Page 30

IRIS

After dinner, Sentinels push aside the long tables and re-set the benches into a V that faces a makeshift podium of crates.

I don’t need a podium.

It’s not like I prepared notes.

As the crowd settles down, I pause for a breath.

Cherise offers me a fist-pump from the first row. I’m recognizing more and more Sentinels by their faces or energies.

I spot Simms, sulking at the back. His damp hair is pulled into a man-bun, and his caveman beard has disappeared.

Vhex and Remy bookend me as I take center stage.

I’m not nervous about speaking.

I’m afraid of what happens if we can’t work together.

“No one is more surprised than I am to find me standing here,” I begin, less shakily than I feel.

When no one throws tomatoes or fireballs, I press on.

“We’ve all been fighting long enough to skip the bullshit.

That mass kobold resurrection was a preview from the monster breaking its seal out there.

We don’t know its origins or how much time we have to prepare, but it’s safe to assume we’re up against unlimited undead.

Our main attack force is three of the most unreliable S-class Sentinels to ever wear the uniform.

And, apparently, we’ve all pissed off some authorities?

Nobody will be rushing to the border to rescue our asses. ”

Sarcastic chuckles mix in with the crowd’s mutters and nods.

They know the score.

“I’m not going to waste your time pulling some half-baked defensive strategy out of my ass.

You know your jobs and your territory. I’m just a Guide keeping the commander’s post warm.

But for now, I’m your Guide. Any Sentinel who needs help.

Any Guide who needs a break. I can’t promise much else, but I never abandon my own.

As long as I wear this badge, every one of you is mine. ”

I sweat more from Vhex’s poison than from the speech. He and Remy keep up a subtle seethe, making the A-class Sentinels avoid my eyes. Everyone below B-class quakes.

“Enough.” I grab their wrists. A touch settles their upset magic. The longer I hold on, the more desperately their energy strokes and sucks.

I shiver.

All that power, preening just for me.

“I’ll handle the dukes. What else needs to happen for us to have a fighting chance?”

“Dorset,” Cherise barks. “What’s up with our walls?”

A Sentinel with her hair in a long braid offers a fist-to-palm salute. “They’re fucking toast, Warden. We can fix the masonry again, but what’s the point? We don’t have enough supplies to repair arrays that size.”

Vhex and Remy don’t react; they lack both short-term memory and shame.

“Then we retreat to the keep,” Warden Dell proclaims, sparking a wave of groans.

“The keep?” I ask. “What keep?”

“Fort Lombardy,” she explains. “The old castle in the mountains? This base was built for comfort and access to the town. It was never meant to survive a siege.”

“Clearly.” I wince at Remy’s floor-to-ceiling access hole. It’s a miracle the building hasn’t collapsed. Even our location is a hazard—a solo office building making itself a target on a flat plain. “If it’s more secure, why isn’t the keep the Farguard’s main base?”

“Location. Amenities.” Cherise ticks the points off her fingers. “General lack of resources. The spawns are constant that deep in the mountains. We don’t have enough Sentinels to run proper patrols.”

“Yeah, and no plumbing either,” Sentinel Dorset complains, dropping back into her seat. “It’s bad enough we can’t have phones. Now you want us to shit in pots and haul water?”

Warden Dell snorts. “Do you want toilets or working defenses?”

I keep my mouth shut.

If we’re doomed, I choose plumbing.

More fighters mutter. I peek out a few silks to read the room.

The group’s main energy is pissed-off resignation.

That’s better than despair. “Do we have time to relocate everyone and enough supplies?”

“We can move fast,” Warden Dell answers. “Even faster if Lord Azrid lends us his shadows.”

“He will.” I drag Remy forward.

I want them to see who’s holding the dukes’ leashes.

Those leashes are covered in poison and teeth, but I’ve got steady hands and I’m too stubborn to let go first.

“Do you remember where to find the seal?” I ask, smoothing Remy’s energy. “You’ll need to show the scouts. We have to get an official power reading on this monster.”

