“Of course,” I say quietly. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t start. Otherwise, we’ll be saying sorry to each other every five minutes.”
We say our goodbyes, and I finally head into the shower, where I don’t even touch the hot water tap. I’m too riled up. Too ready to blow fire onto the world. Tomorrow night is too far away, how am I supposed to sleep tonight?
When I exit the bathroom into the dark of the bedroom, red gleaming eyes stare at me through coiling shadows from the corner of the room. “Don’t go, it’s a trap,” Ghoul says.
He’d been secretly listening! Hidden in the shadows around the dorm, perhaps. “I know all about traps, Ghoul,” I say irritably, toweling my hair dry. “I don’t want to see you right now.”
“I don’t care, my sweet little venom.”
“Come to gloat?” I try not to look at him, glaring out the window instead. Whenever he has his shadows up like this, I can’t see his mating mark. It doesn’t matter, though, the pull I feel towards him is inexplicable. My feet take a few halting steps towards him.
He hums as if amused. “The way I see it? You have no ideawhatyou’re doing.”
I find myself standing before him, furiously pointing out the window. “Get the fuck away from me, General.” I’m pretty sure that’s how he gets around—flying through the windows. It’s not like he’s ever walked through doorways whenever he’s snuck into the academy.
His shadows recede, revealing the dark figure underneath. Instead of his usual bone mask, tonight his face is painted with the white skull pattern. “Forgetful little thing, aren’t you?” That voice gets deeper. Huskier. “We made a deal.” I go still, my eyes narrowing in suspicion. Fangs glint. “You promised me your venom at any time of my choosing. That was in exchange for passing a little message to your friends, remember?”
Throwing my towel onto the bed with a feral sort of aggression, I turn away to leave. “Come back another time, you bastard.”
I feel his heat behind me, radiating like something toxic. Poisonous. A muscled arm snakes around my waist, tugging me close to a tower of muscle at my back. He smells like leather and something spicy as he lowers his mouth to my ear. “I do enjoy it when you’re like this.”
Unbidden, I turn to see his face and find those lips mere inches from mine, the fangs poking out. His scent is intoxicating, filling my head, my torso, and surging all the waydown.His hand, gloved in firm black leather, comes up to hold my jaw. “I think I’d murder someone to get your venom in my mouth, snakelet.”
The memory comes back to me, at Drakos Estate, when he’d milked me for my venom for their so-called research. Not long after, they’d injected me with hormones to make me go into heat.
Some of that time is a haze. Being in heat is like that. It can be like coming out of a dream. You’re a different person, and afterwards, your memory can be hazy. I remember that I’d been insatiable. I remember that Xander had carried me to his room and had called Ghoul.
They’d…helped me. Ghoul had drunk my venom, but then Xander had left, and Ghoul remained…
“We never fucked at Drakos Estate, did we?” I ask curiously. “I would remember that.” His body is a stone pillar at my back, and I remember the sensation of being close to him.
He chuckles, his thumb finding my lower lip and brushing against it. Suddenly agitated that my memory is foggy, I turn and shove him. It does little to actually move him, but I get to put distance between us before I do something stupid. Ghoul bares his fangs at me. “You bounced in my lap, fucking my fingers until you were so exhausted you fell asleep, snakelet.I, however, have not fucked you yet. You’d remember that.”
Wild Mother, Idoremember some of what he describes. I’d been dizzy from all the panting and…bouncing,as he calls it. I cross my arms and regard him. He regards me back, those red lasers harsh, those shadows lazily dancing around his shoulders. Slowly, he stalks backwards and sits in Scythe’s armchair. A finger beckons. “Sit on me, pretty poison.”
I don’t move a fucking inch.
Fast as serpents, two bands of shadows strike out. My arm whips up to reflexively cover my face, but they band around my hips, firm yet velvet soft. I’m yanked off my feet and fly forwards, right towards Ghoul. I’m forced to raise my feet, and he catchesme. I’m breathless as he chuckles, arranging my thighs on either side of his. Pressed against him, I glare down into his eyes.
“I would never strike you, let alone your face,” he says matter-of-factly. “I might hurt your little fangs, but then how else would I get my sweet venom? Open up.” He strokes my cheek with a finger, and his lids lower across his eyes, turning the red beams into tiny half-moons. I bare my own fangs in annoyance. “There she is. Now, think about biting me as hard as you can.”
He’s lucky I make good on my deals, otherwise Iwouldbe tearing up his neck right about now. I feel the venom surging out of my fangs and lower my mouth over his.
Ghoul parts his lips on a practically reverent breath. His tongue snakes out, licking at one of my fangs hard enough to draw his own blood. I snarl softly, that serpent part of me rearing her ferocious head. Hands tighten around my hips, and he surges forward, covering my mouth with his. I rear backwards, annoyance sounding from my throat, but he holds me firm as he drinks from me. I shove at his chest with my palms, and he moans into my mouth, wrapping his arms around my waist and locking me in place.
He swallows once, then twice. And I can’t help it then. My hips grind against his. My hands slide up his chest, his neck, and cup the edge of his painted face.
His shadows slide around my shoulders, brushing at my hair and neck, touching my mating mark. My skin tingles, the regina in me needing so much more.
“You hate that you love this,”he says into my head.“You hate that I love it so much.”
“Fuck you.”
“That’s it, baby. Give me all of your rage.”
He holds me tight, and he’s fucking correct. I hate how, in the arms of this basilisk, this general of my father’s court, it’sthe first time I’ve felt grounded in two days. As the venom in my glands nears empty, I feel light. The place between my legs is heated. I burn for my mates, and it makes me squirm.
