Queen Takes Knights (Their Vampire Queen Book 1) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Queen Takes King Preview

  About the Author

  Other Books by Joely

  Contents

  Copyright

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Queen Takes King Preview

  About the Author

  Other Books by Joely

  QUEEN TAKES KNIGHTS

  THEIR VIRGIN QUEEN, book 1

  Published by

  Joely Sue Burkhart

  A lost virgin vampire queen. Two vampire knights sworn to protect her.

  It’s about to get very hot… and bloody…

  Ever since her mother was murdered by monsters five years ago, Shara Isador has been on the run. Alone, scared, and exhausted, she’s finally cornered in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Out of hope with nowhere else to turn, she’s ready to end it all when two men come to her rescue.

  They say she’s a lost queen descended from Isis, and they’re her Blood, vampire knights sworn to protect her. It all seems like a crazy nightmare, until the alpha offers his blood. Then she realizes she’s never wanted anything more. Except maybe his body… and his friend’s, too.

  But they’re not the only ones searching for a lost queen. Shara must learn how to wield her new powers quickly and conquer her fears if she intends to keep them all alive.

  Copyright © 2017 Joely Sue Burkhart

  Cover Art by Cover Me Darling

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in print or electronic form without the express, written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to any organization, event, or person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Adult Reading Material

  For my Beloved Sis.

  A special thank you to Sherri Meyer for beta reading.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Shara

  It sucked to be twenty two years old and still afraid of the dark.

  Bad things always happened in the dark. I’d learned that at an early age, when my father was brutally murdered in front of me. My mother met the same fate when I was seventeen.

  Waiting for the sun to set, monsters were real and they were always hungry. Always hunting.

  Demons with pasty gray skin, wasted bodies down to skin and bones, with red, glowing eyes. Mom always said they were hunting her, but after she died, I kept seeing them.

  They were still hunting… me.

  I’d lose them for a few weeks at a time, but then I’d start to get that old familiar itch down my spine. I’d feel the eyes at dusk. Shadows crowded around my cheap room, testing the doors and windows, looking for a weak spot in paper-thin walls. It was always the same story, and at dawn, I’d head out to the bus stop and try to lose them again for a few days.

  It didn’t matter how careful I was. They always found me again, because they hunted by the smell of my blood. Thanks to my very regular menstrual cycle, I could count on them always finding me in under a month. And if I cut my finger, I’d better leave on the next bus as quickly as possible, knowing the scent was like a beacon shining over my location.

  I’d been in Eureka Springs, Arkansas for about two weeks. Only a week until Christmas, but I’d be gone by then. The thought made me sad, because I actually liked this town. It had a deep, resonant feeling, like a ringing bell that I could almost hear. Maybe it was all the caves, natural springs, and deep cliffs that funneled its inhabitants’ energy into a river I could almost touch.

  I had a modest inheritance from my parents, but it wouldn’t last forever, so I always tried to find a temporary job to cover my expenses. If I was extremely lucky, I could find a job cleaning motel rooms that let me have a cheap room for free. Eureka Springs had lots of small ma-and-pop type motels for the wedding business, but with the holidays, pickings were light. Most motels had already closed for the season, and my boss said it’d be a ghost town after the Christmas shopping died down.

  I only knew the owner as Hosea. He’d been pretty nice to me so far, even letting me eat meals out of the small kitchen (as long as I was willing to help out waitressing tables or delivering food to the cabins) so I didn’t have the heart to tell him I probably wouldn’t make it that long.

  “Yo, Shara,” Hosea called, waving me toward the office. I started to tuck the cleaning cart into the storage closet, but he hollered, “No, bring it.”

  My nerves were already starting to jangle a warning. It was almost five in the evening. This time of year, it’d be full-on dark pretty quickly. I’d feel a lot better once I was safely in my room for the night.

  I dragged the cart over and he smiled apologetically. His bald head gleamed in the light, his face lined and worn. He had the nicest eyes, though. So kind and good-hearted. Almost like my father’s, from what I remembered. I hadn’t met too many people with nice eyes over the years. “I know it’s late, but we had an urgent clean-up call from the honeymoon cabin.”

  I’d made it clear I’d do just about anything he asked as far as cleaning the rooms or working in the kitchen—as long as I stayed indoors after nightfall.

  The main motel was a lodge building, with rooms off one main hall. Over the years, he’d added individual cabins spaced out on the property, away from the main building. The customers loved being able to have a room “out in the woods” where they couldn’t see anybody else, but still be minutes away from a hot meal or the main shopping strip.

  The honeymoon cabin was bigger than the others with a giant heart-shaped Jacuzzi that I’d come to despise, and of course, it was the furthest from the main building. “The tub again?”

