“Long live Shara fucking Isador,” Daire’s voice rang out.
“Last daughter of the Great One,” Mehen retorted. “The only queen to bring Leviathan, king of the depths, to heel.”
Guillaume didn’t say anything, though he suddenly had his biggest knife in his hand. He casually examined the massive blade’s edge with his thumb.
The smell of his blood, even a single drop, made my voice thicken with hunger. “Unless you’d like to challenge me?”
She blinked rapidly, as if suddenly surprised to find the insignificant little mouse she’d picked up suddenly had giant teeth and claws. Had she not seen me handle Keisha Skye? Or was Alessandra so confident in her house name that she thought she’d be immune? “You need a sibling queen to hold the city. Someone well known and strong.”
“With elegance and class,” I said dryly. “We’ve been over this.”
She drew herself up, her chin rising to a haughty angle. “They say you weren’t raised in a nest, so it’s understandable that you wouldn’t know my house’s reputation or what we can accomplish together. Marne Ceresa herself arranged for my alliance with Keisha Skye.”
“But you arranged your downfall.”
Alessandra recoiled, and her perfect complexion drained of color. “Why? What have I done?”
I stared back at her steadily. “No one in House Isador will stand by quietly while others are tortured. They certainly won’t assist or participate.”
“She made me,” Alessandra whispered, her voice raw. “She made us all.”
“That’s not true and you know it,” Carys retorted. “I never participated. I never even watched, except for the one time she threatened to kill Winnifred if I refused a direct order. What happened in House Skye was sickening and I wanted no part in it.”
“A queen sibling stands with her queen. Wouldn’t you want that kind of sibling, Your Majesty? Sibs that always do as you order without question? That’s the kind of loyalty I offer.”
Slowly, I stood. Rik leaned forward, his hands on my waist, but he didn’t rise. I didn’t need my alpha’s strength and impressive size to intimidate. “Actually, no. Not at all. I don’t want people following my orders blindly. If I do something as terrible as torture another person, I want someone to stand up and tell me to my face that I’m wrong.”
“You don’t understand everything Keisha had been through.” Alessandra dabbed at her eyes, trying to sell her act of being the hapless, loyal supporter. “She lost a child. It devastated her. You can’t possibly understand that kind of pain.”
“My mother and father were murdered in front of me, so don’t tell me that I don’t understand the pain of losing your only family. It’s still no excuse for what Keisha did. And there’s no excuse for what you did if you ever assisted her in any way.”
“I didn’t assist in torturing her alphas. Not once.”
Llewellyn came forward and dropped to one knee before me, bowing low. “Your Majesty, I beg your forgiveness.”
I cupped his cheek and turned his face up so I could see his eyes. “What is it, my Blood?”
“I wasn’t entirely truthful before. I neglected to tell you one very important fact, out of selfishness, I admit.”
Mind whirling, I tried to keep my face smooth, rather than betraying the thousand questions fluttering through my head. Without hesitation, he’d already torn apart his handler and many of the other Blood who’d participated in his torture. So what reason could he possibly have for hiding something about Alessandra until now?
His eyes flickered with drops of golden fire. “I was tortured by Skye’s Blood for years before they gave up trying to get much of a rise out of me. I watched everything, though, because that’s my gift. When I see something with my eyes, it becomes a permanent part of my memory. My queen can then access those memories as if they’re her own and play them aloud for others as if they’re a movie. I wanted you to see and play this particular memory with my eyes.”
I nodded, still stroking his cheek. “How do I access this memory?”
“Through the bond. Touch my mind. It’s always open to you, my queen.”
Still touching his face, I sank into his bond. His gryphon’s feathers enfolded me, a deep rumbling whirr rising from his chest. I’d often touched my Blood’s memories, but I’d never tried to play them aloud before. I wasn’t sure how that would even work. It wasn’t like he had a play button inside his head.
His life stretched out before me like a wide, slow-moving river. Deceptively calm and still, inviting me to jump in even though I could feel brutal undercurrents just beneath the surface. I brushed lightly across that smooth surface. Images flickered through my head. Faces I recognized, that squeezed and crumbled my heart into dust.
