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My world turns blue and so fucking beautiful.

My fang.

FUUUUCK.

My cock.

My head.

Everything clears.

“Firefly.” I hug Iris with my wings. Her minty power tingles. Like medicine, she scrubs my barbecued soul.

My fire sings .

I’ve never felt so clean. How could I?

My venom is so fucking toxic, everyone it touches dies fast and rough.

I’m not supposed to bite the ones I love.

My bastard father had me venoming servants as soon as I cut my baby teeth. He needed to test my power.

He hated the results.

My venom wasn’t just stronger than his—it was special .

It lets my hosts borrow my magic to fulfill their darkest desires.

I was his experiment.

Never his child.

Nanny asked me to bite her before I knew what that meant.

She managed to kill my mother—the bitch who was running the tests—and carried me out of the dungeon. I clung to the woman who actually raised me. Felt her blood pumping too hot, the venom driving her insane as she made a break to escape the estate.

Nanny didn’t give a fuck what it cost—she loved me that much.

We made it to the wall.

I was in her arms when Old Duke cut her down.

Felt her go still, my venom chilling as her veins cooled.

No matter what my father did to force me, I never bit again.

Until Rhat. Only because I was starving in the dungeon.

Who knew I could venom rats?

Rhat became my brother.

He lasted longer than Nanny. Long enough to become human smart and burn up from the inside. He could speak in my head by the time he found the key to the manacles suppressing my power.

He said, Go see the sky, then died in my hands—breathing one second, the next just…ash and bones.

I lost my shit.

Slaughtered every fucking Trezzoran I could find.

Everything’s a blur between then and now. The emperor kept me as his dog. I killed a lot. Maybe bit a few people who needed to suffer. Got banished to the Farguard before my last rampage dragged the palace to hell with me.

It would’ve ended sooner if I could’ve ended it myself.

I was so close to the end.

Finally, so fucking close .

Then Iris kicked into my world.

White sneakers dipped in kobold blood, and a soul too pure to resist.

FUCK.

And I repeat.

FUCK.

I wouldn’t have bitten her if I’d been in the right fucking mind.

Or if I could think at-fucking- all.

I’m all fire and pain unless I’m touching her.

Maybe I knew?

I must’ve known that she was special, too.

So fucking special.

“More.” I pump my fin, living for the quiver in her hips and the glow of her miracle soul. “Give me everything.”

My wife mewls like a kitten when she won’t let herself moan. Her sharp, hissy breaths pump straight to my cock.

Instinct tells me to wrap her tight in silks.

I want to keep her forever.

But I tie and tie, and our souls won’t snap that last fucking inch.

I squint into the blaze where our souls meet. “Are you holding back?”

“No,” she groans. The desperate noise ripples down her thighs. “Wish I were. Fuck . I should.”

“No. Don’t.” I pump her hard and deep.

This fucking relief .

I can breathe. I can see without a layer of tar clouding every fucking thing and making it agony just to light a birthday candle.

No more pain.

No more death.

My venom pulses through her veins, then disappears.

Over her shoulder, I lock eyes with Azrid.

The vampire looks drunk and stupid, smiling around his fangs in her throat.

We’re supposed to kill each other.

That’s why we were sent to the same abandoned guard.

To fight to the death in a quiet corner of Faervaine, where we’ll only off ourselves.

Now, he fucking saves me?

You dropped the ball so hard, I snarl at Azrid, then tune him out.

All that matters is that Iris lives.

I won’t kill her.

I can keep her.

I can learn how to make love to her so good .

She’ll never think about needing anyone else.