My two men enfolded me between them. I breathed in their scents, soaked in their heat, rested on their strength. I felt their steady touch in my mind, our bond forged by blood and trust. While they held me, I stretched out my hand toward the spot where my parents had died, and let them see what had happened.
I pressed against the tiny, dirty basement window, desperate to see what was happening. My hands ached from pounding on the door, but the heavy oak hadn’t even cracked. I could bust out the glass… but the window was too small for me to get through. It was barely more than a peephole. But I saw everything.
Mom walked down the path from our backyard to the iron gate. Head high, shoulders back, she didn’t rush or tremble with fear, despite the shrieks and howls from the monsters waiting in the trees. A huge yard light illuminated the gate—our weak spot in our defenses. Dad had joked that we could get suntans at night if we sat under the light for too long. The monsters certainly didn’t like it.
“Bring her to me, my love, and I’ll let the human live.” Even safe in the house, the creature’s voice made goose bumps race down my arms. I shuddered, clutching my hands over my ears. His voice had an agonizing quality, like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Mom’s hand rose to the heavy lock and chain keeping the monster at bay, and I howled as loudly as the monsters, shouting at her to stay. She heard me, and even looked back at me. She mouthed something to me, but I couldn’t hear or understand what she said. Then she stepped outside the iron fence.
The monsters didn’t fall on her all at once. She stopped, still in the circle of light, and waited for him to come to her. I saw his long shining hair the color of moonlight and his blood-red eyes. Now that I knew what we were, it made sense that the monster struck at her throat. He was feeding from her. And she let him—because she knew him.
I blinked the vision away. “I never realized that she knew him. Why did he kill her? She let him feed.”
“He was Greyson Isador,” Alrik said softly.
“Her brother?”
He shook his head. “Her Blood. We take our queen’s house name. I don’t know what accommodations she made for her Blood when she left the nest, but he went rogue and became a thrall. I don’t think he meant to kill her at all. He was just desperate to feed from his queen, who unfortunately, was no longer queen and had no power to share.”
I looked up at him. “So you’re Alrik and Daire Isador now?”
“Yes.” Pride surged through the bond from both of them. Pride at belonging to me.
A silver sedan drove down the road and parked next to their motorcycles. Evidently it was time to meet Ms. Talbott. I don’t know why I was so nervous, but I had to scrub my sweaty palms on my jeans as we walked back. I reached for Alrik’s hand, but noticed something odd. Now that someone else was here, Daire walked in front of me, and Alrik walked slightly behind. He did take my hand, but stayed behind me, rather than walking alongside as he’d done before.
:Protection,: he murmured through the bond. :I have your back. Daire has your front. None shall threaten you, my queen. Not even your consiliarius, if that’s who she is.:
Ms. Talbott was an ageless, elegant beauty with gleaming ebony skin. I had no idea of her exact age, but she had the impact and weight of a mature woman used to kicking ass and taking names. She wore eggplant-colored trousers and a tweedy long jacket with a belt that made me think British, though I had no idea, really. She hadn’t sounded British on the phone. As we neared, she fucking curtsied, right there in the street, and kept her head bowed.
“Forgive me, Your Majesty. I failed you, and I failed your dear mother.”
“Please, don’t. It’s not your fault Mom was killed.” It made me uncomfortable to see her bowing like that, begging for forgiveness. I didn’t even know the woman. But I could tell through the bond that her apology made Alrik look more favorably on her. Maybe this was all for show, just to convince him that she could be trusted.
“But it is my fault that you were lost for so long.” Straightening, she looked at me, her eyes swimming with tears. “How have you survived?”
I shrugged, not willing to go into details with someone I didn’t know. “Luck, mostly.”
“I have a feeling it was quite a bit more than luck, Your Majesty. But let’s get you safely inside. I have much to share with you.” She unlocked the truck of her car. A white blanket embroidered with gold and silver covered something rectangular. She lifted the whole thing, leaving the blanket on, and offered it to me. “If one of the Blood can carry the legacy, I’ll open the gate and unlock the house.”
This was what all the fuss was about? Something small enough that she could easily lift it? The cloth-draped box was only two-foot long and only a foot or so deep. I gave a little mental signal to Daire and he took the item from her arms, holding it as reverently as if it was a newborn infant.
Ms. Talbott unlocked the gate and we walked up the sidewalk to the grand entry. “The estate has been kept exactly as your mother ordered, ready for the moment I could locate you. Water, electricity, everything is on and ready for your use. A housekeeper comes in once a week and keeps the refrigerator and pantry stocked.”
She pushed the heavy door open and stepped back, waiting for me to pass through. I stared up at the stained glass transom above the old oak door, remembering. I used to sit on the floor in the entryway, covered in prisms and drops of colored light from the window. I thought that window was magical, even though it was only bevels and colored bits of glass. I glanced down and a clean line of salt had been poured across the doorway. The same as Mom had taught me from the beginning.
Safe—or as safe as I’d ever been in my life.
I stepped inside, waiting to feel… something. Maybe the underlying tension I’d never been able to shake since I’d gone on the run would ease. Maybe I’d feel peace, real peace. But no, I was still fully aware of the monsters outside. The salt and iron would certainly deter them, but nothing would keep them out for long.