Esetta. My mother. Her face was perfectly clear in his memory. I paused, drinking in the deep, endless darkness of her eyes.
:Don’t watch that one yet, my queen,: Llewellyn whispered in our bond. :Let it be just for you and I, and your alpha, if you wish. But not here.:
Reluctantly, I let that image sink back into the river flowing through him.
:This one, my queen.: He filled my mind with an image of Keisha sitting on her throne. :Drag it up and out of me so they can all see it.:
I touched that memory and it rose up out of the river eagerly. I didn’t have to tug or wrestle, and I suddenly heard voices echoing above our heads. I opened my eyes and gasped. Llewellyn’s head was tipped back, his eyes strained wide. Red-gold rays burned from his eyes, almost too bright for me to look at. I followed them upward to an image reflected on the ceiling. He was the camera, his eyes the lens, tracking two people whispering in the corner. The room was dark. I could feel his intensity radiating in the image. He didn’t breathe or move but focused silently on the two women talking.
Their whispers clicked louder, as if he’d turned the volume up. He blinked, and the image sharpened, as if he’d zoomed in. I recognized Alessandra, speaking to another woman I didn’t know.
“When does she want us to act?” The other woman asked.
:Virginia Athos: Llewellyn whispered in my head. The other queen he’d warned me about.
“Not yet,” Alessandra replied. “She sees something lurking deep in the background that Keisha doesn’t want anyone to know. She needs us to find out what it is first. But then, House Skye will be mine.”
She turned toward Llewelyn and gasped, her eyes flaring with shock. “What are you doing here? Where the fuck is that hood? Your handler?”
“I was told to wait here until she returned,” he replied.
Someone approached from behind him. “Fucking nuisance,” a woman retorted and jammed something down over his head. Darkness replaced the image on the ceiling.
I glanced down at his face, but he didn’t move. He continued staring up at the ceiling with his glowing eyes, so I looked back, waiting for the memory to continue. His past emotions still flickered through me. His gift was extraordinary. I could feel his rage bubbling through him. He hated the hood. He hated the handler. He hated every single person in Skye Tower. He raged silently, eager to kill and feast and kill some more. Yet he had a purpose. He was to wait, and watch, and be ready.
For me.
He was sent to capture every single thing he could with his gift, so I would have the background information I needed when the time came. Keisha must have known about his gift, though, so I wasn’t sure how many memories he would have captured if they’d kept him hooded.
I wasn’t sure how much time passed. It was long enough that I started to get a crick in my neck from staring up at the ceiling. I heard shuffling and the quiet whisper of clothing. I glanced over at Alessandra. She’d tried to slink away, but Guillaume and the twins had blocked her path.
Voices played from above, drawing my attention back to it, though the image was still black.
Alessandra’s voice echoed down from the ceiling. “I’m surprised that you’ve been willing to keep him around so long, given his dangero
us ability to spy on you.”
The blackness was replaced with Keisha Skye sitting on her throne. Llewelyn must have been on his knees in front of the dais, looking up at her. The image shook briefly, and I felt a surge of fury roar through him so viciously that he trembled. He hated her. He wanted to kill her. His mouth watered at the thought of tearing her throat out. Yet he said nothing.
“He has his uses,” Keisha replied with a shrug. Her lips curled with a hint of smug amusement. “Tormenting him pleases me greatly, though he responds so little nowadays. Besides, his beloved queen is dead. Who would he report to now?”
The woman behind him muttered loudly enough for her queen to hear. “He doesn’t even scream anymore.”
“Then you don’t have any imagination,” Alessandra said.
Keisha narrowed a hard look on her. “Do you have any suggestions?”
Alessandra thought a moment, tapping one elegantly tapered fingernail against her chin. “Oh. I know. You could take his eyes.”
The handler let out a grunt of disgust. “Her Majesty said no permanent physical damage, or trust me, I would have taken those cursed eyes out a decade ago and saved myself the trouble of this fucking hood.”
