Page 6 of Queen Takes Blood
A sound tore out of my throat. Loss. Fear that I was too late. Rage. At myself. If I hadn’t wanted one last night with Daire…
I fisted my hands in the bedding, thrusting against him. Shoving deep, over and over, letting my rage boil up out of me. Trying to plow my way through his body.“Break me”, he’d asked.“Tear me up.”
Yeah. Me too. I’d break my own fucking back trying to get deeper inside him.
If she dies because I had to fuck him one last time…
A burning fist tightened in my stomach. I didn’t try to hold back. Fuck my control. I fanned the flames and threw myself headfirst over the cliff. Climax rocked through me, driving my hips harder, every muscle straining. I sank my fangs into his throat, locking him to me. Forever.
Chest heaving, I stilled against him, my face in his neck. He let out a pleased little hum, his fingers dancing down my spine. He still fed at my throat, filling up on hot alpha blood to replenish what I’d taken. What I’d allowed to spray all over us. I’d torn the sheet too, but the bed frame had survived.
“I saw her,” I whispered. “Not her face, but her location.”
His head jerked up, his eyes bright. “You did? Where? How far?”
“To the west. I can’t feel her now. The map went dark. I think…” I swallowed hard, making myself hold his gaze. Braced to watch the light die in his eyes. “Maybe we’re too late.”
His head tipped to the side. “Why’s that? Because you can’t feel her location now? This entire trip has been an experiment because we had no idea where she was, or if we were even headed in the right direction. The way I see it, now we know. You were right, Rik. All along, you were right.”
I flung myself over on my back, staring up at the dingy ceiling. “Don’t you get it? It went dark. Like dead dark. Once we found that thrall, we should have kept riding through the night.”
Despite the direness of our situation, he huffed out a laugh and curled against my side, his thigh and arm draped over me. “I think you’re looking at this all wrong.”
I shoved his thigh off me and sat up despite the pout on his tempting lips and the way he clung to me. A silent plea to stay in bed. Stay with him. “If our queen died because we stopped for the night, I’ll never forgive myself.”
Rolling his eyes, he sighed and sat up too, though only long enough to fluff up a pillow to lean against. “You’re beating yourself up for no reason. We’ve been looking for years. One night isn’t going to make a difference. You didn’t hear the call, right? You didn’t feel the compulsion to come to her side.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “No. But maybe that brief moment of feeling her was the call, but it ended because we were too far away. I don’t know what a queen’s call feels like. Maybe that was it.”
“I call bullshit. A brief moment was no call. It’s supposed to be earth shattering. A force of nature that knocks us on our asses. Not a brief wisp that’s gone before you can even glimpse her.”
I closed my eyes, my voice dropping to a gravelly whisper. “What if she’s gone because I had to fuck you one last time?”
Silence stretched out, something unnatural and alarming. Daire was never quiet. Even gagged, he’d managed to tease me through our bond. I didn’t want to see his face, stricken or wounded or worse, resentful. Full of hate because I’d fucked up our best chance of becoming Blood.
But it wasn’t in me to avoid the consequences of my own actions. Steeling my resolve, I turned my head and looked into his eyes.
Soft, liquid warmth pooled in his golden-brown eyes. Not hatred or anger or regret. “Then I’m fucking glad we had tonight, and I’m even more glad that I’ll have every day and night with you as long as we both stay alive.”
“Which won’t be long if we go back to New York City.”
He reached up to cup my cheek, his thumb teasing over my bottom lip. “What if the only reason you were able to feel her location for that brief second was because we were together? That moment of passion opened up a window for you to see where no one else has been able to go. Love got us out of Skye Tower. Love brought us here. And love will take us to our queen.”
My shoulders sagged with relief. I bowed my head, resting my chin on his forehead. “You’re fucking incredible, do you know that?”
“Of fucking course.” Laughing, he scrambled out of bed and began pulling on his clothes. “Though now that we know she’s close, I think we should keep on going. How far away did she feel? Days? Hours?”
“A hundred miles or so.”
“Fuck,” he breathed out, his eyes shining. “Let’s go get our queen.”
4
DAIRE
We rode into Eureka Springs at dawn, our hope as bright as the rising sun. This was the first larger town we’d come to that was roughly the right distance away, though Rik couldn’t say for sure this had been the location he’d sensed in that brief vision.
Evidently it was a summer tourist town because most every place was packed up tight for the winter. Only the main shops were open, decorated for last minute holiday shoppers. We dicked around for hours, riding our motorcycles up and down the narrow, twisty streets, taking in the sights. Waiting to feel some kind of tug or pull down an alley or into a shop.
