I saw his partner’s eyes flame with coral magic. Was he… trying to help me? Defend me?
“Wait,” I called out, which had Ruxnoth holding his power at bay, and the guy’s eyes settling, calling back his magic, something Ruxnoth hadn’t registered with all the other fuckery going on—pun intended, as Evira would say.
“Hold up. I’m not done.”
He arched an eyebrow.
“I was about to say, what you are right about is that me being uncooperative is definitely detrimental. Continuing to be this way, I mean.”
“Yes?” he queried, unsure.Good.
“As much as I hate what you did—outing me to the supernatural world like that—it doesn’t change the fact that I’m an enemy to them now. There’s no place up there for me anymore. So I need to accept that and work toward preserving Sanctus, the one place where I can exist and live without persecution and being hunted or imprisoned. Like you said, we’re the same where that’s concerned—both abominations who will never be accepted by them.”
Yeah, we’d see about that.
With being forced into thisNihilumbranightmare for so long it had actually given me an idea, one I could figure out the mechanics and details of once I was out of it and able to actually think straight and remain conscious for more than a few minutes at a time.
“All right,” Ruxnoth said, “I accept your truth regarding that. But what about Sylas and—”
“You won’t say his name to me. You won’t mention him. And you’ll make sure nobody down here does either.”
“So you intend to… compartmentalize that?”
“You want me functional and cooperative, then that’s how it needs to be.”
“Well, I can assure you that, in time, if you remain open like you’ve just begun to be now, we will become your family.”
“About that—not the family part, but this sexual stuff—that’s off the table as well.”
He frowned. “How will you live comfortably without that aspect of your needs fulfilled?”
“It needs time, and a lot of it.”
“Until you can fully let go of your bond to those you believe you loved?”
‘Believe’I loved? What a dismissive motherfucker. There was no part of that with my loves that was up in the air. Ididlove them. All three of them. And that would never fucking change. He just needed to believe it would, that the bond would erode over time.
“Exactly. Throwing offers of sex—or this fucking scene in my face—is an insult to that, to me, and I don’t like it. I’ll make it known that I don’t like it. Do you understand me?”
The corner of his mouth turned up. “Mmm. Perfectly, my deathborn darling.” His smile widened. “I am duly impressed with your fortitude, with all of this.”
“Then release me now.”
He held up a finger. “In a moment. Rex needs me.”
Rex?That was his name?
RexCrowley?
What was—
“I told you earlier that this is not just gratification. He requires my assistance. My treatments to soothe his mind or it will return to its fractured state.” He ran a gentle hand down Rex’s back. “This is the way he prefers to take it, the other way involves a great deal of pain and also undercuts the effectiveness due to the distress it causes.” He flicked his magic at me, and then I was free to look away.
I was about to do just that when he had me wincing as he started pounding into the poor bastard, albeit Rex was eagerly pushing back against him—that wasn’t really surprising considering Ruxnoth had stilled for some time, leaving his cock deep inside him like some kind of erotic torture. But what had me still looking over was Ruxnoth at the same time shoving his fingers into Rex’s mouth, them glowing vibrantly with his midnight-blue power. It radiated from his other hand that had now shifted to Rex’s hip, and encompassed him all over—inside and out.
That was how he was apparently healing his mind.
It wasn’t just any magic, not just any flood of power. It possessed very similar properties to what he did to me with that living warmth.Hmm.
