Sever the Crown: Vampire Reverse Harem Complete Series

by Mysti Parker

  “We have to help,” I said, starting over to the area.

  “No, we don’t have time.” Ashe tried to pull me the other direction.

  “Yes, we do! There could be innocent people and kids under there.” I jerked away from him and ran to where I’d heard the voice. I didn’t see anyone. “Hello? Can you call out again so I can find you?”

  “Here. Under here.”

  I grabbed broken blocks and plaster, tossing them aside.

  “Wren! We have to go!” Ashe said, frantically pointing at the exit.

  “Not yet. Help me!”

  He growled in frustration but helped me pick up huge chunks of concrete. We threw them aside. I waved away a big cloud of dust and finally saw a woman sticking out from under a huge slab.

  Not just any woman. Her eyes widened when she saw me staring down at her.

  “Wren?” she squeaked.

  “Ravana?” I snarled.

  She shook her head vehemently. “No, I’m Arlene. Her double.”

  I peeled back my lips and extended my fangs, shaking uncontrollably. “You expect me to believe that?”

  “Please...” Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. She seemed genuinely frightened. The more I looked at her face, the more I believed her. I’d like to say that my first thought was to rescue her. It wasn’t. My first thought was to rip her head off her body and mail it to Ravana.

  A thousand questions swam past my instinctual vengeance before I settled on one. “Did you know about this?”

  She shook her head again. More tears made tracks in the dirt on her face.

  “She’s lying,” Ashe said, and lurched toward her.

  I held him back. “No, I don’t think so.” A few weeks ago, that Wren wouldn’t have hesitated. She would have offed this bitch and been done with it. But this Wren wanted something different, to break away from the murderous legacy my aunt had exemplified. I’d stick to killing only those who deserved it. Sure, this chick had made some bad choices, but she might not have had a choice in the matter either.

  More cracking and creaking from overhead. Another huge chunk of arena fell in front of the exit where the mom and kid had escaped.

  “We have to go. Leave her to her fate,” Ashe said and tried to pull me away again.

  I yanked my arm away from him. “No. I am not like my aunt.”

  I squatted and got as good a hold as I could under the concrete and tried to lift it off her. Ashe stood there, quaking in anger with both fists balled tightly at his sides. The concrete started to budge while Arlene wiggled backwards, but I was losing my grip.

  “Come on, get out. I can’t hold it much longer,” I said through clenched teeth.

  I could feel it giving. She had barely moved a few inches, and I could see why. Her pelvis was nearly flat. Those injuries would take a loooonnnng time to heal. But she could lose her legs if I dropped this on her.

  “Fuuuckkk,” I groaned, but then Ashe swept down beside me and wedged his shoulder underneath the slab.

  Every muscle in his body strained, and he cried out as he pushed himself up against the massive slab. His fangs glinted in the light from the fire that was edging closer to us. But with both of us lifting, we were able to raise the slab up enough for Arlene to drag herself out. Then once she was clear, we dropped it. A thick cloud of dust whooshed out. I waved it away to see Arlene staring in horror at her smashed pelvis and shattered shins.

  She slowly raised her eyes to mine.

  “Where are your guards?” I asked.

  “I…don’t know.” She leaned to one side and peered behind us, then looked up with urgency in her eyes. “Go. Hurry. One of them is coming this way.”

  I glanced over my shoulder and saw a hulking brute of a vampire heading for us, albeit with a limp and a bloody gash on his forehead.

  This time, Ashe took my hand in an iron-vise grip. “Come on.”

  Though I longed to whisk Arlene out of here and interrogate the shit out of her, I knew we’d overstayed our welcome. We ran for the one clear exit and into the parking lot where we barely missed a car that flew past us. It joined a big line of taillights leaving the scene. Sirens and lights flashed as emergency crews pulled off the nearby exit and sped toward us.

  Ashe and I ran to Birdie.

  “Where’s Charles and Zac?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. But let’s get in and drive. We can’t stick around here any longer. Who knows what Ravana’s already told the police? Your face could be all over the news as we speak.”

