Page 173 of Taken By Touch and Torment

SCARLETT

Icould feel the moment my glamour shattered irreversibly for both born men, Durian’s revelation the final crack before total collapse.

“No,” Brennan mumbled.

“Yes,” I responded, nearly a moan. My lips tipped up, Rune’s venom going straight to that bundle of nerves between my thighs.

When Rune’s hands finally gripped my waist, I sighed in relief. He was no longer paralyzed. His vampire healing had kicked in, closing each of his wounds.

His power thrummed through the air as he drank my blood, staring hard into my eyes.

The moment his irises flashed in warning, he lifted me off his lap. Rune had Brennan bound to the wall with his thorny shadows before I had time to blink.

The dagger I’d lodged in his chest clattered to the ground.

Rune grinned, walking back to me to help me to my feet and to close the wound on my wrist with a kiss. Then he casually collected the wrist cuffs from the ground and stepped to Brennan, who was writhing and spitting insults my way.

Rune tsked. “One more cruel word about my soul and your tongue is gone.”

He only placed one cuff on Brennan, on his left wrist. Brennan stupidly yanked against his bondage to the stone wall as more poison infected his system. His free arm swung wildly. It wasn’t long before he fell on his ass.

“You know why I left your right arm unbound?” Rune stood at my side, his fingers slowly running through my hair. I shuddered, leaning against him, finding comfort in his swelling darkness.

Brennan refused to answer.

“Because that was the hand you used to hurt Scarlett.”

I knew what was coming. I offered Rune the dagger I’d replaced in my holster, and he kissed my temple before crouching in front of Brennan.

“I don’t want to take this from you, baby, if you’d rather do the honors?” Rune asked politely.

“That’s sweet of you,” I said. “But I don’t think I have the stomach for severing limbs yet.”

Rune nodded. “We’ll work on it.”

He slammed Brennan’s forearm on the stone, holding it still so his hand was flat.

Though I didn’t want to do it myself, I also didn’t look away when Rune brought the dagger down in a rush of vampire speed. He cut straight through flesh and bone, blood squirting out.

Brennan screamed. Rune tossed his hand to the side like it was a piece of trash.

He stood, and he walked straight to me, pulling me flush against him as he locked his lips with mine.

I’d never been kissed like this before. Rune’s lips consumed mine, his tongue reclaiming the mouth that had only ever belonged to him. Death pushed up against us from all sides, and I could taste the perilousness of existence, the brutality of love and war that held us in its tight grip.

He gripped my throat without applying pressure. My skin was on fire. My nipples and clit were sensitive as they rubbed against Rune’s blood-soaked black uniform.

I pulled back, giggling. “I subdued the enemy wearing nothing but a belt with daggers strapped to my thighs. I stabbed a man, nakedly.”

Rune laughed. We ignored the screaming, hissing, and spitting from the enemies at each of our backs.

“Yes, you did, baby,” he groaned, teasing my neck with the graze of his fangs before lightly sucking. He raised back up. “And it was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. I will be replaying that image in my head for the next several centuries. Possibly forever, because how could anything else compare?”

“I looked hot while I did it?”

Rune raised his brows. “To put it mildly.”

“Good. That was all that mattered to me, anyway.” I turned and glared at Durian.

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