Page 103 of Red Ruin

If it’s SS or or above…

There’s a reason monsters are that level are calledapocalypsetier.

Remy’s silks curl around my fingers. “I’m remembering more and more.”

“Somebody get me a fucking map,” Vhex huffs. “I’ll show you the spot.”

While Cherise dishes tasks to each squad, someone finds a map to spread on a dining table.

Vhex snatches a red marker and scrawls a lop-sided circle.

“Are you sure?” I lean in. The spot he circled seems random—a mountain surrounded by other mountains.

Vhex glues himself to my back. “I’m sure. Can’t you feel it?”

What Ifeelis his fire-wreathed cock, teasing the cleft of my ass through a spare set of too-big uniform pants. That itchy, wax-melting feeling floods lower, burning hotter as it flows.

A pinprick burns where Vhex’s fang pierced my throat. “What exactly is it that I’m feeling here?”

“Notthat,” Vhex rasps. Taking the chance to wrap me tighter, he leans over and jabs his circle on the map. “That.”

“The monster?” I slide down the bench, dodging his heat. “Wait. You can feel its energy from this distance?”

“Can’t everyone?” Vhex tongues his fang.

“I can’t.” Not between the obvious pulses of its power. I glance around. Sentinels shake their heads. “Remy? Simms?”

“No,” Remy says flatly, glaring at Vhex’s clinging arms.

Simms shakes his head. “Maybe the monster communicates on dog frequency?”

“Woof,” Vhex barks and licks my throat.

I push away his ticklish tongue, but the damage is done.

He licked the itchy spot that craves his fang.

I stiffen, trying not to whimper as sticky heat rolls down my core.

Godsdamnit.

I grip the edge of the table. “Remy. Go help everyone relocate. The faster, the better.”

“I refuse.” His silks battle Vhex’s for holds in my soul, but his touch is soft when he tilts my chin. “I’ll not leave my one and only Guide alone with the devil.”

One and only, huh?

I slip his grip and ignore the caress of his silks, begging me to return. “I’ll take care of you both all night. But if you don’t help the other Sentinels now, we won’t have a tomorrow.”

As Remy grips my hip, shadows squeeze my waist. The pressure tightens downward, wrapping my thighs and gluing them together. Then my knees. My calves.

When I’m wrapped hip-to-ankle in a shadowy mermaid skirt, Remy gives me a gentle push. Off-balance, I topple into Vhex’s arms.

“Don’t touch what’s mine.” Remy smirks, disappearing in a puff of shadow.

His shadows stick behind, clinging tighter than plastic wrap. No matter how I kick, I can’t spread my legs.

“Bat. Fucking.Bastard,” Vhex snarls, clawing at the wisps.

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