Page 36 of Queen Takes Queen
Shara
Hand in hand with Rik,we slowly walked toward the guest house. Slowly, because that was all I could manage. My legs still felt weak, but I didn’t want him to carry me. It was early, not even ten o’clock, but sleep was far away. My mind raced with plans and questions I needed to remember to ask Gina. We had little time to prepare for thismeeting.
I needed to practice using complicated sets of silverware for all the various courses. The polite ways to greet a queen and her Blood, as well as the less warm and fuzzy ways. So many nuances were built into life at court—something I had never known. I didn’t have any idea how to insult with a smile or charm with atouch.
Three days to teach me a lifetime of court etiquette, when I was so weak I couldn’t walk from the house to mybed.
Rik drew me to a halt outside the guest house door. “You’ve got an innate sense of how to play the game, whether you know it or not. You handled Kendallperfectly.”
“But that was only a minor Blood, not his queen. I don’t care what Keisha Skye thinks of me, but Mayte may be moreimportant.”
“She will know what we know.” Rik’s eyelids were heavy, his voice a deep rumble. “I have nodoubt.”
My Blood formed a loose ring about us, waiting for theirorders.
Fromme.
I looked up at the sky a moment, letting the silver moonlight glow on my face. The moon seemed smaller now, normal sized rather than huge and mystical. Softly, I said, “I’m going to need a lot of bloodtonight.”
“Take me first,” Daire said immediately, sliding up in a hug behindme.
“I’m ready,” both Mehen and Ezra said at the same time, and then they glared at eachother.
Guillaume didn’t say a word, but he casually flicked his wrist and a blade gleamed against his palm. Standing beside him, Xin rolled up his sleeve and offered his wrist, though G didn’t cut him. Notyet.
Nevarre was the only one I really wasn’t sureabout.
He immediately came and dropped to his knees before me, slinging his hair back in an effortless, practiced move. He tipped his head to the side so his throat gleamed in the moonlight. “Take what you need from me, my queen. My sincerest apologies if I gave you any reason to doubt my willingness toserve.”
“I know you’ll let me feed. But I’m not sure how you feel about everythingelse.”
“Myqueen?”
“I didn’t give you much choice last night, and for that, I’m sincerelysorry.”
Tiny crinkles formed at the corners of his eyes and his lips curled in slow, wide smile that made me sag with relief, leaning a bit harder on Daire. “You’re worried about that? Surely my enthusiastic participation in your Christmas evening orgy was full indication of my willingness to do everything you could everdesire.”
I reached out to stroke my fingers through the long black hair that fell over his shoulders. “You’re still grieving for Brigid and what youlost.”
He nodded, but leaned closer to press his face against my stomach. I wrapped my arms around his head and continued combing my right hand through his hair. “I’ll always grieve for the woman who took me in when no one else would. I loved her. I died with her. But she was not my queen. If anything…” He pressed his face tighter to me, leaning in harder. “I’m guilty of not loving her as much as I should have. She often said our love was quiet and kind, not wild and passionate, but sometimes I saw a wistful look on her face when she thought I wasn’t watching. Or I’d leave, and I’d see a look come into her eyes. The doubt that I would actually return to her side. It hurt, so badly, because it was true. I’d loved her more than my first queen, chosen by my mother to solidify her power, but not enough. Neverenough.”
Tipping his face up so he could see me, he still kept his mouth pressed to the thin silk barely covering me, his eyes burning with dark emotion. “When I felt your call, nothing, absolutely nothing, would keep me from you. Nothing would ever make me leave your side. There is nothing kind and gentle about what roars through my body when I look at you or touch you or smell your blood or feel your magic. I already love you more wildly and passionately in a day, than I ever loved the woman I lived with for decades. That’s my guilt to bear, my queen. Notyours.”
“Am I to feel guilty for loving each ofyou?”
His eyes flared with shock. “Of course not, my queen. I’d never make that judgment of anyone, let aloneyou.”
“I don’t love you the same as I love Daire. Does that make my love for you less? Should you leave, then, because you’re notDaire?”
His hands closed around my hips, his fingers digging into me. “Please don’t make me leave you, my queen. I’d rather you suck my life out of me and let me die here in the grove than live one moment withoutyou.”
I cupped his cheeks in my hands and leaned down, holding his gaze. “Then why do you punish yourself for having different kinds of love for more than onewoman?”
He swallowed hard, his throat working, and when he spoke, his voice was as raw as his words. “Because if she’d still lived when I felt your call, I would have left her without a moment’s hesitation and flown straight toyou.”
I brushed my lips against his. “I’d rather think that I couldn’t have called you if she’d still lived, because I’d never want to take a man from someone he loved, no matter how badly I needed him as Blood. I won’t take a Blood I don’t love, and I won’t call a Blood when he lovesanother.”
The moon shone brighter and I could almost feel the pearly beams sinking into me, sliding through the lava-hot bonds of my Blood. I felt the surety in my bonds, the moon binding my oath into my magic and myBlood.
