Page 27 of Queen Takes Blood
I snorted out a plume of smoke. No fucking way she was getting back up that tunnel—unless she could transform herself into something with wings. “I want my freedom more than anything, but I won’t trade one prison for another.”
“I wouldn’t—”
Throwing my head back with a roar, I blasted the ceiling with flames. “Don’t lie to me! You would. All queens would.”
“You don’t know me.” She softened her voice, still playing the innocent, young queen who was too naive to slide into a better position on the Triune board no matter how many pawns it might cost. “You don’t know what I want.”
It was all I could do not to bite her head off in one delightful crunch. “Queens want the same thing.”
“What do you want? Why did you want me to come here, if not to free you?”
Tightening my grip on her stomach, I lowered my head to the side so she could enjoy the full impact of my baleful glare. “Oh, I never said you weren’t going to free me. But it will be onmyterms.”
She didn’t seem alarmed by six-inch-long claws threatening to tangle in her intestines. “Let me guess.”
“I need queen’s blood to leave this plane, but I refuse to be bound to a queen. So what does that mean,Your Majesty?” I drawled out the title, making it a slur.
Her eyes flickered, her mind firing from Plan A to Plan B… exactly as the last queen to threaten me. Her face smoothed, heart-wrenchingly lovely despite the grim resignation etched on her features. If I still had a fucking heart.
No, not resignation. Fucking acceptance. She knew I was going to hurt her. Badly. And she wanted me to believe that she wasn’t going to fight back to protect herself.
She wanted to fuck around and find out exactly what Leviathan was capable of. So be it.
I crunched down on her injured hand, engulfing most of her lower arm in my jaws. Blood hit my tongue, and I shuddered with ecstasy. It would have been so easy to jerk my head back and take her entire arm. Throw the broken limb down the back of my gullet while the stump sprayed me with blood.
Despite my ravenous thirst, I wanted to draw out the feast as long as possible. The longer she bled, the more power she’d release. The higher her emotions, the greater her power, and I needed all that explosive power to escape. So I resisted the urge to bury my muzzle in her soft belly. I licked her paper-thin skin, opening up the wounds even more. So good. Flavored with a scream that made the mountain tremble around us.
Or perhaps that was her Blood. Pounding against the veil behind the stone facade of the mountain. Unable to penetrate without their precious queen. How rich. How sweet. How fucking futile.
Braced for her attack, I waited for her to lash with her power. To struggle against my hold. To wail and bargain and swear to find some way to help me like all the others before. She flowed into me, a glowing ember against the stifling darkness. Riding the river of blood winding through my mind. Glowing brighter, straining to shine against endless night.
I would have laughed if it didn’t break me a little more inside. Just another reminder of the nightmare I had become, where a queen of this tremendous strength still had no hope against me.
A few gulps of her blood, and I swore a goddess breathed a warning on my neck. Yet there was nothing Her daughter could do to prevent me from killing her.
I curled closer, relishing the glide of my scales against her power. Soaking in everything. Her scent. Heat. Magic. Her blood flowed inside me like molten honey, mixing with my fire. Building toward a cataclysmic explosion. Higher. My wings rippled with the urge to fly. To soar straight toward the shimmering veil in my mind’s eye.
So many times, I’d rushed up that tunnel. Gathering my strength. Laser focused on flying free of this prison. Only to crash against the invisible barrier. I’d even tried to bash my brains out on the veil. Better dead than trapped here. Starving. Slowly withering. Feeding only on my rage and the occasional scrap to stumble through to a fucking nightmare.
Not this time.
More power. More blood. I tightened my jaws on her arm. Shredding her skin a little more. Fighting temptation. Fighting hunger. Fighting—
Something jabbed up in the delicate hollow behind my foreleg. I barely even felt it, though I glared down at her. A silent warning. If I lost concentration even for a moment…
I’ll be feasting on more than your blood.
I’ll rip you limb from limb. Bathe in the rush of blood and roar toward the barrier…
Free. Free at last. It has to—
She lifted her bloody hand toward her mouth. Spilled my tainted blood down over her face.
—be enough.
She’s fucking feeding. On me…
Impossible. No queen. Had ever. Why, for fuck’s sake? She had Blood to feed her. She didn’t need me.
