Page 4 of Queen Takes King
“We’d better callGina.”
The doorbell rang. Daire checked through the peephole before opening the door to the very person we’d been talking about. She saw the television on and nodded. “Good. You’ve seen. Hasshe?”
“Not yet.” My first reaction was to send Daire to knock on the door, but that was ridiculous when I had a bond with her. I just hesitated to intrude when she was obviously upset and needed some space, and Daire’s lighter personality might be more welcome than mine.:Myqueen.:
:Yes?:
Her emotions felt calmer in the bond. She’d mentioned a bath before too. Evidently the hot water was definitely something I needed to be sure she indulged in when she was upset and stressed out. However, she was still worried she might never be the queen I expected her to be, which was nonsense. I had no expectations other than she take my blood whenever she wanted. I let her feel that shining in the bond, though I didn’t say the words.:We have a situation. Gina’s here todiscuss.:
Mentally she sighed.:I’ll be rightthere.:
2
Shara
Asituation.Hmmm. That didn’t bode well. Maybe somebody saw us driving off the monsters last night? Or me lighting up a person onfire?
Not a person, I reminded myself, though my consciencetwinged.
I pulled on my tattered jeans, wincing at the stains. I really needed to do laundry. That was one benefit of working at hotels so often. I’d been able to get my things washed forfree.
The washer and dryer were down in the basement. I hadn’t been down there since I’d finally broken out of the safe room. I didn’t really want to see it. I didn’t want toremember.
Bracing myself, I carefully tapped my period blood. My nerves lit on fire, my hair shooting up with energy, but I managed a quick power wash of my clothes and then let the energy go. Whew. Intense. My hair had instantly dried but looked like I’d crimped it in a waffle iron. Rather than try to do anything else with it, I pulled it back in a ponytail. I checked my pocket and then dug around in my messy bag until I could find my pocketknife. I just felt better when I had a weapon on me, even if it was a smallone.
:You have two formidable weapons at your disposal at alltimes.:
I’d forgotten he was probably eavesdropping through the bond. At that thought, I felt a sense of withdrawing from me. He truly was trying his best to deal with my prickly pride and grumpy mood and he certainly didn’t want to “eavesdrop.” Which implied a violation ofprivacy.
Rather than say anything, I reached through the bond and pressed against him in a mental hug, picturing my arms around his neck, my face on his throat. Even though that instantly made my stomach knot with hunger. And started the cycle of emotional turmoil all overagain.
Giving myself a mental shake, I went downstairs to see what was wrong. Daire handed me a cup of coffee and I curled up in the corner of one of the leather sofas. “Good morning, Gina. What’s brought you over here soearly?”
“Early?” She laughed as if I’d told a joke. “It’s nearlynoon.”
I shot a glare at Daire. He’d told me it was six o’clock. He flashed that dimple and I instantly forgavehim.
“Ever since you disappeared five years ago, I’ve had a team mining all local news stories that we could get our hands on that had anything to do with a ‘monster’ or unexplained and creepy events. I hoped we’d be able to find you that way, but you were always one stepahead.”
“I had to be,” I muttered, trying not to remember. Running, always running. Knowing where the closest bus stop was. Never unpacking. Never feelingsafe.
Gina unfolded a large map and spread it out on the table, using the corner of the legacy box that I’d totally forgotten about to hold down one side. “Everything we felt was at least a seventy-five percent chance of being a thrall sighting, we plotted on the map. It’s pretty interesting when you look at several years worth ofdata.”
I leaned forward, cradling the warm cup in both hands. At first all I saw clumps of red dots, mostly centered around New York, New Orleans, and Dallas. The locations of the three other known American queens. “Wow, so the other queens are attacked regularly too? I guess I thought I was the only one, that it was a sign of myweakness.”
Alrik sat down beside me. Too close, actually, but I wasn’t about to complain. He felt too good pressed against me. “You were never weak. You just hadn’t come into your power yet. And yes, thralls are drawn to the nearest queen, not necessarily the weakest. That’s why I wanted to follow thralls, in the hope that we’d find a queen who was alone and inhiding.”
The center of the map was scattered with red dots with no discernible pattern. Unless you knew I’d been on the run in mostly the Midwest. Of course there were many in Kansas City, but the stickers had faded a bit and were a slightly different dye lot. There hadn’t been an attack in Kansas City inyears.
Until I noticed a bright new sticker smack dab in the southern portion where Stuller shouldbe.
“You’re still plotting thesightings.”
“Of course,” Gina said. “And more importantly, I would be surprised if the other conciliari were not doing exactly the same thing. So they will be quick to note last night’sevents.”
“We made thenews?”
“Oh yeah.” Daire hit play and allowed me to watch the tape. “I’m expecting the nice talkative saleslady to show up here anytime with the bill and hopefully no cameras andreporters.”
