The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition)

by Elizabeth Dunlap

  I pulled away for no reason, and held her closer like my broken dolly I didn’t want anyone to take away. “No,” I said before I could stop myself. Instantly feeling foolish, I bowed my head so no one could see my face, and walked to place Anastasia on the rug in front of the fire. Clara had come closer to tend to Anastasia, like her little wounded puppy, so I asked her where the bathroom was. She motioned in the direction of one of the doors, and gripped Anastasia’s hand, speaking to her in Romanian, in a gentle soothing tone that had no effect on the woman.

  Knight’s hand stopped me backing away from the scene, and he slowly guided me to the bathroom. My last image before he closed the door was Lucas standing in the corner watching the two woman on the rug.

  Behind the privacy of the closed door, I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t think, I couldn’t anything. I was as frozen as Anastasia, and when Knight pulled me against him, I was powerless to stop him. At that point, I didn’t care anymore. If I could have time with Knight, even a few moments, I was going to take it. When the day came that I would never see him again, I wanted something to remember.

  I pulled away from Knight, I stared into his deep brown eyes, and I kissed him on those lips that haunted my dreams. In mere moments, I didn’t care that this cottage probably had paper thin walls, and there were three people on the other side, one of which was my… mother (still no). All I cared about was my sweet, precious Knight.

  “Lis,” Knight said between kisses. My passion for him rose and I deepened the gentle assault on his mouth, silencing all protests. He picked me up mid-kiss and slid me onto the small bathroom counter, knocking over several bottles of product. His hands moved to my waist and pulling my dress up, he roughly brought me flush against him, his hard cock right there for me to feel. I responded with a deep growl and pulled away from his lips to show him my eyes starting to glow in excitement.

  “Fuck, Lis,” he said with a heavy breath, and then captured my lips again in a hurried fever. He devoured my mouth hungrily, shoving his lower body against me again and this time, he rocked his hips forward, his cock rubbing against my heated core. “What were you thinking of, when we were at the reservation? Were you thinking about me, or him?” Him, as in Arthur. This time, the truth didn’t sadden me.

  “You,” I breathed against his lips. “I can’t get it out of my head, the way you made me come against you. I’ve never felt anything like it.” And that wasn’t a lie. Not even my night with Balthazar was as good, and he had slayed me. I pulled away from Knight and stared into his eyes, a grin coming to my face. “Make me come again.”

  “Fuck,” he swore, and he smashed our lips together again. My fingers curled under his shirt and I ran them up his abs, across the scars hidden there, drawing a hiss from his lips. When I reached for the edge of his shirt to take it off, he swore again and moved his hands to stop me. I felt instant shame like I’d forced him into something he didn’t want. The glow I’d been feeling was shattered.

  “Lis,” he said before he saw my mortified expression. “Woah, no. No.” He kissed me again with the heated passion we’d just shared. “That wasn’t a, ‘get your hands off me, crazy.’ That was a, ‘I don’t want to go further with your parents in the other room.’”

  More kisses, less protests, I thought as I pulled him in for another long tantalizing kiss. I was about to start for the shirt again before I realized what Knight had said.

  Parents. As in two parents.

  As in. Mother. And father.

  Are you FUCKING kidding me?

  Knight stepped away a little when he saw the rage building on my face. “Lis. Lis, calm down. Ahh, hell.”

  I jumped down from the sink, ripped the bathroom door open so hard I almost tore it off the hinges, and I didn’t stop marching until I had Lucas against the wall with my hand around his throat. “You fucking dishonest little pig!” I said through clenched teeth.

  “Elisabeth, please,” Clara shouted hysterically. I felt her hands try to remove mine from Lucas’s neck, but she had the strength of a human and couldn’t even budge my pinkie.

  “I got it,” Knight said, his voice right over my head. His hand covered mine and slowly uncurled it from Lucas’s throat while his other hand tightened around my waist, pulling me away.

  Lucas coughed a few times and glared at me. “Ungrateful child. I bring you here against my better judgment and you try to kill me.”

  “When were you going to mention that you’re my father? Or do you only tell other people that little tidbit? Equally important, how long has Knight known?” I whirled on the werewolf and he held his hands out to protect himself.

