I needed to make this convincing.
Feeding on him alone wouldn’t be convincing.
His gentle hands pulled me to him. Hands that had been twisted and broken in torture.
His body welcomed me. He told me without words that he understood. He made himself available to me, to use however I wished. He would endure with honor, proudly, regardless of my need.
I would have cried, except my eyes were a ruined mess.
I tore into his throat like a savage beast. I didn’t spare him my fangs or my ravaging hunger. I let my cobra’s thirst drive my instincts. They thought me a witch, something less than human. Then I would play the part.
His blood immediately soothed the agony burning inside me. He let out a roar of release for me, holding nothing back. He knew we played a game. He thrashed hard against me, appearing to fight, struggling against me.
When he cradled me to his torn throat and welcomed the coming darkness.
Hissing and snarling, I hauled him closer, rising up over him as he sank to the floor. He lay on his back, twitching slightly as I drained him. I could see him now. My beloved knight. His blue eyes stared up at me with the softest, most beautiful look of love on his face.
Goddess. I willed him to understand. I willed him to forgive me.
Then I lunged up toward the skeleton guard who’d dragged him in. I seized his sword, lifting it over my head with both hands.
And brought it down on my headless knight’s old scar to cleave his head from his body once more.
32
Rik
Something was wrong. I knew it. Her plan wasn’t unfolding as she’d expected.
Or worse, it was going exactly as she’d expected, and now Carys’s probabilities were coming true despite our queen’s best efforts.
My skin twitched like Guillaume’s hell horse trying to dislodge a fly. Since my skin was solid granite…
That wasn’t an easy feat.
I had a feeling that Guillaume was in trouble. I wouldn’t have normally thought of his horse. Not now. Not when our queen’s bond was dead.
I met Daire’s worried gaze, and I couldn’t feel him. After decades of sharing a bond with him, I had no idea what he was thinking.
Fuck that shit. I did know. I didn’t need a bond to tell me we were fucked.
“I’m not waiting a fucking second more,” I growled.
Daire breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s about fucking time. Let’s go get our queen.”
I reached for Xin’s bond automatically to check his location and muttered a curse beneath my breath. I couldn’t feel him. I had no idea if his gift of invisibility worked here or not. I could only hope he was still alive and making his way toward Shara.
Something crashed behind us, sending me whirling around, boulder fists raised, ready to pummel the threat into dust.
Leviathan, king of the depths, huffed smoke into my face. I didn’t need her bond with him to know what he was thinking, either. What’s taking you so fucking long?
He shifted back to his human form as we ran toward the temple. Tlacel, Nevarre, and Llewellyn led from the air, keeping watch for those skeleton soldiers that had tried to drag her through a portal in Kansas City.
Fuck, that seemed like a lifetime ago. Not just a few months.
I tried to keep up with Daire and Itztli, but they easily out-paced my rock troll’s lumbering pace. Only Ezra and Mehen hung back with me. I wasn’t sure why Mehen had even shifted, until he started telling me what he’d seen.
“The sunfires are fucking impervious to just about everything I could think of.” He shook his head grimly. “They didn’t care about my fire. I tried to smash them with my tail, shred them with my claws, bite them in half. Nothing worked. Finally, I just knocked a giant wall down on top of their lair. That did the trick, though I don’t know how long they’ll be pinned.”
“It’s not the rocks blocking the lair,” Ezra panted. His shaggy hair was plastered to his face. I could see why he didn’t want to shift to a furry grizzly here. The sun was merciless. “It’s the fucking darkness.”
“Yeah,” I said slowly, my mind racing. “Nothing here will like the darkness. That means the temple will be open to the air, right? We should be able to see everything. But if they know we’re coming…”
Mehen grunted. “I’ll shift and go tell the other fliers to stay high and quiet. If I see the chance to grab her and get her the fuck out, I will.”
I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, squeezing hard enough he cursed at me. “Don’t interfere unless you must. She knows what she’s doing.”
