Queen Takes Knights (Their Vampire Queen Book 1)

by Joely Sue Burkhart

  I thought again of my mother. How hard she’d tried to protect us. Rather than moving over and over like me, she’d built a fortress in an old stone mansion in Kansas City, Missouri. The walls were thick and stout, resisting even their attempts to burn us out once. We had a safe room deep below the house in the old cellars, lined in brick and stone, mortared with salt. We’d retreated to that room anytime the monsters gathered outside, and they hadn’t been able to penetrate our safe room.

  Until one managed to outsmart Mom by using a young kid as bait. They’d guessed correctly that she’d have a weakness for a child. That she’d never turn her back on a child in need.

  That kindness had earned her death.

  Me, I’d die because I didn’t want to lose my lousy job cleaning up used condoms and bathtub floods.

  I’d wanted so badly to run outside and help her, but she’d locked me in. She’d known I’d come after her if something bad happened. I hadn’t been able to see much through the tiny window, other than the tall one tearing her throat open. I hoped she’d died quickly, but I had a feeling I would not be so lucky. Not after running from them for so long.

  They’re not going to torture me.

  I straightened, standing to my full height. I saluted the dark watcher on the hill with the knife.

  And then I lifted the blade to my own throat.

  “Stop!” Someone bellowed, a deep male voice that hammered through the night like a bass drum. The monsters quailed, not quite turning tail to run, but definitely wary. “Wait, my queen! We’re here!”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Shara

  Queen? What the actual fuck? I had no idea what the man meant. Who they were. Or why they were here. They, plural. Two men crashed through the trees, headed straight for me.

  But they were definitely the distraction I needed.

  I slashed to the left and right, wounding as many of the monsters as possible as they turned to attack the approaching men. I scanned my salt circle, relieved to see that it was still whole. I had no idea who these guys were, or how they thought they could fight the monsters, when no one else had ever even seen them, let alone actually tried to help me.

  For all I knew, these two were in league with the watcher. I wasn’t going to step out of the little bit of safety I had on a maybe they were going to help.

  They both had unusual blades, that compared to my pocketknife, were almost as big as swords. The sharp blades fit over their hands somehow, becoming an extension of their arms. The blades chopped through heads and limbs effortlessly. I’d never been able to kill one of the monsters, let alone so many. Yet the monsters weren’t giving up so easily. One launched itself onto the taller man’s back, digging claws into his flanks. The other man grabbed a handful of lanky hair, hauled the monster’s head back, and sawed through its throat. Black blood stained them both, but it was the fresh blood pouring from the taller man’s side that caught my attention.

  I’d seen blood before. No big deal. It didn’t gross me out, but it’d never fascinated me, either.

  But his blood…

  I couldn’t look away.

  I don’t know if it was my imagination, shock and adrenaline from the battle, but his blood glowed like rubies in the streetlight, bubbling up from his side like the molten lava I’d seen earlier. Two spots of red on the fabric I’d never seen before, and now two men here, helping me.

  When I’d never had help in my entire life.

  The remaining monsters—only three still living—scattered. Leaving the two men turning their attention to me.

  Panting, the tall, wounded man neared the edge of my circle but didn’t step across it. Maybe he couldn’t? I didn’t know. I didn’t care. I couldn’t look away from his blood. My mouth actually watered, which made my stomach knot. What the hell was wrong with me?

  “Do you have a safe place nearby?”

  I dragged my gaze away from the blood seeping through his shredded T-shirt and made myself focus on his eyes. Normal eyes as far as I could tell. They didn’t glow red like the monsters. “Who are you?”

  “Alrik and Daire. We’re yours, my queen. If you’ll have us.”

  “Why do you keep calling me a queen?”

  The two men looked at each other, some silent communication I didn’t understand. Then the tall one looked back at me again. “We will explain everything, once you’re safe. A master thrall still watches to the east. I’d rather get you into shelter before we answer any questions you will have.”

