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

had etched on his handsome face. Reaching up, she
touched his lips, framed by the soft down of his beard and moustache. He kissed
her fingers, his tongue playfully teasing her skin.
    A bath steamed behind him. As he
stood before her gloriously nude, muscular, powerful, aroused, she tried to
tease, to slip away. But he was having none of that. He seized her waist in
hands as gentle with her as they were powerful in the service of his Lord.
Drawing her into his arms, he pulled her full against him, her breasts pressed
into his skin, rising above the velvet and ribbon edge of her scooped-neck
dress. His lips sought hers when he pushed her gown away and held her. Tighter.
Even tighter.
    Too tightly. He was hurting her,
and she couldn't get free. She threw her head back, crying out. It was Rex's
dark face, his lips pulled back in a snarl as he crushed her, her ribs breaking
beneath the iron band of his arms while her heart beat frantically like a bird
trapped in a cage getting smaller and smaller.
    It's astounding the pain a
vampire can endure, isn't it? Almost nothing can actually kill us.
    He would not take her in her
dreams. Not there, not in her life, not anywhere. Pulling her lips back in a
matching snarl, she met his gaze.
    As you found out. Didn't
you, dearest?
    His eyes glowed red. With a
roar, he broke her rib cage like a frame of matchsticks, his touch separated
from her heart by shards of shattered bone and so much more…
    Lyssa woke, opened her eyes.
Well, the first part of the dream had been nice. She could still feel that
knight's rough palm, the strength of an eager male lover instead of a…
    No, she wouldn't dishonor Rex's
memory by venting her rage on him with name-calling. She dwelled instead on the
knight, as if the other part of the dream had not existed. His blue eyes and
copper hair.
    Her fingers moved down her body,
bare beneath the sheets. Finding her smooth sex wet, she shuddered at just the
touch of her fingers. That knight of her dreams had reminded her of someone.
Of…
    She bolted upright in the bed, a
motion too rapid for the human eye to follow if any humans had been present.
She was alone in her bedchamber, which was an appropriate name for it, since
she had it appointed like a medieval fantasy. Heavy canopy drapes for the large
bed. A massive stone fireplace, the tapestry hung near it depicting hunting
scenes in the bold colors and poor drawing style of the early centuries of the
second millennium. Stained glass on her windows kept light filtered during
daylight hours. Lit candles on the dark wood dresser and the faint smell of
smoke lingering from matches being struck told her she hadn't been alone for
long.
    He'd gotten her home somehow.
Gotten her to her own bedroom. Had Thomas described it to him, or had he
wandered through the rooms, carrying her in his arms until he found the one
that felt just right, like the fairy tale?
    Well, Goldilocks she surely
wasn't. As she turned and put her feet on the floor, she grasped the tall post,
feeling the carvings of clematis flowers and leaves twining around it. Her hair
fell forward, tangling in her nails as she swept it from her eyes. If she was
cast in a fluffy animated retelling of one of those grim fairy tales, her
character would be a wicked witch, a darkly dangerous stepmother. The thought
almost made her smile.
    She wondered what her knight
would do when she took him to her bed. Chained him as she'd imagined, making
him wait upon her pleasure. Even when he was allowed to sleep in her bed less
encumbered, she'd still require him to sleep with one wrist cuffed and chained
to the bed, a nominal reminder of his devotion, of the fact that he was her
property.
    Or perhaps she wouldn't chain
and cuff his wrist, but his fine cock and scrotum. Jacob. When she thought of
the personality he'd shown, the temper, her hunger stirred. She was ravenous. A
side effect of the powder, she knew, but it was further stirred by her dream
and memories of the things that