Page 2

Chapter

One

CHAOS

W here the fuck was Sinclair? He was just supposed to be putting Merri to bed. I looked away from the flickering flame of the candle and up to the ceiling as if I could see through it and into her room a floor above.

“If that prick doesn’t come down soon, we’ll need to send a search party. There’s no way he has enough stamina to give her more.” If I wasn’t mistaken, Malice sounded... jealous?

“This is Merri we’re talking about,” Grim said, as if that was all the answer Malice required. And it probably was.

Merri was the most powerful succubus any of us had ever encountered in our very long existences. If anyone could inspire Sin for another round or seven, it was certainly her.

“I’ll go check on them,” I grumbled, pushing out of my chair and getting to my feet.

Malice chuckled softly. “All in the name of safety, right?”

“Fuck off. I’m being responsible.”

“Just make sure you don’t disrupt her rest,” Grim warned.

I waved him off as I left the room. Those two clearly weren’t thinking along the same lines as me, but then I was a master strategist. This sort of thinking came naturally to me. It’s what kept me alive when I was human, and I’d only honed the skills during my tenure as War.

Besides, whether they were in mortal danger or not, the last thing those two needed was to get locked in some sort of weird feeding cycle or something. The thought reminded me of eagles, locking their talons together as they sometimes fell to their deaths for the sake of mating. A stab of fear hit me in the chest. Sin was immortal, but Merri? What if he’d been the one to drain her?

My thoughts raced back to how Sin had looked earlier. He hadn’t been feeding as far as I knew. Perhaps temptation had been too hard to resist and...

I took the stairs three at a time, practically flinging myself up them as I sprinted down one hallway and then the one that would lead me to her door.

“Fuck you and your stupid too-big French house, Malice,” I growled. As if this was somehow his fault.

Before I was halfway to her bedroom, I was nearly doubled over by a powerful explosion of lust. I had to reach out to the wall for support as I moaned through the sensation and fought to keep control of myself. That answered my question. They’d gone for another round.

The state of my own dick made it very clear I could go again as well. Fuck, being here with her was a sort of beautiful agony, especially when she was actively feeding.

“You fucking liar!” Merri’s tortured scream knocked back any lingering lust, sending me running to reach her.

“Merri!” I called, my thoughts narrowing into laser focus as I sprinted the rest of the way to her room. The door was only open a crack, but it was enough that I could clearly make out her broken whimper.

“You lied to me. You promised you wouldn’t die, and you lied.”

Pushing the heavy wood slab farther open, I stared at her, my fear now replaced by something more akin to concern. She was kneeling on the bed next to Sin, tears streaming down her face, one hand repeatedly smacking against his chest.

I could hear footsteps racing our way as Grim and Malice rushed to join us. They must have heard her scream. They would have felt the lust supernova, but it wouldn’t have been enough to make them come looking. The sound of her terror, however, absolutely would.

“Merri,” I called softly, not wanting to startle her. She didn’t acknowledge me at all. She was too wrapped up in Sin.

I stepped up behind her before reaching out and tugging her naked body back into my hold. I grabbed a soft blanket from the tousled covers and covered her nudity. “It’s enough, Red. Stop it now.”

“I... I don’t know what happened. He should’ve been fine. I didn’t mean to.”

“Shh, it’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong,” I promised, rocking her as I pressed my lips to the crown of her head. I was acting on pure instinct, hoping only to soothe the distraught succubus in my arms.

“How can you say that?” Her voice had risen to hysterical levels, and her entire body was shaking. “I killed him.”

Malice’s voice filtered from over my shoulder. “Not possible. We are immortal.”

“He has no pulse. He’s not breathing. That is about as dead as you can get.” The tremble in her words was unmistakable, especially when matched with the way her body shook.

“She’s in shock,” I muttered, glancing back to where Grim and Malice stood in the doorway.

Malice’s expression was stoic, but Grim looked as though he was evaluating something.

“A little help here?” I pressed, not entirely sure how to calm Merri down. This was about as far out of my element as I’d ever been. I didn’t do gentle. I barely did kind. What the fuck did I know about comforting someone?

“Do we know what happened?” Grim asked softly, moving deeper into the room.

“Does it matter?” Malice asked, his voice carefully neutral as he padded in on Grim’s heels.

“I killed him. That’s what happened.”

Merri had turned in my hold and buried her face against my chest. I wasn’t ashamed to say I enjoyed the contact.

“No, you didn—” Grim began, but she cut him off.

“He’s not breathing. That’s the definition of dead, Grim. You should know that.”

“You’re right, I?—”

But she steamrolled over him, her words practically tripping over themselves as they poured out of her. “I never should have left Blackwood. I deserve to be locked up. I’m a menace, no, a monster. How many innocent people have to die before we realize that I cannot be trusted?”

