Fashionably Hotter Than Hell: Book Six, The Hot Damned Series by Robyn Peterman

furious.
     
    "I can last through the fight if I have the blood of three Master Vampyres," she said evenly and stared hard at her brother.
     
    "It might be helpful to know what happens to you at sundown as we will all be counting on you," I said in what I considered a reasonable tone. Apparently I was the only one who thought I was reasonable.
     
    "Get off her ass," Astrid grunted as the others nodded their agreement. "She's got some whopper super uper duper mother humper of a secret, but if she can suck the ghosts back into Ghostville, I'm good with cryptic right now. You can get the goods on her when you get into her pants later."
     
    Ethan made a guttural noise of disgust and pinched the bridge of his nose. He then sighed and shook his head… resigned. He couldn't possibly be considering her offer. Ethan stared at the ceiling for a long moment and then shrugged.
     
    "Today must be my lucky fucking day," Ethan muttered, barely hanging on to his composure, "because we happen to have three Master Vampyres in the room. Astrid and Heathcliff, roll up your sleeves. Raquel needs to feed." He rolled up his own and approached his sister. "Are you sure about this?" he asked as he took her face in his hands.
     
    "Do we really have any other choice?" Raquel asked as she took his wrist. "Let me be good for something."
     
    "This really is completely fucked up," Astrid informed the room as she rolled up her sleeve and offered up her wrist. "After Heathcliff finds out your secret identity or that you're really a man or something more frightening than that, I get to be let in on the secret too or else I'll go gangster on your ass. Sound fair?"
     
    "Perfectly," Raquel said as she bit back a small grin.
     
    "Heathcliff, start reciting baseball stats in your head and bring your sorry fighting ass over here. We're going to feed your mate so she can obliterate a hundred invisible evil asscankers."
     
    "I'm not his… " Raquel started.
     
    "Enough of that shit," Astrid snapped. "I’m right and you’re wrong." She got in front of Ethan and shoved her wrist in Raquel's face. "One Master Vampyre coming up."
     
    Raquel glared at her. It was clear she wanted to clear up any misconceptions, but Astrid was having none of it. Her hair was flying all over the place and she was starting to glow. Even Raquel knew better than to screw with a pissed off Astrid.
     
    "Bite me and then go kill the fuckers. Now."
     
    "As you wish," Raquel muttered before she bit down.
     
    I stood next to Ethan and watched as I waited my turn.
     
    It was one of the hardest things I'd done in my very long life. However, it was not my place to question my Prince or defy him. My duty was to him and my people.
     
    "I don't want you to do this," I told Raquel as my fists clenched at my sides.
     
    "I know," she replied quietly. "But it's what I do. It's what must be done."
     
    I closed my eyes and willed myself not to grab her and run—to take her to a safe place where no harm would come to her, but it wasn't my right or my privilege.
     
    Not yet.
     

Chapter 8
     
    I went last. As she took my blood, Raquel refused to make eye contact. The pleasure and the pain of what she was doing almost undid me. My fangs descended and the moment became so personal and sexual all in the room looked away. This was more damaging to me than the fight with the thirty Vamps I'd indulged in earlier, but it was part of what needed to be done if we were all to see tomorrow.
     
    She finished and stumbled back. Jean Paul caught her. Her skin took on an iridescent glow and she'd never been more glorious. I realized in that second that Raquel wasn't just an ordinary Vampyre who needed my protection. She was a deadly force of nature—a ruler of an empire and not someone to be fucked with. It gave me some solace, but my irrational need to shield her would not disappear.
     
    "The timing of the attack is interesting," Raquel said as she rolled her neck and shuddered with the sheer amount