Queen of The Hill (Knight Games)
Page 22
Strike one, no consent.
The vampire growled and grabbed her by the neck.
“Hey!” she said.
He forced her to meet his eyes. “This will be fine,” he stated again.
“This will be fine,” she repeated.
Strike two, compulsion.
Maneuvering her behind the dumpster, he brushed her hair aside, and tipped her head to expose her jugular.
Strike three, intention to drink human blood. I drew Nightshade and prepared to move in for the judgment.
A dark fog rolled past me and lifted the vampire from the woman’s body. The vamp was pulled straight up into the air at super speed and then dropped. I took a step back so the body didn’t hit me in the head. When it did land, I noticed immediately that the vampire’s heart had been torn out. In seconds, the body turned gray, then to dust, and became indistinguishable from the rest of the dirt on the pavement.
“Show yourself,” I said.
A wind blew past me, smelling faintly of Scotch, and formed into a sharply dressed vampire sophisticate with chocolate brown hair and Caribbean blue eyes.
“Hello, Julius,” I said. “Didn’t expect to have your help tonight.”
“The free coven does not allow feeding on unwilling humans, Grateful. We police our own.”
I shrugged. “Good with me. One less thing on my list. Have a nice night.” I sheathed Nightshade and turned to leave the alley.
Julius appeared in front of me in the blink of an eye. “Why are you out alone tonight?”
“Rick had some things he needed to do.”
The vampire peered at me through suspicious, hooded eyes. “Bullshit. I saw the state he was in at Tabetha’s. He hasn’t recovered yet, has he?” He rubbed his chin.
I couldn’t tell if Julius was smiling. His mouth was a straight line, but his eyes looked a little too happy about the idea of Rick having lasting consequences from Tabetha’s poisoning.
“He’s fine,” I lied. The truth was Rick was far from fine. As the spell warned, Rick had lost something when Tabetha overdosed him with persigranate, namely the memory of our life together with him as my caretaker. At some level, he knew who I was, and he understood I was a witch. He even remembered the scar on his chest and how it got there. But he didn’t remember my previous lives. In his mind, we’d never had sex. We’d never been married. He’d never transformed into his beast.
Julius rolled his neck. He wasn’t buying my denial, but he didn’t push the topic. “Are you done for the night?” he asked.
“Yeah. Heading home. The ward is safe for another twenty-four.” That was an exaggeration. My magic mirror didn’t catch everything. The situations it pictured were premeditated and not tampered with by sorcery.
“Would you like to come back to the Thames for a drink?” Julius arched one eyebrow. For a moment, I had the sense he was trying to be seductive. Julius was attractive by commercial standards, and vampires were predatorily gifted with charm, but I was immune to those gifts and somewhat sickened by his history.
“I’ll pass, thanks,” I said. I kept walking.
“After all we’ve been through?” He gently placed a hand on my shoulder. “Wouldn’t it be nice to be friends? Allies? You might need me again someday.”
I bunched my forehead. The lightbulb came on. Julius wasn’t really asking if I wanted a drink. He was trying to offer me a drink because he might need something someday. Julius was kissing up to me. This was politics, not seduction.
I supposed it was important to be political, now that I was queen of multiple territories. “Okay. One short drink,” I said. “At a bar. Not in your bedroom.”
He agreed. I strolled from the alley shoulder to shoulder with the vampire, wondering if I was making a mistake. Then again, I had been chosen to rule, and rulers made a habit of knowing their constituents. At one point, I’d kept Julius alive for his political position as leader of the free coven. It was only natural I foster that relationship, vampire or not.
“Here,” he said, suggesting a bar called The Ocean.
“There’s a line,” I said. “And I’m underdressed.”
He took my elbow and led me directly to the bouncer, who let us in ahead of at least fifty waiting twenty-somethings. In the back, in a quiet section called the Deep End, we took seats on velvet blue couches and had our drink orders taken by a girl in a bikini. He ordered Scotch. I ordered a blue Hawaiian. When in Rome …
“Now that you’re back, how’s the transition going?” I asked. “Anyone giving you a hard time about jumping back in and calling yourself the king?”
Julius placed an ankle across the opposite knee and leaned his head back into a cradle of his fingers. “I’ll answer that question when you tell me how you are faring with the wood witch’s power.”
I shrugged. “The day I signed for her territory, a plant sprouted from my floorboards. I cut it back. The next morning my entire staircase was covered in roses. I’ve tried everything. Chemicals, burning, clippers. There’s no going back. My house is officially a rose garden.”
Julius laughed.
I stared at him expectantly.
“You recently witnessed the death of the last dissenter.” He grinned.
The waitress arrived and handed him his Scotch and me a blue fishbowl the size of my head with a straw sticking out of it. I had to use two hands. I set it down on the small table in front of us.
“Is that how you handle everything? Someone pisses you off and they wind up dead?”
He circled the amber liquid in the bottom of his glass. “Technically, everyone in the coven is already dead, but yes.” He pointed at me. “It seems you have the same strategy.”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not like you.”
“No? Marcus crossed you. He’s dead. The nekomata crossed you. The entire clan is dead. Bathory? Would be dead if Tabetha hadn’t saved her by mummifying her under a tree. Oh, and lest I forget, Tabetha … dead.”
I picked up my fishbowl and took a long, sweet drink through the straw. I didn’t know what to say to that, so I said nothing.
