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

But I couldn’t help but feel like each swallow of his blood brought me closer to my mother. I could almost taste her in his blood. Beneath the gryphon wings and talons and his raging fury, I tasted…

  Moonlight. The quiet dapple of silver on sands. Perfect diamonds and crystals lying beneath a full moon.

  :I will always carry your mother in my heart and soul.:

  Tears burned my eyes. :Did her geas not affect you? You seem to remember more than anyone else.:

  :I cannot utter her name, but I carry too much of her blood to be denied my memories of her.:

  Reluctantly, I licked my fang marks and the thin cut on his wrist, making sure to clean up every drop. I looked up into his face and gasped. His once dark eyes were completely red-gold. The falling stars had taken over completely.

  “This gryphon swears undying loyalty to you, my queen.”

  “Shara,” I said softly, holding his gaze. I didn’t want to just be the next Isador queen he served. I wanted him to know me. Want me. Need me. Only me.

  “What did you wish to ask me?” He said aloud, his voice a soft rumble. “Shara?”

  “I need to establish a sib to hold New York City for me. What do you know about the queen sibs Keisha claimed? Is there anyone I should avoid, or anyone you know is strong enough to hold my territory in my stead?”

  “There are a few strong enough to make decent sibs for Isador, but only one or two that I would guess worthy to serve you. Most of them were all too eager to fall in with Skye and embraced everything that Keisha commanded them to do.”

  “Exactly. I don’t want to claim someone like that for us.”

  “Then avoid Virginia and Alessandra. They both have strength, but I can attest to their willingness to abuse or take advantage of people they deem lesser than themselves. They both voluntarily watched as Keisha tortured Conall, her last alpha. Carys isn’t as strong as either of them, but she has a quiet strength that I think will appeal to you. She never watched the torture, unless Keisha ordered all her House to attend.”

  “Thank you. That’s exactly the kind of information that I hoped you’d be able to share.”

  His tone sharpened, vibrating with bloodthirsty intent. “Have you decided what to do with Vega and the rest of the Furies?”

  “Did they participate in the torture?”

  “Mine, or the alphas?”

  “Either.”

  “Usually the alphas, but they enjoyed making men suffer in general, so I wasn’t immune from their efforts. Though I believe my vengeance has already been delivered in part, thanks to your poisonous Blood. I heard that five of them perished in the elevator, and Ashlee was one of the worst offenders.”

  This was the part I’d been dreading. My brain wanted to run away and concentrate on something else. I had so many crucial things to do, like choosing a sib and making sure the tower was secure. All valid and necessary tasks.

  But first, I had to face the most unpleasant task of deciding whether several people should live or die. I didn’t want to be responsible for their punishment, but they were my responsibility now.

  “You don’t have to make the decision tonight,” Gina said, touching my arm lightly. “Rest first. They’ll hold until tomorrow.”

  “Will they, though? Or will they turn thrall and add human deaths to their list of sins?”

  “If they turn, we’ll kill them immediately.” Llewellyn’s head cocked slightly, very bird-like, as if he’d spotted his fleeing prey miles away with his razor-sharp vision. “Then you don’t have to decide.”

  I blew out a sigh. “That’s the coward’s way out.”

  His eyes widened and he bent over my hand, pressing my knuckles to his forehead. Surprised, I didn’t know what to say.

  “Forgive me, my queen.” Moisture dripped onto the back of my hand. “You suddenly sounded very much like your mother.”

  Good. That confirmed that I needed to make a decision, rather than wait and see what would happen. “Gina, what Triune laws apply in this situation?”

  “As the ruling queen, it’s within your rights to exterminate every sib and Blood in this House, for any offense of which you deem them guilty. You could blot Skye from the earth completely and no one would bat an eye, except possibly Rosalind, for fear that you might come after her next because of her former ties to Keisha.”

  “Everyone?” I asked, my voice shaking. I’d been worried about dealing with Keisha’s Furies, but it hadn’t occurred to me that everyone might be scared to death. Literally.

