Sever the Crown: Vampire Reverse Harem Complete Series

by Mysti Parker

  "That's him." After straightening my seat, I tore off my shirt and handed it to Wren. "Take this. Uh, sorry about your shirt."

  "It’s worth it to see you shirtless," she said with a warm chuckle that made me want to pull her back into my lap and kiss her senseless all over again. "Besides, it's not like it hasn't happened before."

  Oh. Right. I'd have to sort out the idea of sharing her with her mates some other time.

  After zipping up her fly, she started the car and flashed her lights twice. She put on my shirt which swallowed up her small frame almost completely, but her curves were already seared into my mind with the same intensity of my headaches. Much less painful though. And ten times more erotic.

  The car slowed and turned into the house's weed-filled driveway. A second later, a guy with greasy blond hair that almost touched his bare shoulders stepped out of the car carrying a small white poodle under his arm. He was built like a pole, and I could almost see every protruding rib since he didn't wear a shirt.

  He...hmm, how to put it? Not walked. My stepsister, Annie, had once used the word “sashayed.” That was the best I could come up with. He sashayed, or wriggled his hips a little too much and waved his free hand about like he was swatting mosquitoes.

  I rolled down my window as he and his dog approached. Like I always did with animals and their owners, I assessed the poodle closely. Nothing shot people up my kill list faster than those who committed animal abuse or neglect. No photograph needed. Those kinds of assholes gotta die. But in the poodle's case, he looked in much better shape than its owner.

  "You're Kinky’s guy?" I asked.

  He snorted. "He wishes. You got money, handsome?"

  I nodded. "Can you hurry?"

  "Listen, licenses are like blowjobs. Allison gives rotten licenses when in a hurry, but when appropriate time is taken…" He tilted his head, his mint green eyes getting a little too friendly with my naked chest. "Perhaps a demonstration?"

  Wren leaned over to glare out my window, then flashed her hand out to my cock and squeezed. "This is all mine. We'll just take the license, thanks."

  I growled low in my throat and willed myself not to grind against her hand in front of our audience. I'd always been in control with the ladies, but her claiming my dick like that was fucking hot.

  Allison—which I guessed was his name—shrugged. "Suit yourself. A license needs a picture, address, name, money, and all that jazz. Gimme."

  Wren took her hand back from my dick, and I got the manila envelope from the glove compartment, a Glock stashed just underneath. I handed the envelope to Allison, and the poodle sniffed at it while Allison opened it. His eyes flashed as he did a double take. I may have doubled his fee to keep him quiet.

  "Drive around the neighborhood for about ten minutes. Not this block, though, and not the same street twice.” He grinned, revealing a few missing teeth between his fangs. “Things get a little nuts around here. When you come back, your license will be in the mailbox."

  "Just ten minutes?” I snapped. “Seems awfully fast, and you better not give us one of your rotten licenses."

  "Just relax, handsome. Allison has you." With a weird little wink/pout combo, he swung his hips and sashayed into the house.

  "Ten minutes it is, then," Wren muttered and put her car into drive. After a few quiet minutes of driving, she glanced at me and smiled. "Truth or dare."

  We didn't have time for more dares, especially on a street so full of peering eyes. Unlike Allison’s street, people just stood outside their houses and stared at us as we drove by. I stared straight ahead since when I looked at people, especially men with little dicks, they automatically assumed I was starting shit. I just had one of those faces, I guess. But I didn’t want trouble. Not tonight. Not with Wren in the car.

  "Truth," I said.

  "Still think this is a good idea?"

  "I guess we're about to find out."

  She turned onto another street, slowing for a woman crossing with an empty stroller. "You're not going to truth or dare me back?"

  "I don't want to start something else we can't finish."

  She met my gaze briefly and then flicked her tongue over her lips. "Agreed."

  Finally, after ten minutes, we pulled back in front of Allison's house. He stood in his yard with his poodle on a leash and an Eternal Flame cigarette plugged into his mouth. I checked his mailbox, and inside was Angelo's license, the plastic still warm and the craftsmanship just like the real thing.

