Page 4 of Queen Takes Checkmate
She couldn’t answer me in the bond, since I hadn’t tasted her blood, but I sensed her immediate agreement. Knowing Gina, she’d already started compiling the list. She was just that good at her job.
With my eyes closed, I allowed my mind to drift as Rik carried me down the hallway toward the service elevator. If I’d had my eyes open, or if I’d been upright and walking, I probably wouldn’t have noticed the faint tug in the eddying violet power.
“Stop,” I whispered.
He paused, and I felt his senses stretching outward, looking for anything amiss. Xin’s wolf immediately ghosted past us, his ruff rising on a silent snarl.
:Do you sense anything?:Rik asked Xin in the bond.
:Nothing. If there’s anyone else down here, their scent is well masked.:
Shifted into his black dog, Itztli paced ahead of us, sniffing the concrete floor and the currents of air.:Agreed. No scent, not even like Ra’s minion that attacked us in Mexico.:
But I felt… something. Keeping my eyes closed, I let the dark flows of the basement pass around me. Cool shadows, safe darkness, but sterile. I didn’t feel any of the goddesses’ touch here. No earth magic or spark of life. Just darkness. My father’s domain.
Something tugged ever so faintly on my attention. A small snag, like I was walking through the woods and my scarf caught on an invisible twig. It broke away to nothing as soon as I tried to look for it.
Rik took a few slow steps and paused. “There are halls off to the left and right. Do you feel a direction?”
The faintest tug came from the left, like a tiny spider web tickling my cheek. I pointed down the hall without opening my eyes. Xin and Itztli crept in that direction, while Rik remained in the main aisle. My alpha wasn’t going to take me into an unknown threat.
:These look like prison cells,:Xin said.:No windows, iron doors, lots of salt.:
“Salt? Does she have thralls down here? Who would keep thralls?”
Rik shook his head grimly. “Even Keisha wouldn’t have kept thralls inside her nest. It has to be something else.”
“But what else does salt work against? I wonder if it would have affected Tanza.”
:All the cells are empty except one,:Xin said.:You need to see this, my queen.:
Rik headed down the corridor. Tlacel and Nevarre joined Itztli’s black dog in front of us. Guillaume, Llewellyn, and Mehen guarded our back.
I opened my eyes, but I didn’t ask Rik to set me down. “We need to search the tower thoroughly, especially this basement. With Tanza hidden away, and now these cells, I’m nervous about what else Keisha may have hidden down here.”
“Agreed,” Rik replied. “The last thing we want is for you to drop a blood circle with something nasty inside.”
My Blood formed an arc outside a rusted metal door at the end of the hall. Dust lay thick in the air and coated the floor. Other than our footprints, it didn’t look like anyone had been down here in years. Yet there was a thick line of salt poured along the doorway, and a heavy lock and chain barred the door.
Guillaume touched the old-fashioned lock. “Silver. Whatever’s inside, they took every precaution to be sure it stayed put. I’d bet they blessed the door with holy water too.”
Xin and Itztli sat on their haunches, alert but not growling. “Can you sense anything alive inside?”
:Nothing, but that could be the protections,:Xin replied.
I blew out a breath. “Well, I guess we need to open it up and see what Keisha was so scared of. Put me down so I can take a closer look.”
For once, Rik didn’t obey me. In fact, he tightened his grip on me, tucking me closer against him.
Surprised, I looked up into his face. I didn’t need light to sense the heat blazing in his eyes.
“I will, my queen. After you feed.”
2
Rik
Iwould carry my queen every moment of the day and night if she’d let me. I never wanted to set her down. If she was in my arms, all was right in the world. Nothing else mattered. Let the Keishas of the Aima courts try to defeat her. Let the demons drain me dry. My queen would tear down the foundations of the world to reach me. So I could hold her again, like this. Always.
