Page 16 of Malice: The Mate Games (Apocalypse #3)

Chapter

Eleven

SIN

“ Y ou know, if the sky wasn’t still on fire, I’d say we were in one of those Gothic romances.

Grim could reprise his role as Heathcliff,” I said as I dropped the heavy curtain and stepped away from the rain-splattered window panes.

“You were the original inspiration for that broody bastard, weren’t you?

” I cut a glance at said broody bastard, but he ignored me, instead turning the page of the ancient book he was reading.

It was storming again. Or, more accurately, still.

The rain started yesterday and hadn’t let up since.

If anything, it was only getting worse. The thunder was so close now, it wasn’t just the windows rattling, it was the whole damn house.

I usually enjoyed a good thunderstorm, but not this time, and not when it continued for days.

“This storm is only going to get worse. The heat from above is giving it more power,” Chaos said, his brow furrowed in concern. “We might need to board up the windows before they shatter.”

“I’ll chat with Christian,” Malice murmured before taking a sip of his tea.

“Chat with Christian about what?” Merri asked, striding into the room like a goddess stepping down from Mount Olympus. Oh my God. What has she done to me? I’m a seducer, not a simp.

It wasn’t just me, though. It was all four of us.

Grim’s eyes locked onto her as he set his book down, and he made a show of putting his leather gloves on.

Chaos was a bit more subtle, but only just, as his position shifted so that he was always facing her as she wandered further into the room.

And then there was Malice, who nearly missed the table when he placed his teacup too close to the edge because he was watching her every step.

We were so fucked.

A couple weeks ago, I would have tried to blame it on the waves of power rolling off her. Merri’s time with Grim had obviously gone well. She was so radiant this morning she all but glowed.

“I take it last night went well,” Malice said, his thoughts mirroring my own.

“Is that a note of jealousy I’m detecting?” Grim asked, though his attention was still wholly locked on Merri.

“It’s an entire book.” Was he talking to me? No. Did I still answer for myself? Yes.

Merri took a seat next to Grim, placing her palm on his thigh like he couldn’t kill her with a touch. “Hi,” she whispered.

“Hi.”

“Oh, come off it, you two. Stop putting on a show.” Malice was well and truly annoyed now.

Merri grinned at him. “So you are jealous.”

“I’m not going to dignify that with a response.”

“You’ll get your turn. But not before me.” Chaos’s deep timbre rolled through the room, not unlike the thunder overhead.

“Or me,” I added, not to be forgotten.

“Drawing straws was an absolutely asinine idea,” Malice muttered, angrily picking up his tea and rage-drinking it. I didn’t know it was possible to rage drink tea, but here we were, rage pinky and all.

“Careful,” I teased. “You might break your precious china if you grip it any tighter.”

Before I could poke the bear any harder, Christian rushed into the room, hair mussed, eyes wild. “Messieurs, mademoiselle, you must see this.”

He waved his phone around, clearly indicating that was what he wanted us to look at.

“I’m not sure now is the appropriate time to perv on your?—”

Christian cut me off, his eyes wild. “Non. This is serious. There’s been another disaster.”

“Of course there has,” Malice drawled, allowing his now-empty cup to fall harmlessly to the rug.

“Look,” Christian insisted, holding out his phone.

The five of us gathered around the small device and waited as he pressed Play on the video in question.

The screen showed nothing but chaos and destruction in the middle of a city that looked like it used to be Paris. Then a man’s face appeared, coated in dust, his once-coiffed hair now a flattened mess of multicolored curls.

“ Oh, mon dieu, mes amis. It’s Jean-Marie Antoinette here with another impossible-to-believe update. The tea is so hot it’s lava, and I’m not sure we will make it out this time.”

The camera flipped back to the carnage around our flamboyant host, showcasing people running through the streets, broken shop windows and looters blatantly stealing from stores, tail lights as far as the eye could see.

“The world has gone mad since the Grand Canyon collapsed. The ripple effects of the major earthquake that closed the once-historic canyon set off not just the ring of fire, but what now seems to be every known and unknown volcano on the planet. The ocean is quite literally boiling in some places. Were the crazies who stand on street corners screaming about the end of the world right? Already news sources are warning about tsunamis heading our way. Along with acid rain, ash storms, and aftershocks so strong they would count as major earthquakes in their own right. You know I love my skincare, but an acid rain peel is not on my to-do list. Not to mention that all the interference is said to impact the power grid. It may only be a matter of time before the world as we know it ceases to exist.”

