“When I shift, I’m a hell horse. That’s why in the old days, when I served in Ireland, I was called the Dullahan, the headless rider.”
“Gives hung like a horse all new meaning,” Daire said. Rik punched him in the shoulder. “What? He is.”
“What about that… um… test?” Her cheeks flushed and I suddenly identified the most beautiful color in the world.
I had no idea why Daire laughed and Rik looked disgruntled, as if he suddenly found himself the butt of a joke. “He accepted me as alpha.”
“I did, and do,” I said firmly, in case there had been any doubt. “I’m not a leader. I’m a killer.”
“But why would they call you a headless rider?” she asked.
I winced, touching my throat. “I’ve been beheaded and lived to tell the tale.”
Her mouth fell open and her gaze dropped to the jagged scar around my throat. “How is that possible?”
“It’s my gift. My strength. I cannot be wounded and die, even if I’m separated from my head. That’s why I was Desideria’s executioner.”
“And why queens were willing to allow you into their courts,” the alpha whispered, his tone soft with respect. “They shared in that power while they fed on you.”
“Yes.
“So you killed their Blood, but not the queen.”
“I wouldn’t have been able to kill the queen while my blood worked in her veins, but my gift doesn’t transfer to secondary feedings, so the Blood were fair game. Desideria took great pleasure in running experiments to see how long it’d take for my gift to fade in a queen who’d fed on me. The record was two years and eighty-eight days.”
“So when I feed on each of you, some of your individual powers transfers to me?”
“Usually, yes, though it depends on the gift. I doubt you would be able to transform into my hell horse, or whatever beast Daire is, but my imperviousness to injury and some of his hunting ability or predator senses might transfer to you.”
She fell silent several moments. I didn’t want to rush her, but on one hand, the water would chill, and on the other, her hunger was driving me mad. I hadn’t been so hard in decades, though I had no idea if she’d care to use me that way as well as feed. But if all the years in unimaginable torture had taught me anything, it was patience. And I didn’t mean when I’d been in prison.
“Here’s the deal. Take it or leave it.”
I nodded, focusing on her intently, both her face and her bond. She was inexperienced and green, but her core was true and strong. She reminded me of a master’s blade, fresh and hot off the forge, beautifully unmarked and untried, but I had no doubts that her blade might fail in battle. Just looking at her edge made me bleed inside. She’d be a queen to reckon with for sure.
I didn’t have the heart to tell her it was too late for us both. I couldn’t leave. I had tasted her blood. I was hers until her death. Whatever oath she wanted from me, she’d get. Goddess let it be something I could actually live with.
“I swore earlier today that I wouldn’t ask for help until I had my own fangs.” She sighed heavily, dropping her gaze down to a scar on my chest. The six-inch long ugly scar was left when they’d cut out my heart, but even then, it wouldn’t stop beating. “I didn’t mean it as a formal oath, but I felt a heavy sense of…” She shrugged uncomfortably. “I think my power took it more intently than I meant, if that’s possible.”
“It is,” I said softly, my heart thudding with sympathy. “But you have no need to ask for help. A look is enough to tell me what you need, my queen. I feel your hunger. You never have to ask for permission. You’re queen. You take what you need without fear or worry because we offer it gladly.”
“But if I don’t ask—”
I picked up the knife. “My queen doesn’t ask. She takes.”
In three quick flicks of my wrist, I made a small cut on each of us Blood. Me on the throat and the other two on the thigh, the body part closest to me without making her fear I’d lunge for her again with a blade and this time stab her.
I’d made the cut on my throat fairly deep, hoping to lure her to me first. She’d fed on the other two already today, though they were certainly hardy enough to feed her again.
With a low groan, she launched at me, bringing a wave of water with her. She locked her mouth over the cut and I closed my eyes, fighting down my need. Feeding her was the top priority, and she might not—
She threw her head back, blood running down her chin. Breathing hard, she finally looked into my eyes. “Will you swear to never kill any of my Blood?”
A fragile, delicate thing sprouted deep in the blackness that remained of my heart. That she would only ask for such a small thing, when she had my balls in a vise. “I will never kill any of Shara Isador’s Blood, current or future, directly or indirectly with intent to harm, so I swear on my honor.”
Climbing onto my lap, she took my dick inside her and locked her mouth back over the cut. :I thought to ask permission first but you said I should take.:
:Without question, my answer is always yes.:
9
Shara
I fucked them all.
I fed from them all. Twice.
Chilled, bloody water filled the tub. Guillaume looked like he was asleep, his arm draped over the side of the tub to keep him from sliding in over his head. Daire tried to climb out of the tub to fetch some towels, and it took him two tries to get to his feet. He wavered like a drunk after a week-long binge.
And I still couldn’t stop.
A sob tore from my throat, but Rik hugged me close, soothing me with his body, his big hands rubbing my back. “Shhh, my queen, all is well. You denied yourself too long is all. You’re not hurting us.”
“But Daire can’t walk.”
“The hell I can’t,” he growled, holding up a fluffy towel. “At least get out of the cold water and let us feed you again in bed.”
G roused himself and took my other hand, helping me stand. I don’t know why I was woozy too. I wasn’t the one who’d been drained. “You’re high on power, high on sex, high on blood. This is what helps your power come in fully. It’s like filling up your cup until it overflows and cracks. Those cracks heal up and next time, you can hold even more. The harder you push us, the better. Though it will definitely be a good thing if half a dozen more Blood show up sooner than later.”
I stepped out of the tub and held on to the vanity, waiting for the floor to steady beneath my feet. Half a dozen? Right now, I could definitely go for that. Which told me more than anything that I wasn’t quite in my right mind.
Rik propped himself against the tiled wall and took some deep breaths as if he needed to build up the energy to do something as minor as get out of the tub. “If we’re attacked by thralls right now, we’re fucked.”
“Guess it’s a good thing Gina hired those security guards after all,” Daire replied.
“Hey,” Rik retorted. “Low blow.”
Snickering under his breath, Daire padded down the hall, a little more steady on his feet. “I’m going to find a phone and order ten pizzas. What do you guys want?”
“What’s pizza?” G asked. Rik and I stared at him with horror, and he laughed. “I’m kidding. Even this Medieval knight knows what pizza is and I could eat ten myself.”
I hated to burst their bubble, but… “I don’t know that they’ll deliver this far out.”
Daire snorted. “They will if I tip enough. Rik, where’s your wallet?”
“Use your own wallet, dickhead.”
Wheezing for breath, G leaned heavily against the door frame and laughed. “I have missed the banter of fellow soldiers. It’s good to be Blood again.”
Rik slapped him on the shoulder and scooped me up in his arms. “Good to have you.”
“Put me down,” I protested. “You can’t get yourself up the stairs, let alone me.”
“Watch me. Daire!” He yelled down the stairway to the first floor. “Put on some pants before you open the do
or, and let the security guard know we’re expecting a delivery.”
“Oh yeah. Thanks.”
I’m pretty sure he was grateful for the reminder about pants.
Rik shifted me in his arms and headed up the second flight of stairs to my tower bedroom. He paused half way up and leaned a shoulder against a wall.
G came up behind us and paused. “Want me to take over?”
“No, I can make it. Just catching my breath.”
“So do I pay you a salary?” I asked, watching his face for his reaction. “Because if not, I should. How else do you have money?”
“The queen’s legacy funds everything,” G answered. “The nest, the food, the staff. We have no needs but yours, so we don’t need funds.”
“But you’re paying for pizza, and there was that coat in Springfield…”
Rik started up the stairs again. “Nothing but small things to make you smile, my queen. We have a cut of our birth house’s income to take as inheritances. Daire’s better off than I am, but I could easily live as a wealthy human for fifty years and not worry about money.”
“We’re not here for money,” G said softly. “We’re here for blood, for power, and most especially, for you. Because without you, none of this would be possible.”
Pausing inside the bedroom, Rik groaned. “I forgot. I stripped the bed earlier.”
“Put me down. I’ve got some spare sheets stashed.”
This time he cooperated and I reached under the bed for the storage container. “They may smell musty but they’re clean. They’ll be ruined by morning anyway so I guess it doesn’t matter. Unless you’ll let me put a tampon in.”
“No,” both Blood said immediately, along with Daire’s emphatic, :No.:
I knew them all well enough now, even G, to realize that they weren’t refusing me, or trying to order me. I was queen. I’d do what I wanted. It was their plea that I not deny them.
And after I’d drained them all to the point of barely being able to walk, they would need my blood to refuel them. All my blood.
We made the bed and G went downstairs to get drinks and help Daire haul up all the pizzas they’d ordered. I sat on the bed, my back propped up with pillows, and Rik dozed lightly beside me. His hand on my stomach, his nose on my arm. As if even in exhaustion, he needed to touch and smell me to rest.
We ended up having a pizza party in my bed and I’d never had more fun in my life.
Sitting cross-legged on the mattress, drinking beer, gobbling cheap but cheesy hot pizza, laughing at Daire’s antics. Even G laughed, his tired, worn face lightening as literally years of torture dropped from him.
This. This made everything worth it. The blood, the danger, the years of running from thralls. While the blood and sex were fantastic, they brought a whole new set of dangers. Desperate hunger, a thousand-year-old adversary, goddesses, political plots I couldn’t begin to unravel, mysteries around my parentage.
But this laughter and camaraderie made up for it all.
This love.
And I knew, watching them, my heart straining to hold all the emotion inside me, that I would do anything to keep this love.
Anything at all.
10
Guillaume
I could not believe I had slept. Truly slept, resting, rather than the light doze I had adopted from necessity. Even crowded in a bed with three relative strangers. The big alpha took up the most room, but at least Daire was draped over him with Shara between us. The room was pitch dark and I had no sense of time, other than it was yet night outside. A soft rustle drew my attention to the foot of the bed, but I didn’t smell an intruder. Only her.
“My queen?” I whispered, rising up on one elbow. “Are you well?”
“Shhh,” she whispered back. :Don’t wake Rik or he’ll lecture, ‘my queen doesn’t clean.’ But I can’t sleep with all this trash lying around.:
My eyes adjusted enough to see that she’d stacked the pizza boxes by the door. Now she made a quick circuit around the room, gathering beer cans in her arms. I started to sit up to help but she waved me off. :Don’t get up. I’m almost done.:
She crept back to the bed, patting along the mattress. I reached out for her, thinking she couldn’t see me, but then I heard the soft clink of another can. She set it with the others and then crawled up into my arms.
I closed my eyes, breathing in her scent. It had been so long since I’d held a woman like this. Let alone my queen.
I hadn’t understood other Blood’s willingness to die for their queen, because I’d begged for Desideria’s death for centuries before the goddess heard my prayer. She’d used my honor to enslave me and I’d hated her every single day of my miserable existence. I’d certainly never made love to her, and she’d had plenty of others that fed her needs in that regard. No, her use for me only extended to my blades and how quickly I could behead her enemies. Or provide her with gruesome entertainment as she tortured the queens who’d dared feed on her executioner, when she herself had sent me to those nests for that sole purpose.
:Can I ask you something?:
I opened my eyes and she slid closer, her face just inches away. Her eyes were dark pools of liquid ink in the night, full of secrets and magic. :Always.:
:Did you know my mother, Esetta?:
I felt as though I ought to know the name, but when I searched my memories, I found only blank spots. Isador. I had to have known her. But I couldn’t call up a face or any reference.
Shara sighed, feeling those blank spots in the bond. :I figured as much. No one living can say her name or remember anything about her.:
:You remember her name.:
:The night I came into my power, I died in Rik’s arms. Daire said he did CPR but they couldn’t bring me back. I had to come back on my own.:
Involuntarily, I shuddered. I could only imagine his acute agony, holding his first and beloved queen as she died, unable to save her.
