Page 21 of Malice: The Mate Games (Apocalypse #3)

Chapter

Fifteen

LUCIFER

“ W ell, isn’t this cozy? Boy, girl, girl, boy...” I waited to see if any of them would get my excellent White Christmas reference, but alas, uncultured swine, the lot of them.

Gluttony, Pride, Lust, Greed, and Envy all sat around the boardroom table, three of the four horsewomen scattered between them. Apparently, the sisters weren’t so close these days.

“Where’s Famine?” I asked, realizing I hadn’t seen head or pointed tail of her since her little disappearing act.

“How are we supposed to know?” Death asked, her pert little nose wrinkling as if she’d smelled something rotten. “She abandoned us all after my success.”

“And here I always took Pestilence as the jealous one,” I mused, not bothering to hide my laugh when she sneered at me.

“I am not jealous,” she snapped.

“Keep telling yourself that, darling,” War crooned.

Slamming my palms on the table, I let my frustration get the better of me and sent a wave of power surging. The lights flared so brightly I wondered if they’d burst, but they didn’t. Still, it shut them all up.

“Are you quite finished?” I asked, my voice dripping with saccharine sweetness.

No one responded.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Rising from my chair, I stood over them all, fingers steepled in front of me. “Gluttony, why don’t you introduce yourself since you’re the newest member of our tribunal?”

I stared at the Prince in question, almost envious of his beauty. I said almost, because he’ll never quite reach my level of insurmountable glory. But then, who could?

Gluttony raised a dark brow. “Everyone already knows who I am.”

I blinked at him, my ire surging at the disrespect. I’d just given him an order, and he willfully ignored it. That was not how this was supposed to go.

“Indulge me,” I gritted out, noting the start of a twitch in my eye.

Do not kill your Princes.

Do not kill your Princes.

Well, at least not before success is guaranteed.

Gluttony stood and cast his dark gaze around the room, his eyes lingering a beat longer on Greed than the others.

Those two had always had a thing, though whether it was a pseudo-rivalry or something else, I couldn’t be sure.

If they could ever set aside their egos long enough, they’d make quite the mess together.

“I am Gluttony,” he said, and I stood there crestfallen. Where was the gravitas? The pomp? The circumstance? What an utter disappointment.

“Just... sit down,” I said with a gusty sigh. Pride began a slow clap as I was speaking, and I whipped my head to the side to glare. “No.”

“Sorry, boss,” he muttered. Despite the deference of his voice, his eyes tightened in anger and the tips of his ears were bright red. He didn’t appreciate being called out in front of his brethren.

Greed snickered but pulled herself together.

Lust glanced around the room, quietly drawing the attention of the rest of us, as was their habit. Androgynous and ever-changing, Lust was whatever the person looking at them wanted them to be. A perfect fit each and every time. The fluidity of their gift made Lust one of the most powerful Princes.

“When are we going to get to the point, Dark Lord? I had hoped to hurry this along. We caught a whiff of your intended. Just a blip, really, but she was there. I’d like to speak with my Knights and begin pinpointing the origin of her lust.”

“Now that’s what I like to see. Look at that initiative. Why can’t the rest of you be more like Lust?”

As suspected, that went over about as well as a bologna sandwich at a vegan food festival. But nothing motivates this lot quite as well as a bit of not-so-friendly competition.

“I don’t see why Lust is getting all the praise. My Knights have been scouring the whole of Europe looking for your vessel.”

I shot Envy a narrow-eyed glare. “Your name certainly fits. I’m really quite disappointed you aren’t actually green.”

Envy bared his teeth, which were a little too pointy for comfort. Add in a forked tongue, and he’d have made an excellent snake. I should know.

See what I did there? Aren’t I just the most clever boy at the ball? One might even call me a fox.

“Tracking her is the most important, of course, but we can’t stop with simply finding her,” Greed mused.

