“Go,” I told him.
He paused at her knees and bent his head to lap at the blood on her thighs. Her breath caught and I felt a surge of discomfort from her. Disgust. Periods were a shameful thing in human society. Something to hide. Something gross that no man would want to touch or deal with. Let alone taste.
“We’re not men,” I reminded her, angry that I hadn’t thought to taste that blood myself. “We’re Blood. We’re Aima. And if you have blood, we want it, like a druggie wants his next hit.”
“We live for your blood.” Daire licked his lips and came up over her, his breath sighing as she welcomed him inside. Surprisingly, he had more control than me. He wasn’t falling on her like a raving lunatic. He even had enough senses remaining to wink at me, though his words were strained. “I’m not the alpha, Rik. I wouldn’t mate with her anyway.”
She let go of my wrist, and somehow managed to roll Daire off to the side, so she was on top of him. His eyes widened, as surprised as I was. “You’re getting stronger too. Not just in power, but physical strength too.”
“Good,” she panted, throwing her head back so she could rock against him. Her hair trailed down over his thighs, her fingers digging into his chest. “Make him bleed for me.”
At her words, his hips arched up off the mattress and tendons stood out on his neck from the force of his thrusts up into her body. I sank my fangs into his throat, taking a taste of him just because I could. His warcat surged in our bond and I could almost smell his fur, feel it soft and warm against my cheek rather than his skin. I leaned back, watching the blood surge up from the punctures. I’d made sure to hit a big vein. My queen wanted blood—she’d get it.
She locked her lips over the wound and made a guttural sound that hit me like a sucker punch. She smeared her hands in his blood, coating his chest, ruining her dress.
And I’d never been so turned on in my life.
I wanted her to finger paint in my blood. Wear us like a second skin. I could see her striding into battle, hair loose and clothed only in our blood.
My dick was already hard again. I wouldn’t ever get enough of her. Her taste, her blood, her passion.
I pulled my dick through my hand, rubbing her blood into my flesh. Then I licked my fingers, refusing to waste a single drop.
Shara Isador always tasted like magic. But this…
Fucking off-the-charts goddess level magic that would have leveled me to the ground if I wasn’t already on the bed.
Climax roared through me again, taking them both with me. Pleasure richoted in our bond, rippling back and forth, growing exponentially. My pleasure made hers higher; hers sent mine skyrocketing; Daire purred and rumbled and sent us both spiraling again.
I don’t know how long we triggered each other, over and over again, but I finally became aware of my surroundings. At some point, I’d transformed into the rock troll, and fuck, he, I, was bigger than ever. Even on my knees beside the bed, my head almost touched the ceiling. I’d have to duck in half to get out of the house. Daire’s warcat lay curled around our queen protectively, his sinewy body entwined with hers. His giant head rested on her back, his tail swishing back and forth, golden eyes gleaming in the murk of the room.
Fuck. Darkness had fallen.
Shara lifted her head and swiped her heavy hair out of her face. Blood smeared her face and throat. Hers, mine, Daire’s. He licked the punctures he’d made in her shoulder, making sure they were closed. She looked down at herself, stunned by the gore and stains on the dress. “I’ve ruined it. How much did this ridiculous dress cost again?”
“It’s not ruined.” I tried to whisper but the floor boards vibrated with the bass of my troll’s voice. “You can call the blood back to you and clean it.”
“But it’s torn too. I must have gotten tangled up in Daire’s claws.”
Regret surged through our bond, and shame. That I would not allow. I picked her up as carefully as if she was a butterfly and I’d damage her delicate wings. She wrapped her little arms around my neck without fear, and I wanted to shout to the heavens all the praises to Isis for creating such a queen, and allowing me to be her Blood.
“You can buy a thousand dresses and not put a dent in your legacy.”
“I know,” she whispered. “But it still feels… wrong. Wasteful. I should have taken it off.”