  When I’d gone to make Mayte my sib, her people had been nervous and even angry at first, because they feared I’d take everything away from them. Even if Keisha had been victorious and claimed Zaniyah as her siblings, she wouldn’t have killed them all. She’d have taken Xochitl from Mayte. She might have killed Mayte’s Blood in the skirmish. She might have forced Mayte to leave her nest and come here to Skye Tower. But I didn’t think she would have killed everyone left behind.

  :Desideria did so, and quite often.: Guillaume’s bond rang like drawn steel. :Once the queen falls, the nest is yours to do with as you please.:

  “No wonder so many people fled,” I whispered aloud, shaking my head. “I thought they were merely scared of what I’d ask of them before letting them join House Isador.”

  “Zaniyah was different,” Gina said. “You didn’t go in with the intent of killing Mayte, but of taking her as your sib. You valued her House for their numbers and the strength they provided you. For all House Skye knows, you might want retribution for almost losing Alrik. Or for Skye’s audacity in claiming your Blood as hers and dragging you here to address her formal claim. Or for her Blood insulting you in the elevator and feeding on your Blood. Or perhaps your mother was slighted in some way by Keisha. The rumors are probably running through the floors like wildfire. That’s why picking a sib tonight and declaring your intent to build upon this House, rather than destroy it, will help settle the peace quicker.”

  I took a deep breath and looked inward a moment, scanning through my body. I was weary, definitely, both of politics and danger. But I wasn’t in danger of tapping my reserves too deeply yet, not after three of my Blood had fed me.

  I refused to think about how much of Keisha’s blood I’d taken, along with her life.

  A couple of hours, tops, and I should be able to retire to my mother’s house and leave Skye Tower to fortify itself.

  “Isador Tower,” Rik rumbled beside me.

  I nodded, quirking my lips. “Add that to our list of a million things to do. We need to pull down any reference to Skye Tower on my building.”

  Gina smiled. “Already on the list, my queen, though the list is about two million long already. Which leads me to the other thing I’d like to discuss with you, if you have the time.”

  Llewellyn drew my gaze to him with his lips on the back of my hand again. This time, he swirled his tongue over my knuckles and flashed those smoldering falling star eyes up at me. “By your leave, my queen, I’ll go fetch Carys so you may meet her.”

  I turned my fingers in his, so I could trail my fingertips over his cheek as he straightened to his impressive height. “Thank you, my Blood. I’d like a private discussion with her first, and then we’ll arrange the formal sib ceremony. Though I don’t want to use Keisha’s throne room. Is there another place in the building that’s big enough for everyone to hear me address them?”

  “The ballroom. I’ll have them make it ready for you.”

  I nodded, and he backed away, inclined his head once more, and then whirled smartly on his heel to exit the room.

  “Should I leave?” Nevarre asked, already hovering at the door.

  “No. Stay. What else did you wish to discuss, Gina?”

  “I think Madeline would be an excellent addition to your team as second consiliarius.”

  A surge of emotion tore through me at the thought of losing, or replacing, Gina in any way. I depended on her. She’d been the one to help me after my first two Blood found me. She was
my connection to everything that I’d unknowingly lost my entire life.

  Then I realized she’d said second consiliarius. She wasn’t leaving me.

  “Of course, I’m not leaving you,” she retorted smartly, though her eyes were teary and she lightly touched my arm again. My reaction must have been strong enough that she had felt my emotions in her bond. “We can certainly look elsewhere for assistance, but we will need to hire quite a few staff members to organize the Skye legacy and meld it with yours. It’s not as immense, but the holdings are in crucial cities, like this tower, and are fixtures of society in a way that Isador holdings are not. It would be easier to bring Madeline, and her full staff, into yours, and then she and I can work together as you see fit.”

  “That makes a lot of sense,” I replied slowly. “I’m just not sure if I can trust her. Mayte trusted Bianca and look what happened.”

  The former Zaniyah consiliarius had betrayed her House to Ra, and their heir, Xochitl, a precious little girl, had nearly paid the price of that treachery.

  “And you with her.” Rik pulled me back against him. “I will never trust anyone with your safety who isn’t Blood.”

