Sever the Crown: Vampire Reverse Harem Complete Series

by Mysti Parker

  I kept it aimed at Erasmus. If I dared aim for Ravana, he’d be able to rip my arm off before I could even pull the trigger. Wren’s entire existence transformed as she watched the queen march toward her. She pulled herself up even straighter, chin high, her shoulders squared, her fists held tightly to her sides. Vicious fury lit her purple contacts so much they seemed to glow. But more than her anger, she exuded confidence that sparked and buzzed all over my tattoo. I was sure the others could feel it too.

  Ravana’s heels clipped the tiles as she approached which sounded like sharp exclamations all by themselves, and then she stopped a few feet away from Wren, her long red dress swishing around her ankles. A large diamond shape had been cut into the back of her dress.

  Queen versus queen. Tension thickened the air between them, tight as a turning screw.

  Despite Wren's disguise, they looked a lot alike physically and the way they held themselves. But they weren’t equally powered. Not without Wren’s fifth mate.

  There was one other key difference between them, though—a slight bulge at the bottom of the diamond in Ravana's dress, just above her waist. Not shaped like a weapon, but like a walky-talky. I’d have thought it was a wireless mic transmitter on anyone else.

  I kept my gun locked on Erasmus and tried to catch Charles’s eye.

  A sneer curled Ravana’s lips as she gave Wren the onceover. "So you're my niece all grown up."

  "So I am," Wren said calmly.

  “Pity. I think we could have been close had your mother not decided to betray us all.” Ravana tilted her head and grimaced. "Just goes to show you, family isn't everything."

  Finally, Charles flicked his gaze to me and followed my pointed look to Ravana. He needed to pickpocket whatever that walky-talky thing was out of her dress. If anyone could do it, it was him. He seemed to take the hint and took a few casual steps my way before stopping again, seeming completely at ease. He'd get to it soon, obviously, without drawing much attention to himself. I’d seen him do it before.

  “The family who deserve that relationship are everything.” Wren shrugged. "Not you. I'm going to take your throne and shove it down your throat."

  Ravana laughed humorlessly. "So take it. Who's stopping you?"

  "Absolutely no one.” Wren’s voice dropped low as she stared hard at the queen. “And when I take it, I will have your head and mount it above my throne. Because that's what family does to those who murder their own."

  Charles crept closer.

  "Oh, there it is,” Ravana snapped. “What's next? Ashe's sister? How she screamed for mercy when I lit her on fire?"

  Ashe shuddered and squeezed his eyes shut while Marlowe tensed in front of him, trying to physically block him from the queen's cheap jabs and prevent him from doing something stupid.

  "Or how about your dad, that pathetic Albert?” she continued, her voice rising. “Honestly, you're so predictable, Wren. Your mother was the same way. She was a terrible queen, so really, I did everyone, including her, a favor."

  Wren stilled and her voice went cold and deadly. "That's how you see it?"

  "That's the only way to see it because it's the truth,” Ravana fired back. “I can’t blame you for being so naïve, though. I mean, when you’re fed lies since birth, how can you possibly see the truth?”

  “The only liar I see here is you.”

  Ravana gave a little shrug. “I know. But think about it, Wren. How much did you really know about your mother?”

  That question brought Wren up short with a tiny shudder that jerked her shoulders back, but she quickly regrouped. “I know enough to know that she was a far better queen than you could ever hope to be.”

  “Oh, sweetie, if anything, she was good at hiding who she really was, just like you. But I will say this”—a ruthless smile spread across her blood-red lips, while bar lights flashed across her pearly white fangs—“if you plan to take the throne, you better hurry."

  "The end of the world." Wren kept her eyes on Ravana instead of Charles, nearly behind the queen now.

  "It's past time to continue the plan your mother so thoughtlessly abandoned, don't you think?” Ravana asked.

  “What?” Wren flinched. For the second time, Ravana’s words seemed to penetrate her confidence. She was trying to get into her head, make her doubt enough to slip up.

  Ravana laughed softly. “As I said, you only know what you think you know. But time’s running out. Only the chosen will remain, and we'll make everything so much better than the urchins who think they're entitled to something they're not."