“What do you mean by that?” Gluttony asked.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. “She means, you absolute imbecile, that there are more adversaries on the horizon. I must claim my bride and procreate, but time is of the essence. There are those out in the world who seek to block her from view, and we must stop them.”

“Which is where I come in,” Pride interjected, ever the eager puppy. “My Knights are hot on the heels of the Siren coven. All four of them.”

My skin prickled with rage at the mention of the coven who imprisoned me over a quarter of a century ago. Unfairly, might I add.

Death cleared her throat.

“Have something to add?”

“Well, since you asked,” she said, giving me a blindingly bright smile.

Annoying as her incessantly cheerful personality was, I didn’t hate her.

She was instrumental in releasing me from my cage, after all.

“I think your focus on collecting adversaries is narrow-minded. What you really need are allies.” She paused for dramatic effect, her lips curling into a self-indulgent smirk. “Especially unwilling ones.”

“You know how I hate it when you speak in riddles,” I snapped.

“No riddles, my lord. The four of us created the most powerful allies you could possibly need. One who is instrumental in bringing about the antichrist. Do you really think we would allow them to truly defeat us without a backup plan for exactly this scenario?”

If she didn’t get to the point soon, I was going to have her chained on the wall like I had Famine. Raising one eyebrow, I gestured for her to go on.

“No matter how they might feel about us, they’re linked to us forever,” War pointed out.

“Unfortunately,” Pestilence sneered, none too happy with her sons. Though, who would be after such a betrayal?

Death waved a hand. “We don’t care about feelings. All we need is their power. It was ours first, and it will always be ours. We just have to collect it.” She tossed me a wink. “Worked beautifully the last time.”

“How are you going to do that? Do you even know where they are?” Pride asked haughtily.

War snapped her gaze to him. “Of course you would ask such a stupid question. A mother always knows. They think we are gone. They have no reason to hide from us. And now that the second generation is growing, we will have even more power to siphon.”

“Do we really want a new batch of watered-down demons running amok?” Pestilence asked.

It took everything in me not to say “amok, amok, amok” out loud.

“I thought you’d be pleased to be a grandmother,” Death teased.

“Those little brats she is carrying aren’t related to me. Pan and Asher haven’t yet contributed anything more than disappointment to our cause.”

I hummed quietly to myself as the idea percolated. I hadn’t considered the power of the horsewomen’s bloodlines.

“All the more reason to seduce them to our cause,” Death said.

Lust’s smile had the temperature in the room ratcheting up. “Excellent choice of words.”

Death beamed. “So glad you approve.”

“They just risked everything to defeat the three of you. Why would they join you now? It makes no logical sense,” Envy drawled.

If War’s expression were a dagger, he’d be dead. “Because they’d do anything to protect their precious children. We know exactly where to hit them to get exactly what we want.”

“I’m starting to suspect whomever first referred to love as a battlefield was intimately familiar with you.”

No one laughed at my incredibly well-timed reference. Plebeians. All of them.

Death gave a little shrug. “Anyway, like I was saying. Willing or not, allies are what we need. Especially ones with the ability to increase our own strength exponentially. We find them. Capture them.”

“Kill them?” Pride offered.

“No, you absolute tit. Have you been paying attention at all?” Pestilence snapped, then added below her breath, “How the hell did this one make the roster?”

“He’s pretty,” I replied, which only enraged her further.

“No, dear Pride. We are not going to kill them. Not when we can drain them, their mates, and their children.”

“And then we kill them?” Pride asked, sitting a little straighter.

“Why bother? They’re a renewable energy source. And with that much magic at our disposal, we will ensure our”—Death shifted her gaze to lock onto mine—“ your success.”

With her words, the tension in the room shifted.

Suddenly everyone was much more alert and interested.

One might go so far as to say they were excited.

Glancing at each member of my war council, I took notice of the agreement in their expressions.

Not a single protest. This was good. Perhaps working with a team was better than I thought.

I locked eyes with Death, excitement burning in my veins at this new possibility. “Bring them to me.”