Queen Takes Checkmate (Their Vampire Queen Book 5) Read online

  The scent of his blood fanned the fires of my hunger, but I sank my fangs into Tlacel first. The green jungles of his homeland filled me. Lush towering trees, thick undergrowth, large golden eyes flashing in the murk. The elegant swipe of wings as his feathered serpent brushed through my soul. They did everything together. It made me wish I could figure out how to get a fang in each of them at the same time.

  “You did,” Itztli rasped, shaking with release.

  I rolled my eyes to the side, surprised to feel his pleasure pouring through the bonds. His come splattered me along with his brother's. A hot intoxicating mixture that my skin readily gulped up as eagerly as I drank their blood.

  And I was drinking their blood. Both of them. I could taste Itztli’s dark, spicy chocolate and smelled the warm, comforting scent of his black dog. But how...?

  “Your fingers.” He shook against me, each spasm of his body driving my fingernails harder into his skin. Deeper. He'd impaled himself on my silvered nails, and I could definitely taste his blood flooding my system.

  “How is this possible?” Afraid, I looked wildly for Rik, and found him still out cold, one big arm slung over his head. Daire and Nevarre were tumbled in a heap beside the bed on the floor. Ezra sat on the floor beside them and managed to lift his head a bit, but he moaned and dropped his chin back down to his chest. Xin had fallen on the other side of Tlacel.

  My Blood, brought down one by one.

  By me.

  And now I had this terrible power to grapple with. It wasn't bad enough that I had gigantic fangs that gave even Guillaume pause, but now I also had fucking straws for fingers?

  It was..

  I couldn't...

  “Shara.” Llewellyn's graveled voice broke through my panic. He cupped my cheek. Had I fed on him already? I couldn't remember. “An early Isador queen had this gift. I'm sure I read about it in the journals somewhere. It's not unexpected that you, as the last living heir, would gain some of these lost abilities. You have a great hunger. Your body is adapting to allow you to feed better and quicker.”

  I gulped and almost choked. I didn't even remember that I still had fangs in Tlacel. Despite my shock, I was still drinking from him, and his brother. My thirst wouldn't let them go yet.

  “Where is she putting so much fucking blood?” Guillaume asked. “I don't see how she can even hold so much. Not after what Mehen went through tonight.”

  “Again, this is only something I read in the journals once. Ages ago, it seems. But I'm sure I read that some queens can transform blood into pure energy and store it. It happens so automatically that you don't even realize you're doing it.”

  :Storing it where?: I asked, trying not to freak out. I gave a tug on my alpha's bond, even though he was still unconscious. Maybe he'd wake up quicker if he felt my urgency.

  “You have reserves. They're inside you somewhere. As your power has grown, your body has been trying to fill and establish those reserves. It's like you have three or four gas tanks to fill.”

  Guillaume grunted in agreement. “That could explain her hunger and her tiredness. When her reserves are spent, she blasts through us all like kindling.”

  Itztli collapsed first, falling back against Rik's legs. I'd gouged deep grooves across his chest.

  Tlacel fell back and Llewellyn eased him off to the floor, so he could join us.

  Three Blood remained. Really, two, because I couldn't risk hurting Llewellyn so quickly after he'd been tortured.

  Hunger raged inside me like a thousand vicious, starving wolves howling at the moon as they charged after a wounded deer.

  Mehen snagged my left hand and lifted it back over my shoulder. His tongue touched my nails and he sucked in a breath. “They’re nice and sharp. Put these beauties in me, Shara.”

  11

  Shara

  Fucking straws. I had straws in my hands. Both hands? I wasn't sure. I jerked my hand up off Guillaume's chest before I started feeding on him before we were ready.

  Goddess. I had no idea that this was possible.

  At least he didn't seem to be worried. Not if his erection was any indication. He still filled me almost to the point of pain, where on one hand, I instinctively wanted to lift up away from him to gain some space, but on the other, I wanted to shove him deeper and grind against him with delicious agony. Mehen still hadn't pushed into me yet, or I probably wouldn't be able to think about this strange new revelation. Let alone worry about what would happen if I drank from all my Blood and still needed more.