:I for one loved ravaging you in the fairy dress,: Daire’s words twined through our bond, rubbing fur deep inside me. :Keep it on, my queen. Let Greyson in particular see how well we feed you. And how you feed us.:
Her phone rang. She let go of my neck and I set her down gently so she could rummage through our clothes and find it. “Hello, Dr. Borcht?”
She put the phone on speaker so we could all hear. “Your Majesty, I have your results.” Even to my rock troll, the doctor sounded particularly grim.
Shara looked at me, her face paling. “And?”
“I don’t know how to tell you this, so I’m just going to give you all the facts.”
“Okay.”
“You’re not half-human, Your Majesty.”
Her mouth fell open. “What?”
“You’re not half-human. There’s no way that Alan Dalton could be your biological father.”
Shara sat down on the edge of the bed. “Oh.” She swallowed hard, her eyes filling with tears. “He died to keep me safe. He put me on his shoulders to get me away from the monsters. And he wasn’t even my father? Then who is?”
“There’s no way for me to know at this point, other than to say that part of your DNA is Aima, and the other part is… not. At least not exactly. And not human, either. I have suspicions, but… it’s complicated.”
“Do you need to run more tests?”
“No,” she sighed. “Not unless you want me to test specific DNA to compare to yours to identify and rule out anyone in particular. I meant it’s complicated by what I can and cannot say.”
“Court politics.” She looked up at me, her eyes hardening. “You mean it’s something you can’t tell me.”
“I have suspicions,” she repeated. “No proof though. I can only state the facts. You are not half human. And you are not pregnant currently.”
“So she’s not in heat?” I said.
“I didn’t say that,” Dr. Borcht replied. “She’s not pregnant from the blood I tested from this afternoon. Whether she’s ovulating at this time, I can’t say. There are some very… interesting… elements in her blood. I have no way of knowing what it all means but I can speculate.”
“Tell me,” Shara’s voice rang, tight with rage and helplessness and yes, grief. It was like she’d lost her father all over again. She’s mourned for the human who’d helped raise her… and now had learned there was someone else to mourn. A father she’d never known. “At least what you can.”
“Very powerful.” Each word was rough, strangled, as though Dr. Borcht had to fight to get them out. “Feared. Too powerful. Enemies. Your mother—” She gasped, as if in pain. “Not.” She cried out and Shara clutched the phone.
“Dr. Borcht? Are you all right?”
Silence on the other end. Then a click. The line went dead.
Shara leaped to her feet. She ended the call and immediately dialed back. The call rolled directly to voice mail.
“Call Gina,” I told her, but I feared it was too late. Someone had silenced Dr. Borcht. Hopefully not permanently.
Someone didn’t want Shara to know the truth about her parentage.
“Gina, can you check on Dr. Borcht?” Shara paced back and forth at the foot of the bed. “I was talking to her, and the line went dead.”
“I’m here at the lab. Hold on. Mala? Are you all right?”
“Yes.” At Dr. Borcht’s voice, Shara closed her eyes, her shoulders relaxing. She paused the frantic steps.
“Shara was worried about you,” Gina said.
“Your Majesty,” Dr. Borcht said, taking the phone. “I’m so sorry you were worried. I was…” Her voice thinned
, her breathing labored. “Overcome.”
That could mean a lot of different things. Overcome by someone? Or overcome by a geas? A spell? An illness?
“Can you tell me anything else?” Shara asked softly.
“Regrettably, I’m afraid not, Your Majesty. Not…” Dr. Borcht sucked in a loud breath. “Now. Another. Time. You…” She cleared her throat forcefully. “You’re very strong. I have a feeling that you will be able to take care of this if you set your mind to it.”
Something crashed outside and we all jumped. It sounded like a tank was trying to tear down the gate.
I flexed my hands, eager to tear some thralls limb from limb for scaring my queen. Daire leaped down off the bed, claws ticking on the wood floors. “They’re here,” I said for Dr. Borcht and Gina.
“I can send some private security over to help,” Gina said. “They’re human, but trained soldiers. They won’t hesitate in shooting something they can’t explain and can be trusted not to spread stories about it.”
