Shadow Queen (11 page)

              It seemed all was not as bad as he told it, just the answering to someone about it.  “Aren’t you the one being answered to,” I asked.

              “Normally.  But Szar chose chivalry with taking out Drac’s younger sired brother.  Now I have to make amends for it.”

              “Why you?”  It
had
to be Drac's brother.

              Cas looked at his feet. 

              “Tell me.”

              “He was Lord before my sired father.  I owe him my allegiance regardless of how I might feel.  I’ve already wronged him by not accepting his daughter, but,” he stopped my reddening face from saying something stupid with a finger on my mouth, “but owed me a favor and that is what I chose.  It is not our way to deny our prior lords.  If I shun him this time, he will bring wrath on me so severe, I will never see the moon or sun again.”

              This Drac sounded horrific.

              “My brother can be such a loser.”

              “He picked the wrong girl, but he meant no harm.  He’s served punishment enough for it.”

              “What?  A slap on the wrist.”

              His penetrating gaze watched me closely.  “The girl died.”

              Oh!  “I’m sorry.”

              “Do you see why I spare you?  I’m not hiding things.  Szar is part embarrassed for his actions, but remorse for what his actions led to is eating him up.  Let him be. Let me take care of this.”

              “Did he really learn his lesson?”

              “We will hope,” he looked back out the door.

              “Is he listening?”

              “Not this time.  If he knew you found out, he wouldn’t take it well.  Can you keep this to yourself?”  He shifted to the edge of the sofa checking weapons across his front.

              “Depends.  Is Nara going to be there when you see Drac?”

              Midstrap, Cas paused and then continued restrapping.  “I don’t know.”

              That was honesty instead of it being hidden, so I dealt with it.  “Okay.”

              He altered his working hand to my knee and made the other keep checking blindly for weapon’s check.  “Okay?”

              “Just okay.  Just hurry up and get back.  I hate admitting this, but I don’t like being left alone.  I don’t want to be away from you.  It makes me...”

              His lazy smile lifted as he said, “Cranky."

              “Stop listening to my mind,” I pushed on his chest playfully.  He captured it and held it there.

              “Just know that I am “cranky” because I miss you just as much.  I don’t like when I can’t see you, can't touch you.”

              I couldn’t keep my heart from pounding, “Then we agree on something.  Go already,” I pushed his chest again.

             
Not
before
I
kiss
you
.  He leaned in never once putting his hands above my knees. 

              “Oh good mother of the gods.  You two swap spit more than anyone I know.  Could you please do that elsewhere.”

              I reluctantly let his lips leave mine and listened to him mumble curses about my brother where he couldn’t hear.  I giggled. 

              “My home Szar.  You came to me, remember?”

              I peeked around Cas’ head to see my brother pale and visibly upset. 

              “Go.”               

              He pecked my lips, yelled for Hugo, and was out the door in twenty seconds flat. 

              Stupid brothers.

              I worried, but I knew he’d be back soon enough.  Hugo stood his post and Cord made another visit later in the day.  He said Cas was running later than expected and sent him to stick to me like blood on a tick.  I told him that was a gross analogy. He curled up his lip and pulled on his guard like game face.  Humor didn't live in the host of a Vampire.  Any Vampire.

              If that meant Nara was not near Cas, then I was happy.  I watched three movies and ate the rest of the chocolate cake Claire made.

              Something loud banged against the hallway outside the Sun room.  I didn’t bother looking since I knew Hugo was there.  It happened again.                “Hugo,” I called out.

              No answer.

              “Hugo,” I called but stood and made quick note I had one weapon on me.  I refused to go anywhere without a knife so I kept one in the drawer by the sofa like I did under the mattress of my bed.  Always had, always will.

              I slid the drawer open and managed to acquire the knife without sound giving me away.

              Hugo never answered which meant either he left his post to see what was awry or he was down for the count and someone unwanted was just outside that door.  I would venture for both. 