  The more I fed, the more I wanted. It was like a vicious addiction, only instead of a single snort of cocaine, I needed a dump-truck load to satisfy the craving.

  Llewellyn’s eyes started to spin with fireworks. “Sometimes sex can help slake your hunger for blood.”

  Mehen snorted. “Not our queen. She's had us all before and still wanted more.”

  I swallowed hard, my cheeks suddenly burning with embarrassment. He made me sound like... like...

  An insatiable vampire with a thirst for blood and sex.

  Exactly what I was.

  “Bring it the fuck on, Shara,” Mehen growled as he slid his palm between my legs. He lifted me up off Guillaume a little, enough to gather my blood with his fingers. He smeared it like lube, only with this lube, he licked his fingers as he started to push inside me. “I’m going to fuck your ass so hard that you won't be able to move, much less still ache for another dick.”

  “Promise?” I retorted back at him. “Because right now, I only see three dicks and I don't think that's going to be enough.”

  “Watch me.”

  Despite his crude words, he took his time sliding into me, slowly deepening his thrusts. I'd taken several of my Blood anally before, but he wasn't a small man. Combined with Guillaume's size, I was stuffed so full I couldn't seem to get my lungs to work.

  Eyes heavy-lidded, Guillaume dipped his fingers between my thighs too, brushing his thumb over my clit in the process. I twitched and groaned, unable to bear the intense sensation. Not with them both inside me.

  “Do it again,” Mehen said roughly, his breath hot against my neck.

  I groaned again but I didn't deny them. It felt great. Even though I half-dreaded it, too.

  Guillaume rubbed his thumb against me and I came apart. I screamed. I shook. I clawed. I smelled their blood, and I knew I was hurting them. I had to be. These fucking crazy nails...

  Panting, I tried to calm the raging desire consuming me. Before it was too late. Before I seriously hurt someone. Rik wasn't awake to protect them.

  Blinking furiously, I forced my eyes open. Mehen had his forearm locked around my throat, pinning me back against him so I couldn't bite anyone and end the delicious torment. Guillaume held my gaze as he licked his fingers.

  “Do you honestly think you could injure the headless knight or Leviathan, king of the depths?” Mehen’s fangs skated across my skin teasingly. “I've slaughtered and eaten dozens of queens in my lifetime. So has G. Unleash your darkest desires on us, Shara, because you couldn't kill us if you tried.”

  “You wouldn't stop me.” The pressure on my throat made my words rough. “You'd let me do anything to you, and then I'd regret it later.”

  “You could bite his dick off and heal it.” Guillaume chuckled, but his eyes were dark and heavy with all the things he'd seen and done in the centuries of his life. He didn't have to tell me how many queens he'd killed over the years. I could see the weight of their blood in his eyes. “You could tear my head off, and I'll just grow it back. What's the problem?”

  “But I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to be that kind of queen.”

  Guillaume's gaze slid to the man behind me. “I think more of a demonstration is in order.”

  He didn't wait for Mehen's response but pressed his fingers against my clit again. Timing it perfectly, Mehen shoved deeper, his mighty body flexing against me. Guillaume tipped his hips up. Just a fraction of an inch. And everything inside me exploded again.
>
  When I could hear again, I heard Llewellyn's heavy breathing nearby. “I'd sell my soul back to Keisha Skye for a taste. Shara. Please. May I?”

  I appreciated the fact that he asked first, but I was beyond words. I tried to nod, but with Mehen's grip on me, I wasn't sure if they understood. Instead, I reached for Llewellyn's bond. His gleamed more golden than my other Blood bonds, so he was easy to find. I sank into his bond, letting his feathers and fur brush through my body.

  Groaning roughly, he dropped down on his stomach beside us, so he could wedge his head in between my body and Guillaume's. I had a moment to worry that my knight may not care for another man's mouth so close to his dick, but then he hoisted me up enough to give the other man better access, drawing all that incredible girth along my nerve endings still screaming with sensation.

  I hung there, half impaled on his massive dick, pinned against Mehen, still thick and deep in my ass, while my newest Blood licked the blood dripping from my body to coat G's cock. And I came again. And again. They didn't have to thrust an inch.

