Page 41 of Queen Takes Knights
When the needle sank into my arm, a growl trickled out of Alrik’s lips. Daire pressed against him, a hard hand on his shoulder. I don’t know if it was the blood… or the small prick of pain they had to have felt. I might have been a vampire queen, but I still fucking hated needles.
“In the meantime, I recommend you stay enclosed here in the house until you decide where to establish your nest. Have you put out a call for more Blood?”
“No. At least I don’t think I have. How do I do that?”
“It’s not exactly something youdo. In my limited understanding as only a very small fraction of my family tree claims to be Aima, it’s more of a feeling. An existence on your part, and your need for protection. More Blood should be headed to you, and if you’re half as strong as I suspect you’ll be, easily a dozen or twenty Blood will come to your aid. If you deliberately think of your need for protection, feeling and searching for them, they should come.”
“But when?” Daire paced back and forth, his steps as lithe and silent as a panther. “We need help now. We need guards. We need someone at the perimeter.”
I tried not to remember the dream from this morning, because it’d upset Alrik so much. But I couldn’t help but wonder what… or who… I’d been calling. Another Blood? Or something else?
I distinctly remembered the sound of chains, combined with the smell of something… scaled. Snake? Dragon? Something else entirely? I really had no idea. I didn’t know if the thing I’d called was a true monster—or if that was merely the mythological creature he’d transform into once I brought him into full power.
I’d found Alrik and Daire by searching in the night, using that internal sense of tapestry, a rolling landscape in my head. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on my surroundings. Night approached. I could feel it like a shadow creeping closer to the house, almost ready to engulf us. At the fringe of the approaching darkness, I felt them. Monsters. So many. I don’t think I’d ever seen so many at once.
:Are you seeing this?:I asked through the bond to both Blood.
:Yes,:Alrik replied grimly, his bond shimmering like a steel blade in my head. Hard, angry, sharp, ready for damage.:Where’s the master thrall?:
Panic crawled through my head, making it difficult to concentrate. Externally, I heard Daire telling the women they had to leave. Now. To get the blood work done as quickly as possible, before they were trapped here with us. Internally, I felt the clumps of monsters closing in. I touched each one, cringing and shuddering at the foulness leaking off them. But none of those evil smudges were Greyson. He was always there with them, sending them after me. So where was he?
“Wait.” My eyes flew open. Dr. Borcht and Gina paused at the door. “Where’s my mother buried?”
“She wanted to be buried here on the property, but even the immense Isador wealth couldn’t make that happen. She’s buried with your father at the Stuller Cemetery. You passed it on the way in from the freeway.
“Thanks.”
I closed my eyes, feeling down the road, searching for where that abandoned chapel must be. Distantly, I heard the women leaving. I felt Alrik close, hovering, angry, and yes, scared for me. Worried because I only had two Blood. And while he would die to keep me safe, if he died…
A sob escaped. I felt such agony, crippling searing grief. It took me a moment to realize it wasn’t mine.
Greyson. He crawled across holy ground, struggling, bleeding and howling with pain, trying to reach my mother’s grave. His skin blistered and split, black blood leaking onto the ground, and he writhed in the snow. He didn’t care about the pain. He only wanted to be with her. To die on her grave. Maybe in death he could at last be with her.
But there was no release of death for him. He couldn’t die, yet he couldn’t live without her either. He couldn’t even reach her grave before being forced to retreat. He was trapped on this earth, filled with rage and hate. She’d taken everything away from him when she’d left London. His power, his love, her blood, the gift of his own to her, the companionship with the other Blood, his brothers.
He turned, sensing my touch, and glared toward the house with those demon-red eyes. I couldn’t read his thoughts, not like my Blood, but his emotions leaked like poison, fouling everything he touched. If he couldn’t have my mother, then he’d have me. And if he couldn’t have me, then my Blood wouldn’t have me either. He’d at least do that much. He’d show them what it was like to lose their queen.
I heard a scream in the night, a panther-like shriek. Then the ground rumbled, the three-dimensional map in my head quivering like an earthquake. Even without touching Alrik’s bond, I knew that was his rock troll, stomping and slamming his fists against the ground, cracking it open as a warning. They were ready to defend me. They were ready to fight.
They just needed one thing.
My blood.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Alrik
My queen opened her eyes and scooted back on the bed, opening her arms and thighs to me. I could already smell her heat, mixed with the intoxicating scent of her blood.
I froze, afraid to move. Afraid I’d crack her into a thousand pieces if I touched her while my rock troll thumped around in my body, slamming boulder fists against my skin like he’d tear me open if I didn’t transform soon.
She tipped her head to the side, exposing the long column of her throat. So vulnerable. So trusting. So beautiful. “Before this fight, you need to feed. You need to be as strong as possible.”
Yet I held my position, probably denting the shape of my shoulders into the plaster walls with my determination to stay put. “If you’re breeding…”
“I’m not. At least I don’t think so. And if I am…” She shrugged, keeping her face averted, and she drew her legs back together slightly. “Unless you mind the blood. I just thought—”
I slammed into her, literally. Fangs in her throat. Dick in her pussy. Her breath rushed out on a groan. Her thighs came up around my waist, hugging me close. Power exploded through me and for a moment, I thought I’d die with the sheer strength of the surge. The top of my skull felt like it’d blown off. My nerves screamed with sensation. The rock troll bulged inside me, desperate to transform, ready to fuck, fight, and then fuck again. Gritting my teeth, I fought to keep the beast contained inside me. The size of that troll—it’d tear her apart.