S-class Sentinels are technically borrowing monster power, so they’re always at some disadvantage compared to real monsters at the same rank.

If the monster in the mountains is S-class or S+, we have a chance of beating it with the three S-class Sentinels on our side.

If it’s SS or or above…

There’s a reason monsters are that level are called apocalypse tier.

Remy’s silks curl around my fingers. “I’m remembering more and more.”

“Somebody get me a fucking map,” Vhex huffs. “I’ll show you the spot.”

While Cherise dishes tasks to each squad, someone finds a map to spread on a dining table.

Vhex snatches a red marker and scrawls a lop-sided circle.

“Are you sure?” I lean in. The spot he circled seems random—a mountain surrounded by other mountains.

Vhex glues himself to my back. “I’m sure. Can’t you feel it?”

What I feel is his fire-wreathed cock, teasing the cleft of my ass through a spare set of too-big uniform pants. That itchy, wax-melting feeling floods lower, burning hotter as it flows.

A pinprick burns where Vhex’s fang pierced my throat. “What exactly is it that I’m feeling here?”

“Not that ,” Vhex rasps. Taking the chance to wrap me tighter, he leans over and jabs his circle on the map. “That.”

“The monster?” I slide down the bench, dodging his heat. “Wait. You can feel its energy from this distance?”

“Can’t everyone?” Vhex tongues his fang.

“I can’t.” Not between the obvious pulses of its power. I glance around. Sentinels shake their heads. “Remy? Simms?”

“No,” Remy says flatly, glaring at Vhex’s clinging arms.

Simms shakes his head. “Maybe the monster communicates on dog frequency?”

“Woof,” Vhex barks and licks my throat.

I push away his ticklish tongue, but the damage is done.

He licked the itchy spot that craves his fang.

I stiffen, trying not to whimper as sticky heat rolls down my core.

Godsdamnit.

I grip the edge of the table. “Remy. Go help everyone relocate. The faster, the better.”

“I refuse.” His silks battle Vhex’s for holds in my soul, but his touch is soft when he tilts my chin. “I’ll not leave my one and only Guide alone with the devil.”

One and only, huh?

I slip his grip and ignore the caress of his silks, begging me to return. “I’ll take care of you both all night. But if you don’t help the other Sentinels now, we won’t have a tomorrow.”

As Remy grips my hip, shadows squeeze my waist. The pressure tightens downward, wrapping my thighs and gluing them together. Then my knees. My calves.

When I’m wrapped hip-to-ankle in a shadowy mermaid skirt, Remy gives me a gentle push. Off-balance, I topple into Vhex’s arms.

“Don’t touch what’s mine.” Remy smirks, disappearing in a puff of shadow.

His shadows stick behind, clinging tighter than plastic wrap. No matter how I kick, I can’t spread my legs.

“Bat. Fucking. Bastard ,” Vhex snarls, clawing at the wisps.

I pull at the shadows stuck to my hips. My magic and fingers both pass through.

I breathe against the pool of heat growing at my thighs. Every motion rubs them together. My clit tingles. “Can you burn them off?”

“Yeah, if you want to be steamed like a fuck dumpling.”

“That’s already happening.” The shadows grip my pelvic mound. The only thing that helps is holding perfectly still. “What the hell is with your venom? You said this would go away.”

“It did.” Vhex hooks my trapped knees and lifts me into his arms.

Cherise and the remaining Sentinels duck to strategize, pretending to leave me some dignity, but I can feel them enjoying the show.

I bury my flush in Vhex’s chest. “Then why is it so hot?”

“Because you need more.”

“No. I don’t.”

“You do .” Vhex carries me out of the room. “But you can end the pull. Anytime you want.”

His energy pulses wildly. A painful echo spears my jaw—a razor sprouting from my gums.

It’s the echo of his fang.

It fucking hurts .

“Tell me.” I slide into his meridians, fighting to keep him level. “How do we make this stop?”

Vhex’s eyes flash to red.

“Easy.” Triumph whirls between pain and darkness, but his grin is pure, mischievous fang. “You just have to kill me.”