Page 32

IRIS

Vhex pulses with despair.

My shadow-garters make it hard to move, but I climb until I’m hugging his shoulders.

“Too late for what?” I ask, trying to soothe his pain.

His silks droop and slide away.

Is that shame?

From Vhex?

His jaw grinds shut.

I’ll pry the truth out of him, eventually.

It’s not like I have anywhere else to be.

Or working feet.

I rub his jaw with my thumbs. “Can you take me to my room?”

Vhex carries me down the stairwell. I’m so busy untwisting his silks, trying to figure out what has him so tense, I don’t pay attention to where he’s walking.

We end in a dank basement, in front of a door crusted in shimmering arrays. The patterns shine eerily similar to the ones in the imprisoning seal.

“This isn’t my room.”

“It’s mine.” Vhex channels into a magic circle placed where the door handle would be. The bolt rattles open, then he hauls me inside like a jaguar stashing its kill.

Pink light glows from the spells engraved in the craggy walls.

The narrow chamber barely fits the blanket mountain of his bed. There’s no other furniture. A single shelf that looks like he hollowed it out of the rock bare-handed holds—is that a mouse skeleton?

I shudder and look away.

The only decorations are array lines and the thick layer of soot on the rock ceiling.

Lovely. More caves.

“Guide.” Vhex lowers me onto a rumpled pile of silver blankets.

When he crawls on top of me, I’m pressed so deep that I’m almost buried.

There’s no mattress underneath.

His bed is a firebug nest made of layers and layers of flame-proof fabric that crinkle with every breath.

The space is dark and uncomfy.

He was stuck in this hole and left to suffer.

“It’s okay,” I reassure him, fighting for a position that lets air into my lungs. Eventually, I’m sitting half-reclined. I pat Vhex’s shoulder. “Rest your head on my lap.”

Vhex rolls until his head is sandwiched between my thighs. His fire armor is long gone, leaving him bare and at my mercy.

My veins… itch .

I stroke his velvety horn, hoping he can’t sense my inner quake.

But, this is fine.

We’ll get to the sex as soon I figure out what the hell is going on with him.

I finger-comb Vhex’s hair, grooming his silks and soothing his damaged meridians.

As his emotions settle, my stomach clenches.

I can fix the burn damage, but that venom sac is a chaos engine. It fills him with fresh poison, ruining my progress the second I try to focus anywhere but the twisted mess surrounding his fang.

I brush the sore spot on his jaw. “How do we get this venom out?”

“I bite you again.”

My fingers freeze. “And then?”

“Then you make a wish. If you choose lust, we fuck.” Vhex rubs his head against my stilled hand, forcing me to keep stroking. “Then you’ll want more. More power. More venom. More sex. You’ll do anything for it. Any fucking thing I want.”

My blood ices.

As our connection slips, my voice hardens. “You’d make me your servant.”

“No.” Vhex fights to hold on to the bond as our spiritual weave breaks down.

He’s losing ground.

I’m not trying to pull away, but our distance widens with the truth.

Whether I guide Vhex for a day or for a hundred years, I’ll never be delusional enough to imagine that he cares.

The idea of being bound to him—in any way—opens a pit in my gut. “So what? You get me addicted, use me, lose me, then run and bite the next one?”

“It’s not like that.” Vhex tries to shift, but I grip his horn. Unless he breaks my wrist, he’s stuck looking up from my lap.

I like the position. It lets me loom while his eyes bubble pink and red with panic.

“No?” I ask. “Then what’s it like?”

“More like I’m yours.”

My throat tightens. I’ve heard that before. “Explain.”

“The sky turned to pink fire when I was born,” Vhex says dreamily. “They said I was loved by the flames.”

The only flames I want to talk about are the ones teasing my clit from his leftover venom.

I don’t want to talk about love.

Never again. “What does that have to do with?—”

Vhex covers my mouth with hot fingers.

I swallow hard.

He grins as my lips rub his hand. “Did you know Trezzoran is the only bloodline conceived the old-fashioned way? Not by blood. By sex.”

I shake my head, starting to overheat.

I didn’t know. I wouldn’t think it was possible for a human and a monster.

“Family secret. Turns out, I’m a throwback to our Sire—the devil king himself. All his strength, inherited in a human shell. Same weakness, too. My venom works like his.”

“How’s that?” I murmur into his calloused skin.

“One host at a time.” Vhex’s grin is so sharp, my fingers twitch.

He slips my horn-hold and flips onto his stomach. As his weight presses me into the blankets, he nests his cock in the V of my shadow-bound thighs.

“And?” My stomach squeezes. “What number am I to you?”

“The only one that matters.” He sinks until our noses brush. “Only one that ever chose lust. When I said wife, I meant wife . You’re it. You’re mine .”

