Justine Ch 10

Quinn woke in a strange bed. His first thought was that he had just had one hell of a dream that involved a gorgeous woman named Justine who as it turned out wasn't only a vampire but his wife as well. There were several other people in the dream as well including his ex wife Amanda, their daughter and Amanda's daughter by her second husband Adam.

He started to move and hissed when pain radiated up both of his arms.

"What in the hell...." and then he remembered everything including being tossed through the air and being caught by the wall. He laid back down and looked around trying to take stock of where he was. He closed his eyes and then tried to sit up again.

Justine! Where was she? The last thing he remembered was her telling him to go to sleep and he didn't want to, he wanted to kick Jeremiah Mather's vampire ass to hell and back.

He heard the door open and then softly click shut.

"Sire? Are you awake?"

He answered without thinking about it, "Yeah I'm awake."

"Are you in much pain?"

"I've been better... who are you and where am I?" Quinn asked as he licked his dry lips.

"My name is Darren." The voice said as it moved closer. "I'm what you would call your personal assistant and you are at home."

"Home? I don't live here and where's Justine?"

"She just called, she will be here shortly." Darren replied. "I took the liberty of bringing you something to drink."

"Great, can you help me out here? I think my arms are broken."

"Yes sir they are but the queen will tend to those as soon as she returns."

"Justine, is she the queen?" Quinn asked.

"Yes sir." Darren replied.

"And I'm her....."

"mate and king." Darren replied finishing the statement as he put a straw into a glass filled with ice water and put it to Quinn's mouth.

He greedily drank it down draining the glass in seconds, "More."

"Not a good idea sir but how about a few ice cubes?" Darren offered.

"Sure, why not?" Quinn asked.

Darren spoon fed him pieces of ice until Quinn decided that he had enough.

"I can have one of the physicians here give you something for pain if you like."

"No, thanks." Quinn replied, "it doesn't hurt too much unless I move and I want to be awake when Justine gets here.

*******

Jeremiah walked around the small room that was his cell. He shook his arms that had already been healed and then hugged himself. He didn't even try to vanish because he knew that his gifts were all gone. He felt them leave as soon as he got close to the house. Once he was inside he felt them completely disappear. The worst part of it was that he was still vampire Justine and Quinn could keep him here for centuries or even forever if they so chose to. This, he knew was where he would either die or where he would languish forever at their mercy. Of the two choices, he preferred death, the permanent one but if he had to go by what Justine said, that wasn't going to happen.

He wondered where she was but then figured that she was with her mate and really? He wasn't in a big hurry to see her. As he walked around the cell, he wondered how long it would be before Violet made her appearance and if the aging process had already begun to reverse itself.

Jeremiah sat down on the thin narrow cot and tried not to imagine the things that Justine could do to him. In all of his years he had never seen a vampire's eyes change the way Justine's had. He could still feel the heat and anger of her gaze. The memory of it made him shudder. If there had been anyway in which he could kill himself, he would have done it but there were guards on all four sides of the cell. All of them facing him, their eyes glowing with anger.

"You are the scum of the earth!" one of them said to him as he glared at him. "It is bad enough that you involved innocents in our affairs but you were going to kill the queen's mate! And you turned and sold women too?" he asked. "I hope that you suffer long and hard and that the face of each woman that you sold flashes before your eyes."

Jeremiah recoiled at the anger in the vampire's voice. He wasn't the only one who held that opinion, every vampire guarding him held the same opinion even if they didn't say it. He had the idea of trying to provoke one of them into killing him but decided against it. For one, these vampires were guards because of their self restraint and two, if one of them did kill him, they would replace him and would suffer everything that he would have.

A sharp pang in his stomach reminded him that he hadn't fed and he wondered if starving him was part of the punishment. It would take years before he finally died and they would be painful years or would he be given just enough so that he would always want more? Then there was the solitary confinement where he would spend centuries with no one but himself to talk to. He knew of vampires who had been driven insane that way and as far as he knew none of them had ever been the same. But he knew that there would be no solitary confinement for him. He also knew that there would be a great deal of pain involved. Would the queen peel his skin from him one strip at a time? Would she remove it all at once or remove a strip everyday from a different part of his body and then start over with the parts that had healed?

