Blood Bonds (38 page)

Medan curled in on herself, her golden eyes flashing. “Is there a reason for your visit? Or perhaps you simply pined for my company?” Her fire lung rumbled.

Haley had the inescapable feeling that Medan not only knew she’d be back, but when she’d be back. And considering she’d never had any plans of returning to this place...

The realization curdled in her stomach like rotten meat.

But no matter what she felt, hell, what she
knew
, the facts were still the same. She needed Medan right now. Needed her protection, or Dobson was going to win. Haley fumbled with her ruined clothes. No amount of tucking or tugging was going to make them look better.

She sighed and said, “I think you know.”

“Nidia is a fool. She conspires with the
chetrah
, thinking that they will not betray her.”

“Why does she want me dead?”

“Did Justice not explain these things to you?” Haley’s eyes widened and Medan laughed. “Nothing happens in this city without my knowledge or consent, Child. I allow for a certain amount of freedom for all Kin. I feed them. I house them in the Dens. They want for nothing.”

And everything
, thought Haley.

Medan sighed and it sounded as sincere as canned applause. “I do believe Nidia is going soft in the mind. She imagines a death for Queens that will come in the form of a Female. An Augury. Certain signs mark her arrival. Certain gifts will be bestowed upon her. And when she reaches her peak of power, she will wipe out all her enemies and lay claim to the earth.” Medan’s growl thundered throughout the cavern. “Very biblical, is it not?”

“Why me?”

“Why not?” Tendrils of steam billowed from the darkness and the temperature shot up twenty degrees. “You are an opportunity. Nothing more.” The light dimmed in her eyes.

An opportunity
?
Is that what I am? A chance for some deranged Queen to take out her frustrations?
For the first time in her life Haley didn’t long for the Dens. She wanted away from it all, to be secure back in Human society, where there were rules and logic. Here ... here it was madness.

Now she had no choice but to embrace it, because she wasn’t strong enough to defend herself, especially if Nidia could manipulate the people in her world.

“What about you?” Haley asked. “Do you believe I’m some servant of Death?’

“No. I think you are nothing more than a bastard daughter. One any other Queen would have killed.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because I saw an opportunity.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“We take their Human shapes so that they are easy to hunt and so we can survive with fewer resources. We make ourselves beautiful so that they will come to us, worship us,
feed
us. We offer them sex, immortality and power, and they eat it and they hunger for more. And yet our strengths still dwindle. We no longer rule the skies; we can no longer hunt as we please. We hide and hope we don’t break their rules or offend their ways, because if we do then they take
our
lives.

“You are a weapon of accidental design against the Humans who want to destroy us. You, Haley Night,
Impressed
by Humans, weakened by their ways, are our only hope to survive. I chose to send you into the world for one purpose, to be more like them, to imprint a deeper understanding of the
chetrah
, to be able to walk among them as one of their own, a spy of spies. That is why I did not kill you from the egg. That is why I have worked so hard to keep you alive. You offer us what we can never have. A means to know our enemy. A means to live at all costs.”

The Queen’s words settled into Haley’s bones. “How long have you known about Dobson and Nidia?”

“I knew something was being planned. Colonel Dobson is the Deviant Neustrass. His hate infects him, his disease is shame.” Medan moved forward. The shadows drew back from her muzzle and head. Beautiful, thought Haley. In all her fearsomeness, the Queen was beautiful.

In the corner, the two Males stirred.

Medan glided across the room, her massive form weaving through the narrow path between the priceless artifacts. Her limbs and wings missed them by feet, inches, hairs, disturbing nothing.

“I was impressed with your display in the Club.” Her head thrust forward like a snake, deciding on whether or not to strike. “You should be careful here at night, when the pheromones are thick. The Males cannot control their
needs
.” Another thrust of the head. Haley backed up and put herself between Medan and the two Males who were just beginning to rouse.

“Please, Medan.”
Don’t kill. Please don’t kill them.

Haley kept her pleas to herself. Medan was apt to snuff them out just because she begged.

