Page 50 of Queen Takes King
I sensed a heaviness in his bond. Concern for my welfare, with four of them feeding at the same time. Especially after I’d just shattered whatever that portal thing was. But I tugged on his bond. Willing him to do as Iasked.
He shifted me up so he could bite through the upper swell of my breast. I shuddered, so close to coming, just from the bites. From taking care of them. Healing them. G returned to his bite on my throat and Xin’s wolf licked my blood from the secondbite.
Connected. All five. My blood pulsed in them, setting off a cascading power surge. I didn’t have to do anything but lie there in G’s arms and bleed. My blood knew exactly what to do. One by one, I healed them. I closed the wound in Daire’s chest. The skeleton swords had managed to gouge several deep cuts into Rik’s troll hide, and the explosion of the portal had hurt something inside him. Bruised his organs. My blood flowed over those injuries and took away hispain.
I sank into Xin, easing his wolf’s sensitive senses that had been scorched by the brilliant light. Then Guillaume. Skilled with sword and blade as a knight, he hadn’t taken any direct wounds—until I’d tossed him on his back and broken several of hisribs.
Footsteps pounded up the stairs and all four men went rigid with tension. G held knives in both hands and even Daire scrambled to a crouch, taillashing.
A very human and suddenly very scared man stumbled to a halt at the door. “Oh shit. We heard… We saw… No alarmbut…”
He looked at each of us and I finally realized who it must be. “Frank,right?”
He nodded and tried to keep his gaze locked on my face, but yeah, I’m pretty sure he thought he’d just stumbled into a crazy orgy. I was naked and bloody and stretched out between two men and two animals. “There was an explosion,” he whispered. “Thought maybe a gas line. You didn’t answer yourphone.”
Dismissing the man as a threat, Rik picked me up and carried me to my bed. “And now you need to heal yourself, myqueen.”
I didn’t remember what he meant, until he touched my right knee. I sucked in a hard breath and bit back ascream.
“I think it’s dislocated,” G said. “While she can heal it, it might be best to have a doctor set it for herfirst.”
“You did the right thing,” I said to Frank, pleased my voice didn’t quiver, though I sounded a bit breathier than normal. “Can you call Gina and ask her to come with Dr. Borcht, please? Tell them I hurt my knee and it might bedislocated.”
“Of course, ma’am.” He took a step back, eyes still frantically locked on my face. “Right away,ma’am.”
He disappeared and ran back down the stairs quicker than he’d come. I sighed. “Money says we’ll need to hire a new security firmtomorrow.”
“You never know.” Xin sat on the edge of the bed, fully human. “He seems to be more invested in you than the average human. He may very well ask you to bondhim.”
“Ahuman?”
“Not as Blood, but as… what’s the word?” He looked to G and Rik forhelp.
“Thrall?” I asked, but he shook hishead.
“Servant, but they don’t really have servants in this day and age,” G replied. “Back in the old days, all humans working for the nest were sworn to the queen, even if they weren’t Aima. That way she knew who she could trust, and who might be a plant of anotherqueen.”
Daire sat on the floor beside the bed. He didn’t ask, but I wanted him up with us. I didn’t ask Rik, but he felt my desire in the bond and gave a nod to Daire. He hopped up and cuddled into my side, careful not to bump my knee, which was swollen and hurting more by themoment.
“So which one of you is going to tell me who attacked us with skeletons while we wait on Dr.Borcht?”
23
Rik
Ihurtall over and not because of any physicalinjuries.
I’d failed her. I’d failed to protect my queen when she’d neededme.
Sure, some magical shit had to be going down to keep me from responding to her, but I wouldn’t soon forget the horrible feeling of hearing her scream my name and being unable to move. Without Daire, she would have been dragged through thatportal.
We never would have seen her again. I had no illusions what would have happened to her on the other side. Our bonds would have been severed. The thought made me want to smash this whole house down and kill everyone who tried to stopme.
Guillaume and Xin looked at each other like they were silently daring each other to be the one to tell her. As the oldest Blood, they’d seen the most shit. And while I’d been fully prepared to deal with court politics and queen wars, I’d never in a million years expected we’d be facing off against agod.
“He has many names,” Guillaume finally said. “Out of all the old gods, he’s found a way to still be meaningful in the world today. He’s not worshiped, exactly, but he’s conflated with other religions, feeding off them, confusing people, turning good intentions wrong. All the ancient mythologies featured a father god, usually a god of the sun, or god of light. That’s who we’re dealingwith.”
“The Egyptians knew him as Ra, or Amun-Ra, or even Aten,” Xin said. “The Greeks usually called him Apollo. He influenced both, though not as directly as the Egyptian mythologies. Perhaps that’s why he was so quick to strike at you, my queen. He’s closer to Isis than the other queens’goddesses.”
