Yew Queen Trilogy Read online

  “Just promise me you’ll visit me in the padded room. Bring doughnuts.” The counter was cool against my cheek, and despite the joking, I truly was dizzy with the impossibility of the situation.

  Hekla’s head popped out of the kitchen. “Are you going to take a sick day and go home? I’ll bring you food. You’re working too hard. Tomorrow, we will climb. You can work on your own for a couple hours in the morning, right, Ami?”

  Ami nodded. “No problem. I don’t have another exam until Friday.”

  A pack of twenty-something women—most likely a bachelorette party—giggled their way in, then stopped to goggle at me. It was time to get out of here.

  “Fine. Yes. I’ll see you tomorrow. Or possibly never. Check on me.”

  My purse flew from the kitchen, complete with Hekla’s flour fingerprints, and I caught it like the Green Valley softball champion I had once been. “Love you, friend!” Hekla’s concerned gaze softened the sharp edges of my fear. “Coren, I know what you think about Viv and all her tales, but this sounds like something you could talk to her about. I’ve always said, you never know.”

  “I can’t call her. She’s in assisted living now and crazier than ever. I would only get her riled up.”

  “All right.” Hekla wiped her hands on her apron. “But I will be texting you and checking up. I’ll get all our gear ready. You left your stuff at my place last time. Remember?”

  “Thanks.” I gave her a halfhearted smile and left the premises before security could be called, not that we had any, but perhaps Hekla’s brother counted.

  I would go straight home. I would not go up to that hallucination again. I would take a bath. Drink tea. Self-care the shit out of my crazy-ass self.

  Yeah, who was I kidding.

  Chapter 5

  I managed to self-care it up until around 11 that night before passing out cold, exhausted from trying to relax. My dreams were the usual silly crap. It was the recurring one where I’m in my house, and suddenly the living room becomes the belly of a snake, and I have to cut my way out with a sad little rock.

  Waking, I blinked in the dark and reached for my phone. Instead of grabbing technology, I came away with a handful of smooth leaves.

  My eyes shot open, and I realized I was walking. Outside. Under a bright sliver of the moon. I had snatched a low branch and now held not a phone but maple leaves from a tree growing inside a courtyard.

  Where was I? Was I still dreaming? Yeah. Maybe. I had imbibed quite a bit of pinot.

  Four walls set with arched passages and peaked windows surrounded the courtyard. I stood among enormous trees that reached wide limbs past my head to block out most of the glittering stars. Five oaks at least four feet across clustered around me, and another type of tree I didn’t recognize grew along the back corner, nearly as large as the oaks. Pines stretched silvery arms among maples, and thick-leaved vines twisted around the tree trunks and along patches of tall flowers with elongated, sapphire petals. It was stunning. Well played, dreams. Not bad. Not bad at all.

  I pinched myself. “Ouch!” Wiggling my toes, I felt new grass and rough roots.

  My heart jogged up my throat. I. Was. Not. Dreaming.

  Pushing through this strange forest, I realized the leaves were too green and robust for October. It was like spring or summer here, a mismatch to the fall foliage that had taken over weeks ago. And it was so quiet. The only sound was the movement of my feet on the soft grass between the gnarled tree roots. Why weren’t the crickets making their usual racket? And if this place was less fall and more spring, why weren’t the peeper frogs going wild?

  Past a cluster of birches, my bare feet found cobblestones, cold and gritty under my toes. The walls of the inner courtyard stretched up around me, and I knew.

  I was inside that castle.

  A shiver rocked me. The strange sensation of being watched trickled down my back. I spun to find the source. The starlight reflected in a pair of eyes at the top of the walls.

  “Please be a cat,” I whispered. “Pretty please? A big, fat floof of a thing…”

  A shadow surrounded the eyes. It was a human, but giant wings the shape of a bat’s spread out behind it. The wings looked different from the wings of the man I’d seen earlier.

  Frost lined my veins. Another winged man? There were two? Oh, hell no. Now I was damn scared. No way this was just some Shakespeare troupe or Renaissance Faire promotion. It was so over the top. This was freaky and dangerous—and not the fun kind.

