Page 3 of Queen Takes Knights
That kindness had earned her death.
Me, I’d die because I didn’t want to lose my lousy job cleaning up used condoms and bathtub floods.
I’d wanted so badly to run outside and help her, but she’d locked me in. She’d known I’d come after her if something bad happened. I hadn’t been able to see much through the tiny window, other than the tall one tearing her throat open. I hoped she’d died quickly, but I had a feeling I would not be so lucky. Not after running from them for so long.
They’re not going to torture me.
I straightened, standing to my full height. I saluted the dark watcher on the hill with the knife.
And then I lifted the blade to my own throat.
“Stop!” Someone bellowed, a deep male voice that hammered through the night like a bass drum. The monsters quailed, not quite turning tail to run, but definitely wary. “Wait, my queen! We’re here!”
CHAPTER TWO
Shara
Queen? What the actual fuck? I had no idea what the man meant. Who they were. Or why they were here. They, plural. Two men crashed through the trees, headed straight for me.
But they were definitely the distraction I needed.
I slashed to the left and right, wounding as many of the monsters as possible as they turned to attack the approaching men. I scanned my salt circle, relieved to see that it was still whole. I had no idea who these guys were, or how they thought they could fight the monsters, when no one else had ever even seen them, let alone actually tried to help me.
For all I knew, these two were in league with the watcher. I wasn’t going to step out of the little bit of safety I had on amaybethey were going to help.
They both had unusual blades, that compared to my pocketknife, were almost as big as swords. The sharp blades fit over their hands somehow, becoming an extension of their arms. The blades chopped through heads and limbs effortlessly. I’d never been able to kill one of the monsters, let alone so many. Yet the monsters weren’t giving up so easily. One launched itself onto the taller man’s back, digging claws into his flanks. The other man grabbed a handful of lanky hair, hauled the monster’s head back, and sawed through its throat. Black blood stained them both, but it was the fresh blood pouring from the taller man’s side that caught my attention.
I’d seen blood before. No big deal. It didn’t gross me out, but it’d never fascinated me, either.
But his blood…
I couldn’t look away.
I don’t know if it was my imagination, shock and adrenaline from the battle, but his blood glowed like rubies in the streetlight, bubbling up from his side like the molten lava I’d seen earlier. Two spots of red on the fabric I’d never seen before, and now two men here, helping me.
When I’d never had help in my entire life.
The remaining monsters—only three still living—scattered. Leaving the two men turning their attention to me.
Panting, the tall, wounded man neared the edge of my circle but didn’t step across it. Maybe he couldn’t? I didn’t know. I didn’t care. I couldn’t look away from his blood. My mouth actually watered, which made my stomach knot. What the hell was wrong with me?
“Do you have a safe place nearby?”
I dragged my gaze away from the blood seeping through his shredded T-shirt and made myself focus on his eyes. Normal eyes as far as I could tell. They didn’t glow red like the monsters. “Who are you?”
“Alrik and Daire. We’re yours, my queen. If you’ll have us.”
“Why do you keep calling me a queen?”
The two men looked at each other, some silent communication I didn’t understand. Then the tall one looked back at me again. “We will explain everything, once you’re safe. A master thrall still watches to the east. I’d rather get you into shelter before we answer any questions you will have.”
Yes, I still felt the watcher, thrall, he’d called it. They had information, which I desperately needed. And they’d helped. Yet I remembered how my mother had been lured to her death. Betrayed by her own desire to protect a little kid.
These weren’t children, but full-grown, very large men, now that they both stood so closely. Alrik, the bigger one, was arguably the most massive person I’d ever seen short of a superhero movie. The other was shorter and leaner. Both had longer shoulder-length hair and those double hand knives, but they dressed like normal everyday people in jeans, T-shirts, and boots.
T-shirts. Not long sleeves. The cold didn’t bother them either.
Still doubtful, I watched them remove the blades from their hands, snapping them to hooks on their belt on either hip. It almost looked like Old West gun holsters. “Can you not cross the circle?”
