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

  Shara huffed out a laugh. “Then I’m glad you weren’t here to tell me how bad the odds were. I had no choice. Isis sent her.” Tightening her thighs around me, she gave me a sultry look of invitation. “I sprang Ra’s trap. Now I’m going to use his own weapon against him.”

  Shara

  My intestines felt like they’d been scorched with a blowtorch, but for her, it was worth it.

  Her hair flowed down around us like a silk curtain, fragrant and almost hot to the touch, a testament to the flames burning inside her. Rik’s bond still raged like an angry forge. He wouldn’t soon forget how quickly her gift had become deadly. Her memory of charred queens flickered through my mind, but I firmly pushed them away. She had enough of my blood, now, that I could feel her sincerity. Her horror. She hadn’t been a willing party to the death of those queens.

  “Why don’t you take off your weapons, at least.”

  Her eyes widened but she hastened to obey, scrambling up on her knees between my thighs. I knew the picture I made for her, because I could see myself reflected in her mind. My eyes blazed with hunger, and not just for her blood. My skin gleamed like burnished metal, still lit from within by her fires that were now mine to call. They mingled with my own gift, creating a viciously combustible mix of liquid hellfire.

  My fangs had receded a bit, but they were still long enough that I couldn’t shut my mouth fully. I ran my tongue over my lips, searching for any lingering blood.

  Her gaze dropped down to my breasts, my stomach, and then my pussy, where she sucked in a hard breath. “Goddess! You’re fucking breeding? Does Ra know?”

  “I hope to fuck he doesn’t,” Rik muttered darkly. “He won’t, unless you’ve warned him somehow.”

  “I haven’t spoken to my sire in hundreds of years. Like I said before—”

  “Fuck Ra,” Daire called from the other side of the room.

  “Yeah. But shit. I mean, my queen, surely you realize how rare this is.”

  I wasn’t prepared for her to slide one of the swords out of its sheath. She pointed the slim, curved blade at Rik’s throat. “You’re the biggest fucking moron of an alpha to ever answer a queen’s call, and one lucky motherfucker that she’s still alive. No nest. Out in the open in fucking New York City. Are you mad?”

  I started to sit up to settle her down, but Rik gave me a smoldering look. “I’ve got this, my queen.” Then he focused on the newcomer. “I applaud your determination to protect our queen, but you’ll soon figure out that Shara fucking Isador does as she wishes. If I tried to stop her from completing her goddess’s will, she’d blast me into kingdom come, and rightfully so. No Blood commands his queen, not even her alpha. Certainly not you.”

  Vivian tightened her grip on the sword, eyes narrowed. The way she held herself, and her confidence in facing off against probably the biggest and strongest Blood she’d ever seen in her life, told me she had to be very skilled with her swords. She truly thought she could beat him, or at least prove her point.

  Rik laughed. “Go ahead, Red. I hope you don’t like that pretty sword much, because I’ll take it from you and break it in half like a twig. Or better yet, I’ll sit here, not lift a finger, and watch you shatter it into a thousand pieces on my rock troll’s hide.”

  He shifted just enough to give her a glimpse of the massive stone gift he carried.

  Grudgingly, she lowered the sword. “Like I’ve never heard that before. At least come up with a better nickname for me than the color of my hair.”

  He scooted a bit further away toward the middle of my huge bed, leaving plenty of room for me and the new Blood. “If you don’t hurry up and satisfy our queen’s hunger, Smoak, I’ll take care of her myself.”

  Vivian leaped into action, quickly unbuckling her harness and tossing her weapons off the side of the bed.

  “This is my cue to leave,” Carys said as she pushed up her to feet. “For goddess’s sake, try not to get into any more trouble tonight, my queen.”

  I grinned at her. “I’m not making any promises.”

  Vivian pulled the chain-mail vest over her head and tossed it over her shoulder. It landed with a soft tinkling like chimes on the floor. Her hands stilled on the tight-fitting jacket’s zipper. “Did you want me to take everything off? Or just the weapons?”

