Long Live the Queen (The Immortal Empire) (5 page)

Goblins had the ability to shape-shift like weres, but not to the same extent. William could have hands or paws, or something in between if he wanted, but it would be next to impossible for him to look human. I could look partially goblin but not change completely. It was a little brilliant, to be honest. And more than a little terrifying. I literally looked like a monster, with my huge eyes and elongated fangs. I even had something of a muzzle.

I launched myself over a stone wall and twisted in mid-air to land on my feet still running. When the weres guarding the door to Vex’s house – a sure sign something was wrong – saw me coming, their eyes widened. They threw the door open and got the hell out of my way. It wasn’t until I slipped in my own blood on the foyer floor that I realised I hadn’t even stopped to put my boots on. The soles of my feet were gouged and dirty. Shredded.

It didn’t matter. My feet would heal. The floor could be cleaned.

Ophelia met me at the top of the stairs, looking like a wild, feral thing. Her hair was a mess, and she had blood on her face. Her nose looked broken, and she was missing a tooth. She would be good as new in a couple of days, but for now she had to be hurting.

“Where is he?” I demanded.

She jerked her head towards Vex’s bedroom. “Xandra, there’s something you need—”

I ran before she could finish. Whatever she had to say could wait until after I’d seen Vex. I raced down the dimly lit corridor to his room and shoved open the door.

At least a dozen weres and halfies stood gathered round his bed. Two of them snarled when I barged in, ready to attack. I stopped in my tracks, forcing my face back to its normal state. I didn’t even wince at the discomfort any more.

The wolves watched me warily. I knew some of them continued to be displeased with the fact that Vex and I were together, but most were pretty relaxed about it. This was not relaxed.

Ethan MacGreggor, Viscount Sinclair and second to the alpha, stepped forward. “Lady Xandra.” I’d finally got him to
stop calling me “Majesty”, but he was a peer, and all this lording and ladying was part of that society.

“What happened, Ethan?” I tried to peer through the weres at the bed, but they blocked my view. My lips pulled back from my teeth. I’d rip their throats out if they tried to keep me from Vex.

“The alpha accompanied a raiding party on an aristo experimental facility, similar to the one you discovered in the Tower.”

Discovered, my arse. I’d been imprisoned in it. I dragged my attention from the bed. “He was attacked?”

Ethan’s expression grew guarded. “He was, yes.”

“How bad is it?” I frowned when he just stared at me. “What?” Did he not realise how close I was to losing it?

Apparently he did, because he didn’t touch me, he simply gestured for me to go to Vex. “Let her pass.”

They did. Some of them continued to stare at me with open hostility until I reached the side of the bed.

I was not prepared for what I saw there.

Next to William, Vexation MacLaughlin was the strongest man I knew. The figure on this bed looked as though he’d been used as a chew toy. Only when his eye – the one that wasn’t swollen shut – opened and looked directly at me did I know that it was Vex.

“Xandra.” His voice was a hoarse rasp. “You’re okay.”

The hand that reached for me was smeared with dried blood and bandaged all the way to the elbow. Tears scalded my cheeks as I wrapped my own fingers around his. I didn’t care if his wolves saw me bawl and snot like a child.

I raised his hand to my lips and kissed his battered knuckles. I smelled something strange on his skin – a scent that was both foreign and familiar. I couldn’t place it.

“Don’t cry, love. I’ll be fine in a few hours. It’s not as bad as it looks.”

I choked a little then, as a sob caught in my throat. “What happened? Who did this to you?”

Vex’s gaze went to Ethan, so I turned my head and caught the gathered weres watching me warily. There were more at the door, staring as though as I was on trial and they were the jury.

“For fuck’s sake,” I snarled. “Tell me!”

“It was you!” Ethan snapped, voice turning into a growl. He shook his head, pulling himself together. “Whoever – whatever – it was, it looked just like you.”

Obviously such a dramatic statement required a rational follow-up. “Are you fucking wasted?” I demanded.