  I sprinted for the largest archway, the one I hoped held the door I’d been in that morning, then slammed into a wall. No, into a man.

  The green-flashy-eyes man from earlier today looked down at me.

  A pine-and-sage-scented breeze tossed my hair around my face. My lips had gone numb.

  I stared up at him, then back at the shadow of the other winged man on the walls, adrenaline sparking through me like fireworks. “I don’t know what kind of bullshit you have going on, but this is going to stop. Now.”

  Zipping around him, I made for the open gate, the metal prongs of the portcullis above my head. A hand shot out of the near dark and grabbed my arm, pulling me back inside.

  The dark-haired man’s eyes flickered with green fire, his features cold. His wings were all ivy and vine, and they unfurled behind him, leaves shuffling, as shivers of dangerous pleasure slid through my body. Warmth tingled over my skin, making my heart beat more slowly. I felt like I’d had a second bottle of pinot in one go.

  I jerked my arm away and turned to run, but his iron grip latched onto my shoulder as I crossed the threshold of the castle, and he came along for the ride.

  Shouts erupted from the inner courtyard as the horned man stepped from the castle and into the open starlight, his hand still braced tightly on my shoulder. The steel look in his eyes had fallen away to show shock, his full lips parted in awe as he stared at the midnight sky.

  He dropped his gaze to look at me. “What are you?”

  He actually appeared scared, and for some reason, that made me less so. “A baker. A Franklin gal. A human.” It felt so bizarre to say that out loud, but who were we kidding here? This was a supernatural situation, and I was honestly expecting Dean and Sam to come walking over at any moment.

  “I am called Lucus. Please know that I take no delight in doing this.”

  “No delight in doing what?” A sweat broke over me. What was he about to do?

  Mind going blank with fear, I lunged away. There was a flash of moss-green light, and then the world faded to black.

  Chapter 6

  I woke to two men looking down on me. Not cool.

  Swallowing, I tried not to panic, and I kept my eyes slitted so they’d think I was still asleep. Despite my situation, I felt oddly revived. My insides buzzed like I was excited about a new scone recipe or a trip to Universal to ride a new roller coaster. I didn’t think I was hurt. I still wore what I’d put on for bed—a pair of grannie panties and the XL Titans jersey I liked to sleep in. As I discreetly checked myself for injuries, squeezing muscles here and there, I memorized the men’s faces so I could pick them out of a line-up if I ever escaped.

  Lucus was there—the man I’d met first outside the castle’s door—but now he appeared human, no hint of the green flashing eyes, horns, vine wings, or oak leaf eyelashes. Had I imagined it? No. Not a chance. He turned his head a fraction, and his pointed ear showed. I swallowed, trying not to move, to give myself away. Why did he show some physical weirdness but not all of it?

  The second fella was pale as hell. He had wavy, shoulder-length black hair and large dark eyes. His gaze darted from my hands to the golden ring on his first finger. A large L marked the surface of the ring, and the skin around it was pink, swollen slightly like it had irritated his skin. His lips were too red for a dude, but that didn’t make him any less gorgeous than Lucus.

  The pale guy spoke first, his gaze snapping to Lucus. “I don’t know what you’re dicking around for. Feed on her all you wa
nt. Then I’ll take her blood. Why keep her alive? Every time we appear, you want to keep them alive. What is the point? We are living on one human every one hundred years!”

  “We sleep, Kaippa,” Lucus said. “We survive.”

  “I don’t want to simply survive. I want to live.”

  I froze. There was no way I’d heard that correctly. Right?

  I shut my eyes, mind on overload.

  So this pale guy—Kaippa—was a vampire? He wanted my blood, and vampires were real. My insane Aunt Viv had been right.

  Holy shit. My body began to shake, my teeth clattering together like I was freezing to death. A vampire. A real vampire. My brain twisted the information, trying to thread it through my life. Aunt Viv had mentioned blood suckers. I remembered one summer when we watched a black-and-white movie with a vampire that was seriously hideous and scary as hell. This Kaippa guy wasn’t hideous at all, but scary? Yep. He had that going on one hundred percent. The shaking wouldn’t stop. Would they notice? Surely they would. I felt like I was going to jiggle right off the table they’d set me on. How was this real? Vampires. I prayed to everything in the universe that this was all a really terrible dream.

