Page 44 of A Game of Queens
A grunt drew my attention to the opposite side of the cavern. Two men pushed through the snakes to stand on the edge of the wriggling lake. Frozen a moment, they stared at me over the chasm. I didn't know them, but they had to have heard her call too. Big fuckers, both of them. Twins by the look of it. We took each other's measure for a long moment. Muscles tensing. Tendons screaming with strain.
One of us was her alpha.
I intended it to be me.
I dove headfirst into the writhing lake a split second before they did. Something seized me in massive coils, dragging me deeper. I didn't fight it, but focused my will on reaching the queen, wherever she was. Whatever she was. I shot my heart and soul toward her like an arrow. Blackness closed. Scaled muscles worked and flexed around me, as if I'd been swallowed whole. Coils tightened, cracking ribs. I didn't care. I didn't need to breathe.
I only needed to bleed for the queen to take me.
The heaving tide of snakes suddenly parted, tossing me out into a tumbling heap. My head pounded with urgency. The call thundered in my ears, resounding in my skull. Blindly, I reached out. Snagged a rock and pulled myself across the ground. Closer to her. My left leg dragged behind me, damaged at some point. It didn't matter. Nothing could keep me from her. I hadn't livedthousands of years waiting for the call only to give up because my hip was dislocated.
"At last." Her words resounded inside me as if someone had tapped a pure crystal gong. "Come, my loves, and let us feast."
I flung out my hand to haul myself closer, and my fingers found flesh. Her ankle, I thought, but her skin didn't feel quite right. Cold and hard, though muscle moved beneath my fingers. She gripped my shoulder and dragged me up effortlessly into her embrace. Her fangs in my throat. So deep. Massive. Glorious. I bled for my queen, my heart eagerly pumping blood up through my veins like a fountain for her pleasure.
With such a powerful call, she’d pull many more Blood to her. I could feel her snakes writhing around and over us in the darkness. In the tangle of limbs and serpents,I couldn't tell if the twins I'd seen across the chasm had joined us. In her arms, it didn't matter. Let a thousand Blood answer her call.
I had been thefirst.
HEKATE
Hot,fresh blood. Living flesh. Bright spirit burning like an incandescent flame. I had forgotten the pleasure to be had in the flesh. The taste of his blood... Indescribable. The more I drank, the more I thirsted. I drained him until he was naught but a shell, his body colder than mine. But my thirst raged higher. Two more crawled closer, both injured in their rush to reach me through the tide of snakes and scorpions surrounding my newnest. I tucked the first man closer over my heart, expecting him to feed from me to regain his strength.
Instead, he lifted his head weakly. "You're... not a... queen."
Smiling,I traced a finger down the soft curve of his cheek and over his full lips. "Indeed not. Though I wish to sire a queen of my line this very night. If you're willing."
His eyes flared wide. His blood heated my throat and stomach, a tantalizing appetizer for so much more. The other two men paused, their soft pants echoing through the chamber. The smell of their blood and the hot musk of their bodies made me quiver with hunger. Yet I hesitated. I had never taken what wasn't freely offered to me. I certainly would not start a new life on this earth by abusing these men who'd answered my call.
There were others out in the world. Further away. Lesser men, both in power and stature. These chosen had been close to me for a reason. Their fates etched in my heart before it even started pumping venom once more. So Gaia's unfailing promise always flowed through Her universe. I had waited an eternity in sleep. If they needed time to consider their choice...
"Goddess," he whispered, his voice shaking with reverence. "I'm not worthy to even know your name."
Tipping my head to the side, I willed my new flesh to yield and allow my magic to drip from the numerous bites my children had given me. His blood melded with the venom flowing through my veins, creating an intoxicating concoction. "My name is Hekate, mother of all things poisonous and dark. Taste me, and free the deadly creature the Great Mother placed within you, which will only be freed with my magic. Though I must warn you—the price is high. This transformation will require your death."
Without hesitation, he pressed his mouth to the noxious fluid oozing from my skin. He let out a guttural moan but he didn't lift his mouth. He drank, though every swallow killed him. With his blood still lingering in my mouth, I could feel the painradiating through his body. Razor blades tore through his throat and abdomen. Fire burned in his veins, charring his organs. Melting his bones. Thickening his blood to a black sludge that his struggling heart could no longer pump. Yet still he drank. Until his muscles failed and he could no longer control his body.
I stroked his back, holding him through brutal death throes. His skin cooled. The frantic, desperate thuds of his heart stuttered and stilled. Heavy and limp, he sagged in my arms, fully given over to me. His life surrendered. For me.
Cradling his head, I leaned down and breathed onto his face. "Live, my love. Rise and join me forevermore."
His skin rippled. My venom swelled inside his body, shifting bones and stretching muscle to accommodate a new shape. He thrashed against me, not in death this time, but a necessary pain of transformation. Bones cracked and reshaped his human-looking body into something much more monstrously beautiful. His arms lengthened into vicious pinchers. Black scales plated his exterior. A long, powerful scorpion tail curled over his back, dripping my powerful venom. Smiling, I touched the tip of that barbed tail and licked the venom from my finger. "How perfect. The Mother has made you a gigantic Deathstalker scorpion."
The other two men inched closer, their heads low with reverence. Even though I'd killed the first man who'd approached me.
They didn’t speak.
Looking into their hearts, I realized that they couldn’t. They’d answered my call without hesitation but feared I would deem them unworthy. That I would leave them dead, rather than bring them through transformation.
Yet they still offered themselves to me.
4
DRAZHAN AND DALIBOR
We were one. We had always been one. We had one mind, split into two bodies. Never whole, and always apart.
House Lada was famous for having twins, but usually a male and a queen. However, even our ancient line failed to produce a queen the last time our ailing mother had managed to conceive.