On the bed, my injured wolf protested. I turned my attention to him, shutting out the others. I stroked the blood-crusted waves of his hair, and watched as one of the more shallow wounds on his forehead slowly began to close. He wasn’t healing as quickly as he ought. I gave him what I hoped was a reassuring smile.

A nearby halfie growled at me. Without thinking, I reached out – without taking my gaze off Vex – and backhanded him hard enough to knock him on his arse. Vex had declared me his mate, and I’d shown my devotion to him in front of many of these people. No little runt was going to bare his teeth and snarl at me like I was beneath him. Like I was a threat.

I bent down and kissed Vex on the forehead – where the wound was healing. If I could, I’d give him my blood to speed
the process along, but my blood was toxic to anything but another goblin. I could very well kill him.

“Who hasn’t given blood yet?” I demanded to know, my gaze searching the room. A few raised their hands – both were and halfie. “Do it. Now. Your alpha requires it. He needs meat as well.”

One of the weres looked to Ethan, who nodded. I bristled, but held back. I was still new to some of the pack, and they held Vex’s second in a higher regard than his girlfriend. If we were married, there’d be no question of hierarchy, but as it was, I had little or no authority.

I turned to Ethan. “Let’s go and talk.” I told Vex I’d be back soon, and left him to be cared for by his pack.

“You know it wasn’t me, right?” I asked, once we were out in the corridor. I wasn’t about to put any more distance between me and the man I loved.

Ethan nodded. I hadn’t noticed before, but his hands and arms were bandaged, and he walked with a limp. Something had seriously kicked his arse, and Ophelia’s – and almost killed Vex. “The scent wasn’t yours, though it was similar. But, my lady, it wore your face. Even your hair.”

“That’s not possible.” Of course, six months ago I would have said a furless goblin wasn’t possible either. You’d think I’d learn.

He ran a rust-stained hand through his thick dark hair. “Yeah, right, I know. That’s why everyone’s in such a knot. It looked like you, smelled something like you, but it had claws like railroad spikes and fangs like something prehistoric.
It
did that to Vex. One creature, the size of you, almost killed our alpha.”

A new sensation twisted my insides at that moment – a
feeling of nauseous rage. I’ve never had the urge to kill and puke at the same time – shortly after one another, yes, but not all at once. “Tell me you killed it.”

His expression added to the sick feeling. “All we were left with was a human corpse. The creature got away.”

“What?” Oh, fang me. This wasn’t good. Something that dangerous running loose in London. Bloody hell. “But you destroyed the lab?”

He nodded. “Bastards did it for us – had a self-destruct installed.”

Just like the Tower had. That was all the thought I gave to the prison where I’d been kept and made a victim of.

“One of the guards hit the release switch on the cage the thing was in just before pulling the alarm. We thought it was you – that someone had grabbed you again. Vex and Ophelia were the only ones who could tell it wasn’t, and by the time they realised what had happened it was too late. She was on us and the place was about to burn.”

I swallowed. That was an awful lot of killing and maiming for one creature. Maybe it was shock that made me numb, but I wasn’t as shocked as I should have been. We’d known there was a covert group of halfies and aristos – mostly aristos – doing experiments on halfies and plague-carrying humans. It had started as a bid to improve aristo live-birth rates, and quickly turned into something more nefarious.

When I was put into one of the labs, I was only there for maybe two or three hours, but in that time they took eggs from my ovaries. They could have taken other stuff too, for all I knew. If this creature looked enough like me to fool Vex’s people, then it had to have been some sort of clone. Right?

Albert’s fangs.

What else could it be? A baby killing-machine with enough strength to take down several wolves and halfies, and their alpha. Vex was the best fighter I knew – better even than Church. I doubted I could best him. William probably could, but that was it.

And the creature that had almost killed him was loose. In London. With my face, huge fangs and more strength than anything I’d ever seen. And a taste for blood.

Fucktabulous.