  Before we made it to Birdie, I stopped and looked back, every inch of me aching to go to Charles and Zac. “We can’t just leave them here.”

  “They’re big boys, and they’re good at getting themselves out of trouble. And I’ll be in trouble with them if I let anything happen to you. Now drive!” He opened the car door, hopped in, and slammed it shut, indicating the conversation was over.

  But he had a point. Charles and Zac could handle themselves.

  Once inside Birdie, I revved the engine and hightailed it to the open gate on the other side of the parking lot, away from the encroaching sirens. As we pulled out onto a side road, I watched in the rearview mirror as the shadowy roof of the arena collapsed. A dust cloud choked out the moonlight.

  Guilt settled like a lead ball in the pit of my stomach. It was all I could do to not turn around and go back. Were Zac and Charles still inside? Were they even still alive? And if so, for how long?

  Chapter Fourteen

  Charles

  I shot to my feet, my thundering panic louder than the creaking, swaying arena and falling debris crashing all around me. So far, the ceiling held, but I doubted it would stay that way much longer.

  Wren. I had to find Wren.

  I dodged a free-swinging light that threw sparks like bolts of lightning across the floor, a fire waiting to happen. Once I cleared it, I sagged against a barely intact wall to blink the dust from my eyes, to clear my throat of the worried knot so I could talk again.

  "Wren. Ashe. Yoga, talk to me," I said into my watch.

  But then I glanced down. The screen was cracked all to hell. I must've smashed it when I hit the linoleum. I tried my phone, but I couldn’t get a damn signal. Shit. Back to the old-fashioned way of finding people, the slow, painstaking chore of searching through rubble, which was too much for my impatient ass. But for Wren, I would do anything.

  What if I found her and she was already dead? Worse, what if I didn't find her, and she was just...gone? Eviscerated into nothing from the blast.

  I screwed my eyes shut and buried that thought deep, then forced myself to stagger forward. I had to trust that she was okay. She'd taken care of herself long before Ashe, Yoga, and me. Besides, our tattoos were in sync with each other, so I would know if something had happened to her. Now I just felt a prickly sensation. No fucking idea what that meant, but it was something.

  My boots hit a wall of support beams, fallen ceiling tile, and other parts of the building, and on the other side, through the door that led to the stage, screams. Terrified and hurt, they were an exact echo of when Ravana and her minions had stormed Queen Bronwen's castle. From when I'd hid in the throne room as a boy until now, that sound visited my nightmares. They’d come for a slaughter, and that was exactly what had happened. I could still remember my dad telling me to cover my eyes as he led me out, but I’d already seen the blood tracing the cracks on the floor and dead eyes staring back.

  And the screams… They were too loud to block out.

  A long shudder dragged down my back as reality clashed with my memories. It was like I was reliving it, and after we’d escaped, after some time had gone by where nothing else happened, Queen Bronwen had died.

  But I wouldn’t lose Wren.

  I plowed through the hellscape hallway, flinging debris out of my way and leaping over the rest. When I finally made it to the door, I tried to rip it open, but something must've held it shut from the other side.

  "Wren? Ashe?" I shou
ted, then pressed my ear against the surface. More screams, closer this time, high-pitched and hysterical.

  The tweens that had been backstage. It had to be them. A sick feeling tightened my gut. They were probably too young to help themselves.

  I slammed my fist against the door. "What's blocking the other side?"

  Not that I was expecting an answer, but it would sure help if I knew what I was dealing with. I spun around and searched the pile of debris for something thin and sturdy enough to use as a wedge. There, a flat piece of steel. I jammed it below the top hinge in the door and pushed toward the wall, hard, until the hinge popped off. Two more to go. When I finished with the second, I grabbed both sides of the dangling door and ripped it free.

  A large chunk of twisted metal speared through the doorway, nearly taking out my knees. Behind it, the backstage looked like a warzone. Fire licked at the stage from the fallen lights, and the catwalk I’d been on moments ago, the same chunk of metal that had been blocking the door, had crumpled like an accordion.

