Long Live the Queen (The Immortal Empire) by Kate Locke Read Free Book Online Page B

screen.
    She didn’t look anything like me at all! Her hair was a fright and her clothing abysmal. And when she turned her head, the light lit up her eyes like a cat’s. But her face…
    Albert’s fangs – she
did
look like me. Eerily so. I had to sit down on the arm of the sofa. If I didn’t know better, I’d wonder if maybe it was me too. Granted, she was dirty and wild-looking, but there was no denying her features.
    Was she my twin, or a coincidence? My mother would surely remember giving birth to another child, but whether or not she’d tell me the truth was the question. After all, I’d thought she was insane, or dead, for years before I found out the truth about what had happened to her.
    As far as parents went, mine sucked – literally and figuratively.
    Instinct told me this creature was too new to be my twin. Too young. She had been created, I was certain of it. Animal cloning had been going on for decades, and scientists already knew how to fabricate new organs. Hell, they’d cloned a human in the US six years ago. The whole thing was still tied up in a legal battle, and was illegal in Britain, but neither of those things would stop someone who truly wanted to give it a go. Parts of Europe had such facilities set up. Just last month doctors in Germany had announced that they had successfully grown new organs for a woman who’d had a complete hysterectomy due to cancer. She was pregnant now, I believed.
    It made sense that this would be the point of the labs – to genetically engineer future generations.
    Victoria stepped forward. “The resemblance is uncanny, but this footage is time-stamped during our earlier meeting, which proves that it is indeed someone else.”
    The scene on the box switched to another camera. I watchedmy blood-soaked doppelgänger as she moved southwards, pausing occasionally to sniff the air. What was she looking for?
    Thankfully, there was very little pedestrian traffic, and most of what there was was on the opposite side of the street. To be honest, I was surprised she didn’t attack. And then, I saw her head turn. She stared as a motor carriage stopped at a traffic beacon.
    This was not going to be good.
    I think we all jumped when she leaped through the air on to the bonnet of the vehicle, crushing it like foil wrap. She tore through the windscreen and roof like a child ripping open a bar of chocolate.
    She ate the driver in much the same manner.
    “Dear God,” Victoria whispered, pressing a hand to her mouth.
    I stared at her, frankly astonished. I knew she couldn’t feel sorry for the human. Could she? After all they’d done to us. To her. Had she never seen such violence before? Surely she had. After all, she’d been alive for almost two centuries. She’d survived the Great Insurrection. Had fought in it.
    “She just ate that man’s liver.” Victoria’s eyes widened as she stared at the gory scene. “While he was still alive.”
    I exchanged a glance with Ethan, who had accompanied me in Vex’s stead. The Scot looked as alarmed as I felt. This side of Victoria went against everything I’d ever heard or thought about her.
    “Yeah,” I said, rather lamely. “She did. He’s dead now, though.” The tearing-off of his head made sure of that.
    I watched as her face settled once more into the resolute countenance to which I was accustomed. Not one trace ofemotion remained. What did it say about me that I was more comfortable with this side of her than one capable of feeling?
    “Word of this is going to spread. Human deaths at the hands of an aristocratic abomination is just what the Human League requires to start a full-fledged uprising.” She looked at me. “Something has to be done about it.”
    “That’s why we’re here.” If I’d added “eejit” to the end of that, I couldn’t have sounded any more condescending.
    Victoria’s blue eyes narrowed. “I mean that someone has to get to the scene of that accident and clean it up before humans find