  Yes, I still felt the watcher, thrall, he’d called it. They had information, which I desperately needed. And they’d helped. Yet I remembered how my mother had been lured to her death. Betrayed by her own desire to protect a little kid.

  These weren’t children, but full-grown, very large men, now that they both stood so closely. Alrik, the bigger one, was arguably the most massive person I’d ever seen short of a superhero movie. The other was shorter and leaner. Both had longer shoulder-length hair and those double hand knives, but they dressed like normal everyday people in jeans, T-shirts, and boots.

  T-shirts. Not long sleeves. The cold didn’t bother them either.

  Still doubtful, I watched them remove the blades from their hands, snapping them to hooks on their belt on either hip. It almost looked like Old West gun holsters. “Can you not cross the circle?”

  Holding my gaze, Alrik took another step closer, ignoring the salt that had kept the monsters out. That put him close enough to touch. “I only thought to be polite.”

  I don’t know why I did it. I’ve never been comfortable touching people. I don’t hug. I’ve never had sex. Never felt any kind of attraction to anyone to even try. But I reached out and dragged my index finger through the blood on his side. Even though I had an open knife in my hand, he didn’t back away.

  His blood was hot, tingling on my skin. The insane urge to step closer and press my mouth to that wound came over me and I shuddered, involuntarily taking a step back.

  But he snagged my elbow, gently tugging me back to him.

  “Take what you want from me, my queen.”

  I should have jabbed the pocketknife up into his ribs, but the simple touch of his fingers on my elbow stalled my brain. It was like my entire system overloaded in a flash and broke down. Shock, I told myself, but I wasn’t cold or shivering or sweating or even scared. Not any longer. He cupped the back of my head, his fingers tangling in my hair, and my fight or flight instincts still didn’t kick in. That, more than anything, scared me. I’d always been able to count on my instincts to keep me alive.

  “If you feed her for the first time here, you might not be able to stop.” The other man spoke for the first time, and I could hear the amusement in his voice.

  I pulled back, and Alrik let me go, though he did make a low sound that almost sounded like a groan. Surely a huge tough guy like him wouldn’t make a sound like that.

  I glanced at the other man and the smirk on his face told me I hadn’t been mistaken.

  “Who are you again?” My voice rang with confusion, accusation, a thousand questions I didn’t even know how to voice.

  “Alrik and Daire,” the one with the smirk said. “Your Blood, if you’ll take us. You can think of us as… knights. Though we don’t wear shining armor.”

  Slightly different wording, take versus have. The way he said it, he’d meant it as a playful dare. So his name fit his personality perfectly. He stepped closer, ignoring my line of salt too. His fingers closed around my makeshift nail club and gently took it from me. He examined it in the light and whistled softly.

  “Crude, but effective. Well done, my queen.”

  My knife was next. He arched a brow at me, as if to say surely I could do better, but then he wiped it clean on his pants and offered the closed pocketknife back to me.

  As I slipped it back into my pocket, I had to admit, I wanted a pair of those hand blades he used, though I wasn’t sure how I’d get through security with those in my pack. “Why do you call me
that? I have no idea what’s going on here.”

  “Give us your name and we’ll call you that instead of queen, if you like.”

  I couldn’t see any harm in giving these strangers my name. They had helped me, after all. “Shara.”

  “And your family?”

  They both stared at me intently, a strange urgency growing in their eyes. Why would they need to know my last name? “My father’s name—”

  “No,” Alrik broke in. “Your mother’s.”

  “Selena.” I didn’t immediately offer her last name. Mom had told me it was a secret. That it wasn’t safe. I should always use Dad’s surname, Dalton, even though she hadn’t married him. Her surname was her last gift to me. I didn’t know how, I just knew, now, that my life depended on giving them that same gift. “Isador.”

  If anything, their intensity ratcheted up another notch, though I had no idea why. I hated not knowing what was going on. Why my name might be important, or why these two strangers might recognize my mother’s name.

