Sever the Crown: Vampire Reverse Harem Complete Series

by Mysti Parker

  Hawk dragged the still delirious Spanish wannabe over to them. “Take this motherfucker and lock him up until I decide how to kill him slowly and painfully.”

  Vincent grabbed Alessandro by the elbow. “We can do that. We’ll even help with the killing. Just tell us when.”

  The two Knights ushered him into the elevator. If he “accidentally” had a mishap on the way, I wouldn’t mind in the least.

  “Oh my God, Talia!” Vivian covered her mouth with both hands. “That burn looks seriously bad.”

  I scrambled to my feet and helped her up. “What happened?”

  With a shaky hand, she hid the burned side of her face. Tears poured down her other cheek. “It’s Doreen. She’s quickly regaining her power. She blasted me just as I teleported out to the garden. I’m so sorry I couldn’t help with the bomb.”

  “Hey,” Marlowe said, “You did a remarkable job tonight. I’m very proud of you and your brothers.”

  Speaking of brothers, they all surrounded their sister and looked like they were in as much pain as she was.

  “You can cast a healing spell or something, right, Travis?” Vivian asked one of the brothers, a hopeful smile lifting her features.

  “Not from such a powerful witch,” he said. Travis had a slight tooth gap. I’d have to remember that. Queens should remember names. A basic job requirement, really.

  Talia sniffed. “It will leave scars.”

  Marlowe smiled, glancing at me before he gently pushed down her hand to reveal her blistered skin. “Scars are just scars. They don’t define us.”

  Talia raised her wet eyes to meet his gaze and nodded. “You would know, wouldn’t you?”

  Vivian cautiously approached and reached out a tentative hand to brush away Talia’s scorched hair. “We’ll get you right to the infirmary. I know it may sound gross to you, but if you drink a little of my blood, at least the burn itself will heal better. Seriously. And you know what? We can cover up any scars you have with makeup. I’m pretty good at it.”

  She looked to Marlowe, who nodded and pointed at his still-lovely makeup job Vivian had given him before the party. It had covered his scars so much I could barely tell they were there. But he didn’t need makeup to impress me. I had come to love his scars and everything else about him.

  “We will find Doreen and kill her, once and for all. That I can promise you,” Hawk growled, his fists tight at his sides.

  The quadruplets all flinched.

  Glaring at Hawk, Travis hugged Talia close as she fought back tears.

  “What? Did I miss something?” Hawk mumbled.

  Marlowe sighed and addressed Travis. “Might as well tell him.”

  “Okay.” Travis swallowed hard and focused on Talia as he spoke. “Doreen is our mother.”

  My jaw dropped. Talk about shitty mothers. Mine certainly could have done better with teaching me who I was, but she’d never tried to kill me.

  Hawk’s eyes widened. “Oh. Uh…sorry?”

  “Is that common for witch moms?” Ashe asked.

  “Unfortunately, yes. Reproducing often turns witches insane. But she still deserves to die,” Thaddeus said. He had a cowlick that stuck up like a little horn on the crown of his head.

  “Stop. You’re upsetting Talia,” Theodore snapped. This brother had a chin dimple almost as deep as Zac’s.

  Zac. The guy who’d started me on this journey. The guy who had apparently wanted me dead, even up until tonight. The guy who’d hired Hawk to kill me…

  I hadn’t had time to process that until just now. Anger welled up until I balled my fists so tight, my nails dug into my palms.

  Hawk’s expression turned hesitant. He reached for me, but I stepped away. “Wren?”

  “Leave me alone. I need to think.”

  As though she sensed the building tension, Vivian led Talia away, and her brothers followed.

  “Let me explain, please.”

  “What’s he talking about?” Ashe said, stepping in slightly between Hawk and me.

  I let out a bitter laugh. “Explain? How could you possibly explain why you didn’t bother to tell me that Zac hired you to kill me?”

  “What the fuck? He hired you to kill Wren?” Charles moved to my other side.

  “The important question is why did he want her dead?” Marlowe stood near Hawk, a mix of disbelief and anger flashing in his eyes.

  Hawk scrubbed a hand down his face. “He thought she murdered his wife. Saw it on a security camera.”

