Blood Queen Read online

  Table of Contents

  Mailing List

  Also by Izzy Shows

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  Twenty-Eight

  Twenty-Nine

  About the Author

  Blood Queen

  Book Three of the Ruled by Blood Series

  Izzy Shows

  Copyright © 2017 Izzy Shows

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Cover Design by James T. Egan of Bookfly Design LLC

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  Contents

  Mailing List

  Also by Izzy Shows

  1. One

  2. Two

  3. Three

  4. Four

  5. Five

  6. Six

  7. Seven

  8. Eight

  9. Nine

  10. Ten

  11. Eleven

  12. Twelve

  13. Thirteen

  14. Fourteen

  15. Fifteen

  16. Sixteen

  17. Seventeen

  18. Eighteen

  19. Nineteen

  20. Twenty

  21. Twenty-One

  22. Twenty-Two

  23. Twenty-Three

  24. Twenty-Four

  25. Twenty-Five

  26. Twenty-Six

  27. Twenty-Seven

  28. Twenty-Eight

  29. Twenty-Nine

  30. One

  Also by Izzy Shows

  About the Author

  Don’t forget to join my VIP list and my Facebook group to find out about new releases, promotions, special sneak peeks and engage in titillating conversation!

  Also by Izzy Shows

  The Codex Blair Series

  Grave Mistake

  Blood Hunt

  The Fallen’s Crime

  Dark Descent

  Wild Game

  Grim Fate

  High Stakes

  Samhain Resurrected

  The Fallen Hunter

  Tainted Light

  Anthologies

  Codex Blair Omnibus 1: Books 1-3

  Ruled by Blood

  Blood Captive: Origin

  Blood Huntress

  Blood Slave

  Blood Queen

  Space Mage

  Eradicated

  Provoked

  Enslaved

  Recalled

  One

  The streets are not kind to those that do not belong. And that was me to a T—I didn't belong anywhere. I was the blood mage that defied her nature and killed instead of healed. I was the hunter that had defied her orders and fell for her target instead of killing him. I was the thrall that murdered vampires instead of obeying her master.

  Every role I took on, I couldn't hold myself to it, no matter what. To be fair, though, I was never supposed to be a true thrall. That had all been a disguise so that I could infiltrate the vampire court. But still, it was another failure in my book.

  And now? Now I was homeless. Garbage on the street that no one wanted to look at.

  The light of the half-filled moon overhead shone down on the streets as I stumbled down them, doing my best to hold myself together. It had been two days since I'd had anything to eat, and it was really starting to wear on me. My hair was grimy, my face was dirty, and my clothes rubbed against my body in an irritating fashion.

  All I wanted was a meal, a shower, and a place to rest my head, but I would get none of those. I had to sleep during the day so that I could stay vigilant at night, wary of the vampires that hunted me.

  Because apparently Gray wouldn't let me go. Either that or he hadn't been able to stop the Council from going after my head. Not that they meant to kill me, I was sure. I'd threatened them once already with my death curse, and they wouldn't be stupid enough to forget that and risk it again. No, they wanted to take me and chain me and throw me in the dungeons again.

  I'd rather die than allow that to happen. That was why I was on the streets now, accepting starvation instead of giving myself up.

  At least in the dungeons you'd have a place to sleep and food every now and then, enough to keep you from dying.

  But no, that wasn't enough to tempt me.

  I was determined to be a free woman. To live on my own means, to earn my place in the world. To never live under the thumb of another man, subject to his whims. Gray and the Council had dictated my life for months, and Conall had done it for years, and before that the dungeon masters had kept me under lock and key.

  Alex had hit the nail on the head—I'd never so much as made a single decision in my life—and after he'd made me realize that, I hadn't been able to let the thought go. I wasn't willing to go back to that kind of life.

  That didn't stop my heart from stuttering in my chest when the night grew still and my mind drifted to the memory of Gray's smoldering eyes and the taste of his lips against mine.

  God, but I did miss him. I missed the sense of security I'd had in his arms, the feeling of belonging with someone when I'd never belonged before. The look in his eyes that told me he wanted me and no one else in the world. The way he'd laughed with me, the way we'd talked together.

  I missed every bit of him, but…

  But he's engaged now, which means you need to forget him. He gave you up the moment he got down on one knee for that vampire, even if he didn't know it at the time.

  My gut churned as I remembered what he'd thought could be. He'd thought he could marry her, pacify the castle, and keep me on as his thrall. That once he'd mated another, he'd have control of the Council again, and he'd be able to give me a full pardon then make me his mistress.

