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

by Elizabeth Dunlap

  I watched them, hands against my bare belly, noting their sloppy techniques with a quirked eyebrow. Arthur would be disgusted. After they’d gotten up and were giving each other high fives, I stepped closer.

  “Can I join?” I asked with a friendly smile, and was met with laughter that made me scowl at them. I walked onto the mat, getting in between the two tall men, something I was quite used to. They were both big, but I’d had bigger. Wink. “What, you think I can’t take you? I’ll take you all the way to Sunday school, buddy.”

  “The fuck does that mean?” one of them asked me, chuckling under his breath again.

  As an answer, I launched into him like a missile, punching his solar plexus, elbowing him right on the base of his neck, and bringing my knee up to crunch his nose with an audible snap, then I let him go so he could fall onto the mat in pain. I looked up and saw the other guy starting to sweat, but he was still desperate to prove himself to the other vampires that had gathered around us, so he ran at me and I side stepped at the last second, jumping up on his back and trapping his throat in my elbow where I tugged hard, crushing his windpipe. He beat his hands on me and tried to reach a hand back to grab my hair, but I was ready, pulling his thumb back until it popped out of its socket and he howled in pain. My elbow cutting off his air supply made him pass out, joining his friend on the mat.

  Wow, they seriously sucked. They were making me look much better than I actually was, and I was still pretty awesome.

  “Who’s next?” I challenged, and several of the spectators came at me, putting up a fight until I knocked them all down and rose triumphant, breaking out into a light sweat and pushing some escaped hairs out of my face.

  “Jesus Christ,” someone exclaimed behind me, and I turned, my chest still heaving, to see Olivier standing with a slack faced Arthur.

  Arthur.

  Without thinking, I ran to him and jumped into his arms only for him to shove me away in surprise because he had no idea who I was. I swallowed the shooting pains in my heart from the vacant look on his face.

  “Sorry,” I said, still out of breath. “That was a hug check. Just wanted to see how you’d react.” I tried to make myself remember he was here to arrest me, but I was just so happy to see him, I couldn’t focus on anything else.

  “When did you learn to fight like that?” Olivier asked, looking at me like I was an alien.

  I waved a modest hand at her. “Oh, you know. Here and there. I mean, we teach the turned how to fight, I figured I might as well learn the basics.”

  Arthur snorted slightly, belly laughter for him. “You said she was shit at lying. I thought you were joking.” He barely looked down at me, still trying to pretend I wasn’t there because I hadn’t made him notice me yet. “You’ve been fighting for years. I can tell.”

  There was one thing he didn’t realize, I was very used to his jibes, and I responded the way I always did. “Okay then, you’re sparring me. Right now.” That got his full attention and he appraised me with his icy blue eyes for the first time. God damn it, a powerful shiver was going up my spine and it was all I could do to not launch myself at him and beg him to kiss me.

  His face went blank again and I could see him struggle not to laugh at me. “I don’t think so. I’m not about to help you break a nail.”

  “You just saw me kick all of their asses and you still think I’m a stuffy rich girl?” He shrugged slightly, staring straight ahead and not looking at me. I planted myself in front of him and stood on my tip toes so he would be forced to meet my eyes. “Bring it.”

  And fuck, the heat between us was about to melt me into a puddle. It was still here, no matter that we hadn’t met before in this time, and the fact that I was so aware of him meant I wasn’t going to let him push me away this time. He still seemed reluctant, though his chest had started rising with rapid breaths and his heart sped up, so I helped him along with one of the only jibs that worked on him.

  “Unless you’re a pussy.”

  His nostrils flared, making me flutter all over. God, just take me right now. I don’t care who’s watching. With robotic movements, he took his jacket off and dumped his bag on the gym floor. He stalked me like I was his prey as I walked backwards, and he matched me step for step in an erotic dance.

  Once my shoes reached the mat, Arthur launched at me, but he wasn’t at all like the other men. He’d been watching me, anticipating my movements, and he was ready when I fainted to the side. He grabbed my bare stomach and wrapped himself around me from behind, pinning my legs and arms with his. I whipped my head back and knocked into his face, then I grew my nails so I could sink them into his calves and I tore upwards until he let me go.