  “Lis, come on, he literally just told me,” Knight pleaded. “You know I would’ve told you if he’d said it sooner.”

  “Which is precisely why I didn’t until now,” Lucas said with a cough. “I knew his loyalty was only to you. I kept everything close to the chest to protect both of you, but also to protect Anastasia and Clara. What if the other vampires found us and you had known everything? I had to choose protection over knowledge. Also, yes. I am your father, and I love you. Not telling you was very difficult, so don’t try and make me feel worse about this. And what about you?” He turned on Clara, who looked surprised that she was in the line of fire. “You didn’t tell her you’re her mother’s twin.”

  She opened and closed her mouth a few times. “It didn’t come up,” she said finally. “I’m certain she’d already figured it out, though.”

  “This is a fucking nightmare,” I swore, loudly, and earned a very disapproving look from my… father… that felt a little better to swallow… and my aunt. That one took no effort, because she was right, I’d already guessed it. “Anything else I should know? A hidden sibling? A creepy uncle? Weird ass cousins?”

  Clara sighed, her doe-like face looking wilted. “That’s about it. Aunt, father, mother.” How could I have gone from no family to more family drama than Days of Our Lives all in one day? Fuck my life. Fuck it.

  Knight let me go when I’d relaxed enough to convince him I wasn’t going to lunge at Lucas again. Anastasia was still sitting quietly by the fire, not having moved even a little during my tirade. Did she ever get up to use the bathroom? I’ll take ‘Questions I never wanted to be answered’ for twenty points.

  “I’ll make some dinner,” Clara declared quietly. “Lucas, with me, outside.” He protested until she flicked his arm with her finger and shoved a basket in his arms. I slumped down into a rocker that was close to Anastasia and stared at her without really looking.

  “Since we’re all sharing things,” Knight opened, and I felt sickly fear churn inside me. “Any chance you’ll tell me who your daughter’s father is? Is she Arthur’s?” I looked at him and he held his hands out defensively again. “Just asking. You don’t have to answer.”

  Sighing, I looked back at the woman by the fire. Might as well tell him. “Her father is Balthazar.”

  “Balthazar, eh?” I chanced a look, and he was somewhere between impressed and jealous. “How was it? On a scale between ‘best in show’ and ‘my standards are irreparably changed?’”

  I chuckled half-heartedly. “Probably… ‘I have tasted perfection and now none shall suffice.’”

  “Wow. I might have to get a taste of incubus just to even the playing field. Do you have his cell phone number? My evening is suddenly very clear.” We laughed, but my mood was sobered for the moment. First finding out who both of my parents are, and now Knight had a face to the man I’d had a child with.

  “If you ask me, I’ll tell you I’m not in love with Balthazar,” I said simply, honestly. “I don’t know if I could be, or if I want to be, but there it is. I thought you were dead. I tried to move on, with him, with Arthur. And then…” I remembered the unending pain, just the mere memory filling me with agony. “Then you weren’t dead.” The lace of Anastasia’s dress drew my attention, and I focused on her muddy feet poking out from the folds. “I betrayed my love for you by being with them, and I can ne
ver take that back.” I blinked back tears. “I’m sorry I kissed you, that was wrong of me. I can’t take advantage of you like that. I don’t deserve it. Not after what I’ve done. I just…” Don’t cry. Don’t cry in front of him. “I wanted to pretend I was worthy of forgiveness.”

  Knight sighed and my heart broke more. “I’ll be back later.” He was out the front door before I could turn my head, and I erupted into tears that shook me so hard, I thought my lungs would burst into a thousand pieces.

  And through it all, Anastasia never moved.

  13. Lisbeth’s story

  Knight didn’t come back that night. Clara made us spinach pasta with tomato and cheese sauce. It was so good I wept, but that was mostly because I’d convinced myself Knight wasn’t coming back at all.

  Lucas and Clara were silent as I blubbered as quietly as I could. Clara had moved Anastasia to a chair and was coaxing her to eat a few bites of the noodles, and to my surprise, her comatose state didn’t stop her from nibbling on some of it. Clara encouraged her sister like she was a baby learning how to eat, and I burst into tears again because I missed my daughter so much I wanted to stab myself.