  Wren nodded. "Chosen by you, you mean."

  "Well.” Ravana waved a hand in the air. “I am the queen."

  "Not for long," Wren said.

  Glass shattered from the mates’ table behind us, and Ravana whipped around to see Zac shove more glasses from their table. A distraction. At the same time, Charles blurred up to her and removed the walky-talky thing from underneath her dress. She whirled on him and caught him by the throat.

  Erasmus spun around as I pulled the trigger. But instead of a bullet, an explosion of daisies smacked him in the face. A raspy cackle echoed through the ballroom.

  “Fucking Doreen,” I hissed. From the lameness of the spell, I hoped she wasn’t back to full power yet. It would explain why she wasn’t making an appearance. Next time, I’d have to make sure I removed the bitch’s head. If I ever got the chance.

  Grinning, Erasmus’s fist blurred toward my face. I dodged, just missing it, and delivered an upper cut to his jaw that knocked out a fang and sent him flying back into Zac, who didn’t have time to move out of the way. Zac fell onto the table where the other mates sat mindlessly staring at nothing. Erasmus leapt off the table and lunged for me but froze midstride.

  “What the –?”

  “ABCs, it’s time,” Ravana shouted and lifted Charles until his feet left the ground. Until his neck bones cracked. He squeezed his eyes shut and grimaced. “Get into the shelter now.”

  “Let him go,” Wren shouted and lunged for her.

  “Stay back, Wren!” Marlowe dove in front of her.

  “Up. Now. Let’s go.” I pointed to Alessandro, and he stood immediately, his expression vacant.

  And another Alessandro took his place in his chair. I blinked hard and then caught movement in the corner of my eye.

  Talia stood in the ballroom entry and waved madly at the seat where Alessandro had just been. One of the quadruplet witches. She kept one hand directed toward Erasmus. She must have frozen him with a spell.

  The air around the real Alessandro shimmered and made him appear invisible. Nice trick.

  “To the shelter, I said!” Ravana yelled. “What did you do to them?”

  She threw Charles down in disgust and raced toward the table. Charles’s neck was completely crushed. Wren helped him up, and Marlowe took the walky-talky thing. Which was now beeping.

  Marlowe’s eyes widened. “Countdown. We have to hurry.”

  “Get up!” Ravana screamed as she tried to drag her mates from their chairs. They just stared ahead like dolls. She grabbed for Alessandro, but her hands shimmered through his holographic image. She tried again, then bared her fangs and shrieked like a banshee at us.

  We blurred out of the ballroom. Guarding Wren's rear, I walked backward, aiming my gun, as useless as it might be, at anyone who dared come after us, my grip tight on Alessandro’s invisible collar. The farther away we drew, the more I could see him now. We’d actually caught one of Ravana’s mates. Charles and Ashe led the way, with Wren shielded between us.

  But where had Talia and the other witches gone?

  "You want to play with me, little Wren?" the queen shouted after us. "I'll play, too, with the toy you left behind.”

  Wren jerked and swept her gaze over all of us, but we were here.

  Except Zac. Not with his human speed.

  Wren seemed to realize this in the same moment because she shuddered violently. Her mouth dropped open, and she looked lik
e she might be sick.

  “Wren!" Zac shouted from the ballroom. "I'm sorr—"

  The sound of blood splattering silenced everything but the beeping timer in Marlowe’s hand. Had Ravana killed Zac? I didn't think he'd known Wren had killed his wife out of mercy, but it sounded like he was apologizing anyway just now. Had he had a change of heart like anyone would after getting to know Wren? After knowing her heart? Maybe he'd finally seen through his grief to eventually realize the truth. Wren had been considering him as her fifth mate, but now, it might be too late.

  She hardened her jaw as we rushed down the stairs, her eyes rimmed in red, and I knew her heart was breaking at leaving him behind.

  My next glance at the timer fused panic to my bones. It made me wish for the headaches again if it meant we had more time.

  00:00:59...

  00:00:58...

  00:00:57...

  And now for the grand finale...

