The Vampire Queen's Servant by Joey W. Hill Read Free Book Online Page A

last living descendant of the original royal clan of the Far
East. Her relationship to the ruling Vampire Council was similar to the British
royal family to Parliament, for the vampire monarchies had died out several
centuries ago, but she had significant clout due to her physical prowess,
extensive Region and wide variety of powers. She had helped create the Council
and the delicate network of laws that kept the predatory nature of vampires
from ensuring their own extinction.
    In the vampire world, brutality
and civility constantly played a chess game for influence. Low-level war games
were common and acceptable ways to prove oneself and acquire more territory.
Without the influence of vampires like her, there would be no balance. Even
now, a new threat was rising. There was increasing dissatisfaction among the
ranks of "made" vampires with the established order set by the
"born" vampires who ran the Vampire Council and most of the Regions.
    However, despite her great value
to the vampire world and the enemies she'd accumulated, the stubborn woman kept
no entourage, living a life of relative solitude, particularly since the
shocking death of her husband, about which only she and Thomas had known the
truth. And now Jacob, entrusted with the information before Thomas's death.
    "Ma'am? Do you wish to go
home now?" Jacob looked up at the driver, whose gaze encompassed both of
them. "Ma'am?" he repeated.
    "She's sleeping,"
Jacob responded. "Yes, she wants to go home."
    "All due respect, sir,
you're not my client. She doesn't look asleep. She looks like she passed out. A
lady like that has a lot of secrets. I don't want to know any of them, but I
aim to see her home safely."
    When Jacob shifted, the driver's
eyes sharpened, warning him.
    "Son, I've got a Beretta up
here, pressed against the seat cushion. You can get out of the car without her,
or you can tell me something that will convince me you should stay. You and
that semiautomatic you have under your shirt."
    "Good… driver."
    Jacob glanced down and saw
Lyssa's catlike eyes were open, fixed on the man. When she lolled her head
around to look at Jacob, her features were so perfect and delicate she could be
set on a shelf with a trio of china dolls. He would have to look twice to make
sure she was real. But when a man felt the energy around her, it was forcibly
clear how alive she was.
    "He's… mine. Okay. Take us
home. Keep me safe. Good driver. Must sleep now. Won't wake for a while."
    Her eyes drifted closed, her
head falling back on Jacob's shoulder. In the same movement she nestled in
under his chin, letting him tighten his hold over her shoulders. One hand
latched loosely inside his shirt front, her fingers brushing his bare skin. The
other hand drifted into his lap across his thigh, her touch an inch or two from
his groin.
    Whether her affectionate body
language was done strategically to reassure the driver or from her own desire,
Jacob didn't know, but it did the trick.
    As the driver raised a brow,
Jacob heard the Beretta uncock. Mr. Ingram shook his head. "If you ain't
hers, son, you're soon going to be. Hope you know what the hell you're
doing."
    Jacob wondered the same thing
himself. As they pulled out of the parking lot, he felt burned to ash by her
touch and those two simple words.
    He's mine.
    ----
Chapter Six

     
    Lyssa's sleep was deep and long,
filled with interesting dreams. Of a knight with pale blue eyes who tucked her
in before he went off to battle. She dreamed long enough that her dream brought
him back to her. Wearing full-skirted chain mail with a tunic of the Crusades
over it, the field of white bearing a red cross as pure as blood. She helped
him out of it in the sanctity of their chamber, removing his gauntlets from his
large hands, massaging her fingers over the calluses he'd earned from wielding
sword and mace.
    When she unlaced the mail and he
lifted it off, she noted the dirt in the creases of his knuckles, the lines
that heat, wind and cold