Queen Takes Blood

QUEEN TAKES BLOOD A THEIR VAMPIRE QUEEN PREQUEL JOELY SUE BURKHART For my beloved sis Thank you to Sherri Meyer for all your late night editing. Lastly, thank YOU. I’m so grateful for my readers. Thank you for opening up your hearts and letting in Shara and her Blood. For sticking with me through a rocky couple of years. You have been my light in the darkness. CONTENTS Queen Takes Blood Queen Takes… Alrik Hyrrokkin & Daire Devana 1. Alrik 2. Alrik 3. Daire 4. Daire 5. Alrik Queen Takes… Guillaume de Payne 6. Guillaume 7. Guillaume 8. Guillaume Queen Takes… Wu Tien Xin 9. Xin 10. Xin Queen Takes… Mehen Gorgon (Leviathan) 11. Mehen 12. Mehen 13. Mehen Queen Takes… Nevarre Morrigan 14. Nevarre 15. Nevarre 16. Nevarre Queen Takes… Ezra Ursula 17. Ezra 18. Ezra 19. Ezra Queen Takes… Itztli & Tlacel Zaniyah 20. Tlacel 21. Tlacel 22. Tlacel 23. Tlacel 24. Itztli 25. Tlacel 26. Itztli 27. Itztli 28. Tlacel 29. Itztli Queen Takes… Llewellyn Isador 30. Llewellyn 31. Llewellyn 32. Llewellyn Queen Takes… Vivian Helios 33. Vivian 34. Vivian 35. Vivian 36. Vivian Queen Takes… Okeanos Ketea 37. Okeanos 38. Okeanos 39. Okeanos Queen Takes… ??? 40. Unknown About the Author Books by Joely Sue Burkhart Copyright © 2023 Joely Sue Burkhart Cover Art by Cover Me Darling www.covermedarling.com All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in print or electronic form without the express, written permission of the author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to any organization, event, or person, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Adult Reading Material Created with Vellum QUEEN TAKES BLOOD Before they belonged to House Isador… these Blood were fighting their own battles to stay alive. While the last Templar knight was struggling to stay out of the queen of Rome’s clutches, the king kraken’s own mother sent him into captivity with the Triune queen. Leviathan lay chained for thousands of years, while the silent silver wolf assassinated other queens at his queen’s command and Vivian fought to escape Heliopolis. Read each Blood’s backstory right up to the moment that they heard Shara Isador’s call. Play the Their Vampire Queen Spotify playlist QUEEN TAKES… ALRIK HYRROKKIN & DAIRE DEVANA Songs: Warriors by Imagine Dragons, Take It Out On Me by Bohnes 1 ALRIK The stench of death told me that we were on the right track. I squatted beside the remains to try and read what had happened. The gray, putrid flesh was falling off the human skeleton—though this thrall had ceased being a human long ago. Most of the rotted, jagged teeth had fallen out of the skull, leaving only the sharp incisors. A mockery of what we were. Aima fed on blood, sure. By definition, we were vampires. Generally, we only fed on each other, unless the unthinkable happened and we lost our queen. Though the current queen I served wasn’t mine. I hadn’t sworn my blood to her. Yet. Every passing second, my heart hammered the beat like a sledgehammer with increasing urgency. We’re running out of time. Correction. I was running out of time. If I didn’t find a way to escape House Skye, then I’d soon find myself on the queen’s menu. She particularly enjoyed young, strong alphas. The better to survive all the torture, my dear. Slipping his phone into his jeans pocket as he neared, Daire’s usually flippant, teasing manner was somber. “Any luck?” Bad news then. Sighing, I shook my head and pushed to my feet. “Nope. I don’t know what I’m looking for anyway. Who was it?” “Ezra gave me a heads up that the other teams are getting called back to New York City.” My jaw tightened. “Already? For this trip, we’re supposed to have until the New Year.” Daire leaned against me and wrapped his arms around my waist. “Let’s just say that if Vega calls, we don’t have reception here. Which is actually true the deeper we go. I didn’t think much of these Arkansas mountains from a distance, but now that we’re here, they definitely do a good job of blocking annoying phone calls.” Vega was the queen’s female alpha. All orders came through her. If she called us back to New York City… I had the distinct feeling that I wouldn’t be allowed to leave again. I’d be dead, and Daire wouldn’t have anyone to protect him from the rest of the Skye clan. Ezra would try, but he was no alpha. He and Daire had a history before he’d been sent to foster at House Skye. I didn’t mind if Daire sometimes found himself in the other man’s bed instead of mine. I had no doubts about his loyalty. I was his alpha. As long as I didn’t get called down to the queen’s torture chamber. “Talk to me.” Daire nuzzled my neck, trying to ease some of the worry straining in my shoulders. “Tell me your theory again. Maybe something new will come to you.” We’d been roaming aimlessly off and on for years, but for this trip, I’d decided on a new tactic. “Queens are protected by their Blood. When the queen dies, some Blood go rogue and start feeding on humans instead of their queen.” “Which turns the human victims into thralls like this poor bastard. But why are we here looking at another dead one?” “What killed it?” I asked softly. “Not another Blood, because there’s no recognized queen in the entire Midwest.” “It could have been a lone Aima passing between courts.” I nodded, using the tip of my boot to nudge the skull away from the spine. “Maybe. But this is the fourth dead thrall we’ve found in the span of what, two months? The trail isn’t straight at all, and it sure doesn’t lead to either coast. The spine isn’t severed and the skeleton’s intact. There’s