Court of the Vampire Queen

Mina is upset that she is sleeping so much; she feels like she has no choice in what she does while pregnant. She dreams of Wolf, and they guess the bond brought them together. Wolf realizes Mina is close by and admits that Cornelius has been starving Mina’s men. Mina demands to know how to summon Azazel. Wolf refuses to tell her and says the cost is too high. Mina admits she’s pregnant. She uses the bond to compel Wolf to tell her how to create a blood circle: charge her blood with magic and focus on Azazel. He repeats that she shouldn’t do it.

Grace returns and sees Mina in her trance. Mina wakes up from it and explains what she saw. Grace admits her mother destroyed all records of how to summon Azazel. Mina tells Grace what Wolf told her; she isn’t sure how to charge her blood. However, she admits she shares Wolf’s blood magic but can’t control it. Mina doesn’t admit she is part seraph because Grace and her family are monster hunters. Grace says she’s going to stick by Mina in order to meet Azazel.

Mina eats to prepare for her bloodletting but vomits up her food. She wonders if she needs to drink blood now. Grace leaves the hotel while Mina is in the bathroom. Mina misses her men and tries to dream of them again. However, she is unable to reach them and merely sleeps. When she wakes up, she cuts her arm and moves it in a circle around her. She tries to charge it but feels like she can’t hold her power. Regardless, she calls out Azazel’s name.

Azazel appears and asks about Wolf and the others. Mina starts to bleed out, and Azazel staunches the cut on her arm with a painful scar. Mina asks for a new bargain. Azazel asks for seven years of service to save Mina’s men. Mina argues that the payment should be less because the task isn’t as difficult. Azazel says she has until tomorrow to decide, gives her his card, and disappears. She plans to give the card to Grace and thinks about going into the compound and declaring herself her father’s heir.

Mina cleans up her blood and falls asleep. All three of her men are in her dream. Wolf asks about her pregnancy, and she tells them how it’s making her sick. Rylan says seraph pregnancies are a mystery. Cornelius is poisoning the men in addition to starving them. Mina realizes that Malachi and Wolf weren’t getting enough blood before they were captured. Rylan says he was hunting, but Malachi and Wolf weren’t. Mina offers them her blood.

When Rylan bites her, they feel pain instead of pleasure. He guesses it’s an effect of the pregnancy. Malachi thinks it’s because they are in the dream realm. Wolf asks Mina if she made a deal, and she admits she talked to Azazel, but his price was the same, so she didn’t accept it. Mina doubles over in pain, and the dream ends. When she wakes up, she showers. There are no marks from Rylan’s bite.

Grace returns and tells Mina about Cornelius’s increased security. She senses magic in the room and asks what happened. Mina admits she summoned Azazel.

Mina says that she botched the ritual, but Azazel came to her and demanded seven years to free her men. She thinks being in a different realm will cause the bond to hurt all of them, and she says Azazel is coming back tomorrow. It is tomorrow, Grace points out. Azazel appears. He accuses Mina of trapping him because Grace is there. Azazel threatens Mina, and she uses her fire powers to combat his darkness. She sees him as a monster behind Grace.

When the lights come back on, Azazel is back in his attractive human form. Grace tells Azazel that he took her mother. Azazel argues that she chose to make a deal. Grace wants to make a new deal: She serves seven years to free Mina’s men. Grace explains that she is the last of a line of monster hunters. Her terms are that Azazel free the men first, then she carries out her sentence. Mina makes Azazel promise not to harm Grace, and he says that’s part of the demon bargain. Grace won’t be forced to have sex either.

They seal the deal with Azazel kissing Grace’s wrist and leaving a mark. He says he will release Mina’s men within 24 hours and leaves with Grace.

Mina remains ill in the hotel for the next 24 hours. She feels guilty about others making sacrifices for her. Azazel reappears and scans her body with his hand. Her lack of shields is allowing the baby to feed off of her magic. He touches her stomach and gives her a supplemental shield that will limit the amount of magic the baby can take from Mina. Then, he gives her a card with an address that will take her and anything she is touching to a safe location when she asks to go.

Mina says she will kill Azazel if any harm comes to Grace. He says Grace will be okay if she follows the rules. After warning Mina that Cornelius’s people will be searching the area soon, Azazel disappears. Mina is amazed that teleportation exists. She packs up her things and the weapons Grace left behind, noting that Grace took some knives with her. It takes two tries, but Mina uses the card to teleport to a house.

She tries eating some crackers but vomits. As she is getting an electrolyte drink, Azazel shows up with her men and disappears. Malachi, Rylan, and Wolf look terrible, and Mina offers them her blood. They say they need too much. She offers to go hunting for them. Azazel left some car keys, and she uses his vehicle to look for a bar.