:Nothing but us, my queen.” Alrik said in my head. “This isn’t your nest. It wasn’t even Selena’s nest. Just as safe as she could make it without power.:
Which meant without blood. I understood that much now.
I led them into the front sitting room and pulled the curtains open so that sunlight would come in through the large window. An original four-sided fireplace dominated the heart of the home, lending heat to the sitting room, dining room, kitchen, and office on the main floor. To my knowledge, it still worked, though I don’t remember Mom ever using it. The same furniture faced the hearth: two wingback chairs at one end, with two leather loveseats on either side. I don’t know why Mom felt the need for so many seats—I couldn’t remember ever having guests. But maybe she’d remembered having many Blood and guests in her nest, wherever that had been.
:London,: Daire sent me through our bond.
That made sense. She’d told me several stories about life in London, though she’d never sounded nostalgic.
The wingback chairs looked more throne-like, which was maybe why I instinctively avoided them and went to the leather sofa. Of course that also allowed my men to sit on either side of me. Daire set the covered box down on the coffee table and Ms. Talbott stood beside it, her hands clasped in front of her.
“The night of your mother’s death, she called my office and left a message for me,” she began. “Unfortunately, she didn’t call my direct number. To this day, I don’t know why. She had it. She could have called me for assistance at any time of the day or night, same as you. By leaving the message on the office line, my arrival was delayed until 8:15 AM the next day, and you were already gone. I immediately contacted the authorities to report your absence and your mother’s murder, which the police decided had been done by a pack of wild dogs. I didn’t try to conceal her death in anyway, so as to give the police urgency, and they did search for you for months. But you must have been long gone before I managed to get word to the authorities.”
“I
left at dawn,” I answered softly, not wanting to remember that terror. I’d never been alone before and my mother had just been slaughtered. “I walked down the street to the bus stop at the park. I’d seen people getting off and on it for years. I asked the driver to take me as far away from home as he could and then he dropped me off at the Greyhound ticket office. I didn’t know where to go, I just knew I needed to get away as fast as possible. So I took the next bus out of state. It just happened to be headed to Memphis.”
“Why didn’t you stay in the house, wait for help?”
My stomach churned. Alrik pressed tighter to my side and dropped his arm over my shoulders, hugging me closer. “The one who killed Mom knew I was watching. He came as close to the house as he could, even reached through the fence toward me, and he said he’d be back. He’d wait every night until I came to him. I’d never be free of him.”
“I’ll fucking cut the bastard’s head off as soon as he dares come within a mile of you,” Daire retorted. His voice vibrated with the deeper growl of his warcat.
“So I ran,” I whispered, reaching out to squeeze Daire’s hand and keep him beside me. The thought of losing him made my stomach heave. I’d seen that monster kill the two most important people in my life and survived… but I didn’t think I’d survive either his or Alrik’s death.
:Nothing will take us from you.: Daire prowled in my mind, sinuous fur winding through me. :Not even death.:
“What did you do for money?” Ms. Talbott asked, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue.
“Mom had a stash of coins and money in a lock box under her bed. I used that until I could get a job.”
She shuddered delicately as if she’d bitten into something nasty. “Goddess. That was never supposed to happen. Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? I’m sure your Blood have explained some of our ways, but I’ll assume you know nothing, and always, please, I beg you, ask. I am fully at your service.”
Daire made a rude noise of aggravation that made her smile. “Not that kind of service. I’m not enough Aima to serve in that capacity, but closer to you than a full human. My grandmother once tracked back twenty generations and found where her mother left her queen’s nest and married a commoner. As they had children, and grandchildren, the Aima blood thinned, though enough remains in my family today that I’m able to serve as consiliarius to Isador, as my mother and her grandmother before. Though I doubt I’ll live quite as long as Grandmama, who served as consiliarius up to her one-hundredth birthday and lived over a decade longer telling my mother everything she was doing wrong.”
She smiled, pausing a moment. “As consiliarius, I’m your counsel in all things legal, whether human or Aima courts. I know the world’s laws, and I know Triune law. I’ve studied them all my life, though I haven’t personally met any of the high queens.”
“Few have,” Alrik added, “At least outside their own Blood and consiliari.”
“Who or what is the Triune?” I asked.
“The Triune is composed of the highest and most powerful queens who can track their bloodlines directly back to the great goddesses. We used to have a Triune of Triune—three seats on three courts—but over the centuries we’ve lost too many royals houses to keep all nine seats open. Generally, when we refer to Triune, we mean any of the high queens, unless they specify one court or the other. The eldest is Marne Ceresa and legend says even she doesn’t remember how old she is any longer, but we conservatively acknowledge that she’s at least one thousand years old. Queens generally become more powerful as they age, so the eldest queens currently hold the Triune seats.”
“So I probably won’t ever see one of these Triune queens?”
She grimaced and shrugged her shoulders. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say that, Your Majesty. If a Triune summons any other Aima, queen or not, they go. At once. The last few centuries, Aima power has waned. Greatly. Queens have been lost, like you, disappearing into the masses of humanity. We lost the third court entirely, and now the Aima Triune is down to only two seats. The queens that remain fight viciously for that third seat, and though you’re extremely young, you’re also extremely powerful. You will be viewed as a direct threat for that third seat.”