  Gina’s face blanked into a smooth, perfect mask. Try as she may, she would never be my Blood.

  I took her hand and stepped closer to her so I could hug her with my other arm. Naturally Rik moved with me, though he didn’t touch her. Only me. “I trust you implicitly, Gina. Blood or not. I trust Winston implicitly. You’re my family.”

  Nevarre didn’t say anything, but I felt him still hovering at the door. Alone.

  :Come to me, my raven.:

  In a heartbeat, he was at my side, carefully sliding his arm around my waist without touching the other woman.

  “You’re all my family.”

  Rik pressed his lips to my hair, lightly brushing his mouth back and forth. “You’re our everything, my queen. You’re my everything. And while I know you love Gina and Winston as family, I say as your alpha, that I will never trust anyone not Blood with your safety. That doesn’t mean that I don’t trust them. Not at all. I believe they’re as loyal as mostly-humans with a bit of Aima blood can be. But they aren’t Blood and never will be. They can be compromised, just as Bianca was compromised.”

  “Are you saying a Blood cannot be compromised?”

  “Never,” he replied. “With even a shallow Blood bond, you would know their heart and minds. You could use your power to drag out any secrets, no matter how deeply they try to bury them. If any other queen or god planted a spell, geas, or other trap inside them, you would sense it. Your blood alone would attack it. The more blood you share, the deeper the bond, and you’re a queen who gladly feeds us. No one would be able to hide from you.”

  His words triggered something inside me. Like a tiny seed that was barely a speck, the idea sprouted ever so slightly. My blood was the key to my power.

  And the key to who I could trust.

  Without effort, Gina’s mind was accessible to me, like a box that had suddenly popped open. My blood unlocked her like a key, no matter how mighty the chains she might have tried to use to keep me out. She hadn’t tried, not at all, but everyone had secrets. She wasn’t the exception, though I felt her intentions. She hadn’t kept the secret out of a malicious desire to harm me at any time. Rather, out of shame, she’d hidden this item from her past so deeply inside herself that even she had almost forgotten it.

  Almost. But not quite.

  There was a reason she only ever talked about Grandma Paula, and never her mother. Janae Talbott had betrayed House Isador. She’d paid for that crime with her life under my mother’s rule as queen. Her execution had been done quietly out of respect to the long line of Talbotts who’d served my family without even a hint of betrayal or impropriety. No one outside Esetta’s immediate circle of Blood and the Talbotts even knew.

  Paula had continued to serve as consiliarius and brought Gina into the family business sooner than planned to compensate for Janae’s absence.

  I wondered what Janae had done to earn her death. The answer was there in Gina’s head, a glimmer of something buried, but slightly visible. With a bit of effort, I could draw that information out.

  But out of respect for all she’d done for me, I left that secret buried. I didn’t need to know.

  My touch in her mind had been so light that she didn’t even know I’d seen that glimpse of the dark secret that haunted her past. It didn’t make me think any less of her. I still trusted her without question. In her whole life, that was the only thing she had closed off from me, and it’d only taken a few swallows of my blood to open her mind so much that I’d gleaned that information without even trying.

  “Would Madeline agree to take my blood as you did?”

  Gina’s eyes widened. “I’ll ask her, of course, if that’s your wish. I don’t know why she wouldn’t. It’s a great honor.”

  “I wouldn’t do it to honor her, though it’s alright with me if that’s what she assumes. I’d do it so she couldn’t ever betray me.”

  “I’ll ask her.” Gina pulled away from me and smiled, but I was sure a hint of pink darkened her cheeks and she couldn’t quite meet my gaze. “I also prepared briefs on each of the three queens Llewellyn mentioned. They’re in the folder.” She nodded her head at the desk near the window. “I wasn’t able to find out much on such short notice, but at least you’ll have access to their lineage. I agree with him that they’re your best options from the queens I interviewed.”

  “Thank you, Gina. Seriously, I don’t know what I would do without you.”

  She laughed, more like herself, and breezed to the door. “You’d manage. You’d have a thousand candidates waiting outside your door, begging for the chance to serve Isador.”

