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My wife smells like bat jizz.

I burn the stank off her hands.

Azrid didn’t fuck her—if he even can.

Limp-dicked vampire.

She’s mine. Not yours. I shoot him the message while I yank at the silks she’s running to him instead of me.

You? Azrid’s mental voice hits louder and shittier than ever. Maybe Iris has us plugged together.

That’s not going to fucking fly. How’s my venom taste in her blood?

Azrid snorts. My Guide is immune to your taint.

You can suck my fucking taint. I own those veins.

I stroke her ass and watch her blood flow while Iris mutters at the ground.

My venom can work fast or slow.

It depends on the host.

Faster means I’m stronger.

Slower is better.

Slow means Iris is strong enough to handle more—and hopefully serve me the ending I deserve.

Leftover flecks of my poison clump in her soft spots.

Head, pussy, heart.

My Trojan swimmers are doing the devil’s good work in there.

I pry at Azrid’s shadows, trying to free her ass for a better view.

She swats my hands. “Not now.”

“Why?” Her vessels are so fucking lush.

“There’s no way you don’t feel that.”

“Let me feel more,” I purr as I knead her ass.

She tilts my chin, forcing me to stare down the ground. “ That .”

Magic leaks through cracks in the stone.

I catch a steam-kettle whine of creepy-ass power. Then I actually look .

The ground is just a rocky crust, hollow underneath.

Below that is…

Cold .

The darkness fucking devours my magic. I reel my silks away from the chasm.

I don’t know how I know, but something evil is camping at the bottom.

My horn shrinks.

Bloodline suppression?

“That’s not good.” I lift my Guide, then set her back down so her boots rest on top of my feet. I don’t want her touching the rock—the bastard downstairs will want a piece of her.

“You think? ” She turns to Azrid as he reappears in a puff of janky smoke. “Did you find anything?”

“Even the ceiling array was charred.”

Oops.

Iris sighs at the ground. “The break might happen slowly, but it’s going to happen. We have until the ground collapses to come up with a battle plan.”

Instead of stepping off her special perch, she hugs my waist. “Bring us back to base. I have to send a message before whatever’s down there escapes.”

Us.

See? I flash the vamp a fang as I drag her against my body. I win.