The Vampires' Blood Mate: A Paranormal Reverse Harem Romance

by Lili Zander

  “You look to the future because it hurts too much to look at the past.” She gives me a small smile. “I’ve been there.”

  We sit there until the memories fade. When I’m finally ready to face the torture chamber again, I get to my feet. “Thank you for staying with me, Shadow.”

  “Shadow is a nickname,” she replies, rising up with the fluid grace of a born warrior. “My friends call me Hala.”

  Seven days to the deadline.

  “No signs of recovery?” Saber stares down at the woman we found in Mirage. She’s still in a healing coma, suspended on the knife-edge between life and death.

  The attending doctor shakes her head. “It’s only been twelve days, Colonel Hafsson,” she says, a rebuke threaded through her voice. “The woman’s lungs collapsed. Her stomach was cut open. She lost two thousand milliliters of blood and went into hemorrhagic shock. We are doctors, not miracle workers.”

  The vampire guards we tortured yesterday are the grunt workers. We want their leader. Someone paid them. Someone killed Nasrim Dimeh and put her body in Ragnar’s apartment, and it wasn’t Harek Levitan. He’d already fled Starra. No, the General has an accomplice, but even under pain of torture, none of the vampire guards could identify him.

  This woman escaped. She might know something. It’s a long shot, but we’re desperate.

  Saber’s face looks like it’s cut from a block of ice. “What happens if you pull her out of the coma?”

  “She will die within the hour.” The doctor straightens her shoulders, and an expression of dread descends on her face. She’s Imperial Army; Saber’s the acting Commander. She knows what comes next. “What are your orders, Colonel Hafsson?”

  How many innocents will die?

  Saber stares at the comatose woman for a very long time. Finally, he turns away. “We’ll find another way. Tend to her. Call me if she wakes up.”

  Five days to the deadline.

  “We don’t have a vaccine.” Astrid stares around at the room, and her eyes land on Dr. Karling.

  The scientist hangs his head. “No, we don’t, Empress Astrid.”

  “And there’s still no way of removing the virus from the humans?”

  He doesn’t reply; he doesn’t need to. His eyes are bloodshot. Weariness is written all over his face. Levitan’s words ring in my ears. You have found the human woman from Boarus 4. Raven Unnuk. You think that it gives you an edge. It doesn’t. Play with her blood, if it makes you feel better. You will not find a cure in time.

  He was right. Black failure lies all around us. We’ve warded off one threat, but what stops Levitan from snatching more people off the streets and infecting them? What stops him from unleashing the virus on those we care about, the way he’d done with Ragnar’s former lover? What stops him from walking into a compound and contaminating the vampires’ blood supply, the way he’d done with Family Leyva?

  Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

  Until we have a vaccine, we’re screwed.

  Ragnar stares at his sister. Darkness lurks in the corners of his eyes, a darkness that’s been there ever since the dreadful night when Mazer Baseran had hurried up to us at the Family Karinsky gala and told us that Zeke’s family had been slaughtered. “We can keep fighting.”

  Astrid takes a deep breath. Mazer puts his hand on hers and squeezes it tight. When she speaks next, her voice is steady. “No, Ragnar. We cannot.” Her eyes are tired, but she lifts her head high. “I am the Empress of the Shayde Empire. If I have to blood bond with Harek Levitan and step aside to save my people, then I will. This is the price of power.”

  None of us say anything. No whispered encouragement, no stirring words of defiance. There’s nothing left to say.

  Four days to the deadline.

  The woman is thin and underfed and stares at me with suspicion-filled eyes. “Hello,” I say pleasantly. “Would you like a cup of coffee?”

  She doesn’t respond.

  The girl Hala and I found in the Lower Deeps, Freda? This is Alicia, her sister. It’s taken us four days to find her among the imprisoned humans.

  None of the prisoners volunteer information. They don’t trust us. As far as they’re concerned, one set of jailers have replaced another, but nothing else has changed.

  We can’t tell them what we’re fighting for. As soon as people find out about the virus, there will be mass panic. Mobs will form on the streets, marching to Central Tower, calling on the Empire to do something.

  The Empire has no answers.

