Skin. Pubes. Not underwear.
Fucking hell. My queen was walking around completely bare. Evidently my brain shut off because all the blood in my body had drained south. Worse, my power surged and rock hardened beneath my skin—and not just in my pants. “Where are your panties?” I rasped out, trying to get myself back under control before I transformed into the rock troll and became a national news sensation.
“My period started and I tossed them in the trash at the clothes store.”
I had to have missed some words. Misunderstood. Period. I knew what that was, but… but…
I had to know. I slid a finger deeper and found wetness. Not her desire, though. My skin knew her blood. Cells in my fingers were already eagerly trying to absorb her essence, her blood, her power through osmosis.
Fuck.
I swept her up against me and sent Daire an urgent warning. :Get the fucking car.:
I didn’t stop to look for him, but raced for the exit, ignoring the fire alarm that sounded. Tires screeched as the Jaguar came tearing down the alley, slowing only enough for me to jump in. In moments, we were a red blur racing down the freeway.
Shaking, I held her on my lap, fighting back my urges. These urges went way beyond desire and sex to animalistic mating. No wonder I’d been on edge all fucking day. No wonder I wanted to tear even Daire limb from limb. And no wonder she’d been so anxious about staying out after dark.
“Sorry,” she whispered, in a small voice that fucking wrecked me.
I tipped her face up and pressed my forehead to hers. “Don’t you ever apologize for something you have no control over.”
“But this is bad, right? The monsters are worse than ever when I have my period.”
My throat felt like I’d swallowed razor blades. “It’s a fucking miracle you lived through a single period, Shara. I mean it. This is not a regular occurrence for Aima females. I had no idea you were menstruating or I never would have suggested a trip outside your house. We need a nest more than ever.”
“How often do you bleed?” Daire asked from the driver’s seat.
She blew out a sigh. “Every fucking month. That’s why I moved so often. I’d run during the day and find a new place to hole up for the night, but when I’m bleeding, no place is safe for more than a few hours.”
“Every month?” Daire sounded like I’d wrapped a fist around his throat and was slowly choking him to death. “Fuck. Rik, how…? I can’t…?”
“Yeah.” I carefully set her off me onto the seat so we weren’t touching. Or I was going to be buried to the hilt right here in her mother’s car. “Quick Aima biology lesson. We’re vampires, right? So you can imagine what blood is doing to us.”
“Even… that blood?”
I had to breathe deeply, counting to ten. My head kept turning toward her, my body trying to turn in the seat, reach for her, touch her. It was absolutely involuntary. I flattened my palms on my thighs and focused on my hands…
Mistake. Huge. Because I could see her blood on my right hand. The only thing that kept me from licking it off and coming like a hurricane all over her was the unease and hint of disgust in her voice. “Yes. Even more so. Because that means you’re fertile.”
“Aima women don’t have regular periods.” Daire seemed to be faring a little better than me—but he had to have the gas pedal pressed to the floor as fast as we were flying. “When they’re ready to conceive a child, they go into heat and bleed. That’s their bodies’ way of attracting Aima males. As a queen, your blood is already a heady aphrodisiac that carries all the nuclear punch of Isis’s legacy. Now add in menstrual heat, and we’re going to fucking lose our minds, Shara. Seriously, I don’t know how we’re going to survive.”
Sweat trickled down my forehead and my hands throbbed from gripping my own thighs. “Let alone monthly.”
Daire let out a sound suspiciously like a whimper.
“I’m half human though,” Shara said, her voice quivering. “Human women are glad when they get their period—that means they’re not pregnant.” Her breath caught and her voice elevated an octave. “Does that mean I could get pregnant? Now? Or does it mean I’m human enough that I’m not pregnant? I love you guys, but I so do not want a baby right now.”
My breathing was quickly becoming a desperate wheeze. “That. Would be. Disastrous.”
“No nest,” Daire ground out. “Fuck. We are so screwed. We need help, Rik. Bad.”