  The thought raked against my mind like nails. I could never do that, could never be that kind of woman. I couldn't be second best to anyone, no matter how much I might…feel for that person.

  Feel? Is that what you're calling it? Yeah, sure, you feel for him.

  Damn that voice in my mind for not leaving me alone. It wouldn't let me lie to myself, no matter how much I might try, and I certainly did try.

  I straightened my shoulders and glanced around the street, forcing the thoughts from my mind. I didn't have time for them, and besides, I'd been wallowing in self-pity for quite a while now. It was time to put these thoughts to bed. Accept that Gray had chosen a life without passion and condemned me to one as well. We would just have to play the parts life had given us and move on.

  That settled, I started down the street again, trying to figure out where I was actually going. Up until now, I'd been wandering aimlessly for the past two days, just focusing on getting as far away from the castle as possible and not getting caught by the vampires. But I needed to figure out a plan beyond that if I had any hopes of s
urviving in the long term.

  I had to find food and shelter, and that was going to be difficult. No one was just going to give me a job and apartment in the city, not when I looked like this. And as soon as they caught wind of the vampires on my trail, they'd give me up in a heartbeat.

  No one wanted to get on the vampires’ bad side. Things were all right for the humans—the vampires didn't bother them so long as they had a steady stream of thrall volunteers. That was all that they cared about, making sure that they were fed, and so long as they had their thralls, they didn't have to prey on the other humans. Which meant that the humans were willing to turn a blind eye to the fact that the vampires had taken over everything.

  And if it meant giving up one helpless girl to keep the vampire overlords happy, they'd do it in a heartbeat.

  So no, I couldn't depend on the kindness of others. I had to…

  I narrowed my eyes. I could have sworn I'd just caught the flickering image of someone peering at me from around a corner then ducking back behind it. I blinked and focused on the corner, waiting, and then there it was again!

  A head peeking out of the corner, the woman's eyes making contact with mine, and then she was gone before I could blink.

  Well, fuck that. If someone was spying on me, I needed to take care of it as soon as possible.

  I started walking with a purpose now, hands fisted at my sides, prepared for a fight.

  But I wasn't prepared for what I came face-to-face with when I rounded the corner.

  A man.

  A vampire.

  His fangs flashed in a wicked smile.

  "The Council says hello."

  Two

  I backpedaled immediately, but the vampire reached out and caught hold of my shirt, yanking me back into the alley I'd been trying to escape from. He wasn't going to let me get out into the sight of the public.

  Not that it would actually do me any good. Everyone would turn a blind eye to the vampire killing a human; at least it wouldn't be them.

  The thought brought a surge of misery in me, but I shoved it to the side.

  There was no time for a pity party right now. This was life or death, and I was choosing life.

  "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with blood mages?" I asked, wrenching myself free of his hold and dancing to the side. I stumbled a bit as I went, not quite as quick and graceful as I'd once been.

  You try starving for two days and then see how well you hold up in a fight.

  The vampire regarded me with narrowed eyes for a moment, calculating the risk, then shook his head.

  "You're not what you used to be. It'll be easy enough to kill you, and then the Council will reward me greatly. I'll rise above my station. Just one little murder to do it."

  "You idiot," I spat. "Did you really believe that when they told it to you? Don't you know what happens when you kill a blood mage? I have a death curse. You're never going to rise anywhere. You'll be dead before you can."

  He frowned, taking a cautious step back. "What do you mean? What's a death curse?"

  I let out an impatient sigh. "God, they don't teach you anything. Blood mages have a death curse, which means whoever kills them is automatically cursed to be haunted by whatever spirits can drive you to suicide. You wouldn't make it a week, I don't think."

  "No, no way," he said, but his words were slow. I could tell that he was starting to doubt himself even as he denied it. "You're just saying that to stop me from killing you."

  "Oh yeah?" I crossed my arms over my chest, holding my head high though I was already dizzy from malnourishment. "Why is it that, rather than just wipe out the species altogether, the vampires have us blood mages all chained up in the dungeons? Did you ever wonder about that? I mean, wouldn't it be cleaner and more efficient to just kill all of them? Keeping them locked up means that they have to be fed, that guards have to be stationed on them, while you vampires wait for us to die of old age instead of just killing us. Seems pretty weird, doesn't it?"

  I saw a flicker of doubt drift through his eyes, and then he clenched his jaw.

