“Oh my god, what happened?”
I got between her and my family. “My mate is dead, and your necromancer is going to resurrect him, or I will raze this castle to the ground.”
Her timid eyes looked Knight’s body over. “But he’s a werewolf.”
“You’d better hope to god you’ve got a spell for that then, because I’m not in the mood for mistakes.”
Her scent stinking of fear, she sighed and took her wand out, opening the doorway for us. “Alright then, bring him in.” She led us up the hill to the courtyard where the children stared at us in horror, especially when they saw my bloodied fangs that hadn’t retracted since Knight’s death. The little witches scurried away, whispering about how scary we looked.
Isabelle led us through the foyer and up some stairs to a room that looked like a giant supplies closet. Headmaster Cauldron and Selene were there, inspecting the shelves and writing down their inventory. Selene gasped when we walked in.
“Witches brew, what happened?”
I helped Arthur lay Knight’s cold body on the floor and glared up at her. “I stopped Alistair like you asked me to, and he killed my mate. You took everything from me. You promised I would get my life back.” My chin wobbled, my tears falling down my face. “Help me. Bring him back, please. I’ll do anything, I’ll pay any price. I don’t care what it is.”
Cauldron’s look of pity told me exactly how pathetic I looked. “We’ll do everything we can, you have my word. But you need to calm down, your strength is waning and you’re expecting. It’s not good for the babies.”
“Babies?” Arthur asked, but got interrupted when Jaz appeared in the doorway with a tall brown haired boy behind her.
“Holla! Someone ask for a necromancer- ahh gross! Dead person.” Her lip curled and her nose scrunched up in disgust.
The boy rolled his eyes at her. “You’re a necromancer, you can’t think corpses are gross. That’s like a baker hating cake.”
“Alec, you’re a joy. Stand over there and hush.” She cracked her knuckles and came to squat beside Knight’s body, inspecting him like he was a haunch of meat. “Mmm, he’s only been dead for… ten, twenty minutes? That’s good. What’s his full name?”
Arthur answered for me because I could hardly speak with my fangs starting to hurt. “Jason Knight Trimble.”
“Hey, Jason! Get your ass- ahh, there you are.” She looked up at an empty space in the room. “Say hi, everyone. Ya boy’s here.”
“I find this child’s skills inadequate,” Arthur complained loudly. “Is there a different necromancer? Someone less basic?”
Jaz turned with shock. “You did not just call me basic. You’re gonna feel real stupid when you find out I’m the only necromancer. Yeah, that’s right. It’s me or nothing. You feeling dumb yet, cuz I will roast your ass into next night.” She flicked her finger, motioning for him to back his ass up. “Anywho, Lisbeth, awesome to see you again. Sorry your boyfriend is dead. That’s a bummer. He’s saying hi, by the way. He says your ass looks bombin’ in that outfit.” She looked up and scowled at the air. “I know that’s not what you said, but I know you thought it. Bruh, be serious. She’s as fly as a plane. Also he says you’re pregnant with triplets, don’t know how he knows that, but okay. Kinda creepy, using your ghost senses to stare at her uterus. Rude much?”
“That’s what I was about to say before Jaz arrived,” Cauldron explained. “It seems that the potion we gave you was only intended for witches. When used on a supernatural, it has unintended side effects.”
“You’re getting a three for one special, hooray!” Jaz called out, waving her hands. “Okay, can we stop talking about babies, I’ve got a corpse to raise.”
“You’ve raised a corpse before, right?” Arthur asked, still unconvinced.
“Pssh, duuuh! What, you think I’m going to just waltz in here and pretend I know what I’m doing when vampire queen here is covered in blood and about to kill everyone if I don’t?” She rolled her eyes, snapped her fingers, and a list appeared in her hand that she handed to Selene. “I need everything on there.”
“Does it require a moon phase?” Cauldron asked, helping Selene gather the items from the shelves. “Remember he’s a werewolf. They’re not like Lycans, they shift with the moon.”
Jaz pondered that for a moment, staring at Knight’s body this way and that like it held secrets only she could see. “No, it should be fine. If he’d been dead longer, sure, but it’s not even been an hour.” She snapped her fingers at Alec who had been standing far away until then, and she took a coffin shaped backpack from him when he was close enough. Producing two large pieces of chalk from an inner pocket of the bag, she walked to the center of the room and started marking out a circle with shapes inside and runic lettering, all without using a book. She just seemed to know exactly what to draw.
Isabelle approached, inspecting the work. “You’ve worked in his wolf state into the wording, that’s very interesting. It will ensure he’s brought back in his former state.”
Selene and Cauldron finished gathering the supplies as Jaz finished the chalk lines. They brought everything to her and she started placing bowls of herbs in specifics spots along with lit candles in several colors. Done with that, she brought a metal bowl to me.
“Spit in that.” I made a face and she waved the bowl up and down in annoyance. “You’ve swapped DNA with him, you’re carrying his child, I need your spit to bind his soul back to his body.” Frowning, I spit into the bowl and she took it away, covering it in herbs. “Put him in the circle, be careful not to mess any of the chalk up.” Anastasia and Arthur carried Knight’s body to the chalk outline, setting him down and stepping back again to stand beside me.
Arthur grasped my hand tightly, and though I had to, needed to, believe this would work, I steeled myself for the possibility Arthur and I would be going home alone. He sensed my thoughts, squeezing my fingers and massaging my knuckles with his thumb.
No matter what, I’ll love you enough for both of them.
His thoughts came into my head, and I took a deep, steadying breath, ready for whatever the outcome would be of Jaz’s chalk circle and spit covered herbs.
Jaz put the spit bowl on top of Knight’s chest, right where the gaping wound in his heart was, and she lit the spit covered herbs on fire. Then she stood next to him and held out her hand, speaking the odd magical words and the power rushed over her, making her pink tipped curls fly around with mystical wind. The words repeated until her fingers moved like she was clasping someone’s hand in hers, and she flew to the ground, pressing that hand to Knight’s body.
He came awake with a gasp, knocking the bowl from his chest and extinguishing the herb fire. “What in the hell? Where…” He looked up and over at us, and we were on him in a moment, Arthur holding him from one side and me from another. “Oww,” he winced from our intense hugs.
Jaz started blowing out the candles, smiling sweetly at our display. “Careful, he’s still weak. It’ll pass soon.”
“You’re alive,” I breathed, my fangs finally retracting and my rage receding with his warmth beneath me once more. Everything was okay again, everything was as it should be. “I’ve never felt so alone in my entire life, not even when I thought you were dead before. I wanted to die.”
“Ssh,” Knight soothed. “I’m back, I’m never leaving again.”
“Arthur ugly cried,” I sobbed, holding Knight so close my arms hurt.
The stoic warrior did so again at the mention of it, sniffling and crying against Knight’s neck. Knight delicately wiped the tears from our lover’s cheek and held both of us until we calmed down. As soon as Jaz approved it, we left with the promise to return so Cauldron could check on the babies.
Two months passed and in-between negotiating more peace treaties with the Lycans and changing the way turned vampires were treated, everything was going well. I went to bed every night snuggled between two of my mates and my growing belly. Every morning I woke up lookin
g for Balthazar, hoping he had returned during the night, but he was still gone.
One day I came back up to our rooms and flopped onto the couch, my belly already full term size with the triplets even though I had more than a few months to go. Arthur was there immediately to rub my feet while Knight brought me a pillow for my lower back. Tired and hurting, I started crying, unable to hold it in any longer. I wanted my Incubus back. I needed him by my side again.
The scent of lavenders arrived a second before Balthazar did, a man standing beside him that looked almost exactly like… me. Balthazar’s glow was gone, and his suit looked like it hadn’t been washed in decades.
“The Bicus release the immortal being Balthazar to your custody,” the other Incubus said, staring right at me as he spoke. “He is no longer welcome in the Bicus realm.”
I was up off the couch and crossing the carpet to throw myself into Balthazar’s arms before his companion even finished speaking. “Where have you been?” I asked him furiously, even though I knew the answer. “I’ve been worried sick, I thought you were never coming home.”
“I’m sorry, my love,” he said quietly, smoothing his hand over my hair. “My request was a difficult one. It has taken many years to find the answer.” The way he was looking at me, it was the way he looked at our baby after he’d been in the Bicus realm for decades, unable to see her for so long.
“It’s been at least a century since Balthazar came, requesting we remove his ability to sire new vampires,” the other Incubus answered. I looked from him to Balthazar in horror and held my lover close to me, his arms coming around my back, holding me as tightly as he could with my belly in the way. “There was only one way to remove his virility, and it took us a very long time to discover how, which is why so much time passed in the Bicus realm. In order to comply with his request, we had to strip him of his powers. He’s no longer an Incubus, but he said this is what he wanted. He gave it up for you.”
The Incubus’ words brought me up, looking into his eyes, and with a start I realized they were the same violet color as mine. He knew the instant I made the connection and I met his timid smile with a scowl.
“Piss off,” I told him flatly, and he disappeared without a trace. Taking Balthazar’s head between my hands, I kissed him deeply for several minutes. “You stupid fool, giving that up for me.” Another burning kiss. “Staying in the Bicus realm for one hundred years.” Kisses over and over. “You’re so stupid.”
He rested against my forehead and held me when my tirade was over. “I can’t see what you want anymore. I can’t see your desires, your needs. It’s like being blind.”
