Crimson Crown Read online

  “How many times were you with Imogen?”

  Jason gave me a rueful grin. “None, unfortunately—she was a stunning woman. See, I only came to the Bastion and joined the Bloodbound a year ago. My turn in the rotation hadn’t come up yet. I was getting close, but then Imogen... well... allow me to say I’m not disappointed in how things worked out. You’re already a better queen and far more beautiful.”

  The more compliments he gave me the more my stomach squirmed.

  “The seduction act isn’t necessary, you know. I’ve already summoned you here, and I intend to fulfill my queenly duty, so I’m kind of a sure thing.”

  Jason laughed. “It’s not an act. I do find you beautiful—all the guys do.”

  His face and tone changed, becoming deadly serious. “I’m just the lucky bastard who gets to bed you first.”

  I almost argued that Reece had been the first. But that would have flown against the entire reason for this charade—to keep the other Bloodbound from being jealous of Reece and disgruntled that they weren’t getting a fair chance at the queen’s favor—or a fair shot at being the one to father my biological offspring.

  What now?

  Jason sat there looking at me like a hungry dog in the presence of a juicy steak, just waiting for his master’s command to release his restraint and gobble it whole.

  I closed my eyes, girding my strength.

  Just get it over with. It’s tradition. It’s the way things are done. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just your body—not your heart.

  Pasting on a smile, I patted the bed covering beside me and ignored the fracturing feeling surrounding my heart.

  “Jason... would you like to come sit over here?”

  16

  The First Time

  Reece

  Though I was standing outside the door to Abbi’s chambers, my ears—and every cell in my body—were attuned to what was going on inside it.

  When Jason had arrived, responding to her summons, it had taken all my strength not to plant my fist in the center of his smiling face. He was all cleaned up, far better looking than I’d remembered him being.

  The anticipation had been coming off him in waves. As for me, I was alternating between queasiness and sheer fury.

  If Kannon hadn’t also been posted outside the door, I would absolutely have told Jason the queen had changed her mind and sent him away. Instead, I’d nodded in acknowledgment and bitten my tongue as he entered the private chambers of my woman.

  Of course she wasn’t mine, could never be mine. Like just any other drone in the hive, I had no choice but to share Abbi with my Bloodbound brothers. Forever.

  I really am going to go mad.

  There had been some awkward small talk, then Jason launched into some super-cheesy compliments, earning himself a few hundred extra laps during our next Bloodbound training exercises.

  After that Abbi had invited him to sit with her on the bed, which felt like a thousand platinum-tipped arrows to my gut. The past few minutes had been quiet. Too quiet.

  Which was bad. If they weren’t talking, what were they doing?

  My fists clenched, and my feet angled toward the door. Kannon’s hand shot out to grab my shoulder before I could grasp the handle.

  “Stay at your post,” he advised. “I know it’s hard, but it’ll get easier. This is just the first time. You’ll get used to it.”

  “Right. Like I got used to drinking from a blood bag instead of having a nice juicy ribeye for dinner.”

  In a swift, angry move, I turned back around to face the corridor, knocking the back of my skull repeatedly against the stone wall behind me to give myself something less painful to focus on.

  The ringing in my head obscured a slight noise from Abbi’s bedroom—it might have been a whisper. Or a kiss.

  The next few minutes were a second-by-second battle for self-control, during which I imagined ever more creative and violent ways to murder Jason.

  I was in the middle of a particularly pleasing vision involving pulling out his tongue and tying it in a bow around his neck when someone came rushing down the corridor toward us.

  Kannon and I both sprang to full attention, crossing our swords in front of Abbi’s door. Seconds later, we blew out simultaneous breaths of relief and lowered our weapons.

  It was Heather, Abbi’s close friend.

  “Guys! Guys, I need to talk to Abbi—right now.”

  “What’s going on?” Kannon demanded.

