Long Live the Queen (The Immortal Empire) by Kate Locke Page A

as the metal gate of the lift rattled open. “Just the bite to my arm. She would have got my throat if I hadn’t anticipated where she was going to strike.” I stepped into the vestibule that led to my door. “She’s strong, Vex.”
    He shot me a glance. “Yeah, I found that out first hand. Or did you think I let her use me as a chew toy?”
    I opened my mouth to make a smart-arse reply, and stopped. He’d been mauled, had seen his dead son’s face on someone else’s body, and had just watched me bleed. And then the person responsible for all three had got away from us. Of course he was in a foul state. So was I.
    Instead of saying something, I turned to him, put my arms around his waist and pressed myself against him, my head resting on his shoulder. The feel and the warmth of him did more for my mood than any drug could have. His arms closed over my back.
    “Tell me you don’t blame me for this.” Knowing it in my heart and hearing it from him were two different things.
    “You’re not to blame for any of it,” he replied. I could feel the rumble of his voice in his chest. “You were born an exceptionto the rule and have been exploited for most of your life. The only difference now is that you’re aware of it.”
    That was true. If this kind of rubbish had been going on and I didn’t know I was a goblin, I’d be as confused as hell, but it would still go on, because the aristos behind these labs had known about me since before I was born.
    When that were attacked my mother while she was pregnant with me, he couldn’t have known what his bite would do to her unborn child. He changed my plague-carrying mother into a wolf like himself because she was susceptible to the Prometheus protein, and when those genes got up close and personal with the vampire ones I’d inherited from my father, I became a goblin. As far as I know, I’m the first one to ever walk in the daylight and have no fur or snout. I had heard a rumour about another queen before me, however. And there was that odd and ancient-looking crown in the plague den.
    Speaking of queens… “How much of this do we have to tell Victoria?”
    Vex chuckled, and directed me towards the darkened kitchen – insulated blinds kept my flat fairly lightless. “She probably knows as much as we do by now. She’s got eyes everywhere, the news on the box, and Special Branch on rapid-dial.”
    I should have known. “Brilliant.” I sighed and began pulling ingredients out of the ice box and cupboards for a meal before bed. The steaks were thick and beautifully marbled. They were beef, but had been marinating in a mixture of garlic, human blood, herbs and spices for almost twenty-four hours. The blood made the meat taste practically human, though there was nothing quite like the real thing.
    “At least she won’t be able to accuse you of harbouring a murderer.”
    “Not any more.” I began cutting up cold potatoes to fry as he took care of the meat. I paused. “She’s a rutting mess, isn’t she? Ali, I mean.”
    Vex smiled slightly as he popped some butter into the frying pan for the potatoes. “I know who you meant. I’m afraid so. Although it would help if we knew for exactly what purpose she was created. I’m still inclined to see her as a weapon.”
    “Against humans?” I dumped the slices into the crackling butter. “Bit of overkill, don’t you think?”
    “No.” His tone was soft. “Not against humans.”
    If glances could be sharp, he’d be bleeding all over my sideboard. “Against me?” The fact that I hadn’t already gone there in a paranoid rush was unsettling.
    “Most likely – and any other freak, goblin or were who gets in their way.”
    I didn’t bristle at his use of the word “freak”. I knew how he meant it, even if modern connotations were more insulting. His son was included under that term, so it wasn’t a slur, and I was too tired to correct him.
    “They’d be taking a huge risk thinking they can control