“Until you came to us.”
Stricken, I could only stare at her mutely.
“I loved you dearly, Shara. Never doubt that. Alan was thrilled to have a daughter, but he didn’t understand the risk. We’d been outside of my nest for ten years, and not once in all those years had I been hunted by thralls. I’d given up the legacy, and my power dried up quickly. But you were born with power. From the very beginning, they smelled you. They wanted you. And they hunted us mercilessly. Without my power, I could do nothing to protect you. I couldn’t even tell you what hunted us, except in the most general terms, thanks to the geas.”
My stomach pitched and my breathing was too rapid and shallow. I had to concentrate on breathing in and out, slowly, before I passed out.
It was my fault that my parents were dead. The monsters had truly been hunting me all along. If I hadn’t been born, Mom and Dad would still be alive.
Mom squeezed my upper arms, drawing my attention to her face. She smiled, her eyes swimming with tears. “We wouldn’t have traded you for the world. Alan and I would both die a thousand times if we could have you in our lives. You truly are a gift from the goddess.”
I didn’t feel like a gift. In fact, I felt like a fucking curse.
“It’s time.”
I swallowed down the bile burning up my throat. “Time for what?”
“For you to see the goddess and receive Her gifts.”
“Isis?”
Mom nodded and stood, drawing me with her. “She’s waiting for you.”
Cold chills raced down my spine, making me shiver. “What do I do?”
Mom pointed at the pyramid. “I can’t tell you.”
“You did this?”
She nodded, and her lips moved, but remained tightly sealed. The geas must have kicked in. Or perhaps the goddess refused to let her tell me what to expect. Either way, it sucked. I didn’t want to screw up some ritual that I’d never been taught, or insult a goddess accidentally.
I took a step toward the pyramid, but Mom suddenly threw her arms around me, squeezing me tightly one more time. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Mom. I’m so sorry that you died because of me.”
“I’m not. I’ll never be sorry. Hurry. She says there’s little time remaining and She has much to show you.”
Sands shifted beneath my feet as I neared the pyramid. I glanced back one last time, and Mom raised her left hand, her right crossed her her chest. It made me feel like she still held me, even as she said goodbye. I turned back to the steep stone walls of the pyramid, impossibly old and worn. The surface was pitted by centuries of sand and wind, but when I laid my palm against the stone, it didn’t budge. A low hum vibrated through my skin, energy racing up my arm, down my spine. Hairs lifted on my arms and nape. I pulled my hand away, but I still felt that charge pulsing in my body.
The door was narrow and dark, just a hole in the side of the pyramid. I took a deep breath and stepped inside, terrified stone would slide shut and lock me inside forever. A torch gleamed ahead, pulling me through the tight hallway into a chamber. I stopped, holding my breath as I looked around at the brightly colored walls. Everything gleamed, gold and jewels. Luxurious woven rugs of deep royal purple covered the floor. The walls were etched in hieroglyphs, each perfectly clear and strangely legible. I shouldn’t be able to read them… but I knew what those symbols said.
I, Isis, am all that hath been that is or shall be.
Music began to play, drawing my gaze to another door on the opposite wall. She was there, waiting, I knew it. I swallowed hard, trying not to shake as I walked toward the door. Above the archway, I read, Blood of Isis. I had the irrational fear that all of this was a lie, and as soon as I attempted to enter the room, I’d be sucked away in a sandstorm or killed by a giant scorpion for daring to intrude. Yeah, maybe I’d watched too many Mummy movies. I certainly knew not to open and read aloud from any ancient texts I discovered.
A royal purple rug led to a raised dais in the center of the chamber. A woman sat on a golden throne, illuminated by squares of silvered moonlight gleaming down into the pyramid. She wasn’t larger than life, or fearsome to look at. My eyes didn’t catch fire for gazing upon Her. She wore a simple white Egyptian dress, with a heavy golden collar, many tinkling bracelets, and gold and lapis ornaments held Her heavy braids coiled into an intricate pattern on her head. A crown arched above her head like massive golden horns. She held some kind of lyre on her lap and its tinkling sounds drew me closer. I almost felt like a cobra, bespelled by her snakecharmer’s flute.
