Queen Takes Knights (Their Vampire Queen Book 1)

by Joely Sue Burkhart

  She shivered, her eyes widening. “Then we could become monsters like that?”

  “You? No. Never. Queens are only ever queens.”

  “All women our kind are queens?”

  I could not believe this. She knew nothing, absolutely nothing, about her legacy. It was unconscionable. “No. Not at all. A queen is a rare and precious thing.”

  I felt Daire’s nearness a moment before he tapped and opened the door. He recoiled at the living conditions our queen had endured and shot me a dark look.

  :What the ever loving fuck?:

  :It’s worse. She knows nothing about her legacy. About us. Absolutely nothing.:

  :Selena must have died before she could teach her.:

  Aloud, I asked, “How old were you when your mother died?”

  “Almost seventeen.”

  Daire shook his head. “Fucking shit.”

  She looked at him, her eyebrows rising. Drawing herself up, she looked every inch a queen. My heart swelled with pride, hope, desperate longing to formalize my service. What a queen we’d found. “You have something to say, say it.”

  Daire wasn’t one to mince words. “If Selena wanted to abandon her nest and free her Blood, fine. But as soon as she conceived you, she should have immediately sent you to the nearest queen. You should never have been alone, lost, abandoned like this. This…” he waved his arms around the room. “Makes me want to paint the streets with blood.”

  “Mom would never have sent me away or abandoned me. It’s not her fault that she died.”

  “You’re wrong. It is her fault. She should never have been alone.”

  Maybe she was still buzzed on the first taste of our blood, but I suspected our queen naturally had a fiery temper. She strode to Daire, eyes blazing, and poked him in the chest hard enough he grunted.

  She was so beautiful that I hurt, deep inside, to look at her. Sleek, dark hair, large dark eyes, high cheekbones and forehead, long elegant legs, the figure of a goddess. So fucking regal.

  “She wasn’t alone. She had me.”

  “A child who knew nothing about her legacy. Now a grown woman, struggling to survive alone, hunted all her days, when she could have a dozen powerful Blood at her side to satisfy her every desire.”

  “A dozen?” She laughed, shaking her head. “I only see two.”

  “They will come,” I whispered, torn between eagerness and dread. I was Daire’s alpha. But would an alpha come to take my place at the head of her Blood? Likely. I was young yet (for our kind, only eighty eight) and had never served a queen before. A Blood’s power came from his queen, so I had nothing to gauge my own strength against.

  I wanted her well protected and powerful, and the more Blood she had, the better off we’d all be. She’d gain power from her Blood, and we would gain power from her. The more we fed from her, the more our power would cascade, ever higher. So I would relish this time as her alpha as long as possible.

  “Seriously? A dozen?”

  “Marne Ceresa had a hundred Blood in her prime, though now more sibs than true Blood.”

  Shara shook her head slowly. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Did your mother teach you nothing?”

  I was glad Daire said it, though I was thinking it.

  “About sibs and thralls and queens? No.” She sat on the edge of the shabby bed. “She told me some stories about growing up in London, how she met Dad, that she left her family because they didn’t approve.”

  As the alpha, I felt it my duty to break the darkness of the past to her. “Selena Isador had ten Blood when she took a human thrall. The ten were fine warriors, all dedicated to her service, but she loved the human. He didn’t like the fact that she regularly fed and fucked her Blood. He didn’t understand our ways. She was also taking heat from the Triune for bringing a human so deep into her nest. She finally decided to walk away. She dissolved the Blood and abandoned the Isador nest, leaving with only her human lover. Without the Blood, she had no protection, and her power diminished greatly over time. Eventually, even the Triune could not feel her presence any longer. She’d withered too much with none of our kind’s blood to fuel her power. Then, she was gone. No one knew she had a child until you gave us your name.”

  Shara gnawed on her lip, her eyes swimming with tears. “She always said she loved Dad too much. When he died, I think she lost part of herself. She was never the same.”

  I squatted down before her, unable to bear her sadness without offering comfort. I took her hand in both of mine, and she leaned forward, hesitantly, as if unsure her touch would be welcome.

