Sever the Crown: Vampire Reverse Harem Complete Series

by Mysti Parker

  “Ashe,” Zac grinded out, as if this wasn’t the first time he’d said my name.

  I blinked away and found we were now parked on a drive in the sprawling backyard. “Yeah, just park it here. There are car covers in the guest house.”

  “Guest house?” Wren grinned. “Looks just like the regular house to me. Let me guess, this family uses summer as a verb, right?” She lifted her arm and flicked her wrist as if expecting a tuxedoed gentleman to kiss it. “Dahling, would you rather summer in the Hamptons or Hawaii?”

  “Well…yeah.” She’d pretty much nailed the Andersons’ lifestyle and way of speaking, but the family had paid me really, really well. Even gave me access to the guest house and its fully stocked kitchen whenever I needed it, though I was pretty sure they’d meant when I was actually employed by them, not years after I’d left. A technical detail I chose to ignore, especially since they weren’t here. They would be in Hawaii this time of year.

  The guest house was tucked back against the far fence with ivy climbing up the eaves and tall, heavily draped windows with night blooming rose bushes in front of them. The key was hidden inside a tiny bird house hanging from a ceiling hook on the porch. I let us in, the cleaning chemicals inside burning my nose even though I wasn’t inhaling. Whoever worked for the Andersons now didn’t know the meaning of dilution, apparently.

  I hit the light switch on the wall, which threw a soft glow on the modern chrome, granite, and wood, then double-checked I’d locked the door behind us. “The car covers are in the utility closet.” I pointed down a hall to the left. “There are five bedrooms throughout the house, so take your pick. There might be human food in the fridge, Zac, but I can’t guarantee it.”

  “Figures.” He shook his head and started down the hall in the direction of the closet, his heavy footsteps thumping on the wood floor.

  “I don’t want my own bedroom, in case you didn’t know.” Wren stepped in close, one eyebrow lifted, and slid her lips along mine. Just a touch, but more than enough to stir everything right the fuck awake. Not difficult at all since my need for her started simmering just below my skin while we’d been in the back of the car, very literally at my wrist. Now, the symbol there pulsed in time with my throbbing cock.

  I took her neck in my palm, my fingers gripping the hair at the back of her head, and dragged her closer to keep her there, connected to my body. Always. Her mouth moved with mine, just as soft and pliable as her body pressed up against me. She wrapped her arms around my neck with a desperate moan that nearly made me come from just the sound of it. I grabbed her ass and pulled her tight against me, the heat between her thighs spreading through my jeans and making me lose my mind. I moved my free hand under her shirt, under her bra, needing to feel every part of her tighten and squirm and shudder.

  “I never did thank you properly for coming to rescue me.” She pressed in closer, moving the both of us toward a dark doorway in the opposite direction Zac had gone. As her tongue slid against mine again, she moved her hand down over my jeans and squeezed my iron-hard dick.

  “Wren…” It sounded like a warning, but it was more of a promise to her, like I was bowing in front of my queen with my fangs bared.

  But then she was the one who was bowing, sinking down on her knees in front of me inside the dark room. The master bedroom, I realized, but then all my thoughts scattered at the sound of my zipper. When she took me into her mouth, pretty sure I almost left my body. Good thing I didn’t though. Great thing, actually. Her lips and tongue glided up my dick, almost to the base, and then down to the tip again. And when she sucked in her cheeks and moaned, the vibration humming along every sensitive nerve… Sweet. Vampire. Jesus.

  My hips thrust into her, slowly, as I cupped her head. I didn’t want to hurt her, but I couldn’t keep still either. I wanted to fuck her mouth hard. I wanted to bury myself inside her every which way. She didn’t seem to mind though. In fact, she smiled up at me as much as she could with my cock in her mouth. A low groan barreled out of me as I thrust again, and again, each thrust met with Wren’s wet tongue and lips sucking and licking. I held to her gorgeous face harder as I sped my pace, unable to control myself until an intensity unraveled deep inside me. I threw back my head and came into her mouth, my whole body buzzing like a thousand livewires.

  I touched my fingers to her face. “My god, Wren.”