She could have been any beautiful woman playing in a band or walking past on the street—until She looked up at me.
My stomach pitched like the ground had suddenly fallen away beneath my feet and I was falling into an endless pit. Her dark eyes gleamed with immense power, as if She carried the tidal power of every full moon since time began.
“Daughter of Isador.”
Her voice made my bones ache. My ears rang with a dull roar and I feared I wouldn’t be able to hear a command and She’d kill me on the spot. I shouldn’t have been worried, because when a goddess wants to tell you something, She will be heard.
“They will not be pleased that Isador still walks this earth. They will try to silence you. They will try to kill you, before you can come to full power, and certainly before you can continue my line. I send the finest warriors to you, full of powerful, burning blood. Drink them for protection and power, always keeping them near. Their blood will be a shield until you hone your own weapons and need no shield to protect you.”
“They who?” When I realized I’d spoken aloud, I clamped a hand over my mouth. Eyes wide, I stared at Her, waiting for Her reaction. Would She smite me down for daring to speak in Her presence?
She made a sound, a deep, low rumble that sounded like earth growling and shifting. It took me a moment to realize She was laughing. She lifted her hand and gestured me to come closer.
“They are the Old Queens Who Rule, the Triune. They don’t like change, and you, dear child, represent our future on this earth. They will think your birth an abomination, but you have been created by my design. When they realize fully what you are, they will hate and fear you. They will try to control you, and when that fails, they will try to kill you.”
She gestured again with that come-hither lift of Her fingers, Her long nails polished gold and honed to a tip. I sidled closer, not scared, exactly, but wary. The fine hairs on my body rose, my skin tingling with the energy pouring off Her. My skull throbbed with Her power. Up close, She was even more beautiful. Her skin absolutely flawless, glowing with power, gleaming like polished obsidian and diamonds. My eyes burned as if I’d stared too long at the sun, but I couldn’t look away. It hurt to be so close to Her—yet now that I’d seen Her, I never wanted to leave.
She turned her left wrist up and used one of those vicious-looking nails to puncture her skin. Crimson blood welled at the hole—but didn’t spray like mine would have if I’d torn a hole in my vein. The blood didn’t even look real. It was too shiny, glowing like molten lava and rubies.
“Drink, Last Child of Isador. Drink long and deep. You are the last of my line, and thus I give you all my gifts.”
I’d practically fallen on Daire and Alrik like a starving wolf, but I hesitated to taste Her blood. If their blood had made me feel so incredible, powerful, and beautiful… what would a goddess’s blood do to me?
She pressed her wrist to my mouth and I took a small sip. Afraid to take too much. Afraid to draw that much power into my body. I’d never been powerful. After a lifetime of hiding and running and fighting, I didn’t know what significant power would do to me. I wanted to fight. I wanted to strike down the monsters who’d killed my mother. I’d be glad to kill them. Glad.
Would I start murdering people once the thralls were dead? Would I slaughter humans for sport? I didn’t think I had such evil in me, but I’d never guessed I was a vampire.
A monster.<
br />
If I fed that monster…
“So polite.” Her voice a soothing sing-song whisper in my head. “You are female. You are Isador. You’ve always been powerful. Think you that anyone else could have survived alone as long as you have? Take your birthright and use it. The world needs it. The world needs you.”
She folded Her other arm around me, drawing me closer into Her embrace. My skin screamed with the contact, electric shocks racing through my nervous system. I quivered, waiting for an explosion. Or maybe my brain would just shut down, all its fuses blown.
Her blood filled my mouth. But it didn’t taste like copper and hot salty blood. She tasted like liquid moonlight, filtered through a bottomless lake fed by an icy-blue glacier. So cold, I could feel ice crystals on my tongue. I had a moment to feel ice spreading, numbingly cold, sealing my throat. An image flashed through my mind—me, frozen solid, buried in an avalanche. Somehow I still managed to swallow, and her blood changed from ice to sweet honeyed nectar that glowed with all the power of the sun. It melted the ice as quickly as it’d formed, spreading warmth through my body. The heat grew, as if I’d swallowed the sun itself. My insides felt tender and burned, my skin blistered. Tears sizzled on my cheeks. I tried to throw myself away from Her, but She whispered again, holding me close.