He grabbed his cock at the thought of the skin being pulled of leaving it bleeding and in excruciating pain. He began to wonder what he had to bargain with and soon realized that he had absolutely nothing worth bargaining with, everything he had was gone. He stood up and began to pace wondering when Justine and or Violet would come to see him. A guard, the one who had just spoken to him laughed.

"You might as well sit down, neither of the queens will be here to see you today, they have much more important things to deal with than the likes of you."

"Do you know when they will come?" Jeremiah asked.

"Whenever they get here!" the vampire snapped as he tossed in a flask filled with what Jeremiah assumed was blood.

He looked at it and left it where it had fallen, he wasn't drinking anything until he spoke with either Violet or Justine.

"Drink up!" the guard said, "for all you know it could contain the end of your life."

"Poison?" Jeremiah asked hopefully.

"You won't know until you drink it now will you?" the guard replied.

The thought that his death could be as simple as poisoning made Jeremiah snatch the flask off of the floor. Even if it were a painful death it would be over in a matter of hours and that was preferable to centuries of suffering. He twisted the top of the flask off, tossed it away and guzzled the warm liquid down as he said a prayer that it would end his life.

********

Justine appeared in the bedroom where Quinn lay sleeping, his arms laying at his side. She moved to the foot of the bed and watched his slow, easy respirations and wondered if she should wake him so that she could fix his arms. She waited for a few minutes before making her decision.

"Sleep until I wake you." she murmured as she placed him into the deepest sleep possible. She wanted him to feel no pain when she healed him. She knew that Violet was waiting for her but she didn't care, Quinn came first. Violet and Edward would just have to wait.

She started with the arm closest to her, touching it to see if he would flinch. When there was no reaction, she pulled the arm into its correct position, held her hands over it and murmured words in a language that she had never heard before. Heat left her hands as she moved then up and then down the entire length of the arm twice. Satisfied that by the time she woke Quinn up the arm would be completely healed, she moved to the other arm and repeated the process. Without touching him but just thinking of what she wanted, she stripped him and examined him for other injuries. She moved her hands over his shoulders making the large deep purple bruises disappear before moving down his back and stopping at his ass.

She fought the urge to touch him. If she started she might be not be able to stop and if it were her, she would want to know that she was being touched. For all practical purposes even though they were mates, they were still strangers of sorts. She didn't count the first time that they had almost made love as enough to move them from the stranger stage to something more intimate.

Justine sighed as she turned Quinn over moaning softly and salivating as she took in his chest, almost flat stomach and cock which was erect and seemed to be looking for her. Unable to help herself, she reached down, gently caressed it watching with longing as Quinn thrust his hip forward pressing himself into the palm off her hand. She removed her hand and left the room. Her whole body was tingling with the need to be with her mate but she had to take care of Violet and Edward first then she could take her time with her mate.

She knew that she had until ten to complete the mating but there was time, it was still late morning and hopefully whatever she needed to do with Violet wouldn't take long. Jeremiah she decided, could just stew in his juices. She wanted his imagination to run wild with thoughts of what she could or would do to him. Part of her instructions were being carried out even now.

She found Violet in the room where Edward her king lay in state. She wasn't sure of what to expect but she was unprepared for Violet's beauty. Her hair was no longer gray but a dark brown with reddish hues, her skin was flawless and so translucent that Justine could see the veins. To Justine she looked ethereal almost angelic, all she was missing was the halo and the wings.

Violet stood when Justine came in and thought her exquisite even though she hadn't taken the time to change as she would have done. She stopped herself, she was being nit picky and Justine was the new queen, she could dress as she pleased. The important thing was that she was here and had the power to return Edward to her.

"My Queen." Violet said with a bow.

"My name is Justine so please call me that."