Mina finds a bar and is unsure of how to choose a victim. Two men sit close to her at the bar, and she tells them they are too close to her. Her magical powers allow her to notice when one of the men drugs her drink. Mina stops feeling guilty, pretends to drink her beer, and pretends to be drugged. The men take Mina around the back of the bar, where the bartender is waiting. Mina knocks the three of them unconscious, puts them in Azazel’s truck, and drives them back to his house.

Mina hauls the men inside. Wolf drinks from the bartender. Malachi and Rylan drink from the other two men. Once the men from the bar are dead, Mina explains that Grace paid the price for her men’s freedom. Malachi hugs Mina and notices she’s lost weight. Wolf and Rylan dispose of the corpses outside. When they come back in, Mina tells them what happened while they were apart. Rylan and Malachi apologize for leaving her alone in Grace’s house. Mina forgives them and says they need to go on the offensive against her father.

Malachi says they can plan their attack tomorrow and takes Mina upstairs. Malachi asks her if she’s sure that she wants to have the baby. She says she doesn’t want to have an abortion because the baby will help them overthrow her father. When pressed, she admits that she’s afraid to want the baby because she’s concerned that Cornelius will take the baby from her, especially after he took her men from her. Malachi says they were only imprisoned, starved, and drugged; there was no torture.

They get in the shower, and Mina thinks about her love for Malachi being her destiny. She cries in his arms. They kiss, and he asks if she wants to have sex. She does. Once he penetrates her, Malachi says Mina feels like home. However, he refuses to bite her because the bite in the dream is painful for her. Wolf and Rylan come into the bathroom and say they want to join in, but the shower isn’t big enough for four.

Malachi and Mina stop having sex, wash themselves, and get into bed. Wolf and Rylan get in the shower. When Mina and Malachi begin having sex again in bed, Malachi says he loves her, and Mina says it back.

Wolf and Rylan join Malachi and Mina in bed. Malachi tells everyone not to bite Mina. Wolf cuts his arm so Mina can feed from him. She refuses to let his arm go. Rylan plays with her clitoris while Malachi penetrates her. Mina orgasms. Wolf extracts his arm, and Rylan offers his cut arm. His blood makes Mina orgasm again. Again, she refuses to release Rylan’s arm, demanding more blood. Malachi realizes Mina’s hunger for blood is different. Rylan holds her, and Wolf feeds her some more blood to stop her from compelling them.

Rylan worries that Mina is going into a blood frenzy. Malachi cuts his throat, and Rylan lets her feed off of Malachi. She finally stops craving blood when Malachi’s cut heals, and she apologizes. Rylan says he’s going to make a call, and Malachi asks if he’s sure. Rylan says he is and leaves the bedroom. Mina asks who he is contacting. Reluctantly, Malachi tells her that Rylan is going to talk to his mother about seraphim.

Mina and Malachi take a quick shower to wash off the blood. Then, they lie in bed with Wolf. Mina asks Wolf about his family, and he says he has cousins, parents, and a sister who are bloodline vampires. She can tell his family isn’t close. He admits that his parents and sister are more chaotic than he is. Mina apologizes. Wolf assures her that Rylan and Malachi will come up with a plan. Wolf, against Malachi’s wishes, tells Mina that there’s a chance Rylan’s mother will try and kill Mina because of her prejudice against seraphim. In the past, seraphim were cruel rulers of vampires.

Wolf believes they can get Cornelius’s people to follow Mina and protect her. Mina longs for a peaceful time. Malachi suggests they investigate other realms, and Wolf says they can do so after the children have grown. Mina doesn’t like him calling their unborn child a “baby bat” (396). They talk about Rylan being able to turn into a bat. As Rylan comes back into the room, Mina is shaking.

Rylan says his mother isn’t threatening to harm Mina—yet. He learned that seraphim pregnancies are similar in length to human ones, but seraphim would disappear while pregnant and drain vampires. Mina worries that she will kill her men, but they aren’t concerned. Malachi says they need to sleep, and Mina realizes she hasn’t thrown up the blood she consumed, unlike the food she couldn’t keep down.

When Mina wakes up, Malachi is off hunting. Wolf gives Mina oral sex while Rylan holds her. She begs them to bite her. Wolf bites her thigh, and she orgasms. Then, Wolf kisses Rylan and tells him to bite Mina. She says she trusts Rylan. As Rylan bites her, Wolf penetrates her vagina. Mina begs for more, and Rylan, after asking for her consent, penetrates her anally. Mina shapeshifts one hand so it has claws and asks to drink Wolf’s blood. He consents, but Rylan is the one who uses a claw to cut Wolf. Mina shifts back to being without claws. Rylan and Mina orgasm.

