5. Sunzi

5

SUNZI

O ur queen slept for so long the Impaler and the Scotsman departed for the hotel to meet the consiliarius in her place. With her temperature fluctuating up and down, I refused to leave her side, so the Scotsman used his sunfire to make a portal rune for traveling.

When she started to hemorrhage, I was concerned enough to wake her. I stroked sweaty hair back from her forehead. "Karmen, my queen, can you hear me?"

She stirred, whimpering softly. A dull throbbing ache spread through her body, coming in waves with the fever.

Lying beside her, I pressed my lips to her forehead and wrapped my other arm around her, hugging her close. "You're safe, Your Majesty. We're here. Please open your eyes so we know you're well."

Her eyelids fluttered, the delicate skin around her eyes looking bruised and shadowed. "What's wrong?"

"You're bleeding, quite heavily, I'm afraid."

"Good." Lines bracketed her chapped lips, her eyes tightening. "Hurts, though."

Misery crawled through my veins like Musashi's angry bees. I hated being so helpless, unable to stop her suffering. "What can I do to help you?"

"Thirsty."

Antonius immediately rose from his position at her back and moved toward the door. :I'll use the Scotman's portal and fetch fresh water earthside.:

"We'll get you a drink immediately, Your Majesty. Do you need to see someone? A doctor?"

"No. No one." Even though her blood pooled around her hips on the bedding.

Kuros and Goyaa?é hovered beside the bed, as anxious as I to assist her in some way, though not if it caused her any further distress. She hadn't spent much time with either of them yet, so I wasn't sure she'd be comfortable with them holding her. Though they burned to be of service in some way.

"She may rest easier in fresh bedding." Goyaa?é strode to the door. "I saw a fresh stack in the hallway."

I swept her up into my arms and rolled to my feet, trying not to jostle her. The other two men quickly stripped and remade the bed in clean linens.

Kuros gathered the bundle of bloody sheets in his arms. Though he dipped his head closer, breathing deeply. His nostrils flared, and I was never more aware of what we'd become than when I felt the same surge of hunger just from the scent of our queen's blood. "What should we do with the soiled bedding? It seems a waste to simply discard her sacrifice."

"If any of Sol Invictus' ilk are still alive, the scent of her blood will call them to her," Goyaa?é said.

"Give it to the sunfires," I ordered. "They can burn away all trace and absorb whatever power they may."

Kuros flared brighter, his double set of fiery wings blazing at his back. The rippling sunfire poured over him in a wash of flames, engulfing the bundle in his arms in seconds. A few pieces of blackened ash drifted toward the floor but the bedding was otherwise gone.

Gently, I eased her back into bed, tucking her into the fresh blankets. "I meant the unattached sunfires, not you."

Kuros gave an unapologetic shrug as his sunfire flickered back inside him. "It's taken care of."

Her eyes opened, glassy with fever. "Hold me. Please."

I settled back in front of her, her scalding cheek pressed against my throat. Fine trembles quaked through her body, and she pressed closer to me, burrowing deeper into my embrace.

"More. Please."

"Antonius went to get you a drink but Kuros and Goyaa?é are here, Your Majesty. Would you like one of them to hold you?"

She nodded against me but didn't specify which one. Not that either of them wasted a single second. Goyaa?é was slightly faster and closer to the bed, gaining the first position at her back. But Kuros crawled across the foot of the bed and lifted her legs up onto his stomach so he could wrap his arms around her calves. That put his head on my legs, not that I minded. Though I gave him a narrowed look, silently telling him to behave. He stroked his palm up and down her lower leg but didn't push any higher than her knee. She seemed to like our touch and her shaking slowly ebbed away.

Antonius returned at a run with a modern pitcher. Disconcerted to find his spot occupied, he poured a glass of water and leaned down over me to reach her. "Your Majesty, I have water for you."

Goyaa?é helped her lift her head up so she could drink, and she drained the entire glass.

"Would you like more?" Antonius asked.

She nodded, but she reached down and grabbed Kuros' braid, tugging him up close enough so she could sink her fangs into his throat.

KUROS

I'd never been so grateful for receiving a seemingly inferior battle position. While Goyaa?é claimed the honor of guarding her back, putting myself at her feet and making my throat available won her immediate attention.

And with ten former Soldiers of Light vying for our queen's attention, I counted myself the victor anytime she saw me, let alone touched me. Especially when she fed on me. If she allowed me to taste her…

I might expire again on the spot and hope my sunfire was somehow able to resurrect me. I wasn't certain I had fangs, but the desire to find out burned a hole straight through me.

I was no fool. The others thought me to be an abrasive asshole, when I simply valued expediency over politeness or chain of command. Sun Tzu might be her closest guard, but I was slightly older and King of the Four Corners of the World. I bow to no one, let alone ask permission to do what I thought was right.

Except my queen. I would do anything to stay at her side. Even take orders and beg permission to simply hold her feet.

She wrapped another length of my braid around her hand as if she feared I might try to flee. When even an entire herd of Hannibal's war elephants couldn't drag me away. Darkness flickered at the edge of my vision when she finally lifted her head from my throat. Goyaa?é reached around her, offering his wrist, and she sank her fangs into his forearm. After losing so much blood, no wonder she needed to feed deeply.