  I looked up at her, listening to her bond. She still didn’t quite believe that I’d truly called her. After centuries, she was finally Blood to a queen who fully intended to embrace all that could mean.

  “That depends,” I said slowly, drinking in the long, lean lines of her body. “On whether you want to fuck or not.”

  14

  Shara

  Amused, I watched as she hopped off the bed like it’d suddenly caught on fire. Bending down, she tugged impatiently at the laces of heavy motorcycle boots so she could kick them off and shimmy out of skin-tight pants and thong. Her long red hair hung down around her, swaying with her movements. Almost as mesmerizing as staring into a fire. So gorgeous against her luminous black skin.

  Under the leather jacket, she wore a simple crimson tank that hugged her curves. She stripped it off and turned to face me, pausing so I could drink my fill. She’d shaved most of her pussy, leaving just a delicate, trimmed triangle to point the way. Not that I needed any help. Gray scars that looked like old burns covered her midsection, with a few on her arms and thighs. Maybe from her phoenix? Though I didn’t think a goddess-given gift would hurt her like that. Some of them were perfectly round, though of varying sizes. It had to have been a hell of a burn to leave that kind of scar, but maybe her last queen hadn’t been strong enough to heal her.

  “I’ve never had a queen. Not really. They always died before they could give me their blood and complete the bond. These scars are so old, I don’t think even you could heal them.”

  Old scars. That made me wonder so much about her past. Her childhood.

  She averted her face but didn’t duck her head. In fact, she stood straighter. Prouder. Though inside her, I felt a brittleness, like a sword that had seen so many battles, that it was close to the point of shattering.

  “Growing up Helios is a nightmare that never ends,” she whispered hoarsely.

  Keeping my touch narrowed to Daire, I asked, :What do you know about Helios?:

  :Nothing,: he replied. :It’s not an Aima House.:

  “Who was your mother?” I asked out loud.

  “I don’t know. I wasn’t allowed to know. I have no idea of my heritage, other than the fires that have burned in me my whole life.”

  I leaned out enough to snag her hand and pulled her gently to me. She came to my arms readily enough, her piercing eyes locked on my face. “I was made to destroy you. Maybe not you in particular, but queens like you.”

  I stroked my fingers down her back, learning the texture of her skin. She was so lean and hard. Not like Rik’s stone, but like metal. Forged steel, tempered by her phoenix. Her skin felt hot against mine, another testament to her gift. Even in my arms, she didn’t relax. Her muscles quivered faintly beneath her skin, ready to leap up into battle at a moment’s notice.

  She tipped her head to the side, baring the punctures that still dribbled blood down her throat. I definitely wanted more, but I wanted to know her better first. I wanted to understand.

  I could feel the rough texture of scars more heavily on her back. I couldn’t imagine how bad each mark would have had to be to still be scarred over. I didn’t want to hurt her more by pushing her to reveal a painful past, but I needed to know as much as possible. I felt as though there was a secret key inside her that would give me every single thing I needed to defeat the sun god. Her father.

  “He’s not my father,” she retorted, her eyes flashing. “He sired me. That’s it. Helios is what he calls his breeding grounds. It’s where he takes young Aima queens stolen from their nests. They’re raised by…”

  She shuddered, her breathing ragged. I kept up the steady, slow circles on her back, letting my touch soothe her.


  “Demons, called sunfires. He likes to take the queens as early as possible. Before they can come into their power and protect themselves. Then he and his vizier break them. If they die, the demons feast. If they don’t… he tries to sire a child on them. If that fails, then he gives them to the sunfires as prizes.”

  She buried her face against my throat and I hugged her closer. My stomach quivered with dread. No wonder he’d tried to take Xochitl. The thought of what she would have suffered on the other side of that portal…

  I reached for Mayte’s bond. :Keep Xochitl inside your nest at all times until I succeed in killing Ra. It’s urgent.:

  I felt her in bed sandwiched between her alpha, Eztli, and her god who’d sired her daughter, Tepeyollotl. By the pleasure simmering in her bond, I’d caught them at a most inopportune time.