  “She’s not usually this blubbery,” Lucas whispered to Clara. I heard her smack his arm.

  “Leave the girl be. She’s been through enough.” She forked a small bit of noodle and brought it to Anastasia’s mouth. I watched my… Anastasia refuse that one by ignoring it like a bothersome fly.

  “How long has she been like this?” I asked Clara, wiping my eyes with my napkin that was already almost too damp to help.

  She dropped the fork in slight frustration and rubbed her forehead. “Since the day she gave you away, Elisabeth. She has been asleep since she gave her newborn child away, and now you’re back. I thought you being here might wake her up. I was so hopeful. All this time, I held out the hope…” She broke off and brought her napkin up to cover the tears. She sniffed, wiped the corners of her eyes, and stood up to clear the table.

  Lucas watched her go with a mournful look. “She’s been waiting a very long time for her sister to wake up.” Anastasia had been like this ever since she gave me away, for four hundred years. Had I brought this upon her? “Anastasia was broken before she had you. She had a mate, a werewolf like yours, and he was killed. She was never the same after she lost him.”

  “Is that why she slaughtered hundreds of both our species?” My tone was far too bitter for the setting, but Lucas forgave it.

  “Yes. She enacted blood law. Her mate was killed by the leaders of all the vampire covens, and the pack Alphas. Revenge was her right, by our law. Blood taken for blood spilled, and since they were the leaders, she was entitled to slay anyone who had sworn fealty to them.”

  I recoiled, that version of the story much worse than the one James had recounted. “That’s fucking barbaric.”

  “It was the law,” Lucas insisted angrily. “She was within her rights. She broke no rules, but they didn’t care. All they saw was genocide, and they turned on her. I know the laws of vampires have changed, but they had the same importance back then as the new laws do now, and blood law was held to the same standard as any other rule.”

  Justifying slaughter was a hard pill to swallow, especially for me, but if Lucas was telling me the truth, then Anastasia had been within her rights. It didn’t make anything better, even if I wanted it do.

  “You don’t believe she went too far?” I asked him.

  He picked at his food, his face as serious as I’d seen him, without a single hint of his erratic insanity. “I believe her wrath was too great, and she reached too far. She could’ve slain the leaders and been done with it, but Anastasia was ruthless and cruel. She wanted the entire world of vampires and Lycans to know her pain.”

  Perhaps I was judging her far too harshly, as I had had the same thoughts about protecting my friends. Maybe I was more like my… mother. There. I said it. Maybe I was more like her than I knew. I’d raze the world to the ground if someone killed Knight.

  Clara came back to get more of the dishes, composing herself as best she could.

  “I’ll give her one day,” I told Clara, stopping her actions so abruptly she dropped her plate back onto the table. “I’ll do everything I can to wake her up. One day. It’s all I can give you. I’m sorry, I wish I could do more, but I delayed my mission to come here.”

  “What mission?” Clara asked, concern growing on both her and Lucas’ faces.

  Telling them felt like shattering their perfect bubble, but they needed to know. “Born vampires are going to war. The turned have rebelled against us. They slaughtered the Born vampires at Gennadi, and they won’t stop until we’re all dead. That includes the three of you, so no matter what happens with Anastasia, you need to disappear. If the turned find you, you will be killed.” I sighed, looking at Anastasia, still sitting there like a bump on a log. “I came here looking for answers, and instead I found something I never expected.” I trailed off, trying not to sound like I didn’t want this, because a tiny part of me didn’t. “One day,” I repeated.

  Clara nodded with a small smile. “I believe in you. If anyone can wake her up, it’s you.”

  After dinner, I sat next to Anastasia in front of the fire, and long after Clara and Lucas had gone to bed. My plan of action was just talking to my mother. I didn’t know what else would work, but it was a start.

  “I guess I should tell you about myself,” I began, folding my hands in front of me. “I grew up in England. I was raised by the creepiest ass vampire ever. He was kidnapped, I kind of took over his job. I’m the head of my Order in America. It’s a little awesome.” No reaction. I hugged my knees and stared into the fire. “When I was little, I accepted that I had no parents. I used to believe that either you were dead, or I’d just simply been brought into existence by Balthazar. Poof. Baby Lisbeth.” I chuckled to myself. “Of course, his powers don’t work like that, but I was little and silly.”

