Page 19 of Malice: The Mate Games (Apocalypse #3)

Chapter

Fourteen

CHAOS

“ M otherfucker!”

Malice’s shout triggered every primal instinct I had, sending me bolting for the door in nothing but a towel. I didn’t even notice that I’d summoned a sword until I barreled down the hall and made it to his door.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” I bellowed as I stormed inside his room without so much as knocking.

Sin and Grim weren’t far behind me. Grim’s shadows bled outward along the floor, darkening most of the room and betraying his agitation.

“Someone or something triggered the wards.” Malice was leaning over his desk, eyes scanning the multiple computer screens.

“Where’s Merri?” Grim demanded. His expression would have been terrifying if I didn’t know mine was the same.

“She’s not in her room?” I growled.

Sin shook his head. “I was just there. She’s not.”

“Fuck,” Grim snarled.

Apparently I was too furious for words, but that didn’t keep me from expressing myself. A tremor sent the books on Malice’s shelves crashing to the floor.

“Knock it off,” Malice snapped, his eyes finding mine. “We have no way to know if this was done by an enemy or something as innocuous as a tree falling after the storm.”

“Always assume it’s an enemy. That’s the only way to stay alive.” Even still, I put away my sword.

“Well then, what are we waiting for? We need to find Merri and fuck up whoever breached our wards.” Sin turned on his heel but stopped, looking over his shoulder at me. “You might want to put some pants on first.”

I had fought wars wearing less, but he was probably right.

I bared my teeth by way of answer and shoved past him on my way back to my room.

It took precious seconds for me to yank on a pair of joggers and shove my feet into shoes, but I still managed to catch up to them as we all gathered at the front door.

Reaching for my hoodie, I frowned to find it missing, but a stray red hair on the bench beneath the row of hooks told me everything I needed to know.

Knowing Merri had snagged it quelled a small piece of the storm raging within me. But it didn’t come close to ending it. She was most definitely outside. I had no doubt now. Which meant that she could be in danger.

“Merri is out there too. We need to split up and each take one of the four quadrants of the property. Find her first. She is the priority. The rest we can deal with after she is safe.”

“Agreed. We scour the property, locate Merri, then kill whoever came through. Malice, I assume you don’t need to be told that Christian will have to answer for this?” Grim said, his voice low and measured.

“Once we know what happened, I’ll see if that’s necessary.” Malice was tense, the muscles in his jaw flexing at the stress of what Grim insinuated. Christian fucked up.

“Let’s get going. Every minute we waste talking is a minute Merri is at risk.

” Sin borrowed my earlier move as he shoved past the other two horsemen, determination radiating off him as he headed outside.

He opted to go south, and I went west. I was already sprinting, so there was no way for me to know which route the other two opted for.

Nor did I care. All that mattered was getting to Merri before anyone or anything else.

As soon as I left the main grounds, I caught sight of footprints in the muddy path that were too small to be anyone other than Merri’s. The others were too far away now, but that was fine. I’d find her, they’d find the intruder. Everyone wins.

The tracks she’d left were clear, and they didn’t waver. It wasn’t the usual path she selected for a walk, and given the unwelcoming conditions of the terrain, the fact that she hadn’t opted for an easier route told me she’d come this way for a reason.

“What the hell were you up to, Red?”

As I went deeper into the rough, my stomach sank. The soil was unstable, shifting alarmingly under my feet, and with a glance down toward the lake, it was obvious the earth had given way recently. The water was cloudy, and a mess of rocks, dirt, and trees lay on the shoreline.

“No,” I whispered as my eyes locked on the dirty white shoe floating at the water’s edge. Merri’s dirty white shoe.

If she had fallen into the water, none of us would know. She could be hurt—or worse. I rushed down the hillside, moving with the loose dirt and letting it help me along. I hadn’t even reached the water before Merri slammed into my chest, her soaking wet body making a loud smacking noise.

My relief at finding her hale and whole was immediately overshadowed by anger, and I pulled her hard against me.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, Red?”

“Me? Oh, you know, just nearly drowning in a lake deeper than I’ve ever seen in my life. No big deal.” Her voice was high-pitched and on the verge of hysterical. “Malice should really have a sign made. People could get hurt.”

