Page 37 of Queen Takes Checkmate
I closed my eyes, praying.Please, goddess. Great One, whoever you are. Please. Help her be the one to free me.
My flames licked through her body, burning hotter every moment, fueled by her own power. And oh, this queen had so much power to burn. Smoak screeched with glee inside me, reveling in the scorching heat.
Her alpha seized the harness holding my weapons and tried to haul me up off her. She refused to let me go, though she did lift her mouth from my throat.
“Rik.” Her voice rasped with pain. “I’ve got this.”
I didn’t want the rest to happen. I’d seen it so many times. A queen, burned from the inside out. A nightmare of screaming. Blackened flesh. Ash. Charred bones crumbling to dust. While Ra whispered in my head,“Burn the witches. Every last one of them.”
Her Blood roared and thumped and slammed around us, unable to help her. Forced to watch as she suffered, their furious fear fanned the flames inside her.
“Shara!” The door slammed open and a woman cried out, though I didn’t know who it was. “Goddess, no,” she moaned, her voice breaking. “It’s too late.”
Shara. At least I knew her name, now.
The alpha jerked on me harder and I felt a rush of power sweep by me like I was a gnat. Her Blood stilled immediately, unable to act against her will.
“I’ve got this,” she repeated. Calmly. While she burned.
I tried to ignore the way her eyes clenched shut with pain. The blood that welled from her lips, spilling down her chin. My blood, mixed with hers. She’d gnashed her own lips with the biggest fangs I’d ever seen.
Her hand tightened on my head and she pulled me down into a kiss. Her blood smeared on my lips. Intoxicating. So fucking powerful. I sucked her bottom lip into my mouth and fed through the tears she’d made in her own flesh. It probably hurt her, but I couldn’t find it in me to care. Not with the wealth of power flooding my system.
I’d never tasted a queen’s blood before. They always died before they had a chance to fully bond me. Besides, I didn’t have fangs. They would have been useless in me. My sole purpose was to destroy any queen who attempted to claim me.
Her blood. I never dreamed a queen would taste so good. I couldn’t get enough of her. Even Smoak was shaken by the taste of her, pausing from her cackling fury to lap up the queen’s offering. A queen’s sacrifice.
The eternal flames inside me dimmed. Flickered. Banked to a low roar. And then went out like a candle blasted with a gust of winter wind.
I quivered, my mouth falling open. Blood dripped from my gaping lips back onto Shara. She hummed softly and licked the blood from her chin.
She fuckinghummed.
Frozen, I blinked. Waiting for Smoak to come pouring back in rage and hellfire. But she curled up and dropped off to sleep, basking in our queen’s blood.
Fucking phoenix. Asleep.
I couldn’t even. I didn’t know.
Shara laughed softly. “There. That’s better, isn’t it?”
“She hurt you,” the alpha growled, but he released the harness and allowed me to drop back against her.
She shrugged and combed her fingers through my hair. “Love hurts sometimes, doesn’t it, Vivian?”
“You…” My voice cracked and I paused, breathing hard. No, that wasn’t my voice cracking. It was my ribcage. My heart. Into a thousand pieces. “How?”
“I could see the flames inside you as they poured into me. Magic didn’t douse the flames, so I used the next best thing.”
“Blood.”
She nodded, wincing a little. I felt the pain inside her like a raw open wound tearing muscles apart inside me. Thousands of nerves screamed throughout my body, making me groan like I was dying. I’d hurt her. Terribly. A Blood was never to hurt the queen.
“I’m going to need to feed from you to heal this completely, though I should warn you, first. That’s why all my Blood were out when you arrived.”
She’d fed on themall? Until they’d passed out? My mouth fell open again with awe. “I thought they were asleep.”
One of the others made a low sound of disgust. “Blood never sleep, unless we’ve fucked ourselves into oblivion.”
