Page 32 of A Game of Queens
“We need to hurry.” I clutched the coat around me and ran for the door. I didn’t pay attention to the surroundings in my panic. Only the sky, casting fearful glances over my shoulder. I stumbled, and he gripped my elbow, just long enough to make sure I didn’t fall. Then he released me, remembering how I’d reacted the night before.
“What are you looking for?”
“The sun.”
“Sunrise will take another twenty minutes or so.”
“But the sky is lightening now. It may already be too late. They’ll come with the sun.”
“I thought you saw one last night in the hospital.”
“I did, or at least a hint. They’re weaker in darkness, but when the sun rises, they’ll be unstoppable.”
He pulled the door open for me, and I hurried inside with one last glance back. I strained to hear the crackle and spark that might indicate they were close, but the drone of voices drowned out any early warning sounds I might be able to detect. A musty smell made me wrinkle my nose.
“Yeah,” he said beneath his breath. “Nothing to be too excited about. It’s small and off the main road, so it’s harder to find. “
“Have you hidden here before?”
He grunted sourly, which I took to be an affirmative. Questions buzzed in my head, but I didn’t voice them. Why had he needed to hide? How long ago? Had he been here with other people? I didn’t know him well at all, but I knew the answer to that question was no. He was definitely a lone wolf, other than the sister he’d mentioned.
Pausing in front of a high desk, he passed something to the waiting man.
“Good evening, Mr. Smith.” The man gave me a lecherous wink. “The room you requested is ready. Hospital kink? Now that’s a new one.”
I blinked in confusion but kept my face smooth. He’d given a false name, so he didn’t trust this place or man either, even though it was supposed to be relatively safe.
The man jerked his head toward the left hallway. “All the way down at the very end. Not too many guests in that wing, so no noise complaints. If you know what I’m talking about.”
I started walking in that direction, letting Eivind follow. I didn’t like the stranger’s eyes on me. It made my skin crawl. Or was that my nerves? My internal warning? We passed a black box where the voices were coming from. I clenched my jaws tighter and quickened my steps until I was almost running down the hall. Even indoors, I still felt exposed.
Heat grew inside me. The sun burned, rising slowly in the sky. My blood heated. My heart pumped energy through my body. I didn’t feel insubstantial and weak any longer.
I felt alive. Burningly alive.
The roof of my mouth throbbed, startling me. I probed with my tongue and found a hint of something sharp. Two fangs, barely distended.
What am I?
EIVIND
My hackles rose.My stomach boiled with acid. My skin itched, nerves screaming with alarm.
The queen's hunger rose.
I could see all too easily how this would play out. She'd requested a dark, private room with no windows. Only one exit. Once inside with her, I'd be trapped. She might appear weak and powerless and close to death, but I was no fool. A queen didn't need formidable physical power to overwhelm man or wolf. All she needed was the power humming in her blood.
Maybe she didn't realize what she was doing. I didn't fucking care one way or the other. But the fuck if I was staying to find out. I gave her a hard shove into the room and grabbed the door. "I need to move the car."
She stared at me silently a moment, dark liquid eyes shining in the darkness of the room. She licked her lips, though whether from nervousness or anticipation of a feast I wasn't sure. "You're not coming back."
It wasn't a question. Finality hung her in her words. Acceptance.
Fuck it all, it pissed me off. Yeah, I wanted to be nowhere near a queen's thirst, no matter how desperate her need might be. I didn't care if she died. I'd left her dying in an alley. Though I'd called someone else to find her, he'd been human. No one who could truly help her. A queen wouldn't feed on human blood no matter how desperate she was. Oh no. She'd feed on me.
The thought made the wolf inside me froth at the mouth and tear at my intestines desperately.
Yet I didn't want to abandon her. I couldn't. No matter how much I wanted to.