              In my black yoga pants and yellow tank, barefoot, and a bun held ponytail twisted in my hair, I looked nothing warriorlike. 

              Suddenly wishing for more than one knife, I felt a prickle of something in the air.  No, I smelled it.  Blood.

              I held the knife at the doorjamb and texted a bulk message to all four guys thankful I’d put them all in a group on my messaging. 

             
Hugo
down
. 
I’m
alone
. 
Someone
is
here
.

              Pocketing the phone, I switched to the other side of the door that faced the stairs sitting two feet in front of me.  Nothing in my sight, but the stairs were dark from the setting sun.  I hated Cas going out in the sun.  It made him weaker.  Whoever this was, they smelled like blood.

              Like the prowess of a cat, I knew my years of sneaking around the palace at home made me stealthy and not easy to track.  My fear was that the tracker was a Vampire.  In all my missions, I’d never once been stalked...that I know of.

              In the hall I was torn between running to my room and grabbing my other knives or going forward.  I knew the noise came from the stairs.

              Something made a scratching twang at the bottom of the stairs, maybe on the banister from the sound of it.  I tiptoed to the top step seeing nothing in the growing darkness, but could tell the scent was stronger.  My toe ran through something wet.  As I focused my far from Vampiric eyes on the obvious trail in front of me, I followed it to the bottom.  This put me on the top step looking down to where Cas always stood in wait when he dressed me up in finery, but no one was there to greet me.  Since there was a wall surrounding about half the stairs, I took the first four or five with a quick pace looking up to the ceiling first.  Vampires can fly, though I’ve rarely seen it. 

              Nothing above and still nothing below, I verified at least I no longer had any Vampire guards “watching” me.  It bothered me that Hugo wasn’t lying out cold on the floor outside the room.  If he was knocked unconscious, he should have at least been close.  Granted, anything could have happened if he followed the same noise I heard.  Unfortunately, I got my first answer two more stairs down.

              At the bottom of the stairs lay Hugo.  And blood was everywhere.  Not able to avoid stepping in the slippery pools, I edged against the wall to the bottom and followed it to the front doors.  I unlocked the door that was either already locked or locked for me.  The click made the first noise and was the last thing I heard. 

              I woke not knowing how long I’d been out.  I was stupid enough to not look up once I hit the bottom stairs.  No one was above me at the top, but I didn’t check at the bottom.  Some superhero chick I am.

              My hands and feet were tied behind my back.  I was covered in the scent that surrounded the stairs after being barbed on the head with something heavy and falling in the lake of Hugo’s blood.  I saw his face before I went down.  He was dead.

              My neck ached giving meaning to the worst thought.

              A cackling laugh resonated above where I lie.  “Wakey, wakey so I can end you sooner.”  She rared back and kicked me in the stomach.  I curled over waiting for another blow.  I’d never been in this position.  No one had ever bested me like this.

              What was worse, I knew Hugo wasn’t the only one guarding me.  We never talked about it, but I knew there were four or five around the rooms.  Where were they, dead?

              I opened my matted with blood eyes and looked up again to fangs and starkly golden evil eyes.  “Nara,” I choked out, “what you want is hidden away where even I don’t know where it’s at.”

              “Ahh, that’s where your mistaken lass.  I know this palace like a comb.  I know every inch of it.  Been there, done that,” she goaded me. 

              It wouldn’t work.  I knew nothing she could say could hurt me.

              “You know, he tastes good.”

              Except that.

              “Exquisite.  I fancy lords you see.  Been around for a few.”

              “Why don’t you just get this done and over with,” I begged holding the deadliest of tones.  Biting my neck was one thing, threatening me against losing Cas was a whole other fear.

              “Not on your life.  Oh, wait.  That’s what I am doing.  Taking it.  And taking lover boy.  Now I know what he has done.  You are pure, but he has tasted you.  That was your smell on him last night.”  Her face couldn’t possibly look uglier, but it did at that moment. 

