Queen Takes Checkmate (Their Vampire Queen Book 5)

by Joely Sue Burkhart

  Stupid. It wasn’t the time. She wasn’t ready.

  But I couldn’t stop that thought from sprouting in my head.

  I could see her with a daughter. Goddess, they’d be so beautiful. She’d be an incredible mother, fierce, protective, a fucking unstoppable force of nature. She loved so easily, so openly. She didn’t have to love all of us. She could take a hundred Blood—and might need that many to stand against the Triune—but she wouldn’t. Because she wanted to love us.

  She wanted this. Every night. Her body pressed between us. Hands sliding over her skin, hot flesh against hers, driving her need higher. If she wished it, she could have the rest of the Blood pressed against her. Hard dick and muscle for miles. Endless pleasure. Our focus entirely on her. Our queen. Our forever.

  Yet she’d chosen to share this night with only me and Daire. Her original vampire knights.

  Goddess, let this never end, I prayed, not ashamed of the sudden hot ache behind my eyes. Protect her, please. Keep her safe. I’ll pay the cost if I must, but I would rather love her for all time.

  She must have picked up on my grim thoughts in the bond, because she stabbed her nails deeper into my thigh. The small pain cut through my aimless worry, scattering my fears. All that mattered was her.

  Straddling Daire’s legs, I rubbed the tip of my dick down the crevice of her ass. Lower, so I could feel him inside her, and more importantly, her blood.

  The future of House Isador. Everything her mother had sacrificed to bring about.

  Daire slid his thumb though her dark curls and found her clit. I felt the jolt of her body between us. The immediate surge of her desire as he rubbed methodical circles around swollen, sensitive flesh. I pushed the head of my dick against her asshole, but I didn’t force my way in. We had time. Even though my balls ached and a fist the size of my rock troll’s blazed at the base of my spine.

  Clutching my thigh, her sharp nails breaking my skin, she pushed back against me, pushing my dick inside her. Like Daire earlier, I simply froze, letting her use my dick, my body, for her pleasure. Her blood helped me slide deeper. So fucking tight I could feel the rub of his dick so close. Both of us moving inside her.

  She claimed us both. Taking our hearts all over again.

  I suddenly wished I’d been the one on the tree in Mexico. That she’d sacrificed my heart instead of Itztli’s. My chest burned, my ribs creaking, as if the organ wanted to leap out of my body and do her bidding.

  “Harder,” Daire whispered raggedly. “She’s not hurting me enough yet. Rik, please.”

  My blood hit her, sucked up by those silver nails, and I shuddered. I felt her thirst as my own, a burning, gnawing ache that would never be satisfied.

  A thirst for me. For Daire. Forever unquenched.

  I closed my hands around her waist and shifted her forward slightly, changing my angle inside her. I felt Daire’s dick sliding inside her and I swore that sparks clashed between us, a combustible explosion waiting to happen. I filled her ass until my balls hung heavy against her, rubbing in her blood, and I was lost.

  I sucked in a hard breath and hauled myself out of her so I could ram home again. She dragged her nails down Daire’s back and he pitched beneath us, pushing her higher. Pushing me deeper. Her nails blazed in my thigh like red-hot pokers. She gasped and tore at Daire’s back. Again. Her fingers slipping in his blood.

  I wanted it to last forever. I didn’t want to come. I’d rather she drain me dry and keep us inside her as long as possible. If I came, I’d lose this. I’d lose this connection with them both.

  We rocked together, pinning her between us. Smearing her with our blood. Our skin soaking up hers. Every breath made my lungs catch fire. Sweat poured off me like I’d run a marathon. But I couldn’t stop. I didn’t want to stop. My head pounded with my heartbeat, so rapidly that the constant thudding blanked out my eyes and ears. There was only her scent, the feel of her skin against mine, the tight, wet heat of her body, and the luscious haven of her blood.

  The fist in my spine tore through my stomach. Fire licked my vertebrae. I tried to hold back the climax, but she sank her fangs in Daire’s throat, and he roared with release. The savage, desperate howl brought my rock troll to the surface. It was all I could do not to shift as the first spasm hit me.

