Page 15

Chapter

Thirteen

CHAOS

“Malice, it’s Hades. The one fuckin’ time I need you, and you don’t answer the godsdamned phone. Listen, I need to cancel the poker game we have scheduled. The shit has hit the fan, and I don’t know when I’ll be available again. You might have heard about the escapees, and well, that obviously needs to be dealt with. If you have any suggestions, I could really use a few good men on my side for this one. Anyway, if you could call me back to let me know that you got this, that would be great.”

“ W hat the fuck was that?” I asked, my eyes narrowed as I processed the weird-as-shit message from the god of the underworld. “Hades has never left any of us a voicemail .”

“Let alone asked us to call him back,” Malice pointed out.

“We also don’t have a poker game scheduled. Not for another twenty-five years.” Grim paced in front of the bookcase, hands in his trouser pockets. “What is he playing at?”

My mind was a blur of possibilities. I considered and dismissed dozens before arriving at the only possible conclusion. “It’s coded.”

“Since when do we have a code with Hades?” Sin asked.

“We don’t, but he’s banking on the weirdness of the message to help us figure it out.”

“Okay, so what is he trying to tell us?” Grim asked.

“It could be one of two things. A call for help or a Trojan horse.”

Sin laughed. “I doubt he’s got a bunch of Greeks hiding inside a horse just waiting to take us down.”

“He does if he’s actually Lucifer in disguise. The master of lies can do a lot of things. Trickery is his middle name.”

Grim was studying me, his mercurial eyes dark and calculating. “And which do you think it is? A trick or a plea?”

I scrubbed a hand over my jaw. “With everything that’s happening, it could be either. By mentioning the poker game, he was trying to convey something only the five of us would know about, which makes me inclined to think it’s the latter.”

“And the escapees would obviously be in reference to the Knights,” Malice added.

I nodded my agreement. “A few good men would be us.”

“He wants to go after the Knights?” Sin asked. “I know why we’re on Team Keep the World Alive, but why is he? There’s no upside. Think of how many souls he’d collect once everyone bites it. This isn’t like him at all.”

“Unless he’s got something worth fighting for up here,” Grim observed. “The lord of death may have found his Persephone.”

“You mean the blonde he rescued?” Malice asked.

I shrugged. “Could be. We didn’t exactly have time to sit down and chat.”

“Then why don’t we call him right now and get to the bottom of this?” Sin asked, pulling his phone from his pocket.

Grim snarled in response, his shadow expanding from under his feet and looming over Sin.

“Okay, okay, you don’t have to get so grouchy. I’ll put it away.” Sin took one step back and returned the device to his pocket.

“You think it’s Lucifer?” I asked, unsure myself.

Grim nodded, his shadow receding as he came toward the three of us. “The timing is off. Why is he contacting us now when we are hidden as deeply as possible? After each Knight has been released, there’s been some sort of attack on us?—”

“You mean Merri,” Malice corrected.

If he was annoyed by the interruption, he didn’t show it. Grim simply kept talking. “This is the first time one was released and hasn’t had a lead on where to find her, or by proxy, us.”

“He’s trying to smoke us out,” I murmured.

“I think he could be. Which means we can’t take the bait. This might be the safest Merri has been since she’s come under our protection.”

“And if we’re wrong?” Malice asked.

“Yeah, what if Hades really needs us?” Sin added.

I sighed. “Hades is a god. He doesn’t need us. He will figure it out, or he’ll find us.”

“Chaos is right. We can’t risk Merri.” Grim settled himself in a chair, the antique wood creaking in warning as though protesting the use.

“Okay, so we ignore it,” Malice summarized.

One by one, the rest of us nodded.

“Speaking of Merri,” Grim asked, “how are the training sessions going?”

“She’s getting better but still has a long way to go,” I admitted. “She’ll never be able to beat a Knight on her own.”

“She doesn’t need to beat one. Just survive long enough that one of us can get to her.”