Llewellyn didn’t move, but his fear tasted sour on my tongue. I could feel his heart pounding as if trying to escape his ribcage. He didn’t want them to know how much the thought of losing his sight, and especially, his gift, upset him. He had a purpose. He needed his eyes to complete it.
“No…” Keisha replied, drawing the word out on a long sigh.
Llewellyn didn’t relax. He watched her intently, blinking again so his camera-focus narrowed in on her face. The glint of cruelty in her eyes.
“I won’t take his eyes. You will. And you, Wasinga, will still use the fucking hood every moment of every fucking day and night.”
His camera vision flickered again, zeroing in on Alessandra’s face. He watched her swallow, her delicate throat tensing, though her face didn’t betray her. She walked toward him, and with each step, his vision clicked and snapped, adjusting to keep his focus on her face. Even as she raised her hands, the jewels on her lacquered nails reflecting the light. Approaching his eyes. Snap. Closer. Tension coiled in him, and in me, as I watched. I couldn’t breathe. Fire exploded in my eyeballs and the shrill scream echoed through the room, resounding in my head. His scream. Mine.
Rik’s hands held me steady as I swayed. I clamped my mouth shut, and the wailing scream of pain shut off. I panted, clutching Llewellyn’s face. Even with Rik’s heat and strength at my back, I still wanted to frantically touch my own eyes and make sure they were still there. That she hadn’t taken my eyes.
Goddess. It was awful. His memory still ached inside me like a nest of inflamed, raw nerves.
“You lied,” I rasped out in Alessandra’s general direction.
“No, no, Your Majesty,” she babbled. “Not exactly. I said I’d never participated in torturing Keisha’s alphas. Which is true. I never touched them.”
“Shut the fuck up!” I roared, wincing at my own volume. I finally managed to convince my eyes to open. I blinked away tears and winced again at the tenderness in my eyes. They remembered being ripped out by this woman. I still clutched Llewellyn’s face so hard that my nails had broken his skin. I dragged his face against my chest and wrapped my arms around his head, holding him over my heart.
Still panting. His pain raw inside me.
I looked at her and I wanted to sprout my own nails and claw her eyes out. Instead, I said one word. Or rather, one name.
“Guillaume.”
He moved, so elegantly and quickly that I doubted she felt a thing. Just like in Kansas City, when he’d killed the curious saleslady who’d been tainted by Marne Ceresa, he effortlessly beheaded Alessandra Sito.
The rest of my Blood inched closer to me, shoulders tensing. Hackles rising. Teeth bared.
They wanted blood. They wanted to kill, too.
Three men ran forward, jostling my Blood to get to Alessandra, evidently their queen, but they were too late.
I looked at Vega and she dropped to her belly on the floor and hid her face.
“Must I look through Llewellyn’s eyes to see your sins, or will you face what you’ve done?”
“Kill me, Your Majesty,” she whispered, her voice shaking. “I beg you.”
The rest of Keisha’s Blood mirrored her, falling forward on the cold marble. Alessandra’s three Blood joined them silently. Accepting their fate.
I glanced at each one of my Blood except for Rik and gave them each a nod.
My stomach churned. My eyes still ached in my skull. But I watched every moment as my men executed the dead queens’ Blood.
6
Mehen
I enjoyed drinking blood, but it was wonderfully feral to tear apart my queen’s enemies and feast on their flesh. I curled around the chair where she sat, my head on my tail, my belly pleasantly stuffed. It’d been a very long time since Leviathan had been so well fed. I hadn’t even digested the Skye sibs I’d eaten earlier when I’d finally managed to break through the fucking roof.
The warcat jumped up on top of me to get closer to our queen and I didn’t even bother with a growl. Daire stretched out along my heaving side and settled in to lick his muzzle and claws clean. The marble floor was coated in congealing blood, shredded fabric, and a few grisly remains that even I wouldn’t bother with.
On his knees, Llewellyn had folded himself up so she could cradle his head against her breasts. Lucky asshole. Even if some bitch queen had torn out his eyes. Rik had his beefy arms wrapped around her, his giant body swallowing her up. She drooped a little, her face pale, though she’d watched us carry out her orders without flinching. Even if that meant tearing into meat while it was still kicking.
