He started to fade away into mist, though I could still feel his palm on my cheek. I nestled my face deeper into his caress. The only time my true father had ever touched me. “Will my fire hurt the creatures of darkness?”
His eyes flared with flames, and he chuckled as he dispersed into the darkness. Mount Vesuvius has always been my domain. The hottest hells of the earth cannot touch our kind. Know true darkness by how it embraces your fire, your blood, or both, and beware the bright light of day.
“Thank you, Father.”
I swallowed the knot in my throat and reached out to stroke my fingers through the velvety dark purple flowing around me. It responded to me, the same way my blood quickened. I wasn’t sure how I would use it yet, but I’d learned a very important lesson already.
Every gift I’d been given so far had made a difference in our survival. I would heed his warning and embrace his gifts, until I thoroughly understood how to save us when the time came.
For now, I willed my blood to light Keisha’s body with the hottest flames I could imagine. The purple flows tightened around her like an impenetrable net, keeping the beetles from escaping. I watched as my blood and fire crisped Keisha Skye into ash that compacted itself into a small black ball. I crushed her into dust and allowed the tides of darkness to disperse her to the four winds.
“Okay,” I whispered, reaching up to wrap my arms around Rik’s neck. “I’m finished here.”
I was so tired, and there was still so much to do. I rested my eyes, drooped across his chest as he headed for the elevator, but my mind raced.
:Do we need to post some guards here to keep an eye on Skye Tower?:
:Already taken care of, my queen,: Rik assured me. :We’ll have two Blood present at all times. Daire and Ezra are evaluating all our former sibs to see who might be good candidates to use as additional protection until you’re able to make your own blood circle.:
My heart lurched at the thought of leaving two of my Blood behind. :What about when we go home to the nest? I can’t leave anyone behind. I won’t.:
:We’ll figure something out when the time comes.:
:A sib would be your best bet,: Guillaume said in the bond. :They’ll be yours, and hold the territory in your stead.:
I’d felt several queens during our procession to meet Keisha. Several of them had followed me and responded to my power, but I didn’t know if they’d be strong enough to hold New York City for me. I touched my consiliarius’s bond. :Could you prepare a short list of potential queen sibs who you think would be good candidates to hold the city for me?:
She couldn’t answer me in the bond, since I hadn’t tasted her blood, but I sensed her immediate agreement. Knowing Gina, she’d already started compiling the list. She was just that good at her job.
With my eyes closed, I allowed my mind to drift as Rik carried me down the hallway toward the service elevator. If I’d had my eyes open, or if I’d been upright and walking, I probably wouldn’t have noticed the faint tug in the eddying violet power.
“Stop,” I whispered.
He paused, and I felt his senses stretching outward, looking for anything amiss. Xin’s wolf immediately ghosted past us, his ruff rising on a silent snarl.
:Do you sense anything?: Rik asked Xin in the bond.
:Nothing. If there’s anyone else down here, their scent is well masked.:
Shifted into his black dog, Itztli paced ahead of us, sniffing the concrete floor and the currents of air. :Agreed. No scent, not even like Ra’s minion that attacked us in Mexico.:
But I felt… something. Keeping my eyes closed, I let the dark flows of the basement pass around me. Cool shadows, safe darkness, but sterile. I didn’t feel any of the goddesses’ touch here. No earth magic or spark of life. Just darkness. My father’s domain.
Something tugged ever so faintly on my attention. A small snag, like I was walking through the woods and my scarf caught on an invisible twig. It broke away to nothing as soon as I tried to look for it.
Rik took a few slow steps and paused. “There are halls off to the left and right. Do you feel a direction?”
The faintest tug came from the left, like a tiny spider web tickling my cheek. I pointed down the hall without opening my eyes. Xin and Itztli crept in that direction, while Rik remained in the main aisle. My alpha wasn’t going to take me into an unknown threat.
:These look like prison cells,: Xin said. :No windows, iron doors, lots of salt.:
“Salt? Does she have thralls down here? Who would keep thralls?”