For the first time since finding our queen, I suddenly wished we weren’t alone. Because he was absolutely correct.
We were fucked.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Shara
The more freaked out my men became, the more I wanted to laugh. Even though I was scared shitless. If these two magnificent, powerful men were scared, I was fucking terrified.
I reached down and felt around in my jeans Daire had tossed in earlier to find the phone Gina had given me.
“Your Majesty,” Gina answered immediately. “How may I be of assistance?”
“I need to see a doctor. That we can trust, who knows about our kind.”
“Are you injured?” Her volume increased. “Where are you?”
“I’m fine, at the moment, but we have some… concerns. I need to talk to someone who knows both human and Aima reproductive biologies. I’d like some tests ran.”
“Ah. I see. Yes, I’ve got someone we can trust. I’ll call her and meet you at the house as soon as possible.”
Impressed, I let out a soft whistle. “You can get a doctor that fast?”
“Your Majesty.” Gina sounded put out. “Your doubt wounds me.”
We’d barely pulled into the garage when Gina’s familiar sedan parked at the curb. I started to get out of the car to greet them, but Alrik hauled me up and ran for the house. Daire sprinted ahead and got the door open for us. He didn’t stop, but took me directly up the two flights of stairs to the tower room.
He tossed me on the bed like I was a flaming hot potato and retreated to pant against the wall. Sweat trickled down his face, his T-shirt was glued to him, and his jeans strained at the crotch.
“Fuck, don’t you dare look at my dick.” His head fell back and he grimaced like I’d started pulling his fingernails off with a pair of pliers.
Of course then I couldn’t stop looking at him.
I heard Daire and the two women tromping up the stairs so I finally dragged my gaze away from the impressive log in Alrik’s pants. Daire hit the door and didn’t pause once his eyes locked on me. Alrik snagged him by the back of the neck and dragged him back against the wall with him. They scuffled a moment, Daire fighting to escape, but then Alrik roared through the bond, a deep, bone-rattling growl that stilled Daire’s beast.
“Your Majesty, this is my good friend, Dr. Mala Borcht,” Gina said. “I can personally vouch for her discretion and expertise in all things Aima. Would you like for me to remain or wait downstairs?”
“You can stay. You all can stay. You should all know what’s going on because we will be attacked, and it will be bad.”
Alrik growled a warning and nodded. “I feel them drawing near already, and if our queen’s instincts were correct, something threatened her in broad daylight at a public bar downtown.”
“In daylight?” Dr. Borcht tapped her perfectly manicured nails against her chin. “A threat you, the alpha Blood, could not sense? Then it wasn’t a thrall.”
Alrik’s cheeks flushed a dull red but he nodded. “I sensed nothing but she didn’t feel safe. Then I found why and we left immediately. I didn’t investigate to find the cause. I felt it better to remove her from the situation and retreat to the closest thing we have as a nest.”
“Very smart,” Dr. Borcht replied. “So, Your Majesty, what concerns you?”
“My period started today.”
Gina gasped beneath her breath, but I heard her whispered prayer. “Blessed be, Goddess, may your line live forever.”
“I see. So you’re wondering if that’s
a good thing, with your human parentage, or a risky thing, with your Aima mother,” Dr. Borcht replied. “Yes, a very interesting case to be sure. Is menstruation a new development for you?”
“Not at all. I’ve had a period every month since I was fifteen.”
Her eyes widened and tiny fine white lines formed around her mouth. “Every month?”
“Without fail.”
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty, but I’m wondering how it’s possible that you’re even still alive.”
“Exactly,” Alrik muttered, running a hand over his head. “Fuck, the more I think about it, the more pissed off I get.”
“That’s not good for you right now,” Dr. Borcht said. “The more emotions you feel, the harder it’ll be for you to control your urges. I’d ask you to take a walk but I know you’d refuse.”
“I won’t let her out of my sight,” Alrik retorted.