  And if Kaippa was a vampire, what was Lucus? He was obsessed with my supposedly golden aura, not my blood. The term slithered into my head.

  Psychic vampire.

  Dots blinked behind my closed eyelids. I was going to pass out. For sure.

  A memory floated to the surface of my crazed thoughts. Aunt Viv had called me gold girl when I’d visited her during childhood summers. She’d claimed our blood was rich. I’d thought she was referring to Granddaddy’s money, but maybe she had meant something else entirely. Her stories about magic and immortals were coming to life right here. Could the stories be true? If they were, well, take that, Josh Butterbanks of fifth grade. I was right about magic. But really? Was I in one of Aunt Viv’s cautionary tales right now? No way. Could I actually have a golden aura that some supernatural creature wanted to feed on?

  “Lucus.” Kaippa ran a cool finger down my forearm, and my skin literally crawled under his touch. “I’m starving,” he said to Lucus, “and you are too.”

  My heart clawed at my chest, trying to burst free. But I didn’t want to die of a heart attack yet. I still had a chance here. I could listen and learn, and then plan an attack. Supernatural or not, these bastards were going down. If I allowed my fear to take over, I’d be handing them a victory. Not today, folks. Not today.

  “Silence, Kaippa. She is awake, and you ruin her aura with your threats.”

  “They aren’t threats,” someone near Lucus hissed.

  I opened my eyes a tiny bit to peer at who had come into the room. This man had the same facial structure as Lucus, but he was leaner, his skin rougher, and his eyes screamed psychopath. As he looked over my body, disgust pinched his handsome features. He did up the top button of his black shirt. His throat pulled at the fabric, but he didn’t seem to mind.

  “Who cares if she temporarily releases us?” new guy said. “We need to feed.”

  “Baccio.” Lucus’s voice was a command. “Please,” he said as if he wanted to soften the order, “I must think. The only time any of us have left the castle without turning to ash was when I was in her presence.”

  “Don’t speak of Francesco in front of her,” the one he’d called Baccio snapped. Through my slitted eyes, I saw green light flash from his black eyes.

  Lucus continued like Baccio had never mentioned this other person—Francesco—who must have died after leaving the castle. “The fact that I left the premises and am here to tell the tale…that is no coincidence. Her aura is so unlike any I’ve seen since the curse.” Lucus’s voice rumbled low as he began speaking foreign words.

  A fourth man walked into the chamber. I had to do something now. I was only getting more and more outnumbered.

  “Lucus is right,” the fourth said. Dark circles marred his lighter eyes. He also looked like Lucus but was a few years younger maybe. Fire from the wall sconces flickered off his golden hair. He tilted his head and nibbled his lower lip, like he was trying to figure me out. “He didn’t suffer at all when he crossed the threshold with her. There has to be something here to help us. Something more than just one meal.”

  “Thank you, Aurelio.” Lucus’s gaze traveled over the fourth man. I saw something in Lucus’s eyes when he looked at the blond-haired Aurelio. Kindness? Love? Was this a brother? They really did favor one another, and the vicious Baccio too. Perhaps they were three brothers—Lucus, the first I’d met; Baccio the psycho; and Aurelio the younger, fair one? And one random vampire named Kaippa.

  Despite their frightening appearance and all the horrible shit they were saying and this whole thing being insane, an odd thought popped into my head.

  They were all scared.

  It showed in the tautness to their mouths and the hollowness in their gazes. Kaippa had said they were starving, and I had to believe that was true.

  But it didn’t change my feelings or decrease my level of fear. If anything, their desperation only made them more dangerous.

  What to do… Puke? Yes, I did feel like hurling my brains out, but that wouldn’t really get me anywhere. Scream my face off? Definitely a possibility. Fight? Yeah. I wouldn’t get them all, but they were going to hurt before they turned me into a Number Three on Weird Castle’s daily deal menu. I wished I had my escrima stick from my Modern Arnis self-defense training with Titus. From here on out, I was sleeping with both that and my knife.