“It’s okay, you know, to be like me,” Julius said. “I’ve survived a long time living like I do.”
“I am not like you, Julius. The people I’ve killed tried to kill me first. I was protecting myself.”
“And I kill indiscriminately?”
I shook my head. “I couldn’t begin to speculate on all the reasons you’ve killed.”
He tossed back the remainder of his Scotch. “Oh, I think you probably could,” he said softly.
“What are you getting at, Julius?”
“Despite what you say to the contrary, I suspect your caretaker isn’t what he used to be—”
“He’s fine.”
“Your territory has grown, and you are still learning to use your power.”
“I killed one of the strongest witches alive. I think I’m doing pretty well.”
“I want to offer you help. I’m here for you, if you need me. My coven is at your service.” He looked at me with nothing but sincerity in his eyes.
“And every service comes with a price, doesn’t it, Julius?”
He nodded slowly, never breaking eye contact.
He was right. Poe and I hadn’t been successful in getting Rick to shift into his beast yet, and he’d lost all memory of the supernatural knowledge he’d gained during the last three centuries. Not only had I lost my backup, he was still getting comfortable with indoor plumbing. I didn’t trust Julius, not really. But I had a job to do.
I lifted my fishbowl. “To new beginnings,” I said.
He toasted me with his empty glass.
* * * * *
I arrived at Rick’s just after two a.m., an early night by our usual standards. When he opened the door for me, one look told me it hadn’t been a good night. His face was gaunt. His skin pale.
“Your hands are shaking,” I said.
He didn’t exactly greet me, just opened the door a little wide
r.
The remnants of his dinner, what looked like rabbit stew, still sat in a bowl on his counter, cold. I wondered where he got the rabbit. A shotgun leaned against the corner. Maybe he’d killed it himself.
“Everything tasted rancid,” he said. “I cannot eat. I cannot sleep.”
I dumped the stew in the garbage and washed out the bowl. “I’ve tried to explain to you, Enrique, this isn’t what your body needs anymore. You need—”
“Blood.” His voice cracked. The thought sickened him.
“Or sex,” I said hopefully.
He dug his fingers into his dark waves. “Blood,” he said definitively.
I extended my wrist.
He shook his head.
Defeated, I retrieved a wineglass from the cupboard and drew Nightshade. My blood filled the glass. I tried not to think about how much I needed his blood. Now was not the time. He wasn’t ready.
I handed him the glass.
Rick closed his eyes and took a sip. Almost immediately his color returned. He drained the last drop.
“It will get easier,” I said. “Come. Sit with me.”
He left the glass on the table and joined me on the sofa. After some time, I was able to coax him into my arms. With his head on my fully clothed chest, I stroked his hair until he fell asleep, and only then planted a kiss on his temple.
Life is funny. What we think is important, isn’t. Things that seem in our control, aren’t. And in the end, the one thing that matters is love. I planned to win Rick’s love again. I planned to teach him about us and our long history. And then I planned to marry him. Because if there was one thing I’d proven to myself, it was this:
Rick was worth it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Genevieve Jack grew up in a suburb of Chicago and attended a high school rumored to be haunted. She loves old cemeteries and enjoys a good ghost tour. Genevieve specializes in original, cross-genre stories with surprising twists. She lives in central Illinois with her husband, two children, and a Brittany named Riptide who holds down her feet while she writes.
Visit Genevieve at:
http://www.GenevieveJack.com
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http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6477522.Genevieve_Jack
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Queen of the Hill would not have been possible without the help of a few individuals who gave of their time and experience.
To my husband, A, thank you for your support and encouragement. I appreciate all those times you handled the real world while I was building a fantasy one.
To my friend MM, thanks for providing technical support.
Special thanks to Laurie Bradach, RT Wolfe, and Brenda Rothert for using their sharp eyes and ears to better an early draft of the manuscript.
Finally, huge hugs to Hollie Westring, who came on as editor with the latest editions of the series.
COMING SOON
Book 4 in the Knight Games Series, Mother May I.
Table of Contents
Books By Genevieve Jack
CHAPTER 1 Wake-Up Call
CHAPTER 2 The Test
CHAPTER 3 The Debt
CHAPTER 4 Tabetha
CHAPTER 5 Murder
CHAPTER 6 Gary
CHAPTER 7 The Invitation
CHAPTER 8 The Offer
CHAPTER 9 Dinner and an Ultimatum
CHAPTER 10 Wicked
CHAPTER 11 Power Source
CHAPTER 12 Training
CHAPTER 13 My Other Job
CHAPTER 14 Logan
CHAPTER 15 A Good Night’s Rest
CHAPTER 16 Dad
CHAPTER 17 The Search
CHAPTER 18 Vampire Games
CHAPTER 19 From Dusk to Dawn
CHAPTER 20 Consequences
CHAPTER 21 The Gilded Rooster
CHAPTER 22 The Book of Light
CHAPTER 23 In Like a Lion
CHAPTER 24 Confessions
CHAPTER 25 Wedding Day
CHAPTER 26 Fallout
CHAPTER 27 Things You Can’t Unsee
CHAPTER 28 Awaken
CHAPTER 29 War and Roses
CHAPTER 30 Polina
CHAPTER 31 Return To Me
CHAPTER 32 New Beginnings
EPILOGUE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS