Page 26 of Malice: The Mate Games (Apocalypse #3)

Chapter

Twenty

SIN

“ F ucking hell, can we never catch a break?” I muttered, swiftly coming down from the high of what Merri did for me. And what it meant.

“What do you think this is, a bloody vacation?” Malice snapped, eyes darting between the growing demon horde.

“It was supposed to be a sex-cation. Like a babymoon, except we haven’t made the baby yet.”

One by one, the demons shuffled to their feet, all different shapes and sizes, but they were all lust demons.

Their forms varied, along with the specificity of their powers.

A handful of them gathered together closer to Merri than I’d like.

They were reminiscent of satyrs with horns and goat legs, their power rooted in distraction via sex seemingly harmless, but in truth, it was often deadly.

Another group had more humanoid figures, their bodies shaped like the most beautiful, well-formed statues that could lock you in a loop of ecstasy with a single kiss that would only end with your death.

And then there were the most dangerous of them, the shapeshifter.

These creatures fed on desire and could transform into whatever their target most craved. The perfect lure.

People assumed lust was always sexual, but it wasn’t.

Ever heard of a lust for power? What about a bloodlust?

At the end of the day, it was about desire.

A longing to fill the void within. The highest tier of lust demon, the shapeshifter, was able to tap into whatever it was that you most desired.

Be that a need for fame—hello darkness, my old friend—money, sex, family.

.. You get the idea. There was nothing more addictive than finally obtaining something you thought you’d never have.

Merri’s gasp pulled my focus from the demons currently approaching. She was feet from me, too far for my liking, and a satyr had his goat-like eyes locked on her, his almost comically large member standing at attention as he sized her up.

“Get away from her!” I snarled, intending to rush over and tackle the asshole. Unfortunately, the Mystique wannabe closest to me had other plans.

The cool brush of fingers gliding down the back of my neck had my muscles locking in place. But it was the sensual croon in my ear that had my vision shifting. “She’s right here, Sinclair.”

As she spoke, a new scene took place, superimposing itself over the mouth of the property. Had I been anyone else, I wouldn’t have been able to sense the trap. But I was also a creature of lust, so I recognized it for what it was.

The surroundings were perfect. Everything I could want was laid out before me. Merri, wearing one of my band’s T-shirts—the Apocalyptic Unicorns logo had never looked so good—and nothing else, her hair tumbling over her shoulders, a smile on her face that was only for me.

“I love you, Sin,” she murmured as she reached for me. “Come back to bed.”

God, I wanted her.

When I didn’t immediately move, she pouted. “What are you waiting for? Don’t make me start without you.”

Unfortunately, just because I knew it was fake didn’t mean I was fully immune to it.

I might still be able to make out my brothers also frozen in place with shapeshifters of their own latched onto them like a bunch of fucking leeches, but the vision of Merri pulling her shirt up and over her head had me paralyzed.

I was a slave to my desire for her.

Helpless.

Weak.

Prey.

No.

That wasn’t my voice. Those weren’t my words. They were hers. The creature trying to unmake me.

Merri’s palm traced down my front, stopping at my belt as she looked up my body. “Please, Sin. I need you.”

It almost got me. The gentle begging, the big-eyed stare. But then I heard the real Merri scream. My hand shot out in front of me, gripping the creature by the throat and shattering the illusion.

“Oh, you’re good,” I snarled. “Good, but not good enough.”

Lifting the creature with one hand, I stared into the pitch-black eyes and tapped into my own power.

Demons may not have souls in the way humans did, but they were still animated by something other .

Spirit, or whatever you wanted to call it.

And that was enough for me to lock onto.

Inhaling deeply, I sucked every ounce of life force from the shapeshifter, taking without care for what I’d leave behind.

She dropped at my feet like a sack of bones, which frankly suited me just fine. I preferred her this way. Namely dead.

I spared my brothers a quick glance, clocking that they were still locked in whatever fantasy their demons had created. It would be easier to deal with these fuckers with their assistance, but they’d be fine. Merri needed me.

“Get your fucking hands off my succubus!” I shouted, advancing on the three satyrs who had Merri in their clutches.