  I glance at Shadow. Hala. She leaves the room on silent feet and returns with a mug of coffee that she sets on the table in front of Alicia.

  “We found your sister, Freda.”

  Emotion flashes over the dark-haired woman’s face. “What have you done to her?” she spits out.

  I push a tablet across to the woman. Tomas has tinkered with it. It’s been locked; all Alicia can do with it is have a conversation with her sister. There's no way for them to get a message out to anyone else.

  Freda’s still in hospital. She’s probably recovered enough to leave, but we can't let her go; once again, it's a security risk. She's a prisoner too. At the rate we're going, everybody in Starra is going to be a prisoner. “Why don’t you ask her yourself?”

  I walk out of the room. “What are you hoping to achieve?” Hala asks me, her voice curious, not hostile. “Do you think she knows something?”

  I sink to the ground next to her. “Alicia was repeatedly raped by the guards. She’s not talking. She’s clearly afraid; she doesn’t trust anyone. Can you blame her?” I sigh. “Maybe she’ll talk to Freda and realize we’re not going to hurt her. Maybe nothing will come of it. All we can do is try.”

  She gives me a sidelong glance. She doesn’t say anything for a long time, and then she gets to her feet. “Where are you going?” I ask her.

  “To find some pineapple buns.” I raise my eyebrows, and she shrugs. “Hey, it worked last time. Maybe it’ll work again.”

  After twenty minutes, I reenter the room, carrying a plate of pineapple buns. “Want a coffee refill?” I ask.

  Alicia stares at me. My heart sinks. So much for establishing trust. I’m ready to fill her damn mug and walk out of there when she speaks. “Why did you help my sister?”

  “Was I supposed to ignore her broken leg and walk away?”

  Her eyes rake over me. I see what she sees. Expensive clothes. A bodyguard watching my back. Ample supplies of coffee and food. Privilege. “I used to be like her once,” I add.

  “We can’t afford the hospital,” she says flatly.

  “The bill has been taken care of.” Thank you, Zeke and Nero.

  “What do you want from me in return?”

  What had Ragnar said to me on Antaras 7? You don’t have to buy my cooperation with your body.

  “We’re not bargaining. I’m not putting a price on your sister’s life.” I take a deep breath. “But I won’t lie. We need information.” I slide the tablet toward me, remove the lock Tomas placed, and pull up the image of the woman who showed up at Mirage. “Do you know her?”

  She looks at the screen and nods. “I only saw her once. I think her name was Dolores.”

  Spirit be praised, she’s cooperating. “Was Dolores imprisoned with you?”

  She shakes her head. “I only saw her one night,” she whispers. “The guards came for me one night and took me up.”

  “Up? Where?”

  “An upper level. I don’t know which tower. There were five other women there when I arrived. Dolores was one of them.”

  Her fingers dart out and snag a bun. Hala’s a genius. “What happened next?”

  She shivers in remembered fear. “The guards left, and a masked man entered the room.”

  No one’s mentioned a masked man to us. This is important. “What did he do to you?”

  “He ordered us to touch each other, and he watched.” She finishes her bun and takes another. “We thought we got off lightly. It could have been so
much worse. Then he pulled out a knife. He started cutting us, one by one, and he watched us bleed.”

  Dr. Karling flinches when he sees me. None of the vampires had bitten the prisoners. This guy bled them. Ding, ding, ding. We’ve found someone who’s vaccinated. I lean forward. “Did you get a look at his face? Can you identify him?”

  “He never took off the mask.” Her eyes fall on the plate. “There was one thing I noticed. He had a tattoo on the back of his hand. It stood out because vampires almost never mark themselves. The tattoo was of a crescent moon.”

  Shock punches me. I've seen this tattoo before. I saw it on Katerina Seddon, who told me I was not worthy to be among them.

  Family Seddon has sworn vassalage to Family Kevis.

  Ten to one, the man we’re looking for is Vincent Kevis.

  26

  Nero

  Getting a hold of Vincent Kevis is easy. Getting a hold of Vincent Kevis before he has time to alert Harek Levitan that his plan has failed? Significantly more complicated.

  “If Ragnar shows up, he’ll spook,” Zeke says. “Same thing with any of us.”