After Rylan has withdrawn, Wolf tells Mina to drink more of his blood. His cut from Rylan is healing, but Mina is able to change her teeth into vampire fangs and draw fresh blood. Wolf orgasms. Mina orgasms again. Malachi bursts into the room and tells Mina she drank too much of Wolf’s blood. Malachi feeds Wolf his blood.

As Wolf drinks, Rylan hugs Mina. She realizes she is now “dangerous to them” (410) because of her special seraph powers. Before, only they could have killed her with a bite. Malachi discovered that Azazel’s house is in Montana, near Cornelius’s compound. Malachi says they need to kill Cornelius publicly to take his power. Mina asks how they will get around his power to compel by speaking. Rylan asks about earplugs. Mina says they don’t work. Frustrated, she takes a shower alone to clean off the blood.

When she’s done, she goes to the kitchen. Malachi embraces her. She apologizes for getting frustrated, and he forgives her. When Malachi offers her food, she is repulsed by the idea. She only craves blood. Malachi worries that the pregnancy is depriving her of essential nutrients. Mina assures him she feels fine. She takes out her plans of the compound and describes the changes that Grace observed. Rylan suggests that they injure Cornelius so he can’t speak for a little while.

Wolf says he’s out of practice in long-range attacks. Malachi says they may need to contact Wolf’s sister, Lizzie, who is the best at long-range attacks. Wolf says she is more unpredictable than he is and might kill Mina. Mina says they aren’t contacting Lizzie if Wolf is against it.

They can’t come up with another plan, so Wolf calls his sister, whom he hasn’t seen in 50 years. Malachi says he’ll protect Mina from Lizzie. Rylan jokes that Mina should have sex with Lizzie to create a seraph bond that will prevent Lizzie from killing Mina. Malachi admits that he was once Lizzie’s lover. Mina says she isn’t jealous of his past because they have a whole future together. Wolf says Lizzie will be there in 10 hours, and Mina senses his misery. She massages his neck.

Rylan explains that Lizzie set Wolf on fire the last time they saw each other. Malachi didn’t know this. Mina says they shouldn’t accept Lizzie’s help. Wolf argues that Lizzie’s the only one who can injure Cornelius’s throat from a safe distance. Wolf says it’s nice that Mina is prioritizing him. She apologizes for compelling him, and he says not to apologize for being strong and saving them. He forgives her and, like Rylan, jokes that Mina should just have sex with Lizzie.

Mina starts kissing Wolf, and he takes her to the living room, where the floor is more comfortable, and puts Mina on her knees in front of him. She says she wants to take care of him.

Mina gives Wolf oral sex and asks how he wants to orgasm. He says inside Mina, and they have penetrative sex. When Wolf bites Mina, she orgasms. Then, Wolf orgasms. She asks if he feels better, and he says he does. Malachi and Rylan come into the room. Malachi plans to burn the armory and gym to distract security while Mina enters through the front gate. Lizzie will be positioned to shoot Cornelius in the courtyard with as many witnesses as possible.

Mina will go in alone to get Cornelius’s attention and kill him after Lizzie injures his throat. This plan scares her. Malachi assures her there isn’t another way. Mina agrees to do it. Wolf says Mina needs to kill him dramatically and ensure he is fully beheaded. Her men will burn the body. She can use any of her men’s magical powers to kill Cornelius because of the bond, but she is also going to take some blades from Grace’s stash.

Mina only consumes blood; her men have stopped trying to feed her other things. About 10 days later, Mina feels Lizzie approaching. Wolf explains that Lizzie dropped her shield. Mina assures Wolf that she will protect him. As she plays with Malachi’s hair, Lizzie assures the men that she isn’t going to hurt Mina, and she is willing to kill someone for them because she feels guilty for setting Wolf on fire. Mina explains that Lizzie only needs to shoot someone in the throat.

Rylan explains that Lizzie’s target is Cornelius. She says she’ll be keeping her distance. Rylan points out her position and Cornelius’s position on the map. Lizzie agrees to do it, with the condition that Wolf comes home. Mina refuses, saying it’s her price to pay, as Cornelius’s heir. Lizzie doesn’t believe her and asks if Wolf is Mina’s baby’s father. Mina admits she doesn’t know who the father is.

Lizzie can sense Azazel’s shield around Mina’s baby and agrees to help in exchange for a favor and a visit. Mina says no to Wolf’s family visiting the compound after she takes it over, but she agrees to do the family a favor. Lizzie agrees. Rylan and Malachi fill her in on the rest of the plan. Mina holds Wolf’s hand and feels that he is pleased she refused to host his family.