  The tweens flooded out, their cheeks stained with dust, soot, glitter, and tears. Some of them wailed loudly, and some cried so hard that their sobs caught in their throats and choked them silent. All of them swarmed toward me and threw their arms around me.

  "You saved us," one with braces on her teeth and fangs cried.

  "Not quite." I squirmed out of their grips, searching the hallway from hell for an exit sign. "Follow me. Stay close, all right?"

  Before I'd taken one step, they clung to me again. I tried not to growl in frustration since they had every right to be scared.

  We picked our way over debris carefully with me constantly giving warnings like, “Watch for nails” or “Don’t touch that!” Finally up ahead, a red exit sign glowed like a beacon for vampire-kind’s last hope. When we got there, I held the door open to freedom, and they flung themselves out into the night with their arms spread wide like little glittery bats.

  "Thank you, Hotty McMuffinPants," one of them shouted behind her.

  “Uh, you’re welcome.” I let the door shut behind me and whirled back the way I came to find Wren.

  And then froze.

  Through the haze of smoke and dust, about thirty feet down the hallway, came Queen Ravana herself, her red gown fluttering over the arms of a limping guard. He used a corner of her dress to wipe at the bloody slash on his forehead as he made his way over the fallen rubble while carrying her.

  I stopped and stared, amazed at the balls on this dick with tits, and also mighty pissed off at her.

  “Ravana,” I barked, curling my hands into fists.

  Her guard whipped out a gun from underneath her dress and aimed it at my head.

  I had no more dart pens, but for her sake, I’d sure get creative with weapons and take as many chunks out of her as I possibly could before I fell.

  “No,” a wobbly voice that didn’t belong to a queen said. She turned her head to face me, and something about her looked wrong. Several things, actually, but my mind snagged first on the way her dress caved in around her middle. She was hurt. Badly. Tears streaked her face, and as I studied it more, there were subtle differences to the one I’d marked for death. It was slightly fuller, less severe. A lot more shaken than Ravana ever could be.

  This wasn’t Queen Ravana. Of course it wasn’t. I’d just thought it was because of the epic crash of my past when I had seen her at the castle that horrible night and my present shit show. My dad had thrown me behind him, but not before I’d seen the smug look on her face, her lips splattered in someone else’s blood. Dad, who’d already been staked too close to the heart and was bleeding badly, had tried to get her to stand down. When she’d refused, he picked me up and ran.

  “Doppelganger,” I said to the woman in front of me.

  She nodded like it was an effort. “Arlene. I swear I didn’t know this was going to happen.”

  “Well, Arlene, I find that hard to believe you didn’t know since you work for a fucking cunt,” I spat. Anger bubbled up into an almost uncontrollable inferno, but most of it wasn’t directed toward her.

  Her guard bared his fangs and tightened his grip on his gun. “That’s Your Highness’s name you’re soiling.”

  “Shut up,” I snapped, too far gone to care if he shot me or not.

  “I swear it,” Arlene said, fresh tears shining in her blue eyes. “I didn’t know. She sent me here as punishment. I’m sure of it now.”

  “What are you talking about?” I demanded.

  “One of her harem kept looking at me while she held court. He kept cornering me in the halls, wanting…” She glanced at her guard and then shook her head while he stared at her in shock. “I didn’t do anything to prompt or encourage him, Calvin. You know how I feel about you. You know it.”

  He took a step back as if her words had struck him with a physical blow. “She tried to kill you because one of her man-whores looked at you?”

  “Doesn’t surprise me a bit,” I muttered.

  From what I’d heard, Queen Ravana’s harem had about two brain cells between the five of them and were super impressed with themselves, so much that they thought others should be impressed with them too. And their cocks, apparently.

  Since the queen seemed to have reached the Fatal Attraction jealousy level, might as well make sure Wren doesn’t take her crown at the same time with a bomb. Two birds, one stone, and all that. I remembered the comment we’d heard over the bug we planted in her pooch’s collar about the VIPs being in place. How many other special guests had she planned on blowing up tonight?

  “You have someplace to go?” I asked. “Because she will come after you if your body isn’t found here.”