  “You’re welcome. But also thank you. Again.”

  “Fucking any time.”

  She laughed, such a gorgeous sound.

  It seemed to take hours to come back to my senses. I didn’t know anything anymore, especially how, hours later, I woke up face-down on a bed with Wren tucked into my side. I supposed I’d passed out. Typical. And selfish. I’d make it up to Wren once she was awake.

  In the meantime, I could suck the wings off a mosquito’s thieving body, I was so hungry. My stomach was about to start a revolution. A glance at the wall clock showed me why. I’d slept for almost twelve hours.

  I made my way to the kitchen where I found labeled, plastic-sealed packs of blood arranged by type in the refrigerator. I chose type A positive, which was the heartier, most savory of the types, in my expert, not-so-humble opinion.

  There was also a sausage roll in there and an open box of Ritz crackers on the counter, so it looked like Zac had already dug in. I’d been kidding about the lack of human food in a vampire guest house. We would never starve our DBDs, not that he was. We weren’t monsters. Most of us.

  I heated a mug of blood in the microwave and then drank deep while I wandered into the darkened living room. Grayish evening daylight shined through the cracks in the heavy drapes, which at one time would’ve put me at ease that all was well and right with the world. But Queen Ravana’s vampires had come to Edna’s Itchen with the sun blazing down outside, which should’ve been impossible, but obviously it wasn’t.

  We weren’t safe at any time of day, and most especially back in Brightwell. They would find us again. I had no doubts about that, but I hoped by then I would have some kind of proof that would clear my name. Or at least shine a different sort of spotlight on myself, one that revealed I’d only been trying to protect my sister, to fulfill a promise I’d made to her, and to keep her from making a mistake it turned out she wasn’t even making. Not the greatest light, sure, but I hadn’t even gone through with murdering Devin. Would I if he hadn’t already been dead? Yes. Same with Charles, even though his screams haunted my dreams while I slept.

  A light switched on behind me.

  “Sleep well?”

  I just about slopped the rest of the mug of blood all down my front. Zac, the bastard, had been sitting alone in the dark like a creeper.

  “What the fuck, man?” I hissed. “Why are you just sitting there like that?”

  He glared hard at me like he expected me to scream in terror or prepare myself for a long-winded lecture. Maybe both at the same time. “Why didn’t you sense me with your preternatural abilities while I took first watch?”

  Fair point, damn it. I’d been so focused with what might be lurking in the fog I didn’t even spare a thought to what might already be inside the house.

  “I got the watch from here.” I dragged a black leather armchair to the window and sat with my back turned to him so he’d hopefully take the hint and leave.

  No such luck.

  “Do me a favor and try not to piss off the future queen so she doesn’t stomp off again and get kidnapped. She was under your watch, Ashe. Keyword watch.”

  “Yeah. I get it. It won’t happen again.” He was right, damn him. I shouldn’t have let her out of my sight in the library.

  “You go where she goes,” he snapped. “And now, I go where the both of you go until we’re not constantly running for our lives.”

  I sighed and shook my head. “And if we never stop?”

  “Then the three of us will be stuck like glue to each other, including tonight when you see your sister. Think you can handle that?”

  Three w
as most definitely a crowd with this guy, but if it meant putting Wren in power in place of Queen Ravana, then yes. “If this whole glue thing also involves you gluing your mouth shut, then I can probably be talked into it. Not by you, obviously, but you get the idea.”

  “Uh-huh.” He grunted as he rose from his chair. “You’re a real funny one.”

  “What is your stake in all of this anyway?” I asked with a glance behind me. “Why do you care who’s queen and who’s not?”

  “My stake is the same as yours. Sharp, pointy, and could go right through the heart if we’re not careful.”

  “You’re not a vampire. Try again.”

  “Like I said…” His footsteps sounded behind me as he crossed toward one of the bedrooms. “My stake is the same as yours.”

  “Are you always this cryptic when you’re tired?” I shook my head. Dude must’ve been out of his mind with exhaustion, which made me feel only slightly guilty that I’d crashed first. But really, what was his deal, anyway? He was like a dam of muscles holding back a river of secrets. As long as those secrets kept Wren alive until she took the throne, then I’d give him his space, I guess.

