Free Mark of Betrayal by A. M. Hudson

right.”
    “ And what if I'm wrong?”
    “ Then you make a mistake—and you learn from it.”
    “ Hang on, if I'm queen, aren't I supposed to behead my advisor when things go wrong?” I smirked at him.
    “ Well,” Arthur said in a light, laughing tone, “if that’s the way Her Majesty demonstrates strength and governance, then I say, behead me.”
    I laughed. “Aside from the fact that it’s impossible to behead a vampire, you know I wouldn’t really do that, right?”
    Arthur nodded. “That, my dear, is what worries me.”

Chapter Three
     
     
    I quickly learned that Lilithians and vampires shared one common ground; they liked their traditions and formalities. Everyone at the dining table had remained upstanding until I was seated. I felt ridiculous dressing formally for dinner as it was, but having someone push my chair in, bow at me and then motion everyone else to sit, made me just want to hide my face in my hand and laugh at them all.
    The seat mirroring mine was the only empty one at the table; a place the king would sit when he returned, or, according to my people, when I took a new husband. The knowledge that my David should be sitting there, fourteen seats down from me, so far away but closer than he was now, made that chair seem like a vortex, ready to suck my composure up with one breath. I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples.
    “ What’s up, baby?” Mike whispered, leaning closer.
    “ I’m okay. Just a bit of a headache.”
    “ Don’t worry,” Morgaine said from the seat on my left. “Dinner will end soon enough, then we’ll all leave you alone for the next twelve hours. Sound good?”
    I smiled at her and leaned back in my chair. Down the other end of the table, too far away to yell hello to, Eric sent me a warm smile. Arthur looked up at him, following the direction of his eyes, then leaned in and whispered something that made Eric look away.
    “ Morg?”
    “ Yeah?”
    “ You’ve got better hearing than I do. What did Arthur just say to Eric?”
    She looked over at Arthur, who smiled across at us, obviously having heard what I just said.
    “ He just told him to remember that, in official gatherings, you are a queen, not his friend.”
    “ Don’t listen to him, Eric,” I said quietly, knowing he’d hear me over the noisy dinner chatter; he smirked into his plate. I shot Arthur a narrowed glare to which he returned a warm smile.
    “ We may be worrying for no reason.” My ears tuned in to the portly woman who speaks her mind when no one asks. “Drake may already be dead.”
    “ But what if it were a ploy—a theatrical diversion?” said Moustache Man. “He may be very much alive and waiting for us to drop our guard.”
    It seemed Arthur and I weren’t the only ones with these theories.
    “ Yes, from what I hear, Lilithian venom is not enough to kill him. He has black magic spells that keep him safe.”
    “ Hm, an immunity spell?” I grinned, looking at Mike, who kicked my foot under the table.
    “ Yes. If only we could get hold of that spell,” Morgaine said. “We Lilithians could feed off vampires without risk of hurting them from our bite.”
    “ Yes. Perhaps we should put a team together to start working on that,” I added, offering Mike a wry smile; he was not impressed.
    “ I agree,” Morgaine added, stirring the pot of Mike’s irritation. “We should start work on it right away.”
    “ It’s a waste of resources,” Mike said, glaring at her. “Maybe after we catch Drake.”
    “ Why do we need to catch him?” asked a face I hadn’t seen before. “Why not just go in there now and kill him?”
    “ Because we don’t know where he is,” someone else said.
    “ And we can’t kill him, right?” I said, looking at Mike. “Isn’t it only this prophecy child that can?”
    “ That’s not true,” Eric said. “The prophecy says your child will be the one to do it, not that you or any other vampire can’t.”
    “ This may be correct,” said a man