Birth of a queen, p.1
Birth of a Queen, page 1
Birth of a
Queen
TJ Lee
Copyright © 2023 The Weird World of TJ Lee
All rights reserved.
DEDICATION
To women everywhere. Our crowns may be tarnished, lopsided, missing pieces, or even invisible, but you were each born with a crown. You are all queens.
We birthed them, and we raised them. Many of them forget that they are nothing without us, it’s our job to remind them!
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Prologue | Grace
Chapter 1 | Grace
Chapter 2 | Deacon
Chapter 3 | Colton
Chapter 4 | Deacon
Chapter 5 | Grace
Chapter 6 | Grace
Chapter 7 | Deacon
Chapter 8 | Carrie
Chapter 9 | Carrie
Chapter 10 | Deacon
Chapter 11 | Deacon
Chapter 12 | Colton
Chapter 13 | Grace
Chapter 14 | Grace
Chapter 15 | Grace
Chapter 16 | Carrie
Chapter 17
Chapter 18 | Carrie
Chapter 19 | Deacon
Chapter 20 | Carrie
Chapter 21 | Colton
Chapter 22 | Grace
Chapter 23 | Grace
Chapter 24 | Grace
Chapter 25 | Carrie
Chapter 26 | Colton
Chapter 27 | Carrie
Chapter 28 | Grace
Chapter 29 | Grace
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Prologue
Grace
“Dude? What the hell? Why’d you shoot me?” Scott yelled from the couch in the other room.
“Gee. I don’t know. Maybe it’s because you just stole my car, nitwit.” Justin answered, with an eye roll no doubt.
“Children, if you can’t behave, then you don’t get to play.” I laughed at the tone Layla used as she playfully scolded the boys.
Things had certainly been different since Carter brought us to Mojave.
On the one hand, we were open for business, like every day. As though to demonstrate my mental point, my eyes floated up to Rachel, who was serving her second vamp of the night, at the table. As long as they played nice, and didn’t get greedy, Carter let some of his men have an all-access pass to his house.
To everyone except Todd and I anyway. Carter didn’t let them touch us.
We knew that going in though, we knew that was how it would be. We just didn’t know what else was going to happen.
On the other hand, while Los Angeles still had no power, everywhere else did. It was kind of nice to live in the modern age again. Carter had even been kind enough to choose a house that was not only large enough to hold all seven of us, but also came fully stocked to serve our needs. In other words, the boys had plenty of video games to play. Many of which some of us had never been able to play before.
Some of us, like Todd and myself, had never even played a video game before. Thanks to a lovely thing called the Foster System.
“Hey, Gracey. What ya cooking?” I felt the soft hand grip my waist as the man himself leaned over my shoulder.
We’d only been in Mojave for a little less than a week, but Todd had already settled nicely into the new role, our new way of life. He was calmer than ever before. He even seemed more relaxed than he was in our last foster home. Which was where we met for the first time, sort of. We did go to the same high school before that, just never spoke much to each other.
“Spaghetti. It’s not much, but it’s something at least.” I could feel him watching me. He knew my mind was elsewhere as I stirred the ground beef I was frying.
The other great thing about our new home. Carter made sure we had more than enough food for our needs. We were now eating three square meals a day and had all the snacks we wanted. If it weren’t for being on-call vampire chew toys, this life would be awesome. I could sort of understand why Todd was chill here, even with the vampires, this place was better than living with Pinky and the Brain (his terms of endearment for our last wardens).
Raya had offered to take my turn to make dinner tonight, they all knew my mind was constantly on the move, ever since the drones showed up. My visions were spotty at best, but I could feel something coming. It was that dark, ominous feeling you got when a movie turned to that slow dark music to build suspense.
Up until yesterday afternoon (which was like last night for us since we lived on a vampire schedule) we had only ever seen the drones policing the streets, terrorist style. If you stepped one foot out of line, it was your last step. I never realized they would also be used to send messages to the “New California Republic.”
At least now the others knew what Curtis’ voice sounded like. I only knew because of the visions I had had over the last few months.
Curtis was a vampire, one of the worst. A few months ago, he led a systematic, and successful, attack on California. Roads and buildings were bombed, vampires slaughtered thousands in their beds. Cities burned. And a wall around the state swiftly followed.
According to Curtis’ message, he was now in charge. San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles were going to be the vampire cities. The only humans allowed were the donors. All humans left in those cities, would be shipped off to the smaller cities. A census of every human was to be taken, and jobs assigned.
I worried for Carrie. She was a human friend of ours from the city. Well, actually, as we just found out, she was a pure-blooded witch. Turned out I was a witch too, not pure like her though, thankfully. The purer the blood the stronger the call our blood had to the vamps.
One of her mates, Deacon, was technically the Vampire Prince. Both of her mates were Vampire Borns, a more natural type of vampire. They were born vampires. The others, referred to as Nightwalkers, were created.
