Chapter 80 #2
“Give me one last taste, snakelet,” he whispers. “Your venom.”
His eyes flutter and droop under my hold, but I force my fangs out and angle my mouth over his. Venom drips onto his tongue, and he swallows it gratefully as his heart slows even further.
“Thank you,” I whisper. “For what you did for me when I was alone. The food. Everything.”
His breath heaves. “You need to break my legs,” he pants, his lungs trying to compensate for the lack of oxygen.
“No,” I say softly.
“You need to maim me in a way that will make it impossible for me to follow for a few days.” I don’t want to hurt him in the same place my father’s generals hurt him as a boy. “Do it, Aurelia,” he grunts.
I clench my jaw before I strike, my fangs slicing through his throat and pumping him full of the venom that is unique to me. I dose him more than I did that first time—doubling then tripling it. His slow heart will make for slower processing speed.
“Not enough,” he whispers into my mind. “I’ll heal, snakelet.”
I think fast, my heart racing, the regina in me protesting against my chest. Tears fall down my cheeks as I shift my hand into a claw. “I don’t want to do it.”
“I know,” comes the reply. I will have you wild, with your fangs out or not at all. He’d meant what he’d said.
For the first time in three days, I lift myself off Ghoul, freeing his cock. It’s still hard and wet when I come off him, the hemipenis aspect shrinking to allow me release. But the large, engorged head is still swollen, still beautiful. Despite everything, I miss it immediately.
But there is a time to mourn, and this is not it.
I grab his right foot and slice through his Achilles tendon, then do the same with his left. I grab Ghoul’s paralysed head and summon my telekinetic power. My vision is gone to tears, my heart bled dry. But I know he’s looking up at me as I crack his skull just enough to give us all time.
I leave my bungalow without looking back, because I just know if I do, I won’t be able to walk away. I leave him there on my purple coverlet. Injured. Alone.
“Regina?” I almost cry hearing Scythe’s voice in my mind.
“I’m at my bungalow,” I rasp, clutching my broken heart. “Come quickly.”
The dry grass crunches under my feet as I stumble across it towards Aunt Charlotte’s old house.
I wonder where my little cousins are because this house looks long abandoned.
The daylight stings my eyes as I hurry into the shade of the house, but another set of feet, too light to be Scythe’s or Xander’s, crunch over the grass just ahead.
A female serpent in military uniform raises her gun, pointing it at my face. I squint at her. Dark hair, a pale, angry face.
“Natalia?” I rasp. “Is that you?” Three male serpents in the same uniform rush up from behind her, swinging their guns up, aiming them at my sorry ass.
“Hold!” Natalia shouts. Her finger hovers over the trigger, and then I notice the black mark on her hand. I’d seen it before: a cursive B. I couldn’t guess what it meant before, but I can guess now.
“Captain, shoot her,” one of the males behind her says. The others growl in assent.
“I said hold,” she snaps at them, not taking her eyes off me.
“You’re his mate,” she says accusingly.
“I’m his regina,” I hiss back. Of course they’d all seen the video. All recognised me despite my attention to the disguise.
They all bristle in surprise. Natalia even takes a step back, despite her gun and training, her eyes widening.
“We should have fucking known,” she mutters.
“Who else could match his power?” The others curse under their breaths.
I notice they have black marks on their hands as well.
“I haven’t forgotten that you saved me from your mates,” she grits out.
My brows can’t help but rise. “They were wrong to do that,” I say darkly, remembering the time Scythe, Savage and Xander held Natalia captive and tortured her in our suite.
That was after Natalia and her cronies had jumped me and tried to cut off my mating mark, but still.
She was just a girl, like me. At the time, anyway.
Natalia grimaces at the memory, glancing over my shoulder at the bungalow behind me.
“She’s probably been giving him her venom!” One of the soldiers snarls. “She’s probably controlling him!”
“What?” I say vaguely. “How would—” It hits me then. How Ghoul has been demanding my venom. Since Drakos Estate he’s been drinking from me. Does that mean he’s been—“
“She’s not a basilisk,” Natalia says. “She’s a Boneweaver, her venom can’t work the same.”
I stare at Natalia for a moment. They haven’t seen footage of our fight yet. “He’s injured in there,” I say quickly. “You’d better go help him.”
Her dark eyes flick to me again. She assesses me and seems to make a decision, lowering her gun. “Stand down.”
“What the fuck—” the males begin, but she puts up a fist and they shut up. “She fucking saved me when she didn’t have to. We owe her. Let her go.”
“Thanks,” I say, rubbing my neck.
“You’re different from the girl I remember,” she says, continuing on past me. “Get the fuck out of here, Boneweaver.”
I don’t need to be told twice.