  Everyone’s eyes turned to me, making me feel about three inches high.

  Swallowing past the sandpaper in my throat, I did my best to explain without falling apart. “I didn’t know who she was. She’d been stabbed and was dying when I found her. I killed her out of mercy so she wouldn’t suffer. If I could do it all over again, I still would have. But I never had the chance to explain that to Zac. And I never will now, will I?”

  Ashe put his arm around my shoulders and addressed Hawk. “He hired you to kill Wren, but you didn’t. Why? The pay wasn’t good enough?”

  Hawk adamantly shook his head. “Look, I refused the job. It’s hard to explain, but I can tell if a target deserves to die or not. She didn’t.”

  “Well, of course she didn’t,” Ashe said, his voice rising. “But that seems like need-to-know information before you fuck someone.”

  “Absolutely.” Marlowe crossed his arms. “Why didn’t you tell her this sooner?”

  “Because the contract we signed was magically bound to keep us from talking about it until both parties agreed to destroy it. I didn’t have a chance to destroy it until I found Zac at the party, so I told Wren right then.”

  Charles got in his face. “I call bullshit on that one. That was a real dick move.”

  “Says the biggest dick in the room,” Hawk growled.

  I put my hands on their chests and pushed them apart. “Stop it! All of you.” Staring up at Hawk, tears welled in my eyes. “I don’t know what to think. You should have found a way to destroy the contract sooner, if what you’re telling me is true. Can I trust you to be part of my harem or not?”

  “I tried to destroy the contract sooner, but he was never around. I’ve never lied to you. I’d never do anything to hurt you.” He laid his hand on my shoulder.

  I knocked his arm away. “Like Devin must have promised my mom at one point.”

  “Wren, please…”

  “No! Because of you, Zac’s dead now, and he died thinking that I murdered his wife in cold blood. I’ll never forgive you for that.”

  Hawk stumbled back with his hand on his chest as though I had punched him straight in the heart. “I’m sorry. I – ”

  Margaret banged her fist on the desk. We all turned to look.

  She pointed at the TV. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but you need to see this.”

  We moved as one tense unit over to the sitting area. On VTV, my aunt smiled at a reporter who spoke into a microphone.

  “And how do you want to make the exchange, Your Highness?” the reporter asked.

  She held the mic over to Ravana, still dressed in her fancy ball gown from earlier. “Easy enough. These rebels kidnapped my beloved Alessandro. Being the fair and honest ruler that I am, I’m willing to turn over the rebel they left behind after the attack tonight for Alessandro’s safe return.”

  I froze, slowly covering my mouth with my hand.

  The camera panned down to reveal a battered and bloodied Zac, bound and gagged in a chair.

  “Oh my God!” Unable to stand any longer, I sank to the floor on my knees with Charles standing behind me. I reached up and held his hand as I watched for any indication of breathing or movement from Zac.

  Marlowe and Ashe sat down beside me on the floor. Hawk kept his distance, perching on the edge of one of the armchairs a few yards away.

  On the screen, Ravana grabbed Zac’s hair and yanked his head to one side. He grimaced and groaned. White gauze covered his jugular, with two bright red spots soaking thro
ugh. He had been bitten, which explained the splat we had heard while escaping the house. But it hadn’t been enough to kill him.

  “He’s alive,” I whispered, but then the guilt hit me like a ton of bricks dropped from nine stories up. Thinking he was dead had been bad enough, but knowing we’d left him there alive to be tortured like this…

  Ravana leaned in and smiled at the camera. “It’s simple. Bring Alessandro back to me. Or this lovely young man becomes my next mate.”

  “So you’ll make a clean exchange, then? A life for a life?” the reporter asked.

  “Yes, but I think I need to emphasize how serious I am about all this. Nothing like a deadline to move people into action, right?” Ravana looked into the camera, ripped off the gauze, and extended her fangs. Then she plunged them into Zac’s neck.

  His muffled cry behind the gag tore through my heart.

  “No!” I jumped to my feet, running to the TV as though I could climb through it. But all I could do was hang on to the bookshelf as I watched Ravana gulp down Zac’s blood.

