Becoming His Queen

Chapter Two

“Hey, does anyone have any yum-yum sauce that they ain’t going to use?” Nic asked with noodles hanging from her chopsticks.

I held my hand to my mouth, holding out the sauce container with my other hand. Raq took it from me and passed it down to her on the other side of the table. We drank the rest of the bottle of vodka and started working on the rum and wine next. The TV was still playing, but we ignored it as we conversed with one another.

Raq was telling us what had happened to her the other night while she was working at the big hospital that was two cities over. She worked nights in their basement warehouse, loading pallets of medical supplies and equipment off the trucks. Apparently, the other night while she was delivering supply carts to one of the wards in the upper levels, she took the wrong elevator back down and somehow ended up in an abandoned ward. She said she walked around, trying to figure out where she was.

We were entranced by her story as if she was retelling a scary movie scene she had seen. When she had tried to turn around and go back to the elevator she had got off, she heard children laughing and banging on windows.

“Please tell me you ran like a bat out of hell?” Jaz begged.

“Hell yeah, I did. I have seen way too many movies of what happens when you stay to investigate,” Raq snorted.

“Thank God.”

“Between you and Nal, I could never work a night shift in my life,” Nic said, sipping on her wine.

“Sleep deprivation is no joke. It was a wonder that I was able to work for a whole year doing that at y’all’s sister hotel,” I said, spooning some rice into my mouth.

“It’s not for the weak of heart,” Nal mumbled, covering her mouth with her hand as she chewed on her stir fry veggies.

She worked at one of those chain hotels in town as the night auditor and from what she has told us, she’s seen some crazy s**t happen. From a homeless guy that just randomly shows up in the middle of the night to get coffee and talk to her about random s**t to guests getting in the pool and leaving their underwear on the gate and chairs.

For Jaz, she works at a small boutique on the outskirts of the capital city. She works for a lady that sells no name brand accessories, bags, and clothes. Even though the place was small, it stayed busy no matter the time of day it was.

As for Nic, she worked at a gym that was part of one of the local colleges around here. She worked there as part of her work study as she went to school for her biology degree. She was planning on transferring to a bigger college to pursue her undergraduate degree for pre-medicine. She had hopes of becoming a doctor, but she couldn’t make up her mind on what kind.

“Let’s not talk about work. It’s the weekend. Work is a Monday problem, agree?” I said, pouring myself another shot.

“Agree,” they all said, nodding their heads.

“We interrupt your normal programming hour for this special report,” the announcer on the TV said.

We looked up, seeing the big, bold words flash on the tv before splitting away to show the news reporter on the screen. It was a beautiful vampire anchoress sitting front and center. Her pale skin almost looked translucent under the studio lights, making her look sickly as her dark hair hung straight in a bob around her face. Her hazel eyes looked sunk in as if she hadn’t fed or slept in a while as she focused on the camera and started speaking.

“Thank you for tuning in to our special report here at ZNC. I’m Lisa Fairdale,” she said, plastering a fake smile on her face.

“It’s that time once again, ladies and gentlemen. Claiming season is upon us, which means look out for your marks. As all of you are aware, Claiming season comes once every decade and is the chance where all, mortal and immortal, can find their soulmates by finding the matching marks on their bodies that are either visible or not.”

“Another Claiming?” Nal questioned.

“Yup and at least this time we’re of age,” Jaz said, getting excited.

Claiming was an age-old thing since immortals decided to join the mortal society sometime around the Renaissance Era. From what we had learned in school, it wasn’t an easy time for mortals and immortals to integrate with one another. There were several until everyone came to a consensus that battling one another was unless and hurt all. Laws went into place as safeguards to ensure everyone’s well-being. Did it stop race wars and genocides and other in-fighting from happening? No.

The last Claiming, we witnessed was when we were graduating high school and had just turned eighteen, just three years younger than the minimum requirement for anyone to find their mates. We watched our teachers and family members get marks on their hands, necks, and faces out of the blue and people show up by magic or drive up to claim them as their other half. I mean it would’ve been a romantic sight if, you know, some stranger appeared out of nowhere and claimed that you’re their mate before whisking you away to who knows where.