“She’s getting there. We have something scheduled this afternoon. I have a couple of things planned that I think will help.”

“Great. What about you?” Grim asked, turning to Malice.

“Well, she was able to push me out in half the time today. But not before I got fairly deep into her mind. Merri is strong, but...”

“But what?” Grim’s brow lifted in question.

“But she hasn’t been feeding like she should. She’s not able to reach her full potential because she’s refusing to feed deeply.”

Sin cocked his head. “She’s seemed fine the last few days. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.”

“Not today. After she used so much energy to block me, she was winded and tired. She’s doing a camming session right now to help her perk up.”

Sin frowned. “She insisted on camming instead of feeding from me yesterday too.”

“Did something happen?” Grim asked, looking around, accusation heavy in his voice.

“Don’t look at me,” I said, hands up in a placating gesture.

“Beats the hell out of me,” Sin said.

Malice met Grim’s gaze head-on, shrugging. “No clue. She definitely seems skittish, though.”

Grim was quiet, long fingers stroking his chin as he stared hard off in the distance. “We might have to force the issue. We can’t have her collapsing on us again. If Merri won’t take care of herself, we’ll do it for her.”

“Sooo, you want us to just burst in and jerk off for her? Like a dick flash mob?”

Everyone glared at Sin.

“What? It sounded like that’s what you were suggesting.”

“We need to convince her to take from us. And someone needs to get to the bottom of why she’s pulled away.”

Sin rolled his eyes at Grim’s logical response. “Dick flash mob was way more fun.”

“That won’t get you any closer to breeding her.”

“It’s called foreplay, Grimsby.”

“If you think surprising a woman by bursting into her room and whipping your dick out like some sort of psycho stalker is foreplay, then there’s no hope for you,” Malice said.

“Oh, I dunno. Could be fun. And I’m willing to bet she’d even be into it under the right circumstances. I might float the idea as a role-play scenario.”

The hell he would. A wave of possessiveness hit me from out of nowhere, making me grind my teeth together. I’d already laid my claim as her next potential partner. Sin needed to sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up.

“She’s mine,” I growled, causing them all to look at me. I cleared my throat. “I mean, it’s my turn. I already said I’d be the next to take her.”

Sin snorted. “Take her? Buddy, she’s not going to be tooken. She’s got to choose you. Merri holds all the cards in this scenario and she doesn’t even like you that much.”

Oh, she liked me. She liked me a whole hell of a lot. Sin just hadn’t been paying attention. But he had a point. Merri needed to want this with me. Just like she had in my dream. The one I couldn’t get out of my head.

I’d have her. But before that, I had to make sure she wanted me.

Then, and only then, I’d make that dream a reality.

“Mmm, you like that, huh? You are so naughty today. What else do you want me to do for you?” Merri purred into the camera.

Watching Merri like this was its own special kind of torture. I was equal parts turned on and furious. Each time one of those fucking clowns wrote to her, I wanted to reach through the screen and strangle them.

EverySteve: Show me your pretty pussy, baby.

PimpinAintCheesy: How wet are you after using that toy?

Yes, the toy, the one she’d trailed across her panty-clad cunt over and over as she let her audience dictate the vibration levels... for a price, of course. My girl wasn’t going to give anything away for free. Not to them, anyway.

BigMan69: Make yourself cum 4 us, pretty girl.

Bob1212: Yeah. Give us the payoff we’ve been waiting for.

ShyGuy25: Watching you make yourself feel good is all I need.

TIs4Tony: What a fucking beta.

I couldn’t remain quiet. Usually when I spied on Merri’s camming sessions, I kept to myself, but watching these assholes treat her like she was their personal toy now that I’d claimed her as my own had me seeing red.

ThisIsSparta: Just proves how bad you are in bed. Anyone who’s actually experienced a female’s orgasm knows that her pleasure always matters more than your own.

I didn’t miss the flare in Merri’s eyes, the flush that raced up her cheeks. She was excited to see me in her chat.