Curtis was Deacon’s enemy. And Carrie was the Vampire Born’s first chance in centuries at having another child. A son, of course, as a curse from a thousand years ago killed all their females and kept them from birthing more. It wasn’t exactly safe for a human, or a witch, to give birth to a vampire. But my vision showed that both her and the boy would survive.
Curtis was my target. When all this went down, I had visions of what we needed to do for us to survive. Todd and I created a group, a harem of sorts. Those visions led us to Deacon, who ran a bar in LA, these days catering mostly to vamps. Through him, we met Carter, who became one of our regulars. Carter was in charge of securing the wall in our region.
My vision said he would take me to Curtis.
With Deacon’s help, Todd made contact with the U.S. government, a Captain in the human Army sitting just on the other side of the wall. We now had a burner phone, so we could send any information we found directly to them.
Now, I just needed to become Curtis’ favorite pet, so I could hear things.
My eyes suddenly glazed over, as what I had been waiting for finally came. Todd, recognizing the signs, took the spatula from my hands and turned off the stove.
“We’ve got incoming.” He hollered out to the rest of our makeshift family. In the distance I could hear the tv being turned off, and footsteps running to join us
The first vision hit.
Deacon and Carrie were coming, they were approaching the wall, preparing to go through the gate. Only, the gate was no longer there. Carter and his men were ordered to block it up two days after we arrived. Deacon’s truck stopped when they saw it. After a few minutes, they started driving again.
Carter and his men stopped him at the nonexistent gate.
“Where you going, Deac? You shouldn’t be out here right now.”
“Open the gate, Carter.”
“Can’t do that. We’re under orders. What’s wrong? Why are you trying to run?” Carter could tell something was off. His men began gathering, preparing for a fight.
Deacon looked at Carrie, her powers were to read intent and being able to know a lie when she heard it. Deacon nodded at whatever she said.
“Sorry, Carter.” He backed up and then swung around.
I could see them driving along the wall for a few hours, trying to find another way out. By the time they reached where the next gate should have been, an army of vamps was waiting for them. In order to keep Carrie safe, Deacon had to surrender. The war would be over, and not in our favor.
The next vision hit right after, the alternative play.
This time, Carter didn’t go out on the defensive, this time, he went out in concern. They get out of the truck. Carter begged them to get to shelter before the sun finished coming up. Carrie climbed on Deacon’s back, and he jumped the wall. They were met by the human army, taken by them. I watched, waiting. The signs of their path continuing were there, just not the details.
I focused on the difference between the visions. How was I to get them to jump?
And there it was. I was with Carter in the second one.
I blinked my eyes, clearing the fog away, and looked at the clock. It was already past five. I had a little over an hour until Sunrise.
“I have to go, now.” I ran to the bedroom to grab my shoes, not paying attention to the people following.
“What happened? What did you see?” Todd asked as he chased after me. He at least knew better than to stop me.
“Deacon and Carrie are on the run. If I don’t get to that gat e before them, they are screwed.”
“Do you need us to come with you?” Raya asked with concern, she looked up to the older witch like she was an older sister of sorts. Raya and Carrie had been together during the first wave of attacks.
She stepped to Todd’s side as I slipped my last shoe on. Carter had been gracious enough to give us free reign in a Walmart the night after we got here. It had been a long time since I had a decent pair of shoes.
“No, just me. I need to lay the groundwork to knock Carter off balance, and to nudge Deacon in the right direction.”
“Which is?”
“Up.” I ran around them and headed for the door, grabbing the keys to a jeep we had use of. “I’ll be back, stay here.”
Chapter 1
Grace
“Hey, pussy cat. What are you doing out here?” Carter grinned as I pulled up to where he kept a tent for an office. The moon shined off his nearly bald head.
They typically worked 24-hour shifts and needed protection during the day. It wasn’t technically a tent, more like one of those collapsible roof things I’d seen people use at the park, with dark tarps hanging down the sides.
I ran straight at him and jumped on his chest, knowing he responded better to this. Once my legs were tightly wrapped around his waist I leaned back and looked at him.
“I missed you.” I pushed out my lower lip in a pout. “You were gone when I woke up and hadn’t been back.”
“Awe, kitty, you know I have to work.” Carter loved it when Todd and I acted like we were more attached to him then he was to us. Vampires, no matter the brand, were territorial and possessive. And men in general were ego maniacs.
I bit my lip and pretended to fight a grin. “That’s why I thought I could come visit you. I knew you were on duty all night, so I thought maybe you could use a little snack.” I tightened my grip on his neck and moved in a little closer. “Is it okay that I came?”
The whites of his eyes began to glow, a low growl coming from him at the same time. Man, he was so easy to manipulate.
Carter carried me to the makeshift wall and pressed my back against it, all the while, releasing his other beast. We learned a long time ago to mentally check out while the vamps fed and did whatever else they wanted. If we let our minds get involved, it didn’t work out so well.
It wasn’t just the blood the vampires craved. It was the chemicals in our blood. Certain activities were known to heighten our production of those chemicals. Something vampire bodies had difficulty doing.