Medan gave her an amused look. “Dear Child, you would be better to just end their lives now. Fuck them if you like, but kill them, because they are too weak to hold a
RHage
.” Haley didn’t understand, and it must have shown on her face. Medan hissed and rolled her head to the side. “Of course, those are things you could not know about. Or have. Yet.” Her tongue flicked out, tasting the air. “Tend to your Males, then we shall talk. You have something you want from me and I ... have something to show you.” The Queen moved over her, beyond her, her massive body slipping with ethereal grace. “When you are done, meet me in the ante-chamber. It would be a shame to stain the furs.” Blackness absorbed her as she slipped into the corridor.

When Haley couldn’t hear Medan anymore she went to Farley and Creyal.

“What happened?” Farley sat up.

“I don’t know.” Haley pulled him to his feet, then offered Creyal a hand.

“Shit, this is the Hive!” Creyal pushed himself flush with the wall.

“Calm down.” She knelt beside him.

“I didn’t crawl out of this place just to wind up back down here.” Creyal clenched his eyes shut and a sheen of sweat popped up across his upper lip. “I need a score. I need three scores. Be a doll and get me something. An A-bomb would be nice, or some Horse.” He shook so hard his piercings flickered in the light.

“Listen to me.” Haley put a hand on his cheek. He felt cold. His core temp should have been soaring after the Roll, but it was dropping. “Creyal...” She pulled his chin up and his eyes popped open. “I need you to stay focused. I can’t have you smelling like Food. Now please. Get up and walk with me. I can’t leave you here. There’s no telling what will crawl out of these tunnels.” He blinked several times, like he was having a hard time focusing.

Creyal shook his head. “No ... no way.”

Farley yanked the feral up. “Listen, asshole, for once in your life, think of someone other than yourself. She needs us to go with her. Talking with Medan isn’t exactly a cake walk.” Creyal shoved him back. His eyes darted around the room.

“No, you go with her. You
Belong
to her, not me. I owe her nothing.”

“She kept both of us from becoming
food
up there. You owe her.”

Scales flashed across the feral’s neck and his eyes flared silver. “I don’t owe anybody shit. Not a Snack Cake like you and not her. The way I see it, what happened up there wouldn’t have happened if she wasn’t so fucking domesticated.” A sharp hard laugh burst out of his lips. “There is no way in hell I’m facing off with that Queen. Not now, not ever. Now excuse me, I’m getting out of this hell hole. I’d much rather be upstairs banging some Human ass than getting eaten.” He knocked Farley out of his way.

Creyal glance back and forth between the two tunnels at the front of the room. When he took the correct one, Haley had to assume he knew his way out.

Farley growled. “I hope the asshole gets lost.”

“He was born down here. Surely, if he remembers anything in that drug fried brain of his, it’s where the exit is located.” She tugged at her tattered clothes. “C’mon. The last thing we need to do is keep Medan waiting.”

Haley headed down the tunnel, which took a steep drop into a well-lit room. Here the floor was a smooth, seamless mass of marble. The pale gray and white was a startling contrast to the otherwise dark pyrite flecked walls. In the center sat Medan, drawn up to her full height, her wings partly open. The flickering candle light illuminated every inch of muscle, every scale, and every spiraled length of horn. It was a carefully staged, imposing picture that succeeded in showing exactly what she was: power, violence, and fear, in the form of a Queen dragon.

Farley’s grip tightened on Haley’s hand.

“I was beginning to think you had lost your way, Child. You are short one Male. Does that mean you have dispatched him?”

You know damn well I didn’t
. “No, your Majesty. Creyal...” Haley didn’t want to tell her Creyal ran. She tried to think of a way to word things. “I sent Creyal away. He’s too weak for this.” It didn’t smell like a lie, but it didn’t exactly feel like the truth.

Medan thrummed. “You protect him. I find that ... quaint. But I do not like to be lied to. I will forgive you ... this once.” Her head thrust forward, too fast to see, and stopped an inch from Haley’s face. “But do not lie to me again. Ever. You will never be cunning enough to deceive me.” Haley shut her eyes and willed her stomach to be calm. Farley pressed himself to her back. The feeling of him against her stilled the rising fear. When she opened her eyes, Medan was watching them with a strange expression.