“Merri . . .” Malice tried.

“Red,” I started.

“Would you shut the fuck up?” Grim snarled.

But she just took a deep breath, preparing for another round.

I shook her until she looked at me with red eyes, her cheeks stained with tears. “Listen to us,” I ordered, the softness of my voice belying the steel of my words.

“He is not dead,” Malice insisted.

“But his breathing . . .”

“We don’t need to breathe,” Malice said.

“We aren’t mortal,” I added, echoing his earlier sentiment.

She simply stared at me as if our words didn’t make sense.

Grim sighed, taking a seat at the end of the bed. “Look at me, Merri.”

She wouldn’t. Her face had returned to the shelter of my chest. I made eye contact with Grim for a fleeting moment before understanding his silent request and turning her to look at him. I’d hold her there if I had to, forcing her to listen as Death spoke.

“I can still see his soul safely nestled within him. Death has not touched this place, Merri. I assure you. If you trust nothing else, at least trust that.”

“He knows what he’s talking about, hellcat. He is Death.”

She worried at her bottom lip, her eyes moving over Sin’s still form. “Then why?”

I shrugged. “I’m not an expert on your power, but he is. I’m sure he’ll break it down for us when he wakes up.”

“If he wakes up,” she muttered.

“He will,” I said firmly.

She still didn’t look convinced. If anything, she looked resigned, but at least her tremors had subsided. “For all you know, I fucked him into a coma.”

My brows lifted. That was a piece of the puzzle we hadn’t had. All I’d known from the shockwave of lust was that it had resulted from Merri’s orgasm, not what had been involved to get her there.

I exchanged a quick glance with Grim, wondering if perhaps Sin had managed to complete our mission. He shrugged, but I could tell he wanted to discuss this further.

“I think it’s probably best if you get some sleep,” Grim murmured.

“Yeah, right. Sleep is the furthest thing from my mind,” she protested.

I glanced over Grim’s shoulder at Malice. He jerked his chin in a nod and moved until he was standing beside us. She’d probably be angry when she woke, but she’d be better for the rest.

Malice touched his lips to her forehead a heartbeat after her soft gasp told us she realized what was happening. Then she went limp in my arms.

After laying her down with Sin and tucking her under all the blankets for good measure, I turned to my brothers.

“This can’t continue. Every time this happens, she will be a wreck.”

Grim paced the floor, brows drawn into a deep frown. “She should’ve been sated. She fed from us all beforehand.”

“Maybe that’s the difference?” I offered. “Down there, we were a group and split the cost equally between us, but this time Sin bore the brunt alone? Or maybe it was the intensity of the act since this time there was actual penetration”—I grimaced—“and not just mutual satisfaction?”

“What brunt? Like I said, we all fed her.”

“That doesn’t mean her power ceases to exist. People eat when they’re full all the time.”

“So she gorged herself? She has more control than that, surely.”

Malice sighed and threw another log on the fire. “Look, none of us are experts here. We’re all grasping at straws right now. We’ll have to wait for lover boy over there to wake up. He’s the only one who’ll have answers for us.”

He was right. Two of us had experienced unconsciousness as a result of Merri’s power. That meant both needed to participate in the comparison of events if we were going to get any closer to figuring out the puzzle of keeping her strength up. Whatever happened, feeding her could not be at our own peril.

We may not be able to die, but being put out of commission when the Prince of Darkness was coming after us wasn’t exactly ideal. We were supposed to keep her safe.

Well, not just safe.

I ran a hand over my face, addressing the other elephant in the room. “Do you think he was successful?”

“I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” Malice said, his focus distant.

“That would mean all of this would be over soon,” I pointed out.

“Good. That’s the goal. We’ll celebrate when we find out.” Grim’s words and voice didn’t match up. A strange tightness in his tone mimicked the tightness in my chest at the thought of not being necessary any longer.

“And then what?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“When she does eventually get pregnant, what happens then? Do we send her back to Lilith and go on our merry way?” I couldn’t exactly imagine the four of us standing around a hospital bed while she gave birth, but the idea of just walking away didn’t sit right.

“No. We protect her until the end.” The vehemence in Malice’s response shook me.

Of course he would be the one to have strong feelings about remaining involved. Pestilence had denied him that right the first time.

I’d never had the chance to be a father when I was alive. Which also meant I hadn’t felt the pain of my child being kept from me.

Not that Merri’s child would be mine necessarily.

My eyes dropped to where she slept, her expression peaceful and lax.

For the first time since this whole scheme was dropped into our collective laps, I actually thought about what Merri being with child would be like. How her body would change and thicken. What it would mean for all of us.

I didn’t just imagine it. I craved it.

Fuck. She’d ruined me.

As I let my gaze linger on her sleeping form, I sent up a silent, traitorous prayer that Sin had failed this time so I would have my chance next.