  I began to whisper, hoping they would lean in so I could reach at least one of them. I started off with a blah blah blah, but then I thought maybe talking about some power they seemed to think I had would do more for me.

  “…power in my soul…I can’t handle it…the curse…” A hysterical giggle tried to crawl out of my mouth, but I tamped it down as I peeked at the men. So this was how it felt to have far too much adrenaline zipping through one’s system. Not fun.

  “What is she saying?” Aurelio pushed his blond hair back.

  Lucus murmured something I couldn’t understand. “I can’t tell.”

  “Did you work the language spell correctly?” the super creepy, red-lipped Kaippa whispered. A vampire, my brain reminded me. That dude was a vampire. A breath shuddered out of me, fear biting into my heart.

  “For the thousandth time, it’s not a spell,” Lucus grumbled, running a hand through his short, black hair. The emerald streaks I’d noticed earlier were almost impossible to see.

  “Magic. Fine. Inner magic.” I could practically hear the eye roll in Kaippa’s snake-like voice.

  A small growl issued from Baccio. “It works off the trees’ connection to the earth, fool. You’re lucky it even works for you, vampire.”

  Kaippa snorted a laugh. “Hey, I spend my life buried in the damned earth just like the rest of you all.”

  “It’s not the same,” Baccio retorted.

  “Tell your precious trees that, because I can understand all the voices from that town just fine, and I can speak their language, too. In fact, I’m probably better at human jargon than you, you uptight, royal pain in the ass.”

  “Shh. I’m trying to listen.” Aurelio’s voice was a tenor to their baritones.

  I peered through my partially closed eyes as he bent over my face.

  “Don’t get so close, Aurelio.” Lucus gripped Aurelio and yanked him back.

  Then the lean Baccio snatched my hair, one of his nails cutting into my scalp as he pulled my head toward his pointed ear. “Speak, human.”

  Pain lashed across my head. It was pretty stupid of him to let my big mouth get so close to his weird-ass ear.

  I shrieked like a maniac.

  Baccio lurched backward, releasing me. I jumped to my feet and pushed a kick into Lucus’s stomach, knocking him sideways, into Aurelio.

  I sped from the dark room where they had laid me out like a slab of roast beef, my lungs on fire and my body numb with fear.
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  Chapter 7

  Vines slithered out of the stone walls and grabbed my legs. My palms hit the cold floor, and my chin smacked the ground. Blood warmed my mouth and pooled under my face as the vines dragged me back into the room.

  The thick, woody vines curled up my body, then raised me to standing. Lucus strode over like it was your average Friday afternoon instead of the horror flick this was turning into. His hands flexed by his sides. His gaze slid up my neck, hesitating at my split chin for a moment before his eyes met mine. My body warmed to him, my mouth going dry at the thought of how those hands might feel on my thighs, even though it was completely not okay. What was this called? Stockholm Syndrome. That was it. I really had thought I was better than that, but here I was, feeling his magical lustery all over again. But I’d be damned if I showed it.

  I glared and planned to pinch the dog shit out of his man bits if he got close enough. My fingers were free to move between the vines pinning my arms to my sides, so it was a possible defense. Of course, the vines might decide to end me anaconda style, but—

  “I did try to do this the easy way, Coren Connelly.” Lucus’s lips twitched like he might have been amused.

  “What do you want with me?”

  “I’m sure you’ve already figured out that we are not human like you.”

  “You know what? I’m not interested in your backstory, you sexy version of Peter Pan, you. Let me go, or my friends will be here soon with the cops. Then it’ll be off to the big house for you and your CW-looking crew here.”

  Kaippa sauntered over. “You’d make a great vampire, Coren. If I weren’t trapped in a cursed castle, doomed to travel the ley lines with these do-gooders, I’d be asking you to join me.”

  “They’re do-gooders? I think you need to do a reset on that language magic of yours because there is zero good about holding someone hostage and strangling her with plant life.”