Dr. Borcht held her hands up soothingly. “No one’s asking you to leave. But try to keep your emotions leveled and calm.”
Turning back to me, she set a cute typewriter purse on the bed and opened it, revealing a well-stocked medical bag despite its size. “I’m assuming since this isn’t a new occurrence, that your period means you’re not pregnant or in heat, but the opposite, the same as any human female. But there are some blood tests I can run to be sure.”
“How long will it take?”
She pulled out a syringe and several vials. “Oh, this evening. We failed to mention that I run a state-of-the-art lab in Overland Park.”
When the needle sank into my arm, a growl trickled out of Alrik’s lips. Daire pressed against him, a hard hand on his shoulder. I don’t know if it was the blood… or the small prick of pain they had to have felt. I might have been a vampire queen, but I still fucking hated needles.
“In the meantime, I recommend you stay enclosed here in the house until you decide where to establish your nest. Have you put out a call for more Blood?”
“No. At least I don’t think I have. How do I do that?”
“It’s not exactly something you do. In my limited understanding as only a very small fraction of my family tree claims to be Aima, it’s more of a feeling. An existence on your part, and your need for protection. More Blood should be headed to you, and if you’re half as strong as I suspect you’ll be, easily a dozen or twenty Blood will come to your aid. If you deliberately think of your need for protection, feeling and searching for them, they should come.”
“But when?” Daire paced back and forth, his steps as lithe and silent as a panther. “We need help now. We need guards. We need someone at the perimeter.”
I tried not to remember the dream from this morning, because it’d upset Alrik so much. But I couldn’t help but wonder what… or who… I’d been calling. Another Blood? Or something else?
I distinctly remembered the sound of chains, combined with the smell of something… scaled. Snake? Dragon? Something else entirely? I really had no idea. I didn’t know if the thing I’d called was a true monster—or if that was merely the mythological creature he’d transform into once I brought him into full power.
I’d found Alrik and Daire by searching in the night, using that internal sense of tapestry, a rolling landscape in my head. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on my surroundings. Night approached. I could feel it like a shadow creeping closer to the house, almost ready to engulf us. At the fringe of the approaching darkness, I felt them. Monsters. So many. I don’t think I’d ever seen so many at once.
:Are you seeing this?: I asked through the bond to both Blood.
:Yes,: Alrik replied grimly, his bond shimmering like a steel blade in my head. Hard, angry, sharp, ready for damage. :Where’s the master thrall?:
Panic crawled through my head, making it difficult to concentrate. Externally, I heard Daire telling the women they had to leave. Now. To get the blood work done as quickly as possible, before they were trapped here with us. Internally, I felt the clumps of monsters closing in. I touched each one, cringing and shuddering at the foulness leaking off them. But none of those evil smudges were Greyson. He was always there with them, sending them after me. So where was he?
“Wait.” My eyes flew open. Dr. Borcht and Gina paused at the door. “Where’s my mother buried?”
“She wanted to be buried here on the property, but even the immense Isador wealth couldn’t make that happen. She’s buried with your father at the Stuller Cemetery. You passed it on the way in from the freeway.
“Thanks.”
I closed my eyes, feeling down the road, searching for where that abandoned chapel must be. Distantly, I heard the women leaving. I felt Alrik close, hovering, angry, and yes, scared for me. Worried because I only had two Blood. And while he would die to keep me safe, if he died…
A sob escaped. I felt such agony, crippling searing grief. It took me a moment to realize it wasn’t mine.
Greyson. He crawled across holy ground, struggling, bleeding and howling with pain, trying to reach my mother’s grave. His skin blistered and split, black blood leaking onto the ground, and he writhed in the snow. He didn’t care about the pain. He only wanted to be with her. To die on her grave. Maybe in death he could at last be with her.
