Consort

by Kim Knox

  An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

  www.ellorascave.com

  Consort

  ISBN 9781419921155

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  Consort Copyright © 2009 Kim Knox

  Edited by Sue-Ellen Gower

  Cover art by Syneca.

  Electronic book Publication April 2009

  The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing.

  With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

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  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

  Consort

  Kim Knox

  Chapter One

  November Eve…and I had to steal myself a consort.

  Golden light edged my body as I stood before the long, gilded mirror. I spread a palm over the wrinkles marring the smooth run of the sheer silk gown. A wry smile pulled at my mouth. The practically transparent black silk revealed curves and planes of very bare skin. The gown left very little to the imagination, just as it was meant to. I straightened my shoulders and lifted my chin. Being a reiver, the fertile daughter of a queen, it was my time to hunt down a mate. Any way I could.

  “The Queen has opened the Hunt Ball. She looked grim.” My brother’s face appeared over my shoulder and he grinned at me, his dark eyes shining. “So are you ready to terrify the assembled horde? Have every half-decent vampire falling to his knees and declaring his complete devotion?”

  “Kester…” I hitched my bare shoulder and dislodged his heavy chin. He smirked at me and flopped onto the chaise lounge placed beneath the high, shuttered window. The leather stretched tight over its cushions creaked as he stretched out his legs. “I know Zara hunts tonight as well. I’ll be lucky if I get within ten yards of any man.”

  “Zara.” He rolled his eyes. “No competition for you.”

  I bit back sour words. Kester was trying to be a good brother and I appreciated it. But we both knew that I, as the last daughter of a minor, provincial queen, was no match for the first daughter, the only daughter of the ruling Queen. Hell, my choice was even unimportant to my own family. Only Kester had accompanied me on this crucial night.

  Zara would have the pick of the men. Well, the pick, with one very important exception. “Is Jager here?”

  Kester blinked. “Jager, Zara’s brother, Jager?”

  I smoothed my hand over my dark hair. “Why shouldn’t I aim for him?”

  Kester bolted upright, his pretence of relaxation gone. His gaze fixed on mine through the mirror. “Because you only have tonight, Tate. You waste it chasing an impossible mark like Jager and by sunup you’ll be nothing more than his slave escravo.” His mouth thinned and I knew a speech was coming. “Don’t play with your future. Trap a minor tanao. A man just turned by an inconsequential queen, still full of the fire of his newly awakened beast, but with no strength of will. Make sure that by dawn you’re safe and ready to build your own colony.”

  I twitched a smile, wanting to lift the seriousness from his dark gaze. It had been a joke. Really. It had. Jager was the first, natural son of the ruling Queen. He was so far beyond me it just wasn’t funny. “We should have no ambition?”

  “We should try to maintain the position we have and not end up his slave.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Kester, it’s a joke. As if I could get within fifteen yards of Jager.” Holding up my hand, I offered the spectacle of swearing an oath. “I promise I will find myself some lackluster tanao, a man barely turned and out of the ground. More plucked vegetable than vampire.” And if I was being honest, I couldn’t expect much more than that. “Is that acceptable to you?”

  My gaze flicked around the sumptuous room, the gold-pressed wallpaper, gilt fittings, the heavy swathes of blood-red velvet. A huge, ebony four-poster bed dominated the room, with its profusion of satin, fur and silk. Ambition got a room such as this—complete vampire overkill. Ancient power and wealth oozed through the air. “I have to admit, the power of being a major queen would be tempting.” I looked up, wincing at the encrusted chandelier fixed to the ornate ceiling. It groaned with the weight of crystal and enough wattage to light a small town. “Though I do doubt I could live with the interior design.”

  Kester snorted. “You’ll make a fine queen.” He stood and placed warm hands on my shoulders. I patted his fingers. “Just don’t waste the few precious hours you have chasing the impossible. Jager is the Queen’s right arm. He’ll never give up that power.”

  “I know.” I held back a sigh. The clock on the marble mantelpiece, more gold filigree than actual substance, chimed the hour in liquid tones. Eight o’clock. Only ten hours in which to prove myself capable of founding a new colony, of starting to build my own court. I would rule them, but Jager’s mother, the ruling Queen, would rule me.

  Vampire numbers were small, only running to the thousands. And we kept it that way with the reiver, with the ritual of the hunting queen. A queen who survived the ritual—a rare feat, our males are obstinate—was allowed only three daughters and her share of turning human males into tanao and females into trabal to fill her small court. We didn’t need a population explosion. Humans were barely aware we existed and the plan was to keep it that way. It was safer for everyone, vampires and humans alike. A hand of iron needed to rule the beast at our heart, so only the strongest women became queens.

  I had to believe I had that strength because as success brought great power, even for a provincial queen—failure meant a life of servitude to the man I failed to turn to my mate. I met my brother’s concerned gaze in the mirror and tried not to dwell on the latter. “It’s time to go down.”

