Queen of the Dead (The Dead and Not So Dead Book 1) Read online

  My phone rang as I shifted over to reach my purse. It didn’t escape my notice he used it as an excuse to tighten his grip. I flipped open my phone. I moved to answer but my breath caught in my throat. My body had slipped forward and Zachariah and I were nose to nose. Fuck. How did he move like that?

  “Hello?” My breath was light as the Voodoo priest followed the outline of my lips with his eyes. I wondered briefly what he thought of me but the answer grew hard beneath me. Oh, Jesus, but I needed to get laid.

  “Lass?” Declan’s voice sounded far more tense than usual.

  “What’s wrong?” I snapped out of my daze.

  He grunted. “You should get down 'ere, now.”

  “What happened?”

  I began to gather myself as Zachariah, in a very sweet move, straightened my dress. He wrapped his large arms around my waist from where he sat. I looked down at him as Declan spoke words that made me feel absolutely awful.

  “There are bodies linin' Bourbon Street. Norms an' supes. We need ya, darlin’. We can only keep the humans dazed for so long.”

  Fuck.

  Raphael

  “You need to calm down. It’s making things worse,” Abel advised as we sat on the porch of our large house overlooking the Garden District.

  “Fuck you,” I replied coldly. He had no right to talk. The twins had known that she was their amour de sang for nearly as long as I’d known she was my mate. How she hadn’t caught onto all of this I’m not sure because it wasn’t exactly normal for the four of us to have fostered a friendship. Don’t get me wrong, the guys were great but there would be no way in hell that we would have become friends on our own considering our differences.

  As in completely different species.

  Dorian, the brooding bastard, sat on the front steps looking like someone kicked his puppy. Demons didn’t have soul mates exactly but they had their flamma vitae. It roughly translated as Flame of Life in Latin. Dorian had chosen, without a doubt, Narc as his. So after a bloody fight and a lot of bruises one night to have it out between us once and for all, we decided that we would have to share. We had been waiting until the two of us had graduated and now, only a week after the end of high school, she’s getting asked out by every fucking guy we come across.

  I felt my wolf howl inside of my chest, urging me to go find her. MATE. MATE. MATE. MATE. It was a constant mantra whenever I was away from her. Then when I was around her, I had to resist the urge to bite and claim her officially. It was fucking painful. I tried to not be a brooding bastard like Dorian but if I got pissed I ended up just coming off as an asshole and that was a problem on its own.

  God damn. I had almost lost it today when I’d seen her in that dress.

  Narcissa was hands down one of the sexiest women I knew and it wasn’t just because she was my mate. No, she had this glow around her. Those soft pouty lips always seemed to be crooked in amusement as those slightly hooded eyes encouraged you to lean just a little closer. I know she thought she suffered from “cute syndrome” but if she even knew the number of supernatural and human men (and women) we had to warn off her she would be shocked. It was why Jonathan, ever persistent, pissed me the fuck off.

  Something wasn’t right about that guy. I let out a small growl and shoved my hands through my hair. Alaric tried to be rational. “We need to tell her.”

  “And if she likes Zachariah as well?” Dorian snapped.

  Alaric shook his head. “I have no fucking idea. All I know is that Abel is right. This in-between is simply making things worse, not better.”

  “What if she doesn’t feel the same way?” Abel asked softly. My wolf whimpered at our biggest insecurity. It was a possibility. She had never showed us romantic affection before and while I could tell she was attracted to us, I couldn’t understand why she had never pushed for anything.

  “It is painful how similar the five of you are,” a deep voice sighed from the walkway. I felt a snarl rip through me as Zachariah walked up as if he owned the place. He probably did own the land. Who knew? He was right, though. Well, about the four of us. We were all similarly obsessed and in love with Narc. It was a bounding experience.

  “What do you want?” Dorian grumbled.

  The priest smiled and looked at all of us. “A message from your Queen. She is on her way to Bourbon Street because Declan has informed her of a killing.”

  All of us paused, incredulous.