Rik shook his head grimly. “Even Keisha wouldn’t have kept thralls inside her nest. It has to be something else.”
“But what else does salt work against? I wonder if it would have affected Tanza.”
:All the cells are empty except one,: Xin said. :You need to see this, my queen.:
Rik headed down the corridor. Tlacel and Nevarre joined Itztli’s black dog in front of us. Guillaume, Llewellyn, and Mehen guarded our back.
I opened my eyes, but I didn’t ask Rik to set me down. “We need to search the tower thoroughly, especially this basement. With Tanza hidden away, and now these cells, I’m nervous about what else Keisha may have hidden down here.”
“Agreed,” Rik replied. “The last thing we want is for you to drop a blood circle with something nasty inside.”
My Blood formed an arc outside a rusted metal door at the end of the hall. Dust lay thick in the air and coated the floor. Other than our footprints, it didn’t look like anyone had been down here in years. Yet there was a thick line of salt poured along the doorway, and a heavy lock and chain barred the door.
Guillaume touched the old-fashioned lock. “Silver. Whatever’s inside, they took every precaution to be sure it stayed put. I’d bet they blessed the door with holy water too.”
Xin and Itztli sat on their haunches, alert but not growling. “Can you sense anything alive inside?”
:Nothing, but that could be the protections,: Xin replied.
I blew out a breath. “Well, I guess we need to open it up and see what Keisha was so scared of. Put me down so I can take a closer look.”
For once, Rik didn’t obey me. In fact, he tightened his grip on me, tucking me closer against him.
Surprised, I looked up into his face. I didn’t need light to sense the heat blazing in his eyes.
“I will, my queen. After you feed.”
2
Rik
I would carry my queen every moment of the day and night if she’d let me. I never wanted to set her down. If she was in my arms, all was right in the world. Nothing else mattered. Let the Keishas of the Aima courts try to defeat her. Let the demons drain me dry. My queen would tear down the foundations of the world to reach me. So I could hold her again, like this. Always.
Even more, I needed her in my arms. I needed to feel that connection with her as assurance that we were both alive and well. She’d been victorious, and though we’d taken some damage, it wasn’t anything we couldn’t recover from. It wasn’t something I couldn’t recover from.
I didn’t want to remember the way Tanza’s blood had burned into me, destroying everything I loved. It hadn’t been the pain that hurt so badly. It’d been the doubt. The crippling fear that I would be so broken and damaged that I wouldn’t be able to serve as Shara’s Blood ever again. Let alone as alpha.
Tanza had tortured my mind as well as my body by taking images from my memory and twisting them. Like when Guillaume had first come to our queen’s call. He’d chopped off my head, but only after making me watch him take my place in her bed. My place as her alpha at her back. My place in her heart.
That vision hurt more than the lingering internal damage.
Even though I’d been hurt, I wanted her to come to me first for protection and assistance, pleasure and blood. I needed her to reinforce my position as her alpha.
I thought she would refuse me. I wasn’t one hundred percent yet. Something still felt… raw inside me. But she needed
to be stronger if something nasty waited on the other side of the cell door.
Her dark eyes gleamed, missing nothing. Her bond shimmered in my mind like pure moonlight, spinning crystals though me. Shining her light on those dark, shadowed places that still hurt.
“Okay,” she whispered, reaching up to cup my cheek. “But I’ll need your help.”
My throat ached. Shara had never liked asking for help, especially when it came to feeding. At one point, she’d almost starved herself as her power started to come in, though her fangs hadn’t, simply because she hadn’t wanted to ask for assistance.
So for her to ask—for anything—was a priceless gift.
She was fully capable of asking Guillaume for a blade, but she left the decision to me. She wanted me to be her alpha in all ways, even something as minor as this.
“Nevarre.” My voice was rougher than I intended, though her raven Blood came to us without complaint. “Bite me for our queen.”
He gave me an agreeable grin and slid close, tucking Shara between us. His long black hair slid over her shoulder like a silken blanket, making her give him a sultry look. “It’s been entirely too long since I had you in my bed, Nevarre.”
