Page 56 of A Study of Blood and Ichor

“Whatever you do, do not catch his attention,” he said, low and hushed.

“What the hell, Vain!”

Caging himself around me, he shot one hand out and planted it firmly to the wall next to my head as if he were trying to shield me from view. The other plucked my chin possessively between his gloved fingers.

“Listen. To. Me,” Vain commanded, coal-black eyes burning. “I need you to trust me for once. I beg you.”

In any other scenario, I would have been tempted to tease him for begging, but he was staring at me with such fierce intensity that my bones felt like they might catch fire. Every inch of my skin tightened under his dark gaze. My head hummed and the thrumming beat of my blood rushing through me felt like a warning buzzing in every fiber of my being.

Vain slammed into me, closing the small distance between us and crushing our bodies together until his lips were on mine, and he kissed me with a fervor I wasn’t prepared for. I pushed against him, and he barely broke away.

“What the hell are you doing?” I hissed.

Vain’s eyes had lost their lustful edge and appeared overly bright and alert. Every muscle in his body was taut. I never thought I would see him afraid of anything.

“Trying to blend in so we’re not noticed.”

“By who?”

“Ghen.” My knees went weak, and my blood turned glacial. “He’s here. If he sets his sights on us—”

The paralyzing fear in Vain’s eyes, his hesitation…it all made sense. Even amongst their own kind, the archdemons were something to be feared. If Vain’s own fear of Ghen had been immobilizing, then mine was nothing short of devastating.

“Then instead of kissing me, shift us out of here. Right now.”

“I can’t,” he said, voice strained. “Not from within the house. Eldin has wards in place to prevent anyone from shifting directly in or out.”

My heart plummeted.

Vain leaned in and pressed his forehead to mine. “Do as I say, mellilla. Please. So I can get us out of here together in one piece.”

Maybe if I pretended Rory was in control, I could do it.

I tried, really tried, to force myself to stare at Vain and only see Rory—his sharp jawline, his soft lips, the faint pinpoints of freckles that crept up onto his cheekbones. The humanness of Rory was in every plane of his face, but where Rory’s gray eyes should have been, there was nothing but Vain’s fathomless black, and I was instantly pulled back to the reminder of the demon always lurking beneath Rory’s skin.

I set my jaw. “Fine. Do it.”

Vain unleashed himself, attacking my mouth with his. Instinct demanded me to recoil into the wall when I first felt his tongue slip out and trace along the seam of my lips, but the warmth and the taste of him was undoing something deep inside me that I was helpless to resist. He continued his insistent dance across my mouth until my jaw relaxed, and I allowed him in. His tongue parted my lips at the invitation, and I dug my fists into the silky material of his dress shirt, half-pushing, half-pulling as my mind warred with my heart.

The kiss was possessive and hungry, fierce and unforgiving in all the ways a demon could be. No matter how hard I tried, it was impossible to imagine I was kissing Rory instead. It was his body, his mouth, his lips. But this kiss was all Vain.

Rory.

My cheeks heated in shame as I imagined him locked in the confines of his mind, forced to sit back and watch as Vain claimed me.

Whatever Vain had said about the kiss being nothing more than an attempt to blend in, this felt no longer like pretending. It felt all too real.

His hand shifted toward the nape of my neck. Vain slowly threaded his fingers through my hair as if he were trying to tangle himself up in me any way he could. He tugged, firm yet gentle, forcing my head to tilt upward which allowed his mouth to claim me deeper, consuming nearly all of me. A low groan of pleasure crawled up from my chest and Vain’s body tightened as he let out a deep and feral growl in return.

Under normal circumstances, the sound of it and the feeling of his chest rumbling against mine would have been enough to snap my last thread of self-control. I wanted to be wild and wholly at Vain’s dark mercy. He wouldn't need to glamour me, not when I was already this undone by him.

“Resorting to hiding in the shadows, Vain?”

Vain stiffened, his muscles hard as granite beneath my hands at the sound of the thick and heavy voice that stirred the quiet. He pulled away, and I opened my eyes just as the archdemon, Ghen, appeared behind Vain’s shoulder. And I knew then in that moment that there would be no masking the fear that overtook me.

“We have so much to discuss.”

SIXTEEN

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