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“You can’t.” I pull back just enough to gasp. “We’re not?—”

Vhex snarls and grabs my skull, deepening the kiss. The harder he tries to imprint, the faster our silks rip apart.

As the purple light fizzles, the weakening connection kills my concentration. There’s nothing left to distract from his fire in my veins.

Fuck it.

Let’s battle wills.

I lick his fang and kiss him back.

Vhex makes a satisfying mmf as he tries to swallow me whole.

I work my hips, loving the way he clutches at me, body and soul, but when I’m on , he can’t snatch my control.

Faster.

More.

I grab his horn and ride.

Vhex doesn’t have to move.

That dick pistons itself.

His inner springs pump his textured nubs against my walls.

My blood boils.

Pink stars flash behind my fluttering eyes.

It’s so fucking hot.

I bounce crookedly, needing more friction. I’m desperate to grind the hard-yet-smooth fin that flutters back and forth.

It hits every aching nerve, stimulating my entrance.

My outer lips.

The sides of my clit.

“Vhex,” I moan and break our kiss.

His sharp fang slips and scores a line along my lower lip.

Instead of blood, I taste smoky candy.

“ Ah!” My body tightens and shakes. “I’m— I’m?—”

I bounce, burning and chasing that release.

It doesn’t come.

My hips stutter.

Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck.

The heat. His venom. I squeeze the devil’s horn. “I can’t come.”

“Told you it would hurt.” Smirking, Vhex licks my blood. “My turn to fix you.”

He cups my skull and rolls.

The motion thrusts him so deep, my vision whites. When it comes back, he’s on top, filling me with hot ridges and maddening bumps.

My pussy pulses around his width.

I groan. “I hate you right now.”

“Hate me even more.” He thrusts twice—first driving into me, then with his spring-action cock.

The double-pump strokes deep.

I quiver.

“Hate me tonight.” Thrust-thrust . “Hate me in the morning.” Thrust-thrust .

“Hate me so much—” Vhex bites off each word in a thigh-shaking growl. “ That you.” Thrust-thrust. “Fucking.” Thrust-thrust. “Take.” Thrust-thrust. “Me.” Thrust-thrust-thrust-thrust. “Out.”

His fin grinds my clit and his magic wraps me as tightly as his hands.

We join deeper.

Deeper.

The cling of his soul doesn’t match the desperation of his pace.

He wants to stay.

He wants to go.

I can relate.

And finally, I can deliver.

I’ll give him all the hate he wants.

“You want me to take you anywhere?” I pant. “Earn it.”

“Fuck.” Vhex hardens even more. His cock pulses, vibrating his bumps against my walls. “I want to. I want. Want. Want. You .”

Our silks weave.

Bathed in the purple light of our joined souls, he arches his spine and roars.

His cum is molten.

Hotter than his venom.

But it doesn’t hurt.

I writhe around him, milking him for more.

His orgasm unlocks mine. Shaking, melting, I bite Vhex’s shoulder and hope that it scars.

He likes that.

As his dick twitches and his silks grasp so gleefully possessive, my pussy drinks what it instantly recognizes as the antidote to his poison.

I haven’t read enough about the devil-sired bloodlines. I’ll grill Vhex about his venom later.

As soon as he can communicate in more than grunts.

Vhex pumps while I absorb.

I want to be pissed.

But he’s so warm, I can’t work up more than irritation and a moan.

He’s the best I’ve ever had.

As we pant, slowly coming down, a slightly enlightened Vhex lifts me off the ground.

He pulls me over his thighs and buries his head in my throat.

Vhex caresses my spine. His fin works side to side too gently to get me off—just slow enough to keep the tickle alive in my core.

“Iris,” he whispers hotly. “Don’t die.”

I stiffen.

I don’t know what to do with that statement.

Especially when it comes with pulse of pure vulnerability and a hug so deep that Vhex seems to want to chain-link our ribcages.

I blink past Vhex’s shoulders, trying to figure out his game without making any sudden moves.

We bumped and rolled too much.

Now, we’re sprawled inside the array.

“We have to move.” I untangle my silks from Vhex, finally turning my attention out.

As soon as my silks are free, they freeze.

I lock eyes with a knot of darkness that stabs into my soul.

Remy burns with cold thirst, regressed into a twisted mess of suffering who only knows how to say one word.

“ Guide ,” he hisses.

His relapsed damage rips me in half horizontally, like two claws splitting down the middle of my throat.

Fighting to keep my voice soft, I reach into the dark. “Remy?—”

Shadows spear from the ground. They rip me off Vhex’s body, then balloon around me.

Vhex’s outraged roar sneaks through with a sound like a rocket taking off, then the ominous crash of stone. Within a heartbeat, everything is muffled.

Bruised, burned, and awkwardly hollowed out, I wobble to my feet. I can’t tell if I’m caged in shadows, standing in the same spot as before, or if I’ve been banished to a lightless prison at the bottom of a gorge.

“Remy!” I call as I swing into the shadows.

My fists pass through chilly wisps. I can’t see shit in the suffocating dark.

Vhex’s heat still lingers on my skin, but his silks are gone. There’s no sense of Remy, if he was ever here.

The emptiness hums in my ears.

Remy forgets my name when I’m not standing in front of him.

The motherfucking vampire isn’t going to remember he sent me to solitary while he and Vhex casually unleash a fresh apocalypse.

Not on my first day in command, assholes.

Fuming, I spread my silks. I feel like a big, blue anemone, baring my sensitive soul to stalking sharks.

No matter how I try to attract his attention, Remy doesn’t appear.

I need better bait.

“I know you’re here.” I chew at my lip, widening the slash from Vhex’s fang.

It doesn’t taste like berries anymore.

“Come back to me, Remy.” Tasting blood, I call into the dark. “I have what you want.”