Dark Queen’s Quest Read online

  Dark Queen’s Quest

  The Children of the Gods Book 32

  I. T. Lucas

  Also by I. T. Lucas

  THE CHILDREN OF THE GODS ORIGINS

  1: Goddess’s Choice

  2: Goddess’s Hope

  THE CHILDREN OF THE GODS

  Dark Stranger

  1: Dark Stranger The Dream

  2: Dark Stranger Revealed

  3: Dark Stranger Immortal

  Dark Enemy

  4: Dark Enemy Taken

  5: Dark Enemy Captive

  6: Dark Enemy Redeemed

  Kri & Michael’s Story

  6.5: My Dark Amazon

  Dark Warrior

  7: Dark Warrior Mine

  8: Dark Warrior’s Promise

  9: Dark Warrior’s Destiny

  10: Dark Warrior’s Legacy

  Dark Guardian

  11: Dark Guardian Found

  12: Dark Guardian Craved

  13: Dark Guardian’s Mate

  Dark Angel

  14: Dark Angel's Obsession

  15: Dark Angel's Seduction

  16: Dark Angel's Surrender

  Dark Operative

  17: Dark Operative: A Shadow of Death

  18: Dark Operative: A Glimmer of Hope

  19: Dark Operative: The Dawn of Love

  Dark Survivor

  20: Dark Survivor Awakened

  21: Dark Survivor Echoes of Love

  22: Dark Survivor Reunited

  Dark Widow

  23: Dark Widow’s Secret

  24: Dark Widow’s Curse

  25: Dark Widow’s Blessing

  Dark Dream

  26: Dark Dream’s Temptation

  27: Dark Dream’s Unraveling

  28: Dark Dream’s Trap

  Dark Prince

  29: Dark Prince’s Enigma

  30: Dark Prince’s Dilemma

  31: Dark Prince’s Agenda

  Dark Queen

  32: Dark Queen’s Quest

  33: Dark Queen’s Knight

  PERFECT MATCH

  Perfect Match 1: Vampire’s Consort

  Perfect Match 2: King’s Chosen

  Perfect Match 3: Captain’s Conquest

  BOXSETS

  The Children of the Gods books 1-3: Dark Stranger trilogy

  Includes a bonus short story:

  The Fates take a Vacation

  The Children of the Gods Mega Boxset 1: Books 1-6

  includes character lists

  The Children of the Gods Mega Boxset 2: Books 6.5-10

  includes character lists

  TRY THE CHILDREN OF THE GODS SERIES ON

  AUDIBLE

  2 FREE audiobooks with your new Audible subscription!

  Copyright © 2019 by I. T. Lucas

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:

  Dark Queen’s Quest is a work of fiction!

  Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any similarity to actual persons, organizations and/or events is purely coincidental.

  Contents

  1. Mey

  2. Kian

  3. Lokan

  4. Annani

  5. Kian

  6. Yamanu

  7. Mey

  8. Yamanu

  9. Mey

  10. Yamanu

  11. Mey

  12. Yamanu

  13. Mey

  14. Annani

  15. Mey

  16. Kian

  17. Mey

  18. Yamanu

  19. Lokan

  20. Mey

  21. Yamanu

  22. Mey

  23. Yamanu

  24. Mey

  25. Yamanu

  26. Mey

  27. Yamanu

  28. Lokan

  29. Mey

  30. Yamanu

  31. Mey

  32. Yamanu

  33. Mey

  34. Yamanu

  35. Mey

  36. Yamanu

  37. Mey

  38. Yamanu

  39. Mey

  40. Yamanu

  41. Mey

  42. Yamanu

  43. Mey

  44. Yamanu

  45. Mey

  46. Yamanu

  47. Mey

  48. Yamanu

  49. Mey

  50. Yamanu

  51. Mey

  52. Mey

  53. Yamanu

  54. Mey

  55. Yamanu

  56. Kian

  57. Mey

  58. Yamanu

  59. Mey

  60. Yamanu

  61. Mey

  62. Yamanu

  63. Mey

  The Children of the Gods Series

  The Perfect Match Series

  FOR EXCLUSIVE PEEKS

  1

  Mey

  “Mey, sweetheart, do you need a few moments to rest?” Derek let his camera hand drop. “You look as lively as a dead fish wearing lipstick.”

  “Thanks a lot, Derek,” Mey huffed and strode toward the cooler, casting a forced smile at the old lady sitting on a bench across from their spot.

  The woman had already been there when they’d arrived, and she hadn’t budged since, watching the entire thing as if it was live entertainment.

  That was the problem with a photo shoot in Central Park. The fresh air was good, the spectators not so much.

  Derek lifted his hands. “Not funny? I thought it was. Where is that beautiful smile of yours?”