  Kester pulled his hands free and offered his arm. My fingers slid over the soft fabric of his sleeve and the knot in my stomach tightened. Almost every queen, her children and her tanao and trabal from five continents were gathered in the great hall to see in our new year…and to offer a large selection of candidates for two hunting reivers.

  My bare feet padded silently over the thick, cool carpet. Bare, so that I could chase down my quarry with ease. Kester pulled open one of the high doors, the wood dragging through the thick pile. I would have to do an inordinate amount of running, mainly as most of the men would be hounding Zara around her ancestral home.

  With the exception of one man.

  We walked in silence along the corridor, my feet smacking against the dark oak floor. It had been a joke. If I chased Jager then I would be escravo, no more than his slave, beholden to him for the rest of my life. He had a clutch of former reivers, evidence that he couldn’t be caught. And yet…

  I wanted to ignore the feeling, tried to push it back down into the dark recesses where it belonged, but it surfaced again. I’d met Jager once, when my second sister hunted. I was just old enough to attend and had been in awe of the glamour of so many gathered queens and their minions. And then th
ere’d been him.

  Tall, lithe, with the devastating beauty all our males hold, every eye in the great hall had focused on him and the ruling Queen. My gaze had skirted over her, an ancient vampire, whom even the blood of her tanao couldn’t keep young anymore. I’d tried to hold my gaze on her grayed, lined skin but something in Jager tugged at me.

  My gaze seared over his dark perfection and my heart thudded. I stood beside my mother, rooted to the floor, and a fierce animal hunger surged through every muscle and bone. He glanced at me as he swept past, his mother’s gnarled hand gripping his arm. Eyes darker than the deepest shadow cut deep into my flesh. Something in his gaze touched my beast and the first flicker of a growl broke from my lips. His mouth twitched, mocking me…and then he was gone, lost in the enveloping crowd.

  Thoughts of him roused my beast, the predator at the heart of a vampire. No doubt every hunting female reacted to his power and beauty in the same way. I had to deny my beast her need and settle for a less appetizing mate.

  Kester and I followed the curve of the stairs down to the grand hall. The ceremony to open the Hunting Ball had gone ahead without me. The Queen didn’t want me upstaging her daughter, after all. That was fine by me. Already guests mingled in the antechamber leading through to the hall. Eyes flicked up, skirted over my body, found my face and then dropped away. I wasn’t the reiver they wanted.

  My brother placed his hands over my fingers and squeezed. “Remember, don’t let your beast rule you. Tonight is about strategy as much as it’s about finding a man so the beast can play.”

  “I know, Kester,” I murmured and tried not to let the image of my beast sporting with Jager drive sense from my brain. “I plan to find a nice tanao, preferably lame and not too bright, whack him over the head with my scent and have the Queen grant me my province.”

  His dark eyes narrowed. “Funny, Tate.”

  “Are you going to be careful too? Zara may set her beast on you.”

  “I don’t think the illustrious Zara will have any interest in me.” Kester snagged a long-stemmed glass from a waiter and passed it to me before he grabbed one for himself. “A minor queen’s third son?” He smirked at me. “I’m not a catch.”

  I took a cautious sip of the clear liquid. The sharp burst against the back of my mouth had me gasping and fire flaring through my blood. “Essence.” The word was little more than a hiss. “Her Majesty is sparing little expense tonight.”

  Kester shrugged. “Her only daughter is hunting.”

  “And you’ll be what…?” I knew exactly what he’d be doing. He was right, Zara would have no interest in him, so he would drink and fuck the new year in. “Busy?”

  His smirk deepened. “Maybe.”

  “I hate you.”

  “Next year you can cavort with the rest of us. There won’t be another reiver for at least a decade.” He deliberately dropped his arm and stepped back from me. “Time for you to shine, Tate.” A smile pulled at his mouth, but his dark eyes grew serious. “I still want to have a twin in the morning, one I can talk to freely and not have to bribe a certain first son for the privilege.”

  “I promise, some nice little tanao as my insipid new husband.”

  “Good.” He waved his hand to the open doors leading into the grand hall. “Enjoy.”

  “The next reiver? I’m going to put in a good word for you.”

  “No one will catch me.”

  “Keep a hold of that confidence.” I patted his cheek. “Remember it when a queen has you on your knees.”

  I turned from my brother and willed myself to enter the circular hall. More crystal and blood-red heavy fabric swathed the room, golden light spilling down on the assembled guests. Already, the crowd thinned, guests drifting off to find other entertainment…and to make themselves available to Zara. I lifted my chin as eyes drifted over me and slipped away with disinterest. I was the daughter of a minor queen, who would only snag a minor mate. No one at the illustrious gathering needed to curry favor with me.

  People parted, not from respect, but from the strong desire for me to have no contact with them. It pulsed through the air, amplified by the amount of essence consumed. I took another sip, letting the fiery liquid simmer and evaporate on my tongue. The Queen was rumored to have herds of the milkable humans, that her tanao governed unsuspecting towns and drained the population. A human could produce only a few drops of essence, a piece of their soul, and stay healthy and sane. I took another sip, fire flickering through my veins, and I had to wonder whether she’d decimated those towns for this November Eve celebration.