  Rolling away, I bowled up and stood, holding my claws out in front of me as he got up, looking down at his bloodied jeans and back at me. Was he impressed? That wasn’t even my best move. He came at me again, and while he was admittedly better at this than me, as he always had been, I held my own until we’d been sparring for a good half hour and he still hadn’t made me surrender.

  I never surrendered. I was Lisbeth Fucking Bathory.

  Sweaty, tired, and never quite able to catch my breath before he came at me again, I deflected another attack and came at him this time, holding his hands off with mine so we were almost pressed together. This was some wicked foreplay, I had to say.

  “If you give in, I’ll tell everyone it’s because you couldn’t hurt a woman,” I grunted, his powerful muscles gaining ground against mine.

  His icy facade was gone, leaving him open to grin at me. “Not a chance.”

  “Your loss,” I warned, and just to show him how serious I was, I did my best move. With our hands occupied, I twisted in a Beckham move and slammed my leg into his head as hard as I could, then I flipped and wrapped my arms around his legs, pulling them out from under him. He slammed into the mat and I ax stomped my leg into his groin, the one place on his body I hated hurting, but this was war, damn it. If Arthur didn’t respect me, he’d never be mine again. Kicking his ass wasn’t exactly the best method for other guys, but for Arthur it would work like a charm.

  His hands flew to his crotch and he rolled to his side, groaning loudly while the spectators winced in horror, except for Olivier who was cheering me on by Cameron’s side. When Arthur resurfaced, I held out a hand to help him up and he did so, keeping his eyes on me like I was a cat prowling to attack again.

  “Let’s go,” he ordered. Ahh fuck, had

  Oh fuck yeah! Had I already won him over? Would we have sex somewhere in the castle? I was totally up for that, considering sparring with my husband had me as wet as a faucet.

  I fist bumped an impressed Cameron as we passed him and Arthur picked up his stuff on the way out of the gym. I followed him to a side room that was used for hippie meditation and he slammed the door behind us.

  “Where in the fuck did you learn how to fight like that? That was Hunter level techniques. I’ve been using some of those moves for decades and I’ve never taught them to anyone. Who taught you, tell me, now!” he shouted at me, making me wince slightly.

  “You did.”

  He scoffed. “I’ve never met you before. Now stop lying and tell me.”

  “Chloe.”

  Arthur froze like I’d hit him with an icy blast, slowly dropping his clenched hands. “What did you just say?”

  “I said Chloe. That was her name. The baby you never had with Adriann because you killed her for attacking humans.”

  He clenched his jaw, trying desperately to control himself around me, a stranger. “I’ve never spoken that name out loud before. Never.”

  My hand reached automatically to clutch the necklace with my children’s hair inside, but I wasn’t wearing it. I’d left it in my rooms so it wouldn’t get broken at the gym. “I’ve known you for almost seventy years, but you don’t remember them at all. The witches sent me back here from the future to prevent the world from ending.”

  “You’re not supposed to know about the witc
hes,” he said immediately, an automatic reaction to me mentioning them.

  “Great, you know about them too? God, Arthur. You never fucking told me about them. You’re such an asshole.” Now that he knew some of my story, I had no problem talking to him the way I used to.

  “I can’t mention them audibly unless they’re mentioned by someone else first, so I’m not surprised. Besides, why would I trust you enough with that information?”

  Glaring at him, I put a hand to my sweaty hip. “You told me about Chloe, I’m very certain that information matters more to you than witches.” That shut him up with his lips pressed together. “You have to help me fix the problem from my future, and I can’t tell more than a few people because of the non-involvement treaty. I haven’t even told Olivier.”

  “I’m not interested in helping you with anything, and there’s only one reason I would’ve told you about Chloe, and that’s if we were mated, but I highly doubt that happened.”

  “Guess what. We were.” I blew him a sarcastic kiss.