  “We can’t wait until the next ball.” Ragnar looks uncharacteristically stressed. I wonder if he saw Raven’s vids. He hasn’t mentioned them, and I haven’t asked. Now’s not the time for that. “It’s three days away. It’ll be too late by then. We’ve got to draw him out now.”

  A thought strikes me. “Saber, I’m assuming Kevis has a bug planted in your office?” I’d be disappointed if he didn’t. Vincent Kevis has the subtlety of a bulldozer.

  “Of course,” Saber says, rolling his eyes. “Amateur. As if I wouldn’t check. I amuse myself by feeding him a steady stream of disinformation. Why?”

  I lean forward. “I have an idea.”

  Zeke and I enter Saber’s office. “Where’s the Colonel?” Zeke asks, sounding bored. “Shouldn’t he be here?”

  “He’s going to be late. A procurement meeting ran late, and then he’s got to stop by at the hospital. He told us to get going without him.”

  “What hospital?”

  I look around, as if to make sure nobody can hear me. Set the bait. “You remember the bombing at Mirage?”

  “Yeah.”

  “There was a human woman there. She was infected with the virus.”

  Zeke nods. “I remember. Someone stabbed her to prevent her from talking, right? She died as she was being transported to a hospital?”

  “No, she didn’t die.” Add a lure. “That was just the story Mazer Baseran put out. She’s alive. She’s been in a healing coma for the last two weeks.”

  “And?”

  Snap the trap shut. “She woke up. She says she was tortured; she saw the face of the vampire who did it, and she wants to talk.”

  It’s late. Visiting hours are over, and the hospital is quiet, the lights dimmed. A skeleton staff walks around, checking on patients.

  The chute opens, and Vincent Kevis walks in. He looks twitchy and nervous. Spooked. His eyes jerk around the hospital, and he looks like he’s ready to bolt at the slightest hint that something’s wrong.

  He walks down the passage, and he pushes open the door to Dolores’ room.

  And finds us there, waiting for him.

  Ragnar steps forward, grabs him by the neck, and slams him against the wall. Bones crunch. “Hello, Kevis,” he says, baring his teeth in a feral smile. “Glad you could drop by.”

  We cuff Kevis and transport him to Dr. Karling’s lab. Menace radiates off Ragnar in dark, palpable waves. “You killed Nasrim Dimeh,” he says, his voice vibrating with fury.

  Kevis looks up. He was jumpy when he stepped into the hospital, but his nerves have steadied. “I did,” he says with a sneer on his face. “I enjoyed it too. She begged so prettily for her life. You know what the last thing she said to me was? She said she wished she’d never met you, Ragnar.” His tone is vicious. “You’re not very good at keeping your friends alive.”

  Ragnar’s fist connects with Kevis’ jaw with a sickening crunch. Blood bleaches from Raven’s face, but she doesn’t say a word. Kevis crashes into the wall and falls to the floor. “This is how you’re playing it?” he taunts. “I’m unarmed, my hands are cuffed, and you’re going to beat me to a pulp?”

  “That’s exactly how we’re going to play it.” Ragnar’s face is implacable, and his voice promises death. “You killed Nasrim Dimeh. You snatched eighty thousand humans from the Deeps, infected them with the virus, and planned to unleash them on Starra. You allied with Harek Levitan, and you conspired to depose my sister.”

  “Your sister,” Kevis spits. “Astrid is going to destroy the Empire.” He shakes his head in disgust. “She appointed Saber Hafsson to lead the army. A man who has sunk so low that he has a human bondmate.”

  You fucking idiot. Stop talking, or Saber will kill you before Ragnar gets a chance.

  “Not content with that, Astrid was going to remove my father from the Ruling Council and put a human in his place. A human. The idea is an abomination, and I will do whatever it takes to prevent that from happening.”

  Abomination. The words send a prickle of alarm down my spine.

  Ragnar continues as if Vincent Kevis hadn’t spoken. “You raped and butchered some of your prisoners. When this is over, I am going to kill you, and I can promise you two things. It will be slow, and it will be painful.”

