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“Our queen is going to need some privacy,” Rik said, his words crashing inside me like an avalanche.
Gina stood immediately. “Of course, Your Majesty. Call me when you’d like to go through some Triune business.”
On my other side, Dr. Borcht stood, but she didn’t move away immediately. “I do have something else to discuss with you, Your Majesty. It’s not urgent, not yet at least, but…”
Blinking away the haze of bloodlust filling me, I looked up at her, searching her face. “Of course. What is it?”
She flicked a quick glance up at Rik, wary of delaying my Blood’s request. “We had an interesting blood sample come into the lab last week. I didn’t disturb you since I knew I’d see you this week, but it was another queen. The other doctors didn’t know what it was, but I recognized it immediately.”
“Who?” I asked softly. “Do we know?”
“It came from a hospital in Chicago. The sample had been taken a few weeks prior at Northwestern Memorial from a woman who’d been found naked and presumably dead in a back alley by police.”
Karmen. The wolf king had found her and sent human police to get her. When Soldiers of Light came for her, she fled the hospital, found Eivind, and he’d driven her to his sister’s nest in Minnesota. “I know who she is.”
Dr. Borcht nodded but her eyes tightened, her brow furrowed. “She’s not human, so laws of privacy don’t bind me in this case. Her blood sample was interesting in more ways than just yours, Your Majesty.” She hesitated, her lips a tight, slashing frown. “It might affect your decisions, especially about your own cycle.”
Vivian’s bond flared inside me, her sunfire’s agitation sending sparks through my body. At House Ironheart, she’d told me there was a secret that all sunfires knew about Karmen. Something she didn’t wish to tell me unless I ordered it.
I could guess then, and by the tight, alert concern bracketing Dr. Borcht’s mouth, I knew exactly what they feared.
They feared my reaction. My jealousy and rage. And yeah, I was furious enough to gouge my fingers deeper into Daire’s throat, not that he minded in the slightest. But I was furious with them—not because of Karmen. They doubted me. Me.
I’d escaped the golden hellscape of Heliopolis, where I’d been subjected to the barest glimmer of Ra’s lust before I killed him. I could all too easily imagine what Karmen must have endured in her centuries-long captivity as God’s Wife. The term alone made my stomach heave with revulsion.
Harming her in any way was the absolute last thing I would ever do. Especially if she carried an heir. Even the sun god’s.
By the dread paling Dr. Borcht’s cheeks, she thought I’d move to eliminate another queen, simply because she might carry an heir that might someday be in competition with mine.
Rage flared higher in me, fueled by my hunger. My desperation.
“I am not Keisha Skye.” My voice crackled with lightning. Ironic, since that was the former queen of Skye’s power. “As long as Karmen doesn’t fuck with my Blood or my human family, she’s safe from me. No matter what she decides to do with her secret.”
“Of course, Your Majesty.” Dr. Borcht dropped into a deep curtsey and held it, her head bowed. “Please forgive me for offending you.”
Rik reached down and pulled my arm away from Daire, lifting my fingers to his mouth so he could lick my nails clean. Slumped against my legs, Daire couldn’t even purr any longer. My rage shifted to guilt so quickly that my throat closed off and my eyes filled with tears.
Vivian streaked toward me, her shame and guilt thickening my own. :I’ll give you the secret, my queen. Everything I have is yours.:
I put up a mental hand, stalling her flight so hard that her phoenix jerked midair and started to tumble toward the ground. :As you said, the secret isn’t yours to give.:
That poor woman. Tormented and tortured and raped for literally centuries, finally freed after an eternity. Only to find her nightmare continued. Even though her captor was now dead, she was forced to carry his memory. I couldn’t imagine the horror and fear and dread she must be feeling. Not just fear at how other Aima queens might react, but the possibilities of what even a lingering drop of Ra’s essence might do to her from the inside out.
“Keep her blood and her secret as secure as you keep mine.”
Dr. Borcht straightened, pale and trembling, wringing her hands. “Of course, Your Majesty. Again, I’m so sorry. I don’t doubt your integrity in the slightest, and I’m ashamed I’ve given you a reason to doubt mine.”
Ezra came closer, brushing past the doctor to turn and face me. His plaid shirt clung to his flank, wet with blood. Dripping down his thigh. I pressed my tongue hard against one of the holes where my fangs throbbed, trying to keep them from dropping and terrifying the very human doctor even more. Which meant I couldn’t talk.
With my free hand, I shoved Ezra back against the table hard enough dishes rattled, my eyes locked to the blood. My fingers dug into his waist, hooked in a belt loop of his jeans. So I didn’t immediately jerk open his fly and take him on top of the fucking table while the humans watched in stunned horror like a gory car accident unfolded in slow motion before them.
“Her Majesty understands.” An earthquake rumbled in Rik’s voice. He pressed my other hand around his biceps, squeezing hard enough to drive my nails into the muscle. “She’ll contact you if she needs any further advice on the matter.”
Hot rock, smoking iron, the blood of my magnificent alpha, rolled through me. Though I still couldn’t prevent myself from leaning toward Ezra. He gripped the shirt and tore the flannel open effortlessly, baring his chest and stomach for me. The puncture was below his ribs, carefully placed to give me blood and lots of it. So much gushed I had to wonder if G had nicked the aorta.
:My queen hungers,: he said in the bond. :So the bear fountains for you.:
“The helicopter is ready to take you back to Kansas City, Mala,” Gina said loudly behind me.
