by ERIN BEDFORD
"No!" Rayne knocked a hunter to the side and started for me, panic in his eyes. "Don't do it, Piper. You don't know what you're signing up for."
I pulled my lower lip between my teeth and shook my head at him, tears burning in my eyes, but I didn't dare let them fall. I had to be strong. I wasn't that klutzy woman who knocked over a priceless vase anymore. I had to face my problems head-on, not back away like a coward. That's what got me into this in the first place.
Besides, I had an eternity to figure out another way to save them. This was a bandage, a salve on a festering wound. If I could stop it, at least temporarily, then perhaps we could find another way. Maybe.
It was that promise of maybe that had me turning back to Vincent. He stood behind me with a bored expression on his face, the female hunter at his side. The hunter seemed poised to strike me at any moment. As if I posed a threat to her precious leader.
For a moment, I looked over the woman. She kept her long dark hair braided and out of the way, her dark eyes narrowed on me with growing suspicion and dislike. The pale olive color of her skin almost glowed from the moonlight beaming into the auditorium.
From her black combat boots to her crimson-colored pants that barely touched the hem of her tight-fitting black shirt and the large silver cross around her neck, every inch of her screamed badass hunter. Would this be me one day? Would my very being cause fear in humans and vampires alike? I held back a shudder. It was a scary thought.
"Mizuki," Vincent purred, placing a hand on her arm. "Stop glaring at our newest recruit. You'll scare her off before she even gets started."
My eyes snapped to his face. "I didn't say yes yet."
Vincent laughed. "Oh, but you are about to. I can see it in your eyes. You want this even if you hate it." My jaw tightened at his words, but I didn't argue with him. "You need something that doesn't revolve around being the Durands' lover."
"I'm not just—"
He clicked his tongue, interrupting me as he cocked his head to the side. "What are you if not that? Their maid? Their employee? Do you think you'd be happy with that for the next hundred or even thousand years?" I opened my mouth to argue. "And forget about keeping a human job. You're above that. Besides, do you really want to restart your life every twenty years or so to hide the fact that you don't age? Pfft. That's no way to live at all."
He had a point and I hated it. Ever since I'd begun falling for the Durands, I'd started questioning what I was to become. I couldn't be their maid forever. Darren may be happy with his position, but cleaning toilets and folding other people's laundry had never been my idea of a perfect life. The job was always meant to be temporary. I was supposed to be temporary, and now I'd bound myself to a vampire and everything felt oh so permanent.
While the battle raged on behind me, I dropped my daggers back into their sheaths. The sound they made as they slid home seemed more resounding than anything else in the room. As if with that very action, my fate was sealed. In a way, I suppose it was. I had, after all, just made a deal with the biggest evil in the room.
Locking my gaze with his, I lifted my chin and snapped out, "Deal."
With a glee-filled expression, Vincent clapped his hands together once and shouted, "Stop. The Durands are no longer to be hunted."
I shifted around to watch as all the hunters in the room immediately sheathed their weapons and stepped back from my vampires. Drake punched a guy, unable to stop himself mid-swing, making everyone flinch.
I pursed my lips and narrowed my gaze on him.
Drake shrugged, a lopsided grin on his face as he swiped blood from the corner of his mouth. "What?"
I shook my head at him and found Rayne. Out of all the vampires here, I knew he would understand my decision. I never wanted to be prey again. I never wanted to feel the icy breath of fear for myself or my loved ones on the back of my neck for as long as we all lived. This was the only way to make sure they stayed safe.
Rayne nodded in understanding, walking over to Wynn to check on him. The hunters filed down the aisle as if they were called by some beacon of light. My guys cautiously walked toward the stage, but kept their distance from the hunters. A hand clamped on my shoulder and startled me, and I turned my gaze up to Vincent's beaming face.
"My brothers and sisters, we have found ourselves a new ally." There was a mixture of cheers and grumbles at his words. That was fine. I wasn't here to make friends anyway. Vincent wasn't deterred by his mixed reception, if anything it spurred him on. "We have long fought against the plague of vampires, but now with our new allies," his gaze moved over my men as well, who straightened up at the attention, "we will now be able to clear out the bad seeds for good."
My throat tightened at his words, making me wonder if I had made a horribly wrong choice. I let my eyes flick over to Rayne to see if he could read Vincent's mind. When he saw me staring, he shook his head with a small smile.
I wasn't sure if that was a positive or a negative for the evil incarnate beside me, but I was going for hopeful. That was all I had, after all. Hope.
And a harem full of vampires.
Epilogue
Darren
The alarm next to the bed blared like a siren, alerting me to wake up. I groaned and rolled over, smacking the offending thing off before turning back over and wrapping my arm around the delectable creature lying in my bed.
Piper moaned and shifted farther into my embrace, her bottom wiggling against my morning hard-on.
A small smile teased at my lips. I placed my chin between her neck and ear and murmured, "If you keep doing that, you're going to be even later than you already are."