  Just before eleven thirty at night, Wren woke Zac while I kept watch, and then the three of us slipped out into the night to go meet my sister. Like the night before, fog clung to the air, only thicker. It was a good cover for us, though, while we walked to my old house, moving like silent shadows. We kept to the cover of trees and bushes mostly and avoided the commercial streets altogether. The fog smothered any noise we made, but it would also quiet the sounds of anyone coming after us.

  I kept my eyes and ears sharp. None of us spoke hardly a word, and when we did, it was at a whisper.

  When we hopped the fence into the backyard of my old house, my cell phone buzzed in my pocket, about 4000 decibels quieter than it had in the library. I fished it out, fully expecting it to be Jessica cancelling her Hogwarts visit with me tonight.

  But no. It wasn’t. It was Marta, possibly with news of the security footage in our apartment building. If my heart ever beat, it would have crashed through my ribs right now.

  I pressed Wren and me to a wide tree trunk next to the turreted garden shed before I took the call, grabbing her hand for luck. Zac disappeared into the fog, but I could still feel his contempt spiking through my chest.

  “Marta,” I whispered, “light of my life, tell me you have good news.”

  Wren’s brows climbed up her forehead as she stared at me, her expression fiery.

  I squeezed her hand harder, willing her to trust me.

  “Well, Ashley,” Marta started. “I have good news and I have great news. Which would you like first?”

  Good thing I had the bulk of the tree at my back because my legs about gave out with a surge of relief. “Both. All at once.”

  Marta clicked her tongue, and I could feel her smile through the phone. “I’ll do my best. There’s grainy footage of two men in the hallway outside your apartment door. Grainy because they spray-painted over the cameras but were sloppy about it. Neither of them were you. One is holding what looks to me like a silver net in gloved hands. That’s the good news.”

  I sank my eyes closed and grinned. “And the great news?”

  “An outside camera at Dora’s Flowers across the street shows two shadows inside your apartment seconds after the first video was taken.”

  My grin spread to an eardrum-cracking one, and I opened my eyes to stare at Wren. “I could kiss you right now.”

  Wren had lost her pissed-off fire, seeming to read between the lines of the one-way conversation she’d just heard, and a deep crease formed on her forehead as she studied me.

  “Yeah, well, you better make time for the kissing, mister, but only after you clear your name,” Marta warned.

  “Yes. About that. Is there a way you can send the videos to me?”

  “No, I can’t. But I figured you’d ask that, and my son, Dominic, is working on that right now. Remember Dominic?”

  “I remember.” Dumb as a rock and just as lazy. My phone chimed in my ear. “I think I just got them. That was fast. You’re a literal lifesaver, Marta.”

  “Uh-huh. I know. Which means you’re coming to Thursday’s bridge club? For my kiss while I’m kicking your ass?”

  “If I can make it, I’ll be there. Thank you. I mean it.”

  “Go save the day, Ashley.” She hung up, and my fingers shook as I opened her son’s texts. Instead of looking at them myself, I thrust the phone to Wren.

  “My apartment,” I said.

  Her fingers folded around mine as she took it, her eyes filled with questions as she gazed down. After a moment, she shook her head and smiled. “It doesn’t change anything for me. I knew deep down you were innocent when you told me you didn’t murder my mother.” She handed the phone back. “But it does change everything for you.”

  “It does. I mean, it could if Queen Ravana doesn’t get her hands on it and ‘accidentally’ destroys it or something.”

  “Ashe.” The voice came out of the fog, disembodied but familiar.

  I turned and caught my sister’s form emerge like some kind of specter from another dimension. She’d come. I supposed I didn’t have any reason to doubt she would, but seeing her now standing next to Hogwarts, right after I’d been at my lowest and most scared, brought me back to a simpler time when I wasn’t running for my life.

  It also cracked open my voice a little when I said, “Jessica…”

  Wren’s hand fluttered to my back as she moved deeper into the fog to give us privacy, her brief touch soothing.

  Jessica wore a flannel shirt and jeans, her long blonde hair up high in her usual ponytail. “I heard voices.”