  The one with the smirk pressed the pad of his thumb to one of the rusty old nails on my club. His blood welled, and as before, I found myself unable to look away. He slowly lifted his bleeding thumb toward my face, giving me every opportunity to flinch away. Flee. Stab him with my knife. But I stood there, shaking, fighting my own urge.

  I wanted to launch myself against the big one and lick his wound. And then turn and suck the blood from his friend’s thumb.

  What the hell is wrong with me?

  Daire smoothed his bleeding thumb across my bottom lip.

  Fire exploded on me. At least that’s what it felt like. Flames licking my skin, a poisonous, addictive drug suddenly hitting my veins when I reflexively licked my lips. My eyelids fluttered. My pulse pounded in my skull so hard I thought it might shatter. My knees quivered. One big arm slid around my back, catching me, pulling me up against a sheer wall of muscle.

  My body jolted against his, shocked at the contact. And Daire took the opportunity to slide his thumb into my mouth.

  His blood, hot on my tongue. My jaws clamped down on him, trapping his thumb in my teeth, but he didn’t complain. He only made a low, rumbly sound of pleasure.

  “So you can feed her, but I can’t, dickhead?”

  “Sorry.” Daire didn’t sound apologetic though.

  This couldn’t be happening. I wasn’t in one stranger’s arms, sucking his friend’s thumb to get more blood from the tiny wound. But I made a noise that sounded suspiciously like frustration, because no more blood oozed from his thumb.

  “Use your fangs, Shara.”

  My name on his lips did insane things to my body. It sounded so… filthy, coming from him. Like he was thinking of something else I should be sucking instead of his thumb.

  And fangs. What the fuck? Again, I had no idea what he meant.

  I smelled something delicious close by, though. So I released his thumb and turned my face toward the man holding me. I touched my lips to his bloody shirt and the big man trembled. His hands tightened reflexively and his chest rumbled on a deep growl. Unsure, I started to pull back, but he clamped my head to him and swept me up in his arms.

  “Safety,” Alrik ground out. “Or I'm carrying you to my bike and driving till dawn.”

  His blood coated my lips, stirring a heat in me that I've never felt before. It felt…sexual. His big body against me, hard muscle working as I took his blood. And I wanted more. I wanted it all. His body and his blood.

  For the first time in my life, I realized that I wasn't exactly human.

  Fangs. Blood. My body had made the connection, even if my brain still stuttered around helplessly, refusing to believe the evidence.

  Maybe I should have been alarmed. Maybe I should have adamantly denied any such urges. But honestly, it was a fucking relief.

  I'd always been different, and so damned alone once I lost Mom. If these two men were like me, I was sticking close. Until they gave me a reason not to.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Shara

  Their blood tasted better than anything I’d ever had in my life and it went straight to my head like a suicide-shot of caffeine, adrenaline, wine, and chocolate, mixed with a cocaine chaser. I didn’t want to stop tasting him. I didn’t think I’d ever get enough.

  Alrik cupped my cheek, pulling my face up toward his. I struggled a moment, but only because I wanted more. Then I remembered the danger we were in, and the watcher on the hill. He was still there, and I could feel his rage creeping through the woods like a foul poison.

  I tipped my head toward the lodge. “I have a room in the motel. It’s kept me safe for two weeks.”

  He looked at his friend and I had a sense of words unspoken flowing between them. Then Daire turned to leave and sudden panic gripped me. I reached out and caught a handful of his shirt. “Where are you going?”

  Turning to me, he pressed his forehead to mine, wrapping me and his friend in his arms. “Never fear that I’ll leave you. I’d sooner die first. I’m going to grab our wheels and bring them up to your location so we can leave at dawn.”

  “But how will you find my room?”

  “Rik will tell me. We’ve shared blood many times and it creates a bond. I will find him. I’ll stay close, but you may want some privacy.”

  Privacy. That word carried so many layers and implications. I became aware of two male bodies pressed against me, and the very hard evidence of their desire. Both of them.