  I wanted to haul her into my arms and rail curses on her mother for what she had done, but I only tipped my head down to hers, as Daire had done earlier. Submission, acceptance, my silent oath to serve in any way possible.

  “I want to know everything.”

  Daire knelt beside me and I didn’t have to look at him to know he was flashing a cocky smile. “Would you honestly rather have a history lesson now, when you could be fucking us both?”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Daire

  According to legend, a queen’s gifts naturally drew the Blood to her who were best suited for her strengths, needs and personality. I would always be the one to break the ice, make her laugh, or flirt and even antagonize her into furious, glorious fucking. Which both Rik and I desperately wanted.

  She turned those gleaming eyes on me and I shuddered beneath her gaze. For a lost queen with no understanding of her legacy, she bore great power already. How great would she be when well fed on our blood?

  There were many ways a Blood signaled submission to his queen. Kneeling before her like this, was one. Offering his throat, another.

  Leaning closer to her, offering myself up, I tipped my head to the side and bared my throat.

  She struck hard, her teeth gripping the column of my neck. I squeezed my thighs, keeping my hands off her until she had taken what she wanted. She gnawed on my skin and it hurt, yeah. But I fucking loved it. She couldn’t ever hurt me enough to satisfy me. Even Rik, with all his size and strength, had never hurt me beyond my limit.

  She made a low, desperate sound of frustration and I couldn’t help but cup her face. “I can’t do it. I don’t know how. And I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “You could never hurt me, my queen. Since you’re half human, it’s possible that you don’t have fangs. I don’t think we’ve ever had a half-human queen before.”

  She looked at me with such a look of desperation that I lifted my wrist to my mouth and shredded the skin for her. I offered my bleeding wrist and she grabbed me like a toddler tackling her first birthday cake. Closing my eyes, I sank against her. Her mouth on my skin. Her power rising. Hairs rose on my arms, my spine tingling, bones melting. Something rose inside me, a dark, hungry beast I carried, waiting to be brought out into the world. Rising to my queen’s call. My skin rippled, bones aching and cracking under the force of power. I groaned, eager to embrace the gift. I’d waited my whole life for this. But the beast prowled back down inside me, still locked.

  It needed a queen’s blood to be completely free.

  She lifted her mouth and looked at me, her eyes going wide with realization of what she’d done. Blood smeared her face, trickling down my fingers, splattering on the floor and the bed and her jeans.

  I’d never seen anything more perfect in my life than my blood smeared on her lush lips.

  “Did I take too much?”

  I snorted, pressing closer to her. “Even starved all your life, you couldn’t drink enough to harm me. Your stomach simply isn’t big enough to hold that much.”

  She looked at the raw wound on my wrist, still dripping blood. “Shouldn’t you close that? Bind it? Something?”

  “Why? It’s only blood.”

  “They hunt by blood,” she whispered, shivering.

  “They hunt your blood,” Rik said, his voice deep and booming so much she jumped against me. She didn’t know him
well enough yet to understand he wasn’t angry or even jealous—just aroused to the point of pain, aching to give her his blood and his body. Rik was too fucking eager to feel his power rise at her touch, and desperate for his first taste of royal blood. Same as me. “Our blood is a warning to their kind. We’re here, we’re close, and we’re willing to die to keep you safe. When you establish a permanent nest, we’ll fucking bleed on every inch of it, though it’s your blood that will give the nest its power.”

  We’d been sibs to the New York City Queen, Keisha Skye, for awhile, but never served her directly. We were not to her taste, since she preferred women, though her Blood and sibs had used us occasionally. It wasn’t a fulfilling life.

  Not for Aima in our prime, dreaming of serving our own queen.

  Luckily, we’d been allowed to leave in search of weaker queens that Keisha could pull to her support. Rik had a crazy idea to follow thralls in the hope that one would lead us to a queen who didn’t have many Blood, and so we’d left the cities and roamed together. Feeding each other, sibs only to ourselves. I loved the shit out of Rik and would die for him, but we both burned for a queen. We burned to be Blood, those who bleed in her service. After years of roaming from one coast of America to the other with no luck, we’d given up hope.

