Page 29 of Filthy Rich Vampires: For Eternity

Because holy shit, Thea was a Queen. That was going to take some getting used to.

I stopped in front of the door and took a moment to collect myself. I licked my dry lips, forcing moisture into my mouth. Swallowing weakly, my stomach in a constant state of revolution, I knocked.

“Go away,” Julian barked from somewhere deep inside the quarters. I wondered how many people had interrupted his reunion with his mate that he was defaulting to that greeting.

“Come tell me that to my face, asshole,” I called back. I swore I could feel that masked guard staring at me from down the hall, but I did my best to shake it off.

Footsteps padded on the other side of the door, and then it swung open. Julian grunted a hello before heading straight back into the room.

“Hello to you, too,” I grumbled. He’d thrown on some silk pajama pants but was otherwise disheveled. I wondered if I’d woken them up as I followed behind him. There were no signs of the injuries I’d been told about on his back. I scanned his arms as I tried to catch up with him to get a better look. “Is this a bad time?”

“Not the greatest,” he muttered. “Thea was just pitching the worst idea in history to me, and I was deciding if she’d lost her mind.”

Thea’s head poked out of an adjoining room, her lips turned down in a frown. Their corners jolted up when she saw me, and she stepped out, tying the sash of a robe around her slight body.

“Don’t mind him,” she said. “He’s grumpy.”

“When isn’t he?” I could have wept to see them both standing there acting so damn...normal. After Thea was taken, I wasn’t certain I would ever see her again. And then after last night...

“I am not the one who just asked me to kill her to see if she was immortal,” he growled.

My eyebrows flicked up as I processed what he said. I looked from him to her, the two of them so locked in their argument that they’d already forgotten my existence.

“How else are we going to find out?” she demanded. Turning to me, she gestured for backup. “Tell him, Jacqueline.”

“What?” I swallowed, shaking my head. “I happen to agree that it’s the worst idea in history—and I’ve seen some things.”

Thea groaned, crossing her arms over her petite chest. “We have to know.”

“We’ll find another way—one that doesn’t involve you and bloodshed,” he said darkly.

How long had they been arguing about this?

I swept my eyes over them, surprised to find they looked exactly like the last time I’d seen them both. Then my gaze landed on the tattoo on Julian’s chest.

“When did you get that?” I asked.

Thea sagged against the wall, looking relieved for a change in conversation. “Last night,” she told me, “when...everything happened.”

“You mean when you died,” I said flatly.

“Not exactly.”

I looked more closely at it and realized it was Ginerva’s symbol—the mark of her reign. Now it was Thea’s, and I could guess why Julian bore it. She had brought him back to life, according to what I’d been told. “Am I correct in assuming your life is bound to his now, Your Majesty?”

Thea flinched, her eyes widening with pain. “Please don’t call me that.”

“But you’re a Queen,” I pointed out.

“I’m your friend.”

I shrugged, leveling a blank stare at her. “Yes, but maybe that title has gone to your head if you’re willing to risk both your lives to prove some crazy theory.”

“Gods help me.” She threw her hands up, her hair tumbling down her back as she looked to the ceiling. “Obviously, we control it.”

“Control it?” Julian said coolly.

“Yes.” She looked to him with soft, pleading eyes, and I saw his broad shoulders relax, his whole body responding to the unspoken request in her gaze.

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