Page 7 of Queen Takes More
I rested my forehead against Daire’s back, breathing in his warm scent of musk and fur. Soaking in Rik’s unshakeable strength, I let the image of Mom’s corpse fill my head again. The rotting, gray flesh. The tattered lapis-blue dress. Her eyes, huge and shining with sheer terror. Fully aware of the rotting creature her soul was trapped inside.
Shuddering, I clamped my hands around Daire’s shoulders and dug in my long, sharp nails. They pierced him easily. Spicy and feral, his blood flowed into me. With a sensual stroke of fur winding through our bonds, his warcat let out an earth-shaking roar. Pleasure, yes, but also with rage.
My rage.
Bubbling up out of me like a volcano.
I raked his back with both hands. Thumped my fists against the steel planes of muscle beneath me. I stabbed him with my nails. Ripped him again.
Marne fucking Ceresa’s face filled my head. Her smug arrogant smile. Her power lashing me, trying to drive me to my knees, or better yet, to break my word and violate our agreement.
“Fucking bitch. I hate her! I hate them both!”
Daire’s purr roared up out of him, vibrating his entire body against me. Rik clamped his hands on my hips and adjusted me so I could rub my clit on Daire’s thigh. I ground against him, torturing him with the wet, hot glide of my bare pussy on his skin. Flattening his tongue against my throat, Rik licked a lazy path from my ear down to the vein pounding just beneath the surface.
Everything inside me winched tighter with anticipation. I wanted his fangs. I wanted his dick. I wanted his blood.
I wanted it all.
Rearing back, he thrust deeply into me on a long, hard glide that made me drag my nails down Daire’s back again. Rik slammed up inside me and I shoved my nails deeper. Again. The scent of blood made me light-headed with hunger, even though I was already feeding thanks to my vampire nails.
I wanted—needed—so much more.
I sank my fangs into the meaty part of Daire’s shoulder. His back bowed up beneath me, his arms flailing frantically. His hips jerked, forcing me up harder against Rik. Keeping my fangs in Daire’s shoulder, I held him inside my mouth. Tasting him. Feeling him inside me. While Rik drove us both higher.
When he finally bit my throat, I screamed around my mouthful of Daire. I clawed at his back, drinking him down while Rik feasted at my throat. I came again, harder, my heart trying to pound out of my ribcage. Daire’s blood coated my face. My breasts. I didn’t try to heal him yet. His blood felt too good, tingling and burning as it soaked into my skin.
Panting, Rik slid out of me and dropped down to lie beside Daire. But I wasn’t finished. I rolled over on top of Daire and wiggled around on his back. Smearing his blood on me. Wallowing on him. Reveling in his blood until I looked like the victim of a murder scene.
Lying on top of him, I stared up at the ceiling. My chest heaved with exertion and my eyes burned. My throat ached. But the heavy weight that had been crushing my chest was gone.
I hadn’t even realized it was there, until now I felt its absence. I couldn’t believe how much better I felt. Lighter. More myself.
Closing my eyes, I swept my power through Daire, wiping away the injuries I’d given him. I winced. I’d done quite a number on his back but he didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he only purred louder, giving me a little bump by thrusting his butt up beneath me.
“I’ll never mind anything you do to me. I mean it. Besides, I needed it more than you did.”
I slid off to his side so I could lie between them. My original vampire knights. I tried to remember the scared girl I’d been when they found me. Fighting off monsters with a pocket knife and a bucket of salt. It seemed ages ago, even though it’d actually only been a few months.
Daire nestled his face against my breasts. “Next time, throw some fucking salt on Marne Ceresa. If nothing else, it’ll make her soup taste better, right?”
I wrapped my arms around his head, curling myself around him, with Rik hot and solid against my back. Softly, I whispered, “Could I have done anything differently?”
Rik dropped his chin against my shoulder. “No.”
He said it without hesitation, that single word echoing with assurance and confidence.
“But you’re worried about another attack from the Dauphine. Maybe I should have struck against her myself. Gone to New Orleans. Something… more. I don’t know what Marne will actually do to her.”
His arms tightened around me. “No. I’m not worried. Why do you say that?”
I turned around enough in his arms to see his face. “You gave specific orders for the guard and mentioned her attacking us again.”
“But that’s not worry. That’s just being smart. She may attack the nest again, but you were prepared last time too. Your trees had her messenger trapped before you arrived. Your warning system activated immediately. Unless she can manage to send hundreds of those zombies against the nest, I don’t think anything would ever penetrate deeply enough to actually threaten you. Even then, you’d just burn them up.”
Daire peeked up at me, his molten eyes shining with heat and love. “Because you’re Shara fucking Isador, Triskeles queen of America.”
The last bit of my self-doubt crumbled away. Pressed between my Blood, I closed my eyes. Muscle by muscle, I relaxed, releasing the last bit of tension that lingered. Daire’s rumbling purr rocked me deeper toward sleep.