“Some of my most wondrous powers come at a steep cost. Will you pay the cost, Daughter of Isador?”
I remembered Dad, bleeding on the street, dying so I could escape. Mom’s throat torn open, the monsters taunting me, trying to draw me out of the saferoom she’d locked me into. They’d paid the ultimate cost for me, so I could be here, now, receiving these gifts. The hell if I’d chicken out and waste their deaths.
I lost count of the swallows, but each one brought new sensation, some so strong that I flinched and gasped against Her. The most surprising was burning lust. Need exploded in me. I pressed harder against Her, rubbing against Her, somehow on Her lap though I had no memory of climbing onto the throne. I had just enough brain cells left to fear that now I’d really gone and offended Her.
Until I realized She nuzzled my throat and cupped my breast. Memories poured into me, so real that it was hard to remember they hadn’t actually happened to me, but to Her. Hands stroking her. Me. Hungry mouths. Male, female, both, other. It didn’t matter. They all felt divine. They all wanted to touch and please the goddess.
“It’s been so long.”
Her voice echoed with hollowed sadness. I wanted to ask if She had no one here at the pyramid. No one to talk to, no one to touch. But I didn’t want to take my mouth from Her blood, not while She still had power to send to me.
Heated desire chilled, Her blood changing again. I felt the coldness of the grave, the chill of death, an echoing endless numb sleep. My head rolled to the side awkwardly and I lost contact with the puncture wound. My body twitched and I could literally feel the light dying inside of me. Little pieces of my soul drying up, withering away. A hard gust of wind would shatter the husk and scatter me to the four directions.
I lay across her lap and died.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Daire
I was well used to watching other people have sex and being expected to stand guard and not participate. As only a minor sib, I’d never been allowed to join the queen’s bed. I understood the hierarchy and my job. Shara, though, was my queen too. Damn it. My queen.
When Rik started feeding, it was all I could do not to come. Though our bond, I felt the tidal wave of power flooding his body. So much power. I don’t know how he’d contain it all.
When he came with all the explosive power trapped inside his powerful alpha body, I almost lost it again. I wanted to come with her, inside her, feel her writhing beneath me. Even better if Rik was inside me, coming too. All of us climaxing at the same time. Again and again.
I’ll have the chance soon enough.
The air was thick in the room, heavy with power and sex and blood. All the hairs on my body lifted, my skin tingling. I could smell the tantalizing rich scent of her blood, mixed with sex, and I couldn’t wait any longer. I took a step closer to the bed.
A vicious howl tore through the night, breaking through my moment of weakness. I whirled around and grabbed my ketars, ready to tear the thrall apart if he even thought about trying to step foot into this flimsy roach motel she called home. Reaching out with my senses, I felt the dark, foul stains on the night. Multiple human thralls roamed outside the hotel, whipped into a desperate frenzy by their master’s hunger. They knew well that two Blood had found her. Die facing Blood, or die when they returned to the master empty handed? They didn’t have much choice. At least I would give them a quick and merciful death.
Evidently the memory of the attack where we’d easily killed several of their kind was fresh enough in their minds that they chose to return to their master. They pulled back, slinking away like starving coyotes, but the thrall still howled off in the distance. I felt his rage. His desperate hunger. His need.
For my queen. Same as me.
I would kill for her too.
Pity flickered through me. Not enough to spare his life if and when he came after Shara, but understanding. Not much separated me from him in the end. If she died, and didn’t resolve our bond beforehand, I, too would roam the night killing like a mindless, starving beast, desperate to find myself a new queen. Though no queen would take a thrall as Blood.
A ragged groan sent me wheeling back to the bed. That masculine sound wasn’t one of pleasure, but pain. I’d never heard Rik whimper.
But he wasn’t Rik any longer. A huge hulking shape rose up over Shara, impossibly wide. Like a mountain. Fuck. He’d come into his power—and shifted into something I’d never seen before.