“Can’t we just opt out of it?” I whined.

“Not unless you got someone,” Nic snorted.

“Do you?” Raq asked.

“No,” I sighed in defeat.

“Okay then. You’re taking part in it. Hopefully there’s someone to come knock the cobwebs away down there,” Nal said, sipping on her wine.

“Hey, I ain’t got no cobwebs,” I growled.

“If not, when was the last time you got f****d good and hard?”

“Um…”

“Exactly.”

I rolled my eyes at her, leaning back against the couch and staring up at the screen. On the TV, they were still talking and had switched to a different person that was giving out warnings of what’s to come. It was a young, grey-skinned gargoyle standing outside a grand hotel, where people were bustling back and forth as they walked down the sidewalk. The young gargoyle’s eyes were dazed with excitement as he brought his microphone up to his mouth.

“That’s right, Lisa,” he said. “Everyone that’s twenty-one and over are eligible to become mated. As a reminder to everyone, at midnight tonight you may be waking up with new tattoos or mating marks as it is known as. These marks can be found on any part of your body. From your face to your toes. Each mark is unique and can carry certain effects with them. These effects could be physical, like eye color changing or your hair changing. It could even result in you waking up with magic if you don’t have any right now.

“Now, for all of those who have come of age this decade, please be aware that you always have a choice to go through the mating. This is not a forced thing. Consent is big during this whole event. For those that decide against mating, you will go on with life as normal, but you may suffer from extreme bouts of depression and anxiety. If you do, please see your doctor immediately because these symptoms can become worse over time without any type of treatment.”

“Geez, mate or go crazy. What a choice,” Raq said sarcastically.

“Come on. This could be romantic. Who knows, the five of us might get swept off our feet by our Prince Charming and whisk away to his kingdom,” Jaz sighed.

“Yeah, and I’m the lost queen of Sheba. Come on, Jaz. Stop dreaming those Disney dreams. This is reality. Our chances of that happening are slim to none,” Nic said.

“We’ll have better luck winning the lottery than marrying into royalty,” I snickered.

“Hey, a girl could dream.”

“Well, keep dreaming, Your Highness.”

“If you do decide to accept the Claim and go through the bonding, please, please remember that you will be going through the Mating phase. This phase consists of two parts: Heat and Merge. The Heat is when your body heats up from the inside out like a high fever and you begin to crave your mate on all s****l levels nonstop. The Heat will last about a week or until your mate formally marks you. In other words, they bite your neck and place their official mark on you that officially claims you as there.

Now the Merge happens a few seconds or a few days after being marked. With the Merge, your mind and soul will form a connection with one another so that you can feel and hear each other’s thoughts wherever either one is.”

In other words, no privacy. I don’t need anyone to know what I’m thinking daily. I got random s**t going up here, I thought.

The feed switched back to the studio with the anchoress still wearing her fake smile. She made a nonsensical joke before closing out the segment.

“Be well and be safe, everyone,” she said.

I picked the remote off the table and switched the TV off. I stretched my arms over my head and sighed in exhaustion.

“Well, that was interesting,” Nic said.

“Absolutely interesting,” Jaz nodded. “I wonder what our marks are going to look like.”

“Yeah, I don’t care. I don’t need people staring at me anymore than they do,” I said.

“I’m with Lay on this. What if our marks end up on our faces? I don’t know about y’all’s bosses, but I’m sure my GM would throw a b***h fit over it,” Nal said.

“For something that you couldn’t help?” Raq asked.

“What can I say? She’s a glorified, stuck up, snobby ass b***h. I can’t stand her sometimes.”

I shook my head, stretching my body to and from to get the kinks out from sitting on the floor for so long.

“I’m going to bathroom really quick,” I said, stepping around Nic and Jaz.

“’Kay, ‘kay!”