  “You let her go alone?” I snarled and jumped up. We began to make our way down towards the street. Zachariah chuckled softly and then followed behind at a leisurely pace.

  “She’s with Declan,” he informed..

  “Why the fuck was she with you?” Dorian clipped.

  Zachariah moved toward the front of our group and began walking backwards with a smile. “Now boys, I just put in such a good word for you and you aren’t even being appreciative.”

  “What do you mean?” Alaric asked sounding detached.

  “I mean that a certain little rose felt very insecure about your feelings towards her and I assured her that you very much did not view her as a little sister.” He grinned. “So, now she knows and I am telling you that she likes the four of you as well. I’m essentially handling your romantic affairs.”

  “Why?” Abel voiced.

  A small bit of relief washed over me. Well, no confusion now. She knew and we just needed to man up and admit to it ourselves. The tension eased slightly.

  Zachariah grinned. “Because you are not the only one enthralled with our little Queen. I haven’t lived for centuries by believing I can own anything by myself, let alone someone like her. Plus, our best option to keep her safe is creating a guard that is strong enough for the upcoming war.”

  “War?” I growled. My wolf was already planning ways to toss Narc over our shoulder and leave the area. I had to fight the protective instincts. She would kill me if I acted on half of them.

  “Long story,” he sighed indifferently. “I had a vision. We will plan later. The main thing though, is that you need to do your housekeeping boys. Make your feelings known because when the gates of hell open, we won’t have time for this modern relationship drama.”

  He was gone.

  I had no idea if the “gates of Hell” was a metaphor or if he really meant the demonic realm would open.

  “What the actual fuck?” Dorian stated at Zachariah’s impromptu departure.

  How the fuck did he do that?

  “Okay,” Abel nodded with a slight frown while still moving. “Cat’s out of the bag as they say, so we should probably tell her.” I nearly snorted at his cat analogy. Even Alaric had begun to use them. For everyone trying to avoid having felines near me and my antisocial wolf, I certainly seemed to be surrounded by them.

  I was secretly planning to get Narc a kitten soon, but I wanted to find the perfect one. I would probably be putting up with the fucker for a long time.

  “And the part about him liking her? And the gates of hell thing?” Alaric asked attempting to remain aloof. Abel was Alaric’s polar opposite. He was very much invested and in tune to how Narc felt. Concern flooded his face at the moment.

  It flooded mine. I swallowed. “I would take Narc any way I could get her. I’m not planning to live without her and if it means playing along with that crazy bastard, I’m cool with it.”

  My wolf was so not cool with it but hopefully he would be appeased once we got to claim her.

  “She does like us though,” Abel started with a small smile.

  I grinned at that. Yeah, it looked like she did.

  “Fuck,” Dorian swore as we entered Bourbon Street. Narc immediately caught my eyes, a guilty look flooding her face. I barked orders to the others. “You two go compel as many humans as possible to get them the fuck out of here. Dorian can you try to get information out of anyone who may have seen what happened?”

  They nodded and separated to task as I walked past the columns of bodies hanging from each balcony on the deserted street.

  I wasn’t positive how I had ended up sharing leadership with Alaric in our group since I was the youngest. Part of it was that my wolf wouldn’t let me be submissive, I supposed. The other part was that the other three men were a hair more relaxed then myself.

  We weren’t relaxed now.

  Either end of the street was blocked off by hellhounds and shifters. Apparently, the first had decided where their allegiances lay. Nothing like a big threat to freak everyone into listening to our Queen. Narcissa vibrated with power and I suddenly realized why she looked guilty. She was feeding off this mass murder and she couldn’t help it.

  “I feel awful,” she murmured. I wrapped her into my arms. Instead of attempting to support her own weight, she curled into me and just tried to steady her harsh breathing. I think that was how I knew it was really bothering her.

  “You can’t help this anymore than I can help shifting,” I whispered softly against her hair.

  She met my eyes and every protective instinct inside of me rose to the surface. I could see the fear and concern in her eyes overriding the guilt.

  I spoke quietly. “We are going to figure out who did this.”

  “It was him,” she whispered and my mind drew a blank.