  ASCENSION

  Sever the Crown Book Five

  MYSTI PARKER

  LINDSEY R. LOUCKS

  Chapter One

  Wren

  Never leave a fellow soldier behind. It’s been the age-old creed of warriors for eons. But that’s exactly what we had done. We left one of our own to die at Ravana’s hands. And there was nothing I could do to help Zac now. Not with Ashe, Marlowe, and Hawk herding me out of the Victorian mansion where the cult had held its last debauchery-filled party. Marlowe and Ashe half carried Charles, whose throat had been crushed in Ravana’s iron-clamp grip. He was delirious, his face ghostly white.

  Sure, we’d captured one of my aunt’s mates and killed that weasel of a politician who double-crossed us, but that seemed almost trivial now.

  Why? Because I’d taken everything from Zac. I’d destroyed him. It didn’t matter why I’d killed his wife. But I never got the chance to tell him I was sorry, to explain what happened that night. He died believing I’d taken her life in cold blood, and I could never forgive myself for that.

  I couldn’t focus on that. The timer in Marlowe’s hand meant we were seconds away from the end of everything. And we were running away from what I now realized was a bomb shelter behind the stage.

  The quadruplet brothers met us at the back door. Theodore – or was it Thaddeus? – I still couldn’t tell them apart. “Out here! We found it.”

  “Found what?” I asked but knew what he meant the moment we saw the open shed in the rose garden.

  A huge globe-shaped metal contraption with red and green blinking lights sat within. Near the top it had a digital display that synced with the timer.

  00:00:41…

  00:00:40…

  “Holy shit. There could be more. We can’t stop this,” Ashe said. “Not without Zac. He’s the weapons guy.”

  “Travis!” Marlowe called out, gesturing to the one brother I recognized. “We have a serious injury here. Could you help out?”

  “Yeah, no problem,” he said, running over to meet them. “I’m not a great healer, but I’ll do my best.”

  Charles wheezed, trying to speak. I could tell he was attempting to tell us not to worry about him.

  “We won’t leave you like this,” Marlowe said, his firm voice leaving no room for an argument.

  Travis waved his hands at Charles and sent a sparkling beam of energy that orbited Charles’s throat, then sank beneath his skin. In a couple seconds, his color had returned to normal, and he was able to stand on his own.

  “Thanks, man,” Charles whispered and rubbed his throat. “But someone’s got to defuse that thing.”

  “What about Brainiac here?” Travis pointed his thumb to Marlowe, who was already headed to the bomb.

  “Can you turn the bomb into something harmless like a rock?” I asked Travis.

  “We tried that. It’s protected with powerful magic. Doreen most likely.”

  “We have to get back to the bunker. It’s the only way. Can you teleport us there?”

  “Yeah, we can. Let’s go.”

  “No, I have a better idea.” Charles took me by the shoulder, his voice still raspy. “We can’t just let the bombs go off. We’re talking millions, if not billions, of innocent lives here. Let us try to defuse it. We may be able to at least stop this bomb, even if there are others.”

  I glanced at the timer.

  00:00:33...

  00:00:32....

  One of the triplets spoke up. “Listen, I don’t know if we can hold it, but we can all cast a shielding spell around it while you two work to disarm it. If it detonates, we may be able to contain it.”

  There was no time for a deep discussion, so I just nodded. Charles and Marlowe went in the shed, taking jagged pieces of my heart with them. They studied the various wires and connections attached to the bomb.

  I clung to Ashe and Hawk, who stood on either side of me with their protective arms around my waist and shoulders. Hawk kept a firm hold on Alessandro who stood dumbly staring, slack-jawed, with his eyes pointed in opposite directions. Drool dripped from his fangs and down his chin.

  The triplet brothers surrounded the shed and waved their hands in big circles. Golden sparkles expanded into shimmering pentagrams that grew up and over the shed, orbiting it in three overlapping layers. I had no idea if this would work or not.

  00:00:21…

  00:00:20…

  Charles and Marlowe had moments to disarm a bomb they’d never seen before. Memories flashed through my mind about watching reruns of MacGyver while staying in a shitty hotel in Tallahassee. He’d have been able to disarm it with a paperclip and a bubble gum wrapper. But I was pretty sure even MacGyver never cut it this close.