Violet started, to her recollection, no queen had requested to be called by her first name.

"As you wish." she replied. "Welcome home." she added with a smile.

"Thanks... so how did this happen?" Justine asked.

Violet fought her impatience remembering that she had asked the very same question and the patience in which it had been answered.

"Come sit and we will talk." Violet replied as she led the way to a small sitting room. "You must be famished!" she exclaimed as she went to the bar, took two large glasses down and filled them with blood from the warmer. She carried the glasses back to the sitting area and handed one to Justine who drank the entire glass without stopping.

"Would you like another?" Violet asked.

"Maybe later," Justine replied as she remembered what happened the last time she tried to drink too much. "So tell me what I need to know so that you can start your new life."

Violet blinked at Justine's bluntness but found that she liked it. This was a queen who wouldn't pussy foot around and play games, she was going to be an excellent queen and from what she heard about Quinn, he was going to be an excellent king.

"So, give me the skinny." Justine said. She was as anxious to be done with this as Violet was.

"Well......"

"So let me get this straight, I was already chosen for this and being turned is what activated it?"

"Yes."

"And everything that I went through was a test?"

"yes, all of us went through it in one manner or another but I must say that you've exceeded all of us in skill and in the way in which you adapted." Violet said, "some of us needed a little help which is acceptable and expected but you were just simply amazing!"

"Yeah, well anyway, what else do I need to know?"

Two hours later, Violet had given Justine a very condensed version of her reign, the creatures that were still being hunted for punishment and what was expected of her as queen.

"I understand," Justine said, "and thank you for Zoe and the indoor garden but you need something from me." Justine said.

Violet told her about Edward.

"So you see, you are the only one that can take the arrow out without sending him to his permanent death." Violet concluded.

"How do you know that I can do this?" Justine asked.

"You have to be able to!" Violet replied her voice holding a hint of panic. "Just do what you've been doing ever since you were turned, follow your instincts."

Justine was quiet for several minutes, "Alright let's go." she was sure that she could remove the arrow even though she wasn't sure of how.

*********

Violet led Justine back to where Edward lay. Justine looked down at him taking in his good looks noticing that he didn't look much older than she was. She pulled back the blanket and almost laughed at Edward's outfit. She looked up and saw Violet watching her with anxiety filled eyes and managed to contain her laughter.

"You might want to have some blood ready." she said, "I have a feeling that he's going to be more than ready for it oh and make sure no one comes in." she added.

Violet hurried back to the sitting room and came back with two carafes filled to the top with blood.

"Come over here and bring the blood with you." Justine commanded forgetting that until she and Quinn mated, Violet was in effect still queen. She waited until Violet was standing next to her before she started giving directions. "I'm going to keep him asleep until the arrow is out and then I'll start to gradually wake him up. When he's half awake start feeding him and maybe we can keep him from going into a frenzy. Are you ready?"

"Ready." Violet whispered as she took one of Edward's hand's in hers.

Justine unbuttoned Edward's shirt and examined the area where the arrow had gone in. She palpated the entry site and could feel the broken off end of the arrow. She gave Violet one last look, and put her hands over the wound and waited. The same heat that came when she healed Quinn's arms radiated from her hands turning Edward's skin a bright red. Slowly the skin began to peel open layer by layer until the jagged end of the arrow was visible. She felt Edward trying to wake up and pushed him back into sleep. "Not yet." she murmured as she continued the process of removing the arrow.

Finally, she could see the barbed spikes on the arrow head that were almost but not quite touching his heart. One by one, she dissolved the wooden spikes starting with the ones closest to the heart. Sweat ran down her face as she concentrated on her task. She barely noticed when Violet wiped her face with a cool cloth as she worked. Two painstakingly slow hours later, Justine pulled the remainder of the arrow out of Edward's chest, closed the wound and began to wake him.

"Get that blood ready." she muttered when she had him to the point where he could open his eyes. "Call his name." she instructed.