  :Oops, sorry.:

  She let out a husky laugh in my head, her sweet flower scent winding through me. :Next time, maybe you and Rik can join us. I’ve kept Xochitl inside the nest since you left, although there has been a development with her. I’ve been meaning to tell you, but I didn’t want to distract you from Keisha.:

  :A bad development?:

  :Not at all, though it has been… interesting.: She paused a moment, and then she laughed again. :So you did call a female Blood.:

  She really had been there? :You remember my dream?:

  :Another queen used to come to me in dreams over twenty years ago. She had a way of making me forget. I never knew her name, but…: She sighed softly. :I think she was your mother.:

  I closed my eyes, swallowing down my emotions. Longing for the mother I’d never known. Sadness and grief that Mayte had known her, but then the spell had wiped her memory. And yeah, a bit of heartrending awe that Esetta had set so many plans into motion long before I was ever born.

  :Did the new Blood tell you something useful about Ra?:

  I breathed in Vivian’s scent of cinnamon and herbs, my mouth watering. :Yes. I know why he tried to take Xochitl and it wasn’t just to kill her. It’s horrible. Please, keep her safe.:

  :Do you even know where he is?: Mayte asked.

  Vivian lifted her head and stared into my eyes solemnly. “Are you going to kill him?”

  Without hesitation, I replied, “Yes.”

  Lingering tension bled out of Vivian until she lay soft and relaxed in my arms. “Then I will tell you everything I know. Including how to find Heliopolis.”

  15

  Shara

  I closed my eyes a moment, battling down my dread. Not because of Ra—but because of the price I would have to pay. Knowing the horrors he was committing on young women… How could I not pay that price? I had to stop him. No matter what. No matter how many of us died.

  If he’d managed to take Xochitl…

  Thank you, Great One, for allowing me to save her. Please help me save them all.

  “He hates us,” Vivian whispered, her voice raw as the words tumbled out of her. “Queens especially, but all women. He allows his minions to torture even the youngest, because he honestly does not care if we live or die. No, that’s not true. I think he wants us all to die, especially his children, because we’re a reminder of what he did to sire us, and his failure to sire a queen of his own. Not one of us are queens. We only carry his foul blood.

  “For all the hate and filth that he spews, his desires are infinite. I’ve seen him fuck every female in the main temple and then walk naked and still erect through the breeding grounds, looking for anyone he might have missed. I think that’s why he hates queens so much. They remind him of his weakness. His desire. He doesn’t want to desire a queen, but he fucks like he’ll die if he doesn’t come.”

  “Is he always there? How many queens does he have?”

  “He stays away as long as possible. His priests are always trying to cleanse him of his thirst for Aima pussy like it’s some kind of poison or curse. He distracts himself with humans as long as possible. Sometimes it’s a day, or a week, maybe even a month. When I was a child, we sometimes were free of him for even a year at a time. But inevitably, his desires overpower him, and the longer he has denied himself, the worse it is for anyone in his city. The last time I was there, he only had two queens left, but that was over a hundred years ago. The rest of his captives have died, and Aima queens aren’t born often enough to satisfy his perverse pleasures. The sunfires rage all the time, desperate for flesh. It’s all he can do to keep them from breaking loose and ravaging the humans. But he dares not let them kill his last queens, for fear that he won’t be able to find another to take their place, if he hasn’t already killed them himself.”

  I swallowed hard, inwardly shuddering at how close Xochitl had been to that horror. Or even myself. Maybe that was why my mother had decided to have me in secret. Not because she was afraid of what Keisha Skye or the Triune would do to me… but to keep me out of Ra’s grasp as long as possible.

  I rubbed my thumb in one of the pockets of scar tissue in her back. “What are these from?”

  She shrugged like it was no big deal. “The sunfires burn when they touch you. They like to drip their essence on us, sometimes as punishment, but sometimes just because they liked watching us scream. It burns like acid. Sepdet can make his arms into burning, liquid sunlight whips that curl around and dig into your flesh. That’s the worst. But they all can burn us.”

  “How many sun demons does he have?”

  She shook her head, her mouth a grim slant. “Too many. At least a thousand.”