  My balls clenched hard, my cock jerking inside her. For a moment, it felt like I’d picked up Ezra’s hook. My dick felt massive, swollen, too large to move inside her any longer. But then the hot spill of my semen spurted deep inside her and I felt her body absorbing me. My sweat, my heat, my blood, my come.

  My queen consumed me.

  Her bond exploded in a brilliant spinning rainbow that obliterated my last conscious thought.

  Panting, I forced my eyes open. We were tumbled together in a heap on her bed. She made a low, sated purr of pleasure that sure as fuck made my dick twitch all over again. I groaned, Daire laughed, and my queen nuzzled my throat.

  “This was better than the first time,” she whispered, lifting her head to see my face.

  I brushed her heavy, sweaty hair back from her face and tried to slow my breathing down. “Practice makes perfect.”

  Her lips quirked. “You didn’t shift and destroy the entire room.”

  “It was a near thing,” I admitted, shaking my head. “You took me to the very edge of control. If I ever shift while I’m inside you…”

  She brushed her lips against mine. “Don’t tempt me.”

  As big as my rock troll was, I couldn’t imagine the horror of what I’d do to her body. Shuddering, I clamped my fingers on her nape and put as much command in my voice as I dared to give my queen. “Don’t even joke about such a thing.”

  She laughed softly, and I eased my desperate grip. “At least I didn’t die this time, right?”

  When I’d taken her virginity, she’d died in my arms. Coming into her power that first time had not been easy. I couldn’t let myself remember the lifeless, heavy weight of her body in my arms without wailing like a lost, inconsolable child.

  If I lost her now…

  If someone didn’t kill me quickly, I’d go absolutely raving mad. I’d kill everyone and everything in my path until someone managed to put me down like a rabid dog.

  “You can’t die,” Daire retorted, burrowing into us both for comfort. “You can’t, Shara. Do whatever you need to do to save yourself. That’s all we care about.”

  She combed her fingers through his hair and shushed him with a low hum, but her bond hardened in my mind. Tempered steel, a sleek, unbreakable blade crafted by a master swordsmith for one purpose.

  Death.

  23

  Shara

  I’d forgotten what it was like to be able to sleep for a few hours and still function like a normal person. I’d never been a morning person per se, but I loved being able to roll out of bed after six or eight hours of sleep and not feel like death warmed over.

  Poor Winston was shaken to see me downstairs before noon and didn’t have anything ready for breakfast. Despite my assurance that I wasn’t going to dry up and blow away from starvation, he insisted I sit at the kitchen island with a cup of coffee and toast while he quickly whipped up a masterpiece omelet.

  Nevarre strode in and handed me a cellphone. Sliding my arm around his waist to keep him from leaving, I answered, “Hello?”

  “You’ve rattled everybody with this new schedule,” Gina replied tartly, though I heard the amused grin in her voice. “Frank came here instead of the house. Should I send him over or would you rather come here?”

  I didn’t have to think very hard. “Please send him over here, and if you’re free, I’d like you to be here too.”

  “Of course. We’ll head over straight away.”

  “No rush, unless you haven’t had breakfast yet.”

  I disconnected the call and handed it back to Nevarre. “I’d forgotten I even had a phone. Have you had it the whole time?”

  His lips quirked, and he nodded. “We thought it wou
ld be easier if one of us was responsible for it. Only Gina ever calls you, and since she’s usually with you, you shouldn’t need it very often. I’m happy to keep it charged and ready for you, my queen.”

  He even made managing my phone sound dirty. Which I liked, very much indeed. I trailed my fingers down over his buttock playfully. He wore his kilt, tempting me to reach underneath and see exactly how charged and ready he was.

  His voice deepened. “I’m always ready for you, my queen.”

  My fingers found bare skin and I started to make my way up his thigh, pushing the hem of his kilt up with my wrist. “Where do you even put a phone? Does your kilt have pockets?”

  Winston coughed politely. “Your omelet is ready, Your Majesty.”

  Regretfully, I allowed the material to fall back in place. “You need to show me later, Nevarre.”

  He bowed formally, bending at the waist, which sent his shiny black hair waterfalling over his shoulder to brush my arm. “With pleasure, my queen.”

