Page 156 of Sweet Venom

Another life ended. Another threat erased.

For them.

For her.

For my Poetry.

Poe

I was halfwaythrough a chapter when my phone buzzed.

I ignored it at first—lost in my writing process—but the name that flashed across my screen stopped me.

Azariel.

No message. Just a link.

My heart stuttered.

I clicked it.

The video opened with darkness. Fuzzy, unfocused. Then it sharpened—and my breath caught in my throat.

What…

It was a room I didn’t recognize, cold and ugly, walls stained and metallic. There was a man chained to a wall, his bloody body slumped, twitching. I could see it even distorted by the feed. I knew him.

The man who had attacked me outside the signing. The one who left me with a bleeding head wound and gasping against concrete while readers watched from inside the bookstore.

And then Azariel stepped into frame.

He was bare-chested, white tattooed skin gleaming with sweat and shadow. The light caught on the silver in his hand—his knives—and he looked calm. Serene, almost but also giddy.

He looked beautiful in that otherworldly, devastating way he always was. Even all covered in someone else’s blood.

He didn’t speak.

But the man begged. Screamed. Pleaded.

Azariel answered with silence and hatred. Every cut, every bruise, every calculated slice was a wordless declaration of hate. A love letter written in violence and madness.

I should have been horrified. I knew that. I should have shut the video off, or at least recoil, but I didn’t.

Instead, I watched. I felt the pounding of my pulse in my throat, my ears, my wrists. Not from fear. Never fear.

From awe.

I felt loved. Protected. Claimed.

His.

And then, slowly, Azariel turned toward the camera.

His face and hair were spattered with blood, red lips parted, chest rising and falling rapidly. He looked straight through the lens—straight into my soul—and my breath left my body in a rush. My heart pounded fast.

Even in that room, surrounded by agony and ugliness, he was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen.

And he was all mine.

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