  Until the faintest touch in the most unlikely, unglamorous state of Arkansas drew us to Shara fucking Isador.

  Beautiful. Untouched. Lost.

  Isis’s own daughter.

  Fuck.

  The power she was going to have once she took us both. Even the Triune might sit up and take notice at the upstart half-human American vampire queen.

  Shara

  I couldn’t believe it. I was a fucking vampire.

  And Daire’s blood tasted… incredible. Like a thousand of the world’s most expensive, rare wines all blended together, sprinkled with fine crystal and gold. Heat pumped through my veins, as if my body had already managed to turn his blood into energy. My senses sharpened. I could still smell the musk of his skin. I threaded my fingers through his tousled hair, marveling at the softness of the multi-colored strands. It reminded me of a dark lion’s mane, streaked with threads of gold. He even smelled a bit like what I’d imagined a big cat would smell like. Wild and dangerous.

  I’d honestly forgotten all about Alrik. Until he planted his hands on either side of my hips on the bed and leaned in, muscling the other man out of the way. For a moment, I thought Daire might object, or even start a fight, but he yielded without complaint. Though he did shoot a sultry wink at me as he scooted to the side.

  “My turn.” Alrik growled. “My queen.”

  He smelled different from Daire. More like sweat and hot iron and a hint of smoke.

  Yum, on both accounts.

  “Are you too injured?”

  Daire made a choked noise of amusement, while Alrik frowned. Evidently, I’d insulted him gravely.

  “It’s an honor to bleed for you, Shara. A minor injury is nothing but an opportunity to serve.”

  “Let me see how bad it is.”

  His eyelids went heavy, and he readily dragged the torn, stained shirt over his head and tossed it over his shoulder.

  Oh. My. Fucking. Hot. Man. Alert.

  I’d known he was a massive man, but the shirt had hid exactly how cut and well-defined his muscles were.

  I ran my hands over the broad, heavy muscles of his chest and shoulders, reveling in his strength. He was so ripped I could feel the fiber of muscle and tendon beneath his skin. Heat radiated off him, his body one massive furnace of lust and strength.

  I ran my fingers down the chiseled ridges of his abs and found the slash in his side. It’d stopped bleeding, so I didn’t think it was too deep. “Does it need to be cleaned? Bandaged?”

  “Not at all. Our blood pushes out any toxins from the thrall’s teeth and claws, and we heal quickly when well fed. It should be healed by morning. It’s truly nothing.”

  “It’s not nothing to me,” I whispered, looking back up into his eyes, letting him see my gratitude. “No one has ever helped me like that before. Let alone been hurt doing so. If you hadn’t come tonight…”

  He made a low, rumbling sound. A threat, I thought, because I’d been so close to ending my life in order to avoid being eaten alive.

  “Never again, Shara. You will never be alone and unprotected again.”

  I leaned in and rubbed my face on his throat, breathing in his scent. “That sounds good to me. Especially if I can have this too.”

  “Always. Take my blood. Take my body. Use me any way you desire. I'm yours.”

  My mouth ached, but I ran my tongue over my teeth and didn’t feel anything new. I’d enjoyed biting Daire, even though I couldn’t break the skin easily. I’d liked having him in my mouth.

  Alrik rubbed his thumb gently over my lips. “Let me show you where the fangs should be, and feel if anything is there.”

  I opened my mouth and he stroked his index finger around the inside behind my teeth. He passed over a spot on one side and my breath caught. Sensation shot through me, a bolt of nerve endings coming alive. I ran my tongue around the front of my teeth and pressed on the other side, giving myself another jolt.

  “They’re there, though not quite ready to erupt.” His voice oozed with satisfaction, as if he couldn’t wait for me to pierce him with my teeth.

  Truth be told, I couldn’t wait either.

  “Daire, why don’t you show her how it’s done this time?”

  “Gladly,” Daire purred as he draped over the big man’s shoulder. He wrapped his palm around the front of Alrik’s neck and stroked the side of his throat. “Feel the pulse here.”

