beside me before I could figure out what to do next. “Wren, please. You have to listen.”

  He put a hand on my shoulder, but I pushed him…okay, more like threw him against the wall. He braced himself with his arms so his head didn’t smash into the bricks. I thought for a moment he might retaliate, but the flash of anger in his eyes soon chilled into fear and uncertainty.

  “I don’t have to do anything.” It would probably have been easier to just kill him than trying to decide if he was innocent or guilty. I could have gone on the run again, grabbed Birdie and took off to parts unknown. I knew how to disappear. What the fuck did I know about being a queen anyway?

  He reached for me again, but I stepped back.

  “Don’t touch me. They don’t just put people into prison for nothing. Why would anyone frame you for murder?”

  “I don’t know.” He averted his eyes then swallowed hard.

  I shoved him up against the wall again, my hand flat against his chest, pinning him there. “You know something. Talk.”

  He stiffened but kept his hands to his sides. “The night I was arrested, I…had plans to kill someone.”

  “Who? Me?”

  “No!” He looked genuinely wounded, but was it just good acting? “It was a vampire named Devin. He beat the shit out of my sister six years ago. I warned him if he came near her again, I’d kill him. I saw a picture of them together just a few days ago and decided to keep my word. But when I got to the hotel, he was already dead. I have no idea who killed him or why, but I was arrested not long after. They said I was also locked up because someone found that net in my apartment. I’ve never owned anything like that. Someone wanted to pin your mother’s death on me. I never even met her, Wren. I swear. I don’t know how this is all connected yet.”

  “Pardon me if I’m having a hard time believing you.”

  He raked his fingers through his blond hair and pulled so it spiked up. “Maybe they were trying to flush you out. Maybe they knew I was your mate or that Zac was looking for us. Maybe Zac’s involved. Hell if I know. All I know is that we belong together. Whatever this connection is, it’s real. I don’t think I could lie to you even if I tried.”

  “I need to be alone for a while.” Tears pricked the corners of my eyes. I hadn’t cried since the night my mother, an apparent queen, had been taken from me. I wasn’t about to start now.

  I started out of the hidden room, but Ashe zipped in front of me.

  “Don’t. Please. It’s not safe out there.”

  My fangs emerged. I leveled a death glare at him, my voice rumbling with an all-too-predatory growl. “Not for you, maybe. Step aside.”

  He hesitated, lips twitching as though he wanted to protest. But thankfully, his desire to survive won over the stubbornness. He stepped aside, head lowered in reverence for his queen, I guessed. Whatever. I couldn’t put blind faith into him just because we’d fucked. But something in me told me he was being truthful. How much could I trust that instinct?

  I started toward the stairs, but a stubborn pebble of guilt irritated my conscience. “I won’t go far. Stay here.”

  I zipped upstairs onto the library’s main floor, where Chip’s misty form hovered over a wooden train set meant to distract living kids so their parents could read in peace. He had to concentrate hard in order to pick up anything. I must have broken his concentration. The caboose he held fell through his hand and knocked a few train cars off the tracks. I glanced up at the security camera aimed in his direction and smiled. The library staff would be in a
tizzy tomorrow when they viewed the footage of trains being tossed about. That in turn would bring on a slew of ghost hunters for Chip to mess with.

  Chip floated over to me. “Where’s your friend?”

  We spoke in almost silent whispers only ghosts and vampires, not security cameras or humans, could pick up.

  “He’s asleep,” I lied and really hoped the little spirit hadn’t spied on us. Even a dead boy didn’t need to see our mating frenzy.

  “Okay. It’s been really quiet up here. Want to play?”

  “Sure. For a minute. Hide-and-seek?”

  His mouth stretched into a ghostly grin. “You’re it!” He whooshed into the stacks, disappearing with a poof of white mist left behind.

  Covering my eyes, I counted out loud to ten. “Ready or not, here I come!” All I had to do was use my night vision to pick up his cold temperature signature. But he was good at hiding inside solid objects to conceal his cold energy. “Hey, no hiding in the walls or floor, remember?”

