Chapter 79 My Queen
❦ Nikolai ❦
The dagger hit my palm with a soft tap. I threw it up again, catching it deftly each time.
Watching the dark glint of the blade as it spun in the dim light lulled me.
Veilmoor was quiet, almost too quiet. I hadn’t noticed it before. Before my bride and her delightful company.
Even now, I wished she were with me on this rooftop, watching the moon fight to shine beyond thick, ominous clouds.
Fitting.
It seemed the world didn’t know what to think, how to react.
After twenty years, Veilmoor finally had a Queen.
I’d suspected one thing and found something even more shocking.
My bride was a direct descendant of queens, one herself, irrefutably chosen by the Crimson Stone.
Recognized by the regent. Uncrowned, unsure, but queen nonetheless.
Something stirred within me. Pride. Desire.
I’d gone from begging for scraps, to being a bloodbag, to an accidental Crimson, and now, the mate to a queen.
Only one thing marred my perfect trajectory. The wolf. Bastian.
But what had she said about the wolf? Her genuine worry about losing his favor on account of her very being?
My lips curved.
Her desire for him would wane before I took his head—
The air warped in front of me. Lilith appeared, expertly balanced on the edge of the outermost roof tile.
I scowled. She was blocking my view, my thoughts, my moment.
“You look awfully lonely for one with a… bride,” she said, her voice deceptively soft.
She’d chosen her sheerest dress. Skin pale beneath thin gossamer fabric, hip popped to enhance her figure.
My irritation spiked.
“Why are you here?”
Her shoulders dropped a touch, but that mischievous fire in her gaze never waned.
“Well, it’s nice of you to ask. I wondered if you would never uphold your end of the bargain.” She took a step forward, feet bare.
I knew exactly what she spoke of. A kiss. And I did not regret my next words one bit.
“No.”
Her eyes flashed as she said, aghast, “No?”
“Anything else? Your presence is unwelcome.”
“I saved your life! We made a deal. I’d be damned if I let you get away with that. And the disrespect… gods, the disrespect.” She spat, face red.
I’d seen Lilith impersonate a statue with her frozen, expressionless features. But when it came to me, she was always expressive, an open book.
I’d tired of informing her it was wasted on me. I hadn’t wanted her before I found my bride, much less after.
My empress. My queen.
“You lied to me,” she seethed.
“So have you, more times than vampirically possible,” I retorted, immensely satisfied. “You starved my bride. Isn’t that enough reason to nullify a deal that had no chance in the first place?”
“Oh, you sly fox.” She’d moved even closer, inching slowly like blood down skin. “We both know deep down, you loathe the mutt. She’s nothing. But I… I can give you pleasure and power like you’ve never known.” She ended in a breathy whisper.
I almost laughed.
Crimson blood held untold power. Faster healing. Sharper tracing. Control and lethal instincts.
No wonder my bride’s blood had floored me the first day I’d met her, fed from her.
My fangs ached at the thought. Obsession.
How had I managed to tear myself off her just earlier?
Because I loved her more than the idea of the power I’d gain from feeding off her exquisite blood.
“Hello?” Lilith rudely snapped her fingers in my face.
I hissed, getting to my feet. The fiend had almost crawled completely over me as I’d grown distracted thinking about my bride.
Looking down at Lilith, I grated, “I defied the regent for her. Sent you against the face of jagged rocks for her. Killed, and will continue to kill for her. And you dare think you hold a candle to a strand of her hair?”
Her eyes dimmed and, to my utter delight, watered.
“All this time. Everything I did for you. You would forsake me like this?”
Injecting every bit of venom into my tone, I sneered, “You mean following me around like a parasite, attempting to murder my bride, and refusing to take a no? Have some self-respect.”
Lilith rose to her feet as well. We stood toe to toe, her face set in a bitter, cold expression.
Then it softened, and she smiled.
Her head tilted curiously. “I see it now. You would kill me, if not for your deference to Drusilla.”
She smiled, fangs glinting. “I’ll use that to my advantage. I hope for your sake you hide the wolf in your pockets,” she continued, raising her gaze to meet mine, her voice dropping low. “Because I won’t stop until I rid you of the real parasite you can’t recognize. Until I curse you with the pain you’ve caused me.”
“You forget,” I said, gracing her with a lethal sneer of my own, “you have even less protection than you think. I will ruthlessly end you if you make any mistake. The regent be damned.”
She paled, even for a vampire, then flushed with rage.
“I wish you the sun,” she hissed, right before tracing out of sight.
I twirled the dagger once more, weighing the cons of actually killing Lilith.
With a resigned sigh, I decided to put it off for now. Drusilla was currently volatile, one spark away from combusting.
For twenty years she’d fought to win the Crimson Stone’s favor. To rule as queen, in the absence of her sister, the last true-born Crimson female.
To have that goal ripped from her like a barely touched dream would not make her forgiving.
She is deeply possessive of her progeny. Lilith and I.
My bride, on the other hand, wasn’t weak, but she wasn’t as strong as she could be.
I dragged in a shuddering inhale.
A true born mix of wolf and Crimson blood. She would be insanely powerful, unstoppable, if only she could harness it.
But for now, she couldn’t shift into a wolf, and she couldn’t tap into her vampire side.
Worse, she stubbornly leaned into the desire to have two males to soothe both her immortal halves.
I froze.
Could it be?
What if she really was meant to have two mates, one for each half of her soul?
A growl rumbled in my chest. No.
I could be anything and everything she needed. No Lycan prince required.
I would start by helping her recognize and seize her power.
Then I would eliminate the wolf, enabling her to concentrate on the bigger picture. Her kingdom. And me.
The dagger completed another rotation, my gaze sharp on the poisonous hilt.
It would be wise to check in on the regent.
I traced.
I landed behind her in her viewing room.
For a vampire, Drusilla enjoyed the moon. She was here now, an ever-present glass of blood balanced between her fingers.
“How is your hand?” she asked without turning, her voice steady, flat.
I wriggled my left wrist instinctively.
“I’m all but healed. I’ll have my fingers by tomorrow.”
Limb regeneration was markedly slow.
“Good. You will continue where you left off. Every second that mortal breathes irks me. I need him gone. Destroy the blood. Destroy everything.”
By everything, she meant the caves themselves.
“Noted,” I assured her.
A chill wind rolled across the balcony, making the lamps dance.
The silence stretched.
Then finally, “How’s your bride?”
How was she? I’d left her after a heightened moment, believing I was giving her space.
Now, all I wanted was to trace to her and never leave her side.
I just had to read Drusilla first.
“She’s not taking it well. But I’ll help her every way I can.”
Her voice was strained when she said, “Be sure that you do.”
With a nod she couldn’t see, I traced back to my bride, armed with everything I needed to know.
Drusilla wouldn’t harm my bride.
Guilt over how she'd contributed to her sister’s death, Queen Lyssa, wouldn’t let her.
The regent of Veilmoor had a soft spot for a niece she’d just met.
And the new queen had a great deal to learn, to acclimate to.
But first… to taste her lips again.