Page 13 of Queen Takes Triune
I lost track of time, not sleeping exactly, but drifting. Breathing in her scent and presence, reveling in the simple peace of holding my queen while she rested.
Hours passed. Distantly, I was aware of the sun rising.
Near noon, Shara woke up. One moment, she was deeply asleep, and the next, her bond hummed with rising power. She sat up, focused intently on her sibling bond.
Maybe I should have paid more attention, but I honestly didn’t fucking care about the queen of Camelot. Not when my queen’s silken skin beckoned. She was awake, now, so I didn’t have to be good.
I rubbed my face against her calf. One hand still held her foot, my thumb circling her sole, seeking out any painful pressure points that needed to be massaged. Her power washed over me in a crystal wave, making my scales shimmer.
Leviathan rose from the depths of my black soul. Eager. Hungry. Ready to chow down on our queen’s blood and pleasure like the ravenous beast I was. The more she drew on her power, the harder the dragon rolled inside me.
I’d never been able to keep Leviathan contained. Even as a child, the dragon had roared out of me at will, a dangerous, uncontrollable monster that even my powerful queen mother had feared. Shara had tamed the beast, but she was distracted by whatever issue her sibling was dealing with.
Cackling with glee, Leviathan blasted my internal organs with hellfire.
I clutched Shara’s leg, my face pressed hard to her skin, and breathed in her scent and power. I smelled her blood, which told me she couldn’t afford any distractions right now. Some serious shit had to be going down for her to add blood to her power.
But the smell of Isis’s lush oasis drew Leviathan harder to the surface. He swelled inside me, straining to be free so he could feast.
Sweat trickled down my forehead. My jaws ached with strain. But I held on, refusing to shift.
:Gwen’s fighting a dragon,:Rik growled in my head.:Can’t you help her?:
Why the fuck would I want to help any queen other than my own?
That was my first thought, because I’ve always been a selfish bastard. Gwen was Shara’s sibling, and Shara was obviously trying to help her in some way. If Gwen was hurt or weakened, it would certainly affect my queen, and that would piss me off. Because Rik would climb into my ass and beat the shit out of me.
At least Leviathan stopped trying to surge out of me to ravish our queen. Instead, he focused on Shara’s bond and this other dragon.
And yeah, I could see the hulking red beast on the other end of the sibling bond. The glint of malice in his eyes was all too familiar to Leviathan’s own maniacal glare. My spine burned and popped as Leviathan’s spiny ridge rose with aggression.
Dragons were territorial and rare, especially nowadays. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a raging fight with another beast as big as me, and the dragon threatening Gwen was fucking huge. He’d definitely prove a challenge, and I couldn’t fucking wait to rip his head off.
Despite our distance from New York City, I watched as Shara seized the other dragon’s throat in a fist of power. Goddess help me, Leviathan almost rolled over on his back with pleasure at the thought of her grabbing him like that.
Gwen sagged beneath the surge of power flowing through her, but she was only a conduit for Shara Isador, last queen of Isis. She poured through the weaker queen like a massive bolt of lightning.
Leviathan crouched, eyes locked on the opposing dragon. Wings cocked. Ready—
The other man lifted his hand and a black cloud billowed up around him. The cloud had weight and substance that latched onto Shara like some kind of foul leech.
:Shara,:Rik bellowed in our bonds like crashing boulders.:It may be poison.:
She drew hard on her power, fire coalescing in her bond.:I don’t think it can hurt me, but hopefully Gwen is impervious to it.:
I stared into the red dragon’s eyes and read his glee. Hewantedher to blast him, or at least try. He wanted her to drop all that impressive power into her attack.
A trap. It had to be. I’d seen plenty of dragons who breathed fumes, and this fucking mist wasn’t poison. It sucked on her power, even as she built the inferno inside her bond.
Draining her. Feeding on her.
My teeth ached, every draconian instinct on full alert.
Before she could unload on him, I bit her calf. Hard. It was the only way I could think of to distract her long enough to break the trap. Still, I felt a massive dip in her bond. A drain that was sucking her down, just like the fucking portal in Mexico. I dug my teeth harder into her, breaking her skin and adding more blood. I would hold on like Tlacel had done.
Even if it broke every fucking bone in my body.
Daire slammed against me, adding his weight to my hold on her.
