Re-cap of The Medici Queen, Book 3 in The Medici Warrior Series

 

Book three begins with the elaborate coronation ceremony for Kate, as she has just been made an immortal and must now assume her role next to Shade as Queen of the Medici Coven.

Shade must help her navigate his world, as they both discover she has not one, but two gifts. She emerges as a day-walker, but also with the gift animalism, a gift long thought extinct among the vampires. It is a gift that gives her the power to communicate and control the animal kingdom. Her conduit to the animal world is a she-wolf named Aegis who appears at Bel Rosso and remains at her side.

Kate quickly discovers she is pregnant again, as the royal couple prepare for the birth of Lorenzo, the long-awaited heir to the Medici dynasty.

Cory has moved back to Virginia and asks that his mother, Rachael, be allowed to visit. When his mother arrives, she recognizes Shade as the vampire she met in the underground clubs in San Francisco and realizes Cory is Shade’s half-breed son. As the family overcomes the shock of this revelation, Cory is warmly accepted into family, and Shade insists the Council recognize him as his rightful son.

Not to be undone by Kate, Rissa is planning a wedding ceremony to rival the grandiosity of any royal event. During her grand reception, she and Alec are caught off-guard by an uninvited guest. Max returns with his new mate, Lein, the daughter of a royal master in Asia. While Max is there to goad his former lover, he discovers that Shade has expanded his Bel Rosso estate in Virginia to include a warrior training camp.

Max tries to negotiate with Shade, offering to buy him out at any price, but Shade refuses the offer. Max attempts to blackmail Shade, when he sets him up to be seduced by two feeders. Shade feels he has betrayed his queen, but Kate takes matters into her own hands and delivers the heads of the feeders to Max in a hatbox, and challenges him to war.

When war comes, Max calls on the army of his father-in-law, and his forces outnumber Shade’s warriors five to one. The Medici’s fight valiantly, but as Kate observes the slaughter of the Medici troops, she draws on her gift of animalism, turning the tide of the battle, and forcing Max to surrender. Bel Rosso is saved, and Max’s surrender leaves Shade with the expanded territory of Virginia, but it didn’t come at a small price. Many warriors were lost in the battle, included his beloved Fiamma.