Page 38 of Queen Takes Blood
Because she was fucking queen enough to power him.
Long live the fucking queen.
* * *
Shara Isador takes Ezra as Blood in Queen Takes Queen.
QUEEN TAKES… ITZTLI & TLACEL ZANIYAH
Songs: Villain by MISSIO and How We Do It by Royal Deluxe
20
TLACEL
The ancient ruin of Teotihuacan appeared to be empty to the humans living nearby. Standing at the head of the Avenue of the Dead, I could feel something evil waiting in the shadows. The compulsion to leave was strong. A warning of impending doom. For them. Not for us.
The twin sons of Citla Zaniyah had come for vengeance.
We demanded answers. We demanded the truth. And then, we demanded blood.
I fought to keep my rage buried. My brother needed me to be his steady rock. At my shoulder, he quivered with barely leashed fury. If I succumbed to the same emotion, we’d end up killing the people who might be able to give us the answers we sought. Minimally, we had to gain access to the nest before the killing started.
:Remember the plan,:I whispered to him through our sibling bond.
:Fuck the plan. Don’t you feel it?:Something snarled and howled in his bond, a rabid animal gnawing its own leg off to escape the trap.:Evil lives here.:
Not only had our beautiful mother suffered at its hands… but we’d been spawned here. We carried the same evil.
A vicious blade of darkness twisted in my gut, welcoming us home.
My brother had always thought he was cursed, but my darkness was more subtle. Where he was a howling, furious beast—I was poisoned water and a storm of destruction. Pressure built inside me. Lightning crackled in my blood. My heart thundered like a vicious storm. Yet the power we both carried couldn’t be released.
Not without a queen’s blood.
If a queen still held court here…
Our plan was simple. Find her. Give ourselves to her as Blood.
And then kill her, whatever it took.
:Once she takes me, she’s dead,:Itztli growled.:Now I’m grateful for the monster that lives inside me, for I can’t wait to unleash this darkness upon her entire House.:
Neither of us expected to return to Valle de Zaniyah, but Mama might find some peace if the queen who hurt her was gone from this earth.
Stepping in unison without conscious thought, we walked down the main stone avenue into the city. Teotihuacan had been a ruin long before the Spaniards sacked Tenochtitlan, but time had not diminished the much older city’s grandeur. Pyramids rose like mountains. Abandoned apartments, palaces, and plazas lined the avenue as far as I could see.
Once, over one hundred thousand people had lived and prospered here under the rule of House Tocatl. Though when Queen Oxomo died, her heirs fought over who should rule Teotihuacan. Some of her daughters traveled south and set up new nests deep in the jungles, but the once-great city never recovered from the turmoil. Later, humans would blame the city’s fall on a terrible winter brought on by volcanic activity, warfare, or failing crops and famine.
The truth was nothing they could understand. A vampire queen’s entire house went to war against themselves. Because her four daughters weren’t happy sharing the immense power they inherited from their queen mother’s legacy founded in blood, which included thousands of human sacrifices.
Even now, every stone in this place pulsed with blood magic and the heavy darkness of pain.
:The same legacy that lives in me,:Itztli whispered.:Darkness, suffering, and death. Now I know where it comes from.:
It was hard to imagine Grandmama willingly sending her daughter to this place. Though weakened greatly after those initial wars for supremacy, House Tocatl had still been prominent enough that an offer to foster with Queen Theresa had been an honor. Mama went hoping to step fully into her power and come home with her first Blood.
Instead, she came home so damaged that she was no longer capable of talking or basic tasks. She couldn’t tell Grandmama what happened. Let alone who our fathers were. The only words she ever said to either of us were, “black sun, red spiral,” over and over again.