“We need to have a meeting,” I told Ethan. “Now. Send word to the palace that you and I and the prince are on our way.” I’d no sooner finished saying the words than my rotary rang. It was William.

“I’m at Vex’s,” I said by way of greeting. “Gather everything you’ve got and meet me at Buck House.”

“Aye, lady.” A slight pause. “The wolf lord?”

“He’s healing, but he won’t be joining us.” I would not think about what might have happened. I could not.

“Your people are here for our lady and her wolf.”

My eyes prickled. Crying was so not helpful at the moment. “Thank you, William. I’ll see you at the palace.”

As I disconnected, a servant passed us carrying a large covered tray. I could smell the blood and flesh from where I stood. It was cow, but it was fresh and dripping with iron-rich blood. It would help speed Vex’s recovery.

“I want a moment with him before we go,” I told Ethan. “Alone.”

He looked apologetic. “My lady, the pack…”

I took a step towards him. He was bigger than me, but that had never stopped me before. “It wasn’t a request. I understand your position, but I don’t care if this thing freaked you
and the pack out. All I care about is Vex, so clear that room or I will.”

And my way would not be polite or neat. My way would only complicate things even further, and while I didn’t care, Ethan did. And Vex would as well. Ethan nodded. “You are one bossy woman. No wonder he likes you.”

I managed a small smile. “Flatterer.”

Ethan smiled back. “Give me a moment.” He went into Vex’s room. I wasn’t alone for long, though, as Ophelia walked along the corridor towards me.

“You all right?” I asked. She looked better than she had when I first arrived – she’d washed the blood off.

She nodded. “Few bites and cuts. Vex wouldn’t let most of us at her.” At my glance she added, “He knew it wasn’t you immediately. As soon as I caught her scent I knew too.”

“You’ve been in these labs before. Have you ever seen anything like this?”

Her face paled. “Once. There was a halfie who they repeatedly allowed to be raped by a goblin. There’s no other word for it. It resulted in a birth, but it didn’t survive long, blood-thirsty little monster that it was. It was a quick pregnancy, though,” she added, as though that somehow made it all better. Most likely it only meant that the poor girl was raped again all that much sooner.

I thought of the girl Dede had shown me in the lower levels of Bedlam – where there lived halfies who had been badly damaged by these experiments. She said that the girl had been impregnated by goblins. Was this the same halfie Ophelia was talking about?

“He’s going to be all right, you know.”

I looked up.

“Vex. He’s going to be okay.” She said this so earnestly I had to smile. I didn’t tell her where my thoughts had gone. She’d lived at Bedlam, and if she hadn’t thought of that girl, she would soon enough. And Vex… well, I knew he was going to recover simply because he was still alive. He wasn’t the sort to give up.

“Thanks. It’s very… scary to see him like that.”

“It was horrifying to see it happen.”

I didn’t even want to imagine it. “Did he tell you not to call me?”

She nodded. “I figured after what happened in the den earlier you wouldn’t appreciate being kept out of the loop again.”

“Indeed.” I wouldn’t have either, and I would have made that clear in a spectacular display, no doubt. “Well, thanks for the consideration.”

Fee looked at me – really looked at me. “Xandra, you’re my sister. You’re also his mate, and friend to this pack. You’ve saved my life; of course I’d tell you.”

I arched a brow in the hope she wouldn’t notice my eyes were a little wet. “I also tried to rip your throat out.”

She shrugged. “No one’s perfect.”

It was such an absurd remark that both of us chuckled. I was still smiling when Ethan came out of Vex’s room, followed by every pack member. My mirth soon faded.

Some of them showed deference towards me, but others retained an air of defiance. Were they daft? By now, all of them knew it wasn’t me at that lab, so what the bloody hell were they snarling at? How was I the least bit responsible?

“They’ll come round,” Ophelia whispered as they paraded by. “It’s easier to blame you than them. Have to blame someone, right? Otherwise they’re powerless.”