Dark Queen (Jane Yellowrock #12)

Landed. Four paws to mud. To either side of head. Fall gave fangs and jaws power. Slammed down, mouth open. Bit down on alligator.

Alligator whipped whole body. Rolled. Rolled over Beast, through mud. Beast bit deeper, through hard skin. Through flesh. Into bones. Gator rolled. Rolled. Trying to throw off Beast. Rolled toward water. Other alligators were there, watching. Beast fought roll. But Beast paw was too close to alligator teeth. Gator teeth bit down on paw. Painpainpain, like shifting but more. More pain. Alligator shook head, tearing Beast flesh. Holding Beast paw, alligator rolled. Beast shoved down with three paws to stop roll. Alligator would roll into water. Would drown Beast and feed Beast to all alligators if she could. Beast did not let go of alligator. Alligator did not let go of Beast paw.

Alligator thrashed. Whipped tail. Hurt Beast. Would win if Beast did not kill now. But alligator skin was harder than last alligator Beast had hunted. Alligator was bigger than last alligator.

Beast bit down and down and down. Clamping jaw tight. Bones crunched. Teeth passed bones and into spongy meat. Was brain. Alligator mouth opened. Dropped Beast paw. Gator closed eyes. Opened eyes. Thrashing slowed. Stopped. Except for tip of tail. Was dying. Beast is best hunter.

Limping, Beast carried/dragged long alligator into brush. Dropped alligator on bluff of ground and lay on top of prey. Licked paw. Was bad bite. If Beast could not shift into Jane and heal, Beast would have only three legs. Beast would die. Injury had happened before, many times, when Beast was alpha and Jane was beta. Shifting to Jane had kept Beast alive. Beast had learned to be glad that Jane had stolen body. But Beast had not told Jane this. Would not tell now. Beast licked own blood and chuffed at thinking human thoughts. Beast was more than puma.



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? ? ?

I woke to the sound/scent/taste of fresh-caught gator being devoured. Fangs ripped through hard, knobby, armored skin into meaty flesh. Mud was everywhere, all over the gator and all over Beast, a thick, gummy, drying, crumbling, dark mess. Blood was mixed with the mud, a deeper, darker gray in Beast’s sight. Flies were buzzing me/us, lazily dropping to feast and lay eggs. I caught a glimpse of two buzzards in a tree, patiently waiting for Beast to finish her meal. The sky was less bright, the sun only a few inches over the horizon. It would set soon. It was time to get back to HQ, to work, to politics which I hated, to security measures which I loved. But it was peaceful here, in the mud. Calm, despite the death that made the meal valuable.

I felt pain, however, and when Beast blinked, I saw the damage to her paw. Two toes were ripped nearly off, claws hanging. The central pad of the paw was torn. Not all the blood was the gator’s. The gator got you. That your only injury?

Beast tore through entrails and gorged on organ meat. It was an odd taste combination of intestinal/fishy/livery/lung-ish meat.

You not talking to me?

Beast is best hunter.

I know. I caught sight of the tail. Wait a minute. How big was this gator?

Was big. If Beast had kits, would take tail to den to teach kits how to eat meat.

Holy crap. This thing was, like, twelve feet long.

Was big.

It bit you, but you sound pleased with yourself.

Alligator bit Beast. Alligator is dead. Beast is best hunter.

Okay. I agree. Crap, that’s a big mama gator.

Beast is best hunter. Beast must kill Kemnebi.

I went still and quiet. Kem is tamed.

Kemnebi has hunted in Beast territory. Kem left spoor. Challenged Beast. Beast must kill.

I thought how to explain the danger her plans presented. To kill Kemnebi outside of self-defense means Ricky-Bo would have to fight Beast. And Rick is PsyLED.

Beast stopped ripping flesh. Swallowed a large gobbet of meat from tail. Rick would fight Beast? Rick could become alpha over Jane? Put Beast in cage?

Technically yes.

Beast will kill Kem-cat where Ricky-Bo cannot find kill. Or in what Jane calls self-defense. Beast tore more food, thinking. What is self-defense?

If Kem attacked Beast in cat form, for no reason, and Beast killed Kem, that would be self-defense.

Beast licked her jaws. Flipped the tip of her own tail at the buzzards to show them alligator food was still Beast’s. Will think on self-defense. But will kill Kemnebi if Kem-cat comes onto Beast territory to hunt again.

I figured it was the best I was going to get. Okay.

Want to go home. Home to mountains.

I had nothing to say to that.



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? ? ?

At dusk, I woke up in human form in a decent place, no mud, not lying in the middle of a dead gator, which I had halfway expected, and close to my SUV. That part was fortunate because Beast had spent so much time rolling in mud that the gobag was muddied through and through, including my clothes, which had somehow come out of the plastic zip bag. I had more clothes in the SUV.

Standing in the falling light, I dressed in the chill of early evening, feeling the familiar gnawing pangs of hunger. I could have gone back to the extra pair of flops in the mud, but I could also get them next time. Hunger helped me decide on not going back into the swamp after the flops, though the thought that I was littering on my hunting grounds bothered me.

Dressed, warmer, I got in the cab, feeling pensive. There was a protein bar in the glove box. Three, actually. I ate them all without tasting them, which was likely a good thing. I could have bought Popeyes and now be eating cold fried chicken, but I hadn’t. Not poor planning, just . . . I hadn’t wanted to stop.

The drive back to the city was silent, the radio off, no music through the system. Thoughtful. Worried, just a little. About Beast. About Ayatas. About tonight and my schedule. It was full and it was all going to be difficult.

When I got home, I found a parking spot a half block down the street and walked to my door in the early dark, barefooted, carrying my muddy gear. Sniffing for the scent of lemons, the smell of werewolves. But the scents were the same as ever: food, urine, dust, mold, water on the muggy breeze. Because I was so close to Beast, I smelled him even before I got to my door. The floral scent of Ayatas.

He was still in my house.

Moving silently, I keyed open the door and slipped inside. The lights hadn’t been turned on in the foyer and there were enough shadows to hide in. I smelled Ayatas, Eli, Alex, Edmund, and Gee, pretty much the main members of my vampire clan and my maybe-brother. And the garlicky smell of Bodat. Their voices came from the kitchen and the living room. I moved into my room and showered off the remaining mud. Dressed in a long black skirt and jacket and a starched white shirt. I made up my face, going for dramatic, with black eyeliner and lots of mascara though it made my eyelids feel heavy. Scarlet lipstick. Working clothes.

I pulled on a thigh rig weapon harness and weaponed up, adding the Mughal Empire dagger Bruiser had given to me, on a small harness on my hip. The hilt was gem-set jade; the scabbard was velvet-covered wood. The knife had been made in the 1700s, in India, with a slightly curved blade, a central ridge, and double grooves. It had a gold-overlaid palmette and cartouche at the forte. I had made it my ceremonial blade, wearing it when I wanted to make a statement. The blade was watered steel and it was said that it had magic, being charged with a spell of life force, to give the wielder the ability to block any opponent’s death cut. Bruiser had said about the spell, “Pure balderdash, but it makes a nice tale.” Still. Sometimes a history and reputation were magic of themselves.