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He kept Breaker nice and sharp. As far as beheadings went, it was a clean one.
“I have fought this weapon before. I know who your father is. They say you are not completely human. A mooncalf. A cambion.”
“The fuck’s wrong with your heart?” “Nĭ hĕn cūlŭ,” the girl said severely, in what sounded like Qing-yen. “What?” “I said, you’re very rude.” “Sorry. The fuck’s wrong with your heart, madam?”
Remy has no chill
“The Fourth Court heiress wants to tup you, Remy.” Remy had eschewed wine for coffee, having deemed alcohol too early to indulge in at seven in the morning, even for him. He spat the hot beverage out all the same. “She wants nothing of the sort,” he sputtered, wiping his mouth on a napkin. “She’s engaged.”
She totally wants to tup you Remy.
For Remy, who was accustomed to making bad decisions, it was an easy choice to make.
Lol
It had no mouth. But from its chest cavity, teeth half as long as his scythes emerged from a cavernous hole that stretched across it from shoulder blade to shoulder blade; still bloody, still gnawing on the remains of the poor traveler and their horse. This wasn’t a vampire. This was a demon dredged up from the pits of hell. “Bloody fuck,” Remy said.
They’d started a betting pool on which bounty was going to kill him. That stung worse than the beating Feiron’s flunkies had given.
He couldn’t stop watching them both. Now that she’d put Feiron in his place, Xiaodan was back to her chipper self, and she’d never been more beautiful. Malekh, too, remained as elegant and commanding as he’d always been, and Remy took that personally. They were both stunning.
And I took that personally 🤣
Lord Feiron was the next highest-ranking official to assume the late duke’s duties, but Lord Feiron was not the type to inspire confidence or loyalty or any minimum standard of competence.
Read him!
“He hunted the vampire who murdered three dozen people north of Enumbra. He took down the coven that nearly depopulated the villages near Wargen. He retrieved Tennyfair’s daughter. He staked the only known First Court vampire lurking within Aluria in close to a decade—his first mission, in fact. Need I go on? Because I have nearly ten years’ worth of kills to list.”
She’s been looking into you my love.
“If I’m bait, as you say, then there’s no better time to put me to good use than here. And if I do wind up getting myself eaten by one of these horrors, then you can wash your hands of me. Cheerfully cremate my remains, if you’d like. Pour your little augmented coagulant whatsit on my bones and give me a rousing send-off at daybreak. But if I stomp on inside and prove I can take on any infected and vampires within, then you owe me. Even if the vampire arse I beat winds up being yours.”
“I thought you didn’t want me along,” Remy muttered. “I never said that I didn’t want you.”
And I oop. The flirting is starting!
“I’ll go where you both go,” he found himself saying, feeling strangely at peace with the words.
“Are you mad?” Remy shouted. “By the Light’s arse, you didn’t know any of that when you chose to throw yourself at it!” He could have sworn that the Summer Lord looked surprised. “I know what I’m doing.” “Well, congratu-bloody-fucking-lations to you, but I didn’t! Being a vampire as old as sin doesn’t mean you couldn’t be torn limb from limb if—” He realized he was still yelling. He stopped abruptly, aware of both vampires now watching him:
He was worried eep
You bristle at being called bait, but it is what you are. Left to your own devices you will seek them out, and they will murder you and send pieces of your corpse back to us to gloat. You chafe at being called weak, but that simply does not matter to me. We intend to protect you. Whatever your hatred of me, I will not see you harmed.”
Remy couldn’t muster the required imagination beyond picturing Xiaodan wrapped around Malekh’s neck, delectable mouth feasting on the perfect flesh there, or why the thought of it unnerved him in distinctly uncomfortable ways.
“Xiaodan’s condition forces her to process blood at a rate twice as fast as the average vampire’s,” the noble continued, thankfully unaware. “The blood cycles back into her system quicker, letting her extract more of the sustenance she requires. Her feeding triggers a faster regeneration on my end, increasing my strength in turn. It is a mutually beneficial relationship.”
