Page 6 of Moth & Flame
Alister huffs, rolling his eyes. “So you’ve said. I’m bored of you, Hella. So very, very bored.”
With a deep breath, I push down my anger.
“Alister, please don’t do this. Lord Paynehurtshis donors. The male is a stain on our community, our people, andour life’s work.”
“Gods, you’re dramatic. Payne provides the best blood on the market. I don’t know why you assume his methods of extraction are nefarious. Perhaps his donors suffer from depression. Is that his fault?”
“All of them, Alister? You really find it plausible thatallthe blood in his vaults is tainted?—”
”Seasoned,”Alister corrects.
—with virtually every form of suffering.”
Alister gives me an incredulous look. “That’s the best part. And I’m not the only one who thinks so. Did you even look at his revenue reports?They’re insane.You should be thanking the gods he’s merging with us.”
My vision gradually turns red. Instinct screams at me to bleed him dry. Unfortunately, I have no doubt I would die if I tried. So the next best thing bursts from me. “I’m leaving you.”
For the first time in our excruciating engagement, Alister’s face slackens with shock, as if I’ve just slapped him in the dick. A moment later, his head tips back with raucous laughter. When he straightens, tears of amusement brim his eyes.
“Oh, darling—you’re hilarious.”
“I wasn’t joking.”
“Hella, if you truly think I’ll ever let you leave, you’re more delusional than I thought.”
My blood turns to ice. “You’re delusional if you think I’ll stay. I’d rather die than spend the rest of my life with you.”
A malevolent grin tilts a corner of his lips. “That can be arranged.”
DRAVEN
“Artemis, what time is it?” My house’s IOCI—inorganic cognitive intelligence—replies a moment later in her cool, feminine voice. “Four p.m., my lord. You have two hours until your appointment with Miss Vex-Nocturni.” My heart leaps with excitement. Every day, the moment that female sneaks into Moth & Flame dressed in a trench coat and moustache with her hair tied up inside that ridiculous fedora, it’s the highlight of my fucking life.
Vale gives me a knowing grin. “Counting down the minutes?”
I spit a mouthful of blood onto the sparring mats. “Always.”
Vale chuckles as warmth and appreciation glow in his eyes. He knows how I feel about Hella—and just how isolated a life I’ve lived. While polygamy is common practice among Sanguinati, I am incapable of sharing. Her engagement is the only reason I haven’t told her how I feel—or given her my knot—despite the way my magic and my beast demand that I do.
“You sure you want me to keep bludgeoning you?”
Vale is a Sentient. Essentially, if a god and a robot could procreate and have offspring, you would get someone like Vale: a feeling, thinking, and creative being made up of inorganic flesh and blood that never tires, never needs to sleep, nor does he haveany other biological requirements—although he can partake and quite enjoys doing so.
We only ever spar in my unshifted form, and I don’t use my magic. It would be an unfair advantage and provides me more of a challenge. Today, I bested him in the first fifteen of our sparring rounds, but he’s been handing my ass to me in the last five.
Drawing in a deep breath, I wave him forward, and he lunges for me. My side screams in protest as I force my muscles to contract, leaping forward to meet him and deliver a flying knee to Vale’s perfectly sculpted face.
Thanks to my injuries and fatigue, he sees the move before it lands, weaving out of the way before nailing the other side of my rib cage with a devastating right hook.
Dropping to a knee, I finally raise a hand, followed by a swathe of shadows.
“Match,”Artemis swiftly declares. Her tone is ripe with both boredomandamusement. “Very good, sire. If you’d been fighting a human, they’d be thoroughly deceased.”
Having served the Blackspire Empire since its inception nearly a thousand years ago, my combat skills are unmatched–as is my magic. An exceedingly rare advantage considering the fact that the populace of Gothika has faced dwindling control over their magic since The Exiled arrived.
Still, Artemis never misses a chance to make me the butt of a joke, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Vale’s lips twitch with restrained laughter as I send a bloody grin in the direction of one of her cameras. “Thank you, Artemis.”