  Wren peered over my shoulder. "Damn, that's good."

  I saluted Allison, who did a little wave back, but then his gaze slid to the right—and I instantly knew something was wrong.

  Headlights flared to life from a parked car down the street, a car that hadn't been there before. Fuck.

  My muscles tensed. Adrenaline pumped through me with the need to move. I grabbed Wren's shoulder and head and dragged her down below the windshield just as a loud crack split open the night.

  Out of the corner of my eye, blood sprayed in a violent arc. Allison. He tipped over in slow motion and slammed into the ground, a hole dead center of his heart. A moment later, he was a gooey mess. An expert kill shot if I'd ever seen one. From an assassin. Had to be. The poodle screeched and darted through a torn section of lattice under the porch.

  In front of us, the car's tires squealed as it peeled down the road on a direct path toward us.

  "Keep low!" I ducked in my seat, my knees smashed against the dashboard. "And drive."

  Chapter Seven

  Wren

  I wrangled the gearshift into reverse and stomped the gas. Birdie’s engine roared. Tires spun and squealed as black rubber smoke poured into the windows. Still ducked down behind the dash, I held the steering wheel as straight as possible so I didn’t veer off the street and into a mailbox or tree.

  Hawk positioned himself over me as bullets clinked against the grill. One tore through the windshield. Glass shards rained down on my head.

  “Motherfuckers!” Once I was fairly sure I’d gotten us to the end of the block, I pushed Hawk aside, sat up in the seat, and put the car in drive. Then I floored it and yanked the wheel to the left to turn down a cross street.

  The front passenger tire bounced over the corner of the curb. My teeth rattled. But I smashed the gas pedal again and peeled rubber to keep putting distance between us and the assholes who’d damaged my car. A black SUV sped by us in the other direction. One glance told me who the driver was—Vincent. Charles rode shotgun. I slowed Birdie and watched in the rearview mirror as the SUV squealed to a stop sideways across the road, blocking whoever was in the car.

  “We have to go back for the dog,” Hawk said, craning his neck to look behind us.

  “What? We don’t know who was in that car. What if they kill Charles or Vincent or the other Knights?”

  “They’ve got this. Trust me, if Vincent’s involved, he’s not going down easy. I know my little brother better than he knows himself. We’re going to get the dog.” He leveled a red-eyed stare at me that made it clear he’d get the little poodle with or without me.

  “Okay, okay, fine. We’ll go back for the dog.” I turned down the next cross street and drove two more blocks before circling back around to the street we were on.

  Hawk sat forward in the seat, scanning the area closely with his night vision. “All looks clear for now. Let me off at the curb. I’ll go grab the dog.”

  We came to a stop, and I put Birdie in park. “I’m going with you.”

  He gripped my shoulder firmly before I could get out. “No. Stay here, keep the car running. If there’s any hint of danger, you drive like a bat out of hell. Got it?”

  “And just leave you here? I can’t do that!”

  “You have to stay alive for them.” He pointed his thumb toward the street where Charles and the others were hopefully not getting killed. His voice softened as his gaze dipped down to my lips. “And for me.”

  Before I could protest, Hawk swooped in and
kissed me as he held my face gently in his big, strong hands. Then he blurred out the door and up to the broken lattice under the porch where the dog had disappeared. He tore more of the lattice away and threw it aside, then shimmied, belly down, under the porch.

  I touched my lips, quietly laughing in disbelief. This larger-than-undead-life ruthless killer had a weak spot for animals. Who knew?

  The seconds ticked by. I scratched the hairline of my itchy wig and tapped my fingernails on the dash. I saw no indication of movement, either from Hawk or the surrounding area.

  The shirt I wore carried his scent right up my nose. Its cool spandex fabric brushed against my nipples and hardened them again. Our attraction was off the charts, but once again, it left me questioning just how much I could trust a guy who had kidnapped me and killed others for money.

  It’s not like I didn’t have a lot of blood on my hands, but I took no joy in it.

  Fuck, who was I kidding? I did enjoy seeing the fear in my mother’s murderers’ eyes before I ended their pathetic lives. So could I really judge Hawk for making a living out of killing scumbags?