Holding myself completely still, I made no demands in any way. I had no expectations. She might have allowed Sun's mouth on her skin?—

Her fingers slid across my cheek and the delicate skin of her inner wrist pressed to my mouth. Softest silk warmed by eternal sunfire flames. My mouth throbbed and a fierce wave of glee flooded me. I sank newly forged fangs into her wrist and shuddered with bliss. Pure magic filled my mouth. Blazing light, molten heat, a noon-day sun exploding on my tongue. The more I drank, the better I felt. Every swallow of her blood pushed back the darkness that had threatened to overcome me.

:Don't take too much.: Sun Tzu's bond hacked through my mind like a barbarian's brutal ax. :She can't feed all ten of us deeply and still maintain her strength, especially while she's suffering the aftereffects of the miscarriage.:

:I fucking know,: I retorted.

Though I didn't want it to ever end. The smell of her skin, the taste of her blood, exquisite. Stirring my appetite for more. I wanted to cover every inch of her with my mouth and sample blood from every pulse point on her body, just to see if her blood tasted any different whether from her neck, wrist, or groin. Surely blood from?—

Sun didn't touch me but I felt a hard mental shove that forced my mouth to release her wrist. I quickly licked the rivulets of blood trickling from my punctures, closing the wounds. Though I couldn't stop pressing my tongue over her skin. Tasting her. While her blood soaked into my cells, powering up my muscles and skills to new heights.

I'd thought carrying a sunfire was miraculous. Now, the power pulsing through me—thanks to my queen—was unmatched.

She pulled her arm away, and I fought down a surge of disappointment. Though I didn't feel any hesitancy or anxiety in her bond at my lingering touch. Instead, she simply offered her arm to the man behind her, so he could have a taste too. She'd pulled me up higher to reach my throat, which put my face right at the upper swell of her breasts. Thankfully her long red hair covered most of her chest, but the dusky tips of her nipples peeked through her hair, tempting me to unholy thoughts.

I couldn't help but look at her glorious breasts a bare hand's breadth away. Breathing deeply, I inhaled the perfumed warmth of her golden skin. Thinking about what her luxurious hair would feel like against my face. How her nipple would harden on my tongue.

A soft moan escaped her lips, still pressed to Goyaa?é's wrist. The kind of sound meant to make a man's cock ramrod hard.

:Think of something else,: Sunzi gritted out.

It dawned on me that his cock was just as hard as mine—because it was pressed against my back. Not that I minded in the slightest. After unending servitude as a skeleton in Heliopolis, I was fucking thrilled to have flesh again. Any touch, woman, man, or other, would be pure bliss. Even from our grim, stone-faced leader.

:Not helping,: he growled in the bond.

Despite the ache spreading through my balls, I couldn't help the twitch of my lips, which grew into a wide smile of wicked amusement when her eyes met mine. I couldn't see her mouth behind Goyaa?é's arm but her eyes sparkled. She wasn't offended by my impure thoughts—far from it. I forgot she likely heard everything in our heads, since it was her bond in the first place. Even if I wasn't deliberately trying to send thoughts to her.

:I do.: Her whispered words in the bond made my eyes roll back in my head. :I try not to eavesdrop, but the more blood you give me, the more I hear. I apologize for the invasion of your privacy.:

:Not at all, Your Majesty. In fact, I beg you to feed from me forever. I love feeling your bond inside me. It makes me feel more alive than even my first physical life.:

Her presence hovered in my mind, expanding slowly at my words, as if she'd been waiting for me to give her permission to explore. :Do you remember much from that life?:

Jagged snippets of memories played through my mind. Stilted snapshots and flashes, mostly of warfare. Faceless, countless deaths on both sides. Lines of infantry marching in perfect synchronization with spears and shields at the ready. Bronze breastplates flashing in the sun—though not as brightly as my armor as a Soldier of Light.

:Your army?:

:Yes. They were later known in Greece as the ten thousand Immortals.:

:You were a king, like Leonides.:

I couldn't help but snort. :I was the King of Kings of the known world at that time, though very little remains of the empire I built, let alone my home.: An unexpected wave of grief flooded me. I hoped she didn't notice, but of course she felt my emotions and saw my darkest secrets. How could she not when she was inside my very brain?

:Can you show me?:

An image of my favorite gardens filled my head, carefully constructed between two royal palaces of Pasargadae, the capital city of my empire. Four gardens, in fact, separated by limestone channels to provide water throughout each of the four corners. The sweet smell of cherry blossoms wafted through my mind, laced with the green spice of cypress and the sweet burst of pomegranate on my tongue. After the cherry blossoms faded, lilies and roses added their lush perfumes.

:Four,: she whispered. :That's an important number for you.:

:Chahar bagh, the four gardens of paradise, as well as the four quadrants of the empire. It was always my goal to nurture the beautiful aspects of the world. Protect them within the garden walls, water them well, and watch the earth rejoice.: My throat ached, my eyes hot and burning even though I'd closed them. :All that remains are a few ruins and an empty tomb.:

Something soft slipped across my cheek. It took me a moment to realize it was a strand of her hair falling across my face as she pressed closer to me. Allowing my face to touch the swell of her breast. Her thighs touching mine.

:We'll grow a new garden, Kuros.:

I rubbed my face back and forth just enough to burrow beneath her hair. :Four Blood are here, Your Majesty. Four protective walls surrounding the pure, sacred well flowing in you. This is all the garden I need.: