It was dark without any windows, but I was well used to that. I’d chosen my old bedroom deliberately because it didn’t have any windows—which meant fewer ways for the monsters to break in. If only I’d known the greatest monster already lived inside of me.
He’d set up a desk, several lamps, and an inviting chaise lounge draped with a soft, fluffy shawl. Perfect for cuddling on a rainy day, reading a book, or… talking with a fearsome queen.
Tlacel set the box on the desk. “Should I cover it as well, my queen?”
“No, I think the box will be fine for now. Thank you.”
We stepped back out and Winston showed me the showstopper bathroom. More windows framed a bathtub large enough that easily six of us could use it at once. Fresh, white marble floors were accented with lapis, emerald, and ruby mosaics. He opened a cabinet beside the tub to show me an array of bath salts, candles, and fluffy, thick towels.
“Gorgeous. I mean it, Winston, this looks like an expensive spa. I love it.”
“I’m so pleased, Your Majesty. If there’s anything you need, anything at all, please let me know and I’ll have the contractor make adjustments.” He took my hand and inclined his head. “I’m at your service, Your Majesty. I’ll leave you to rest from your trip. I’m sure you’re exhausted. When you’re ready to eat, have one of your Blood come down to the kitchen. I have a space readied, so I can heat up food at a moment’s notice.”
“What about the clothes we took on the trip?”
Gina patted my shoulder and followed Winston to the door. “Not to worry, we have a crew assembled to take care of laundry needs. The car has already been unloaded, and we’ll bring your things up later.”
“You’ll find some robes, pajamas, and loungewear in the closet,” Winston called back over his shoulder. “Plus a few other things that Gina had delivered from your Kansas City house. We’ll get your closet filled in no time.”
As I walked back into the bedroom, Rik pulled the twins aside. “Do you two want to have guard duty together, or split up?”
“Together,” they both said without hesitation.
He nodded and then looked at the rest of my Blood. “Everyone on guard duty except for Ezra, Daire, and Guillaume. Check the grounds thoroughly, and then hit the shower and food as you want. Stick close.”
He didn’t have to tell them why. They all felt my hunger. I’d fed from Rik on the plane, but only enough to get home. I hated to destroy the gorgeous, brand-new bedding with a bunch of blood stains. I hoped Winston had hired a fucking stainmaster to get all the blood out of my laundry.
They all filed out, still joking and talking among themselves. I couldn’t help but smile. Mehen was still rhapsodizing about finding the Dumas set in the library.
Once it quieted, I sat on the edge of the bed and turned my attention to Daire. “Should I use the mirror now? Or wait a bit? I don’t want to insult her—but I also don’t want to appear too eager to do her bidding.”
Daire plopped down beside me on the bed and rolled around like a cat marking its territory. “She knows you’ve been traveling, and I’d hazard a guess that she even knows that you have a sib, and maybe even that you had some problems with Ra. You’re a new queen, with a new nest, so you’re going to need some time to prepare for a visit, even via mirror magic. I say take your time. Completely ignoring her would be rude, but if we wait until tomorrow, I think that’s perfectly acceptable.”
“I agree, my queen,” Guillaume added. “If you had a prior relationship with her, then she might expect a quicker response. Or she could have specified her expectation in the note. She left it open for a reason, and Marne Ceresa has a reason for everything she does.”
Some of the tension eased in my shoulders and I took a deep breath. “Okay, good. I’ll worry about her tomorrow then.” I looked at Rik. “Do we need to ward these windows or set up any extra protections? I know it’s inside the nest, but all this glass still makes me leery.”
“The glass won’t be a problem.” His voice deepened to a low rumble that strummed deep inside me. “Though if you will rest better, we’ll salt the window sills.”
“No, that’s fine. As long as you’re not worried.”
“Not in the slightest. This nest is solid and secure. You selected well, my queen.”
I looked at my magnificent Blood one by one. Showing them my appreciation for their incredible physiques, I didn’t hide my rising desire. “Yes, I did select very well indeed.”
