Sever the Crown: Vampire Reverse Harem Complete Series

by Mysti Parker

  "I don't care what she promised you," Wren yelled, her voice echoing down the length of the next tunnel.

  We slowed, silencing our footsteps. Around the next corner, a bright light glowed.

  "I'm not just some object you can have because you promised my mom the throne," she continued. "Lot of good the throne did her anyway."

  "She had you while on the throne,” a dark, silky voice I’d heard before said. “Are you regretting your own birth?"

  Marlowe tensed next to me. I met his gaze and nodded. That was definitely his father, Phil. I could only imagine what Marlowe must be feeling right now, but from the expression on his scarred face, he looked like he wanted to vomit. He pulled out his gun with a slight tremble in his hand and aimed at the ground. The Knights and I did the same. Four guns against a demon. Our chances were shit. But we’d be damned if we let this demon have Wren when she had a war to fight. We’d be damned anyway.

  "I'm regretting the day you enticed my mother to make such a stupid deal," Wren fired back. "I'm taking the throne. I'm breaking my mother's promise to you. End of discussion."

  "It's not that simple, though, and I'll tell you why,” Phil told her.

  Marlowe started to turn the next corner, but I held my arm out to stop him.

  “You try to take the throne away from Ravana, and you'll lose,” Phil said. “I'm offering you a way out of this with your dignity still intact."

  Wren huffed a humorless laugh.

  "Since your mother conveniently ridded herself of her firstborn, I’ll take yours. It will be a few months yet, but I’m patient."

  I felt Marlowe flinch beside me, while my unbeating heart spasmed. Wren was pregnant? Our mission to protect her just became a hell of a lot more urgent.

  "The answer,” she spat, “is still no."

  Phil sighed. "I'm afraid that just won't do. I can’t go back to Hell one soul short of my quota. Looks like I'll have to make you come with me."

  Marlowe swung around the corner, gun raised, and I followed a split second behind. "She gave you her answer, asshole," he growled.

  We entered a large, cavernous room with rows and rows of high shelves filled with hydroponic plants and lit floor to ceiling with LED lights. The room was so bright, it hurt.

  Wren gazed over her shoulder at us with a mix of relief and surprise. Phil held her a few feet off the ground, coiled in one of his pitch-black tentacles that stretched out from his sleeve. Her teeth chattered, and she shivered all over from the supernatural cold.

  "It wasn't a question or a request I gave her." Phil tilted his head at Marlowe, his dark wavy hair falling across his forehead. The two squared off with each other, their stances and fierce expressions almost identical. Though while Marlowe was dressed for war, Phil wore a black three-piece suit that practically screamed corporate asshole. "I know you. I remember your hag of a mother."

  "She was no mother,” Marlowe growled. “What did you do? Rape her? Turn her into a monster just like you?"

  "Is that any way to talk to your dear old father?"

  Marlowe stalked closer, a curl of smoke winding over his fingers. “There’s nothing dear or fatherly about you.”

  Phil arched his eyebrow in a dare. “Maybe we can change that. How about it, you and me, father and son, collecting souls like the demons we are?”

  “Speak for yourself. I’m no demon.”

  “You’re more demon than you realize, son. Don’t tell me you can’t feel it inside you, that little voice telling you to kill and consume. A perpetual hunger that blood can’t fill. It’s souls you need. Innocent ones are the best. That’s why I want your firstborn.”

  “My firstborn?” Marlowe’s gaze slid to Wren, and the terrified, yet still somehow hopeful look that passed between them nearly broke me. But I had to keep it together.

  “Oh yes, that little one growing inside our Wren here is yours.”

  “Demons lie – you’re lying!” Marlowe growled.

  “Am I? I guess we’ll never know.”

  I had a feeling a fight with Phil was a surefire way for Marlowe to be killed. I needed to redirect before we had a father/son brawl on our hands.

  "Change the deal,” I said. “Make a new one with Wren."

  Wren's eyes widened as she looked at me, and her face drained of all color. Had I said something wrong?

  "Something more valuable than a firstborn and bigger and grander than whatever Ravana offered you,” I clarified, hoping that helped Wren feel better about this. She jerked her head in a nod. “Because that's why you're here, isn't it? To get rid of Wren and help Ravana?"