  “You’re lying.”

  “You literally just said I was shit at lying, so I’m sure you can tell that I’m not,” I smarted, rolling my eyes at his stubbornness. “God, you’re dumb sometimes.”

  “I’m not sure what I did in the future that made you think you can talk to me like this,” he warned, but all it did was make me want to shove him against the wall and make out with him to shut him up.

  “I just said we were mated. I know you well enough to know exactly how to talk to you.”

  His icy eyes looked me up and down, making my cheeks heat when he lingered over certain parts of me. “We’ve had sex in your future?”

  “No, I’m a nun. Of course we’ve fucked.” He stopped at my eyes and I knew he was enjoying the flush on my face. “You’re also lovers with my other mate.” I left out that he was a werewolf, because that was going to be bad enough on its own.

  “Where is he?”

  I looked down at Arthur’s boots, my lips pinching together to hold the sadness at bay. “We haven’t met yet in this time. I’m going to find him as soon as I’m done with you. Hopefully you’ll come with me.”

  “I have to stay here, someone has broken the law.”

  “Yeah,” I said, clicking my tongue and looking back up at him with no shame. “That was me. My bad. But I had to do it again so you’d come here.”

  “Again? You broke the law where you came from?”

  “It’s how we met the first time.”

  The rule enforcing Arthur narrowed his eyes at me. “You don’t even care, do you?”

  I answered with an apathetic shrug. “I saved a child’s life. He’s not a Lycan yet. So no, I don’t care. If I don’t live by my own code, then who am I? You can respect that, right?” I knew he could, but he was too focused on the law breaking part. He hadn’t become the Arthur that would do anything for me yet, and most of that was because I wasn’t part of the Council. “You know what, how about we just convene the Council right now and they’ll put me on trial. I know for a fact they’ll let me off.”

  “We can’t just convene the Council. None of them live here. Now who’s the dumb one?”

  “Hey,” I snapped, shaking a finger at him. “I’m very smart, thank you. Also, it’s called Skype. Let’s go.”

  “I don’t take orders from you,” he informed me, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “Oh my god, you’re even worse than I remembered. Fine, whatever. Follow, or don’t, I don’t care. I’m going to Othello’s office.”

  I left the room and walked out to the foyer, turned and went straight down the hallway, past Marie’s desk where she yelled at me to stop before I opened the double doors and strolled right in.

  Othello sat at his desk with a pile of papers and he smiled at me. “Ahh, Lisbeth. I put some daisies in your room this morning.”

  “Yes, yes, that’s great,” I told him, hearing Arthur entering behind me and shutting the doors in Marie’s complaining face. I almost felt bad for her since she’d been my mother’s mate in the future, but she was still a bitch at the moment. “So, you brought Arthur here because someone broke the law, right?” Othello fumbled, unable to form a response. “It was me. I broke the law. And I request an immediate trial before the Council. Now, as Arthur has mentioned, they’re not here, and it’ll take a few days to get them in a plane and get rooms ready, blah blah blah, so let’s just skip that, shall we?” I turned and walked past Arthur who shot a hand out and grabbed my wrist to make sure I wasn’t going to run away. The contact of his fingers made me ache all over for him, but I pushed past it to open the doors again. “Marie, can you come here?” She walked over from her desk, trying to hide a scowl at the sight of me.

  “What do you want?” she snarked with just enough of a smile that normal people would’ve been convinced she was a nice person.

  Ahh, mom. You really knew how to pick them.

  “I need you to set up a Skype call with the other Orders and get their Heads on the screen. Okie dokie?” She looked behind me at Othello who waved his hand to her so she’d do it. With her scurrying off to her desk, I looked down at Arthur’s hand holding me, and back up at him. “You can let me go. I’m not running again.” He watched me carefully before dropping his hand, setting my wrist free. I had a sudden deep seated urge to plant myself against him and run my finger up and down the long scar on his cheek, and if Othello hadn’t been there, I would’ve chanced it.

