Page 8 of Queen Takes Blood
Rik’s giant hand wrapped around my scruff and hauled me to my feet like I was a wobbly kitten. Threw me up on my bike. It took me a second try to remember how to start the fucking thing.
Hold on. We’re coming, my queen!
5
ALRIK
We flew down the snaky road, heedless of the ice and snow on the blacktop. Fuck, we’d been so close to her this whole time and hadn’t even known. Thick woods on either side. The road curved away from her location. Fuck it.
Gunning the motorcycle, I tore off the road, bouncing and swerving through thick brush as far as the bike would take me. Almost to the top of the steep hill, my front tire caught on a stump and threw me sideways. I swung off the bike and managed to keep from barreling into a giant pine. Barely.
I jerked open the pannier and tugged on a set of ketars that I’d forged a lifetime ago. Steel gauntlets protected my wrists with sharp blades that extended eight inches past my knuckles. I’d forged Daire a pair too. Hoping. Waiting for this day to come. When we would ride to our queen’s side, weapons at the ready.
The call clamored in my head, making it hard to think. To breathe. Shrill clarion alarms shrieked with every beat of my heart. I powered through the thicket and crested the hill, pausing a second for Daire to catch up.
Below, a thin sidewalk wound through the trees, dotted here and there with streetlights.
She stood in a small circle of light. A lone queen. Surrounded on all sides by bloodthirsty thralls. With a short knife in one hand and a rough club in the other, she swiped around her, trying to keep them back.
On the opposite side of the valley, I could feel the master thrall creeping closer. A foul shadow, tainting everything he encountered. A cursed, condemned Aima warrior who’d once been Blood. Determined to be Blood again.
Though if he tried to feed on her…
He’d only succeed in killing her. No queen, no matter how powerful, could save the likes of him.
I started down the hillside, sliding over treacherous ground. Dodging limbs. Leaping over fallen logs. Daire was right behind me.
I smelled the putrid blood of thralls on the air. She’d wounded some of them. Maybe she’d been the one killing them. Though I’d never heard of a queen killing thralls.
No queen should ever have to dirty her hands killing the monsters. Not when she had a dozen Blood eager to do her bidding.
She lifted her knife toward the watching master, as if she were waving at him. Taunting him.
But then she lifted the blade to the delicate skin at her own throat.
Sheer terror washed over me. She meant to end her life, not open a vein to let her power flow free.
To be this close and watch her die…
I could be her alpha. But not if I failed to save her.
“Stop!” I bellowed, straining to run faster. To put my body between hers and any threat. Even the blade in her own hand.
Slowly, her head turned towards us. Her face pale, her eyes huge and dark with fear. Confusion flickered across her features. Not recognition. Let alone relief to see Blood racing to her call.
Her heartbeat thundered in my head. Her fear strangled me. Yet she didn’t seem to recognize what we were.
“Wait, my queen! We’re here!”
I thought my words would help, but she only looked more confused, shaking her head as if she didn’t understand me at all. At least she lowered the knife from her throat and whirled to slash at the thralls again.
A wave of relief flooded me, though I was just as confused. I waded into the fray, chopping into heads and limbs with the vicious blades. The stink of rotten flesh and death filled my nose, fueling my fury. These foul things had tried to touch my queen. Hurt her. Take her for their master.
Not on my fucking watch.
Though for dead humans, they were surprisingly agile. One of them managed to launch itself onto my back and tore at my side, trying to get to my tasty liver. Daire snagged the thing’s hair and yanked its head back to expose its throat. With one slice of the ketar, he almost decapitated it. The rest scattered into the trees like the vermin they were.
Adrenaline pumped through me. Vicious glee and relief warred with my confusion, making me hesitate as I neared her. Instinct told me to drop to my knees. Offer her my throat. Swear my undying allegiance.
