My Vampire Queen

Walking down a busy sidewalk changes when you have a large man next to you and one behind you. Everyone gave us a foot or two if they could as we walked, even in the stores. The only people to approach were workers at said stores who were more than happy to help us with anything we needed. I luckily had Nathan to do most of the chatting, I wasn’t used to all this attention from the workers. Or from the others shopping who were giving our group a funny look. The shopping passed by fast, we were in and out of stores, less buying and more just having a good time looking around. We finished with the stores on the mile, and the Best Buy I had asked Nathan to stop at. I was cuddling up to Bjorn in the back seat of the car as Nathan drove. Sure the back seat was big enough for Bjorn, Vinny, and I, I didn’t have to be glued to Bjorn’s side through the drive. I couldn’t help it. I wanted to touch him even if it was innocently.

He wasn’t stopping me anyway, in fact, he had his arm firmly around me pulling me flush to his side. His thumb moved up and down on my hip as he watched out the windows alert for anything. Even though we were in a moving car.

“It’s getting too late to eat out at a restaurant.” Bjorn points out and I follow his eyesight to the horizon that’s turning orange. “Thralls only come out in the dark, like old tales of vampires they cannot be in the sun without burning.”

“They don’t burst into flames sadly,” Nathan adds. “It’s more like a chemical burn that develops as they stay in the sun.”

“Is there a way we can tell if there are any thralls around?” I ask them, Nathan shakes his head.

Bjorn is the one to answer. “If we could feel or sense them in some way we Queens would just hunt them down. It isn’t until they are within twenty feet of you that you know what they are.”

“We can just order for dinner then.” I lay my head on Bjorn’s shoulder. He moves so I can comfortably lay my head on his chest. All the activities yesterday and today had worn me out. I’m used to watching Netflix and playing video games all day. Not running around shopping all day. It felt good though, to have two days of just shopping around, something I never had gotten to do. I was always to upset at the fact that I had to watch every penny I spent. And that made me think back to some of those times, with family members.

Pulling my phone out of my bag I pull up Facebook, somewhere I haven’t gone in about two years. It made me to depressed. Now I go on with a mission, to message one of my older sisters and two friends from childhood. I don’t care that I hadn’t spoken to them in years, I asked if they had Cash App or PayPal. I would send them a small chunk of money for now, until I can talk to Tabitha about something bigger to help them out. It was the least I could do to help the people I had once been so close to.

“You feed from Caine?” Bjorn asks.

“I did, not a lot but I did,” I answer back putting my phone back in my bag. Maybe that’s why I was feeling so run down. “He said he wouldn’t be able to be around much because I have a protection around me that’s still coming off.”

“Hmm.” Bjorn ponders and I feel something brush.. something. It was like energy brushing up to mine, and I could feel the warmth and a sense of safety with it. “I was wondering why we weren’t connecting as quickly. The demons right you have a protection spell that’s cracking at the seams. It’ll hinder our bonding but help protect your aura from being seen.”

“So a bad and good thing,” I said and he nods. “I was able to feel some of Caine’s emotions yesterday.”

“Caine feeds from you every time he touches you.” Bjorn pointed out. True. “Admittedly we haven’t been feeding you as much as I would have liked.”

“We should have been in bed all day feeding you, in blood, sex, and food,” Nathan said throwing me a cheeky smile in the review mirror. “But we can start once we get back.”

His cheeky smile makes me smile back, I try to will myself not to blush at the thought of being in bed all day with them. I would need to get over my shyness. Hopefully being with multiple partners will help with that. Bjorn’s hand slips up to my side and he asks. “Did he speak to you about anything else?”

“Yeah,” I said remembering my curiosity. “He mentioned something about spells and charms but didn’t go into detail. I have gathered there are other supernaturals, so are there witches? What do they do if we can do spells and charms?”

Bjorn makes a humming noise and I can see he was trying to think of how to explain this to me. It was something he had grown up knowing, how do you explain that to someone when you’ve never had to before? “Witches and Amina both come from Gods and Goddess, but most witches are from Slavic, Norse, and Druid Gods and Goddess. Amina from Egyptian, Roman, and Greek.”

“I’d guess your Norse?” I get a nod from him.

“Both Nathan and I are, it’s rarer for Amina to be born from those Gods and Goddesses but not impossible. The same goes for the opposite.” I guess that could make sense, different cultures have different things but one culture easily leaks into the other. Plus I wasn’t going to question the whys of magic. I just nod so Bjorn goes on. “Because we are so similar the structure is similar. Queens have Blood and a court, witches have covens. A Queen like a single witch can have their base power which can range greatly, but can be elevated by taking on more into their base of power.”

“Okay, I get that,” I said. “Witches work in covens and work together for more power? Like in all the folklore and movies?”

“Essentially, though I’m sure some movies are off.” He said, continuing he adds. “Queens can cast spells and make charms or potions. They are hard to learn and can be dangerous if done even slightly wrong. Witches are different, they have a sense of if something is wrong with what they are making. At least with the more powerful witches.”

“Is the only difference that we have a Queen and Blood who feed through blood?” That sounds like a smaller difference in the grand scale of things.

Shaking his head he adds. “Amina more so use our raw power to perform magic, witches use ingredients and props than a ritual to draw power from where ever they draw it from. To perform something large a Queen just needs to be powerful enough by herself, witches need a coven to pool their magics together.”

“Is there a book I can learn from?” I ask them and I see Nathan shrug as Bjorn looks at him.

“If there’s a book your mom would have hidden it so other Queens wouldn’t get it.” Nathan is the one to answer and I sigh. “We can ask Tabitha if she has an idea of where it is.” He suggests and I nod sadly.

A book without a scavenger hunt would have been nice. Bjorn pats my hip. “A powerful Queen like your mom should have one, we’ll find it at some point. Until then once Caine can come out well grill him for what he knows. Demons aren’t much different from witches, they just have a darker sort of magic.”

“At least that’s what we’ve heard.” Nathan puts in. “We are young for Amina and we’ve never held any type of title or power. We were low ranks in our last nest so no one gave up information for nothing.”

“Don’t ask a witch though, they are touchy on the subjects of demons,” Bjorn said and I hum a little. If they were touchy on the subject, how would they act when my first Blood happens to be a demon?

“Are there any other differences between us and witches?” I ask and Bjorn gives a curt nod.

“We are stronger, faster, and have better senses than witches, and humans. Witches can make potions or charms to match some of those, we have them naturally.”

That gives me pause to think about looking out the window. The passing cars are a blur as I think about how different life had become. The supernatural is real and it’s not exactly what I would have guessed it to be like. It makes me ask. “How many other supernaturals are real?”

“That is a loaded question because we could talk about that all night and still might not get through it,” Bjorn answers. Well damn, I had a lot to catch up on.