My cheeks crisp from the smoke on his breath. Something even hotter stirs my insides.

But, the problem with being number one?

I can always be pushed aside for the next one.

“Vhex,” I sigh against his lips. Just give me a few dick-pistoning orgasms and let me do my job. “We’re not exclusive.”

“I am, though?” Vhex bucks his hips, rubbing his cock through the shadows. “I bit you. Now I can’t come without you. Can’t even jerk off.”

My breath catches.

I emergency brake, grabbing his horn to stop the maddening grind of his hips. “Vhex?”

“That’s me.”

“Can I orgasm?”

“Right now?” He licks his lips glossy. “Let me eat?—”

“By myself,” I grit out. “Or with other Sentinels.”

“There are no other Sentinels.”

I shift my grip from his horn to his throat.

I missed my chance to impale Vhex.

It’s never too late to choke him out.

“I’m supposed to fuck you ’til my dick falls off, then die. But this works.” Vhex leans into my stranglehold. His silks dance with delight. “Ride me until I pumping into your tight, sweet c?—”

I smash a hand to his lips. Vhex’s breathy laugh melts my palm.

I’m willing to give Vhex everything he needs.

But absolutely nothing that he wants.

“Can I come?” I repeat, uncovering his mouth. “Give me a straight answer.”

“Probably?”

“ Vhex ,” I growl.

“I don’t know. I’ve never fucked the ones I bit.

” He darts to lick my finger. “If it works like the other devils’ bites?

You’ll want me to come first. Often . It cools the venom.

Slows the flames. Otherwise, this fucking curse only limits me.

You’re strong. You have to stay strong. To outlast me.

To survive my power. But from the moment I took your throat? I’ll always be yours. Only yours.”

“So you’re saying…” My head whites out from his words.

“You own me ,” Vhex rasps. “Not the other way around.”

I’m sweating, chest heaving. “Am I in danger?”

“ No ,” he answers fast and rough. “Won’t let it happen. Not to you. Not you .”

His thoughts fray, going farther rogue.

I’m still not sure if I understand what Vhex’s bite means, but I do know there’s no such thing as always .

As long as his venom doesn’t do anything worse than drenching my pussy in the next few days, I’m not worried about other long-term effects.

First we have to earn a long-term.

“I’m going to help you,” I say as I wind our silks. Our high compatibility leaves us so close to locking in a permanent weave that I shiver from my toes.

Groaning, Vhex nestles in my cleavage.

The sound is beastly—rasping through my shirt.

Body contact triggers that itch in my blood, but it also lets me reach him that much deeper.

Vhex drinks my power like a baked-dry sponge.

He fists my shirt as his soul-silks twist—always trying to imprint.

I don’t bother stopping the effort.

It can’t succeed.

Instead, I scratch his scalp and run my fingers through his satiny hair, enjoying the strangled sounds he makes with every touch. “I’ll get you all untwisted, then send you to fight. There are lots of other Sentinels who need my help.”

When I dig the base of his horn, his leg shakes.

“ Mmfuck. ” Vhex squeezes my ribs, driving me deeper into the blankets.

He drags his fang down my breast and teases my nipple with the sharp tip.

My back arches.

I grip his hair against the heat.

His first bite felt like candle wax, flowing through my body and setting my skin on fire.

His tease feels more like hot custard. The taste of his sweet heat turns me liquid and leaves me craving more.

I work my outer thighs, trying to break Remy’s shadows. They won’t budge, whether I claw, pulse my muscles, or coax the darkness with my silks.

With nowhere to escape, wetness builds between my thighs. It’s so slippery, Vhex could walk inside.

If I could open my legs.

“Fuck.” I throw back my head, clenching the stupid, crinkly blankets.

“Your blood vessels are so fucking pretty. Like lace. So swollen for me.” Vhex flicks his tongue against his dropped fang.

His electric energy leaves me dancing that edge between turned on and too painful.

I gulp hard as Vhex stares through my clothes with lava eyes. I try to look anywhere else, but my gaze always yanks back to his fang.

“You need venom,” Vhex says matter-of-factly, but I can feel the wild swirl of his held-back emotions. “You’re addicted to me.”

“I’m not addicted.”

My pussy pulses, and my throat prickles where he bit. I’m so hot. So… wet . I want to rub all over Vhex like a bear itching on a tree trunk, but I could just as easily fix the problem with my three favorite fingers.

“That’s what everyone says about devil venom. At first.”

I’m sure they do.

I refuse to be bound.

Vhex acts like I can’t feel the tension in his cock. “You’re the needy one.”

He’s been bare this whole time, waving it around. Gods know where he keeps his clothes. His candy pink shaft is so enlarged, its veins pop like licorice ropes.