Ruler [Blood Magic, Book 3]

Chapter 58: Come and Grow With Me

I was still figuring out how to apologize to Lucia for making her do all that work for nothing when her face appeared on the computer screen. "Oh my god, Mills, the ghosts say you're a queen. A queen. Tell me they are lying. "

My heart ached at the look of anticipation on her face. I missed Lucia as much as I missed anyone from topside and if I'd had any kind of normal wedding she would have been right beside me as my maid of honour. I supposed I had that to apologize for as well.

"Not a lie. I married him. I even got a crown. Check it." I pulled my crown from the bag I'd used to carry it through the storage facility and positioned it on my head.

Lucia gaped at it and then leaned in towards the screen to get a better look. I removed it from my head and held it up in front of the camera to appease her.

"That must have cost a small fortune," she said. "I bet it cost more than all my mom's antiques combined." I wasn't so sure about that; Lucia's mom had stuffed their New York brownstone full of old furniture and curios. There was no way you wanted to walk through that place in the dark, you'd break a toe.

"It was a gift from one of the European enclaves. Keel warned them of my aversion for wearing bones, so they outfitted it with rubies instead. Signifying blood, I suppose, or maybe the red of Nosferatu eyes. Who knows really, but it's something macabre. Around here it always is."

Lucia sat back in her chair. "Just so you know, I'm not going to call you Your Majesty."

I was aghast. "God no, that would be too weird. Besides I'm not your queen."

"No, you're queen of the vampires."

"Just of this compound, and I'm barely any good at it. I mostly sit beside Keel and listen and try to figure out what, if anything, I should be doing." The tension fell out of my shoulders as I spoke, it was such a relief to confess this to someone who didn't have a direct stake in it.

Lucia shook her head. "You're really dense sometimes. Maybe just as dense as he is. Keel - your husband, the king - is the most powerful vampire in the world; the consummation of your marriage created a seismic, electrical and psychic event. It sent ripples out through the supernatural world and the human world too. The sorcerers have been working overtime to prevent humans from discovering the cause of it."

"Oh hell, you mean we might really have triggered Extinction Day?"

"That's what I thought too, but then this sorcerer ghost found me. He was new and supremely pissed off." She paused while she dragged her thick, dark hair into a ponytail. I edged forward in my chair, impatient for her to continue. "I guess he was executed just a couple of weeks ago for being a sympathizer. He told me that the sorcerers have all sorts of networks in place to cover up strange events. He said, if anything it proved, what was the word he used, oh yeah, 'fortuitous,' because it might delay the march on your compound."

"Not likely. By the way, I'm sorry I had you ask around for that sorcerer info. I know what they are planning - war."

Lucia's expression darkened. "Not just planning."

"No, not just planning. They attacked a compound in New York state yesterday."

"That's what the ghosts are saying. They're also saying that the sorcerers have taken their policing of the supernatural world too far this time, and if Extinction Day comes it won't be on you, but on them. The dead really aren't happy."

"Neither am I."

Lucia leaned in to the monitor again, her voice turning conspiratorial, "So, just how powerful are you two?"