Page 37 of Queen Takes Knights
Plus I missed my pockets. I couldn’t carry my knife or a weapon of any kind in a stupid dress. The material was so thin and sheer that it felt like I was wrapped in spider webs and moonlight. Long sleeves fluttered about my wrists, while the bodice hugged my breasts and nipped in my waist. The skirt was longer in the back than the front, almost to the floor, and several sheer layers that swished about my ankles and thighs when I walked.
It should have looked messy or slutty, but somehow managed to look dreamy instead. I looked like a silver fairy princess. I pulled my hair out of the pony tail and fluffed it up a bit with my fingers, but it still looked heavy and flat. Closing my eyes, I tried to envision loose curls about my shoulders, drawing on the magic that lived inside me. Nothing happened at first, and it took me a second to realize why.
Blood. I needed blood to make my power come to life.
I wasn’t going to bleed, or make someone else bleed, just to fix my hair.
But then I remembered my period had started. Would that be enough? I reached through my body, feeling for that tiny bit of blood energy. However, when I tapped it, I almost short-circuited myself. Holy shit. My hair sprang up around my head, my nerves zinged, muscles twitched. Daire and Alrik bolted toward me, banging into each other in their urgency to reach me in the tiny dressing room.
“I’m fine,” I said, though my voice rang in my head, making me wince.
“What the fuck was that?” Alrik reached toward me, but Daire snagged his arm. There was a bit of a wrestling match, biceps bulging, and Alrik ended up shoving him aside, but in the end, Daire won, because Alrik didn’t touch me.
It was a good thing. I still felt like I throbbed with electricity. My skin felt tender, as if I’d heated myself up too much or stuck my finger in a light socket. Note to self: period blood was some powerful shit. “I was trying to fix my hair and um… That didn’t work.”
Daire snorted. “Yeah, no shit. Your hair looks like you’ve been riding on the back of one of our bikes for days with no helmet, while we went as fast as possible.”
Closing my eyes, I concentrated very very carefully and smoothed my hands over my hair, bringing the static electricity down to at least smooth, though wild, curls. “Better?”
“Yes,” Alrik said gruffly.
“Try these,” the sales woman waved some strappy silver heels between my two guys. “I’ve also got some rhinestone ones, but they’re a bit loud. I think they’d detract from the simplicity of the gown.”
“Thank you.” I took the shoes, but the look on Alrik’s face said he wasn’t done with the interrogation. He sensed something was off with me, but what could I say? I didn’t want to blurt out that I was bleeding between my legs and I needed a tampon. That was just… crude. Besides, for all I knew, periods were a human thing that he wouldn’t have a clue about. How embarrassing would that be trying to explain to a vampire?
I put the shoes on and took a few experimental, wobbly steps. They looked fantastic in the mirror, but I didn’t want to break my neck just to look fabulous. Though my legs went on for miles. Turning, I faced my men. “What do you think?’
“You look like the queen you are.” Alrik’s voice carried throughout the common area of the dressing room. A few women’s heads popped over stall doors, and the sales person’s eyes were bugging out at the thought I might be someone famous.
“Your Majesty.” Daire took my hand and bowed low, kissing my knuckles. “You look like you’re ready to go to the ball. I think there’s a bar with dancing at the end of the street. Do you want to check it out?”
Dancing. At a bar. With two gorgeous men. In a dreamy dress. Of course I wanted to go. Duh. As long as I got home soon before I had a real mess to deal with. I looked at the sales person. “Can you go ahead and ring the rest up, or do I need to stop back by to pay for everything else?”
“I’ll ring everything up, and I’ll bring a receipt for you to sign when I drop everything off. Does that work?”
She stumbled over the last few words, as if trying to decide whether to call me ma’am, miss, or worse, Your Majesty like Daire. “Perfect. Thank you for your help. Daire, could you make sure she has our address?”
Alrik helped me put my leather jacket back on while Daire jotted down where we lived. The sales lady frowned at the black leather. “I have a very classy wool dress coat…”
“No thanks,” I said, headed to the door. “I like the leather.”
Outside, the air had a bite of snow. It wasn’t quite four o’clock yet, but dark fell by five this time of the year. Daire ran to throw my stuff in the car, unable to do that quick zip-vanish thing with all these witnesses. “I want to be home well before dark.”
Alrik tipped my chin up with his thumb, his fingers gentle even though his eyes glittered with emotion. Anger, that I was still afraid, and still that odd aggression, like a bull moose staking his territory. “You have no reason to be afraid of the dark any longer. We will protect you. Even at full dark. Even if you’re filling the night with the scent of blood. Nothing will touch you. End of story.”
“I don’t doubt you in the slightest. But why risk injury or death just to walk around at a club for the night?”
“You think too little of us if you fear a few thralls would hurt a Blood seriously enough to put us or you at risk.”
He hadn’t seen the frantic, frenzied way the monsters got when they finally caught up to me. The ones they’d seen in Arkansas had been driven to get me, yes—but they’d still acted with cunning. When my period was going full force, their efforts to get to me always took on a way more sinister, out-of-control madness. Remembering made me shiver. I just wanted to be home, locked up in four walls, with my two guys wrapped around me. Only then would I feel safe.
He drew me closer, wrapping his arms around me. “Are you cold?”
“No. Just scared.”
He glowered down at me as if I’d mortally offended him.
Not even breathing quickly after the trip back to us, Daire slapped him on the back and took my hand. “Stop glaring and let’s go have some fun.”