Merri gasped next to me and put her hand in mine. I simply squeezed it tight, telling her silently that I had her.

“I’m not sure how long I will be able to continue broadcasting, mes amis . But I’ll do my best for you.” Jean-Marie stared meaningfully into the camera and then, with a weak smile, said, “Until we meet again, remember, I may be only half French, but I’m aaallll cake.”

Christian pulled his phone back and looked at us all in turn. “It’s so much worse out there than I thought.”

“Me too,” Merri whispered. “I’d assumed it was bad, but seeing it... I mean, that was just Paris. Imagine what the states affected by the eruptions look like. So many homes... so many lives, gone. Just like that.”

On instinct, I pulled her closer. For all her strength, Merri was soft at heart. That was something I wasn’t used to. My brothers were anything but soft.

“Are we in danger here?” Merri asked, twisting her face up to look at mine.

“We are as safe as we can be here. I’ve done everything possible to make this a fortress,” Malice said, but there was tension in his tone.

“We’re always in danger. The worst mistake we could make is to assume we aren’t. We can’t forget about the enemy’s plan.” Chaos glanced at the drawn curtains, then back to us.

“We don’t actually know his plan, though, right?” Merri asked. “I mean, other than the broad strokes.”

“Exactly my point. We know he wants you. Which means he’s doing everything he can to find you,” Chaos answered. “No matter how well we plan our defense, we don’t know what he’s going to do.”

She huffed. “Make plans and God laughs. Is that what you’re getting at?”

“Perhaps not God this ti—” Grim began, but before he could finish, the power cut off, leaving us in the dark, save the tepid daylight that crept under the closed curtains.

Merri jolted, then laughed at herself. “I was warned three times this morning that the power could drop at any moment, and I still jumped.”

Christian made a disgruntled sound, calling my attention to where he had settled in a chair behind our group. “What?”

“I have no service. Nothing.”

Malice pulled his phone from his pocket and examined it for a moment, his expression hardening. “Me as well.”

“Do you think the whole grid went down?” Grim asked.

Chaos nodded. “It was only a matter of time.”

“I cannot do anything about the phones, but we have an automatic generator.” Christian frowned as he said the words.

“It should have come on by now. I will go check and see what happened. Perhaps a branch fell on it or something.” He got to his feet, calling over his shoulder as he made his way toward the door. “I’ll be right back.”

I snickered. “Someone’s never watched Scream .”

“What was that?” Merri asked.

“First rule of... nevermind,” I murmured. Jokes were never as good when you had to explain them.

“Whilst he’s gone,” Malice said as he tapped his phone until the screen lit up.

He held it out to us just like Christian had when we’d watched the video of Paris.

“Hades sent this to me this morning. Luckily I had the foresight to download it. Apparently we’ve been missing quite the rise of the resistance, of which we are an integral part. ”

“Well, that’s hardly news, is it?” Merri said, rubbing her arms. “I’d be more surprised if you’d told me we got to sit this one out.”

“Feeling the strain of being the chosen one, kitten?” I teased, voice low and only for her.

She cut me a glare. “I told you, she dies in the end. Twice.”

Malice heaved a sigh, pulling our focus back to the matter at hand. “They’ve amassed quite an army.”

“It won’t be enough,” Chaos interjected.

“No, but we aren’t alone in this anymore. Our goal is still the same, but when we fight, we fight with allies.”

“We’ve never needed allies before.” Chaos’s voice was a low murmur. He was right. We’d only ever had one goal. Bring about the apocalypse.

“We’ve also never had to take a side before,” Grim pointed out. “We were always supposed to remain neutral.”

“Our counterparts set this into motion when they chose Lucifer.” Malice was pacing now, as though he was working to figure out a puzzle.

“So this is about balance?” Merri asked. “They chose a side, and as a result, you ended up on the other?”

“No,” I said, a little surprised by the vehemence of my reply.

“Then why? What made you choose?”

The tension in the room thickened, the air heavy like just before a storm. My first thought was, You , but before I could say what was in my heart, Grim spoke.