Blood were generally able to transform into protective predators: wolves, lions, panthers, even a few dragons back in the old days. But this… He looked like a rock troll. Literally, his muscles and limbs looked like giant boulders.
“Shara!” His voice sounded like an earthquake mixed with an explosion. He turned and looked at me over his shoulder. There was nothing of the man I knew in that face, except his eyes. Those eyes I knew. And he was fucking terrified. “Something’s wrong. I think she’s dead.”
I scrambled to the side of the bed and checked her pulse. Nothing. Her eyes were open but unseeing and glassy. I pressed my ear to her chest, and I couldn’t hear her heart beating. Even her skin was starting to chill.
I started chest compressions and gave her mouth-to-mouth for several cycles, then checked her heart and pulse again. “No. Shara. No!”
Rik slid a giant platter-sized palm behind her neck and lifted her slightly, checking the wounds he’d made with his fangs. Neat, tidy, and though I’d been too aroused myself to pay attention to how long he drank, I doubted he could have drained her to the point of death. I’d never heard of a Blood being able to drain his queen to death with a single feeding.
Dread certainty filled me. I’d been afraid she might revive an entire cemetery, but maybe her greatest power would be resurrecting herself. I whispered, “Remember who she is.”
“Isador,” Rik ground out in that rumbling new voice. “House of Isis.”
“The goddess of resurrection. I could continue chest compressions, but I don’t want to risk breaking her ribs for no reason.”
Rik gingerly stepped off the bed, though why he bothered I couldn’t say. The frame was already a pile of kindling, the mattress on the floor. He sat on the floor, drew her lifeless body into his arms, and then held a hand out to me. “We should hold her. Keep her close and warm and safe.”
I took his hand and settled into his arms with her. Rik held us both easily, as if we were just children. I wrapped my arms around her and put my head against her chest so I’d hear the first beat of her heart. Though with the low roar of his breathing, I’d be lucky to hear a jet taking off. “Can you shift back now?”
He grunted and it sounded like a piece of the earth tearing away in a landslide. “
Not until she’s safe. If we have to fight our way out…”
“Then at least stop with the earthquake and rumbling boulder sounds so I can hear, big guy.”
He quit making the sound, and the resulting silence was deafening. I guess he was holding his breath. “How long—”
I cut off that sentence, straining to hear. I heard a trickle, a rustle, almost like the brush of feathers, or a lock of hair lifting in the breeze. The barest flap of silk. I burrowed closer to her, wrapping my body around hers. “Come back to us, Shara.”
Shara
Knowing that I was dead was worse than actually being dead, if that made sense. Death was empty, silent, cold blackness, like the depths of the universe with all the stars blown out. I didn’t see any guiding light bringing me back. I didn’t see loved ones in the distance beckoning me to paradise. Just… darkness.
The thought of an eternity like this made me scream—even though I couldn’t hear it and didn’t have any vocal chords.
I whirled, or at least tried to look around, but there was nothing to see. Just endless, black emptiness.
It wasn’t supposed to end this way. Was it? Why had Mom given birth to me against all hope, and died to keep me safe, if I was going to die here alone? Isis had given me power. Great power, supposedly. Power over life and death.
If I didn’t want death… then I had to choose life. But how?
The power had to be within me. Inside. Not out.
Instead of blindly searching the invisible horizons in this nothingness, I looked inward. I felt deep inside myself, gliding past memories and thoughts. I saw Daire and Alrik running toward me as I lifted the knife to my throat. I felt a tug in my memory and paused to look. I followed through the woods to the top of a hill. Moonlight shone down on a clearing, illuminating a man with long silvered hair. He looked up at me, his eyes widening as if he could see me too. The man who’d killed my mother looked much worse for wear in the five years since she’d died. His face was sunken hollows and dark flaming eyes. He bared a vicious stained row of pointy teeth and leaped at me. In slow motion, I watched his bony, gnarled hand come closer, each finger tipped with brutal black claws. But I wasn’t afraid.
Queen Takes Knights (Their Vampire Queen Book 1) Page 5