But there was no release of death for him. He couldn’t die, yet he couldn’t live without her either. He couldn’t even reach her grave before being forced to retreat. He was trapped on this earth, filled with rage and hate. She’d taken everything away from him when she’d left London. His power, his love, her blood, the gift of his own to her, the companionship with the other Blood, his brothers.
He turned, sensing my touch, and glared toward the house with those demon-red eyes. I couldn’t read his thoughts, not like my Blood, but his emotions leaked like poison, fouling everything he touched. If he couldn’t have my mother, then he’d have me. And if he couldn’t have me, then my Blood wouldn’t have me either. He’d at least do that much. He’d show them what it was like to lose their queen.
I heard a scream in the night, a panther-like shriek. Then the ground rumbled, the three-dimensional map in my head quivering like an earthquake. Even without touching Alrik’s bond, I knew that was his rock troll, stomping and slamming his fists against the ground, cracking it open as a warning. They were ready to defend me. They were ready to fight.
They just needed one thing.
My blood.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Alrik
My queen opened her eyes and scooted back on the bed, opening her arms and thighs to me. I could already smell her heat, mixed with the intoxicating scent of her blood.
I froze, afraid to move. Afraid I’d crack her into a thousand pieces if I touched her while my rock troll thumped around in my body, slamming boulder fists against my skin like he’d tear me open if I didn’t transform soon.
She tipped her head to the side, exposing the long column of her throat. So vulnerable. So trusting. So beautiful. “Before this fight, you need to feed. You need to be as strong as possible.”
Yet I held my position, probably denting the shape of my shoulders into the plaster walls with my determination to stay put. “If you’re breeding…”
“I’m not. At least I don’t think so. And if I am…” She shrugged, keeping her face averted, and she drew her legs back together slightly. “Unless you mind the blood. I just thought—”
I slammed into her, literally. Fangs in her throat. Dick in her pussy. Her breath rushed out on a groan. Her thighs came up around my waist, hugging me close. Power exploded through me and for a moment, I thought I’d die with the sheer strength of the surge. The top of my skull felt like it’d blown off. My nerves screamed with sensation. The rock troll bulged inside me, desperate to transform, ready to fuck, fight, and then fuck again. Gritting my teeth, I fought to keep the beast contained inside me. The size of that troll—it’d tear her apart.
Fireworks exploded behind my eyelids. My skin felt scorched, like I’d fallen into the sun itself and disintegrated. And m
y dick felt like a claymore, long, hard steel, plunging deep, determined to stake my claim on the queen. The mating urge tore through me. I came so hard I almost passed out, my come spurting so deeply into her that if she was fertile at all, I couldn’t imagine her not getting pregnant. Dread tightened my throat, because we weren’t ready for an Isador heir. She wasn’t ready. We didn’t have a nest. It wasn’t safe…
But my body couldn’t deny the urge to mate with my bleeding queen.
Panting, I lay on top of her, trying to regain my senses. I couldn’t believe I’d come so hard, so quickly. I had no idea if she’d climaxed or not. Until I felt her pleasure humming through the bond like warm, sweet honey. She bit my shoulder, still digging her teeth into the thick muscle, but no fangs. I tore open my wrist and she released the bite to grab my forearm and plant her mouth over the shredded skin. Blood smeared on her lips, her cheeks. Blood dripped on the dress. Splattered crimson on the shining silver. I had to still be fucking high on royal blood to feel like crying at how beautiful she was with my blood on her.
“All clear,” Daire said, his voice ringing with intensity.
His polite request to fucking get off our queen and take his position as guard at the door, so he could take my place and feed.
But Shara wasn’t ready to let me go. Her eyes gleamed like faceted obsidian, her hunger still strong in the bond. Maybe she needed more blood than usual, since she was losing her own. I rolled off to the side and made room for Daire to take my place.
“Guard?” he growled out, though he was already on the bed and crawling toward her on all fours, very much a prowling warcat.
I felt her search in her mind, reaching out into the night. The thralls were closer, yes, but nothing near enough to threaten the property. Yet.
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