As Rylan escorts Lizzie away from the house, Malachi reassures her that they will be triumphant. Wolf has gone off in the opposite direction from Lizzie. Mina and Malachi are alone for the first time in a while. He is confident she can defeat Cornelius and reassures her that they will all support her, no matter whose baby she is carrying. They are a family that loves each other.

That night, Malachi tells Mina she needs to eat. She only wants blood, and Malachi offers his arm. She shapeshifts to have claws. Rylan assures her that someday she’ll be able to fully shift, but it’s best to stick to just small parts for now. She fantasizes about running with Rylan when they are both wolves. Mina cuts Malachi and drinks from him. She doesn’t go into a frenzy but gets full and sleepy. Rylan and Wolf cuddle next to her in bed, and Malachi tells her to sleep. She is happy sleeping among her men.

Malachi, Rylan, Wolf, and Mina take Lizzie to the spot where she will be hidden in a tree. She assures them she can shoot Cornelius from there. Mina worries about her father compelling her before Lizzie shoots his throat. Malachi carries Mina into position outside the sentry lines. Malachi, Wolf, and Rylan kiss her and head off to their positions. As she waits for them to get in place to start the attacks, she thinks about how she never knew her mother.

Mina enters the compound and sees the smoke from the fires her men are setting. She calls out to her father, saying she is pregnant and has come to take her place as his heir. Cornelius comes into the courtyard, says his people will not follow her, and says he may not even be her father. He refuses to recognize her as heir and compels her to kneel. He compels her to tell the truth, which is to reiterate that she’s pregnant.

Cornelius asks Mina about the fires. She is able to resist his power enough to give only short answers. She claims her men are planning to start fires, then fight. Her resistance causes her to bleed from her mouth. Mina sees the sight from Lizzie’s gun, tells Cornelius she hopes it hurts, and Lizzie shoots out his throat.

After Cornelius is shot, Mina can stand again. She hacks at his hands with Grace’s knife, and the wound in his throat starts to heal. He grabs the knife and throws it away from Mina. Mina thinks about Rylan’s advice: She is never defenseless. Mina screams and shapeshifts to have large claws. She uses them to take off Cornelius’s hands, then his head.

Once he’s beheaded, Mina realizes that many people in the compound are watching her. She tells them she is pregnant and the heir. When she commands them to kneel, her brother William moves as if he’s going to challenge her, but backs off when she makes fire appear in her palm and burns Cornelius’s head and body. William kneels, and the others follow. Most fear her. She commands that everyone come to the courtyard, and William makes sure it’s done.

Mina introduces Malachi, Rylan, and Wolf as her partners with equal power. They are to be obeyed alongside her. She assures the people that the change in power won’t negatively impact their lives, but she tells them not to test her. They will clean up tomorrow. As the crowd disperses, Mina goes into her father’s home. When she collapses, Malachi catches her and carries her to the bathroom. Rylan starts a shower, then takes off her clothes with his claws.

She starts shaking as Malachi hugs her. He helps her retract her claws by envisioning her regular hands. He reassures her that he and the others will support her and take care of any threat to her power as he bathes her. As they shower, Wolf and Rylan destroy most of Cornelius’s things except for a large bed for them with new sheets. Wolf goes off to shower. Rylan says Lizzie is gone, and there is a grace period when new rulers take power in the vampire world. They can reinforce their defenses and alliances during that time. Malachi says he loves her forever, kisses her, and leads her to the bed.

Mina has a son named Asher, followed by twins. Wolf and Asher play with magical fireballs while Rylan sleeps with the twins in his arms on the rocking chair. Asher can use all the magical powers of the polycule. The twins haven’t manifested powers yet. Wolf relays that Lizzie called him and is calmer now that most of Cornelius’s followers have become loyal to them. Some people left the compound early on, but most stayed.

Lizzie wants to call in her favor: She wants to visit the compound with the Radu clan. Wolf says he’s okay with this. Mina remembers meeting Rylan’s mother, who is terrifying, and asks if Wolf is sure. Mina checks in with Malachi, who says they are too powerful to “fuck with” (471), and Asher repeats the profanity. Mina tries to get him to stop, and Asher continues to repeat the word while shooting off a fireball.

Malachi puts out the fireball and tells Asher to behave. After kissing Mina, he picks up Asher and says it’s bathtime. Wolf reassures Mina that he is okay with his clan visiting. Mina tells him she loves him and will kill for him if needed. He tells her he loves her and doubts it will come to that. Mina is filled with joy at being with her family. They will face any obstacle together.

Azazel makes a final inspection of the stage where five human women will be auctioned off. Thane, a water demon, arrives first. Bram, an air demon, arrives second. Sol, a dragon, arrives next. Rusalka, a fire demon, arrives last. Azazel says the women are a peace offering, and they come out on the stage.