  He nodded. “They put some bubbles in and lost track of how full it was getting.”

  Crap. I so did not want to track out there and mop for an hour or two.

  “Ellie’s home sick and Tom’s in the kitchen. I really need you to take it if at all possible. I’ll give you a bonus. ”

  I could use the money, but my hands were already trembling. It was early. My period probably wouldn’t start for another day or two, so the monsters shouldn’t have tracked me this far. But that didn’t mean they weren’t out there, waiting for me to be stupid enough to walk around at night.

  With a small nod,
I turned around and headed down the hall to the back door. I’d stay inside as long as possible, take the shortest route there, and get back. I’d leave the cart and run if I had to. Pausing at the door, I crouched down and checked the bucket on the very bottom with my personal supplies. It wasn’t much, just a large container of salt and a strip of wood with a few rusty old nails I’d scrounged. Salt and iron were about the only thing I’d found to deter the monsters long enough for me to get to safety. If I could make one of them bleed, the rest of the pack would usually attack the wounded one, buying me more time.

  I didn’t have much of a coat, just a pullover hoodie I now dragged over my head. The cold didn’t bother me much, but I got a lot of weird stares if I walked around in the middle of winter without at least some long sleeves on. I checked my pocket, making sure the small pocketknife hadn’t fallen out.

  Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and tried to sense anything amiss. Was the trickle of ice down my spine my imagination brought about by fear? Or was there really something out there? I couldn’t tell, but it might be the faint white line of salt I’d spilled at the door when I first came here. So far, no one had noticed and swept it up. It helped that they put salt on the sidewalks to keep them from being slippery. Another thing that might keep me somewhat safe tonight if I stuck to the sidewalk.

  I stepped outside, my shoulders tight, my eyes straight ahead, and I walked with a mission. Five minutes, and I’d be at the cabin. Ten at most. My heart thudded with anxiety, but the air smelled incredible. Clean and fresh, frosty with a hint of snow. Pine trees thickened around the sidewalk, providing coverage from the city lights. A light dusting of snow crunched under my feet. For a moment, I was away from the noise of the streets, surrounded by nature’s peace, and I relaxed despite my fears. I loved this place. It felt so… right. Natural. Maybe I could come back in a few months. I bet Hosea would take me on again, if he got as busy as he said in May and June.

  The honeymoon cabin was constructed from logs of Arkansas pine and built up off the ground like a treehouse. It was actually really cool, though a lot of customers couldn’t do the stairs. Hosea hoped to build a couple of more next summer that were more accessible. Grabbing the mop and bucket out of the cart, I climbed the double flight of stairs and paused a moment to scan the surrounding woods. Opening my senses, I tried to find anything out of place.

  I imagined the area around me like a soft, billowing fabric. Three dimensional trees, plants, and animals dotted the fabric, but they felt right. Natural. People were like blinking fireflies, floating here and there, or streaming in rivers that I knew were the highways downtown. Some areas glowed brighter, where more people gathered for dinner or work. The monsters always felt like a stain or small tear in that fabric. Nothing I could see with my eyes until it was too late, just a feeling of wrongness. But they were very good at hiding. Almost as good as me.

  Something drew my attention to the south. Two warm spots glowed like tiny campfires, definitely red against the soft white fireflies of the people living around me. I’d never seen anything like that before. Monsters weren’t warm and they didn’t glow like this. The more I focused on those campfires, they hotter they burned. Molten fire, lava, thick and hot, bubbling up out of the earth. The glowing rivers of embers seemed to call me. I reached out slowly, listening, feeling, for anything bad. The red bubbled up higher, like it was seeking me too. So beautiful. I strained harder…

  I about jumped out of my skin when someone touched me.

  “Sorry,” the man said. “Come in, it’s freezing out here.”

  I looked back out over the forest, but the glowing red had only been in my mind. Sighing, I stepped into the one-room cabin. A small seating area looked cozy before a massive stone fireplace. A large king-sized four-poster bed dominated the rest of the room, with the hated Jacuzzi in the corner. Bubbles frothed over the top and onto the tiled floors. At least Hosea hadn’t put wood floors in. They’d have been trashed a dozen times just since I’d been here. The bride sat on the edge of the bed wrapped in a towel, avoiding my gaze. Candles lined the tub, along with a half-drank bottle of wine and… ew. A used condom.

  You wouldn’t believe the disgusting crap housecleaning had to take care of.

  I set to work, mopping, squeezing out the water, dumping the bucket outside, over and over until the mess was sopped up. I changed out the soggy towels they’d thrown on the floor to sop up the first spills, and took the rug outside to hang on the deck railing. I’d be back out tomorrow and pick it up for a cleaning. The happy couple had finished the bottle of bubbly and popped open another while I slaved to clean up after them. At least they bothered to say, “thanks,” as I headed back outside. No tip. Hopefully Hosea followed through with that promise of a bonus.

