Page 14 of Queen of Vampire Hearts

“You didn’t report to the local coven upon your arrival in NOLA, stranger,” one witch called out.

It was considered common courtesy to announce your presence to the local coven when you arrived in a new city, three guesses why I hadn’t.

“I didn’t feel the need to check-in, just passing through,” I bluffed as I straightened, hoping they would just leave and forget they ever saw me.

I sent a silent probe toward the three witches to judge their power levels and knew they were not a serious threat. Hopefully, I could avoid a fight. I really didn’t want to kill them, but sometimes they left me no choice, like Luis. I tried not to lose sleep over it, but the truth was, I still did.

The witches in front of me wereyoung. They were new to their powers and their role in the Council, not to mention in the world. They were new initiates, barely immortal. Silently, I urged the baby witches to run, to get the chance I never did. The newest members of the coven, often from the weakest magical lines, were tasked with patrolling the city, looking for rule breakers. My mother once told me it was because they were more expendable. It was easier for the less powerful lineages to reproduce than the more powerful ones like mine.

Which was pretty fucked up if you thought about it. At the time, I’d asked why we judged them by lineage instead of on their own merits. Couldn’t a weaker magical lineage become more? Or is our birth everything? My mother had no response to the question, never having thought about it. But it altered the course of my life, and no matter who I asked, they couldn’t explain why things were the way they were.

Some of the most dangerous words in the English language were:we’ve always done it that way.

Your lineage should not define your life.

The witches fanned out, coming closer to me, but I refused to back down. With my powers, most witches weren’t anactualthreat. It was when they were in a large group that I might break a sweat. The three witches surveyed me, and I tried not to shift my weight from foot to foot. The sooner I got away from these sentries, the better.

Run and live to fight another day. I’m not the one you want to mess with, baby witches.I should have known it wouldn’t be that simple. Things in my life never are. In a blink, the three witches fell before me. One by one, their drained bodies collapsed, discarded into the filth on the ground.

Fuck!Magical blood called to vampires, and a group of five of them had taken out the three witches, draining them in less than a second. Red eyes locked on me, and despite the meal they’d just consumed, their leader sniffed the air. His eyesglowedwhen he caught my scent. Powerful witch meant smelly blood,as if I didn’t have enough problems.

“You really don’t want to do this, guys,” I warned. If they didn’t back off, the death toll had the potential to increase in the immediate future.Did it really count if they were not witches?As soon as the thought entered my mind, I rejected it. What kind of thought process was that?I respected all species! Just because I had a history with vampires didn’t mean they were all seeking to fuck me over.

The leader stood in the middle and smiled viciously, his teeth still stained with blood. “Oh no, little witch. We really do.”

There goes the high ground.

We couldn’t always be Obi-Wan. Sometimes we had to be Anakin.

“You underestimate my power,” I challenged, waving them forward, battle magic glowing in my palms.

Their eyes went dark at the insult, and I saw their bodies tense, preparing to lunge forward. They stopped when two more beings dropped down behind me in the alley from the roofs. Couldn’t I catch a fucking break? I slammed my back against the brick wall, one glowing palm held toward the vampires and the other at the new threat.

It took a moment for me to see past the magic glowing in my hand to make out the shapes of the two other beings. When I saw the enigmatic emerald eyes, my knees threatened to buckle. Lucien was here, and I was unequivocallyfucked.

His dark hair was windswept, his eyes glittering. Instead of the leather I last saw him in, he wore comfortable jeans, biker boots, and a Nine Inch Nails t-shirt. Fuck, did he have to look even hotter in casual clothes?He vibrated with an aura that screameddeath to all who approached, and I couldn’t help the hunger and need that rose in me.

When I didn’t lower my hand, he raised a dark eyebrow at me, though his body language said that he did not take the threat seriously. His hands were down at his sides, his hip cocked. If I didn’t know better, I would think he found himself at the end of lethal magic every day.

“I pose no threat to you, female,” he murmured as if such words would inspire the utmost faith. I barely covered my shiver at the sound of his voice. It was too easy to recall that night, too easy to feel his hands on me, and too fucking easy to let my guard down.

His eyes drifted away from mine, and pure menace radiated from him. I sucked in a slight breath at how different his aura was when he looked at me before he looked down the alley at the vampires. I thought him intimidating before?Try terrifying.

“The female is mine,” he said, even his voice shifting. His tone left no room for disagreement. It was a statement of fact, as obvious as the moon and the sun. It took me a moment to remember that he didn’t know my name, andIwas the female in question, but I didn’t belong to anyone. I was on my own, always alone. I wasn’t his, could never be his.

The leader of the vampires didn’t have the sense to back down at the aggression rolling off Lucien, but several of the other vampires paled even more beneath their chalky complexions. It took just a look at his face for three of the five to speed off in terror.

I would love to know why his very appearance could make bloodlust frenzied vampires flee. Only two remained, snarling at Lucien, seeming to have forgotten about their desire to drain me. I was surprised when the magic flickered in my palms before going out. Confusion furrowed my brow as I looked down at my hands. Why did I do that? The frantic energy inside me was fading.

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” the leader spat.

Lucien moved in between heartbeats. One beat, he was down the alley from me. The next, he was in between the two vampires, his hands buried in their chests.

“Alec Jeffreys, born 1974, turned 2005 by Mohammad Al-Shiekah in Afghanistan,” Lucien said, then turning to the beta of the two. “Frank London, born 1991, turned 2019 by Alec Jeffreys.”

Both vampires’ eyes widened at Lucien’s dossier on them. The beta whispered, trying not to move, as Lucien still had a locked hold on his heart, “Who are you?”

Lucien let out a harsh laugh, “Yourking.”

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