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Blue flashed on the screen. People screamed, ducking from the violent strike. Giving a clear view of me holding the heavy Templar sword over my head.
“Wow, that’s pretty incredible,” a male anchor said. “Any chance this was all some kind of deep fake? Maybe generated by AI?”
The newswoman beside him shook her head. “Our analysts say it’s real. There’re too many witnesses for it to be fake. Police have cordoned off that section of the beach to collect evidence. Evidently there were some blackened hoofprints left on the beach.”
Guillaume snorted. “I bet they’ll try to get a list of every black horse in a fifty-mile radius and start measuring hooves. Not that they’ll find any as big as mine. They don’t make warhorses in my size any longer.”
“Let alone ones who can burn the sand with hellish hoofprints,” Daire added.
“Well, it’s an incredible night for news, folks, because we’ve got another strange event to report,” the male anchor said. “After nightfall, there were reports of a comet or UFO in the sky over Galveston beach as well. Michael, over to you.”
Vivian rolled her eyes. “Smoak is most offended. We came from a supermassive black hole, not a fucking alien planet.”
A man stood on another section of the beach with a similar group of humans milling around with excitement. “Thanks, Tom. I’m here with college students from University of Nebraska visiting on spring break. Gabriella, describe for our viewers what you saw tonight.”
“A fireball came flying toward us.”
“Yeah,” her friend broke in, obviously drunk and giggling. “It was huge, like a meteor. But it didn’t crash into the water.”
“Where’d it go?” the newsman asked.
The girls looked up at the sky, the drunk one wobbling and almost falling. “Straight up in a blast of red, gold, and blue light. It was incredible. Then it blinked out.”
“Now what’s interesting is we checked with astrophysicists at Rice University and there’s no record of any known comet or asteroid in the area.”
The newswoman back in the station smiled stiffly at the camera and shuffled some papers around in front of her. “What do they think it was, Michael?”
The man on the beach shrugged. “Their best guess is a satellite fell out of orbit, though no one can explain how it went up into the air rather than crashing.”
“That’s very interesting,” the woman continued. “In other news, scientists recorded a massive submarine earthquake in the Gulf of Mexico today. Initial reports indicated a magnitude so high it couldn’t be recorded. They’re running more tests on the instruments but have concluded there must have been some kind of miscalculation. The tsunami from such a massive earthquake would have been astronomical.”
The other newsman chuckled uneasily and tugged at his collar. “Is there a solar eclipse or something? Maybe Mercury’s in retrograde.”
“Or maybe Shara fucking Isador kicked some fucking ass today,” Mehen retorted.
“Long live the fucking queen.” Rik threaded his fingers through mine and lifted our hands so he could kiss my knuckles. “Though I have to ask, are your Blood big enough now, my queen?”
I held my other hand out to my newest Blood. Vore stared at it for a moment, like he didn’t know what to fucking do. But then he leaned forward and rubbed his face on my palm. His mouth. Lightly pressing his razor-sharp teeth into the meat of my palm.
Though he didn’t draw blood. He didn’t take a single bite.
I smiled and snuggled into Rik’s arms. “I have the biggest, baddest Blood ever.”
Though when I closed my eyes, I felt a whisper. A tug somewhere in the night. Too far away for me to tell a direction.
At least one more Blood was still out there somewhere. Waiting for me.
I’m coming, my Blood. I’ll find you as soon as I can.
* * *
SHARA
In Rik’s arms, I dosed lightly as he strode into the red and blue Galveston pool—and up through my grotto.
My strength wasn’t taxed. My reserves weren’t strained and thin.
Though I was as grumpy as my dragon. I fucking hated early mornings. But I wanted to get home before nosy humans might see something. I didn’t want to make the news again.
