Page 165 of Red Ruin

Vhex seethes underneath me, rumbling. “Handleme. Let hellfire handle the fucking lich.”

Careful of Vhex’s dangerous hardware, I angle my hips and lean back against his heated chest. I stroke his horn while I give the same caress to his agitated silks. “Aren’t I already handling you?”

“Fuck. Handle me more.” Vhex rocks me in the chair. If his claws stray any closer to my pulsing clit, we’re going to find out if Remy’s antique upholstery is water-proofed.

I let him rub against me until Vhex is as calm as he gets—a banked campfire glowing at my back.

He should be human-ish for a few minutes.

As long as no one adds oil to his flames.

I reach to Remy again. “Let me finish the call. I have to try to get us help.”

“Do you?” Remy asks in a rich, slightly muzzy tone. “Perhaps I used to feel the same.”

“You did.” I saw glimpses of hundreds of his lives. Until Remy’s current incarnation, he never stood down from his duty to fight.

“Times are different.” Remy braces against the chair arms, bringing his face to mine. Intense black whirls through the reds of his eyes.

“Fuck them all,” he whispers hoarsely. “Everyone in power. This is the world they wanted. Let them fight for it themselves.”

Remy’s gaze burns, but his deep, dark thoughts tangle in a swamp that hurts my heart.

“You’re not wrong.” I slide my silks inside him to soothe his pain. “But if we let the world burn, we’ll all end up in the ashes. We have to fight for ourselves.”

I have to fight.

I finally found a place I’m needed.

“I’ll fight for you,” Vhex murmurs.

“For me?” I bury my full-spine shiver under a snort. “You just like fighting.”

“Both. Win, win.”

I gesture at Remy one more time. “The orb.”

Its surface is still frosted. Kevan hasn’t left, but he’ll bepissedafter being kept on hold. It’s probably his first time waiting for anything, ever.

The shadows finally start to listen to me.

I make the mistake of shifting my attention from Remy to the glass.

The vampire snaps.

In another super-fast, impossible-to-dodge blur, he drags my lower lip between his fangs.

It’s part kiss, part bite, but mostly a point that Remy needs to make. Two sweet pricks of heat pierce just deep enough to feed me a taste of copper with the thrill. Remy’s tongue glides between his fangs, teasing back and forth, not licking butspreadingmy blood.

He pulls back and licks his lips.

Reflex has me start to do the same. A shadow pinches my tongue in place and gently,gentlypushes it back inside my mouth.

“No.” Remy grips my jaw. The shadow swirls with my tongue, opening my mouth to its kiss while Remy watches from above.

The kiss presses deep.

It sweeps the roof of my mouth, grinding my head back against Vhex’s chest.