  He turns away. “But first, we’re going to test out a theory. You see, Raven believes, as I do, that you are vaccinated against Levitan’s pet virus. Let’s find out if we’re right.” He tips his head to the scientist. “Dr. Karling, if you wouldn’t mind?”

  From the way Karling’s hand shakes as he approaches, he minds quite a bit. His voice trembles. “If he isn’t vaccinated,” he says, looking at Saber in appeal, “Then he’ll die.”

  “And we won’t be able to torture him.” Saber’s voice is devoid of emotion. “What a pity.”

  The scientist takes a look at our savage faces and shuts his mouth. His hand shaking, he injects a syringe of contaminated blood into Kevis’ arm.

  We wait. Zeke sucks in a breath. The seconds trickle by. My sense of unease grows.

  Fifteen minutes later, Kevis still hasn’t turned into an oozing ball of pus and exploded. He’s alive. Ragnar smiles in grim satisfaction. “Take all the blood you need from him, Dr. Karling. Can you isolate the vaccine by the end of tomorrow?”

  “Yes.” For the first time in days, Dr. Karling looks hopeful. “Yes, I’m pretty sure we can do that.”

  Raven exhales in a shuddering breath. “Four days left,” she whispers. “We came that close to disaster.” She sinks to a chair and covers her face with her hands.

  Saber immediately goes to comfort her. Zeke puts his arm around her shoulders.

  Not me. I’m staring at Vincent Kevis, trying to shake off my choking sense of dread.

  Kevis is too calm. Too composed. As if he knows something we don’t.

  I will do whatever it takes to prevent that from happening.

  If I weren’t listening for it, I would have never heard the faint hiss.

  “Get out,” I scream. I hurdle past Saber, grab Raven, and throw her out of the door. “Get out, everyone. Now.”

  “What the hell?” Saber starts, then he takes a look at my face. “What’s wrong?” he asks, already moving to the exit, pushing Karling in front of him.

  The laboratory explodes in a ball of fire.

  27

  Raven

  The shockwave hurls me through the air, and I slam into a wall, every bone in my body jarring from the impact. My left wrist crunches and I’m pretty sure I’ve broken it.

  I shake the pain away and look around. The vampires are already on their feet, their guns drawn. Relief shudders through me. They’re all here. They’re all alive.

  Nero’s bleeding from a cut on his forehead. Zeke’s left arm hangs limply at his side. Saber’s leg looks broken.

  Ragnar removes a piece of glass as big as my hand from h
is chest, and the shard comes out red with blood. Dr. Karling looks shaken.

  “What the fuck happened?” Saber snaps.

  “Kevis was a bio-bomb,” Nero replies. “I heard the hiss of the seal break. He blew himself up.”

  I stare at the burning building. Voices shout, and footsteps start to run toward us. We’re in Central Tower. Every powerful family is housed here. The fire will be out in no time.

  But Kevis is gone, and with it, his precious, precious, blood.

  “Everything is gone,” Dr. Karling whispers. “Blood samples. Notes. Test results. The potential vaccine. It’s all gone.”

  This is the end of the road.

  “This is it.” Saber’s voice is drained. It's not like him to be pessimistic, but at this moment, he looks completely defeated. “There’s no hope left. None at all.”

  A shadow detaches itself from the darkness. “Oh, I don’t know about that,” Marya Revit says. She holds two glass vials to the light. “If I were you, I wouldn’t give up just yet.”

  Marya has two vials. One of them contains a pale-yellow liquid. This is, according to her, is the vaccine.

  The other is an antiviral drug, a solution that’s forest-green in color. If I am to believe her, it will remove all traces of the virus from human blood. If I can bring myself to trust Marya Revit, the assassin who tried to kidnap me on the orders of Harek Levitan, if I inject the drug into my veins, I will be free of the blood disease.

  My vampires will finally be able to drink from me.

  If I can bring myself to trust her.

  “I was sent to clean out the lab on Boarus 4,” she’s saying now. We’re back in Ragnar’s apartment, all of us. “I was instructed to kill everyone and destroy the research.”

  She’d certainly killed everyone. Nero and Zeke went to look for the lab and found the corpses; I’ve seen the vids. She’d murdered dozens of people.