  I swear Llewellyn's tongue was abnormally long and wickedly agile. He did things with his tongue that even Daire couldn't do, and he didn't hesitate to lick anything he could get his mouth on. I could feel him teasing Mehen's cock in my ass. Guillaume's base and the inches bared by lifting me off his groin. My blood sizzled in them. Volatile. Destructive. Overwhelming.

  They should have pinned my hands. They should have tied me up and gagged me. Maybe then I wouldn't have shoved those sharp nails back into Mehen's side, at the same time that I gouged Guillaume in the throat. Their blood bubbled up from the wounds, flooding me with more power.

  So much fucking power. A mortal shouldn't have this kind of power at her disposal.

  :Who told you we were mortal?: Llewellyn said in my head. :My queen is a fucking goddess.:

  Mehen plunged against me, pushing me up with his thrust so Llewellyn could keep tormenting us all with his tongue. I licked my face, tasting Guillaume's blood. The wounds I'd made fountained blood all over me and the bed. Buried inside his throat, my strange nails sucked up blood directly from the source. I could feel the hot, wet flesh of his body around my fingertips.

  :You're inside me,: Guillaume whispered in our bond. :As I'm inside you. Fuck me, Shara. Fuck us both. Suck us down and use us. That's why we're here. That's why we exist. For you, and you alone.:

  Their hearts thundered in my head. Guillaume's warhorse reared and released a strident challenge. Leviathan swooped and dipped inside me, winding tighter into the death spiral he'd used to try and kill us both. Llewellyn's gryphon shrieked, and flames dripped from his massive paws as he padded through my mind.

  Strong. Fierce. Unafraid. Even as I fucked them to death.

  Rik

  My vision was too fuzzy to make sense of the scene unfolding just feet away. I blinked and forced my eyes to focus. Shara. Goddess. She was coated in blood, like she'd slit someone's throat.

  Her fangs glistened, bared ivory curves that could definitely tear a Blood's throat out if she chose, but something told me that wasn't the cause of so much blood.

  Mehen roared with release, heaving them both backwards in a vicious arch. I could clearly see Guillaume's big dick inside her, while Llewellyn licked them both. She jammed her left hand back harder and the dragon's roar went up another notch. His exquisite pain made me suck in a hard breath, though it was mixed with overwhelming pleasure, too.

  “Shara,” Guillaume gurgled. “Finish me.”

  I scrambled up to my knees, but I didn't interfere. Not yet. I couldn't imagine her being able to seriously injure the headless knight, even in the throes of her worst thirst.

  Mehen slumped down over her, a heavy weight that seemed to piss her off. She gave a sharp tug with her left hand and effortlessly dumped him off to the side. Her hand was coated in blood and squelched as she pulled her fingers free of him.

  At first, I thought she carried several of G's silver blades. They weren't talons, but definitely gleamed like metal. Her head fell back as she settled deeper on his groin. Llewellyn came up for air and saw me alert.

  “You don't even know what you fucking have, do you?” His face tightened, his eyes blazing completely red-gold. “I served her mother for centuries and never once tasted her menses.”

  I didn't think he was angry with me, not exactly. How could I have anything to do with Shara's miraculous ability to have her monthly period? And if he thought even her alpha could demand that she stay in the nest while she bred and hide from her many duties, then he could be the next one to attempt such an order. I'd sit back with glee and watch her rip his throat out.

  Shara panted, her breath catching on a groan. “Why not?”

  Llewellyn turned back to her, curling around her hips so he could work his tongue back down to her clit. :Because she couldn't. She never bred. Not once. This gift is entirely yours, my queen. Goddess help me, I'll lick every drop that your alpha doesn't take for himself.:

  “Hey,” Daire mumbled, turning over in a reckless sprawl of limbs and hair. “That's my job.”

  :Bite me, asshole,: Llewellyn retorted in the bond.

  :Gladly, birdbrain.:

  Shara's head fell back on a deep, guttural cry. She kept her right hand on Guillaume's throat. I assumed she was trying to control whatever wound she'd dealt him.

  It didn't dawn on me that she was feeding from the wounds until he quaked with release, and then slumped. Drained.

  Dead to the world.

  “G,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “Rik, I think I killed him.”