  I checked my watch. One hour. A record cleaning, that was for sure, but it was pitch black outside. I threw my tools into the cart and started off on a rapid pace for the main building, scanning the woods around me.

  The hair on the back of my neck prickled. I sensed a darkness, a nameless heaviness. Watching. To my left, up in the woods, high on a hill. But it saw me. It knew me. And I knew it. Him.

  It was the same darkness who’d killed my mother.

  I broke into a run, dragging the cart along the sidewalk. The tires skidded on the ice and the cart tried to overturn. I’d never make it back to safety with it.

  Breathing hard, I stopped beneath the closest light pole and grabbed my small bucket of weapons. Using the meager shelter of the cart, I scanned the woods, using both my eyes and my sense of fabric of the area. There was a definite shadow creeping through the woods, and the watcher high up, though he hadn’t come closer. The nightmare of my mother’s murder tried to crowd into my brain. Gray shapeless monsters grabbing her. Dragging her. The tall dark shadow engulfing her. Blood spraying from her throat.

  I shuddered and pushed the image away. Not now. I refused to panic. Panic would make me do something stupid. I’d escaped many times before. I’d escape again.

  He won’t have me tonight.

  I started to stand, but caught another whiff of wrongness on the air, warning they were close. They were between me and the main cabin. They’d already cut me off.

  Fuck.

  I could probably make it back to the honeymoon cabin, but I didn’t think the newlyweds would welcome my presence for long, if they even allowed me back inside. There’d be questions. I knew from experience that people always thought I was nuts if I started talking about monsters, and if I wasn’t careful, I’d find myself sedated and committed. Easy pickings for the monsters. If I blabbed about monsters no one else could see, Hosea would would probably fire me. I couldn’t afford any marks against my name for fear news would spread, and then I’d never get another job.

  Shivering, but not with cold, I gathered my resolve. I was going to have to fight. So be it.

  I stepped out a circle, trailing a thick line of salt on the ground, about six feet in diameter. Close enough I could defend it—but large enough that they wouldn’t be able to touch me easily. I loaded my nailed club in my left hand, and the pocket knife in my right. Then I crouched down beside the cart and waited.

  I felt the wrongness first. Like a discordant note that I couldn’t quite hear, a flicker of shadow out of the corner of my eye, but when I looked, nothing was there. The smell intensified that sense of wrongness until I wanted to gag. Dead, rotting flesh, rolled in shit, and left in a putrid swamp to mold. It’d be even worse if I managed to injure one of them. When, I corrected myself sternly. Because if I didn’t manage to create a diversion, I’d probably be torn apart long before dawn.

  Only one monster crept toward my circle. They didn’t like the light. Terror made me snicker out loud as I thought about them drawing straws to see which one had to try and get me first. Long, stringy hair hung down to its shoulders, but I couldn’t tell from its shape if it had been a man or a woman. Its arms were twice as long as normal, creepy long bony fingers reaching out along
the ground like a foul spider. It touched the salt and hissed.

  But it kept touching the salt, digging scaly fingers through the grains, even as it started to howl, a terrible high-pitched screech that didn’t sound like any living creature. Smoke broke from its darkened skin, yet it still tried desperately to break my circle.

  I leaped forward and slammed the nailed club onto its forearm, then jerked back, making sure to tear the dead, hanging skin open.

  From the shadows, a chittering sound rose up all around me. I shuddered, trying to keep my instincts in check. Even muscle in my body vibrated with alarm. They’d surrounded me. I had no option. I had to flee. Now.

  Even though my brain knew I had no hope of escape. They wanted me to break into mindless terror and run. They’d love a good hunt through the woods.

  The pack came closer, creeping out of the shadows, lured by the smell of blood. Even black, putrid blood. The injured one hissed at its friends as they closed on it, gnashing inch-long razor teeth, shredding its own lips, as if it was driven mad by blood hunger too. Even its own.

  A sound behind me sent me whirling. I slammed the club down, trying to catch the other monster scratching through the salt. Missed.

  Another screeched to my right. I slashed without looking and felt the drag of the knife blade through flesh.

  They closed in. Ten. I’d never faced so many before.

  I couldn’t breathe with the stench. The terror. Their eyes glowed, the terrible clicking sound they made with their teeth sending goosebumps down my arms. I made a slow turn inside the circle, trying to think of a way to escape. A way to trick them. The one I’d wounded suddenly disappeared beneath two or three of the monsters, but the rest closed ranks around me.

  It was almost like they’d learned from their previous attempts. Or maybe the watcher had managed to train them better. Either option spelled my death.