  "You're lying. The Council has their reasons for why they do things, and they don't have to share them with us, but they would never send one of us to certain death. I don't know why the blood mages aren't rounded up and executed, but it's got nothing to do with me. And it has nothing at all to do with you dying here, now."

  With that, he apparently had had enough of the conversation and launched himself at me.

  I staggered to the side, just barely avoiding his lunge, but he shoulder checked me as he went. I spun to the side from the force of the impact, my back slamming into the wall that had been at my side just a moment before.

  Stars blinded my vision and, for a moment, I couldn't drag in a breath. Hitting the wall that hard had driven the air from my lungs, and now they didn't seem to want to draw another breath in.

  Move, Nina! You have to move or you're going to be dead in a second.

  Because even though I hadn't been lying about the death curse, and this man was most certainly committing suicide by killing me whether he knew it or not, I still didn't want to die like this. I had too much left to do.

  I still hadn't ever gotten to find my bearings, to strike out on my own and carve out a life for myself. Damn it, I hadn't lived yet, and I certainly wasn't ready to die.

  All thoughts were driven from my mind when one hand clamped down around the back of my neck, yanking me about so that I faced the vampire just as my vision came back into focus. He bared his fangs at me—half a show to intimidate me and half so that they'd be fully descended so that he could drain my life from me.

  Oh, gross, that was how he was going to kill me? My flesh crawled at the idea of his fangs sinking into my neck.

  I'd been fed on once before, when Gray had attempted to thrall me, and the experience had been blindingly intimate. The feeling of Gray's fangs in my flesh had been so…Well, it had left me hot and bothered, let's leave it at that.

  But this guy? No way. His fangs in my neck would be the equivalent of him yanking my pants off and forcing himself on me.

  I wasn't about to let that happen, not so long as my blood still pumped through my veins and I had breath in my body.

  Our eyes locked together as he took a beat to look me over, and mine narrowed even as my lips parted to begin the chant that would end his life.

  "No!" His eyes widened, and he smacked a hand over my lips, but all that did was muffle the words.

  That was fine; they didn't need to be understood for them to work. Not that this cretin would understand the ancient language of the blood mages anyway. I just needed to get the words out, to give them life, for them to work their magic on his body.

  I felt my magic expand out of me, invisible though it was, and wrap around him before it sank inside of him, spreading through his body, following the path of his veins, until it found his heart.

  There, it set to work, bringing the once life-giving blood inside of him to a boil, spreading that overheated blood pumping through his body. His grip on my neck weakened, and I yanked myself away from him, pausing the chant for just a second to spit out the disgusting taste his hand had left behind on my lips.

  I watched him as I chanted, swaying on my feet as I forced myself to stay awake long enough to kill this vamp. His eyes bulged in their sockets, and he parted his lips—to scream? Maybe. But the blood vessels around his vocal cords would have swelled at this point to prohibit any sounds from getting out.

  Instead, he fell to his knees, clawing at his skin, trying to put out the fire that I'd started in him.

  I let the spell slow for a moment, letting him get a sense of relief.

  "I tried to warn you, fanger, but you didn't listen. You could have gotten away from me free and clear, run back to your masters and lived out your life, but you were too dumb to heed my warning. You brought this on yourself," I said, my voice shaking as I spoke. Damn it, I couldn't seem to hold myself together.

&nbs
p; I took up the chant again, holding one hand out in front of me as I did, maintaining the flow of magic from me to him, until it was done.

  Until he fell forward, his face smacking against the pavement with a sickening sound, and then I let the spell drop completely. What veins were visible on his body bulged, gray with the sludge inside them.

  Exhaustion swept through me, and I stumbled to the side, leaning against the wall while I caught my breath. Working magic was difficult, it took energy, and I had little of that to spare in me. My stomach rumbled, protesting the treatment I'd been giving my body.

  On a good day, that spell worked up an appetite. On a day like today? It threatened to knock me flat on my ass for the next week. If I didn't get some food in my belly and a good night's rest, I was going to be toast come the next nightfall, vampires or not.

  A flicker of movement down the alley caught my attention, and when I looked up, I saw the face of the same woman that had been following me earlier, just before she disappeared again.

  I narrowed my eyes.

  Had she led me here? Was she leading me to another attack?

  It was possible, and I knew that because of that logic, I shouldn't follow her. And yet my curiosity spiked, and I knew I wouldn't be able to rest until I found out who she was and what she was up to.

  I followed.

  Three

  The second I stumbled around the corner she had been peeking around, I came face-to-face with the woman, and my instincts kicked in.