Page 54 of Queen Takes Rook
I flew so high I lost sight of my Blood and this new bed we were bloodying so thoroughly. I lost sight of everything. I flew through a night sky on silent wings, cutting through the air effortlessly. No stars blinked in the sky. No moon.
Utter darkness.
How I had been conceived. How I had been born.
Panting, I slowly became aware of the bedroom once more. My Blood all cuddled around me, crammed into the bed. It was large… but not that large for ten full-sized adults. Luckily, they didn’t care about lying on top of each other.
As long as they could get a hand or mouth on me at the same time.
21
Shara
Hamiltonon Broadway was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen in my life that didn’t involve my Blood. We dressed up like we were going to the Oscars, and I dragged Winston, Angela, and Marissa along too. Stepping out of the long black limousine into the crush of fans all eager to make their way into the show, I felt like a movie star. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t hiding.
I was out in the open, in Keisha Skye’s home territory, as if I had nothing better to do than go see a musical, despite her summons.
It felt pretty fucking amazing, I had to admit.
I’d never done anything remotely as public like this. After Dad was killed because we stayed too long in the park, I’d taken more and more of my classes at home with Mom, until I was completely homeschooled by the time I hit high school. We certainly never went anywhere after dark. It wasn’t safe. It’d never been safe.
The lonely, lean years on the run were so far behind me that I could hardly remember how miserable it had been. The constant toll terror had taken on me, unable to rest for fear the next attack would come. No one to count on. No one to talk to. No one to help me.
Now I had an entire army of people eager to help me, whether that meant opening up a vein, or quietly maneuvering a cadre of financial advisors and attorneys to prepare for an extremely hostile takeover of the most powerful vampire queen in America.
I didn’t sleep that night. I didn’t need to. I had glorious music flowing through my mind as Gina went over my alternatives to address Keisha’s claim.
“She wants recompense for Blood, specifically, but the actual Triune law as written says blood for blood. An equal measure of your blood to balance the Skye blood she claims you stole from her house.”
“What if I gave the Skye blood back to her?”
Gina frowned, studying the ancient, thick book that smelled of dust, like it’d been forgotten on a shelf somewhere for centuries. “I suppose… Ah, here. Yes. ‘A queen may reject the Blood’—in this case, it specifically says Blood, capitalized—‘and return the house’s offering to nullify the implied alliance.’”
“I don’t want to send my Blood back, obviously. I just want to send back herbloodout of my house.”
“I don’t think you can do that.”
“But if I can, will that satisfy the law?”
Gina re-read the passage, her mouth moving slightly. “Yes, I believe so. Because she set the precedent first of switching blood to Blood, I don’t see why you can’t then switch Blood to blood in return. But I’ve never heard of a queen being able to pull another queen’s blood out of anyone. Her blood won’t respond to your will.”
“You said there’s a Cleansing that queens do before they die.”
“Yes, absolutely, but that’s your ability to cleanseyourblood. I don’t think you’ll be able to do the same to hers.”
“If I can’t, then worst case, I offer her my blood to equal hers. How would the appropriate amount be determined?”
“If this case went before the Triune, they would be able to magically measure the queen’s blood and demand an equal amount.”
“Since neither of us are Triune, how do we establish the appropriate payment, then?”
“Exactly. It’s a trap for you, because you have to depend on Keisha’s satisfaction. We both know that the only thing that will satisfy her is for you to become her sib, or for you to die.”
“I’m not dying anytime soon, and I sure as hell won’t become her sib. Is there another way to test whether or not an Aima bears a queen’s blood, even a drop?”
“Of course. Their blood won’t respond to her magic.”
“Like when you call blood to you to bathe your body in power,” Rik clarified. “Our blood is yours to command and will come to your call. If she can’t call any of our blood to her, even a drop, then she has no claim on us.”