  “No one will ever replace you.” I kept my voice light and teasing, though each word echoed with certainty.

  Turning at the door, she gave me a beautiful smile that lit up her entire face. “It’s been my greatest honor to serve you, Your Majesty, and with the Great One’s blessing, I hope to serve a very long time.”

  4

  Shara

  I sat in my favorite place—between Rik’s thighs with his arms around me—waiting to meet this new queen. The room I’d changed in was quiet and large enough for all my Blood, so I decided to meet her here. Nevarre had fetched the large chair I’d used earlier, and its mate sat across from me, a safe distance away, but close enough for easy conversation. Once I met Carys, I could hopefully make a quick presentation to formalize our agreement and go home.

  I wasn’t scared or nervous, not like when I had to meet Mayte for the first time. I’d faced Marne Ceresa, one of the most powerful Triune queens, in the mirror. I’d survived Keisha’s attack when we’d first arrived. I’d met powerful, ancient goddesses face to face. I didn’t think I’d ever be nervous meeting an Aima queen again.

  Gina’s file on each of the three queen candidates was sparse, but combined with Llewellyn’s assessment, I only cared to meet Carys Tylluan. She was descended from Blodeuwedd, the Welsh goddess of spring. House Tylluan’s claim to fame was a legendary sunken kingdom where their nest had once been. It had disappeared several hundred years ago, and they’d joined House Llys for another couple of hundred years, only to eventually be absorbed by House Skye.

  At some point, Keisha Skye visited their nest and had chosen Carys to come live permanently in New York City. Gina didn’t note a reason, but I guessed it was because of Carys’s strength. Keisha had been concentrating her power base as much as possible.

  :She’s here with Llewellyn,: Guillaume said in our bond. He stood guard at the door with Itztli, Tlacel, and Nevarre. Rik had asked Xin to remain invisible and close to me, just in case we had any issues with this unknown queen. Mehen stood on my other side with his fierce glare ready. :Daire and Ezra have joined them. She has no Blood of her own present.:

  :Thank you, G. Send them in.:

  The door opened. Daire and Ezra came in first, followe
d by Carys and Llewellyn. Guillaume and Nevarre followed them, while the twins held the door. My warcat immediately came in close for a kiss and he didn’t hesitate to drop down on the floor beside me. I combed my fingers through his hair. My eyelashes fluttered a moment, soaking in the deep rumble of his purr.

  “Humph.” Ezra stomped closer and glared at Daire. “I suck it up and play bullshit politics all day, but he gets the cuddles and kisses.”

  Daire snorted. “If you went down on your knees and asked for a kiss, I’m sure you’d receive one too.”

  Grumbling beneath his breath, Ezra dropped down on my other side and shoved his face close to mine. It made me laugh, because for all his complaining and growling, he didn’t even touch me without permission. I reached out and grabbed a handful of his beard in one hand and his shaggy hair in the other and pulled him in for a kiss.

  He thrust his tongue into my mouth and slanted his head so he could stroke his tongue over the roof of my mouth. For all his gruffness, he was a consummate kisser. His tongue found the small holes where my fangs hid. Shivering, I started to pull back, afraid I’d puncture his tongue accidentally, but he moved closer, keeping his tongue pressed to that sensitive hole.

  :Your fangs won’t come down as long as I’m pressing on them,: he said in my mind. :I’m surprised Rik hasn’t done this for you yet.:

  His tongue worked the roof of my mouth as thoroughly as he would lick my pussy. Surely those little holes, just big enough for my fangs, couldn’t be as sensitive as my clit, but with his tongue gliding and probing firmly, I was about to come.

  Panting, I jerked my head back. My fangs shot down so hard and fast that I groaned. They ached, longer and more sensitive than ever. I pulled his head to the side and buried them in his throat.

  He bellowed with release and leaned harder into me, his rough hands cradling my head like I’d break into a thousand pieces. His scent stirred my hunger even more. Not just for his blood, but for his big burly body. He was such a grizzly bear on the outside, and the sweetest, gooey marshmallow on the inside. And that fucking hook…