If our minds were too involved then our bodies wouldn’t react the right way, nor would they create those chemicals. In order to survive, we needed them too.
I was almost 18, and I had basically handed myself over to the vampires as a plaything. The adult’s plan to take out the vampires was to go to war and fight back. While that probably worked for most wars, it wouldn’t for this one. Their typical type of spies would never be able to slide into Curtis’ entourage.
Vampires thought of humans as nothing more than pets. So, that was the part we played. We were young, we were healthy, and we were overlooked.
“Thank you, kitty. You can come visit me anytime you want. I’m surprised you didn’t bring Todd with you.”
I looked down, pretending to be shy. My eyes landed on the blood that was still dripping down my chest. Carter liked to watch his artwork for a bit after he was done feeding.
“I snuck out. I wanted you all to myself for a change.”
Carter barked out a laugh, then leaned down and licked the blood off me. Not in the right spot for his saliva to heal me, more like around it. And only just enough to clean off some of the blood dripping down. I gave him a soft moan, as it was in a delicate spot, and it helped sell my reason for being there.
“Can I stay for a little bit? I’m not ready to leave you yet.” Playing into his ego was always a winner. And a little tiring, to be honest.
Carter reacted immediately, he set me down and pushed me to the ground. We had played at him Deac’s bar for weeks before he finally brought us back with him. I knew what he wanted, and I knew what would get him to let me stay for a while.
A few minutes later, he finally sealed my chest and then led me back to his tent. I barely stepped foot inside before Carter heard something in the distance. Nightwalker hearing wasn’t as good as the Vampire Borns, but it was still better than mine.
I stopped with him and looked in the same direction he was. “Isn’t that Deacon’s truck? Why is he all the way out here?”
“I don’t know, kitty. Maybe he needed more supplies?”
“The gate is closed, Carter.”
“Yeah, but not everyone knows that.” His eyes scrunched, looking at the passengers closer. “He’s got Carrie with him. He never takes Carrie outside of the bar. Something is very wrong with this. Is he trying to run?” The closer the truck got; the more defensive Carter became.
Now for the real reason why I came out. “Carter, the sun is going to be up soon. It’s not safe. We need to get him inside.”
Carter glanced up at the sky, which was already a smidge lighter. He mumbled a curse and half ran to where Deacon was stopping the truck.
“What are you doing here, Deac? Didn’t you get the message from Curtis?”
“No, but I heard about it from my customers. Why’d you block the gate?”
“Orders. I don’t ask, I just follow. Why are you here?” He looked up at the sky again and shook his head. “Forget it. Come with me to safety, you can explain once we are undercover. This has got to be the stupidest thing I have ever seen you do.” Carter took a few steps back toward me as Deacon and Carrie climbed out of the car.
I could see Deacon whispering something to her before they got out. They didn’t come our way though, instead they both walked to the front of his truck.
“You coming or what?” I hadn’t ever heard Carter’s voice shake like that before. He was close enough to the tent that he would get back inside before the sun came up, so he wasn’t worried about himself. He was only worried about his friend.
I took a few steps forward, drawing Deacon and Carrie’s attention. Carrie gave me that look, the same one she did when I saw them in the bar last, with Deacon’s hand on her stomach, the happy little couple that just found out she was pregnant. She was silently asking me to look into the future again. This time I already had.
My eyes shot toward the wall and then to Deacon, and I nodded minimally. Deacon nodded back, understanding my meaning. I gave my friend one small farewell smile.
“Deacon! Come on! Your little mate can catch up with Gracey inside. Let’s go.” Carter ran backward further as the sun broke over the mountains, his hand slid protectively behind my back as he reached safety.
“Don’t think so, Carter. I’m sorry to do this to you. You’ve been a good friend for many decades. I’m glad you are doing well. But it’s time I stop hiding. It’s time to take care of my mate and unborn son. It’s time to take my place at my father’s side.”
Deacon squatted down in front of Carrie, his eyes on me, seeking confirmation. I nodded just a smidge again. Yes, this was the right path. I wished I could warn them about what they were going to run into on the other side of the wall, but there was no way to do that. Nor was I sure if I was supposed to.
Once upon a time, I shared everything I saw with my friends. Carrie taught me not too. She was the first witch I had ever met. That I knew of anyway. Her mom had my same powers, so she was able to give me a few pieces of advice before Carter took us away. I liked the older witch and wished we had had more time together.
“What the hell are you talking about, man? Curtis ain’t gonna care about your human mate, or her kid. Just get over here bef... oh... holy...” Carter was cut off as the sun hit Deacon and Carrie like a spotlight on a stage.
Carter jumped back, cursing, expecting to see his longtime friend begin to burn.
Deacon turned his face toward the sun, a soft smile playing on his lips. Carrie tightened her arms around her mate’s neck, locking her legs around his waist. Not one of the many vampires in the tent with us said a word, beyond their first colorful ones anyway. My favorite was the “bloody, hell” that was said in a very thick English accent. It kind of reminded me of the way Ron Weasley always said it in the movies.