They were taking her kicking and screaming, her power worthless against them.

With as much of it as she’d just used avenging my honor—fucking swoon—and without the rage fueling her instinctual use of it, she was little more than a baby calf attempting to walk.

Not that I’d tell her so. I wasn’t a complete moron.

One of the three peeled away from the others, coming at me with a lascivious smirk.

“Cute,” I taunted, beckoning him closer with a finger.

He raced toward me, head lowering like he was about to ram into me.

“Ba-aa-aa-aa-aad satyr,” I mocked as I grabbed him by a horn and tugged down hard, bringing up my knee at the same time and slamming it into his throat.

The jarring force of the impact was enough that I was able to snap the horn from his head.

Before he could do more than let out a garbled scream, I swung my arm around and impaled the fucker with it.

He dropped dead at my feet.

What? You didn’t think I knew how to wreck a bitch?

Ye of little faith.

You don’t become a Horseman of the motherfucking Apocalypse without picking up a few skills.

“Merri!” I shouted when one of the satyrs tossed her over his shoulder.

She reached between the goat-man’s legs and grabbed his balls with a vicious grip, causing him to scream in agony.

He dropped her, falling to the ground and holding himself as he worked through the pain.

Merri’s palm was bloody, and I’m not gonna lie, a twinge of sympathy pain for the demon’s ruined balls hit me.

“Good job, kitten,” I called to her before turning my attention to the last guy.

He stared me down, indecision racing across his face.

“Come get some,” I crooned, my smile pure threat. It had been a while since I’d been able to show off like this, and knowing my girl was watching and I was kicking some serious ass was sort of turning me on.

Maybe when we were done here, she’d let me take her up against a tree and play out our own Bacchanalian fantasy.

“Get her out of here, Sin!” Chaos shouted, his body covered in black blood and ichor from the shapeshifter he’d defeated. Malice and Grim were still in the thrall of their attackers, but it looked as though Grim was already coming out of it.

Rushing to my girl, I snatched her up in the cradle of my arms and, as I turned back toward the estate, transported us both to the relative safety of the house. It was a huge power suck to do so, but I’d just topped off and Merri needed a quick escape.

She wobbled on her feet as we appeared back in the chateau’s main foyer. “Since when can you do that?” she asked, leaning into me.

“Forever.”

“So why do you guys waste time walking places?”

“That’s basically like asking why we don’t use a bazooka instead of a fork when we eat. Different tools for different occasions. Plus, it uses a lot of power, and up until recently, we were pretty drained.”

“Fair enough,” she said with a dry chuckle before her face creased into worried lines. “What were those things?”

“We’ll have to save the explanations for later, kitten. I gotta go back and make sure none of those assholes get away. Stay with Christian, all right?”

Christian appeared at the top of the staircase as though I’d summoned him. “Come with me, mademoiselle. I will keep you safe.”

“Don’t let anything happen to her, Chris. She’s the only priority, you got me?”

“Of course.”

Grabbing Merri by the nape, I tugged her into me and kissed her hard, not caring that I was mostly coated in dried blood.

“You,” I said through a weirdly tight throat. “Don’t do anything stupid. We’re going to kill these fuckers and regroup. Stay here and let us do our jobs.”

Her only response was a swift nod.

“Oh, and kitten?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you too. In case you hadn’t figured that out yet.”

She opened her mouth to reply, but I vanished and rematerialized in the middle of the carnage with my brothers before she had the chance.

As suspected, Malice was still lost in the thick of it with his demon while Chaos and Grim dealt with the remaining monsters.

There weren’t nearly as many of them as there had been of the humans, but the demons required a bit more effort for us to dispatch.

Grim couldn’t simply touch them and kill them.

They didn’t have the requisite souls for his type of magic.

But he was just as strong as the rest of us, and he could rip a demon’s heart from its chest with a well-placed blow.

Realizing that those two had things in hand, I turned my attention instead to Malice, thinking he might need some help getting free.

Cracking my neck and shaking out my arms, I stepped into place behind him and set my hand on his shoulder to establish a connection.

The physical contact wasn’t necessary for me to slip into his mind, but it certainly made things easier. And right now, every second counted.