The Queen tossed Haley a coy look as she moved away. “Tell me, Child, how does it make you feel to know that the
chetrah
you work so closely with hate you? Betray you?” Her golden eyes flashed and turned red.

“It hurts. It makes me angry.”

“Do you feel they should be punished?” A double-edged question if there ever was one. Haley had to take a few seconds to come up with an answer.

“If you mean by the Human courts, yes, but not by us.” There. That seemed safe enough.

Medan blinked once, then twice. “I have something to show you, Haley. Something for you to take to your
chetrah
boss and his people.”

The Queen made a motion, and from a small doorway, two large Human shaped Males came forward with a body hanging between them. Haley recognized him immediately.

“John Tate,” Farley said near her ear.

John Tate had been stripped down to his boxers. Duct tape wrapped around his mouth. He fought the Males who carried him. It reminded Haley of how a fly looked stuck between a screen and glass. And just like an insect, no matter how hard John Tate flapped, he just wasn’t going anywhere.

As the Males brought John Tate all the way into the light, Haley saw the mark on his shoulder.

They dropped him in the floor at Medan’s feet.

Medan said, “He is one of Nidia’s.”

John Tate pawed at the tape until he got his fingers underneath. He ripped it off, leaving bits of glue stuck to his skin and bits of skin stuck to the tape. He stumbled to his feet and tried to run. Medan blocked his way, moving too fast for anything Human to see. Her wings rattled, filling the room with the sound of a thousand rattlesnakes.

“Fuck ... shit...” John Tate stumbled and fell on his ass. “Haley, help me.” His eyes darted over to her. “You know me. You’ve known me for years.” He crawled a few feet towards her, but Haley couldn’t stop staring at the scar on his shoulder.

“How come I didn’t know? How come I never smelled it?”

“He is not her Link. He is only a servant, a companion, a ... pet.” Medan snapped her teeth and John Tate screamed. “It’s why he stays strong and does not age as quickly as other
chetrah
. But he does not
feed
her. The
mark
was made by one of her Males and they have not stained him with their scent.”

And Haley had always thought he just had good genes. “John, why...”

“I’ve g-got four k-kids.” Muscular earthquakes racked his body. “I needed the money. She offered, I couldn’t say no.” Tears burst out of his eyes and a string of snot coated his upper lip. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to raise four kids on a cop’s salary?” Medan huffed a breath across his skin and John Tate bolted. She stopped him with a foot and pinned him flat.

The Queen’s tongue slid up his neck and across his cheek. John Tate screamed, whipping his head back and forth, trying to keep the forked ends from sliding across his mouth and eyes.

“Oh-God-Oh-God-Oh-God!”

Medan laughed. “Down here, your God can not hear you.”

She released him and he tried to get away. Sliding in his own urine, he fell hard. A normal Human would have broken something. But John just had the wind knocked out of his lungs. He curled into a ball on the floor and tried to hide himself under his arms.

John Tate began to pray. “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women...” Medan roared and John keened like a wounded animal.

Medan pinned the cop again. She raised her head and Haley caught the pleased gleam in her eyes. “Look at him, Child.” She obeyed, because not doing it wasn’t an option. “He has betrayed you. He has given your enemies a way to bring you harm.”

“I didn’t have a choice!” Tate shook his head. “She would have killed me. June came to me. That’s how I got involved. June came to me and she offered me money. I’m sorry I took it. I took it ... oh God, help me.”

“Fuck you, Tate,” Farley snapped. The sound of his anger brought Haley’s head around.

“Farley...”

“No, he hung your ass out to dry. No telling what he’s told that bitch. What did you tell her, Tate? Huh, what did you tell Nidia about Haley? And Dobson, were you doing him too, or just the Queen of North Carolina? If I’d known, I would have ripped your throat myself.”

Tate’s face became a portrait of Human horror. “No, Farley. You don’t ... No ... I never, I never ... I just told her small things. Insignificant things...”

Farley growled, flashing teeth. “You know what, Tate, I hope your God does exist, because that means you’re going to Hell. Unforgivable sin, isn’t it? To make a pact with the Beast?”

Medan blinked and inclined her head. “Your little Marked understands. What about you, Child? Do you hate him enough to kill him?”