He grimaced and nodded, so I released him. He leaped and shifted into the dragon in mid-air. For a moment, his wings provided a tiny bit of shadow. Such a relief. Then he raced ahead to flag down the other winged Blood. They’d have to fly very high to avoid casting shadows on the ground and alerting the guards.
My blood pounded in my veins as mercilessly as the sun. I had to reach her. I had to find her. Before it was too late. Every instinct I possessed told me she was in desperate need of assistance.
Daire and Itztli came trotting back to me. The black dog’s tongue was lolling and Daire’s fur was streaked with sweat. At this rate, we’d all be dead from dehydration and sun poisoning before we even found her.
It was the strangest goddess-damned place. Buildings with no roofs. Was it ever night here? How did people sleep? I knew the answer.
There was no sleep in Heliopolis. No rest. No safety. Unless you were a sun demon or a minion of Ra.
I had to do something, though, before the Blood keeled over. I finally knocked a wall over and propped it up enough to provide a modest amount of shade. We all crammed inside in the blessed shadow. I shifted to make more room for the others, and Daire and Itztli shifted so they could talk.
Not having our bonds was damned inconvenient.
“Soldiers,” Daire panted, dripping with sweat. “Skeletons. They guard the temple avenue.”
“Blood,” Itztli said in between breaths. “Smelled it. Some our queen’s, but mostly Guillaume’s.”
I slammed my fist down on my thigh. “I knew it. Something went wrong. Any sign of Xin or Vivian?”
They both shook their heads.
“How many skeletons?”
“A hundred. At least.”
“What the fuck is this skeleton shit?” Ezra said. “Can’t you just tear them apart?”
“They’re Soldiers of Light,” I told him grimly. “The best soldiers down through the ages who came to Ra’s call. They’re nearly impossible to kill. The last time we faced them, it was three of us to ten, maybe twenty, and we nearly died. Daire took a wound to the chest that would have killed him without Shara, and the rest of us were injured. Even Guillaume, though he held his own way better than me and Daire. She had to shatter the portal to destroy them.”
“Fuck me sideways,” Ezra gasped, shaking his head. “I’m not a fighter. I mean, I’ll hold my own against anything a grizzly would fight. But I don’t know a fucking thing about weapons and warfare. I’ll be fucking useless in hand-to-hand combat.”
I needed to come up with a way to even our odds. Shara depended on me. They all did. I could wade into the battle and let the soldiers break their swords on my rock hide, but eventually, they’d avoid me and go after the rest. They didn’t have the same protection, and I wouldn’t be able to hold off a hundred. Not alone. Even if the dragon could help from the sky…
Vivian popped her head down over the side, startling us. “I have an idea. If you don’t mind a few humans dying, I think I know a way we can get most of the skeletons out of our hair.”
“Fuck humans,” Ezra growled as he climbed out of the troll-made cave. “Let’s go get our queen so she can get us the fuck out of here.”
Shara
“Most impressive,” the man with the golden disk on his chest said. “That’s much better. His Imperial Majesty will enjoy you very much. Do you know your lineage, witch?”
Licking Guillaume
’s blood from my lips. I slowly straightened. I refused to cry. I refused to show any weakness, regret, or indecision. I’d been blessed by the Great One Herself so that I might stand here, now, and put an end to Ra’s self-righteous bullshit. I wouldn’t flinch now.
Though it hurt something deep inside me to step over Guillaume’s lifeless body like he meant nothing to me at all.
I drew myself up proudly, shaking my hair back from my face. “First of all, it’s queen, not witch. You may refer to me as Your Majesty, or even Shara Isador, but not witch.”
The bald one gasped, his hand darting up to touch the vivid scar over his left eye. I had a feeling he’d gained that scar when he’d attacked me through the portal in Kansas City.
I gave him a slow, feral smile. “You recognize me. Good. You know my power.”
The other man narrowed a hard, suspicious look on me. “You know this witch?”
“She’s the one who detonated the portal,” the bald man whispered.
Bingo.
His eyes widened. “So it’s true. You are descended from… her.”
