Page 83 of Queen Takes Queen
Mayte stood and offered her hand. My queen stood and winced, which put me on high alert. "These shoes weren't the bestidea."
Mayte frowned. "We do need to walk a ways, but it's not far. Fifteen, maybe twentyminutes."
Worry nagged inside her. "Is this place you want to show me outside yournest?"
"Yes. Is that aproblem?"
She turned to me as I stood. "Do you think it'll besafe?"
I cast my alpha senses out into the night, seeking anything amiss. Now that my queen had claimed Mayte as her own, the nest responded to her magic, and thus to me, with my queen's blood flowing in my bond. I sensed nothing out of place, but I wasn't familiar with this countryside. "Do you have many thralls in thearea?"
Eztli snorted with disgust. "As if we'd allow any thralls to come within sniffing distance of ourqueen."
Shara leveled a hard look at him, which made him swallow and his eyes widen. "I trust my Blood's protection one-hundred percent, and we still have to deal with thralls. They follow me everywhere I go. They've hunted me my entire life and I almost died more times than I care tocount."
He inclined his head slightly. "Forgive me, my queen, I had no idea. With your nine Blood and my queen's five, I highly doubt even a pack of thralls would dare come within a hundred miles of two powerfulqueens."
"What about Ra," she askedsoftly.
"The Egyptian god of the sun?” Mayte asked. “What does he have to do withyou?"
"He attacked us in Kansas City before I established my nest. Does your religion have an equivalent aspect of thegod?"
Mayte moved closer to Tepeyollotl, though she still held my queen's hand. "Of course. An entire pyramid was dedicated to Huitzilopochtil in Tenochtitlan, but he was never associated with Ra. Thousands of people were sacrificed to him before Tenochtitlanfell."
I felt her alpha searching the night now, too. He commanded three of her Blood to shift to their jaguar forms and they slipped into the night, silent hunters in search of anything out of place. "If there's anyone nearby, we'll know. I think it's safe enough to go to the grotto. Even Huitzilopochtil’s power is weaker atnight."
Shara gripped my arm and lifted her left foot, tugging on the strap of her shoe. Since Daire had picked them out for her to wear, he quickly stepped in and helped her remove them. She wriggled her toes against the tile and slipped her arm back through mine. "Should I change out of the dresstoo?"
Mayte glanced at her sideways through lowered lashes. "We can bathe at the grotto. I often take a dip and then walk back to the house naked. Unless nudity bothersyou?"
"Not atall."
With her arm laced in mine and her other hand in Mayte's, we walked down a path lined with flat stones toward a line of trees. As we passed through the nest's boundary, Shara shivered and rubbed her arms. "That reminds me. Do I need to give your nest my bloodtoo?"
"I don't know," Mayte admitted. "Bianca and Grandmama didn't knoweither."
Guillaume answered over his shoulder. "No, it's not necessary, unless you want to do it, my queen. Her blood is now your blood, so her boundary is now yours. If I may make arecommendation..."
"Of course,please."
"When we leave, you can add a small amount of blood to the boundary, which will reinforce and strengthen it. But there's no need for you to retrace the entire nest as we did in EurekaSprings."
"Good," Shara breathed out a deep sigh. "If I'm going to bleed that much, I'd rather give it to all of you rather than the ground. Though if I need to make that sacrifice, I'mwilling."
I smelled water and sulfur before we reached the trees. The path steepened, cutting back and forth briefly to dip into a rocky canyon. The flagstones had been laid hundreds of years ago and had been ground smooth by time. Trees crowded in, giving the canyon a tight, dark feeling of safety and privacy from prying eyes. I sent all her Blood, including the two new ones, to guard positions in a ring around the grotto. Eztli did the same, though he did not command the father of his queen’s child to leave herside.
:Since she has two with her, do you want to choose another to join us?:I asked in her bond.:Or do you want to invite bothtwins?:
:I think inviting her brothers would be icky. I'm not even sure I want to invite them both at the same time. Which would youprefer?:
I lifted her hand to my mouth and kissed her knuckles.:Whatever you wish, myqueen.:
:Then I want only you with metonight.:
Love surged through me so powerfully that I could only nod, not trusting even my mental voice in thebond.
"The water smells of minerals, but it's nature's hot tub." Mayte turned to smile at my queen. "There's a spring a bit further up in the cave, but the water's so hot that it's not really comfortable. I usually use this pool. It's still warm, but it's deeper and the submerged rocks give plenty of places tosit."