Piper grumbled something under her breath and shifted her hips against me again. I put my hand on her hip, sliding it down her leg before pulling it over my leg so she was spread out beside me. The tiny nightgown she wore slid up to her waist, revealing she had not replaced the underwear I'd torn off her last night.
I trailed my fingers up and down the inside of her thigh, teasing her but not giving her what she wanted, even though she tried to buck her hips to get it. "Piper, my darling, as much as I'd love to feed your addiction, you really must get up."
"No," Piper drawled, burying her face into her pillow once more. "Let someone else hunt tonight."
I nipped at her ear. "But Mizuki will be very disappointed to hear her favorite companion isn't coming with her on the nightly patrols."
She mumbled something into her pillow I couldn't hear.
"What was that?" I nudged her with my nose. "You want me to have Drake come wake you?"
Piper shot up in bed. "No!" Her eyes wide, she glared down at me. "Do not send that sadist in here. Last time he dumped a bucket of cold water on me. I had a cold for a week!"
I chuckled at her abhorrence, then watched her climb out of bed. Her nightgown slipped back down, covering up her delectable backside from my view. Ever since Piper had joined the vampire hunters in their nightly hunts, she'd been more reluctant to leave the house. Though, secretly, I think she loved it. She didn't seem as happy cleaning toilets as she did hunting down bad guys. Also, with her there to tell if they were actually the kind of vampires that preyed on the weak versus those who were simply trying to blend in with society, there was a lot less for the vampires to worry about. At least, the ones who knew about her.
President Vincent had strict orders for Piper to keep her identity a secret. The only vampires allowed to know who she worked for were ones she was going to kill or the Durands. So far it was going pretty well, but we were only a few months into it. Who knew what the future held for us?
"I don't know why he makes me go on these stupid patrols." Piper stepped out of the bathroom with her mouth full of toothpaste. "I'm supposed to be undercover not walking the streets with the common hunter. I mean, what's the point of it being a secret otherwise?" She ducked back into the bathroom where the faucet turned on as she rinsed.
"I believe the purpose is to keep your skills sharp. With the Durands not having
any pressing social matters to attend to— their creator being dead and all—they have no use for your spying as of yet." I angled myself so I could see better into the bathroom. "Besides, the exercise is good for you. You shouldn't stay cooped up in this house every day."
Piper leaned back to peek out of the bathroom. "Are you trying to tell me something?" The way her brow arched in warning made me chuckle.
"Oh, no. I would never. You are perfect the way you are. However..." I slipped over to her side of the bed, letting my legs drop to the floor, the sheet covering my bare lower half. "I do think you enjoy it for all your complaining."
Piper smirked and sashayed across the room to stand in front of me. "You know what I do enjoy?" She slid one leg on either side of me, placing her hot core against my length. Leaning forward, she caught my ear between her teeth and tugged, grinding her hips against me. "You inside me."
I chuckled darkly, my own arousal flaring up. "Ah, ha, yes, I do enjoy that as well, but we have plenty of time to revisit that activity when you come back."
Piper pouted, blinking up at me from beneath her eyelashes. "But what if I don't come back? This could be the night where one of them gets me. Then you'll never have me again. Do you really want your last memory of me to be this?"
I cupped her ass in my hands and drew her tight against me, my length sliding against her warmth. "Guilt, Piper? Really? I thought you were above that."
Piper grinned mischievously. "Not when it comes to what I want."
"And what is that?" Antoine's voice came from the bedroom door, and the heat in it caused a delightful shiver down my spine. "Piper, aren't you supposed to be leaving?"
Piper tried to give Antoine the same puppy dog eyes, but our leader didn't quite break the same way the rest of us did with Piper. Either he was made of sterner stuff or he delighted in defying her.
"Stop trying to distract Darren and get your butt moving. You didn't go through all this trouble to mess up already, did you?" Antoine hummed, arching a brow at our position. "Or do you think a quick fuck is worth all our lives?"
Antoine was the master of guilt. Piper didn't have a leg to stand on and she knew it.
With a huff, she slid from my lap, making me grunt at the movement. "Oh, alright. You don't got to do me like that. I was going already."
Antoine hummed once more. "Of course you were." We both watched her with attentive eyes as she walked around the room. Every time she had to get something from the floor, she bent over in a way that showed her wet folds. I licked my lips, my eyes moving over to Antoine. The bulge in his pants was evidence that he wasn't so in control of himself that the sight did not affect him. Perhaps, when Piper left, we could help each other relieve ourselves of our burdens.
As if reading my thoughts, Antoine's eyes shifted over to mine. His gaze skimmed over my face with a dark heat that had my length hardening even further. Those pale orbs dropped to my lap and his lips parted. I could practically feel his gaze on me, stroking along my heated skin, his cock pumping inside me. I was near bursting already just from the thought.
"Ugh, fuck." Piper scowled, holding up her bra. "Seriously, you guys need to stop ripping my clothes off. I'm running out of things to wear."
My lips curled up into a proud grin. "And waste the time unlatching it?"