“Yes.” I looked around the temple with disdain, as if every golden ornament offended me. Because it was true. I’d never seen a tackier, more self-indulgent display of ridiculous opulence in my entire life.
He backed up a step, before catching himself. He grabbed his golden sun disc and held it up at me.
It took every drop of Isis’ blood in my veins to keep from flinching, or quickly averting my gaze.
“Cooperate, witch. You know what I’m capable of.”
“Queen,” I said firmly, refusing to look away. “And you know damned sure what I’m capable of.”
“Not without your Blood.”
I let one corner of my mouth quirk suggestively. “I can find new Blood, though I tend to go through them rather quickly. Who are you people? Where’d Huitzilopochtli go? I have a few things I’d like to say to him,” I finished with another snarl, as if I was pissed at him.
They looked at each other, as if trying to decide whether to indulge my curiosity or not. I ignored them and slowly walked around the temple like I was an invited guest.
Massive golden pillars soared overhead, draped with white linens. But no ceiling. A single glance up at the sky, even with my hand shading my tender eyes, made me want to recoil into a dark room for a year. Ra’s power blazed overhead like a sun that hung entirely too close to the earth.
The floor was polished like a golden mirror, making the sunlight radiate right back up into my face. My exposed skin was red and hot, as if I’d been sunbathing for hours.
The bald one finally answered me. “I’m Greatest of Seers, High Priest of His Imperial Majesty. This is High Lord Vizier Amun. Per the Hummingbird’s request, he was given leave to worship Ra and beg for a boon.”
Amun-Ra. Another name for Ra after the sun god had absorbed Amun.
The vizier smiled again, that indulgent fatherly smile that pretended to care about me, a complete stranger, whom he hated with every fiber of his being. I smiled back at him. I was going to be sure to kill him too. Though I didn’t think I’d need the red serpent for it. “Take me to His Imperial Majesty.”
He chuckled, shaking his head. “Why in heaven above would I do that, witch?”
I allowed the smile to slide away into a flat stare. I didn’t say anything immediately, but only stared back at him. In ancient times, the vizier had been second only to the pharaoh.
I didn’t fucking care who he thought he was.
When he averted his gaze to the priest, frowning like it was his fault, I finally answered. “Because I’m breeding, and I intend to bear Ra a queen.”
33
Shara
I’d never seen a pompous windbag move so quickly. The vizier stared at me, his mouth falling open, for a count of three. Then he whirled around and strode toward the rear of the temple. “Prepare her. I’ll inform His Imperial Majesty.”
Greatest of Seers, the high priest, stared at me like the heavens had opened up and dropped an angel at his feet. Only this angel was coated in feces and smelled like death warmed over. I was everything his god yearned for and hated at the same time. No wonder he didn’t know how to talk to or act around me. He was terrified of refusing or insulting me, if I might truly become his god’s mistress, or concubine, or whatever the hell Ra would deign to call me.
His hand started to rise toward his scar again, but he caught himself and gave me a glare. “I have powers you can’t possibly comprehend. I won’t be as kind as the High Lord.”
I threw my head back and laughed. “Sure. Go ahead and kill the last breeding queen to walk the earth. I’m Ra’s last shot at siring a queen and you know it. So shut the fuck up and take me where I need to go.”
Despite a dark scowl, he led the way after the vizier. At the rear of the temple, we stepped through what seemed to be wispy white clouds or fog.
The three giant pyramids of Giza shot up to the heavens, only these were surely two or three times as high. It was hard for me to guess, since I hadn’t seen them in person yet, but I could barely see the golden triangle at the top of the largest one’s peak. Bloody tears tracked down my cheeks again from trying to look up beneath the punishing sun.
The priest led me to the smaller pyramid. I couldn’t suppress a soft sigh of relief as soon as we stepped inside.
Dark and cool, the pyramid was a relief after the blaring sun outside, though everything was still solid gold and luxurious. Gold and purple curtains hung on the walls to create separate rooms. The walls themselves were painted with intricate hieroglyphs. At a glance, I made out enough to recognize the “Adoration of Ra,” an ancient poem dedicated to him that often appeared in the Book of Coming Forth By Day.