  I glanced at the clock on the dash. Damn it. Five minutes had passed. There was no sign of Hawk or anyone else. For all I knew, Charles and the others could have captured or killed the guys who shot at us. Or the other way around. I could see or hear nothing from the car.

  That did it. I eased open the car door and stepped out with one foot so I could stand watch and listen. Besides the usual summer cricket and cicada chorus, all I heard was a dog barking. It sounded like a small dog, maybe the poodle? But a lot quieter than it should have been if it was still hiding under the porch. It must have gotten back in the house somehow.

  Had Hawk gone in after it?

  Light flashed in the front window of the house. I gripped the top of the door, hesitating. Maybe he was in there with a flashlight hunting for the dog…even though he had night vision. That was unlikely. He’d told me to drive if I saw any hint of danger.

  Then a man cried out from inside. It sounded an awful lot like Hawk. Fuck that. I wouldn’t just leave him here.

  I zipped up the path, dodging Allison’s gooey remains, and onto the porch. More light flashed through the window—it was green. Silhouettes briefly appeared within it. One was a large man who was thrown across the room. The other was a woman, and I knew exactly who it was.

  “Doreen. Shit.” This chick was a powerful witch with a screw loose and a penchant for chaos. No doubt she had it out for Hawk after he kidnapped her along with me and my other mates.

  If I were able to rush her and break her neck, that was the only chance I had at stopping her before she hurt Hawk or sent me reeling back in time again. Or whatever else she might do to us on a whim. The front door wasn’t latched, so I gently eased it open and peered inside to determine the best course of action.

  The house was little more than a glorified shack but looked like a great-grandmother lived in it. Pink shag carpeting, doilies everywhere, lace curtains, Thomas Kincade prints, and Precious Moments figurines everywhere. It smelled like mothballs and Vicks VapoRub. Gag.

  Hawk was pinned to the wall with a rippling magic net. Doreen stood in front of him grinning like the Cheshire cat. She was dressed in an unflattering matching blue skirt and blazer. But she had added some bling to it with a white blouse that had a rippling cravat collar and frilly white cuffs. Her feathered blonde hair blew around in the wind from her spell.

  I rushed her and came within millimeters when two things happened at once.

  Hawk screamed, “No, Wren!”

  And an invisible force that felt like an arm clotheslined me right in the neck.

  I flew backwards from the momentum and landed on a coffee table, which broke under my weight. The poodle barked from under the couch. It scooted back farther into its hiding place as I scrambled to my feet. My throat ached from the impact. I winced at a huge splinter that stuck out of my palm as a man materialized beside Doreen.

  He wore a tight black leather motorcycle jacket and matching pants with red racing stripes down the sides. A red bandana lassoed his head, partway buried in his curly, Michael Landon style hair. But then I noticed his pale-yellow eyes and the sparkling white fangs when he smiled.

  He looked scarily familiar.

  “Who the fuck are you?” I asked, deciding the best approach was Charles’s take-no-prisoners attitude.

  “So predictable,” Doreen said as she shook her head and crossed her arms.

  A black cat with a gaudy bejeweled collar that seemed to weigh his head down strolled out of the kitchen and rubbed against her legs.

  Her familiar, I imagined. Poor cat. He deserved better.

  “Wren, get out of here now!” Hawk screamed, struggling to release himself from the magical force that held him against the wall.

  The vampire man laughed. “Who am I? They call me Disaster, little one. Awfully brave now, aren’t you? But not too bright walking right into our little trap.”

  Now I remembered - from the profiles Marlowe and Vivian had briefed us on back in the bunker. One of my aunt’s mates. I’d had a feeling even then that this guy was bad news. But I couldn’t show any weakness. He’d feast on it like a shark eating chum.

  I yanked the splinter from my palm with my teeth and spit it out. “Let him go, and I promise not to hurt you.”

  My fangs emerged as I widened my stance and balled my fingers into fists.

  “You can’t fight him, Wren,” Hawk said, with a surprising desperation in his voice. He paused, looking between Disaster and me. “He’s Ravana’s mate.”