  “It’s just me.” Explaining Wren and Zac was too much right now, and they’d hidden themselves anyway.

  She stepped closer as tears sprang to her eyes. “Why are you so stupid sometimes, Ashe?”

  I barked out a strange laugh and shook my head. “Because I’m your little brother. I didn’t kill Devin. I was given bad information, a photo of you and him taken years ago instead of weeks, with the wrong date on it to trick me.”

  “Then you should’ve come to me instead of turning vigilante to protect a sister you don’t trust enough to take care of herself.” Her tone was sharp yet strangled as her chin wobbled. “I’m not stupid. I’ve made exactly two mistakes in my entire life, and one of them wasn’t going back to Devin.”

  She was right, of course. I hadn’t trusted her not to go back to him, which is why I’d hired Charles to keep an eye on her in the first place. Our communication had never been great, though, and I doubted she would have ever told me Devin was abusive before I saw the evidence myself.

  “Seeing what he did to you that day…” I swallowed hard.

  She blinked up at the turrets of Hogwarts and placed her palm against its wall. “I know what it did to you. I saw it happening to you. My pain became your pain, and…I’m sorry for that.”

  “You have no reason to be sorry.”

  She shook her head, her tears flowing freely now as she looked at me once again. “You want to know what my second mistake was?”

  I shrugged. “Sure.”

  “I should’ve been your friend, Ashe, not just a shitty big sister.”

  “You weren’t shitty. You were…” How to phrase this so she wouldn’t hate me?

  She laughed, the sound wet and hollow and a little devastated. “Shitty, but I promise to try to do better.”

  “Me too.” And I meant it. I could’ve made an effort to be her friend too. Maybe, if I had, she would’ve confided in me before things turned so explosive with Devin. It shouldn’t have been her bruised face that brought out the brother in me. I should’ve been there for her all along, and knowing that I hadn’t been would weigh heavily on my shoulders for a literal eternity. “I swear.”

  “What happens now?” she asked, wiping her face. “Are you leaving?”

  “I’m not sure, actua
lly. Queen Ravana seems to really want me out of the way, and yet, here I am. I have evidence that clears me from Queen Bronwen’s murder, but I was still at the scene of the crime at Devin’s.”

  “Funny, I thought I saw Queen Bronwen standing right next to you when I got here. You sure she’s not haunting you out of revenge?”

  I laughed but didn’t confirm or deny that. I figured the less Jessica knew about Wren and her rightful crown, the better and safer she’d be.

  “What kind of evidence?” she asked.

  “Video of two guys in my apartment.”

  A loud police siren filled the night, sharp and quick like a bullet. Like a warning. Like a breaking dam funneling in all my nightmares.

  “Time to go,” Zac hissed from somewhere in the fog.

  “Who is that?” Jessica whispered.

  Sounds echoed through the dark, like heavy footsteps but the fog misplaced them, made it hard to tell how close and how many.

  I snapped my attention back to Jessica. Her eyes were wide, shocked, still wet with tears. She hadn’t called them here. I felt that bone-deep, just as much as I felt whoever was coming would find and destroy the evidence on my phone.

  “Take this.” I crossed to her and crushed my phone into her hand. “The videos are on it. Blast them to the press. Quick as you can.”

  “But what about y—”

  “Jessica.” I took her by the elbows, relieved at how sturdy she felt. Not breakable at all. Not anymore. “Don’t worry about me. I’m not done annoying my big sister.”

  “Okay. I-I love you.” She gripped the phone tight as she threw her arms around me.

  Squeezing her hard to me, I whispered, “I love you too. Now, run.” Then I let her go to face the rest of the night.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Wren

  Two things were certain. One: we were on the run again. Old news by now. And two: There was indeed a second symbol on my arm, another blue diamond shape just like the one that appeared when I found Ashe. The light and pulsing from it weren’t nearly as strong as that of Ashe’s symbol, but I was ninety-eight-point five percent certain I knew whose it was. Did it mean that he was still alive? It had to. I felt it beyond the symbol. Like when we’d gotten within a few miles of Ashe. But it was faint. So much so, I couldn’t tell which way to go.