Otherwise known as the Book of the Dead.
Slaves rushed forward, beautiful young men and women that were mostly naked, their skin marred with whips and burns like Vivian’s back. I clenched my jaws, fighting down my rage. Many of these marks were old, and these were young people. Mostly human, I thought, though I sensed a spark in them that spoke of a goddess’s heritage. They probably contained enough Aima blood to see and know things most humans couldn’t. Just enough to attract the attention of Ra’s minions.
Who’d snatched them up young and brought them here to live a life of misery.
A young man bowed low before me, lifting up a pitcher of water. I grabbed it and drank my fill of sweet, delicious water. Maybe I was doomed now, like Persephone after she’d eaten the pomegranate seeds, but I couldn’t help it. My body’s physical reserves were shot. I could easily regain my strength and power if I tapped my bonds…
But I couldn’t. Not yet. So I had to deal with burned skin, dehydration, and sun poisoning, without my power to heal myself.
I allowed the slaves to bathe and tend my tender skin. They removed my torn and stained dress, slipping me into an Egyptian white sheath so thin and diaphanous that it hid nothing beneath it.
Especially the dark blood smearing on my thighs. My stomach cramped and ached, my period still flowing like one of my heaviest days. Maybe it was stress. Or maybe I really was trying to breed Aima style, rather than enduring a very normal human period.
I had to see Dr. Borcht again, and soon. Hopefully she’d be able to tell me something conclusive about my reproductive cycle. Assuming I lived to return to our world.
My hair was still damp from the bath when the high priest clapped his hands and shooed the slaves away. “This way… Your Majesty.” He said the last grudgingly, as if the very idea that he must show me any respect at all was salt in a wound.
We stepped back outside, and my hair instantly dried in the vicious sunlight. My burned skin throbbing with pain. I hurried after him, eager to get to the next pyramid, but a shriek made me pause and look back.
Toward the temple.
I kept my face smooth, though I willed my Blood to wait. To give me time. I wasn’t close enough yet. They couldn’t attack. Not until I was in sight o
f Ra.
A skeleton soldier went running past toward the larger pyramid, and the priest yelled after him. “What is it? What’s happening?”
“One of the obelisk portals has failed. His Imperial Majesty’s sunfires are crossing to the human plane at will.”
The priest moaned, shaking his head. “Great Lord above, he will not be pleased. Heads will surely roll.”
He scowled at me. “It was probably that Hummingbird idiot. I bet he didn’t use the portal correctly and now it’s failing. The vizier will be beside himself trying to explain this debacle to His Imperial Majesty.”
I gave him a tight, small smile. “But His Imperial Majesty will surely be pleased to know that Huitzilopochtli has brought him such a worthy gift. What are a few humans in the end? They’re merely cattle for gods and queens.”
He grunted sourly and dared to seize my arm, tugging me along after him to the larger pyramid in the middle. “Let’s hope you really are breeding. Then much will be forgiven. Who knows, His Imperial Majesty might even name you God’s Wife.”
Oh goody. I could hardly wait, though I had to admit that God’s Widow had a much better ring to it.
Xin
My wolf hated this place. Henceforth, the smell of gold would always remind me of decay.
I padded quietly along beside my queen, though even she couldn’t see me. Not without touching her bonds that lay hidden deep inside Nevarre’s gift of Shadow. The priest stank of fear as he hurried Shara to the next pyramid, craning his neck to look back over his shoulder worriedly.
Evidently even the High Priest was afraid of the sun demons. Hopefully the dragon had decimated their numbers, or we had no hope of fighting them off.
The skeleton soldier raced back to the temple, shouting orders ahead. “Soldiers of Light, deploy at once to the earthly plane! We must contain the sunfires at any cost!”
It was all I could do not to release a howl of glee. Surely my fellow brethren had a hand in releasing those demons, which had also served to draw the skeleton soldiers away from the temple. Hopefully that meant they were close.
Queen Takes Checkmate (Their Vampire Queen Book 5) Page 23
