Page 4 of Malice: The Mate Games (Apocalypse #3)

Chapter

Two

MALICE

T he soft click of my kettle turning off coincided with the blue light snuffing out. That was my water ready. Without missing a beat, I began the ritual of preparing my cuppa.

It was a shame we didn’t need to eat because this beautiful kitchen was mostly wasted.

Out of the four of us, Chaos and Sin were the most likely to work their way down here and make something, but that was more force of habit.

Muscle memory, if you will. Food provided no nourishment or essential function for our kind, but it didn’t harm us to partake either.

If anything, I think it was probably some sort of self-soothing behavior.

“I know why I'm here. Why are you lurking in the kitchen?” I asked Grim as I removed my tea bag and set it aside.

Grim released a low hum more akin to a growl, his eyes never leaving the window and the view beyond. “Something is on the horizon. I can sense it. This is the best view of the drive.”

I gave my tea a few stirs before lifting it to my mouth. “And you really think our enemies are going to slowly parade their way up to our front door?”

“I think they are unpredictable, which is why they’ve gotten the drop on us twice already. Can’t you feel it in the air? There is something electric running through my every cell. Intuition perhaps. Either way, a storm is about to break.”

He wasn’t wrong. I could feel it as well but had chalked it up to the continued peril the world was in.

I flicked my eyes up to the sky, which was still a fiery blend of red and orange.

Before I could reply, Chaos barged into the kitchen, his large frame tense as he gathered ingredients for yet another one of his smoothies.

His movements were jerky as he slammed cupboards closed and grumbled to himself without paying the two of us any mind.

“Something bothering you, Chaos?” I asked, finding it odd that three of us were all on edge.

“I need to fuck or I need to fight. I’m on the verge of exploding, and it’s only getting worse.” He ripped open a banana so forcefully the fruit broke in half and fell to his feet. “Fuck!”

Grim simply offered me a raised brow before saying, “Exhibit A.”

“I’m not sure a hankering for violence is really that much of a?—”

Sin’s panicked, albeit muffled, shout rang out from the direction of the stairs. “Guys! Come quick, something’s wrong.”

Grim didn’t bother uttering I told you so . Before I could blink, he was gone. I followed suit, materializing right beside Sin as he stood in Merri’s doorway. That feeling Grim spoke about hit me harder than Chaos wielding a sledgehammer and nearly sent me to my knees.

“Fuck me,” I whispered.

A quick peek showed that my brothers were no less affected. Chaos gripped the door so tight that the wood cracked beneath his hold. Sin was pale, hands shaking as he stared at Merri writhing on her bed.

“What the bloody hell happened?” Grim bit out, the veins in his neck distended as he visibly fought to keep from going to her.

I couldn’t blame him. The way she whimpered and moaned woke that same need to care for her inside me. That, coupled with the intense arousal permeating the room, had me achingly hard in my jeans.

“Sin?” I asked, just the formation of that single word entirely too difficult.

The incubus had to tear his eyes away from Merri before he could respond. “I don’t know. I found her like this. She’s been unresponsive. I don’t think she’s all there right now.”

Merri’s back arched as she traced her fingers along her inner thighs, then up the length of her body.

Dammit, I could see how wet she was even through the fabric of her leggings.

She gasped and locked eyes with me, her pupils eclipsing those beautiful blue irises along with the sclera, making her appear more demonic than she ever had before.

“She’s not,” I whispered, the first tendril of understanding beginning to form in my mind.

“But this is her power,” Chaos argued, his muscles straining as he physically held himself in place.

And it was her power. It was attempting to lure all four of us to her side like willing captives. But why? What had happened that sent her into such a state?

“I think her hunger is in the driver’s seat right now,” I finally said.

Chaos grunted and shifted on his feet, clearly unsettled.

One glance at his tented joggers told me everything I needed to know.

He needed to fight or fuck. He’d said it himself.

It looked like fuck was the best option.

“Is this what it felt like the first time this happened? When you found her in the wine cellar?”

“No,” Grim ground out. “This is worse. That time she was just weak. This feels like she’s gone completely feral.”

“And she’s trying to take us with her,” I added.

“Why is she this bad? She’s been feeding,” Sin said, sweat beading across his forehead.

“It’s like an addiction, remember? We’ve watched her go from snacking, to regular full meals, to insatiable. Her hunger has only grown with each passing day.” I ran a hand across the back of my neck in an effort to relieve some of my tension.

A look crossed Sin’s face, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say it was recognition.

“Something must have triggered this.”

Grim’s soft intake of breath was the only sign that Chaos’s words affected him.

Focus entirely on Merri, Chaos continued thinking aloud, “Is it a trap? Did someone get through the wards?” He stormed across the room and began searching the windows for something to prove him right.

Sin audibly swallowed. “I don’t think this is a trap. I think it might be part of her Famine heritage.”

All three of us turned to him.

“What do you mean?” I demanded.

“Well, we’ve all been at a loss as to why her hunger only seems to grow, but we’ve been focusing on her succubus nature.”

“That’s because we didn’t know Famine was her mother until Hades told us,” I pointed out.

“Right,” Sin said with a nod. “If there’s one thing I know better than sex, it’s how famine works.

One thing Sabine loved to remind me was that it always came down to feast or famine.

And it’s true. Our nature is extremes. We take and take, leaving nothing behind, but still never manage to fill the void inside.

Think of Merri’s hunger right now like a black hole.

A supernova. She’s consuming herself because there’s nothing else to feed her. ”

“But we’re right here,” I said.

“Exactly. We’re in her orbit, and she needs us to fill that emptiness before she burns out.”

“And if she burns out?” Grim asked, but I was pretty sure the question didn’t need an answer.

Sin stared us down, expression grave. “She dies.”

“How do you know that?” Chaos asked, eyes burning with an unnamed emotion.

“I’ve experienced it myself. Not like this, obviously, but the precursor. Remember that time Malice dared me to go a month without feeding?”

We all nodded.

“You broke after two weeks,” Grim reminded him.

“Right, well, it was more like my power forced the issue. I started feeding on people without even realizing it. I took out that VIP group in five minutes. They were all dead before I even knew what happened.”

Merri began a new chorus of pained moans as she tore at her clothing, rubbing her thighs together and murmuring unintelligibly.

“We have to do something for her,” Sin said.

Grim turned away, making for the door. “I can’t take this. I’ll kill her before she has the chance to burn out.”

I understood his plight, and fear stabbed through my heart at the thought of giving in and letting myself have her as well.

“No.” Sin’s protest was loud and strong, causing Grim to turn and face him. “We do this together. We have to. Remember the library? It works best when all four of us can share the burden.”

“What if there are side effects, even if we do split them?” I asked, thinking of Merri’s current state as some sort of super virus the four of us were coming into contact with for the first time. How were any of us supposed to survive this?

“There won’t be. We’ve all experienced it. She might take from us, but she gives as well.” Chaos returned to our group and wiped the sweat off his brow with the hem of his shirt.

“Yeah. He’s right. She fucking supercharged me.” Sin’s proud grin was almost boyish.

Still uncertain, I looked back to Merri.

She was still squirming on the bed, though she’d managed to remove her shirt while we’d all stood here debating our best course of action.

Her skin was flushed as though with fever, and long strands of her hair stuck to her glistening skin.

I’d just lifted my gaze to her eyes, only to falter.

The black orbs had been replaced with her robin-egg blue irises.

“Please,” she rasped, the word only for me.

That was all I needed.

With a gasp, she arched her back unnaturally, and when her eyes returned to meet mine, they were black once more.

I began unbuttoning my shirt even as I strode toward the bed. Merri had asked me to help her, and I would not leave her to perish.

With each step I took toward her, Merri grew more still until she was frozen on the bed. If not for the rapid rise and fall of her chest, I would have thought her a statue. Her gaze was fixed on me, and I could sense the calculation taking place in her mind. She was a predator assessing her prey.

“Merri,” I whispered.

In a flash, she was on me, pulling me to the bed and tearing at my clothes.

“Christ,” Sin whispered harshly.

“I don’t think he’s involved in this one, Sinclair.” Grim’s voice filtered through the room, but I hardly had the attention to spare, not with a ravenous succubus atop me.

A feral claiming wasn’t exactly what I’d pictured for my first time with Merri.

Not that I’d allowed myself to think on it at all.

Or at least not much. She raked her nails down my bare chest, the slight sting radiating long after she’d reached my open fly.

My shirt was nothing but tattered fabric, barely hanging on to my shoulders, and though my jeans were still intact, the button fastening them was long gone.

A low growl radiated from deep in her throat as she made to remove the offending denim, but I stopped her with a hand on her wrist.

“Allow me, hellcat.”

I was already moving, wriggling my way free of the obstruction.

Merri practically purred, one soft hand running along my length before she sheathed me inside her.

Hot, wet, and impossibly tight, her cunt enveloped me all at once, and the sensation was so intense I nearly came then and there.

Which was to be expected, honestly. I hadn’t been inside of a woman in more years than I could currently count.

But even for me and my situation, the rapid approach of my climax felt fast.

“S-slow down,” I begged, not ready to lose the sensation of her moving over me as quickly as I’d found it.

“No.”

Her hips rolled with no regard for my request, the lust-crazed look in her eyes only serving to bring me perilously closer to falling.

“I won’t last.”

Before I could say anything else, her fingers wrapped around my throat and she squeezed. “Good.”

The curl of her fingers mimicked the tight squeeze of her cunt, and my eyes rolled back in my head as a wave of euphoria crested.

The fact that I’d thought I’d had any control of this situation was laughable.

I was completely at her mercy. A pawn for her to use or destroy at her whim.

There was no choice left to make but to surrender.

It shouldn’t have been possible, but my dick hardened even more, and there was nothing I could do now to stop the orgasm she drew from me. And it was her who did it, make no mistake. My eyes opened and found her face hovering over mine, lips parted, eyes fully black, cheeks flushed.

“Now,” she whispered, tightening her grip on my throat.

I was lost. To pleasure. To pain. To her.

Distantly, I heard the startled cries of the others, whatever sensual magic Merri had woven over me affecting them just as deeply.

I spilled myself inside her, giving her everything there was of me and relishing in the fact that I was seeing to her needs.

She’d chosen me, and there was no denying that something between us shifted.

Without warning, she rested on top of me, the soft puff of her breath fanning over my skin as she tucked her face into my neck.

It was so unexpected there wasn’t even an opportunity for me to consciously decide how to react.

My arms cradled her protectively, my mind memorizing the happy sighs that escaped her.

She was, for all intents and purposes, a contented cat seeking out a cuddle.

My heart thundered in my chest, and my mind emptied of everything except the feel of her against me. Clarity and reflection would come later. For now, I simply existed. With her. For her.

She shifted in my hold, and I turned my head toward her, curious what I would find this time. Merri blinked as our gazes connected, the brilliant blue of her irises a welcome sight.

“There you are,” I murmured as the woman I knew returned to the forefront.

A soft smile tilted her lips, and something happened to the walls around my heart. I felt them crack ever so slightly. Fuck.

“Is she back?” Chaos asked, his deep voice rumbling through the room and startling both of us.

As if a switch had been flipped, black stole over her eyes, and her entire body stiffened as her head snapped in his direction.

“I’m going to take that as a no,” Sin drawled. “Guess that means it’s time for round two.”