“I hate politics! The last thing I’d want to do is fight for a seat on the Triune. Besides, Dad was human. Surely they wouldn’t want a half-human queen on the Triune.”
Alrik squeezed my shoulders, but Daire’s eyes were bright, his warcat eager to jump into the fray. Evidently he thought fighting for a seat on the Triune would be great fun.
“You may not have a choice,” she continued, her face solemn. “It doesn’t matter what you say, but only what the other queens believe. Isis is one of the greatest goddesses and her gifts are fearsome indeed. You will have few friends on the mid-tier courts, I’m afraid.”
“Which is why we need to establish her nest,” Alrik said. “And we need more Blood. We have to stake her claim and keep her safe from anyone who thinks they can eliminate the upstart American queen with an eye on the Triune.”
“I can definitely help you with securing a nest, whether you want to remain here or not,” Ms. Talbott said. “I agree your nest is our first priority, but I can also counsel you on all things political and strategical. You may, of course, replace me with any counsel of your own choosing at any time. Tradition has kept Talbotts serving Isador for many generations, but we serve at the queen’s discretion.”
“Were you with Mom in London?”
“I was.”
She didn’t offer any other information, but looked at me steadily. Open to my questions—but also reserved. She didn’t know me, either. Or maybe that reservation was built from generations of holding these secrets close. “No offense, but I don’t remember you.”
“The geas upon your mother affected me indirectly, because I know all the secrets of the Aima court. Selena was able to discuss general things with me, to a point, but not your ascension or the legacy, at least directly. We had an agreement that I would be allowed to sit down with you and begin your transition after you turned eighteen. Unfortunately, she was killed, and you disappeared before I could make contact.”
“Have you had any contact with the other conciliari?” Alrik asked.
She shook her head. “Once Selena left the court, all contact was broken. I maintained the estate and legacy finances for her, but I never communicated Shara’s birth or disappearance, for that matter.”
“That seems… odd.” I sensed suspicion and distrust in Alrik’s bond. It made me feel better to know I wasn’t the only one sitting here with doubts about this woman’s loyalty. “A new Isador queen was born, completely out of a nest with no protection whatsoever, and you never contacted anyone, even a Triune consiliarius, to ask for assistance or forbearance for Selena’s heir?”
Ms. Talbott stared down at her hands, tightly clenched in her lap. “I tried. On your sweet life, Shara, I tried, but I didn’t even know of your existence until you were almost a year old. She refused to allow one peep of your existence to spread. She refused to send you to another queen’s nest. She refused to send for any assistance of any kind. I thought perhaps that after your father died that she would return to the fold, and take you to safety, but if anything, she became more erratic and paranoid.”
“She said they would want me dead,” I said softly, watching her reaction.
Ms. Talbott raised her head, her eyes hard. “They may try, but they’ll find this consiliarius very difficult to work around.”
Daire let out a huff. “We’re her Blood. Her safety is our concern.”
“Your physical strength and proximity are indeed her best defense. But there are ways I can protect that wouldn’t occur to a Blood. Money can open—or close—many doors that your impressive muscles won’t budge. Don’t you think they tried to find Selena even though she left the London nest? Many wanted her dead because she betrayed her house and court. They couldn’t understand why she’d turn her back on such power and prestige, so th
ey distrusted her motivations. I created such a complex tangle of shell cooperations and false identities that even Ceresa’s consiliarius couldn’t find us in over thirty years.”
I’d had no idea. All those years, I’d never known this woman existed, yet she’d been working to keep Mom, and me, ultimately, hidden from some very powerful people. I still didn’t know if I could trust—
A resonate ting sounded in my head, as if someone had tapped a crystal that hummed and vibrated. It sounded pure and vibrant. A message from the goddess? Some element of my power? I wasn’t sure, but I knew what it meant. Gina Talbott was worth my trust.
“Where do we start?” I asked.
Her shoulders relaxed slightly, the only outward sign of her relief, but inside, she was nearly sobbing with relief. I could sense it.
“The legacy. You must make formal claim.”
She leaned forward and pulled the cloth away from the object we’d brought from her car. A wooden box sat on the coffee table with a single symbol carved on each side, dark and rich with age. I wouldn’t have recognized it before, only that it was Egyptian, but after tasting the goddess’s blood, I knew that symbol as the tyet, knot of Isis. Inlaid in the top was a mosaic pattern of Isis, easily recognizable with her disk and horned crown, the same as in my vision. One of her arms pointed up, with a golden bowl in her hand. The box had no visible padlock or edges. It didn’t look like it opened at all.
“No one can open this box but a direct descendant of Isis. Only house Isador remains after thousands of years, and only you remain of house Isador. There are stories of sister-queens fighting to the death for the chance to open the box.” She smiled faintly. “Though I don’t know that such tales are true, or if they were spread by the other houses jealous of Isis’s legacy.”
Queen Takes Knights (Their Vampire Queen Book 1) Page 8