Page 13 of Queen Takes Queen
He blinked and pulled out a monogrammed handkerchief to dab at his eyes. “It’s an honor to serve,Shara.”
I gave him a quick hug and then Gina. “What are you going todo?”
“I’m going to protect my nest the best way I know how.” I smiled and her eyes flared, one brow arching with curiosity. “I’m going tobleed.”
5
Shara
Ididn’t thinkwe’d been in the house too long, but it was already dusk outside. Snow still covered the ground, but tracks marred the white surface. It made me smile to see wolf tracks beside hoof and pawprints.
Rik gave a jerk of his head at Daire. “Go on patrol. I have a feeling she’ll attack afterdark.”
Daire stepped in close to me first, giving me a quick but deep, full body hug. He didn’t just use his arms, but managed to drape his whole body on me, even though he was nearly a foot taller than me. “When you’re ready, I’d love for you to try and burn her out ofme.”
In Kansas City, I’d had the idea that I could try and burn their previous blood bonds out of them, so that Keisha Skye wouldn’t have any hold on them any longer. No one had been able to break a bond like that before, at least not that we knewof.
“I don’t want to hurt you likethat.”
“Hurt me. I don’t care. I hate being a liability, aweakness.”
I wrapped my hands in his hair and tugged his head back. He started purring, so I tightened my grip, pulling his hair back to bare the long, sexy line of his throat. “You’re never a liability or weakness. In fact, I fully intend to use your bond with Skye court to betraythem.”
“How?When?”
I smiled and kissed his throat, giving him only a faint prick of my fangs. Then I released him. “You’ll see. Don’t worry about herbond.”
He pouted, but I felt a push in their bond. Rik, exerting his alpha will. Daire shifted immediately, though he bumped his head into my stomach for some scratches behind hisear.
Rik let out a rumblinggrowl.
Daire twitched his tail, smacking Rik’s legs, but obediently headed out into the darkeningnight.
“So what’s this plan of yours to use our Skyebonds?”
My fangs descended, making me shiver. My stomach knotted. Hunger rose. Need burned. Rik rumbled deep and low, his arm sliding around my waist, and yeah, I wanted his blood. But notyet.
I dragged my fangs across mywrist.
Power bubbled up inside me like a pure mountain spring. My senses sharpened. I could feel my other five Blood. Their heartbeats. Each feather in Nevarre’s wings. The thud of Guillaume’s hooves pounding the ground. The whisper of Xin’s fur as he ghosted across thesnow.
“You don’t have to add blood to the circle.” Rik’s voice rumbled deep and low in my belly, stoking mydesire.
“I know,” I whispered, holding my wrist out so blood dripped down my skin and onto theground.
The first plop of blood on the ground sent a ring of power rippling out like a wave. Primed by my blood circle’s sacrifice, the great Earth Mother, Gaia, answered eagerly. The earth absorbed my blood like a starving creature. Frost melted in the heat of my blood. Life sparked in the dirt. A tiny seed sprouted, a faint green leaf unfurling in thesnow.
Regret tightened my throat. I didn’t want the tiny sprout to die. I hadn’t meant to make something start growing in the dead ofwinter.
The sprout had other ideas, though. It grew quickly for a few moments, green leaves up to my knees. But then it stopped, tender leaves wilting a bit. The whole young stem leaned toward me, leaves straining to stand against the snow andcold.
I held my wrist back out over the young plant and allowed blood to splatter on the leaves. Immediately, the plant started growing again until its tender stem was replaced by a woody stalk taller than me. Leaves and branches stretched up to the sky, but more importantly, the roots sank deep into the ground, spreading like a sensitivenetwork.
My blood pulsed in the tree, deep into the ground. Pumping energy through the soil and rock, the roots cast out a steady radar bleep, searching for anything out ofplace.
“Wow,” Rik said, his voice soft with reverence. “How did you know to dothat?”
“I didn’t, not exactly. But I felt how much She loved my blood when we set the nest, and I figured that was a way tostart.”