Rik tugged his shirt over his head and tossed it aside. “Are you thinking the same thing I am?”
It was a rhetorical question, but sometimes it was nice to actually say things out loud rather than use the bond all the time. It was definitely more of a turn-on. “If you’re thinking that I should feed on Daire while Ezra shows me his hook, then yeah, we’re on the same page.”
Ezra growled roughly. “About fucking time.”
15
Daire
The memory of Ezra’s hook made my purr rumble like a jet engine taking off. The thought of him giving that hook to Shara…
While I fed her…
Damn near made me blow my load before she could even start.
Ezra shoved me to get me moving. “Get her fucking jeans off, D.”
Which meant I should strip in record time first, so I could help her.
By the time I moved closer to her, she’d already tossed her blouse aside. The glittering scales of the snake around her throat drew my attention. It fascinated me, but not necessarily in a good way. Not after her cobra queen had pumped Rik full of poison.
Her arms came up to cross over her breasts, a shyness coming over her that I hadn’t seen since our first night together. When Rik and I had found her a few miles away, fighting off a dozen thralls with nothing but a board with some rusted nails in one hand and a pocketknife in the other.
My throat ached with regret that I had made her feel unsure of herself. I leaned in and dropped kisses along her shoulder until my mouth touched the red snake.
It was definitely coils and not her skin against my mouth. It even moved slightly. Chills raced down my spine, but it didn’t move again.
“It bit me,” she whispered, her fingers touching her cheek. “When She gave it to me. I don’t think it’ll bite again, at least not until it’s time to kill Ra.”
I rubbed my lips against her cheek, seeking to take away the memory. “I didn’t see any marks on you after the dream.”
She sighed heavily. “There are marks, but they’re invisible. More like dark blots. Stains. I don’t want to think about it or I’ll cry again.”
I unbuttoned her jeans and helped her pull them off, then her panties. She scooted backwards on the bed, lifting her gaze to find Rik. “You’ll be close too, won’t you?”
“Of course, if that’s your wish.”
“And G. I think I could drain you all and barely put a dent in this thirst.”
Guillaume had stripped off his clothes, but he still had some work to do removing all the leather harnesses and sheaths for the blades he kept concealed all over his body. “I’ll be ready and waiting for you, my queen.”
Ezra and I both started toward her, crawling across the mattresses. It was bigger than it seemed—and took a ridiculously long time to get to her. I was snickering by the time I managed to touch her, because it was hard to do the sexy beast crawl for that long without looking like an idiot.
“Fuck me sideways.” Ezra finally flopped down on his back, pretending exhaustion. “This is one fucking big bed.”
She laughed and bent down to rub her face against his chest. “I know. I can’t wait to see how many of you can sleep with me now.”
He reached up and hooked his arm around her shoulders, but he turned his sultry brown eyes on me. “Get busy warming up our queen, D. I want her motor purring as loudly as you.”
She threaded her fingers through the thick mat of chest hair and gave him a playful tug. “Can I purr, do you think? If I’m not shifted?�
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I rubbed against her, a soft glide of my body against hers, inviting her cat out to play with mine. “You can do anything you want because you’re Shara fucking Isador.”
Shara
I hadn’t felt like Shara fucking Isador since that dream on Snake Mountain, but with my two Blood stroking my skin, I was starting to feel less shaken and scared of how much I had to lose, and more like myself. A badass vampire queen who wanted to revel in her hunger for blood and sex.
“Yes,” Daire drew the word out with a pleased hum. “Revel in me, my queen.”
The mattress on either side dipped slightly as Rik and Guillaume joined us, moving closely enough to step in if I asked for them, their eyes dark, cocks hard and eager. It made me remember what I’d wanted after pushing Ra’s blast aside from Mayte’s nest.
Too many dicks to count.
I rolled Daire beneath me and mounted him in one deep lunge that made us both groan. So good, to have him deep inside me. Beneath me. Purring. Swirling his hips. Rocking me like Guillaume’s delightful canter.
