Page 43 of Queen Takes Blood
“Yourissuedoesn’t involve me.” Zuma jerked his arm side to side, making the woman he clutched scream. “Besides, I have unfinished business.” He grinned at Itztli, baring stained, jagged teeth that had been filed to points to match his fangs. “You’re welcome to stay. When I’m finished with her, we can duel, if you haven’t already run home with your tail tucked between your legs.”
“I’ll stay,” Itztli said in a flat, hard voice that I didn’t recognize. “I’ve always been curious about this side of me.”
Zuma’s eyes flared with surprise and he nodded, smacking his lips over those sharp teeth. “We can hunt together unless Her Majesty decides she’s ready to replace me. Though you won’t have near my power until you’re Blood.”
“I’ll never be Blood.” Itztli didn’t look at me, but his bond shimmered like an obsidian blade. Viciously sharp and brittle—but so beautiful.:Stay alive, brother. I’ll find you once he’s dead.:
So confident and sure in his ability. A thirty-year-old fledgling Aima warrior against a centuries-old Blood descended from the most feared gods of our people. I didn’t tell him to stay alive. I could feel his certainty in his bond. He refused to ever be like Zuma, and if a queen claimed him, she’d release the same darkness.
Instead, I said the only thing I could think of. The one thing we had from Mama, who’d lived to escape this place.:Black sun. Red spiral.:
“Are you sure about this, lad?” Seti had moved close enough to drape his arm over my shoulder, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Our queen isn’t friendly to newcomers. She’ll most likely rip you limb from limb as soon as she sees you.”
Shoulders squared, I looked the other two men in the eye back and forth. “One of you fathered me. I’d like to know which before I ask my next question.”
With heavy sighs, the other two Blood pushed to their feet.
Tecuani, the alpha, jerked his head back the way we’d come. “Let’s go, then. You already gave Queen Tocatl a taste of your blood, so she’s aware of your presence. She lives beneath the Pyramid of the Moon.”
I found it interesting that he referred to her by her House name, which meant spider. In fact, I couldn’t recall any of them referring to their queen as a person or by her name. A cold, heavy pit spread in my stomach.
Something told me that I was about to learn why Mama was so terrified of spiders.
* * *
ITZTLI
With all thecalm assurance I could muster, I sat down on the nearest stump seat in a deliberate, casual sprawl. As if I had nothing more on my mind than watching an entertaining show.
Zuma tossed the human woman down on the ground at my feet. “Don’t let her run off. A chase sets my blood on fire like nothing else, and I need a new skin. There won’t be enough left of her if she runs.”
“Noted.” I bit the word off, resisting the urge to drag the woman to her feet, push her toward the exit, and unsheathe my blade. Not yet. Not until I knew exactly what he’d done to Mama.
So I could make him pay for every transgression tenfold.
Zuma pulled the tattered skin off his shoulders and tossed it on the fire. The putrid, oily smell of cooking rotten meat made my stomach heave. Some of the skin had dried onto Zuma’s bald scalp. As he peeled and scratched at those patches, he revealed lesions and scabs. I wasn’t sure if he was pulling off his own skin and making wounds—or if the rotten human skin had caused the sores.
“Look at her, lad. What do you think of my captive?”
Steeling myself, I looked down into the woman’s terrified eyes. She sobbed, her eyes glazed with sheer terror, silently pleading for help. Painfully thin and young, she was barely more than a child. She wore a simple white linen shift, as if he’d dragged her from her bed. “I don’t see how you’ll get much skin from her.”
The flare of accusation in her eyes cut me to the bone.
I’d seen the same horrified condemnation in another woman’s eyes the first time I’d tried to feed from someone not family. She’d been Aima, not human, yet I’d still almost killed her.Some things can’t be forgiven, no matter how much regret I carry. All I can do is eliminate this evil—and myself at the same time.
Zuma cackled. “Aye, she’s thin and small but she’ll be tasty enough to get me by a night or two.”
I decided to keep asking questions—until he was offended enough to attack me. Either way, I’d gain knowledge before I died, which might help my brother stay alive. “Your queen doesn’t feed you?”
He cast a quick look over his shoulder toward the pyramid outside. If I wasn’t mistaken, it was a look of fear. What could make a man who wore a tattered, rotten human skin afraid? “Queen Tocatl only rarely feeds. I haven’t seen her since she took me as Blood.”
My mind raced with a thousand questions. “I didn’t realize Blood could exist so long without feeding from their queen.”
“Truth be told, I’ve never fed from her.” He unsheathed a beautifully carved obsidian blade. “She stung me. That was enough to wake my power. Now I sustain myself.”
Stung…? Dread thickened my voice. “Tocatl. She’s a spider.”:Beware,:I told Tlacel.:I don’t think the queen has a human form.:
Zuma stepped closer, his hand snaking out to tangle in the woman’s hair. She cried out, flinching away, but she didn’t have anywhere to go, not when me before her and him at her back. “House Tocatl is thousands of years old. We were ancient before your people were planting maize on Lake Texcoco. Our power is incomprehensible even to one such as you.” He stroked the flat of his blade over the woman’s cheek. “Let alone this pitiful human. They know to avoid Teotihuacan. They’ve heard the legends. Yet they remain close enough for me to feast whenever I want.”