              That brought me out of the slump of pity.  She couldn’t have him.  He was mine.  I needed to stall her.  I’d texted the guys.  They’d be here soon.

              “Why waste your time here then and not searching?” I asked feeling blood on my teeth.  Not my blood.

              “Oh, I am.  Or rather someone is.”

              Who?  I heard Cas say that others helped her escape.  “You just going to stab me through, tied up and obviously unarmed.  Lot of glory in that.”

              She glared even harder than she was, “Not the story I’ll tell, but that’s beside the point.  I just want you dead so that my master will let me have the court.”

              “The Vampire Court,” I laughed, “not hardly.”

              She kicked my shins with little to no effort.  “See whose laughing when Thorn bows down to me.”

              “Now I wouldn’t see that would I if I’m dead,” I kept her talking.  It’s not like I had anything better to try.  I did manage to get the tie lose around my hands, but not off.  At least I could feel circulation again.

              “Shut up already.”  Nara stepped out of the doorway from where she stood.  I was at the bottom of the stairs in the weapons room where she was at the top.  Fitting that she brought me to the one place I could end her if I could get loose enough to not hop over to the wall and grab a sword to run her through.

              Another voice was there, now talking to her.  My heart leapt at a possible rescue but quickly dampened when Nara was discussing, no screaming, at him to hurry up.  His footsteps moved away, but Nara didn’t return.  I laid there in wait.  Scrunched up on my side, I realized my phone was still in my front pocket.  At least I know she didn’t send a second text sending them away.

              The footsteps came back.  “I found it.  I found it.”

              “Finally,” she screeched out like a banshee. 

              Oh, goddess. I’m out of time.  My mind ran through a series of options.  There were none.

              Wait.

              I closed my eyes and called to my mother.  I begged, pleaded, screamed in my head for her to help me.  Nara faced me, holding the Godslayer in hand.  She swung it to get a feel for the grip and aimed it from the top stair down towards me.                Odd as it sounds, a phone started ringing with a song I didn’t recognize. Nara growled out a “Not now” but reached into her too tight ugly green pants and pulled out a phone.  She looked at the screen, screamed out an unladylike word, and closed it.

              “You’re about to meet up with those famous gods of yours, Anastacia Anat whether my father wants it or not.”

              “Not before you go first,” a man’s voice sliced the air just as his sword nailed the top of her head.  Nara screamed out a name.  I didn’t hear it the first time, but the second time I thought I heard, “Micah.  Help me.”

              Calum was four times this girl’s size, so from my view at the bottom looking up, it looked like a Jack and the Beanstalk kind of “fe fi fo fum” scenario.  The giant, Calum, swiped at her but she was quick.  Backing up out of my view, I heard her squeal like a normal girl might and then screaming curses like a normal girl wouldn’t.  At least not these words.  I could only listen, but I started scooting back across to the mats where I saw the knife block on the floor for sharpening them.  I prayed I or Cas was absentmindedly messy with the last clean up.  With Cas, I doubted it.

              No go.

              More screaming.  Some crunching noises and unidentifiable grinding sounds that had me severely worried.  I changed my course and started scooting backwards to the bathroom.  It was tiny, but it had a lock.  I’d just made it when I heard clamoring bumping down the stairs like a bowling ball.  Inside my head, I heard a voice.  A woman’s voice.

             
Be still.  All is well.

              At the same time, Calum’s face came into view.  I let go of the door I was trying to close on my feet and hit the floor with a thud.

              “Stace.  Stace.  Where are you hurt?  Cord, get in here.  She’s hurt,” he screamed. “She’s bit.  The witch bit her.” His hands were untying, taking turns tapping all over the dried blood on my face.

              “I’m not hurt, Calum.  I’m covered in blood is all.”

              “Cord.  Hurry the ‘eff up.  She is covered in 'effing blood.”