:What about Leviathan?:
:I’ve heard references to a Leviathan that might serve the Skolos Triune, though no specific name or queen.:
:Greyson told me he was my father.:
Now I understood better why they’d told her she wasn’t full Aima. :I would not trust a thrall to be truthful. Even if he didn’t deliberately try to mislead you, he might not know the truth himself.:
:Are the Skolos evil?:
:No more evil than Marne, who tries to lure unsuspecting queens with tainted humans, or Desideria who used me to slaughter hundreds of Blood and entrap their queens. Or me, for that matter. I have killed a great many people, my queen. The human today was the least of my sins.:
Even though we used only the bond to communicate, I sensed a hushed confession trembling in her thoughts. :I burned Greyson up with my blood.:
I saw the torch she’d made of the monster who’d hunted her for years, and felt her underlying horror, not at the act, exactly, but her fierce gladness that she’d done such a thing. I deliberately sent her my enthusiastic approval. :Good.:
I tucked her closer and she nestled her face against my bare throat.
Something I’d refused to offer Marne Ceresa, or any queen who thought to wield me as Desideria had done. After she’d freed me from the prison cell, she’d had to order me to give throat and used her bond as a weapon inside me until I was forced to yield to her will. Feeding my queen had been punishment. Not enjoyment. Certainly not pleasure, tenderness, or dare I say, love.
In the end, she had even tried to kill me by draining me dry.
Shara didn’t know how significant the gesture of a bared throat, offered willingly, could be, especially from someone who’d endured forced feedings. I’d seen Daire do it many times, and she’d gone to Rik for affection and comfort the same way. She didn’t have fangs, yet, but even if she had crocodile teeth, I would have tucked her close the same way, silently offering my throat if she wanted it.
:I suppose I could have burned up Catherine’s body today so they wouldn’t have to fake a
car accident.:
:Don’t waste your precious blood on any human, let alone one who’s tainted.:
She kissed my throat, her lips soft and tender on my skin. Butterfly touches. Angel wings. She sighed softly, a sound that had the alpha lifting his head, his eyes dark with slumberous heat.
:Do you hunger?: I asked her, sharing that thought with Rik at the same time.
:Not exactly.: She hesitated, her bond flowing inside us like a silver ribbon of moonlight. :I need…:
My intensity rose, as did Rik’s. Nothing turned on a Blood more than when his queen needed. Whatever it was.
:I want… this.: She gave us an image of her smashed between us, that immediately had Rik rising to his knees and moving closer. :If you’re willing.:
I met Rik’s gaze over her shoulder, hoping my incredulity didn’t offend her. :Why would we not want this? Or want anything that you desired?:
Aloud, she whispered, “I don’t want to be like Desideria. Or Marne. Or any other queen who’s hurt you. I never want to make you do something because I’m your queen and you have no choice.”
“Our queen.” I lifted her easily, holding her astride my hips, but I didn’t enter her. “Does not hesitate to take what she desires, because she knows we want nothing more than to fulfill that need, whatever it is.”
Rik moved behind her, straddling my knees, and rubbed his dick in the sweet dark blood pooling between her thighs.
Her desire slid through the bond, heating pearly moonlight to white-hot flame. “Bleed on me. Like you did Daire. Unless you’ve already lost too much blood tonight.”
“Never.” Rik bit his wrist and let blood spill on her back and buttocks.
I felt every drop on her skin, the delicious fire that spread like wildfire through her body. She cried out, twisting in my grip, fighting to get my dick inside her.
But I waited. Rik was alpha. He might decide to fuck her on top of me before letting me have a turn. Or he might deny me entirely. She hadn’t specified more than this, that we hold her between us.
He bent her lower, pressing her breasts against my chest. My arms trembled, but not from her weight, or from the effort of keeping her lifted above my hips. No, I fought myself. I fought to restrain the pawing, screaming warhorse from hell that pounded inside my body until the alpha had his fill. Or until he directed me otherwise.
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