“Well, friends, it looks like our time is up for this session. I hope I’ll see you all soon. This has been the most fun I’ve had in a long time.” Merri leaned close to the camera, giving her clients a perfect view of her ample cleavage as it threatened to spill out of the top of her sheer pink babydoll negligee.

“Finally,” I muttered, closing down the computer and striding purposefully out the door.

I hadn’t wanted to interrupt her feeding, but I was itching to get her alone. I’d told the others that I would see to our mission, and I was nothing if not a good soldier.

I stood outside her room, forcing myself to remain patient. I knew she’d come out eventually, but after a few minutes, I lost the battle with myself and let myself inside. She was there on her bed, lying on her belly with her feet kicking in the air as she scrolled through the comments and left little heart emoji on each one.

Her eyes widened when she snapped her gaze to me, mouth open in a little O of surprise. She almost looked like a pinup illustration I’d seen once.

“What the hell, Chaos? Don’t you know how to knock?”

Ignoring her question, I glanced at the watch on my wrist. “You’re late.”

“Late for what?”

“Training.”

“How can I be late for something that didn’t have a set time?” She repositioned herself on the bed so she was sitting on her knees, facing me with fire sparking in her pretty eyes.

My already hard cock ached at the sight of her like that. It took everything in me not to close the distance between us and fist my hand in her hair.

“It starts when I say it starts.”

“That makes zero sense.”

“Are you defying me, Red?”

One russet brow lifted in challenge. “What if I am?”

Fuck. I loved her spirit. No one ever dared challenge me, knowing they wouldn’t survive the experience. No one until her.

“Get off the bed and come with me. We’re wasting time.”

“No.”

“I’m sorry, I think I misheard you. What did you say?”

“I said nooo.” She drew out the word and slipped off the bed, strolling past me without even a glance over her shoulder.

“We have training.”

“It’s not on my calendar, big guy. I don’t know what to tell you.”

“It’s a standing date. Every day unless I say otherwise.”

“Tough titties.”

As she stood in front of her wardrobe, she made an exaggerated show of bending over to pick up a scrap of lace that had fallen to the floor. Her little nightie rode up and offered me a perfect view of her ass and the plump lips of her pussy covered by obviously damp silk. She couldn’t see me—thank the gods—so I reached down and adjusted my throbbing dick.

“Mmm,” she moaned, looking back over her shoulder with a grin. “Like what you see, Chaos?”

Fuck. She’d tasted my arousal. Of course she fucking had.

“Stop fucking around,” I growled, storming over to her and lifting her up and over my shoulder.

“Hey!” she protested, feebly pounding on my back. “Put me down, you big bully!”

“You’ve been enough of a brat for the day. Don’t make me put you over my knee and show you exactly who is in charge here.”

Her pussy was so close to my face. I could probably bury my face in it if I let go of my hard-won control. Instead, I turned my head and sank my teeth into the globe of her ass.

“Ouch! Did you just bite me?”

“Do you have a problem with that? And before you try lying, you should know that it doesn’t smell like it to me. Your arousal is intoxicating.”

She squirmed and let out a little whimper. “I edged myself all session. You know that. Fucking creeper.”

“You can say whatever you want, but your body has already betrayed you. I saw your reaction when you realized I was there. And I can feel what my touch is doing to you now. Deny it all you like, Merri, but you want me. And not just to watch. You want to know what it would be like if I split you apart.”

The image of me balls deep inside her had my body tensing as that fucking dream I had replayed in my mind. I’d been out of my head with need for her, desperate to be inside her any way I could. I couldn’t remember all of the details, but I specifically recalled her asking me not to spill inside her. In my dream, I’d conceded. But in reality, that was exactly what I had to do.

She was more than a little breathless as she replied, “If the lust coming off you is any indication, it’s you who’s wondering what it would be like.”

“What if I am? What if I told you that I came in my sleep dreaming about that very thing?”