  I came to her, then, enfolding her against my chest, though Llewellyn’s head remained between her thighs. “You forget who he is, my queen.”

  “Please,” she sobbed against my neck. “Help him.”

  I reached down to check his pulse despite the five jagged, deep punctures in his throat. “He's fine. Sluggish and weak, but he has a pulse. He's no worse off than me or Daire were earlier.”

  Cautiously, she lifted her head. “He's alright?”

  G stirred, his eyes fluttering as he sensed her worry. “Fine,” he mumbled. “Sleepy.”

  “You've seen us heal before,” I reminded her as I lifted her fingers closer. “If anyone can walk, flip the lights on.”

  Llewellyn ran his mouth down the full length of her slit, making her twitch and groan in my arms. Then he shoved up out of bed and stomped over to the wall to hit the light switch.

  I turned Shara's hand over and examined the silver tips of her nails. They were two inches long, wickedly sharp, with tiny holes near the tapered ends. “I've never seen such a wonder before.”

  She tugged on her hand self-consciously, but I didn't release her. “They suck up the blood somehow.”

  I raised her index finger and sucked the tip into my mouth, running my tongue all over the gleaming nail to clean it. “I've heard that some of our kind can suck blood through their fangs too, but this is much more efficient.”

  Her mouth sagged open a moment. “Efficiency? That's what you care about when I've decimated my entire Blood?”

  “Not quite,” Llewellyn retorted as he plopped back down on the mattress beside us. “You didn't feed on me, Shara.”

  He started to lean back down toward her pussy and the tantalizing blood, but she stopped him with her other hand on his chest, mindful of her nails. “You need time to heal first before I drain you like I did them.”

  “Not with this blood powering me. Don't you feel the difference in me? After tasting you earlier, I was strong, yes. But now, I'm a fucking unstoppable beast.”

  She curled her fingers slightly, deliberately digging the silver tips into his skin. “I know you were my mother's alpha, but Rik is mine. I won't have any challenges to his authority. Do you understand?”

  He leaned closer, piercing his skin on those sharp tips. Not deeply, but enough that his blood scented the air. “I understand, my queen. He got to you first. It's his right. But you can't fault
me for wishing that I could have flown out from Skye Tower and searched for you myself.”

  Her eyes glittered and the fine hairs on my arms prickled. Her power sparked around her like static electricity. “You didn’t even know that I existed.”

  “I did. I knew. I couldn’t feel you, not in Skye’s nest, but I knew you were loose on the world somewhere. It was the only thing that kept me sane.”

  “How?” She whispered, her eyelids fluttering. “How did you know?”

  In her bond, I felt the first taste of his blood hitting her system. Her fingers burned and pulsed, drawing fresh blood up those long nails to feed her magic. She could taste his fur on her tongue, flavored with the scent of supple leather, even though his blood wasn’t in her mouth.

  Llewellyn leaned closer, pushing her nails deeper, and pressed his forehead to hers. “Because an Isador queen is always successful in what she sets out to do.”

  12

  Shara

  I stood outside in the street. It took me a moment to realize that I was dreaming. The streets of Manhattan were never completely empty like this. Streetlights lined the road outside the Isador house, but they didn't interfere with the glorious sprinkling of stars across the dark sky. No moon tonight. No clouds. I wasn't sure what that meant, if it meant anything at all.

  I hadn't dreamed since Snake Mountain. Just remembering how I'd met Coatlicue and gained the glittering red serpent around my throat made me shiver. I hoped it wasn't that kind of dream. Not now. I already had too much to do, and goddess help me, I couldn’t bear to lose anyone else. I already feared I wouldn’t be able to endure such a loss.

  The sky brightened far off in the distance. A red glow slowly approached. It looked like a wildfire, although I was pretty sure the Atlantic Ocean lay in that direction. Something was coming to me from the east over hundreds of miles of water.

  Light wasn’t necessarily a good thing with the sun god gunning for me, but I wasn’t worried enough to try and wake myself up. The reddish glow was warm and inviting. As it neared, I could see flickering blue and white flames too. It burned too brightly for me to tell what was inside the blaze, but the ground thudded heavily as it landed. It was big. Maybe not as big as Leviathan, but definitely something powerful.