“I agree, my queen.” He winked without animosity and leaned in toward my throat, but he paused, waiting for me to give him the okay, even though I’d ordered him to come to our queen’s aid.
I’d chosen Nevarre for several reasons. She was right—he could use some more time with her. He’d come to her at the same time as Mehen, whose gigantic personality and ancient power easily overshadowed everyone around him. Then she’d added the twins in Mexico. Nevarre wasn’t as grumpy or playful or formidable as the others. He and Xin carried a quiet, deadly power that was easy to overlook.
Nevarre hadn’t shifted, so it made it easier and quicker for him to help her. But I’d also chosen him because of his personality. He hadn’t complained or ruffled any feathers despite other new Blood joining the fold, and he wasn’t going to bitch or complain like Mehen. And Guillaume…
While I trusted him implicitly, the scene Tanza had put into my head was too fresh to ask the headless knight to tear open my throat, even in service to our queen.
I gave Nevarre a nod and he sank his fangs into my throat, just long enough to make the wound for her. Shara made a low sound of hunger that made my fangs and dick throb with anticipation. Closing my eyes, I sank into her bond as she sealed her mouth over the punctures. My blood slid down her throat. I felt the rush of alpha power flooding her system. The surge of desire that tightened her body. She had a hand fisted in Nevarre’s hair, her arm locked around my neck. Nevarre tucked his face against her back, soaking her in even though she wasn’t feeding on him.
Guilt twinged. I needed to do a better job of making sure each of her Blood had time to touch and hold her. And with as much as she loved each of us, she needed the time too. They needed to feel her love and revel in her pleasure, the same as her alpha.
She licked the punctures closed and lifted her head. Too soon. I felt her hunger still burning in her veins like a ravaging fever. Turning in my arms, she reached for Nevarre. His eyes flared with hope, another stab of guilt through my heart. She didn’t have to ask me to lean down and sink my fangs into him so she could feed.
:I’m sorry, Nevarre. I’ll make sure you have more time with her.:
:No apology is needed, alpha. I know all too well how difficult it is to balance each Blood’s duty and service for a powerful queen. My need is nothing, as long as hers are met.:
:I need you, too, Nevarre,: she whispered in the bond with a sense of aching need that had us both pressing her harder between us.
She fed from him long enough that I felt his heart thudding heavily in the bond. Reluctantly, she lifted her head and pressed her lips to his. :You always taste like magic.:
:My magic and my blood are yours, my queen.:
I did a quick sweep through her bond to check her health and strength level. She could still stand to feed from at least another couple of us, but she was plenty strong enough to deal with whatever was behind this door. Even if it was another queen as strong as Keisha.
Which was a sobering thought. Before I’d left in search of my own queen, I’d been in awe of how strong Keisha was. She’d held New York City and was the strongest queen in the Americas. Her power had dwarfed my mother’s Hyrrokkin queen, though we weren’t known for immense power, only our physical strength and size.
Keisha’s power was a drop in the bucket compared to Shara’s. She was the strongest queen in the Americas now, and very likely rivaled even Marne Ceresa or the Dauphine. The Triune queens, with one seat open.
I couldn’t claim any knowledge of the goddesses’ plans for my queen, but I’d be a fool to not expect the Triune call. Only Shara would be strong enough to hold that third seat and stand against the other two queens. The scope of those duties…
Already, she wanted nothing to do with the seat, and she didn’t even know a fraction of the responsibilities that would come with it. Though we needed the Triune whole and strong. Aima were losing our courts and queens faster than new queens could possibly be born, even now that some of the ancient lines had been rejuvenated with godly sires. The Triune needed her, whether or not Marne or the Dauphine would admit it.
“I’m ready, thanks to you two.”
I set her down in front of the door. She stretched out her right hand and touched the silver lock. “Does silver affect us in any way?”
“The legends are always somewhat based in fact.” Guillaume reached over his shoulder and pulled a foot-long heavy blade out of a spine sheath beneath his shirt. “Even the rock troll would have a difficult time breaking free of silver chains this thick. Allow me to break the chains and lock for you, my queen.”