“Lilith. She changed it all when she charged us with taking you.”

It wasn’t necessarily a lie, but I knew Grim well enough to know that he was minimizing the situation. This might have started off as us repaying a favor, but I would bet everything I was that it stopped being solely about that weeks ago. Being around Merri, being with Merri, had changed things.

No. It had changed us .

We used to be cold and uncaring. Focused only on our needs, our goals, our purpose. But I saw the cracks in all of our facades start to widen and grow. Soon, I’d be more human than horseman. Because of her.

Oh, Grim wasn’t going to like that one bit.

“Show us the video,” Grim ordered. “If Hades sent it, we need to see it.”

“Okay, but I’ll warn you now, this is long. These guys like to ramble.”

As soon as he pressed play, I felt Merri stiffen at my side.

A bedraggled man appeared on screen, ash raining down around him as he ran through the forest. “Well, folks, shit has officially hit the fan.”

She only grew more tense as he continued speaking. “What’s wrong?” I whispered.

“I recognize him.”

“The guy on the screen?”

She nodded.

“From where? Blackwood?”

“No,” Merri whispered, her freckles a stark contrast to her pale skin. “In my dream.”

“Shh,” Malice chastised. “Pay attention.”

I gave Merri a long-suffering look that made her smile as we settled in to watch the rest of the video play out.

As Malice had warned, it was long and filled with some familiar and not-so-familiar faces.

I was sure all of us had a similar reaction when Lilith appeared on the screen.

If she was there, that meant we truly needed to be paying attention.

“I know some of them,” Merri whispered. “And Auntie Lilith is there. I’m so glad she’s safe.”

“Keep watching, hellcat. There’s more.” Malice’s words were gentler than we typically got from him.

“It’s not enough. We were able to make contact with the horsemen, but it’s unclear if they’re going to stand with us.

“We really hope that they do. They are uniquely suited to the task before us and could be the difference between the survival of the human race and utter extinction. Especially since Gabriel is still missing, the vessel hasn’t been located—so far as we know anyway—and the world is literally crumbling under our feet.

It won’t be long now, a couple of weeks at most, before all of this comes to a head. ”

Malice stopped the video before tucking his phone away. “That’s the most important part. The rest we don’t need to bother with.”

“Gabriel is missing,” Chaos muttered. “That can’t be good.”

“Why not? Who is he?” Merri asked.

“The Messenger of God.” Grim broke off from the group, walking to the window and opening the curtain. The storm had turned the sky dark as night now, even in the middle of the day. “Someone is trying to weaken heaven’s army.”

“Lucifer,” Chaos answered. “It’s got to be him.”

“That’s my guess as well,” Malice said.

Chaos let out a derisive snort. “A couple of fae warriors and a bunch of supernaturals? I can’t believe they are the army that’s supposed to defeat him. There’s no chance they’ll make it out of a war with hell alive.”

“Isn’t that what we’re for?” I asked.

Chaos shook his head. “The four of us are powerful, but no match for the entirety of hell’s legion. No. If we’re meant to win, we’ll need heaven’s ranks on our side. Which brings me back to Gabriel. Without him in play, I bet the celestial realm has no clue what’s happening.”

“You don’t think they know what’s happening?” Merri asked. “Surely heaven pays attention.”

The bark of laughter that escaped Malice made Merri jump. “They’re a bunch of snobs. Think of them like the first-class passengers on the Titanic. They knew they’d be fine, so they did as little as needed to ensure they survived and fuck the rest of the peasants below deck.”

Merri grimaced. “Oh.”

I scrubbed a hand over my face, letting out a breath I’d been holding.

“Gabriel is forced to interact with the humans, which means he’s the most empathetic to their cause.

Without him around to act as a go-between, there’s no one to plead their case.

Heaven will be fine no matter what happens.

It’s the earthly plane that will suffer. ”

Malice glanced at the door and sighed. “Speaking of suffering. Where the bloody hell is Christian, and why has the generator not come on?”

“See? I told him not to say he’d be right back. Kiss of death.”

“Not helpful, Sinclair,” Malice growled. “I’ll go find him. We will need light, at the very least. I’ll?—”

“Don’t say it!”

Malice flashed a rare smirk as he left the room. “Be right back.”

Well, now I had to go with him. “Fuck. Come on, guys.”