  "Name your price,” Marlowe said. “Anything. You'll have it as long as you go away. For good."

  “What’s Ravana offering you?" Wren demanded.

  Phil rolled his eyes. "There's a little thing called confidentiality. Perhaps you’ve heard of it?"

  “Whatever it is, put a monetary value on it, and we’ll double it,” Marlowe said.

  I had a feeling it wasn’t money Phil was after. "You mentioned your yearly performance report and the prize drawing for Vegas while we were in the woods. Make a new deal with Wren, and we'll double the terms for Vegas, whatever they are."

  His cinnamon eyes widened as he rubbed his chin, considering. "Triple."

  Wren glanced at me, doubt lining her forehead. "I would need to see those terms before I make a deal with the devil."

  "Demon," Phil sighed. “I’m a demon. There is a difference.”

  The scent of something rotten rolled toward me and then the sound of stumbling footsteps thudding from a tunnel on the opposite wall. Someone or something was coming. Who knew what else lurked down here?

  "Tell her the terms right now," Marlowe hissed.

  Phil gave him a withering look. "Don't you presume to order me around, you scarred freak."

  “Enough!” Wren shouted.

  Phil’s voice changed to a growling, demonic one. “I must have a soul. Promise me a soul, the more untainted the better, and we have a deal.”

  “Take mine,” Marlowe said.

  “No!” Wren screamed, fighting so hard to loosen herself from the demon’s grip that she dropped to the ground.

  The two Knights moved swiftly to her side and helped her up.

  Ignoring her, Phil turned his black, soulless eyes to Marlowe. His smile widened, showing an unnatural set of sharp, jagged teeth.

  “Don’t do this, Marlowe!” Wren pleaded.

  This whole thing was going to hell in a handbasket, literally.

  Marlowe held up his hand to silence Wren. “Let us get Wren on the throne, and then you can take my soul if you promise to leave her and our child alone.”

  “Hmm, a half-demon soul isn’t ideal. But…” Phil sniffed the air toward Marlowe. “You’re squeaky clean though. Pity. Should have raised some hell, son.”

  “Well? Do we have a deal or not?” Marlowe insisted.

  “Yes, but I’m going to need that soul now, not later.”

  Another tentacle shot out, went right through Marlowe’s chest, and lifted him off the ground. He cried out in agony as black veins webbed across his hands and up his neck and face.

  “I’ll kill you, you motherfucker!” Wren screamed, about to pounce on the demon. But the Knights held her back and fired at him.

  The bullets just made him flinch but were distraction enough for Marlowe to fight back. Marlowe’s hands glowed red as though they were on fire. He gripped the tentacle. Flames traversed its length and caught Phil’s suit on fire. Phil retracted his tentacle and dropped Marlowe, then beat out the flames. Marlowe jumped to his feet, glancing down at his chest, which appeared unscathed. The black veins cleared from his skin as well. At least he could hold his own against his father. But we had to get rid of this demon once and for all.

  “Zac,” a familiar voice whispered behind me.

  Casually, I looked over my shoulder and found Charles peeking out behind the wall of the tunnel from where we’d just come. He gestured me over.
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  “You little shit!” Phil spat at Marlowe. “That was a three-thousand dollar suit. Is that all you’ve got? Fucking parlor tricks?”

  “So you’re resorting to trash-talking now? Is that it?” Marlowe shook his head. “Pretty pathetic for a demon.”

  I took a single step backward, trying not to draw attention to myself.

  A huge ball of fire formed in Phil’s hand with a flick of his fingers. “Not as pathetic as what my seed produced.”

  Marlowe didn’t even flinch at the fire. “We’ll see who’s pathetic when this is all over.”

  “So we will,” Phil said. “Sooner than you think.”

  Suddenly, from the tunnel opposite the one I was backing toward, five figures emerged who froze my veins harder than death. It was them. The ABCs.

  "Fuck," I muttered. This wasn't the way we'd planned this going down, yet the one thing I'd learned since meeting Wren was to expect the unexpected. I should've been used to this by now. But at the same time, we couldn't do this war with only one mate while the other was preoccupied and two Knights.