  My smile fell. “Anything was better than thinking that my parents didn’t want me. I told myself over and over that no matter what the reason had been, that I didn’t need my parents to feel happy and complete. I told myself that so much that the lie became real, until I didn’t realize that it was a lie, and it became my truth. But I was lying. I didn’t have a family, not really. I had friends, friends that I loved deeply. It wasn’t the same, and I… I didn’t know that was true until now.”

  I was on a roll now, mostly talking to myself. “Cameron became my family. You’d like him. He’s funny, he always makes me laugh, but he also cares about me. He’s like my little brother and my son all at once. And then…” I smiled again. “There’s Knight. When I fell in love with him, he was all I wanted in my life, until…” I curled my mouth to keep it from wobbling. “They took him away. They told me he was dead, and I couldn’t live anymore. The only thing that kept me alive was Arthur. We hated each other at first, but way more intensely than I did with Knight.” The images of all my fights with Arthur flashed before me, the heat of our kisses, the way it had hurt when he rejected me. “He kissed me, he said his feelings had changed, but he wouldn’t be with me if Knight was alive. It hurt me…” Sniffing, I wiped my eyes and spread my legs out again. “And then Knight was alive, after I’d been with not one but two other men. I could’ve had a family, a home, a life with him, and I threw it all away. Good part though, I had a daughter. Kitty.” I took the photo from my underclothes and put it where Anastasia could see it if she’d been looking. “She doesn’t make it easier, but she makes it better. I have no idea how to be a parent. It’s a little scary.” I laughed again. “Her eyes are beautiful. Blue on the outside and purple on the inside. They’re unique, just like her.”

  I took the photo back so I could stare at it. “I miss her so much. She’s barely even been here, and I had to leave her. I feel like a horrible mom. The worst part is, I did this for her, and I didn’t find what I needed. I’ll continue wondering what my little hybrid will become. I hope she turn
s out like her father. He’s always kind and loving. Less like me. I’m fragile and temperamental. Sometimes my temper is so high, I’m sure I’m going to kill someone on accident. Thankfully that hasn’t happened yet.”

  I put the photo into my underclothes and hugged my knees. “I try to be strong, and a good leader for my people. Sometimes I’m pretending, but I’m so good that no one notices. And then other times, I’m not pretending. I’m strong for a few seconds until it goes away.”

  The fire popped a few times so I stirred it with the poker. “I thought you were a monster. That was before I knew you were my mother.” Poke poke. “I suppose I still think you’re a monster. But. I understand the pain you felt. If anyone hurt Knight or Cameron… I’d probably do much worse than what you did. It was still crappy, killing everyone like that, even if it was blood law like Lucas says. But I can’t hate you for it. Not anymore. I guess I can’t hate you either. Maybe.” I dropped the poker and stretched. I looked back at Anastasia and she was leaning against one of the chairs, her eyes open, but her breathing was slower like she was getting close to falling asleep.

  I grabbed a blanket from the rocker and lay it over her still form, saving some for myself so I could fall asleep next to my mother.

  The smell of fresh bread woke me up that morning. I lifted my head to look around, and when I started raising my arms for a stretch, I realized Anastasia had taken my hand at some point and was holding it in hers. I excitedly checked her face, but she was still asleep inside, her purple eyes staring at nothing.

  “Clara,” I shouted. I heard her in the kitchen setting something down, and she came over as she wiped her hands on her white apron. “Look.” I held up the hand Anastasia was holding. “She held my hand.”

  Clara sank down with a pleased look on her face, but she still raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Sure you didn’t grab it in your sleep?” Glaring only a little at her, I moved my arm to show it was Anastasia who was holding me. No matter where I moved, she followed, and her grip remained tight with a consciousness that didn’t match her blank expression. Clara realized what I was seeing and squealed out loud. “She’s responding to you! Oh, Lisbeth.” She reached and grabbed me in a hug, smelling of rosemary and yeast. She pulled away and binked me on the nose with a grin full of sunshine. “Come, we’ll get her cleaned up.”