With a nod, she stepped back against me. I slipped my arm around her waist and she closed her hand over mine on her stomach. Her hand was so small in mine, and her head barely reached my sternum. But it suddenly dawned on me….
She was protecting me. Offering me her strength, her touch, her love a shield, as the knight stepped closer to us. The knight who’d killed me over and over in my head while Tanza tortured me.
I clenched my jaw so hard I almost broke a tooth. My queen. Protecting me. It was all I could do not to sweep her back up in my arms. Or better yet, carry her to the nearest bed and bury my face between her thighs.
Guillaume slipped the tip of the heavy blade into a link and carefully pried the chain open. The lock fell with a clatter to the floor and he stepped back, lifting his gaze to mine. The consummate gentleman and honored Templar knight held my gaze a moment, and then inclined his head. To me. Not to her.
Our bonds were all strong enough that I’m sure Guillaume had no difficulty picking up the shuddering memories implanted in my head. Memories that had not happened, would never happen, but hurt just the same. The man had been tortured too, physically in prison, and then mentally and emotionally by his first queen. He knew firsthand the toll it took on a man. Especially a man used to being the strong protector.
He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. And I respected him all the more for that small gesture of respect and honor.
Resisting the urge to push my queen behind me to fully protect her, I planted my palm on the heavy door and shoved it open. The hinges groaned with disuse. Guillaume slipped inside, followed by Xin and Itztli, both still shifted, their mighty noses working overtime. Through our bonds, their senses flooded me with rich colors and textures of smell. Thick, ancient dust. Coppery rust. A hint of decay. No, not a rotten scent. Extremely old, wasted away, desiccated…
“A mummy,” Shara whispered. “But who is it? If they’re dead, why all the protections?”
She stepped forward and I glided with her, keeping contact with her body though I didn’t hinder her steps or try to keep her back. We entered a small cell with no windows. The air was thick and heavy. One of the Blood flipped a switch, and the hallway flooded with su
dden light, spilling into the cell and illuminating a table in the center of the room.
Nevarre hovered at the door, protecting our back, along with Mehen and Llewellyn.
The table looked like an exam table from a doctor’s office. On top, a body laid tightly wrapped in yellowed rags, very much like a television mummy. More silver chains bound the body tightly to the table, and a heavy crucifix lay on top of its chest with a wreath of garlic.
“Silver, salt, garlic, holy objects,” Guillaume whispered. “It’s like they threw everything they could think of into the ward.”
She held her hand out over the body and drew her hand down its length without actually touching it. Her eyes fluttered shut and her head tipped, as if she listened to something only she could hear. “The prison isn’t the silver chains or even death. His prison is complete and utter darkness.” Her eyes opened, glinting like Guillaume’s blade. Hard, cold steel. “He’s one of Ra’s followers.”
Guillaume didn’t move, exactly, but the blade in his hand seemed bigger, longer, ready to cut the mummy apart in one mighty blow. “Egyptian?”
“No. He doesn’t…” She blew out a disgusted sigh. “He doesn’t feel like Isis. When I think of Her, I see sands and smell the desert wind. I see Her pyramid and the moon hanging above. Or I feel Her hair blowing in my face and smell jasmine.”
“What do you sense from him?” I asked.
Her mouth tightened into a flat, hard line. “Sunlight and blood.”
Itztli rumbled a growl. His ruff spiked around his neck and started down his spine. :Huitzilopochtli.:
The Aztec sun god of Tenochtitlan.
“Fuck,” all eight of us said in unison.
Shara
I backed away from the mummified body, my mind racing. He did feel ancient and… deep. That was the only word I could think of. His force of personality and will was as old as the bedrock, like Tepeyollotl and gods who were worshipped centuries ago.
“Why the fuck would Keisha Skye have the Aztec sun god imprisoned in her basement?”
Queen Takes Checkmate (Their Vampire Queen Book 5) Page 2