  “Who?”

  Her face paled as she gently turned my head by the chin to one of the bodies hanging over the street. A deep gash and house sigil was drawn into the body, exposing the person’s insides. I felt myself wrapping her closer because there was only person with that sigil. Only one person who would be trying to fuck with her.

  Asmodeus.

  Narcissa

  I tried to only use the word “hate” when I truly meant it. It was overused and lost its potency. I could say with certainty, however, that I hated Asmodeus. I hated hi
m for everything that he had ever done to me and had attempted to do to my family. He was a cruel little bastard that should have been the inspiration for Joffrey in GOT. If he was alive, it meant that someone had raised him for a purpose and it was bigger than giving him another chance at being a creepy obsessive bastard.

  He had once threatened to kill my entire family because they wouldn’t let him in the house to talk to me. I wouldn’t have taken the threat seriously if he hadn’t recently killed a bar full of people after I had rejected him for the millionth time. I had finally killed him. When I got close enough and. the prince's defenses were down, I happily kicked his ass back to the demonic realm. It was pathetically easy. All it had taken was agreeing to dinner with him. With a single touch, off to the demonic realm with him! I did have to kiss him though, which was super gross. I truly wish humans had gotten it right. That Hell did contain punishments. Sadly, it was like other worlds though and not very different from Earth.

  Unfortunate, I know.

  The death around us buzzed against my skin. It caused me to shake. Remember what I said about power saturation? It was starting to happen. I began to tremble under the pressure of it and filled like a balloon ready to pop.

  “Laddie” a harsh Irish brogue boomed out to Raphi. “Yer need to git ‘er away from ‘ere.”

  “You were the one who called me!” I snapped. Raphi grunted against my power.

  I had never seen Declan upset but as he stalked toward us he looked very concerned. “How in the feck was I supposed to know ya were gonna explode wi' power?”

  I hissed and broke away from Raphi, “Seriously, Declan? How many dead bodies are here? Thirty? You didn’t think that maybe my powers would get a little funky dude?”

  Declan’s nostrils flared as he muttered something in Gaelic before shooting Raphi a warning look. “Ya need ter keep 'er grounded.”

  “What?” I snarled, butting into the conversation again.

  “Grounded,” he snapped. “Ya need ter draw on 'is life force.”

  “How the fuck do you know that?”

  Declan chuckled. “I know a lot about ya, Lass. Maybe more’n ya know ‘bout yerself. Now, go an' do yer weird 'arry Potter Death Eater shite.”

  My mouth popped open as Raphael Sanchez, the bastard, started laughing so hard he coughed. In a lightning move, I punched the leprechaun in the gut. I gasped as he smiled and my power soared through him and knocked us both to the ground in spectacular fashion. Electricity cracked around us as the sky broke into a deep thunderous roar that I hoped was because of him not me. Several lights went out around the area and the winds picked up.

  I grunted as he laughed, rolling on top of me to smile roguishly. “Now, that was some shit, Lass.”

  Yes. It felt like a fucking lightning bolt. Also my poor cute dress was on the nasty stones of Bourbon Street. I grimaced, “Did you know my power would do that? Also! Where the fuck did your accent go?”

  He smiled. “It was either you get it out with fighting or fucking and something tells me that you and Raphi aren’t their just yet.”

  “You’re a bastard,” I snarled and pushed him off me. Raphi helped me up as Declan lounged on the ground with bright, knowing eyes.

  “Feel better?” He smiled as rain started to drop. I looked around to see that several of the bodies were still hanging. Raphi saw my troubled look and began to command those around us for their removal. I reached down to offer Declan a hand as I looked Raphi’s way. When the Irishman took it and stood up I found myself very close to the clover smelling bastard. His rich green eyes sparkled down at me.

  “Yes, I do. Thank you,” I murmured as he grinned like an idiot.

  “Anytime, Lass. As for my accent that would be due to you. I absorbed some of your power and that means some of you. It will go away with time.” He winked before taking some long legged strides across towards Zachariah who stood nearby watching everything happen with an impassive face. I sighed as the scent of cherries surrounded me and Abel wrapped his large arms around my waist and placed his head on top of mine.

