Walking through the top floor of an abandoned construction project, Anjael look at the black marble floors then she wandered out into the covered atrium garden that was never installed. The fabric shade cloth was torn. With the Las Vegas Coven and the Water Moon pack both missing, the financing dried up for the multi-use building. She smirked thinking how cheaply she purchased the property. Soon it would be high-end apartments with exclusive retail space in the bottom. She planned on keeping the penthouse for herself. The garden atrium was the main reason.

Leaping up through the roof opening, she looked across the city at the Luxor hotel's pyramid. She raised a hand to her uncle. He was watching her from behind the safety of UV light-proof glass. The humans created sunscreens powerful enough to protect him during the morning and evening, but like the vampires, Ouroboros still could not bare the light of the noon sun, it hurt him far worse than her or Dart. Turning, she looked toward the sunset. The light felt like standing too close to a furnace, but she welcomed the burn.

As she watched the lights of the city started to come on, she considered which club she would go to tonight. The Burn, as the pills Dart gave to Biaz were called, were quickly replacing Ecstasy as the drug of choice because they contained nothing considered illegal in the human legal system. It caused hallucinations, insanity, and eight more deaths had been attributed to anaphylaxis.

"You are quite beautiful, day-walker." A voice as deep as her uncle's interrupted her.

"I know." She walked out of sight of the intruder and made a gesture at her uncle then glanced over her shoulder at the sunset before hoping back down through a tear in the shade-cloth. She needed to stall them for at least twenty minutes.

"You're trespassing in my territory." Her Demoness growled in her mind because there were three Bibre Cruor in her building without permission.

"You trespassed in ours a few months ago."

"I did not. My plane did not land in Italy, and you have no queen, Romani." Anjael walked around the large male, like a cat stalking a mouse. "So, if this is about your clan's egg, speak to Echidna, she kept the egg Invictus sired."

"She never revealed Invictus sired an egg with her," he growled.

"He didn't. When I laid Thaumas' egg, there was a second one, his... If you wish, I will go with you to speak to her." Anjael offered, hoping to finally discern her enemy's location after so many centuries. "If you want a Romani-sired offspring, I already provided one."

The Cruor male snorted, shaking his head as if he didn't believe her. He was older, and looked very distinguished in his expensive suit. "I am no longer a Romani. I do not care if Invictus sired an egg. I want one and it is my right to demand one."

"Did she give you one?"

"Queen Echidna refused to accept me unless we brought you to her." He revealed, "She says you owe her because you ate your attendants and tried to kill her brother. She said being a daywalker has made you insane."

Anjael tipped her head at him barely sparing a glance to the other Cruor in the shadows. "Technically, those first two statements are true, but it isn't polite to call someone with PTSD, insane."

They stared at her for a moment, so she goaded them, "Did Echidna give you her blood to show you this contrived narrative?" Anjael demanded.

When they didn't answer, she laughed. "Would you like to know the whole truth, not-Romani males?"

"What are you accusing your fellow queen of?" the older demanded.

"I claim treachery. She chained me with emerald, threw me in a dark thermal spring cave where her brother and his Romani lover raped me for my entire pregnancy and half of my egg-watch. Then they left me and my feeders there to die. One by one, the human succumbed, and in the end, I was forced to eat their corpses to live long enough from my eggs to hatch." She trembled at the horrifying memory of praying penitence in wretched sobs as she chewed the bones of those who futilely tried their best to stay alive and escape with her. Her scent seemed to disturb the youngest as the other two simply stared at her.

"I refuse to believe she left you to starve... And she would have been happy about two eggs from you," the elder son of the leader refuted her.

Tipping her head at him, she demanded, "What is your name?"

"Jalan."

"Well, Jalan, you would think that considering how few of us there are... But when she scented that the second male belonged to Invictus and not Thaumas, she accused me of trying to deceive her." She pointed at the father and demanded, haughtily, "You, Not-Romani, are going to tell me where she is so I may retrieve my children and kill her."

"She is the eldest queen, you cannot kill her," the youngest one in the back protested.

