Page 26 of Queen Takes King
“Undoubtedly,” a man said to myright.
I whirled, blade sliding down my wrist to my hand. An Asian man about Daire’s height stood beside us. I didn’t wait to see who he was. I struck, hard, intending to behead the motherfucker who’d sneaked past the human guards at the gate and then three Blood to invade the queen’sbedchamber.
The man just leaned aside and I missed himentirely.
“Is that how you greet all herBlood?”
Daire surged to his feet. “How the fuck did you getin?”
“I’m surprised it was so easy to approach her,” the man drawled, making Daire’s cat bristle. Claws shot out of his fingers and he snarled. “But I suppose you are a bit… distracted at themoment.”
I opened my inner senses, using not just my eyes but my nose, ears, and mind to feel for this intruder. But I felt or sensed nothing from him. He didn’t have a scent. I could hear the slowing, labored heartbeat of our alpha, but not this man standing next to me. He might as well have been amirage.
“Good,” Rik wheezed. “Welcome. Help.Them.”
The man approached the bed despite our feeding cobra queen, and my estimation of the size of his balls went up considerably. He went down on his knees beside the bed and took Rik’s hand. “I will help them and you in any way I can,alpha.”
Rik looked rough. His skin white and oddly loose, like his body had dissolved underneath. The cobra was slowly transforming back into our queen, each swallow of his poisoned blood pushing the scales and coils back inside her. I feared that he wouldn’t last long enough to see her fully transformedthough.
I wished I could remember exactly what had happened when the cobra had come to me. I remembered so little. Maybe that was a blessing. Maybe Rik wouldn’t remember his queen killing him, though I don’t know that Daire would ever be able to get overit.
She threw her head back and licked her lips as the last of the scales sank into her skin. A small trickle of red dripped from the punctures on Rik’s stomach, not black. So she’d sucked all the poison—and a great deal of his blood—back out. His heart stuttered. There wasn’t anything left topump.
Daire scrambled across the floor and grabbed Rik’s hand from the new Blood, hugging his limp arm to his chest. “Shara, please. You have to save him.Shara!”
She blinked and stretched languorously, as if she’d only now started to awaken from a glorious dream. Her gaze fell on the new Blood and her eyes flickered withshock.
“Shara!”
She jerked attention down to Rik and her eyes flewwide.
We all felt her horror splintering through the bond, but she didn’t hesitate. She slashed her wrist open on her new fangs without thinking and pressed her arm to Rik’smouth.
He was too far gone to feed. Her blood spilled from his mouth, his eyes glassy andunseeing.
She held her wrist over one of the punctures and allowed her blood to drip into the wound. Eyes closed, she sank into him. Our bond crackled with lightning, rippling with power. She surged through him like a bolt of pure energy, sealing the injuries she’d caused, casting sparks through his body. Cells refired that her venom had killed. Her blood raced through his veins, filling his heart. Pumping him full of anti-venom and power atonce.
He hauled in a deep breath and Daire buried his head in the crook of Rik’s elbow. His eyes focused on her and he lurched up and sank his fangs into her throat. She held him, stroking his back, dripping tears and blood on him while hefed.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “I thought it was a dream. I killed you. I can’t believe…” She sucked in a ragged breath and squeezed her eyes shut, curling around him. “I fucking killedyou.”
He wrapped one arm around her back and hugged Daire to him with his other, but he didn’t lift his mouth from her throat.:And you fucking resurrected me too, myqueen.:
She shuddered against him, hiding her face from us. Shame and guilt thudded through her, tightening herthroat.
I could not abide that feeling from my queen. I joined the new Blood on my knees beside her and dropped my forehead to her thigh. “Your power is great, my queen. The cost is high. But we willingly pay that cost to be here withyou.”
“Was it my stupid oath that did this? Because if Rik had to die to give me fangs, then I would have rather donewithout.”
I lifted my head. “I don’t think so, my queen. I’ve seen this happenbefore.”
She finally turned to look at me, her eyes gleaming with tears. I’d seen eyes like hers before. Dark, but glittering with diamonds. Haunting, mesmerizing eyes. “When?”
“When your mother came tome.”
“But you said you didn’t know hername.”
“I didn’t. I still don’t. Even though you gave me her name last night, I cannot pull it up in my mind. But when I saw your cobra, I remembered another cobra queen. I remember being envenomed like Rik. And that is how I was finally freed from Desideria. She drank from me and died of the poison my bloodcarried.”