  Ideas exploded in my head rapidly, alternatives that I considered and quickly dismissed. If they were liquid sunlight, I didn’t think water or rain would affect them. Fire, I could smother. Maybe with darkness, somehow? My cobra wouldn’t be able to deal with them. Wings wouldn’t help me. My mind ticked through each Blood. Rik’s rock troll might be okay against sun demons, since he couldn’t melt, and probably Leviathan. Surely his hide would protect him. But the others…

  Vivian brushed her lips against mine, drawing my attention back to her. “Maybe that’s one reason your goddess called me, my queen. You can fight fire with fire.”

  I settled against the pillows, deliberately letting my thoughts turn to sex and blood. I couldn’t defeat Ra this very moment. It wasn’t time. Not yet.

  I had to get stronger. Taking this new Blood would help in that regard.

  She felt me softening against her and her eyes blazed brighter. “You hunger, my queen. May I have the pleasure and honor of feeling you come while you feed from me? Or have you had your fill of sex already this evening?”

  Somebody snorted. Loudly. I didn’t have to look to know it was Mehen.

  “Everybody out,” Rik said, giving a hard, no-nonsense alpha push toward the door. “Work in pairs and secure the building. Guard the main doors on the first floor. Mehen and Nevarre to the roof, and the rest of you fuel up. Our queen may yet have need of you again before she handles the rest of Skye business.”

  I didn’t wait for them to leave. I locked my mouth to the punctures I’d already made on her throat. We Aima healed quickly, but when I sucked on the two wounds, her blood filled my mouth as if eager to hear my call.

  She shifted closer on my left side and ran her palm down my flank in one smooth, confident swipe that brought my body to life. While I’d enjoyed my time with Mayte, we’d both been inexperienced in how to please another woman. With one touch, Vivian told me she could send me to the heavens as many times as we wished. Though she kept a wary eye on Rik on my other side, as if she didn’t quite trust that he wouldn’t interfere.

  I didn’t have to ask him to give us a little space. He rolled from the bed and quietly paced around the room, checking the windows to make sure they were secure.

  :Better?: I asked her.

  :I’m sorry, my queen. It’s not that I don’t trust you or him. It’s just—:

  :I understand. You have no reason to trust men at all.:

  Her blood sparked inside me, stirring up my own gift
of fire, though this time, it wasn’t painful. Her fingers trailed up between my breasts and she paused, her hand over my heart, feeling it beat beneath her skin.

  “There’s something incredibly exquisite about giving a lover blood and pleasure at the same time,” she whispered against my temple.

  :The only thing better is tasting the pleasure in the blood, so feed more if you like.:

  I felt her surprise in the bond, though she didn’t say anything as her fingers glided over my breasts. Rik had told me before that most queens didn’t feed their Blood very often. Once the initial bond was made, a Blood may never taste his queen’s blood again.

  She squeezed lightly, reveling in the soft curve of my skin. Through her bond, I felt the throb of her desire, and my inner muscles clenched in response. She wasn’t in any hurry. Her touch on my skin was hard to describe. Unique. Her hands were smaller than any of my men’s, so her touch was delicate and feminine, though I felt the promise of strength too. She wasn’t hesitant or shy, but she touched me with reverence and a full sense of exactly how each stroke of her fingertip felt on my body, because her body was so similar. She knew how it felt without relying on our bond.

  I spread my thighs wider, inviting her to explore as she wished. She didn’t dive right in to my pussy, which I appreciated, though I wouldn’t have minded, either. She ran her hand down my thigh to my knee, and then lifted my leg up over her hips, turning me more fully toward her. My breasts rubbed against hers and I felt the soft sigh of her breath in my hair. She was so warm that sweat glistened on my skin. Her touch firmed as her fingers roamed back up my thigh.

  Sucking harder on her throat, I pressed closer, deliberately rubbing the hardened tips of my nipples against hers, which were just as hard. Her desire matched mine. It was such a small thing, but a delicious pleasure that none of my other Blood could give me. Tingles spread through my breasts, making them feel heavier, spreading the ache of need through my body.