  At the sight of them, Wren wilted for half a second before she pulled herself back up again. It was so slight, I doubted anyone else noticed. She looked at them straight on as they came closer, all her vulnerabilities stripped away and replaced with the iron will of a queen.

  Marlowe looked to me, but I gestured for him to stay put while I took another step backward. Phil scratched his chin, his eyebrow raised with interest at what was about to happen, the fireball in his hand forgotten.

  "Well, well, well." Disaster spread out his hands, a smug grin on his face as he strode closer. “Looks like we have some intruders.”

  Alessandro glared at Wren, likely remembering his kidnapping. “Aléjate, miel pollo."

  Stay away…honey chicken?

  Idiot. I hated to leave Wren all alone with them out there, so whatever Charles had to say better be good. I was almost to the tunnel opening while a tingle coursed through my tattoo. A fast pulse that hit all five sections, stopped, and then did it again. Almost like it was powering up.

  “‘A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son brings grief to his mother.’” Erasmus tapped his temple next to his red sideburn. “Proverbs 10:1.”

  Bartholomew farted. Some of the plants on the shelf beside him wilted.

  “The production of Belvedere Mortuary will be tomorrow night. Too bad you can’t come.” Cordero grinned like a true villain. “You’ll all be dead.”

  “A real shame,” Wren said and rolled her eyes. “Pretty sure death would be better.”

  While they continued their barbs, I finally came to the tunnel wall. At the edge, I found Charles, Ashe, and Hawk. Hawk was bent over, stretching an invisible tripwire across the way that was connected to two metal canisters hidden behind barrels.

  Had they heard about Wren being pregnant? It lingered on the tip of my tongue, but we still couldn’t be sure whether Phil was lying or not. If he was just mind fucking us, we didn’t need to involve all of Wren’s mates in the game.

  “Apparently we’re doing this now,” I whispered. “You feel it in your tattoo?”

  “Yeah.” Ashe held up the scepter. “Good thing I brought this.”

  I nodded. “Devil’s Breath?” I asked Hawk.

  “Yeah.” He tied one end of the tripwire to the canister. “Ravana’s Royal Knights are coming fast.”

  “But Wren’s are, too, from a different entry point.” Charles shrugged. “This should be fine.”

  “We need you and Charles to create a distraction so we can get the scepter and poison to Wren,” Ashe told me.

  “On it.” I raised my gun and stalked forward toward the ABCs, shooting out the lights over their heads.

  Charles joined me, whooping and hollering like he was having the time of his life.

  The ABCs dove and took cover in the plant aisles. The Knights hauled Wren backward. When I was out of ammo, I whipped out my other gun and kept shooting.

  Behind me, Ashe started toward Wren with the scepter. From across the room, Wren locked eyes with it.

  “Give it to Marlowe,” she shouted.

  Without question, he pivoted, throwing it in a perfect arc that would make the best quarterbacks in the NFL jealous.

  Time slowed. And all hell broke loose.

  Phil hurled his near-forgotten fireball at Marlowe.

  The ABCs started firing at everyone from behind the plant shelves, and the scepter flipped through the air.

  Their bullets melted when they struck Marlowe’s black leathery wings that burst from his back and lifted him away from the oncoming fireball. The ball slammed to the ground and lit a huge fiery wall around him and his demon father.

  Marlowe flew higher, his gaze locked on the scepter hurtling toward him.

  “Use it on him,” Wren yelled.

  As if responding to her voice, the scepter changed shape midair. The rubies dripped like blood to form a glowing red globe. Marlowe reached his hand through the fire wall, seeming unfazed by the heat, and caught the scepter easily. The rest of his body was already whirling toward Phil. He aimed the scepter at the demon. A blinding light beam shot out of it and struck him right in the face. Phil screamed as one cheek melted away, exposing half a demon skull and one half of his jagged teeth. The flames surrounding them died instantly as Phil dissolved into black smoke that billowed out of the room and disappeared down a dark tunnel.

  I doubted he was dead, but hopefully he’d leave us alone long enough to finish off the rest of these fuckers.