Piper's eyes narrowed on me, and then focused on the tension between Antoine and me. "This is so not fair. I have to go hunt vampires and you two are going to fuck in my bed. So not fair."
I smirked. "We could do it on mine if you'd prefer."
Piper walked over to the bed, crawling halfway across to kiss me on the lips. "And miss out on recording it? Hell no." She pointed to the corner of the room where a small camera was mounted to the ceiling. "Remember to angle that way. Thanks." She kissed me again and headed for Antoine.
He didn't let her get away with a single peck on the lips. Antoine wrapped her up in his arms, one hand tight in her hair and the other clutching her ass, and he devoured her with his mouth until her knees grew weak and she had a dazed expression on her face when he finally released her.
I sighed and shook my head. He was such a competitive man. If we weren't lovers as well, I'd probably have a problem with it, but as it was, I always enjoyed letting him prove himself the better lover. After all, we had loads of time to practice.
"I'll see you when you get home." Antoine caressed the side of her face with a gentle smile.
"Oh?" Piper's expression perked up. "Do you have something planned?"
A wicked gleam sparked in Antoine's eyes that made me worry for Piper's sanity. It was never a good thing when he looked that way. Sliding his hand around to the back of her neck, he held her close as he murmured, "We still haven’t discussed the extent of your punishment."
Piper's eyes widened. "Wha...what punishment?"
Antoine's gaze narrowed. "Did you really think you would get away with signing your life away?"
"But...but it was for you. I did it to save you!" Piper's eyes darted to me and then back to Antoine, pleading for my help. I lifted my hands to show her I was not getting into it.
"Don't look to him. Darren allowed you to go into enemy territory without telling me, so he will be participating as well." The heavy look Antoine gave me caused me to swallow thickly.
"B-But it's not bad, right?" Piper stuttered, her expression growing frantic. "It's just like extra chores or something, right?" Antoine didn't answer her, simply leading her to the bedroom door where he promptly closed it in her face and flicked the lock. Piper pounded on the door. "Come on, Antoine, don't make me spend all night guessing. That's gonna be torture."
"Then you better not think about it," Antoine replied, turning his back to the door with predatory gleam seeping into his expression as he started toward me. "Now, for you, my servant. I do believe a separate sort of punishment is required. Don't you think?"
I swallowed, my mouth dry, not from fear but anticipation. While Piper might fear Antoine's punishment, I knew my master well. This was not a punishment, but more of a reminder of who we belonged to. Something I encouraged him to remind me of as often and for as long as possible. After all, you could forget a lot of things when you lived forever.
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Note From The Author
Wow, it’s finally done! This has been a wild ride and I am so excited to have shared it all with you.
Now some of you might be thinking what about that year we’re missing with Darren and Piper? Are you just going to leave us wondering?
No way. I wouldn’t do you like that!
I decided since this series of books is about Piper being with the vampires I'm going to give Piper and Darren their own book. Tempted by the Butler will be set during that lost year while Piper was busy bulking up. So, you’ll get to see their love bloom and Piper get ripped! Plus, some cameos from our favorite vampires when they come to visit.
So, when is it coming out? I don’t have an answer for that yet but it’ll be soon. Like in the next few months.
Continuing on to some other questions I’m sure you all have. This story was about Piper’s journey, how she evolved from the beginning of the series as a klutzy easily manipulated maid into the badass vampire hunter of today. But you’re thinking she didn’t even kick butt in this book? Well, that wasn’t really the point. The point isn’t to make her fight. The point is that she no longer needs the Durands protection and doesn’t feel like a liability anymore. Which was always going to be something in the middle of their relationship. Now, that worry and the where-does-Piper-fit-in question are gone.
Lastly, let’s talk about spinoffs!
I’m sure you noticed I gave you quite a look at some of the vampire hunters and their organization and began to wonder…will this be spun off into another series? Will we see Piper and her guys again?
Well, the answer is…yes…and yes.
I haven’t devel
oped all the details yet but our lovely Mizuki will be featured in her own series where she struggles to find love in the battlefield between hunters and vampires. I give no promises of when it will be out since we have loads of other series to finish up but it's coming.
I do want to thank you, my lovely readers and fans, for sticking with me. This series couldn’t have been such a big success without you.
Who knew a 15k short story in a box set turned full length could have had such a fantastic reader base? If I could emoji heart you right now I totally would.
Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. I can’t tell you how much your love, support, and let’s face it reviews mean to me.
Lots of love,
Erin
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Check out the first chapter of my scifi fairy tale reverse harem, Rapunzel Untamed!
Chapter 1
There was a bird in my tower. A little white bird with black speckles. It chirped and walked around the gray stone floor in front of me as if it hadn’t just entered my home.
It really didn’t bother me. I was happy for the company after, well, I didn’t really know how long I’d been here, but either way, it was nice to see something that wasn’t my own feet or the gray wall across from me.
For a long time, all I knew was silence. Even the sound of my voice had disappeared. Though, that may have been because I’d stopped speaking. Eventually, even your own company gets tiresome.