I gave her a little shake. “Why the hell did you cross the ward?”

She blinked at me in confusion. “What? I just told you I fell into the lake and nearly drowned.” She tugged on the waterlogged hoodie she wore for emphasis. “You were supposed to keep me warm, not kill me.”

“I would never kill you. What are you talking about?”

Pulling the hoodie over her head, she balled it up and tossed it at me. “Not you. This damn thing. It tried to drown me. Why do you have to be such a giant?”

I frowned down at the same hoodie I’d searched for earlier before letting it fall to the muddy banks. “Merri, answer my fucking question. Why did you cross the ward?”

As I repeated myself, I assessed our surroundings.

I should have been able to see her even though she’d stepped through the magical barrier.

In fact, everything on this side of the ward should have been visible before I crossed.

Looking at the state of things, we hadn’t been seeing the truth at all.

“I didn’t mean to. The mudslide tossed me into the lake, and when I surfaced, I was... here.”

I frowned, glancing back over my shoulder in the direction Merri had indicated.

The lack of familiar landmarks wasn’t a surprise to me; that was the ward at work.

It hid the truth of the island from anyone on the outside.

But it was only supposed to do that in one direction.

Those inside the ward should be able to see the reality of what was on the other side. Like a two-way mirror.

“I was starting to worry I’d gone through a portal or something and that I was going to have to get in the lake again to make it back to you.” She shivered, and on instinct, I wrapped her tighter in my arms.

“No. There is no portal.”

“I knew the world was ending, but it’s worse than I thought.” She laughed bitterly. “I don’t know what I expected. Why would you guys want to keep the truth from me?”

My frown deepened. “It was never about keeping the truth from you. It was about keeping you safe.”

She let out a derisive snort. “Oh, trust me. One look at this, and I wouldn’t try to go anywhere. You should have shown this to me weeks ago. I’d have become a voluntary shut-in.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be hidden from you or any of us. Something is wrong.”

I needed to get her back to the safety of the warded property. Merri most likely was the trigger for Malice’s alarm. Not an intruder. That eased some of my mind, but frustration and anger were still there, pushing at me.

“Come on,” I growled. “We need to get back.”

She yanked out of my hold. “No. Not yet. I need to get something.”

“Absolutely fucking not. You’re shivering and wet. You need to come with me.”

The glare she shot me was straight out of Grim’s handbook. “I did not come all this way and nearly die not to get Christian his stupid flowers.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? You crossed the ward to pick flowers ? Do you know how risky that is?”

“First of all, we’ve already established that I did not mean to cross the wards.

Second, fuck all the way off. I am trying to save him.

You might be okay with people dying, but I’m not.

Not when I can do something about it. Did I go for a walk to pick flowers for a potion that could help my friend?

Yes, I fucking did. And I’m not returning to the house empty-handed.

So either you help me or stay out of my way. ”

So help me, I was going to take her over my knee in a moment. “Look around, Merri. Do you see anything that remotely resembles flowers over here? All I see are dead things. Even the grass on this side of the ward is brown.”

Her eyes narrowed and she clenched her jaw. I was half expecting her to stamp her foot for good measure. Instead she just muttered, “Fine,” and took two steps into the lake.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I shouted, grabbing her by the back of the neck and hauling her out.

She windmilled her arms and kicked out with her feet, sputtering, “Let me go, you big oaf.”

“You’re going the wrong fucking way.”

I didn’t give her the option to argue with me. In one smooth motion, I scooped her up and began striding in the right direction.

“Put me down!” she screeched.

“Not fucking happening.”

“Chaos, I swear to all that is holy, I’m going to give you the worst tittie twister of your fucking life. Put. Me. Down.”

As far as threats went, it wasn’t particularly effective. Mostly because I had no clue what that was, but I didn’t doubt she meant every word. I knew better than to tell her that.

Thankfully, as the world around us returned to the idyllic setting we’d been fed by the spell, some small piece of me relaxed. They couldn’t get her here. She was as safe as she could be. So I set her on her feet.

She glared at me, looking more than a little like a half-drowned rat.

Even so, she was still the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

Her eyes were shining like gemstones, and her skin was flawless.

The urge to pick her back up and never let her go was so strong my hand shook with the need to do just that.