Something curved at the Summer Lord’s mouth, too fierce to be a smile. He leaned forward and whispered something against Xiaodan’s hair, the words so soft that Remy could not hear. The beautiful girl in Malekh’s arms trembled, her lips leaving his neck briefly. “Yes,” she groaned, eager and filled with need. “Yes. I want him, too.”
AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
One of Malekh’s hands drifted higher so he could grasp the side of Remy’s jaw tightly, forcing his head up to meet his own dark, heavy-lidded gaze. “I said you would be open to both our advances if we’d expressed our interest much more clearly.”
SHEIFKFF HD CNDVHBBB NC GJ!!! BRB freaking out.
“Neither Xiaodan nor I had intentions of pursuing anyone else while we remain committed to each other. She has always been honest with me, and I with her. And when we both realized the hunter she’d been enchanted with in Elouve was the same one I’d fought…”
“But even random attacks require a follow-through, which you do not capitalize on. Remember that when you try to hit me again.” “Fuck you,” Remy said. “Perhaps one day, Pendergast. Now, shut up and strike me.”
The ones unlucky enough to take her up on the challenge were immediately disemboweled, as Xiaodan blurred from one opponent to the next, using nothing but her hands to tear them into shreds like their bodies were paper.
“You are an infuriating human who constantly tries my patience,” Malekh said, “but I’ve never pretended.” And slowly, without breaking eye contact, the man pressed his fingers against the small wound, tongue briefly flicking out, and Remy’s breaths spilled out of him in soft, jittery waves.
and I doubt Yingyue would rouse from her stupor to defend her own daughter, much less you and your human lover.” “I would really fucking appreciate it if someone actually corrected him on that,” Remy said.
Nobody is paying Remy any attention 🤣
“My fiancé had made a similar offer to you—an offer you declined to take seriously. He’s been sulking ever since.” Remy swallowed hard. “I thought—I assumed he’d only meant to provoke—” “We are both attracted to you, Remington Pendergast.”
When I said that I wanted to guard Kinaiya Lodge, it wasn’t just because of Zidan’s old enemies possibly seeking reprisals. It was also because I didn’t want you to seek out the Duchess of Astonbury again. We’d already decided that the next bed you tumbled into would be ours, if you were willing. But I’m growing impatient, waiting for you two to reach a consensus.”
He couldn’t stop thinking about last night. About her proposal, about Malekh, about the dynamics of involving him in this strange, heady entanglement. He was horrified that the thought excited him.
“I—” Remy hesitated. He didn’t want to be grateful to Malekh, but he didn’t want to apologize, either. “Malekh. I’m not… I know that we—there’s something I must—” “Are you trying to thank me, Pendergast?” Malekh didn’t quite smirk, but he came close. “Or do you plan to offer to me what you had of my betrothed last night, as recompense?”
I love how blunt Zidan is but my heart also cant take it
“Five years? I thought he was Malekh’s younger brother.” “Adopted younger brother,” Malekh said. “I killed all my biological siblings some hundreds of years ago.” “Right. As one does.”
😂
“I rather think,” Malekh said with a deliberate drawl, “that I should be finished with my monkeying tonight. All the time in the world for me to work you hard after that. Xiaodan can join, too, if she’d like.” Remy turned scarlet. Surely he didn’t mean— Oh, but he most certainly did.
“Xiaodan—” He wanted her, and he… he wanted… “He pisses me off,” he finally said, hating every word. “He does. But I—I wouldn’t say no.” “I believe,” she said with a radiant smile, “you should be saying all this to Zidan.” “Bloody hell, Xiaodan. You’re not going to help me out here, are you?”
But Malekh, Remy didn’t want to think about. How the man would mock him one moment, be coldly aloof in the next, and whisper filth at him afterward. Malekh’s occasional frankness about his desires was the only thing Remy liked about the noble.