  His hollow laughter bounced around the room, so I couldn’t pinpoint his location by sound. “Okay, but you can’t use your superpower eyes either.”

  “As you wish.” I closed my eyes, depending on scent and sound to guide my footsteps. I knew every squeak in the floorboards, but a few things had been moved around since I’d last roamed the building. I banged my shin into a new chair in the expanded children’s area and bit my lip so I didn’t yell out a bad word that the cameras and Chip didn’t need to hear.

  Chip giggled. Closer this time. I made my way to the big plastic playhouse at the rear corner of the room by big windows that I imagined let in tons of warm sunlight for all the kids who enjoyed the space. The air around me cooled. Smiling, I realized what was “warm” or “hot” for human hide-and-seek is the opposite when you play with ghosts. I could also smell lingering smoke that carried a faint whiff of charred flesh. Poor kid. At least he’d died from the smoke before the fire burned him beyond recognition.

  I ducked down at the playhouse door and opened my eyes. “Gotcha!”

  “Aw, man! I forgot how good you are at hide-and-seek.”

  “Want me to hold my nose too?”

  Chip laughed. “Nah. Your turn to hide.”

  He covered his eyes with his cold, misty hands, the transparency of which probably didn’t block much of his sight. It didn’t matter. Playing with Chip brought back the good times I’d had as a kid and helped settle the battle of whether to trust Ashe that was going on in my head. I zipped past the reference shelves and graphic novels, straight up the spiral steel staircase that led to the meeting room. It rattled a little, which would probably give me away. Oh well, at least I was having fun.

  I decided to hide just outside on the fire escape. I unlocked the window, quietly slid it up and hopped out, leaving it cracked open.

  Chip’s voice echoed from downstairs. “Ready or not, here I come!”

  He’d find me in no time, but I squatted down below the window sill. I wanted some fresh air to cool the heat Ashe had left behind with his lips, hands, and other pleasurable parts. Being this close to him pulled at my desire like a rubber band about to snap. Maybe distance was a bad thing? Would we both disintegrate if we got too far apart? Yet another critical piece of information that would have come in handy before I fucked him and sealed our bond.

  What was I supposed to do if I ended up with all five of them bonded to me? Would I ever get a moment’s peace? For a girl who’d been on her own for most of her life, suddenly being glued to five other people was about as appealing as pulling out a fang with rusty pliers.

  While ruminating over things I had no clue about, Chip materialized on the fire escape, touching my face with his ice-cold fingers.

  “Hey, you cheated, ghost boy.”

  “No, I didn’t. You said don’t go through walls or floors. I went through the window instead.” He grinned, showing spaces where he’d lost a couple teeth as a mortal kid. I guess they don’t grow in after you’re dead.

  “Well, you got me there.”

  “My turn to hide?”

  “Sorry, little man, I better go check on Ashe and get out of here before the place opens.” I stood, reaching for the window to go back inside.

  But then I caught a whiff of something. It was a nasty scent, like rotten garlic, something my prey often used to hide their smell…

  A hard object poked my back. “Chip, what are you—?”

  Searing pain choked the rest of my words into a long, low wail. Fiery currents rippled along my spine into my head, arms, and legs. My surroundings wobbled like an earthquake had hit. I lost my balance, stumbled into the fire escape railing, and over I went.

  Chip’s cold ethereal hands tried to grab me as I fell, but he couldn’t hold on. I hit the sidewalk flat on my back. I couldn’t tell up from down. Vertigo scrambled all sense of direction. A blurry head with some kind of weird hat loomed over me.

  “Well, what do we have here? A wannabe queen? I know somebody who’ll pay me good for you.” His voice was deep, hoarse, and distant like someone talking on a tin can phone.

  Next thing I knew, hard fingers clamped around my ankles. My body slid across rough pavement that felt as unsteady as a rocking boat.

  I heard Chip’s voice, louder than ever before, calling, “Ashe! Hurry! Wren needs help!”

