Lord Cato murmured gently, “Gwen, look at me.”
“No! He needs to wake up, dammit!” I bent over as wetness started to coat my cheeks and pressed my mouth to his ear. My scream was tortured, “Pippy! Don’t do this! Wake up!”
King Belshazzar grabbed me under my arms and lifted me to my feet. He held my squirming frame tight as I struggled against him. My crown fell to the ground as he jerked me around to face him and seized my shoulders in a bruising grip, and still, I batted at his arms and tried to return to the man I’d once planned to marry. Through gritted teeth, he hissed, “He’s gone, Gwen.”
“No!” I wailed and beat at his muscular chest with my fists, the amulet swinging madly between us.
“He’s gone,” King Belshazzar growled. “Look at him, Gwen. He is dead.”
I flashed my fangs, and snarled, “You are a cruel man.”
He showed his own fangs and his eyes turned blood red. “Yes, I can be.”
A sob broke past my lips as I stared into his eyes, not one ounce of sympathy in his brutal scrutiny. But I slowly turned my head and looked down beside us to the vampire on the floor…dead. Another sob tore through my body, my shoulders jerking inside King Belshazzar’s hold.
“He’s dead,” I whispered.
King Belshazzar stated, “He is.”
“SOMEONE POISONED HIM,”ICHOKED ON MY PAIN.
King Belshazzar murmured, “Perhaps. We don’t know that for sure yet.”
“We do.” Tears tracked down my cheeks. “I’m the Black Widow.”
King Belshazzar released my shoulders slowly, watching to make sure I could stand on my own. He ran his fingers down the side of my face, tracing one of my tears, his black brows lowering over his eyes. My lover jerked his hand away as if it burned him, and then he turned to face the others.
He ordered, “While we’re gone, run a full autopsy on him.”
Lord Otto’s hands fisted in his blond hair, elbows high and out to the side while he stared down at the dead. But he nodded his head. His voice was gruff and clogged. “It’ll be done.”
I wiped under my eyes, flicking my tears away.
Lord Cato stood off to the side, one of his hands rubbing his forehead and his lashes hooding his gaze.
Lord Xenon pointed at the glass of scotch on the bar. “We need to test that, too.”
“And the vomit,” King Belshazzar stated. “Everything needs to be done properly, including anything he has in his room.”
Lord Cato added quietly, “This is another death we need to cover up for now. Our people will want the queen to make a statement on television, and she won’t be here to do it.”
My attention snuck to the lone druid in the room.
The silent man trying to make himself disappear by standing in the shadows of the bathroom doorway.
I swallowed my misery down. “Chester?”
“Yes, your majesty?”
“You’ve shut the fuck up.”
“Yes, your majesty.” No sarcastic tone this time.
About time.
“Why don’t you come out here and join us, instead of wishing you hadn’t been dragged out of your bed this morning.”
“Yes, your majesty,” Chester repeated. He walked forward into the room and stopped next to me…only for King Belshazzar to yank me to the other side of him, placing himself between us. Chester smartly knew when not to make a joke, as he asked, “Did you need me for anything?”