  I moved through the crowd until I found myself in the shadows of an alcove. Curving around to my left were the arched glass doors leading out onto the terrace. The glass reflected the sparkle of the lights, the brilliance of too much jewelry. I leaned against the cool silk lining the walls and let out a slow breath.

  I should’ve made a list, picked out the men most likely to fall before a minor queen. But I hadn’t. An idiot part of me didn’t want to be practical. It wanted… I froze. There he was. Jager. I forced breath in and out of my body and pressed my tongue against the sudden prick of my fangs.

  He stood with the Queen, his expression serious. He hadn’t changed in the decade since I’d first growled at him. Standing a full head taller than the tanao surrounding him, golden light edged his carved features, shimmering against his black hair. He still held the incredible and powerful beauty that had my breath tight in my chest. I willed back the insistent curve of my fangs, but my beast had a mind of her own. She wanted the innate power that flowed from Jager, wanted to sink her teeth into his heart and mix his power with hers, bind him to her down through eternity. A growl reverberated, but luckily the shadows hid me and the sound lost strength in the noise of the room.

  I forced myself to focus on his mother to kill the need I had to jump him. A small, bowed woman with her fingers dug like claws into her son’s arm. The thin circlet of gold, the ruling Queen’s crown, twined through the heavy piles of her blonde hair. Her face seemed paler than I remembered, more lined, and tiredness hung on her. Her age was a jolt of reality. I needed it. Jager was her strength now. He would never kneel before another.

  I willed my gaze to the gaggle of women standing behind Jager. Clad in silver silk and standing with dignified calm, their heavy silver collars gleamed. Jager’s escravo, former reivers foolish enough to try to make such a powerful man their mate. They’d become his playthings, condemned to be used as he saw fit. And they were condemned to wear silver as a sign that they would never burn it from their skin—the true mark of a queen being the ability to burn silver to black ash. There was no lower degradation for us. And it would be a fate that awaited me. No, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to—

  Eyes darker than shadow held mine. All of my previous logic vanished. Heat flared through me, hotter than the lingering burn of essence. My beast growled and the corresponding gleam in Jager’s gaze almost had me pushing away from the wall and closing the distance between us. But I willed my bare feet still and dug my toes into the warm wood. I made my smile arch, fangs catching sharp on my lips, and Jager’s eyes narrowed.

  I ignored the thrum in my blood, the wet ache between my thighs. Anger bubbled under my thoughts, evidence that my beast was not happy with the decision to turn down Jager’s challenge. And the bastard had challenged me.

  Did he want to add to his collection? He already had seven women bound to him.

  I put my glass on a cloth-covered table. Drinking more essence would only set my beast free, and I wanted that like I needed a hole in the head. I snagged canapés from the table, needing to dull the fire scorching through my gut and taking the edge off my primitive hunger.

  I would try my luck in the darkened corridors winding through the great house.

  The anger eased and anticipation bloomed heat in my chest. Yes, my beast was appeased with the thought of the hunt, of scenting prey in the darkness. More guests parted before me, some of them scrambling bac
k, fear streaming off them. I twitched a smile and more than one tanao flinched. They’d picked up my scent, the soft, seductive spice of a fertile female, one on the hunt and planning to bring a man to his knees before her.

  A queen glared at me, fangs sliding quick, defensive of her brood of young, fresh tanao. None of the ones remaining in the grand hall had any fear from me. Every male who could was out to find Zara. With one exception. And that exception had my skin prickling. Damn it, I could feel the hot slide of his gaze down my back and it had me wet. Spice-laden scent drifted around me, a heady aroma that burned power through my blood.

  I pulled in a deep breath and stopped at the dark doorway leading into the interior of the great house. My hand gripped the doorjamb. I was a queen, designed to build a new colony around me, turn deserving humans from food to the ever-living. A queen needed a mate to father her daughters, to bring order to her household.

  I glanced behind me. The room had dropped to silence, all attention focused on me. A smile curved my mouth, fangs digging at my lips. It was a smile meant to taunt one man, a man not worthy of me. But Jager no longer stood beside the Queen.

  My smile deepened. Fire raced through my body. His disappearance could only mean one thing. He still meant to challenge me and a delicious growl escaped my lips.

  Yes, Jager, like all the others who wanted to be prey that night, had left the hall.

  Chapter Two

  I moved on instinct, melting from shadow to shadow. Maybe I would find Jager, maybe I wouldn’t. The first male I found would be my prey. The little voice in the back of my head, the sane one, said leaving it to fate was insane, that I had to run like hell if I scented Jager.

  But I couldn’t make that promise. A vampire lived by fate Thousands of years ago, fate had swept a virulent disease through a remote island far north of Scotland, changing, mutating the inhabitants. The small band of survivors had found themselves ageless, almost immortal and with a craving for the blood and souls of humans. Fate had been good to us—