  Heather gave us both a huge smile. “My boyfriend decrypted the flash drive. Y’all aren’t going to believe what’s on it.” Glancing toward the door, she asked, “What’s Abbi doing in there? She busy? Is this a bad time?”

  I could have kissed Heather’s puzzled face. “Not at all. In fact, your timing couldn’t be better.”

  Nearly tearing the door off its hinges in my haste, I charged into Abbi’s rooms but stopped before I got to the inner chamber that held her bed. I wasn’t sure I wanted the image of... whatever was happening in there burned on my brain for eternity.

  “My queen—there’s something that needs your immediate attention,” I called out.

  To my great relief, Abbi appeared from around the corner, still dressed. Well, sort of dressed. She had on a silky black slip dress that molded to her curves like she’d been doused with black oil.

  Was that really necessary?

  Jason was so eager she could be wearing a beekeeping suit—complete with pith helmet and visor—and he’d have gladly jumped her.

  “What’s happening?” she asked.

  Heather, who’d followed me in, rushed toward her and grabbed her forearms. “Abbi, we got into the flash drive. Cute nightgown by the way. Taking a nap?”

  Abbi looked down at herself and blushed. “Sort of.”

  Just then, Jason came around the corner, shirtless and disgruntled looking. I fought the urge to bellow a triumphant laugh.

  Sorry pal—party’s over.

  Heather’s eyes popped wide, and she fell back a few steps. “Oh... sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb your... whatever.”

  Abbi moved toward her, shaking her head rapidly. “There’s no ‘whatever’—Jason was just showing me his tattoos.”

  Hmph. A growl escaped my throat.

  “Where’s the flash drive now?” Abbi asked.

  “In the VHC office. Luis is there now. Abbi, you have to see it. No wonder Parker wanted it destroyed. I think it could change everything.”

  “You should get dressed.” I’d meant to suggest it casually, but the suggestion came out sounding more like a command.

  Abbi didn’t seem to notice. If she did, she didn’t take offense. She turned to Jason. “I’m sorry. I’ve got to go.”

  He gave her a tight-lipped smile then a nod before walking toward the door, pulling on his shirt as he went.

  I managed to keep myself from doing a victory dance, but I couldn’t prevent a satisfied smirk from invading my face. “I’ll escort you to the VHC office, my queen,” I said in a businesslike tone.

  “Yes. Good,” she said. “I want Kannon to come to. Jason?”

  He turned back around, eyebrows raised in eager anticipation.

  “Could you stay and guard my chamber door? We’ll send another Bloodbound to stand watch with you,” Abbi said.

  The hope leaked from Jason’s face again. His shoulders sagged. “Yes, my queen.”

  Kelly greeted us at the entrance to the cavern that served as the new VHC headquarters. “What took you guys so long? I’m dying to see what’s on that flash. Luis won’t even give me a peek.”

  The man emerged from a private office within the VHC cavern. “That’s because I want my head to stay attached to my shoulders. My queen—I have the file open and ready for you to view it, if you’d like to step inside.”

  “Reece, you and Kannon come with me,” Abbi said. “Heather, you too since you’ve already seen it.”

  At Kelly’s disappointed pout, Abbi told her, “Let me get a look
at it first—if I think you can see it without it endangering your life, I’ll definitely let you. But it’s likely Sadie died over whatever’s on that flash drive. I don’t want to put you at unnecessary risk.”

  When we were inside the office with the door closed behind us, Luis sat in an office chair in front of a laptop. “Ready?”

  Abbi nodded, and he tapped the space bar, starting a video file. It only took a few minutes of viewing to understand why Parker had been willing to bomb an entire building full of humans and vampires to destroy it.

  “Wow,” Abbi breathed.

  Turning away from the video, she looked at me. “I think this is the answer to our problems. We won’t have to go to war with Parker. We’re going to blackmail him.”

  17

  Secrets

  Abbi

  Of all the things I might have expected to see on the screen, this was not it.