  As always, her photographer’s fumbling attempts at humor were more amusing than his jokes, but today even that had failed to lift her mood.

  Pulling a bottle of water out of the cooler, she twisted the cap off. “I’m worried about Jin.”

  “What’s wrong?” Derek pulled out another bottle for himself. “The new job not panning out?”

  “I don’t know.” Mey took a few sips, trying not to smear her lipstick but failing. “I haven’t heard from her in two days. She sent me a text that she’d arrived and was getting settled in her new place, and that was it. I called and left messages for her to call me back, I texted and asked the same thing, and I even sent her an email. Nothing. No response.”

  Derek waved a hand. “Give the kid some breathing room. She’s probably busy as hell, working hard, making new friends, buying potted plants for her new apartment.” He cast her a stern look. “And you, young lady, need to be a professional and look lively for the camera. We have a photo shoot to wrap up.”

  “Let me fix your lipstick.” Julie walked over with her makeup case. “Pucker up.” She reached with the lip brush, fixed whatever needed fixing, then checked Mey’s eyeliner. “You’re good to go.”

  Derek looked up at the sky. “There is no more than one hour of good light left. We will have to come back tomorrow.”

  Mey let out a breath. “In that case, how about we call it a day?”

  Shaking her head, Julie snorted. “Cruella de Vil is not going to like it.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right.” Mey sighed.

  The modeling agency owner was a tough and demanding lady, and she had earned the nickname fair and square. Dalia Cromwell was all smiles and charm as long as everything ran smoothly. Except that was rarely the case in a modeling agency, which meant that most days Dalia was as mellow as a category five hurricane.

  Still, Mey had a soft spot in her heart for the dragon lady. When she’d returned to the States three y
ears ago, Dalia had hired her on the spot.

  The truth was that they could have lied about cutting their day short, and no one would have been any the wiser, but even though her crew had no problem with that, Mey did. Her life was full of secrets and lies to cover those secrets. So, whenever she could, she stuck to the truth. “Let’s do it.”

  “Think happy thoughts,” Derek said.

  Julie handed her the tote bag that was the real star of the photo shoot. “Think of taking this beauty home with you.” She winked. “It’s worth three thousand dollars, and they are letting us keep it.”

  “You can have it. I like the smaller one.”

  Julie’s eyes widened. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m big enough without adding a huge tote to my frame.”

  “You’re tall, not big. There is a difference.” With a dismissive gesture, Julie went back to her foldable chair. “You’re gorgeous.”

  “Thanks.”

  Mey’s nearly six-foot-tall willowy frame was great for modeling, and it had played a big role in her winning the beauty pageant that had started her career. But she’d never felt comfortable in her own skin.

  Most Asian women were much shorter than her, and Mey didn’t like the stares and murmurs that her size provoked.

  Her mother had always reassured her that it was her beautiful face people were staring at, not her height, and that she should be thankful for it. But her adoptive mother was an average-sized, average-looking Caucasian lady, who’d never had to deal with stares.

  Well, that wasn’t entirely true.

  A Caucasian couple with two Asian daughters had drawn plenty of attention over the years. Especially after her Jewish parents decided to move to Israel and raise their daughters there.

  Mey loved the country, and she loved the people. For the most part, they were warm, real, and welcoming, but unlike Americans, they didn’t know the meaning of minding their own business.

  People would stop her parents on the street and ask them how they’d gotten their two beautiful girls. School hadn’t been easy either. Kids and teachers alike had wanted to know everything. Starting with where Mey and Jin had been adopted from, what had happened to their biological parents, and whether they were ever going back to China to look for them.

  The answer to that last question had always been a resolute no.

  First of all, because it was an impossible task to get the Chinese authorities to cooperate, and secondly, because Barbara and David Levin were Mey and Jin’s parents in every way that mattered. Mey was about twenty months old and Jin a newborn when the Levins had adopted them, and no two girls could have asked for better, more loving parents.

  “That’s it.” Derek snapped away. “That’s the mysterious Mona Lisa smile I’m talking about. Give me more, baby.”

  There was a lot more in Mey’s reservoir of good memories. In fact, her life had been great up until about a month ago, but she didn’t want to think about that.

  To keep on smiling, she had to stay in the past.

  Her glory days, so to speak.

  “That’s it, baby.” Derek kept snapping. “If Mona Lisa ever joined the army, she would have looked like you. Confident, strong, and with a sexy smile.” He kept up his string of compliments, ensuring that the smile never left Mey’s face. “She has nothing on you. Was she declared a beauty queen? No. But you were.”

  “Stop it. You want me to smile, not laugh.”

  “But it’s true.”