  Marlowe carefully removed a panel. Charles handed him a multi-tool. There was a maze of wires in every color of the rainbow. How the hell would they figure out which one to cut in time?

  If the bomb detonated and the shield held, I’d lose my second and third mates. But we might save the world, or at least the surrounding area. If it detonated, and the shield didn’t hold, then we’d all be obliterated. The odds were not in our favor, not with seconds to spare.

  00:00:17…

  00:00:16…

  It was the longest minute of my undead life. The world around us seemed to hold its breath. Not even a whisper of wind or the chirp of a cricket. Dead silence. Purgatory.

  00:00:10…

  00:00:09…

  Marlowe lifted a yellow and green wire, his gaze flicking between them as though trying to decide.

  “They’re not going to make it,” I said and started forward.

  Ashe and Hawk held me back.

  “You can’t help them now,” Hawk said, his voice breaking.

  00:00:05…

  00:00:04…

  “Oh God, I can’t…” I buried my head in Hawk’s chest and held tight to him and Ashe. There was no time to tell all my mates how much they meant to me. No time to find out what we could truly be as a family.

  As the last couple seconds ticked by, I pictured my mom when I was little and woke from a nightmare in our little library basement hideaway.

  She sang me the song that had now begun playing out in my life. “You’re a five-pointed star. That’s what you are. A lover, a joker, a thinker, a killer, a thriller. And all the world shall be your stage. Your loving light will guide the way.”

  “What does it mean, Mama?”

  “You’ll understand someday, Wren.”

  I still didn’t fully understand, but my symbol heated and buzzed so much it hurt. I held up my wrist and spun around. Light bounced from my tattoo and landed on one wire that glowed the same blue color as the symbol on my arm.

  The triplets gritted their teeth and solidified their stances, intensifying the shielding spell.

  Marlowe glanced at me and flashed a smile right before he cut the glowing wire.

  Charles mouthed, “I love you.”

  And the world didn’t end.

  Suddenly everything around us stirred back to life. A dog barked from behind a
neighbor’s fence. A few blocks away, sirens blared. Music thumped from a passing crap green hooptie that had been lowered nearly to the pavement. Wind picked up leaves and the soft aroma of roses and honeysuckle.

  Charles and Marlowe both stood completely still, watching the bomb. The timer had stopped at 00:00:01. The triplets held the spell a few seconds longer, but gradually lowered their arms, the magical shield dissipating like a melting globe made of glitter. I strained my ears in case there were other explosions elsewhere. There were none that I could hear at least.

  As soon as the shield settled into the ground, Marlowe and Charles both ran to me and threw their arms around me. In the next second, Ashe and Hawk joined them to make a Wren sandwich out of me. And there we stood in a big group hug. A family reunited. Almost.

  I put a hand to my mouth to contain all the emotions threatening to burst from me. When Talia suddenly materialized beside us, I jumped. Half her mask had been burned away, along with half her face and half her dress.

  “We have to go now!” She whipped up a smoky purple portal. “No time to explain. Go!”

  The back door to the house burst open, followed by a throng of angry vampires, with Disaster leading the charge. We all piled into the portal. The last time I’d been through one of those, I’d ended up in 1800 Scotland. I sure as hell hoped Talia was a good portal caster. Fighting off a T-Rex in the Jurassic era was probably beyond my vampire super strength.

  ****

  The ride through the psychedelic roller-coaster of an interdimensional tunnel was just as stomach-churning as the first one. We fell out onto the big area rug in the lobby of our bunker. I landed right on top of Charles, who laughed and kissed me. His eyes widened, and he rolled us out of the way just before Talia somersaulted through and landed in a crouch. She quickly closed the portal as the last of several raging howls and growls died out along with a puff of purple smoke.

  Vivian and Margaret both gasped from where they had been enjoying blood lattes on one of the lobby sofas. Vincent was there, too, with one of the other recruits, watching VTV on the big-screen TV set within one of the bookshelves. They both shot to their feet, and fangs dropped as soon as they noticed Alessandro.