  “I know a place.” The guard’s voice was rough and tense as he stared at the doppelganger, a mix of hurt and anger creased into his forehead. Not aimed at her directly, but at the queen.

  That woman made enemies without barely lifting a finger.

  Somewhere behind my back, a rapid banging began, loud and insistent.

  “Good. There’s no time like the present to get there.” I stalked back to the exit door, and for the second time that night, held it open for those who couldn’t wait to get out.

  The queen’s double squeezed her guard’s arm for him to stop just outside, and she peered up at me. "You might not believe this, but…I think I just met Queen Bronwen's dead daughter, Wren."

  My chest loosened with a surge of hope and relief that she was still alive, but I kept my cool, my face blank. I didn't want to trust just anyone with who I was to Wren yet, whether they appeared to be on my side or not. "You don't say."

  "If anyone deserves the throne, it's her. She found me. She…helped me. I'm telling you this because I can tell you want the queen dead just as much as I do. Maybe this Wren could be our future." With that, her guard carried her off into the night.

  "Maybe so," I said, watching them for a moment, my eyes stinging not only from dust but from awe in knowing Wren helped people even when she had no reason to. "Maybe fucking so."

  I closed the door behind them and then followed the banging sound farther down the hallway. Outside of the stage area, this place was a maze of long corridors, and I imagined they all led back to the stage eventually. If Wren had made it out of there, she could be anywhere.

  "Ashe!" I shouted over the banging.

  To my right and up ahead, someone barreled through a closed door like they were in the middle of an indoor football game. Their shoulders were even slouched protectively over something tucked in their arms. Wood went flying. Dust blanketed the air around them, but through it, the person stopped and stared at me as though I might be a ghost.

  Familiar. And the thing tucked in their arms was also familiar. But impossibly fragile and limp. Curly blonde hair flowed to the dirty floor with too much blood spiraling through it.

  "Wren," I choked out.

  "No." Yoga strode toward me and adjusted the body in his arms. "No, it's not Wren. It's Vivian. She's hurt
badly. She's the first person I heard screaming when I came in the building, locked up in a silver room, and she fainted when I found her."

  He walked closer and nodded down at her bloodied face so I could see for myself. My throat locked up tight at the roller coaster of emotions surging through me. I just wanted to hold Wren, touch her, make sure she was all right or would be all right. The fact that he wasn’t carrying Wren both gutted and relieved me.

  Nodding, I looked away and posted my hand against what remained of the wall, not sure my legs would support me anymore.

  "Where is she?" I ground out.

  "She's safe, I'm pretty sure. Birdie's gone."

  I sagged against the wall while I rolled that over and over in my mind. She's safe. Birdie's gone.

  "I haven’t seen Ashe though. But listen," Yoga said, "I need to get Vivian some blood so she can heal faster and then get her someplace safe. Think you can drive?"

  It was his question that set my fangs on edge. His failed job to keep us updated on the risks here that tightened my fists, and his stupid chin dimple that made the perfect target.

  I punched him. His head swung back, and he staggered back several steps, but lucky for Vivian, he didn't drop her.

  "Dick move, Charles." His tongue poked out to taste the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. I was too focused on whether or not to kill him to take much notice of it or the resulting growl in my stomach. "You couldn't have waited for that?"

  "What the hell happened here tonight?" I demanded, and then noticed his watch was missing. “Where’s your damn watch, genius?”

  “The strap broke in the commotion, and it fell off. I will tell you everything, but Vivian’s not healing as fast as she needs to.” He turned and nodded for me to follow down the hallway. “The girl has her faults and definitely can’t sing, but that doesn’t mean she needs to bleed to death.”

  “Fine.”

  By the time we made it to one of Yoga’s friend’s cars parked near the middle of the parking lot, the place was swimming with police, fire trucks, and rescue crews. Lights flashed in the hazy, smoky air, just as a slightly different sort had on stage. EMTs hurried gurneys in all directions, some with zipped-up body bags. Others carried plastic bins filled with bloody goo or charred bones.