  I leaned forward and pressed my lips to that spot, slightly open so I could touch my tongue to Alrik’s skin. His pulse thumped hard and steady beneath my tongue. Teasing him, I closed my teeth on his neck, testing how hard I could bite before he reacted. My mouth throbbed in beat with his pulse. I imagined sinking teeth deep into him, feeling his blood rush into my mouth, and I groaned.

  Which made him groan.

  Daire laughed. “Allow me, my queen.”

  I leaned back enough to watch, but kept my palms on Alrik’s chest. I couldn’t stop running my hands over his skin. Daire touched him too, holding his throat, sliding an arm around his waist to draw him back against him. And it suddenly dawned on me.

  They'd been feeding each other, in more ways than one.

  Daire licked Alrik’s throat, flattening his tongue in firm, long strokes that made Alrik’s head fall back against his shoulder with a deep, shuddering groan. He might as well have been sucking his dick. When he bit Alrik, it was just as intimate as sliding into his ass. Alrik arched his back, thrusting against me.

  And I could suddenly see exactly how it would be with them. One of them fucking the other, while one fucked me. Dripping blood all over each other.

  I shuddered, pressing closer, and reached down to Alrik’s crotch. I don’t think you could exist in this century and not know the basics of sex, but I’d never actually seen a man’s dick before. Thanks a lot, ridiculous sexist television that didn’t hesitate to show a woman’s genitals but never a man’s.

  My fingers itched to explore him. Trace the ridges and veins, see what made him gasp and shudder. I wasn’t shy. Far from it. And now that I had the opportunity to play with him and his friend, I sure as hell was going to enjoy them as much as they could endure.

  Daire lifted his mouth a moment, letting blood trail down Alrik’s chest for me. I licked the trails up toward the punctures while I jerked his jeans open. I pushed my hand down into the front of his pants and wrapped my fingers around his cock. So hard, so thick, and yet incredibly soft. I squeezed my thighs around his hips, burning for his hands. His mouth. That delicious cock sinking deep into me.

  Yet he didn’t even touch me.

  I moaned against his skin, but I didn’t want to leave his blood long enough to ask him to touch me.

  His blood burned down m
y throat, so good. It had a kick, an extra punch, that Daire’s hadn’t. It went straight to my head like a shot of whiskey and I squeezed Alrik’s dick harder.

  Locking my mouth over the punctures Daire had made for me, I drank Alrik down like a woman dying of thirst. Daire’s hair trailed over my cheek and then I felt his tongue, licking at my mouth and Alrik’s skin. I made room for him, tipping my head so I could look him in the eyes. While we both fed on Alrik, licking his skin, finding each other's mouths.

  I licked Alrik’s blood from Daire’s lips, his tongue sliding into my mouth as we shared the blood, and that’s what broke the big man’s reserve.

  Alrik wrapped his arms around me, clutching me hard against him.

  “Which do you want first, my queen: dick or fangs?”

  I drew him through my fist, watching the way his nostrils flared. “Both.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Shara

  I tugged the hoodie over my head, and Alrik quickly followed with my T-shirt. I stood so I could get my jeans off, which was maybe a mistake. Because Alrik pressed his mouth to my stomach, and Daire reached for my bra over his back.

  “We must take precautions,” Alrik said against my stomach.

  I peeled the denim down my thighs, trying to figure out what he meant. “Like birth control? Condoms? I guess I thought vampires were excluded from that kind of thing.”

  Daire snorted. “We are. You’ll decide if and when you want an heir. That’s the least of our concerns.”

  I started to sit down to finish pulling my shoes and pants off, but Alrik untied my tennis shoes and I toed them off, holding on to his shoulders.

  “Your power.” Alrik glanced up at me, and I was surprised to see worry written in lines between his eyes. “When it comes, we’ll feel it too, and we’ll be coming into our power as well. We’ll all be vulnerable for a while.”

  “Not to mention the fallout.” Daire dipped down to kiss my shoulder. “For all we know, you may bring the whole building down on top of us.”