  Marie came back in with a laptop and started setting it up on Othello’s desk. He looked back at us. “You should wait outside while we get it ready. It might take a few minutes.”

  Arthur led the way to the waiting room and I paced the floor while he stood still in the doorway, guarding it. “You were in charge here, weren’t you. That’s why you talked to me like that, why you’re ordering Othello and the Council around.”

  “Guilty,” I confessed, still pacing the ugly green carpet. “Othello was kidnapped after my trial last time and I took his place. You were my bodyguard. We fell in love. You ate me out in his office.” I met his icy eyes and quickly looked away before he could see me blushing again. “TMI, sorry. But yes, I was in charge. Kind of weird being an underling again when I’ve carried the fate of vampires on my shoulders for so long.” I rested my hands on the back of my neck and tugged on the skin in agitation that they were taking forever. “I once asked you why you followed me. Whether it was because you loved me or because you believed I deserved to be followed. Do you know what you said?”

  “Probably something about the one where I’m not emotional all the time?” he guessed, making me double over with mirth.

  “God, that is exactly what you said,” I laughed, wiping my eyes until I tried to be serious, finding a spot on the maroon walls to stare at. “I asked you because I needed to know if I was a good leader, and if you’d followed me out of love, I knew it meant I wasn’t the right person to lead our people. Your opinion is one of the only that I trust.”

  “Me and your other husband,” he mused with a quirk to his lip. I nodded, turning again on the carpet. “There’s no guarantee we’ll be mated this time around, just to be clear.” My feet almost faltered in their path but I tried to keep moving, because if he was right, I’d never get any of my babies back.

  “I know.” We shared a look and I could tell he was trying to figure me out. I would’ve settled for making out instead, but hey, I had time.

  Marie poked her head out of Othello’s office doors. “We’re ready for your trial.”

  Arthur waited for me to pass before turning and coming in beside me, another movement he was repeating from my last trial. We entered the office and saw that Marie had set up a giant television screen with the Skype call, and it had a webcam clipped onto the top. Othello was standing in front of the screen with his hands clasped in front of himself.

  “My fellow Council members, I do apologize for this unorthodox trial,” he said to them. I noticed Castilla in one screen,
along with Thaddeus and Estinien. All twelve, including Othello, were in attendance. They were once my peers. You know, before the world ended and killed most of them. “The accused has requested to speak on her behalf.” He moved aside, letting me take his place a few feet from the television.

  Castilla looked like she had just rolled out of bed with her coif mussed. “I am Castilla of the Order Acilino.”

  Oh. My. God. She was not going to repeat everything…

  “Elisabeth, you stand accused of disregarding…”

  Fuuuuuuck, she was.

  I waited patiently until she finished the speech I’d already heard twice, and then mentioned the Othello not being allowed to oversee my trial part that I’d also heard before. I said ‘yes’ when prompted, and once she was done, I stopped her before she could continue.

  “If I may,” I offered, and she went silent so I could speak, but I got more than a few glowers from the other Council members for being impertinent. “Look, we all know that if I allow this trial to drag on, you’ll spend half a year debating about semantics.” Arthur made a noise and I wondered if he’d flick my ear like last time, but he remained still behind me, denying me his touch, even if it was just an ear flick. “The long and short of the matter is that I spared the life of a child. I don’t much care that he was a Lycan pup because I don’t kill children, Lycan or otherwise. The fact of the matter, however, has nothing to do with my personal convictions that I know will have no bearing on your decision, but instead lie with a detail about this boy. He was human, he smelled human. One day he will become a Lycan, but he is not one yet. I think we can all agree that his current state matters more than his future state, since we pride ourselves on protecting human life above our own, or does that only matter when that human will remain a human until they die?”

  Shit. I’d been going for powerful and moving, but I ended up with surly. Maybe they would throw me in jail again or execute me. Well, if Arthur was my jailer, I could think of worse punishments.

  They’d all gone silent so I leaned forward and added, “With respect,” just in case they thought I was rude enough to execute me for it. With Estinien in the mix, anything was possible.