              Some time later, I emerged from my bedroom’s bathroom to find Calum, Cord, and Szar all sprawled across my bed.  The sight of six rather large boots sticking out like they were shelved and ready for a shine.  At my entrance, all three sat or stood. 

              “The palace is clean.  Hugo is being taken care of," Cord said and then asked if I needed anything.  Then they all took a turn asking as I did the same with inquiring about Cas.

              I checked the balcony to escape their neurotic dances around the room to avoid my question.  “Where is Cas?” This was the fifth time I’ve asked and they still didn’t have an answer for me.

              None of them moved this time telling me something was wrong.  “Where is he?”  I started across the room aimed for Calum thinking he'd be an easier target for information.  My towel fell to the floor swinging water off my long hair.  My t-shirt was drenched from it, but I didn’t care.

              Szar spoke first.  “He texted a little while ago.  He was held up.”

              “Held up,” I said in disbelief touching my neck.  “But you were with him.”

              “Not when your text came through.  He wasn’t able to respond.”

              “Not able,” I gripped the four poster bedpost at the end standing over Calum first.  He would tell me.

              “Where is he?”  I asked too sweetly.

              His face was ashen with fear.  “Stace, he can’t come back just yet.”

              Pain formed around my eyes and started moving down.  “Yet?” I swallowed and asked.

              “He has something he has to do?”

              “Do?”  I couldn’t form sentences.

              Cord stood, “Look.  While he’s gone, we’re staying here.  Claire has already been informed.  Liam is stationed at the door.  Everything will be okay.”

              “You neither sound convinced not honest in any of what you’ve said to me guys.” 

              We, all four of us, descended the very clean stairs, a rarely lighted foyer from the daylight, and went into the dining room.  I wasn’t hungry, but I wanted answers.

              “I’m not hungry.”

              “Yes, you are,” Szar argued.  Three guys sat on either side of me and across at the table with the intention to stare. 

              “I’m not eating,” I tried to force the issue.

              “Yes, you are,” Szar said through gritted teeth.

              I changed my mantra, “Okay.  I eat, you spill the beans.”

              “Deal,” Calum agreed.  The other two protested but Calum told them both, “She’ll know soon enough."

              I ate two bites at a time.  Done!

              “Spill,” I said with the last three bites shoved in.

              “Soon.”

              I threw my fork down.  “NOW!”
              Szar seethed, “He will text soon.  We wait.”

              The standoff was ridiculous.  Why wouldn’t they just tell me?

              A desperate five minutes or so passed when my phone chimed with a text.  I pulled it up to my face to hide it from them as one of them took my fork and knife, plate and glass away from my reach. 

             
I am not coming back. Plz listen to Szar 

              I didn’t react to it.  I just stared.  Another chime came in.

             
Go on wo me.  Not everything we say is within our own ability to make come to pass.

              I didn’t believe it.  Not one word.  It can’t be true.  Something was very wrong. Still staring, I came to a very quick conclusion. “Everyone of you knew.  That’s why your here.  You knew.” I bit my lip in a rising combination of fear and anger.  It had to be Nara.  She
did
something.

              “Things are not always what they seem.  We move on for now, Anastacia,” Szar said rather calmly.  And the bite.  Would it make me different?  Would she track me now like a dog?  How would she use it for her gain?

              He
never
said my name unless he was upset.  “Why would he just leave like that?  I just don’t believe it.”

              Raising my eyes I watched the three of them make eyes at each other.  “You can all drop off a cliff.  It’s a lie.”  I took off in a run to beat them to my room.  I made it, locked it, and then locked myself in the bathroom.   I wanted to text something back.  I wanted to beg, but that wasn’t me.  If it was true, and he never really loved me, I wouldn’t do that to myself.  But if it’s a lie to cover up something that went wrong, for which this sorely resembles, I’d hope the tears I’m about to spill will be all coursed out for what I had to do next. 

              Find his butt and murder him myself.