“Call the blood to you,” Rik rumbled softly. “Then you won’t have to look at it.”
“It’s not my blood to call.”
I’d never heard her voice so… fragile. My slitted eyes locked on her, nostrils flaring. If she needed blood, I’d shift and offer a vein, even if my human belly would hurt for a week.
“It is,” Rik insisted gently. “This is your building. These are your sibs, even if you haven’t taken them. Their blood will come to your call.”
She allowed her head to fall back against his shoulder with a weary sigh. Closing her eyes, she relaxed against him. My scales itched as she called up her magic, the row of barbs down my head and spine rising with interest. Dried blood peeled away from my hide and floated toward her, joining the droplets from the floor and the rest of her Blood. She absorbed it with a small shiver.
If I hadn’t been in my dragon form, I’d probably have shit myself. Soaking in that much blood energy was no easy feat. Yet she took it into her reserves like she’d dribbled a little blood on the floor, rather than the slaughtered remains of fifteen people.
Her color improved, and she didn’t wilt so heavily against Rik. When she spoke again, her voice rang with confidence. “Virginia, come forward.”
A crying woman with a Blood on either side of her approached our queen. Lushly beautiful with full ruby lips and a curvaceous figure, she was gorgeous even with swollen eyes and drippy nose. I’d let G slice and dice my nuts if she wasn’t descended from Aphrodite. Once upon a time, I might have taken a great deal of pleasure in fucking such a queen before I ate her.
Now, though, all I wanted was the dark beauty of my queen. My Shara. Mine.
Rik gave an alpha jab through the bond that knocked my possessiveness down a notch, though I still nudged my nose closer to Shara’s ankle so I could lick the top of her foot.
Virginia knelt gracefully several paces away with a wary eye on me, even though I made no defensive move toward her. My belly was too full to move quickly, but Daire tensed slightly. He’d be ready to pounce on her at the first moment of trouble.
“Forgive me, Your Majesty. I colluded with Alessandra to bring down Keisha Skye for her, and indirectly, for Marne
Ceresa. I didn’t object when Keisha tortured her alphas. May Aphrodite strike me down this very moment if I lie. I swear that I never participated in any torture, of any persons. Ever. Not here in Skye Tower or elsewhere. I was weak, yes. I was afraid. I did as I was told. But I didn’t participate.”
“I appreciate your honesty,” Shara replied. “I ask that you leave my tower immediately.”
Virginia opened and closed her mouth several times before finally saying, “I must leave? I’m grateful for your mercy, Your Majesty, but I have nowhere else to go.”
“I don’t trust you. I don’t know if I can ever trust anyone who worked with Keisha, but you have a double strike against you, because you allied yourself with Alessandra, too.”
She lifted her gaze to the other queens, who’d drawn into a tight group with their Blood on the outside in a ring. We hadn’t threatened them. Yet. If Shara ordered their deaths, nothing would keep us from completing her order, let alone a few paltry Blood. I could squash half of them with my tail without even getting up.
“Your Majesty,” Carys said, drawing her attention. “May I now demonstrate my gift for you?”
My queen nodded, so Carys stepped closer to the crying woman and closed her eyes a moment. Her mouth moved, as if she was muttering beneath her breath, but even my sensitive ears couldn’t pick up what she said.
Carys opened her eyes and nodded sharply. “My gift lies in pure numbers, Your Majesty, and I can now tell you that the probability of Virginia Athos betraying you is one in two, or roughly fifty percent.”
The woman gasped, and two bright red dots spread on her cheeks. “How dare you? I would never betray my queen.”
“That statement carries a nine in ten probability, Your Majesty, though I believe the question you must ask yourself is who her queen truly is.”
“Marne Ceresa,” Shara said flatly.
“While nothing is completely certain, my gift agrees with ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent accuracy.”
Queen Takes Checkmate (Their Vampire Queen Book 5) Page 6