  After winning the Ms. Teen Israel beauty queen pageant at seventeen, Mey’s modeling career had taken off like a rocket. Juggling school and photo shoots hadn’t been easy, but she’d felt on top of the world. Then at eighteen, she’d been drafted into the army like most of her age group and had gone through the same basic training as everyone else.

  That was an incredibly busy time, but even that had been fun.

  Mey had many fond memories from those intense six weeks, and she was still in contact with the friends she’d made there. Fifty girls sleeping in one army barrack and working hard to become soldiers had been a memorable experience. Maybe one day she would write a story about it. Or a script. What most people didn't realize about the Israeli military was that it might be fierce, but it wasn't very formal or strict on the personal level. With every eighteen-year-old drafted, it was an army of the people. There had been a lot of laughs and shenanigans during those intense six weeks.

  Mey had many fond memories from that time, and she was still in contact with the friends she’d made there.

  After basic training was done, her friends had been assigned posts in various military branches, while Mey had been offered a very different kind of job, and her real glory days had begun.

  Globetrotting from one on-location photo shoot to another, Mey had become the face of an international fashion label. But even though the label was real, and Mey’s pictures had been featured in fashion magazines all around the world, her official job had been only a cover for something much more interesting than posing for the camera.

  2

  Kian

  Syssi threaded her arm through Kian’s. “I’m glad that Annani is staying longer than usual this time. I love these Friday night family dinners. I wish they could continue, but I know she’ll be going home soon.”

  Kian smiled. “Surprisingly, I like them too. We should keep up the tradition even after my mother leaves. It’s nice to meet with the family once a week and hear how everyone is doing. It saves me from having to make polite phone calls inquiring about their well-being.”

  Syssi cast him a sidelong glance. “You’re not the one who does the calling. You tell me to do it.”

  “Actually, I don’t. You just do that because you are awesome.” He kissed the top of her head.

  His mother had been right about Syssi. From the very start, Annani had foreseen that Syssi was going to be the glue that held them all together. At the time Kian had doubted that, mainly because his wife was so shy that picking up the phone was a chore for her, but she was also a strong woman who knew how to work around her quirks.

  As they strolled down the meandering path toward his mother’s house, enjoying the late evening breeze, Kian felt the week’s tension draining away.

  Even though he often worked from home during the weekends, those family dinners had become the delineating mark that signaled the end of his workweek. The effect was more psychological than anything else, but it helped him relax.

  Then again, the additional tension he’d been feeling for the past month was gone. The mission to infiltrate the Doomers’ island was over, and Carol was safe, or as safe as she could be with Lokan.

  She should have come home instead of waiting for her mate’s return from his mandatory visit to the island. Especially since Lokan’s Washington penthouse was still under surveillance. Those detectives that Turner’s guy had discovered were still there, watching the place, and probably eavesdropping too.

  But Carol had declined Kian’s invitation, claiming that she was still tired and needed the rest. Which was no doubt true. She’d been through a lot.

  By now, Lokan should be back, and Kian couldn’t wait for his update. Or rather Carol’s. Lokan’s phone was still suspect. And even though William had flown over and checked the place for bugs, Carol’s instructions were to exercise caution until Lokan got rid of the watchers, which he’d promised to take care of as soon as he was back from the island.

  Hopefully, Areana’s son had kept his mouth shut about where he’d been and with whom. If he had done that, the visit should have passed without incident. After centuries of successfully lying to his father, Lokan was not likely to reveal anything unintentionally, especially now that he had a mate to return to.

  Except, Kian didn’t trust Lokan, and frankly he didn’t trust Areana either.

  Not that he was going to share his misgivings with his mother. Annani was overjoyed at being able to talk with her sister after five thousand years, and she preferred to turn a blind eye to the fa
ct that her sister loved Navuh, and that he was her first priority. Not Annani, and not Annani’s clan.

  “What happened?” Syssi asked. “Suddenly there is a dark cloud hovering over your head.”

  “It’s nothing.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Just more of the same.”

  She smiled up at him. “Are you still worried about Lokan’s hidden agenda?”

  “Of course. And I don’t trust Areana either, but don’t mention it to my mother.”

  “I won't. It will only upset her, and it won’t change her opinion about her sister.”

  “Precisely.” He sighed. “I’m just afraid that she will tell Areana too much. But then, I tend to be overcautious, especially when the safety of my people is concerned.”

  Syssi leaned against his side. “Will Annani be able to communicate with Areana once she returns to the sanctuary?”

  “William will patch the calls through. They agreed on a specific time every day, so that shouldn't be a problem.”

  “Good. I thought that maybe that was the reason for her still being here. I’m glad that it’s not. I want to believe that she’s enjoying herself being with her family.”