  More, I became aware of my own.

  Need pulsed through me, fed by their blood. I ached in places that had never stirred with desire before. I wanted their hands, their mouths, and their cocks. I trembled between them, imagining it. Wrapped in their heat, taking their blood, taking their bodies. Nothing had ever sounded better to me in my entire life. I didn’t want only Alrik. Or only Daire.

  I wanted this. Both of them. Holding me all night long.

  I’d been without any kind of physical contact for so long, not a handshake or a hug, let alone pure physical desire. I’d never felt like this, and I wasn’t ready to let it go. They might be willing to share and take turns, but I wasn’t.

  “No,” I said hoarsely. “No privacy. I want you. I want him. And I don’t want either of you out of my sight.”

  “Greedy,” Daire teased, kissing my nose. “I like it. I’ll be fast.”

  He didn’t release me, though, only staring at me with an expectant look in his eyes. They called me queen. Maybe he truly wanted my permission. I gave him a nod and he let go of me, turned, and… blurred. That quickly, he was gone.

  “What are you?” I whispered. He didn’t even leave tracks in the snow.

  What am I?

  Something inside me whispered back. You know. You’ve always known.

  Alrik cradled me in his arms and took a step. That’s what it felt like. A single step. And we stood outside the motel. He opened the door and strode down the hall. I worried about Hosea seeing me carried off by some big man, but Alrik did the same blurring thing. One step, and we were past the desk, outside my door.

  “Here?”

  I nodded and he set me down while I dug in my pockets and found the key card. The door beeped and I started forward, but he wrapped his palm around my throat, his grip gentle but firm as he drew me back against him. Shielding me with his body, he carefully eased his way into the room, as if he feared an invasion while we were gone.

  His strength felt nice, I had to admit. I’d been alone and struggling for so long, terrified the monsters would find me while I slept, or tracked me down in between jobs. Having a powerful man to fight the monsters off would be a relief. That I was also attracted to him, only made it all the sweeter. And he didn’t intimidate me. He wasn’t squeezing my throat, threatening me harm. It was like he just wanted to touch me. A vulnerable place for sure, and intimate, without being vulgar.

  I flipped on the light and he took a slow look about the room. His body tensed against me and I started to worry maybe he was right. M
aybe one of the monsters had managed to break through the salt line and my locked door. I’d asked for no windows, but maybe one had found its way through the vent. Or…

  He turned to me, his mouth a hard slant and his eyes glittering with what I could only call rage.

  “I find it intolerable that the vampire queen of Isador has been living in such squalor.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Alrik

  Descended from Isis herself, Shara Isador stood before me, completely unaware of her heritage. Her power. Her legacy.

  How was that possible?

  I knew, but I hated it. I hated that I hadn’t been able to find her for all these years. That I hadn’t been serving at her side.

  The last Isador queen, the royal line lost for over thirty years. The shit would definitely hit the proverbial fan when the Triune heard.

  Shara. Her name resonated in me, etched in my bones. As soon as I’d felt the slight touch of her mind searching in the darkness, I’d been hers. I couldn’t get to her fast enough.

  She shrugged. “This is actually one of the better places I’ve stayed. It’s clean, safe, and Hosea, my boss, even lets me eat for free.”

  The thought of my queen hungry, scared, and alone made me quiver with rage.

  “Vampires.” She laughed, shaking her head. “Not something I would have ever guessed. The monsters hunting me? Sure. But not me. I’d say you must be joking, but…” She averted her gaze, her cheeks flushing. “I’ve never tasted anything as good as your blood before.”

  I concentrated on keeping my anger contained. It wasn’t her fault that her mother had left her legacy behind and died, alone, without any Blood to protect her. Though how Selena could have thought to stay alive for long exiled from her own kind, I had no idea. Evidently she hadn’t taught her daughter much about our way of life, either. “The monsters are thralls, once human. The watcher on the hill is their master, once one of our kind. They were his human victims when he lost his queen.”