They crashed to the floor once more—arms entwined, legs flailing to land kicks. Dracul was hard and the scent of his coming caught Alex by surprise. The son of a bitch is getting off on this battle. His momentary distraction allowed Dracul an opening. His fangs struck for Alex’s neck. He moved away just in time. They sank into his shoulder and a chunk of it came off when he tore himself free. He rolled rapidly away to give himself time to recoup his breath. The pain of his wound was fiery. He ignored it and kept his focus on his adversary.
Dracul was also winded, crouching at a distance, watching Alex with feral eyes…crazy eyes. It was only in that moment that Alex truly realized that their kind could lose their sanity, much as humans could. It hadn’t been something he’d ever heard of back on the home world. Earth had changed them as much as they had it. But as he struggled to regain his strength, he started seeing a different image. It was so sharp and clear that it made him think he was also going mad. No longer was Dracul in front of him. Instead it was Quinn, covered in blood from a bullet wound to his arm. He wasn’t standing or even crouching. He was covering another boy to keep him safe. He had come so close to losing his boy.
Never again. Alex roared loud enough to shake the room—or so it seemed to him. When he charged and grabbed hold of Dracul, he didn’t let go until he found an opening to bite his neck. His fangs sank in quick and deep. Blood flooded his mouth and throat in such a quantity that he choked on it. He held the struggling body in his grasp and drank and drank until there was no more movement and his arms came together as the ashy remains of Dracul slipped through them.
Alex fell to his knees, unseeing and deaf to whatever was going on around him. He felt hands on him then heard Harry’s voice. Something about seeing to his shoulder.
“Leave it!” Am I shouting? “Leave it,” he repeated in a more normal tone.
“If I don’t treat it now, you’ll forever have a chunk of your shoulder missing.”
“Good. It will remind me of my hubris in thinking that I could control this wretched creature.” He curled his fingers around the ash and made a tight fist.
Malcolm dropped down in front of him. “Alex, Claude is on the comms, telling us to turn on the screen to any news channel.”
He came back to himself rapidly at that statement. Standing, he gently brushed Harry away and tossed the remnants of Dracul from his hand. Will had already found the remote and was turning on the screen at the other end of the room. Annika’s beautiful face came into focus.
“What. The. Fuck!” Will stared up at his daughter with his mouth open.
“This is unexpected,” Alex heard himself say as he walked—staggered, really—closer to the image.
As they watched, Annika said, “People of Earth, hello and please do not be afraid. I mean you no harm. I have commandeered the satellites orbiting this planet to deliver this message to all of you at once. There is no need to panic.
“I am Annika.” She gave a beatific smile, broad and with her fangs flashing. “I am your Queen.”
Epilogue
Willem, Damien and Annika
“I do not understand, Papa. Why are all the people of Earth making fun of me? Look at these mean memes of me.” She held up her tablet, her face scrunched in a pout that verged on a full-on hissy fit. “It’s been weeks and still it keeps happening. And why do they keep referring to my transmission to them as ‘fake news’?” She stamped her foot. “I am not fake.”
Gently taking the tablet away from her, Willem tried to sound sympathetic instead of the very relieved that he was. “You have to understand, honey, that the humans have reached a point in their technology where almost anything can be manufactured, altered and disputed. Despite your managing to transmit to every billboard and network and cable channel, they think it was all an elaborate hoax. They don’t believe that aliens or vampires are real.”
She folded her arms and tapped her dainty feet. “I shall prove them wrong. They’ll see. I am real and I am their Queen.”
Damien joined them on the couch with a plate of brownies. “Eventually. It will take some time, thank God. And don’t be surprised that no one agrees with you about who’s in charge. We humans have a long history of revolting against despots.” His tone was gentle, but Willem knew how pissed his lover still was about Annika’s antics. If nothing else, discovering that she’d stowed away in a trunk had ‘scared the shit out of him’. His words.
In contrast, Will’s own reaction was more anger than fear. At that point, Dracul had been killed and the mercenaries neutralized. All that had been left was to leave. Annika had sailed out of the computer room where she and Merlin had holed up until she’d made her announcement, serene and certain that her rule had started. Her deviousness had stunned him and now, weeks later, he was ready to deal with her more calmly. The fact that no one believed her was helpful. No, that wasn’t entirely true. Val had picked up on message boards where a small but growing group of supplicants was gathering. Some humans believed in her and longed to find their new alien messiah. Will intended to keep that information from her for as long as he could.
Damien pushed the plate closer to her. “Here… Sit and have a brownie while we talk punishment.”
Annika bounced onto the sofa beside him and grabbed both the snack and her dog. “No, Babette, no chocolate for you. You know that. It was very nice of Mackie to watch her for me when he learned that I was gone. I worried that I hadn’t left enough food and water for her up here.”
Ah yes, clever girl that she was, she’d professed to be locking herself in her room until her dear papas returned. In reality, she had been curled up in a truck in stasis—and who the fuck knew that was a thing with queens?—while her little dog pissed and shit her way around the suite. Thank God for Lucien and his magical cleaning skills, because that would have sucked to come home to.
Annika paused in mid-bite. “What do you mean ‘punishment’?”
Damien shot him a look that said, You’re up, Dad.
With a sigh, Will perched on the edge of the sofa beside her. “The thing is, honey, that what you did was reckless. It endangered not only you but Alun as well. And Damien also, because once he realized you were running toward mercenaries, he had to go after you.”
“I would have never forgiven myself if anything bad had happened to you,” his lover agreed. No, fiancé now, because yeah, Will had asked and Damien had said yes. This marriage thing was catching on like fire.
Will allowed himself a second to grin like an idiot at his fearless human. “So, that meant that the two people I love most in the whole universe were in trouble and I wasn’t in a position to help either of you. Knowing that makes me sick to my stomach.”
Annika’s eyes got misty. “But, Papa, I was never in any danger. I can take care of myself, and I knew that you and the warriors would defeat those bad men.”
“While I appreciate your faith in us, it could have ended very badly if not for you, for Alun and-or Damien. Do you understand that it wasn’t fair of you to involve Alun, not to mention Merlin? He risked his life a dozen times over to do your bidding.”
“And in doing so, he saved Mr. Dafydd and baby Idris. That was important for the good of the hive, as are my efforts to bring this world into it. The humans can’t be trusted to govern themselves. I will set them on the right course.”