I kissed him again, my body already warming up under his touch. “Then I’ll just tell you.”
“I’d like that very much.” Leaning against my nose, he breathed in deeply, taking my scent in with every expanse of his lungs. “I missed you so much.” His voice broke with the words and he reached a hand up to clutch my hair. “There were days when I lost hope that I would ever see you again. I pictured you here alone and my heart ached so much, I wanted to rip it from my chest. I have never felt such heartache, not in all my time on the earth.” The hand in my hair trembled so badly he was forced to drop it, and he leaned in to kiss me, tears mixing with our lips until there was so much moisture I had to tip my head back and wipe it all away with my sleeve. I’d never seen him cry so much, not ever.
“What are you now? You’re not an Incubus anymore.” I kissed him again, through all the tears.
“I’m simply an immortal, like Clara is. Not fragile, just plain and boring. I used to bring women to their knees with just one look, and now I’ll have to settle for actual skill.”
I laughed, puffing out more tears between us. “You have plenty of that, and I don’t find you plain and boring at all, even if you’re simply immortal now.”
He looked up at Knight and Arthur standing nearby. “There are some advantages to my new state, however. Something I’ve been thinking about doing since I left, and now I can.” Before he explained what he meant, he left my arms and went right up to Arthur, kissing my vampire lover on the lips with a longing that brought my warmth to a raging inferno. Then he kissed Knight, holding the werewolf flush against his lower half and drawing a moan from Knight’s lips.
I inhaled sharply, trying to contain my excitement, and it drew them apart, both staring over at me with mischievous grins.
“Don’t just stand there,” Balthazar challenged. “I can’t introduce myself to your lovers without you.” I happily walked with them to our bedroom where we reacquainted ourselves with Balthazar for hours until we fell asleep entwined, and everything was right again.
Epilogue
Lace and flowers reigned today.
I dressed my baby Gwen up in her pink dress and kissed her before holding her against my shoulder. She settled in the crook of my neck, one of her tiny hands pressed to me. Her dark black hair was already curling at the tips though she was still twenty-one hours old, and she had the deep tanned skin of her father, Knight.
“Ready?” Arthur asked me, holding the small bag with Gwen’s diapers inside. I nodded and he kissed me on the lips before we left the farm house. Waiting outside was our family, all smiles amidst the flowers and food we’d set out.
The triplets, Kitty, Jason, and Dreya, arrived a month early, and though they’d come all at once this time, they were the same precious babies I’d had before. Kitty still had Balthazar’s blue mixed with my purple in her eyes. Jason still had Knight’s deep brown eyes, and his sense of humor. Dreya’s beautiful blonde hair looked just like Arthur’s. While only five years in age, the triplets had grown to adults already, something Headmaster Cauldron attributed to the potion’s abnormal effect on me. As jarring as it was, we suspected the same would happen to Gwen, so I was enjoying her tiny state as much as possible. I’d been robbed of her childhood before, I wouldn’t miss a moment of it this time.
Lucas held his bride Clara to him with Anastasia nearby, Olivier stood with Renard, who had decided to become a vampire again and pledge his love to the woman he’d given his heart to since the first moment they met. Merrick was there too and her opinion of me was much warmer this time around, and beside her was the gangly Dom who was making moony eyes at Kitty. Cameron, still decidedly human despite his growing affection for Merrick, was next to Galen, my other former companion.
And Knight stood at the end of the line with Balthazar, holding hands and waiting for us to approach with our tiny daughter. Arthur walked me down until we joined our mates, kissing each in turn. I turned and presented Gwen to our family, and they cooed over her, telling me how beautiful she was.
We ate cake, we partied hard, and we put the baby to bed early.
The triplets left to visit their friends while the rest of our family went home, leaving me and my three mates on the front porch, sitting together on our large wicker couch.
Leaning into Knight’s embrace with Arthur on my other side and Balthazar’s hand in mine, I stared off into the world I saved. Though it costed me everything, I refused to accept the loss of my family, and I’d regained all that was taken from me. And I would do it again, for no other reason than to have my lovers by my side and my children in my arms.
“You think we’ll ever have to save the world again,” I mused, rubbing my hand against Arthur’s leg.
“God, I hope not,” Knight answered firmly, leaning to kiss my forehead. “We’ve got the kids now, they can save the world. I’m too lazy for that shit. Plus, I’ve got everything I’ll ever need right here.”
As did I.
About the Author
Photo by Elizabeth Dunlap
Elizabeth Dunlap is the author of several fantasy books, including the Born Vampire series. She’s never wanted to be anything else in her life, except maybe a vampire. She lives in Texas with her boyfriend, their daughter, and a very sleepy chihuahua named Deyna.
You can find her online at
Elizabethdunlap.com
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The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition) Page 100