  I’d barely taken a bite, when I heard Gina talking with Magnum as they headed to the kitchen. They stepped inside, and Gina gasped. “Miracles do happen! She’s awake before noon!”

  “Haha, very funny,” I grumbled with a blush.

  The marble island went on for miles, so there was plenty of room for Gina to take a seat beside me. Frank carefully set a box covered in white linen in front of me and then backed away slowly, like it’d bite him if he startled it.

  “Thank you, Frank. Sorry to drag you all the way out to New York City.”

  He started to blush too and waved off my appreciation. “It’s an honor, Your Majesty. Besides, this gave me the chance to check on the new hires. I hope they’ve been doing a good job for you so far?”

  “Yes, a definite improvement over the guards Keisha Skye had. I love the uniforms too.”

  He wore the black Isador shirt, though he wore black cargo pants rather than khakis. “A team always seems to perform better when they have a uniform they can be proud of. If it’s alright, I’ll head back over and make sure they’re following procedures.”

  “Of course. Thanks again.”

  “Should I give you some privacy, Your Majesty?” Winston asked.

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” I pulled off the white linen cloth and set it aside so I could look at the box itself while I finished my breakfast. Daire refilled my coffee cup before I was ready to open it up.

  I’d put off looking at its contents since that first time in Kansas City. I knew what was inside. I’d seen it before, or at least glanced at it. Four ancient clay jars and a thick, leather-bound book that had been hand-stitched and painstakingly copied by my mother from all the Isador queens before her.

  A compilation of my family’s entire history. Hopefully, it also included some hints on how I was supposed to defeat Ra. Without dying.

  Dread tightened my stomach and I had to push my plate aside. I couldn’t eat another bite, not with my stomach in knots. Those four jars represented pieces of the goddess, Isis. Her gifts that Her daughters had inherited over thousands of years. Since I was the last daughter of Isis…

  She’d given me all Her gifts.

  I’d already transformed into a giant cobra queen and envenomed Rik. I’d sprouted wings in Venezuela when I freed Leviathan from his prison and added Mehen to my Blood. As the wyvern, I’d saved us both when he shifted back to his human form after centuries of imprisonment and tumbled out of the sky.

  In Mexico, I’d gained the new form of a winged jaguar, partly Isis’ gift, and also partly my new queen sibling, Mayte’s, whose gift was calling jaguars.

  All wonderful gifts, but also dangerous creatures. Monsters.

  I’d seen a cat head and a cobra on the jars. I couldn’t remember what carvings the other two jars had, but one of them had to have something to do with wings. My instincts insisted that whatever was on that fourth jar—whatever gift I had yet to receive—was terrifying. Something inside me lurked for the right time to come crawling out of me to fight a god.

  But if it helped me save us, then so be it.

  A mosaic Isis held a tiny golden bowl in her hands, lifting it up like an offering. Only the blood of Isis could open the box, and I was the last.

  It was a sobering thought. If I died, these gifts that were incredibly ancient and powerful would simply fade away.

  I pressed my thumb into the tiny golden bowl on the box’s top. A small hidden pin punctured the pad of my thumb, drawing my blood. And even though I was still on my period, my Blood smelled that tiny drop and went on full alert. I held my thumb out to Nevarre and let him lick the small smear of blood away.

  Fine cracks appeared around the box, showing me the lid. I lifted the wooden top and set it aside. I took my time, letting my eyes settle on the familiar first. The closest jar’s lid was a black hooded cobra with a red diamond on her hood. I picked the jar up carefully, surprised that it wasn’t heavy at all. The lid came off easily, and I verified there was nothing inside.

  The next jar’s lid was a gorgeous tawny sphinxlike cat head wearing a blue lapis lazuli collar. I didn’t open it to check its contents. I knew I’d already received the gift of my jaguar. The third jar was topped with large black wings that arched up and crossed at the tips. That explained why both my cobra and the jaguar could fly.

  I took a deep breath and focused on the fourth and final jar. Its top was cone-shaped and colored a murky green. I picked it up and had to shift my grip, because it was extremely heavy. Whatever was inside pulled my hands down hard, as if giant magnets were trying to suck it down into the ground.