  With a Glock in each hand, Hawk stormed in and started shooting with deadly precision. Erasmus went down first and splattered into goo. The others dove for cover.

  “Cover me,” Ashe shouted and charged for Wren, something gripped tightly in his fist. His poison for Ravana probably.

  Guns raised, Charles and I provided cover for him and Marlowe as he flew toward Wren with her scepter.

  Gunfire crashed through the room, but then everything went quiet even as I kept squeezing the trigger.

  Unnaturally quiet, until a mad cackle erupted around us with the overwhelming smell of cookies. Doreen. Fuck that bitch.

  “I can tell you all missed me,” she called. I still couldn’t see her. “Let’s all have some fun, shall we?”

  She appeared behind a hazy wall of black smoke between two plant aisles, green lightning already streaking between her fingertips. Still cackling like a madwoman, she flung the lightning at the floor, and it shot outward in all directions with a powerful boom. On either side of her, the towering shelves of plants burst into the air and slammed into the next and the next like falling dominoes. Bodies flew through the air, including mine. I landed on my head, and then somehow fell and landed on my head again.

  Sound came rushing back with groans, screams, bullets, and the crackle of more green lightning.

  I hauled myself to my feet, feeling the earth tilt and sway underneath me. “Wren!”

  A portal appeared on the far side of the room, a white glow behind the smoke shot through with purple veins. Out of it stepped Talia and her brothers. The two warlocks charged toward their mother, their hands glowing with red spells that lit their eyes with murderous rage. Doreen cackled and dissipated into a puff of green smoke. So did the warlocks. Maybe they could blast her from another dimension or something. Talia stayed behind and cast a shield spell that completely encased Wren as the two Knights returned fire at the ABCs.

  Then Talia poofed out of sight, probably going after her brothers to take down their mother.

  I grinned. Fuck yes, this felt good. So unlike my first assignment at the FBI.

  In the light from Talia’s shield a few yards away, I saw Wren’s silhouette holding a bladed weapon. I’d almost forgotten that the scepter could also transform into a sword. We’d seen that the night that Marlowe presented it to her when we first met him. That could be useful.

  I started toward her, but a stray bullet slammed into my shoulder
. I gritted my teeth at the terrible pain. The bullet hadn’t gone through, and the silver drilled through my veins like icicles. Now I knew how Wren had felt when the silver shot was embedded in her side. It made me appreciate her strength even more. I swiveled my gaze to where the bullet had come from. Cordero grinned like a deranged fool. Not so stray after all. Without missing a step over the broken plants, lights, and shelving, I shot him through the heart. He exploded into a pile of mush.

  We were now five mates against three. We finally had the upper hand. If I could take out Disaster, Alessandro, and Bartholomew, we’d be set.

  Wren headed right for them, a determined, lethal look blazing from her eyes – the same one I remembered from the night we met when I watched her kill one of her mother’s killers. My heart climbed into my throat as the ABCs fired at her. But Talia’s shield absorbed every shot.

  I aimed at Disaster who cowered behind the shelves with the others, but a green, smoky portal appeared right behind him and the other ABCs and sucked them back into it before it dissipated. My bullet flew through the smoke left behind and clipped Ashe in the knee.

  “Shit!” Ashe yelled.

  Wren cried out in frustration and ran to him as Talia’s shield faded away.

  “Sorry!” I shouted.

  “I’ll be fine. Let’s do this!” Ashe said, pointing over Wren’s shoulder to where a new portal had just appeared with Talia inside.

  “Come on, Wren!” Talia yelled, waving wildly. “Ravana’s there! Hurry!”

  Wren blinked at her, seeming to come back to herself. After she fished something from her pocket, she stared down at the two weapons in her hand—her scepter and Ashe’s silver poison.

  “It’s time, Wren.” I took her face in my hands. “End this.”

  She gazed up at me, and even in this underground hellhole, hope lit up her face. “I love you.”

  “I love you too.” I wiped a little blood from her cheek. “Queen Wren.”

  She smiled, so devastatingly beautiful that I fell for her all over again, then she turned and blurred toward the portal.