  The video showed President Graham Parker picking up streetwalkers—vampire streetwalkers. There was also some footage of Parker from inside a private room at a vampire massage parlor where there was a lot more than massages going on.

  Pretty damning stuff.

  There was no question it was him. His face was clearly identifiable. In the street video, you could even see Secret Service members in the car with him.

  So the anti-vamp president was leading a double life. I didn’t have to wonder what his followers would think if they knew—they’d hate it.

  They certainly wouldn’t vote for him again, and they might even contact their senators and representatives and demand he be impeached.

  “This is exactly what we need,” I said. “We can hold it over his head and use it to get him to re-open the dialogue between vampires and humans and honor the Crimson Accord.”

  “Are you still talking about a peaceful solution?” Kannon sounded incredulous. “I thought you said Sadie tried that already. He didn’t meet with her—he had her killed.”

  “I have to agree with Kannon on this one. I think you should do what Imogen would have done,” Reece said.

  “Which is?”

  “She’d disseminate this to every news media outlet in existence and put it on all the social media channels. Immediately. She’d bury him in the court of public opinion, turn his own supporters against him.”

  He grinned. “It’ll be poetic justice.”

  Heather, who’d been quiet till now, spoke up. “If I may... working with the other VHC members here and monitoring what’s already out there on social media and the various cable news outlets, I’ve learned something. Since the first day Parker began his presidential campaign, he’s been training his followers to distrust the media—all of them who aren’t in his pocket, that is. That’s what dictators have done throughout history. They convince people the media can’t be trusted then they have free reign to do whatever they want to do.”

  She shook her head sadly. “Even if you do release this footage to the public, his die-hard supporters are brainwashed. They’ll see the evidence with their own eyes and still not believe it. He’ll just say the video is doctored. He’ll declare it all fake, and they’ll believe him.”

  My shoulders slumped, and my head dropped forward. My lungs felt too tight.

  “You’re right. That’s exactly what’ll happen. I’m also worried that if he’s cornered, he’ll strike out in a panic. He’ll enact more violence against vampires in this country. It might do more harm than good.”

  “So what are you going to do?” Reece asked.

  “Parker has a false sense of security right now,” I said. “I hate the direction things are going, but at least he’s moving slowly. I’m going to wait until the Bloodbound numbers are back up where they need to be before I contact him and tell him what we’ve got on him.”

  Kannon let out a noise of frustration and threw his hands up in the air. “You’re going to do nothing? You’re still putting all your hopes on a cure, aren’t you? Larkin said the research trials aren’t going well.”

  “She also said setbacks are normal,” I argued. “The breakthrough could happen any day. She’s not giving up on the cure, and neither am I.”

  “For the record, I’ve never thought it was the answer,” Kannon grumbled.

  “We all know what you think,” Reece said. “But Abbi is queen here, and she’s spoken. We’ll wait to contact Parker, and we’ll continue to give Larkin and Nolan all the support they need as they work together toward a cure.”

  Kannon made another disgruntled noise but said nothing further.

  A few nights later, Larkin sent word, asking me to come to the lab.

  Had she done it? Had she finally managed to find a cure that would work for everyone and give all vampires the option of going back to their human state? I felt like I was floating rather than walking as I made my way through the caverns.

  When I reached her workspace, my mood changed abruptly. Larkin didn’t look triumphant. She looked terrified.

  I dashed to her side. “What happened? Did you lose some more volunteers?”

  She shook her head. “It’s not that. There’s something I need to tell you. Can I speak with you alone? I would have come to your chambers, but I didn’t want your queensguard to overhear and tell the other Bloodbound.”

  Oh boy. This was going to be bad. Maybe she’d discovered it was impossible to cure vampirism after all?

  “I would suggest going up to the surface and walking in the rose garden, but with that patrol of Parker’s personal army so close by, Reece flips if I even get near the stairway to the surface these days.”