Ezra straddled Daire’s hips and rubbed against my back, giving me more sensation. His furry chest and thighs, his solid weight. The rasp of his beard against my shoulder when he kissed my throat.
“You are one fucking fine queen, Shara. I could eat you up.”
“Be my guest.”
Edging closer, so his dick rubbed against my buttocks, he sank his fangs in my throat. He growled against my skin and locked me against him. I arched against him, my body eager for more. I wanted him deep inside me too.
:Not the hook, sweetheart. Not in that fine ass, at least not the first time. Let D finish, and then I’ll give you what you want.:
My other two Blood braced on their knees on either side of Daire, offering up their bodies to me. I took a cock in either hand and dropped my head back against Ezra, soaking them all in. My Blood, my men, my dicks. All four of them. Touching me. Loving me. I would take them all inside me at once if I could.
My hunger licked inside me like an inferno. Daire sat up, offering his throat while he squeezed and molded my breasts in both hands. I struck hard and his hips jerked up on a shout of release. Shaking as he spurted inside me, semen and blood both. I gulped him down, gasping as he pushed me to climax too.
Panting, he nuzzled up against me, his arms sliding around both me and Ezra, pinning me against the other man. Eyes closed, I simply breathed them in, soaking in the textures of muscle and tendon, the throb of erections against my palms. Guillaume was so thick I couldn’t close my fingers around him, and Rik wasn’t far behind.
Ezra licked my throat and raised his mouth to my ear. “You haven’t felt my dick when the hook is released. It’ll feel like Rik and G both are shoved inside you.”
A groan tore from my throat and I arched back against him. “Sounds good.”
He pushed into me gently, and at first, he felt like a normal man. Nothing strange or different at all. He thrust several times, giving me a little grunt each time he pushed inside me. Deeper, lower, harder with each thrust. And yeah, it was good. Fucking fantastic. I loved a good, hard fuck. I wasn’t going to break, and some of the guys were a bit too… reverent… when they touched me.
I loved that too, but sometimes, I just wanted to fuck. Hard.
I wanted to feel like I was breaking from the inside out. Like I was being reshaped into something new.
Ezra was the furthest from reverent any of my Blood could be.
He fisted his hand in my hair and pushed me down with Daire beneath me, shifting me lower to improve his leverage. I squeezed my hands tighter, refusing to let go of Rik and G, though the angle made my shoulders ache.
It was a good ache, and it matched the growing heat in my pelvis perfectly.
Ezra growled again and nipped my earlobe hard enough I gasped. “Get ready, sweetheart. I’m going to fucking blow your mind.”
He sat back upright, but kept one hand fisted in my hair, my head shoved against Daire’s chest. Ezra’s other hand gripped my hip so hard I’d probably have fingerprints in my skin. Breathing hard, he pushed deeper, grinding against my buttocks.
And something exploded in me.
I jerked with surprise, pulling my hair in his grip. Daire squeezed me tighter, holding me while I twitched and moaned. “Oh fuck!”
Ezra roared, leaning harder against me, his forearm digging into my back. I fought their grip, trying to escape the sensation. It was fucking fantastic, but also too much. Too full, too large, too everything. Too fucking good to survive.
Relentless, Ezra pushed even deeper, sending another shockwave tearing through me. It didn’t even feel like a climax, but a motherfucking category one-hundred hurricane. I sank my fangs into Daire again out of desperation. I probably almost ripped the guys’ dicks off, but for the life of me, I couldn’t let go of them.
“When you’ve had enough,” Ezra ground out, “sink those wicked fangs in me, sweetheart. I’ll even make it easy for you.”
By easy, he meant that he let go of my hip and wrapped his forearm around my neck, hauling me up off Daire. My poor warcat was dazed out of his mind, his eyes spaced, panting so hard he couldn’t even purr. Sets of my fang-marks dotted both pectorals, some neat, some jagged and torn from my thrashing.
But I hadn’t had enough yet.
Not by a long shot.
Twisting my arm around, I pulled Guillaume closer by his dick and sank my fangs into his thigh. He bucked against me, his come splashing my shoulder. Instantly, his essence sank into my skin, my body devouring him as readily as his blood.