Edward's eyes were open and he was trying to focus. He looked in the direction from which he heard his name being called and looked at Violet as if he had no idea of who she was. He licked his lips and tried to sit up, his brown eyes flashing black when he couldn't move.

"Talk to him, remind him of who you are." Justine said urgently.

"Edward? it's me Violet. Remember?" she asked as she put a cup of blood to his lips and gave him a sip and then another. "The new queen is here and she has removed the arrow from your chest."

Edward's eyes narrowed as if he were trying to remember something.

"You went out to buy me something for our anniversary, do you remember? It was several centuries ago" Violet said as she gave him another sip of blood. "A hunter shot you with a barbed arrow, we couldn't remove it without killing you so we laid you in state."

The cup of blood was emptied and Justine handed her another one.

Edward's eyes were slowly changing back to brown as he remembered what happened and he began to recognize Violet. Justine allowed him to move his hands so that he could touch Violet but stood ready just in case.

By the time the second cup of blood was finished Edward remembered everything.

"Violet? You waited for me all of this time?" he asked touching her tear streaked face.

"Of course I did!" she exclaimed, "did you think that I wouldn't?"

Satisfied that Edward wasn't a danger to others, Justine excused herself but not before Violet stopped her.

"Thank you! And if there is ever anyway that I can be of service to you, you have only to ask."

Violet had just done something rarely if ever done, she made herself and her experience available to the new queen.

"I know that you're anxious to get going but do you have to leave right away?" Justine asked.

"No, we can stay for as long as you wish and to be quite honest, you intrigue me. I would like to know you better as would Edward." Violet replied.

"Great!" Justine replied. "I have some other unfinished business to attend to but how would you like to be with me when I go to see Jeremiah Mathers?"

A grin appeared on Violet's face, "I would be honored."

"I'll let you know when." Justine said and left the room. Violet and Edward had a lot of lost time to make up for. She smiled when she heard Violet's gasp of pleasure followed by Edward's.

*********

Quinn tried to wake up, he knew that Justine had been in the room by the way his cock throbbed. He had even felt her touching him and tried to wake up enough to call her back to him.

"Damn it all to hell!" he swore silently. They really needed to talk about this sleep thing. He fought the compulsion for as long as he could before giving up and relaxing. What else could he do except try to relax and wait for her to come back?

As he allowed his mind to relax Quinn thought about how much his life had changed. In one week he had gone from a landscaper who had landed a dream job to being the mate of a queen. He didn't know exactly what that meant but if it meant that Justine would be in his life, he didn't care. He thought about Amanda and the girls and hoped that Justine or someone erased their memories, what had happened at their house was the stuff nightmares were made of.

Then he though about Jeremiah and wondered what had happened to the bastard. He still wanted to kick his ass and hoped that he was still alive so that he could.

*********

Justine slipped into the bedroom and looked down at Quinn. Immediately, he was hard as if he sensed her presence. She stripped leaving her clothes in a pile on the floor and lay on the bed next to him. Her eyes darkened not in anger but desire as she began a visual examination of him. She started at his face taking in the light splattering of freckles on his nose and moved down to his full lips. She took her time in her assessment and considered Quinn what she and Pam used to call "eye candy" the difference was, this particular piece of candy was hers and that made it even better.

She continued her perusal of his body, stopping at his chest that had a light coating of hair that was the same color as the hair on his head. Unable to resist, she leaned over and touched a nipple with the tip of her tongue and watched as his cock jerked. She leaned back and looked at his almost flat stomach. It had the slightest of bulges to it but she could tell that at one time, he had been an athlete. Finally her eyes rested on his cock which was fully erect and seemed to be pointing at her, begging to be touched.

Her breath caught as her fangs descended, her nipples hardened and she began to leak fluid from between her legs as she watched the cock of her king throb.

"Quinn wake up!" she commanded.

His eyes flew open and searched for Justine. Without thinking about it, he moved an arm and stopped perplexed because there was no pain. His first thought was that someone had slipped him something for pain and he was prepared to be pissed.