“No,” I replied, “but thank you. Our queen has Blood. We will defend her.”
Shara ended the call. I could still feel her fear shimmering in the bond, but she tipped her chin up and shook her hair back over her shoulders. “You’re not going to lock me up in the basement and leave me while you go fight.”
I inclined my head, even though I would have loved to do exactly that. One did not try to keep a queen from the battlefield, though. No matter how much I wanted to keep her safe. “As you wish, Your Majesty.”
“How can I fight them?”
:She can use my ketars,: Daire said through the bond.
I dug around in the pile of clothes and found his weapons. I showed her how to wear them, slipping the greaves onto her forearms. The inside grip was made for Daire, and her hands were much smaller. I’d need to make her a custom set of her own if she liked them.
“I do,” she whispered, one side of her lips quirking. “You made these? Then I like them even better.”
:We joke that he was born in the wrong century because he’s a natural blacksmith.:
I watched her give a few experimental swipes. The blades on the ends were wicked sharp. She ought to be able to decapitate anything that came within arms reach, but I didn’t intend to let anything get that close to her. “Remember your power, my queen. Leave the physical fighting to us, but use your magic to hurt them.”
“What magic? I don’t know how to use it.”
I picked her up and headed downstairs to see what they’d used to try and breach our defenses.
:You will,: Daire purred through the bond. :Magic has a way of knowing how to work itself out when your need is great enough.:
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Shara
Everything was happening too fast. Just days ago—had it really only been three?— I’d been going about my job as usual, dreading having to move. Now I had two lovers, learned that I was a vampire gazillionaire, and that Dad wasn’t my biological father at all. I needed time to process everything, which I didn’t have, because monsters were trying to break down the fence protecting the house.
The backyard was completely dark, so it took me a moment to figure out what had taken out the super-bright light pole. A car had crashed into the pole, which now lay over the top of our wrought-iron fence. The fence still stood—but thralls were clambering up the pole, using it as a bridge to get into the yard.
Like a black shadow, Daire silently raced across the yard. As soon as the first monster dropped off the pole inside the fence, he snagged it in his mighty jaws and ripped it in half.
Alrik lumbered over and picked up the pole like it was a toothpick and heaved it back over the fence, shaking monsters off for Daire.
I mostly stood there and felt useless.
Which pissed me off. I had blood simmering in me. Blood that was supposed to give me powers directly from a goddess. The fuck I was going to stand here and wait for my men to save the day.
But I really had no idea what to do, or how to do it. It was so dark that I couldn’t see beyond the fence, so I had no idea how many more monsters were coming, unless I used the mind tapestry. Only I’d have to close my eyes to see the pockets of evil moving toward us, and I didn’t want to lose sight of the battle.
I needed some light.
With that thought, I noticed a gleaming ember on my arm. Glowing like a red firefly, the drop of blood spun soft light across my skin. I concentrated on that ember and pictured the other smears and droplets on my body and dress also shining. I would glow like a bonfire. The blood would light up the night. Brighter. I looked back toward the yard and I could see the crashed car now, still smoking. I had no idea monsters could drive cars. That brought a whole new thing to be terrified of.
The ketars Daire had lent to me were too heavy and my hands ached already from holding on to them. Besides, they weren’t going to let any of those monsters get anywhere near me. I knew that much. Sighing, I bent down and let go of the handles, leaving them stacked on the ground by the back door.
Blood-red light rose from my skin, flickering like flames. No, the blood really did look like fire. It didn’t burn me, though. I touched one of the burning flames and it leaped into my hand, hovering in my palm like a flaming fireball.
Now that was something I could definitely use.
Grinning, I scanned the yard, looking for a monster I could help with. Most of them were still trying to get over the damaged fence, but Daire was easily crunching them into a mass of broken bones and tossing them into a heap on the other side of the fence. Alrik hung back, making sure to grab any that managed to escape the warcat’s jaws. He used his fists and simply slammed them into a bloody smear on the snowy ground. I scanned the bushes along the fence, and finally found a monster trying to slide between the narrow iron bars. I didn’t think I’d be able to throw it that far though.
