The Blood Queen by Nicholas W King

Author:Nicholas W King
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Urban Fantasy, LGBTQIA Fiction, Wizards, Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Vampires
Publisher: Nicholas W King
Published: 2023-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

I drove us around Tampa for the better part of half an hour before we got the phone call.

Angela answered the phone and said very little, mostly quick one-word answers. Once the call ended, she tapped out a few things on her phone and started giving me directions to the new safe house.

The route took us to New Tampa, one of the neighborhoods that had undergone a period of expansion and growth since the early 2000s. Deed-restricted subdivisions were everywhere, along with a few big-box stores that always follow the migration of people as cities expand outward.

I barely focused on the surroundings, largely driving by auto-pilot as Angela gave me directions from the GPS on her phone. Even with the road in front of me and the streetlights shining down to dispel the growing darkness of the night, all I could see was Manny’s face as he ducked out of the Sparkman Wharf. I kept replaying the image over and over again, hoping that my mind had played a trick on me, that I had seen some hesitation in his expression before he dashed away from the fight to save his own ass... But, the image stayed the same every time. Manny had chosen to abandon me instead of risking his neck to save my life... After all those nights I’d spent in his bed...

On some level, I figured this was inevitable. Manny’s a vampire, after all—one who has survived for nearly four centuries. You don’t survive for that long and become the clandestine ruler of a city without measuring your own life in higher regard than the lives of those around you. I’d seen Manny kill with little thought and no hesitation, before—mostly subordinates who thought they could take a shot at the king but failed ubiquitously. Ruthless pragmatism is the rule of the day among vampires.

But, some part of me had hoped our time spent together had—I don’t know—actually meant something more than just sex. It was a foolish idea, one I could only ascribe to wishful thinking on my part. To be thrown away like that, discarded because the cost of keeping me around was too great for one’s own safety...

The heat in my chest as I drove thinking had nothing to do with the cursed coins hanging around my neck.

I glanced over at Angela, who was switching between scanning her phone for the directions and tracking the rearview mirror to see if we were being followed. Six months ago, I’d flown Baba Yaga’s mortar and pestle into the den of a pissed-off dragon to save her. I knew going in that room was almost certainly a death sentence, but it didn’t matter. Angela’s my friend, my comrade-in-arms, the closest thing I’ve ever had to a sister. Abandoning her in that moment wasn’t even an option.

Comparably, what did that say about how Manny viewed me?

We drove past the Hunter’s Green Country Club to the end of a cul-de-sac. A two-story manor house—one of the new million-dollar homes that had been constructed in the last few years—sat at the end.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.