"Yes, actually, I can, and I will. You see, after the three years of torture she put me through, I never even got to scent my sons out of their shell. Echidna put me a ship to your former clan and told me I would be their breeder next but the ship encountered a storm... Because she had them told I was a demon being sent to the Vatican, I was thrown into the sea with my wings still chained and sank to the bottom. I wandered in the darkness for months. All I thought about in that dark hell was recovering my offspring and gorging on her blood after forcing her to drink mine so she would see the truth of what her brother did." The memory of trudging through the frigid darkness at the bottom of the Mediterranean and the horror of her imprisonment pushed against the walls that protected her sanity.

"No, queen would do that another," Jalan refuted her. "You're lying."

"Am I?" She held out her arm to the one in the middle. "Go ahead, read my blood memories. I have nothing to hide."

Jalan shook his head but the youngest one looked at the elder Cruor who nodded once. Coming forward cautiously, he pressed a fang to her arm and drew in the blood. When he lifted his head away, she seized him around the neck with her tail and forced him to her knees.

"Submit," Anjael hissed.

He trembled for a moment then cried out as she forced him to relive those three and a half years in rapid succession. He sobbed and curled on his side as she was tackled and knocked away from him. Her demoness immediately emerged and clawed the face of the male Cruor, blinding him. He bellowed in pain but before he could change forms, she ripped open his throat, intaking some of his blood before she bit through his spine to severe it completely, showering her in a fountain of blood. She stood in front of the cowering, whimpering youngest who was still suffering her memories and the shocked elder.

"I am not the same helpless female Echidna imprisoned and let be tortured."

Scarlet rivets dripped down her pale flesh onto the black marble floor. She looked like a statue from a horror movie as she contemplated the head of the Cruor male she just killed. Her eyes twitched back and forth as she read the now dead one's memories. She dropped the head on the floor next to his half-brother with a squishy thump.

"So, Chiafas of not-Romani, you thought you could come here and just kidnap me. That I would submit to the horror I suffered 600 years ago again, like a meek little poppet." She grimaced in a terrifyingly beautiful way, showing all her pointed mother-of-pearl teeth. She laughed malevolently while she stalked toward the eldest of the three. "I am the northern queen. That weak child who believed in the benevolence of the others of our kind died on the floor of the sea."

"You did not need to kill my son." He immediately grew into his gargoyle demon form. She stood still and let him circle her, placing himself between her and his youngest son. "We would not have hurt you, Anutari. We only want what was promised by the covenant of queens. We are owed an egg and will join your clan if you require." He pulled the still whimpering male to toward the atrium.

"Liar..." she mocked with a smirk. "I read Jalan's memories as he died. You held no intent of joining my clan or you would have approached my uncle. You intended to kill him and abduct me for a breeder then hand me back to my enemy in exchange for eggs from her to start your own clan." Her Demoness was completely in control now and turned to face them, before looking upward. "How do you feel about that, Uncle? About your old acquaintance plotting to kill you and steal me?"

Ouroboros deep rumbling growl came from above the atrium then he dropped beside her. "I think they are fools to believe Queen Echinda would reward anyone not of her blood with anything except death once she gets what she wants." His giant, dark demon-form looked like shadow and loam had been compressed into stone as it dropped heavily into the dead garden. "Have you really become such a desperate fool, Chiafas?"

"What am I to do? She is obviously insane, but she the only female breeding available to egg..."

"You will speak to me, not of me!" Anjael shouted at him. "I am not insane! I am not a thing to be raped and abused!" She leaped at him before he could take his youngest son and escape out the open roof.

Dartanian dropped out of the sky and kicked the retreating male back toward Anjael. The younger rolled away from his father. Her claws tore at Chiafas' throat but he blocked her attack with his wings. Knocking her back, she rolled back to her feet, leapt behind him and clawed the back of his leg, hamstringing him.

"You fight like a Lycani! You even carry the stench of an alpha. They are easy to enthrall." He managed to claw her side. "I will not submit."

"You wish I fought like them! A strong Cruor can survive a pack attack, but you will never leave here." She mocked as she shredded his wings so he couldn't fly until he healed. She flipped him and slide across the black marble and through the blood of his eldest son. As she stalked toward him, her Demoness purred, "You should have chosen to act with honor, Chiafas. Jalan deserved his death for the abuse he heaps on females and his brother. What do you deserve?"

He leapt at her again, but she blocked his claws effortlessly, and he realized she was toying with him. A moment later, she broke both his shoulders then slung him toward her clan. Dart and Ouro forced the elder male to his knees in front of her. Shishi bounded up the stairs, holding a short katana case in his mouth. He sat next to her as she purred her appreciation in a deep trill.

