Page 92 of Queen of Darkness
We didn’t hesitate any longer. Muscles twitched, and we surged across the throne room.
Corvis had been ready for our charge and easily dove out of our way, but three of his followers were much too slow. We bodied aside two of them, the impact of our powerful body slamming them back into the wall hard enough that they weren’t ever going to move again. The third lifted its sword, but our jaws darted past it and tore his head from his body.
We did it all without slowing, hurtling out of the door into the main hallway, sniffing deep as we picked up the scent of the queen, eager to take up the pursuit and bring the battle to a cl—
A shriek from above alerted us, but it was far too late.
The queen hadn’t fled as we’d assumed. She’d climbed the walls and waited for us. Something sharp pierced our side as she landed on our back. It withdrew, and more pain blossomed at a different site.
Immediately, we went down and rolled, trying to crush her. But Elenia had been ready. She flung herself free like a cowboy jumping off a falling horse. The blade she’d been holding flickered out of her hand, and we howled as it cut a long gash down our face.
“I will rip you to pieces,” Elenia hissed, delivering a quick kick to our jaws as we tried to get to our feet. The blow rocked our head back, and we saw stars for a moment until our fury at the vampire burned it all away.
She danced backward as we narrowly missed snapping our jaws on her shoulder, the sudden reverse of our movement catching her by surprise. Fast as we were, however, she was faster. Still, the momentum was on our side now, and we kept at it, leaping after her.
The queen was forced to turn and run, fleeing for real this time. We followed as she ducked down one hallway, then another, heading deeper into the palace, to places we hadn’t been before. She was fast, but her scent betrayed her, and every time she gained a lead, we closed it on a straightaway.
There would be no losing us. This was going to end in one way and one way only. When one of us was dead.
We nearly caught up to her on a long straightaway that seemed to have been a mistake, but she narrowly avoided our reaching jaws, turning at the last second with a radius we couldn’t match. So intent had we been on sinking our teeth into her, we missed the upcoming turn. Trying to stop frantically, we couldn’t and resigned ourselves to hitting the wall.
Except we wentthroughthe wall and tumbled down a set of circular stairs. Elenia came after us, cackling with laughter as we descended floor after floor, bouncing and flopping, unable to stop our momentum until we hit bottom amid a pile of debris.
The queen appeared at the hole in the wall far above and didn’t hesitate to pick up a large chunk of stone and fling it at us. We barked at the pain, the sting enough to open a small cut.
She came on, using her strength to fling several more projectiles at us. One caught us in the eye, swelling it closed immediately. A longer, thinner projectile dug deep into our right leg.
On she came, picking up more debris, her mighty strength inflicting wound after wound on us as we struggled to get to our feet from the fall. Another spinning projectile took out our front leg, dropping us down to the ground again.
“You couldneverdefeat me!” Elenia howled. “I am the rightful queen, and you are nothing but a disgusting half-breed, unfit to exist!”
Pulling a wicked-looking knife from her waist, she leaped the last half-dozen stairs, heading for our flank, aiming to plunge her blade in deep. We didn’t let her. Rolling, we let ourselves fall farther down the stairs.
Elenia landed amid the rubble, but it didn’t slow her. She came on in a rush.
Just like we wanted her to.
Our initial goal had been to overpower her and kill her. But during our game of cat and mouse, we’d realized that the queen was quite crazy. So, we used that to our advantage. Goading her along. Pretending to be weaker than we were. Slower. So that she, in her arrogance, would assume she could kill us with ease.
She was wrong.
Our “roll” took us down and over—and also let us reorient ourselves to face her. Elenia suddenly hesitated as our muscles tensed and our jaw opened wide, the sole good eye focusing on her.
“Oh, f—”
Vampire-wolf fangs crunched down around her body, and we shook her like a ragdoll, whipping our head back and forth with abandon until we released her, letting her hit the wall with a sickening impact. She slid to the floor, breathing hard, barely alive.
It was time to end this.
Chapter Forty-Six
“Here,” I said, tossing the half-alive body of Elenia back into the throne room as I walked in, back in my human form.
The queen slid across the tile, leaving a bloody streak behind her as she came to a halt halfway between Aaron and me, wheezing for breath, her eyes barely focused.
I took in the other bodies in the room with my working eye. Aaron sported some new wounds on his side, including a deep stab, but he otherwise looked fine.
The same couldn’t be said for Corvis and the two other Nacht Bringers I’d left behind when I went after the queen. Their bodies were riddled with bullet holes. Far more than could have come from one gun.