Then I gave myself a mental shake. This had nothing to do with my physical prowess, but magic. I didn’t have to heave a flaming fireball over a hundred yards. I had to will it to hit my target.
I focused on the thrall and envisioned the fireball hitting it. Melting over its skeletal head like candle wax. Lighting its pasty dead skin on fire.
And it worked. The monster burst into flame and let out a glass-shattering shriek. It ran toward the remaining cluster of thralls and I focused on the fire, willing it to spread. One by one they caught fire too and scattered into the night.
Alrik turned toward me and inclined his massive head. “Well done, my queen.”
Exhilaration roared through me. I’d been so scared of the monsters all my life. I’d run from town to town, terrified every single night, locked up in four walls, shivering alone, curled up in a fetal position hoping the monsters wouldn’t find me one more night. Even when I had to take a stand and fight my way out, I’d been terrified. I’d almost died countless times. A club with a few nails was nothing compared to the ability to light them on fire with a bit of blood.
“Well done,” someone said mockingly. “My queen.” The last was said with a sneer that I could hear in the words.
Alrik and Daire both closed to me quickly, taking position before me. I don’t know how, exactly, but I recognized that voice. Maybe he’d been whispering to me in nightmares my entire life. “Greyson.”
“Very good, Shara.”
I stepped up between my men so I could search the darkness. His voice was close, but I didn’t know where he was. “Why are you trying to kill me?”
“I’ve never tried to kill you, my queen.”
A vicious growl trickled out of Alrik’s lips and Daire crouched, ready to pounce. They didn’t like anyone calling me that—but them.
“You killed my mother.”
“An unfortunate accident. You may not believe me, but I regret any pain I gave her immensely. It was never my intention to kill Selena.”
“Come out so we can talk. I want to see you.”
Alrik touched my elbow, a slight warning. I had
no intention of getting too close, but I needed to put an end to this. Greyson wasn’t going to haunt me any longer.
“Oh, I think not.” He chuckled, his voice coming from everywhere. Nowhere. “Not yet. Your Blood would not like that much, I’m afraid.”
“What do you want, then? Why are you here? Why have you and your monsters hunted me all these years if you didn’t want to kill me?”
“Do you know the truth yet, dear, sweet, naive Shara?”
I took a step closer to the fence, but Daire bumped my thigh with his head. :It’s not safe. Don’t trust him.:
:I don’t. He’s a killer. But he might know who my father is.:
I felt their reluctance in the bond, their alarm and worry ringing like drawn swords in my mind. But I stepped closer to the fence, both of them pressed against me. “What truth?”
Greyson chuckled and I winced, the sharpness in his mirth like metal claws dragging down a chalkboard. “Oh, no, you won’t get the secrets from me so easily.”
I took another step, almost close enough to touch the iron bars. Daire pressed heavily against my legs, almost tripping me. He didn’t want me to get close enough for Greyson or one of the braver thralls to reach through the bars and grab me. Alrik moved behind me and gently drew me back against him so that every inch of my back was safe against his rock-hard bulk. Nothing was going to get to me from the rear. Nothing would get through Daire before me, either.
“Before my Blood came, what would your monsters have done to me if they were able to catch me?”
Greyson made a low, sinister hum that managed to make me shudder despite its soft tones. “They were to bring you to me. Unharmed. Mostly. Though with thralls, you never can tell how well they’ll obey when the Master isn’t there to force that obedience. They might have had a few tastes of sweet royal blood before I managed to fetch you.”
My skin crawled at the thought. “Like you tried to feed from Mom?”
He hissed with a clank of vicious teeth. “Her blood was always mine, and mine was always hers. She learned the truth of that lesson but then it was too late.”
“You said you didn’t mean to kill her.”
Queen Takes Knights (Their Vampire Queen Book 1) Page 14