  She finally withdrew and took a handkerchief someone off-screen handed her. After wiping her mouth, she smiled. The blood on her teeth glistened bright red and ripped a hole straight through my heart.

  “You have twenty-four hours. Bring Alessandro to Hillview Sanitorium, or Zac Palmer becomes my new mate.” She looked down at Zac. “Oh, did you have any final words? How rude of me. I should have asked earlier.”

  Ravana yanked the gag from his mouth.

  “Fuck you, bitch,” Zac groaned.

  Ravana laughed and flicked his nose. “You will, and you’ll love it.” She stared into the camera again, her eyes chilling me straight to the bone. “There will be no cameras. This is to be a private exchange. If you don’t do as I say, or if Alessandro is hurt in any way, you’ll never see this man again. Choose wisely.”

  The broadcast was cut, and the screen flicked back to a vampire injury lawyer commercial.

  Marlowe rested his hand on my thigh and met my gaze. “She’s making you choose. He’ll never survive that much blood loss, Wren. Your only choice will be to kill him or turn him.”

  I looked around at my mates, tears welling up in my eyes. “There’s no winning this, is there?”

  Chapter Two

  Zac

  A Thursday night five years ago was the last time I saw my wife alive. The memory of it was so crystal clear that I could still smell the tangy, spicy marinara bubbling on the stove and hear her tinkling laugh as she pressed up against my back. Her long blonde hair tickled my arms while I tested the pasta noodles. Still not quite done.

  "Do you know what tomorrow is?" Sasha had asked.

  "Friday?"

  She leaned her forehead against my spine, her sigh warming my bare skin. "I can't wait."

  Fridays—nothing special except they signified the start of the weekend, the time we joined ourselves at the hip. And usually other places too. Sometimes we even carried our weekends into Monday and called in sick to work for a “mental health day” just to spend more time together.

  She was my best friend. My lover. And she was gone.

  That ache was worse than any other, including the one searing my neck and the other burning the joints in my arms as they were yanked behind me. I didn't want to think about the why behind those pains just yet. I was too caught up in our last day together, a memory that existed just beyond consciousness.

  "There's a cheese-tasting event we should probably go to on Saturday at Mantelli’s," Sasha had said.

  "Probably, huh?" I took a spoonful of sauce and held it out for her to taste.

  Her full lips took in a bite. "Mmm." Her groan vibrated through to my navel and dipped lower. "Yes, probably. You know how I feel about cheese. It’s almost as good as your pasta.”

  Well, she wasn’t wrong.

  “But I say probably, because if everything goes well tomorrow, we may have to do something fancier. Like fly to Paris for a long weekend with some exceptional cheese.”

  “And wine?”

  “Of course.” She shivered, and her smile faded.

  If things had gone badly on the Senate floor, it could have meant leaving here for good, with new names and fake records courtesy of the Witness Protection Program.

  I had hugged her close and kissed her marinara-warmed lips. “Be careful tomorrow. Stay with your escorts.”

  “Zac?” she said. “Isn’t that your name? Zac?"

  Something struck my cheek hard.

  Wait. That wasn't how the memory had gone. I wanted to go back to it, back to Sasha forever, but no. I was swimming toward reality fast, and I knew I'd hate it as soon as I arrived.

  Another slap brought it all back—my location, my physical pain. A greedy bitch of a queen hovering over me.

  "You in there?" Queen Ravana hit me again even though I was staring right at her.

  I tried to tell her to fuck off, but realized I couldn't speak. I was bound and gagged, my arms stretched too far behind me around the back of a wooden chair. Overhead LED lights threw an unnatural glow on the queen, making the bones in her face sharper, her pale skin starker. Maybe she had once been beautiful, but now her malice had grown like a relentless root, twisting everything inside her to its shape.

  Not like Sasha. Not like Wren either. I wish I’d realized that sooner.

  Rows and rows of hydroponic plants grew on either side of me, and my dress shoes slid against a marble floor with drains set into it in even intervals. I vaguely recalled being dragged through a door beneath the stage at Senator Kinky's ball, so we must've been in the queen's safe space for the coming apocalypse. Or had it already come? Was Wren—

  "Zac, right?" Ravana demanded.