Sweet dessert wine. His rich, delicate blood was so at odds with my dented and battered Templar knight. I drank from him until he wavered and tumbled down beside Daire.
Ezra shifted his forearm up closer to my mouth, either to make it easier for me, or more likely, because he wanted to tempt me into ending our locked position. He still felt impossibly large inside me, as though his dick had swelled to the size of a baseball bat. It hadn’t—even though my sensitive walls insisted he was too big. Too wide. Too much.
I fucking loved it.
I fucking loved the sweat pouring off him, his ripe scent of grizzly bear and pine needles filling my nose. The tickle of his body hair, very much like fur.
Rik damned near shoved his thigh into my face, more than eager for me to bite him again, even though I’d fed from him on the jet. But I’d do one better than that. I twisted in Ezra’s grip, ignoring the pull on my hair, and inched my face closer to Rik so I could take his cock in my mouth.
He shuddered in my grip but didn’t pull away. I had to be ever so careful. I didn’t want to shred his dick with my fangs, and they were big enough to do some serious damage. I could heal it, sure, but what man wanted his dick injured and bleeding? If Ezra had been thrusting, I wouldn’t have been able to do it, but with his hook solid in me, neither of us were moving very much. We didn’t have to.
I licked the head of Rik’s cock and pressed my tongue against the tiny slit. Traced the delicate layers of skin around his cock head with my tongue, and ever so gently scraped my fangs on his tender shaft.
My fearless rock troll rolled his hips slightly, pushing his dick further into my mouth. A silent gesture of exactly how much he trusted me. Even if I hurt him, he’d let me do it. He’d have no regrets, even if I’d be devastated later.
He kept up those tiny thrusts, a gentle, slow rocking of his hips that matched the slight stroking of Ezra’s hook inside me. My hair was damp with sweat. Mine. Theirs. Guillaume and Daire both stared up at me, their eyes blazing with heat, lips parted to show me their fangs. Their dicks were spent, but already stirring, and their hunger was certainly not sated. It’d never be sated.
Neither would mine.
I pulled back enough to let Rik’s dick slide out of my mouth and sank my fangs into his thigh. He roared and heaved against me like tectonic plates were tearing apart. Mixed with the familiar powerful taste of his blood, the hot splash of his come
pushed me over the edge again.
I finally took pity on Ezra and released Rik so I could jam my fangs into my bear’s forearm. He bellowed and jerked against me. “Sweet fucking goddess, finally.”
He felt like a hot flood inside me, wave after wave of his release filling me. For the first time having sex with one, or many, of my Blood, I felt rather sticky when we all tumbled down onto the mattress.
Panting in a sweaty pile with my Blood, I closed my eyes. This. I had to remember moments like this. No matter how badly the fight against Keisha Skye or Marne Ceresa went. No matter how soon I had to strike Ra down and risk the cost of Coatlicue’s red serpent of death. This love made everything worth it.
I could only wish that if one of us had to die, that I could go with him to whatever afterlife Isis had planned for us.
“Never,” Rik murmured against my ear, tugging me up on his chest. “You must live. You must continue Isis’s line. Think of your surviving Blood, my queen. Think of how they would suffer if you walked away to the afterlife and left them suffering without you.”
“I know,” I whispered, my heart cracking into a thousand pieces. No, actually, it was only a few pieces. Nine for my Blood. Gina, Winston, and Frank. Mayte. And Xochitl. Fourteen.
My family.
The curtains at the window billowed out, even though the windows were shut and there was no breeze. As if a ghost lingered near the glass, always keeping watch over me.
It had to be my mother, Esetta Isador, her name forbidden to anyone still living. She’d often left me signs that she was with me. If she watched over me, then I also had to count Typhon, father of monsters, the god who sired me. Selena, my aunt who raised me as her own outside a nest, alone and powerless, with her human lover, Alan Dalton. They all four died so I might live. Seventeen pieces of my shattered heart.
Queen Takes Rook (Their Vampire Queen Book 4) Page 11