  “I think I may have caused a storm,” I whispered. Abel chuckled. The sound warmed me and I fought the urge to nuzzle against him. Everything about the man was fucking edible.

  “I think the leprechaun shares the blame on that,” he admitted.

  I turned into him and smiled up at his deep blue gaze. I saw something in his eyes that confused me. It was almost like relief but mixed with caution and curiosity.

  “What?” I asked.

  He gently stroked my lower back where his hands had landed. He opened his mouth to say something. I was tense enough that when thunder clapped in the sky I jumped. Abel let out a laugh and lifted me up as rain began to pour down in heavy sheets. Despite feeling somewhat worried, my smile grew as we ran toward the doorway of Zachariah’s family shop. It was a famous Voodoo shop and he rarely showed up there, letting distant relatives run it for commercial profit.

  I let out a laugh as Dorian jogged up behind us and stole me from Abel. He, swooped me up in a bridal hold and shook his wet hair all over me. I scowled and struggled to get down. The playful cocky demon just held me tighter.

  Outside it poured and all my boys gathered near the door. We followed after knowing it wasn’t letting up anytime soon. We weren’t going anywhere for a bit.

  The shop downstairs was a fairly standard commercial Voodoo shop. The lack of magic was evident in the air. As we took the spiral staircase up and passed through a dark door, the wave of dark magic that hit me made my body spark. It felt like a massive exotic cat rubbing against my leg while purring. I swayed slightly on impact as Zachariah chuckled softly.

  I flipped him off and let Alaric, his eyes brighter than before, helped me inside. What had changed between when the boys left my house and now? The awkward discomfort of this morning had dissipated. I narrowed my eyes at Zachariah. Nosy bastard.

  The room we were in was large and had an open balcony with a wrought iron rail that overlooked the street. The two sets of French doors stood open. Soft purple curtains blew back against the rain. No one made an effort to close them. The floors were hand painted ceramic tiles and had lasted against the fickle Nee Orleans weather for years thus far. Instead, the boys took the towels offered from Declan. The leprechaun began to turn on some lights. It was obvious he felt comfortable here and I wondered just how much time the Voodoo priest and the demi-god hung out. I was soaked to the bone so I took the massive dark towel offered to me and slipped off my sneakers. I made a conscious effort to avoid the area where the power in this room was the strongest, the assortment of shelves and tables in the back. Instead, I went to sit on one of the comfortable plush couches. A sigh bubbled from my mouth before I could stop it.

  “Was this you or me?” I asked Declan, gesturing to the maelstrom outside. He smiled and winked.

  “Both of us,” he purred. “We made a baby storm together.”

  I snorted as Alaric narrowed his eyes at Declan, causing him to grin that much more. Instigator. Zachariah sang something in the small work area in the back as he put on a tea kettle. Seeing him this domestic was odd. I wondered how much time he spent here since his large estate was outside the city. Abel must have found it odd as well because he watched him with keen interest from position next to me. Raphi stood near the balcony doors keeping a wary eye on everything.

  “Let me dry your hair,” Dorian suggested. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, so I moved onto his lap. The big fucking crush I had on him may have played a part, but I was trying to ignore it. I closed my eyes as he began to dry my hair gently. Abel played with my hand in a distracted fashion, as his thumb pet my wrist gently. He and Alaric had an odd obsession with my wrist and neck. Imagine that.

  All my boys had weird preferences and fetishes like that. For example, do you know how long it took to get used to Raphi’s obsession with how I smell. He blamed his wolf. I found it funny and disturbing that he made me wear his sweater to school each day so that I would smell like him. I mean I didn’t mind, but it was just so “wolfy.” You know?

  Dorian also had a strange thing with looking me in the eye. He hated it when I chose not to and would go out of his way to tilt my head up so that I had to. I think it was easier for him to gauge the truth of what I was saying. Probably why I was hesitant to meet his gaze half the time. You know, just to mess with him a bit.