  Before everything faded to nothing, I smiled through the delirium. Those paranormal teams would have one hell of an EVP to fawn over.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ashe

  I let Wren go out of the hidden room even though the urge to go after her, to beg her to believe me, burned deep. This wasn’t how I wanted her to find out. I wanted to have proof I hadn’t done it first, and right now, I only had my word. Not much at all for an escaped fugitive with two murders he didn’t commit hanging over his head like two sharp blades. With how things had been going lately, they’d come crashing down any second with no warning.

  I couldn’t blame Wren for thinking I’d killed her mother after seeing the planted evidence against me in a video text from my sister. Jessica had texted back with: Explain.

  I really, really wished I could.

  Can we meet somewhere? I texted back, my fingers shaking a little. It meant a lot that Jessica still had enough faith in me to want me to explain. But she still had quite a bit of explaining to do herself, like that picture of her and Devin with a date stamp of only a week ago, that picture of her with shorter hair than she had now. Even vampire hair didn’t grow that fast. Which meant that picture hadn’t been taken a week ago.

  Hogwarts. 5x5.

  I nodded, even though she obviously couldn’t see me. I knew what she was talking about. In the backyard of our parents’ old house, a garden shed with turrets stood near the back, a fantastical mystery compared to everything else in Brightwell. It had reeled Jessica in right when we’d moved there with its imaginary promise of vicious battles between good and evil. She’d always been such a dreamer. If I ever wondered where she was—and I could probably count on one hand all the times I had wondered back then—she was most likely galloping around the garden shed with her broom.

  She wanted to meet there at 5x5 or 2500 hours in military time. Yes, yes, military time only had twenty-four hours, unless you were our dad, an uptight Southern Clan Navy veteran, who despised procrastination and “lazing about.”

  You have the same twenty-five hours in a day as everyone else, he’d tell us. Use that time wisely.

  Mom, the more chill of the two, decided that extra hour was between midnight and one. Then she’d sneak a sip of wine straight from the bottle when she thought no one was looking.

  Ok. Delete this message, I texted.

  She sent me a thumbs-up, the most passive aggressive emoji ever.

  Meeting her at Hogwarts meant we’d need to go back to Brightwell tomorrow night, something I wasn’t too keen on, but I couldn’t just leave her without saying goodbye. And I had a feeling I was leaving, permanently, because this
thing with Wren and helping her take the crown wouldn’t just go away, whether she hated my guts or not.

  The symbol on my wrist went ice cold. I gasped and stared down at it.

  “Ashe! Hurry! Wren needs help!”

  My blood went arctic at the panic in Chip’s voice that echoed from upstairs. My muscles froze to my veins. I threw the door of the hidden room open and stumbled out, terror stiffening my spine as I raced up the stairs three steps at a time.

  “Where?” I shouted, scouring the dark library.

  “Up here!”

  His misty form waved from an upper level accessible from a metal spiraling staircase. I zipped up there, shaking the structure so much, I thought it might collapse. Chip hovered on the other side of the upper level by the fire escape door, his ghostly hand waving frantically.

  I sprinted toward him at full speed, knocking into book stands and spilling the shiny new books to the floor. One of them skidded right under my next footfall, and when the sole of my shoe touched it, my leg skated out from underneath me. I crashed onto the thin brown carpet, hip first, then shoulder and head, which bounced. Twice. Pain flared, but I ignored it and untangled my limbs with a snarl before I stood.

  A female vampire with poofy dark hair smiled up at me from the cover of the book that had taken me down. A self-help book titled How to Grow Your IQ by Drinking Smart People.

  Oh, the irony.

  I dragged myself up when three things happened at once. What sounded like a door slammed just outside where Chip was madly waving me. The lights flipped on. And my cell started blaring its ring.

  I hauled balls out of there and tore through the fire escape window. An ear-shattering alarm cut through the library. If whoever turned on the lights didn’t know someone was here before, they sure as hell would now.