Page 3 of Queen Takes King
“I want to be able to do it myself. Do other queens have this issue? Have you ever heard of a queen with nofangs?”
“You have fangs. You felt them. It’s just not…time.”
I pulled away, avoiding his gaze, and climbed out of bed. “I’m going to take a shower. A realshower.”
“Shara…”
I paused but didn’t look back at him. “I won’t feed again until I can bite youmyself.”
“Don’t say that.” He got up too, coming to my side to wrap his arms around me, but I didn’t soften. I didn’t yield into his arms. He wanted to comfort me. Placate me. Distract me. “You need blood, now more than ever. You need to bestrong.”
“I’m Isis’s last queen and I can’t even take blood myself. Everyone keeps telling me that the other queens will want me dead, but they’ll only laugh when they see what a sorry excuse for a vampire I am. I can’t even bite my own Blood to feedmyself.”
He rested his chin on my head, his arms steady around me. “This Blood in particular will open every vein on his body for you before you can evenask.”
Steel hardened inside me. “As Isis is my witness, I won’task.”
Alrik
I stared at the bathroom door worriedly. She needed to feed. This was a crucial time in her ascension as the Isador queen. The more blood she took, the more powerful she’d be, and yeah, she was already fucking powerful. But it was raw and untapped. She needed time to hone her magic, and she wouldn’t have that time if she wasn’t strong enough to keep the other queens away based on sheerstrength.
More troubling, though, was her adamancy. The ancient gods loved nothing more than one of their creations making such an oath, which opened the door for the deity to fuck with them. I didn’t believe Isis hovered over this house listening to Her last queen’s words, but that kind of refusal might have drawn the goddess’s attention. And when a goddess wanted Her last queenstrong…
She’d answer that prayer, that oath, but not necessarily in a way that Shara wouldapprove.
I went back upstairs to the tower room and stripped the bed linens for her. It would upset her if she came back in and found Daire crouched on the mattress feeding on the soiled spots, and without a doubt, I knew he’d do exactly that. She could have called the blood to her and returned her energy somewhat, but she’d been too upset. Her emotions were volatile, and not just because of her period. Though that certainly didn’thelp.
Her whole world had changed in the span of a few days, and this was just the tip of theiceberg.
:Rik, you need to see this.:Daire said through our bond, alert, but not alarmed, so I didn’t tromp downstairs like we were underattack.
I found him in the living room with the television on the local news station. As soon as I entered, he unpaused theshow.
“A clothing store in the Power and Light District was vandalized overnight,” the anchorwoman said. “They provided an exclusive to us of the security camera footage. Brace yourself, folks, because this is definitely something in the realm of ‘we have no idea what thisis.’”
A grainy black-and-white film played on the screen, displaying the front entrance. The glass exploded and two shapes appeared onscreen.
I groaned. Thralls. Captured on humansurveillance.
The news channel paused the security tape with a thrall prominently frozen on the screen. It was definitely human-shaped, though bent and lanky. Its eyes glowed oddly and teethglistened.
“Police believe that two people dressed like monsters in order to break into the store. But what we find odd is that the store owner doesn’t believe anything was stolen. One dressing room was ransacked but other than the front door, there was no other damage and nothing else was taken. I don’t know, Bob. Does that look like two punks dressed up for Halloween—in December, no less—toyou?”
The other anchorman, Bob, shuddered. “It sure doesn’t,Helen.”
We’d had thralls caught on television before. It wasn’t ideal, but Shara was right. With modern technology, it was impossible to prevent detection. Most of the time, the human mind dismissed what it couldn’t understand. Or came up with some other explanation, like kids dressed up in costumes. That was easier to believe than monsters roaming the countryside. “That’s not too bad,” I said to Daire, but he shook his head and let the showcontinue.
“Maybe it’s a coincidence,” a woman said into a male journalist’s microphone. I recognized her as the sales woman who’d helped us yesterday. “But we had an unusual customer yesterday who used that changing room. A very beautiful woman, with two incredible men. They referred to her asqueen.”
“Queen?” The man asked. “Like ‘YourMajesty?’”
“Yes. He called her that. He even went down on his knees at one point. And she spent…” The sales woman’s eyes widened, catching herself before blurting out an amount. “A lot. We’re supposed to deliver ittoday.”
“The hell you are,” Iretorted.
“I gave her our address,” Dairesaid.
“Fuck. The last thing we need right now is a bunch of curious reporters spreading tales about a queen in KansasCity.”