"Thank you, my Lion-dog. I am so happy you chose to join my clan rather than trying to usurp it." She looked at Chiafas with hatred. "I welcome all who come to me in honesty regardless of their birth or status. They are all equal in my clan."

She pulled out the blade and Chiafas jerked away from the solid emerald blade as she stroked his cheek with it. "Yes, my clan lives with and loves Lycani. One even gave me this, his only way to kill our kind, as a sign of peace and trust. A single one of them is more loyal than all our kin... Most of the Bibre Cruor have become no better than Deamones." She shoved the blade though his stone flesh between his circulatory organ and the nerve bundle that made it beat. He panted against the pain as he was held in place.

Bending, she glared into his eyes. "I am going to drink your blood; it is going to hurt. What I see will determine if your youngest offspring lives as my thrall or joins you in hell, but I am not a monster and will give you one chance to save both of you and leave my territory alive... Tell me where Echidna is."

"Never."

Dartanian seized his horn and wretched his head sideways. "Answer, my queen."

Chaifas repeated, "Never."

Anjael mauled his shoulder as she took his blood. She stood then looked down to the side with twitching eyes, watching his memories. After a few moments, she snarled and ripped the blade from Chiafas' chest and began stabbing him over and over as Dart and Ouro backed away quickly as her demoness lost control. The males tried not to look or smell shocked by her violence while Shishi backed way whimpering. Chiafas howled in agony, but his inhuman screams soon became whimpers of anguish before she slammed the blade through the top of his head then split his skull like a melon. She stood shaking and spattered with blood as his corpse fell to the side and started to turn to stone.

"What did you see, my niece?" Ouro asked softly.

"My queen?" Dartanian gently prodded as Chiafas's corpse began to petrify. "Anjael, what did you see?"

"He hasn't seen Echidna since the Black Death... Invictus gave Chiafas his blood. Gave him the message from Echidna. That cursed Romani showed him how to subdue me and what he and Thaumas did... He... they... they laughed about it." She sobbed into her hand, then murmured, "Take this before I kill Ioudas out of spite."

Shaking, Anjael held the blade to Shishi, the Chinese Cruor shifted and took the blade with the utmost care and reverence, cleaning it with a silk cloth before sheathing it as he insisted, "My queen, there was no dishonor in what you did or if you choose to kill the younger one. They threatened you and all of us."

"I won't... go through... it again... I won't."

Shrinking to her mortal form, she let Shishi lead her down the hall to a bathroom. The water was cold, but not as cold as the bottom of the Mediterranean. She didn't care as long as it washed the blood away. The memories wouldn't stop and she was forced to live through her worst moments, from the point of view shared by the one who enjoyed it most.

Listening to the water running and his queen's sobs, Dartanian dragged the corpse of Jalan into the atrium, then did the same with Chiafus. His fists pounded them into unrecognizable chunks. Ioudas still laid on his side but now in his mortal as he clutched his father's stone head. Ouroboros knelt in front of him.

"Look at me, son of Chiafus."

Ioudas looked up, with tears leaking down his face. "I d-didn't know. I d-didn't know that was what they planned to d-do to her again... Why... Why can't I s-see any of her other memories?"

"Because Queens can limit the memories they share and that one is strongest because she still struggles with the weight of it... You need to come with me, feed, and sleep. Tomorrow we will talk about the horror you saw. I will teach you how to cope," Ouroboros used his gentlest tone.

"What about my father and brother?" Ioudas murmured tearfully.

"They are dead, you are not."

"Can... can I go home to Italy? Please. I didn't want to leave our clan, some were kind to me," the young Cruor begged.

Ouroboros could smell Ioudas' blood and knew he was almost the same age as Dartanian. He regrated for a moment that he was not one of Anjael's sons because Ioudas was hatched around the same time as Anjael's eggs. "We will fly you there, if the queen permits it, but you belong to her now. You were captured and can be claimed as tribute."

"So I'm a slave?'

"No." Dartanian interrupted, "Our queen allows no slaves or unwilling thralls. We are all equal in her eyes."

"I don't understand. Who am I supposed to serve?" Ioulas looked truly confused.

Shishi came down the hall. "Yourself... and the clan of the Norte Queen... Lord Ouro, she needs you. She... the memories... Her Demoness as ascended and will not retreat."