  I thought for a few seconds. “I know, let’s go to the Rainbow Cave. We can talk there.”

  The cavern had always been one of my favorite spots at the Bastion. Featuring three beautiful flowing underground streams and a conveniently noisy thirty-foot-high waterfall, it would offer excellent sound camouflage for a private conversation.

  “What about your guard detail?” Larkin asked, eying the two burly men who stood just outside the lab.

  “I’ll have them clear the Rainbow Cave then keep their distance. They won’t be able to hear us.”

  Sure enough, when we sat on the large rocks that bordered the waterfall and stream, there was a noisy din of splashing water.

  Still, when I asked her what was going on, Larkin answered in a low voice barely above a whisper.

  “I’m pregnant, Abbi.” Her eyes looked huge and dark and her face haunted.

  “Oh.”

  For a minute that was all I could say. It was certainly not what I’d expected to hear.

  Shortly after I’d arrived at the Bastion, Imogen had told me that in the past some queens had become pregnant—and I knew from her journal that Sadie had. But she’d lost the baby.

  Imogen had led me to believe other female vampires—the worker bees—couldn’t even conceive. Since vampires all had liver failure, and the liver was what produced fetal blood during development, we were essentially an infertile species.

  “How is that possible?” I asked Larkin. “You don’t have queensblood.”

  She gave me a small smile. “See, that’s the thing. I do. Or at least I did. I had your blood in my system—from when I got shot and you healed me. Your blood made me fertile, Abbi.”

  I blinked several times, processing the extraordinary words. Was it possible?

  But then it sort of made sense. Imogen had given the Bloodbound her queensblood to make them fertile. Why wouldn’t it do the same for female vampires?

  Had Imogen known her blood would make the other women fertile and chosen to withhold it from them? It sounded like her, keeping a gift like that to herself.

  “So did you take a pregnancy test? Do a blood test on yourself?” I asked. “How do you know?”

  Larkin reached for my hand and slowly drew it to her abdomen, which now that her oversized shirt was pressed against it, I realized was quite distended.

  “I felt the baby moving,” she said. “Then I took a pregnancy test.”


  I kept my hand pressed to her belly, fascinated. “How far along are you?”

  “I’m not exactly sure. I did an ultrasound on myself. The size and position of the fetus indicate it’s about three quarters of the way through gestation, but I only missed my period a couple weeks ago.”

  “Wow. That’s fast. Isn’t it much too early for the baby to be that big already?”

  “By human standards, yes,” Larkin said. “But in vampire biology we learned about our connection to Africanized honeybees. And bees spend only three days in the egg then about twenty in the larval stage before they’re mature. So who knows? It could be close. Which is why I finally got up the guts to tell you. Are you mad?”

  “Mad? No—not at all.” Throwing my arms around her shoulders, I pulled her close for a hug. “This is great news. Honestly. I’m thrilled for you.”

  Ending the hug and pulling back to see her face, I asked, “How do you feel? Are you happy?”

  She nodded rapidly, smiling through tears. “I am. I really am. Scared to death, but happy.”

  “Have you told... ”

  I’d almost said “the father” but stopped myself. From what Imogen had taught me, vampire queens, like queen bees, needed a swarm of drones to conceive. It had to be the same in the case of Larkin’s pregnancy as well.

  She finished the question for me. “The father? No. He doesn’t know yet.” She laughed. “I didn’t want to scare him.”

  I blinked in confusion. “You know who the father is?”

  She made a funny face. “Of course. I haven’t been with anyone else in years. Which brings up an interesting point... I wasn’t with a swarm. It was just one guy. Which means Imogen lied to you—a swarm of drones isn’t actually necessary for a queen to conceive.”

  “Oh wow, you’re right.”

  Another of Imogen’s self-serving lies. The implications of the truth hit me at the same time Larkin made her next observation.

  “You could be pregnant right now, Abbi,” she said cheerfully. “We could both have babies, and our kids could grow up together.”