  I set it on the bar in front of me so I could study it without straining to hold it. It had scales on the lid and the top ended in what might be a blunt nose with a hint of teeth where the jaws would open. A crocodile? Goddess help me. I had dreamed about having crocodile teeth before.

  But the bottom of the jar didn’t seem to go with the top at all. If the jar was a crocodile, the bottom was more like a hippopotamus. With a weirdly long tail.

  “Does anyone know what this is?” I asked softly.

  “Ammit,” Gina whispered hoarsely. “The Devourer. Eater of Hearts.”

  Oh shit. I shivered, and Rik immediately enfolded me in a hug, pulling me back against his chest.

  “To understand Ammit, you need to understand ancient Egyptian religion,” she continued. “I hope you can find more answers in your mother’s book, because my knowledge is limited.”

  “Do you mean like the Book of the Dead?” Guillaume asked.

  “Exactly. When an Egyptian died, the body had to be prepared correctly, so that the person could stand before Anubis for judgement.”

  For once, Daire wasn’t purring. “Is this the heart and feather thing?”

  Gina nodded. “Yes. The heart is weighed against Ma’at’s feather. If your heart was too heavy, or in other words, carried too many sins, it was given to Ammit.”

  My stomach clenched so hard that it hurt to breathe. “Ammit ate the sinners?”

  “So they say, which is why she was feared. She’s represented as part crocodile, lion, and hippo, the three most deadly creatures of the Nile.”

  I closed my eyes, fighting down the bile that burned my throat. I seriously regretted eating now. Even though the mushrooms browned in butter had been delicious. “Let me get this straight. I have to fucking eat Ra’s heart?”

  24

  Shara

  I’d done and seen some weird and fantastic shit since I discovered my heritage, but eating hearts wasn’t something I’d ever thought I’d face. Drinking blood, sure. Pulling a still beating heart out of Itztli’s chest…

  Burying my face in my hands, I groaned miserably.

  Ezra let out a disgusted growl. “If she’s going to kill Ra by eating his fucking heart, why the fuck does she need the red serpent?”

  “Ra’s immortal, asshole,” Mehen retorted. “Have you ever tried to eat a god’s heart? It’s not like she can just walk up to him and
say, ‘Pardon me, Lord of Sun. Could I please have a bite of your heart?’”

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it.

  Which was exactly why they did it.

  Lifting my head, I reached out with trembling fingers to touch the jar again. The lid was solidly locked shut. The gift was still inside. I had no idea how to get it out, but I hadn’t done anything to bring the other gifts to life. Isis sent me what I needed just in time. It’d be foolish to fear She wouldn’t do so again, when I’d been born for this purpose.

  My mother had prepared the way for me before I was even born. She’d visited my future queen sibling, Mayte, in dreams. She’d compiled centuries of notes into one place for me. What I needed was here, in the legacy, and wrapped around my throat. I just had to figure out how to use the gifts I’d been given and keep everybody alive.

  Every. Single. One.

  “Do you need me at the tower for anything today?” I asked Gina.

  “No, Gwen and I can handle everything. She’s been working her way through the siblings and organizing who’s staying and who’s leaving. We’ll compile a list of things we need your input on, and we can go over it tonight. Maybe a late dinner?”

  I nodded. “That sounds good. How’s Kevin working out?”

  “Excellent so far. A very quick mind, amiable to work with, eager to dig in and help, which of course is a concern if we can’t trust him. So far, I have no reasons not to be suspicious, but it’s early yet. I asked him to make a list of everything he’d been suspicious of while working under Madeline so we can go through those files with a fine-toothed comb.” She hesitated a moment, her eyes crinkling with worry. “Do you still want to go to Cairo?”

  My mouth was as dry as the Sahara. “Yes. Soon. I won’t risk Xochitl a moment longer than I must. We don’t know who else in the Zaniyah nest he might have corrupted. Mayte said she’d keep her inside, but you know how kids are. I’m terrified one of his followers will cause a distraction, and within moments, she runs outside the blood circle to pet a horse. Or goddess forbid, he figures out that she loves unicorns and conjures one to tempt her outside. She’d go in a heartbeat.”