Page 75 of Queen Takes King
“My queen.” He swallowed hard, his voice breaking. “The only boon I have left to offer you is my true name, Mehen. But if you wish to call me Levi I will answer your call withoutfail.”
In his bond, the mighty, furious dragon stretched out his neck, braced for my sword to fall. Still and quiet at last. Surrendered. He fully expected todie.
I lifted my bleeding hand to his mouth and his eyes flared with pain. He had dared a small glimmer of hope, but had feared it was too late. He’d been hurt so many times. He’d fully expected to fall in his death spiral, and this time, I would allow him to crash on the rocksbelow.
“If you fall, I will always catchyou.”
“Why?” he ground out, his eyes blazing withemotion.
He needed to hear the words aloud. Only then would he trulybelieve.
I leaned toward him, my Blood moving with me, supporting me as one. “Because I loveyou.”
And I sank my fangs into histhroat.
33
Shara
Only I could endup in a bloody orgy underneath the stars on ChristmasDay.
I couldn’t even begin to put into words exactly how okay I was withthat.
“We should do this every year,” Daire said, flashing his dimples at me. Somehow he’d wiggled around to get his head in my lap. His favoritespot.
“I couldn’t agreemore.”
Headlights approached the house, driving up the long, winding drive from the main road. We all scrambled up like guilty teenagers before Gina could catch us naked as jaybirds on the front lawn. Too late. She yelled after us. “We’re serving Christmas dinner in the main house in fifteenminutes!”
Daire and Xin raced to the guest house. I groaned. How were we all going to be presentable in fifteen fucking minutes? Wait, how did she even get through mycircle?
I realized why before anyone could answer. Gina was mine. My blood lived inside her. Of course my nest would allow her in. I’d built the nest with Winston inside, so he could pass back and forth. Frank would be able to come through. What would happen if one of the other guards needed to approachme?
Rik swept me up into his arms. “They won’t be able to cross until you allowit.”
My two new Blood walked on either side of him. Guillaume brought up therear.
“I guess we should make introductions,” I said, blushing a little at the thought I’d been intimate with this new man and he didn’t even know ournames.
“No need, my queen,” Nevarre replied cheerfully. “Daire, Xin, Mehen, Rik, and the legendary Guillaume de Payne. I gleaned their names from your bond easilyenough.”
Guillaume’s gruff voice drew my gaze over Rik’s shoulder. I’m pretty sure silver glinted in his hand, but I couldn’t be sure. Where would he hide knives if we were all naked? “You’ve heard of me,then.”
“Indeed.”
“I wonder why we’ve not heard of anyNevarre?”
“Who was fucking dead?” Levi replied, an edge of his voice. Or rather Mehen. That was going to take some getting used to in myhead.
“My tale is nowhere near as interesting as Leviathan, king of the deep, let alone the headless knight, Desideria’s executioner for hundreds ofyears.”
Guillaume grunted. “You might have apoint.”
I called the crazy amount of blood we’d smeared all over each other and gave us all a quick dip in magic so we could get dressed. Daire helped me into a red velvet dress with a plunging neckline deep enough to bare several bites on my throat. I thought about bleeding enough to heal those bites, but I didn’twantto make them disappear. I didn’t care who saw them. I wasn’t ashamed of what I was, and the people who were here knew exactly who they were sitting down to eat dinnerwith.
“Shara fucking Isador,” Daire whispered, kissing my shoulder. “Our vampire queen, last daughter ofIsis.”
All the guys dressed up. Well, for those of us usually in jeans and a T-shirt, wearing khakis, sweaters, or button-down shirts was some fancy shit. I turned around and saw what Nevarre had put on and my tongue glued to the top of mymouth.