  “Number four,” Disaster confirmed. “Just like you’re supposed to be for our little Wren.”

  Fear coiled itself around my spine and squeezed just like it had that night while I hid in the dumpster. While this asshole’s mate stole the crown from my mother by having her own sister murdered in front of me.

  Well, fear could fuck off. With a quick shiver, I rushed him and punched him in the chest with the heel of my hand. That move usually sent the target flying backwards or at least knocked them on their asses.

  Everyone but Disaster, that is. I might as well have been hitting a solid rock wall. He barely wiggled.

  Doreen cackled with glee. “Bless her heart, she’s really trying.”

  “Run! You’re not strong enough yet!” Hawk screamed.

  “He’s right,” Disaster said. With lightning speed, he snatched my wrist with one hand, braced my arm against his other forearm, and jammed it down. The crack of bones giving way echoed through the small house.

  I screamed. Hot tears sprang to my eyes, brought on by the sudden, intense pain. He let me go, and I backed away next to the couch, holding my useless arm to my chest. The bone had almost broken through the skin. The tattoo flared and pulsed dramatically, but I couldn’t feel it over the searing agony.

  “Wren!” Hawk fought as hard as he could, kicking against the wall behind him until the paneling cracked.

  “Stay still,” Doreen fussed, throwing another spell at him, which plastered him flatter against the wall, his face smashed to one side.

  “You’re just like your mama.” Disaster approached me with a sickening sneer. He unfastened his belt and lowered his pants, exposing his emoji-face boxers.

  Behind the pain, revulsion swept through me.

  “Now, little girl, what you’re gonna do is suck me off right here in front of your man. He’s gotta get used to sharing you, right? Get down on your knees.” He walked right up to me and started to expose his dick.

  “Fuck you!” I spat in his face. Maybe if I stalled him long enough, Charles and the others would come looking and find us.

  “Such language,” Doreen said. She threw a pink sparkly spell at me, which immediately made me hit my knees. “Just get it over with so we can take her and get out of this disgusting shack.”

  The poodle started barking again from under the couch. Doreen’s familiar came over and hissed at the dog, then swatted i
t on the nose. It yelped and slunk back as the cat stood guard, staring him down.

  “Suck me off good, and Doreen will let your man go. Deal?” Disaster drew out his cock, which honestly failed to impress me.

  Hawk roared, his fangs fully emerged and eyes blazing red with rage. “You touch her, and I’ll kill you, motherfucker!”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, smiling through the pain. “Sorry for my aunt, that is. I mean, you call that a dick? I’d call it a stick.”

  Not the smartest move on my part, because Disaster snarled then backhanded me. Before I hit the floor, he grabbed my hair, which was mostly wig, and dragged my head to his crotch.

  “Now, little bitch. Suck it like you mean it. No teeth either, or I’ll knock them from your pretty head.”

  I had no choice. Hawk had no chance of surviving if I didn’t do what I was told. The best I could hope for was that they’d leave him and take me. Sure, they would torture then kill me. But maybe they’d let him go. Maybe they’d leave Ashe, Charles, and Marlowe alone too. Without me, they’d be no real threat.

  Doreen stood watch with a wicked gleam in her eye as a smoky ball of pink magic orbited her fist. If I made one wrong move, there was no telling what she might do.

  “No fangs now, sweetie. Nice round ‘o’ mouth,” she cooed. “There you go. Are you a spitter or a swallower? I bet she’s a spitter.”

  “She’s gonna swallow it all, aren’t you, baby?” Disaster held to the back of my head.

  Hawk roared and scratched at the wall, fingers puncturing the wood paneling. It was enough to catch Doreen’s attention. In the space of a human heartbeat, I remembered learning from Marlowe and the quadruplets that witch’s familiars had one very unique power.

  From the corner of my eye, I could see Doreen’s familiar sitting hunched with his back to me, watching the poodle that hid under the couch. As Disaster’s pitiful penis brushed my lips, my fangs dropped, and I bit down hard. He recoiled, and the movement was enough to split the head of his dick in half.