“Snap out of it, Pendergast,” Malekh barked, ragged and angry. “You’re going to fight this, and you’re going to beat it. We didn’t drag your damnable ass from Elouve all the way to Chànggē Shuĭ only to have you die on us now.”
“I’m not going up there on your back,” Remy said stubbornly. “And you can’t bloody make me.” “FUCKING HELL,” Remy said not five minutes later, clinging on to Malekh’s back for dear life.
😂
Home. Three days in Qing-ye and he was already putting down roots. He’d never realized how lonely his life had been, or how much he had relied on Elke to assuage that, until today.
“Remy.” Xiaodan had moved off the bed and toward him halfway through his rant. Her warm hands reached out to take one of his own. “What are you saying?” she asked softly. She knew. They both did. But it was as important to Remy to say it out loud as it was for them to hear it from him. So he said, “I want you. Both of you. I still don’t know why you actually want me back, but I’m here, and I’m all I’ve got.”
Two vampires. Two goddamn vampires, and at the same bloody time. He deserved some kind of award, and also a drink. If this was what Vasilik had had before Malekh had rejected him, then Remy wasn’t surprised he’d been throwing tantrums ever since.
“No, but you were thinking it. After the Astonbury gala, it was you who insisted I handle Remy’s situation while you investigated the lord high steward’s death. You frightened Feiron into freeing Remy when he was arrested. It was what started those rumors in Elouve about him being our familiar, remember?” Remy’s gaze flew to Malekh, incredulous.
I love her, Remy thought, surprised by the realization, insignificant amid everything else. Her and Malekh.
🥹
But they didn’t let up. I think they knew who I was, recognized the weapon, and they were even more eager to get at me. But I didn’t let up either. I just kept Breaker spinning, hour after hour, terrified that if I stopped, they would kill me or turn me. The worst part… the worst part was when they’d taken my fellow novitiates, turned them intentionally, and sent them after me while they were still in the throes of a frenzy.”
It wasn’t meant to last forever, this peaceful idyll. Remy had never been lucky enough for that.
“Right. The one whose blood started all this.” “It’s your blood, Remington.” Malekh was staring at him with cold, furious anger. “It’s your blood in all these samples.”
“I think it would be best if you returned to your father and see to his whims as you’ve always done, Pendergast. You’ve outlived your welcome here.”
How fucking dare you suspect Remy.
“We’re going back to the eastern palace, and then we’re going to help your family fight, and I don’t give a shit what Malekh thinks about that.”
Yeah Remy!
It was the same one he’d spotted at the Dà Lán. Remy blinked, and it was gone.
For sure thats a actually his mom
“You may not be able to move about as you once did, but don’t throw that bullshit on me. You know far more about things that happen in Aluria than even the queen herself. I know you have something to do with this.” “And what gave me away, Son?”
This motherfucker
Remy stared helplessly back at him. “You wouldn’t,” he whispered. “You wouldn’t fucking dare.” “Oh, but I would, my boy. I will take this accursed, ungrateful city down with me if I must, to protect Aluria.
“I love Zidan and I love you. After Etrienne ripped my heart out, I learned how great my capacity was to give love, to accept it. I’ve never regretted Zidan. I’ve never regretted you.” Xiaodan bent down and left soft kisses along his jaw. “And I know you love me too,” she whispered, “and I know you love Zidan, and you don’t need to ever say it. Just show me. Every day, for the rest of our lives, please show me.”
When he was done, he felt someone lift him up and carry him back to the bed. “Don’t touch me,” he gasped, pushing in vain against Malekh’s chest. “Don’t touch me. Everyone I touch, everyone I care for—they die. Don’t…”
😭
“Malekh destroyed their scaffolding and Elke carried you off, but I stayed behind. I told them all, in no uncertain terms, that if they so much as looked at you the wrong way again, or at anyone else they believe to be aiding vampires, then I would turn their city into nothing but ruins and the ghost of a memory.”
Right!