  I stared at her, putting the same level of cold heartlessness into my expression as she did.

  "Fine. We'll go with Zac." She stood up straight and smoothed her long red dress. "There's a speed problem with being human, isn't there, Zac? You were too slow to join your little friends, and they left you behind. Doesn’t that get under your skin just a bit?" She traced a finger under my chin and let it come to rest in the dimple on my chin.

  I growled low, not at her words but her touch. I wanted nothing more for Wren and her mates to get out of the ballroom fast with Alessandro. It was why I’d helped create a distraction by flinging the glasses off the table.

  Footsteps came from behind me, and Ravana’s mates, minus Alessandro, circled around me and joined her side. Either the Devil’s Breath they’d been drugged with had worn off, or the queen knew a secret cure.

  Cordero wriggled his fingers at his sides. “Belvedere Mortuary. Mor-chew-ary. Mor-che-wary.”

  Bartholomew gripped his stomach with a pained expression on his face while Erasmus clasped his hands in silent prayer.

  Disaster handed the queen a timer, similar to the one Charles had lifted from the back of her dress earlier, except this one was green. "Fifteen seconds left. Everyone got down here just in time." He glanced at me, his red eyes flaring. “Everyone important, I mean.”

  “What's the proper punishment for so-called friends who leave you?” A sinister smile curved Ravana’s lips as she gazed at me. "How about nuclear annihilation?"

  My chest clenched, and a cold sweat dribbled into my eyes and made them burn. I didn't want Wren to die that way. Or any way. Two years ago, my hatred for her had devoured me when I saw her ending Sasha’s life in the security footage, but when she’d looked at me after Hawk told her about Sasha at the ball, I hadn’t been looking into the eyes of a cold-blooded murderer. She’d looked devastated. I’d known she only killed those who’d killed her mom and anyone who got in her way for a while now, and that was it. Wren would never murder innocents, though I couldn’t say exactly when I’d realized this for certain.

  Ravana’s ABCs counted down the seconds like they were waiting for the ball to drop on New Year's Eve. Each second lasted an eternity. Would this underground shelter hold up under a nuclear blast? Did it really matter? I w
as a captive down here, a human against hundreds, if not thousands, of vampires. I'd be nothing but food. Frankly I was surprised one of them wasn't snacking on me already. Even if I did somehow escape here, there would be nothing but nuclear fallout to return to.

  "Three…"

  I screwed my eyes shut while tears dripped down my face.

  "Two…"

  I wished I could cover my ears so I couldn’t hear the world ending.

  "One…"

  Silence. The earth stood still, not even the slightest shudder.

  Ravana smacked the timer. "It stopped at one. Why did it stop at one?"

  Overwhelming relief filled my chest. Someone must've disarmed the nuclear bombs. The quadruplet witches? Marlowe? If anyone had the brains to do it, he did.

  “Check the cameras,” Disaster shouted to the others as he raced past me.

  Erasmus raked his hand through his red hair as he followed. “‘Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ Matthew 11:28.”

  “Can it already.” Bartholomew clutched his stomach as he brought up the rear.

  “I’m a Biblical scholar. I take solace in the scriptures in times of trouble.”

  “You can’t even go inside a church. What makes you think you’ll get into Heaven? Besides, your scripture never fits our situation.”

  Cordero followed after them. “Guys, I thought of another way I’m going to revamp Hollywood once it’s destroyed. Wanna hear it?”

  Their voices faded.

  Meanwhile, Ravana stopped her pacing. She screamed with fury and launched herself at the hydroponic plants, knocking several to the floor and hurling some upward so they crashed into the lights and exploded them. Glass and green leaves rained down, but she ignored it. She was a tornado of violence and viciousness. And of failure.

  Choked laughter fell out of me at the sight of her. I couldn’t stop it or the tears flowing down my face. She deserved this and so much more. If word got out that the blast had failed, she'd be nothing more than a mockery. For every vampire who hadn't been chosen to live in this bunker and found out their queen had put all their lives on the line, there would be a revolution.