Page 9 of Malice: The Mate Games (Apocalypse #3)

Chapter

Seven

MALICE

S ilence sat heavily in the room where my brothers and I had gathered post Merri’s... whatever the fuck that was. The sunroom had never been so filled with tension, and what typically created a serene and comforting atmosphere only underscored how on edge the four of us still were.

“You’d think after that many orgasms, we’d be more relaxed,” Sin joked, playing with an antique tea set and causing my left eye to twitch.

“That is not a toy, Sinclair. I’ve had it in my possession since Marie Antoinette got a permanent haircut.”

Sin smirked and held one of the delicate cups to his lips, one pinky out. “Are you and Grim competing for fussiest Brit? I’ve gotta say, you’re gaining on him, Mal.”

In a brilliant display of stealth and finesse, Chaos snuck up behind Sin and cuffed him on the back of the head.

Sin jolted, the precious china tumbling out of his hands.

My breath caught in my throat, but I needn’t have worried.

Chaos caught the cup and replaced it on its shelf before the rest of us could do more than register the action.

“Ouch, man. Careful with the goods.”

“We need to talk about what last night means for all of us,” I said, striding toward the wall of windows and training my focus on the arc of flames streaking across the sky.

“Why?” Sin asked, idly rubbing the back of his head as he made his way toward an overstuffed sofa.

I slowly spun around to face him, one brow raised. “You cannot possibly believe that what happened last night is normal.”

“Only you three could turn a fuckfest into something bad,” Sin complained, sitting down with a plop.

“Careful,” I gritted out, worried he was about to ruin yet another piece of my furniture.

“I mean, sure, it’s not normal, but is any of this normal?” Swinging his arm wide, Sin gestured to the world at large.

“I have no issue with sating her hunger and seeing to her needs, but we nearly lost her to her power last night,” Chaos said, his voice grave.

“What are the odds something like that happens again?” Grim asked.

We all turned to Sin for an answer.

He startled, eyes flicking between each of us. “How am I supposed to know?”

“You are the resident expert, are you not?” Grim pressed.

“When it comes to fucking, sure. But the rest of it? Merri’s part succubus, part horsewoman. There’s only one other being like her in existence, and that bitch kept her cards close to her giant tits, if you know what I mean.”

“Famine doesn’t even feed on lust. She prefers fear wherever she can get it.”

Sin’s gaze met Grim’s as the eldest horseman’s statement landed.

“There’s plenty to go around. I’m sure she’s well-fed these days.”

Chaos grunted his agreement as he replaced me by the window and stared up at the blazing sky.

“Do you have something to add, Chaos?” I asked.

“Not really,” he murmured, crossing his arms over his chest. “Seems like the only thing we can count on right now is the unknown.”

“Helpful as ever,” I grumbled.

“Hey, c’mon, guys. Perk up. We should be celebrating what we did last night.” Sin sauntered over to the bar and began working on some sort of cocktail. “Malice, you broke your chastity and got your dick wet for the first time in, what... three centuries?”

“Longer than that,” I muttered.

“Chaos had his first threesome. And Grim. I mean, wow.” Sin began a slow clap before mixing up what I could now tell was a pitcher of Bloody Marys. “Did you know you could do that? The whole shadow man thing?”

Sin kept talking before Grim could answer.

“I mean, clearly not. Otherwise you would have been doing that all over the place. No way you would have been living your monk-like existence all these years knowing there was an alternative readily available to you.”

Grim shot Sin a pointed look. “Are you quite done?”

Sin took a sip of his cocktail, eyes closing in pleasure as he smacked his lips. “Don’t get mad at me for calling it like I see it.”

“Do you have a point? Or are you just being crass for the hell of it?” I asked.

“Yes. I thought you’d never let me get there. You’re all standing around sulking like we just got back from a funeral when we should be happy about last night and any future opportunities like it.”

The thought of Merri so ravenous for us again had arousal flooding me, but then apprehension quickly chased it away. She hadn't been herself. She’d been in danger.

“Why would we want that to happen again?” Chaos asked.

“Because we all got the chance to knock her up last night. We were probably already successful. Bingo-bango, baby.” Sin’s expression twisted and he looked at Grim.

“Well, maybe not you. The viability of sperm once it hits the air isn’t, you know, great.

But we can pretend you’re still a contender.

Don’t want to leave you out of the celebration. ”

“Thanks so much,” Grim deadpanned.

Sin winked. “I’m a giver.”

“You’re an asshole,” Chaos countered.

“That too. They aren’t mutually exclusive.”

“For once, the issue is not whether we got Merri pregnant. It’s whether we can prevent her turning feral,” Grim said.

“Not so fast. Maybe her going feral is a good thing. I mean, can you do the shadow man magic without her being feral?” Sin wasn’t going to let the topic of Grim’s additional form lie, and I didn’t blame him. It was quite fascinating.

Grim didn’t so much as twitch an eyelash, but I could tell his attention had turned inward. “I don’t know,” he eventually murmured.

Sin waved an arm dramatically. “Why don’t you test it out, buddy?”

“I am not a puppet who will perform for you on command, Sinclair.”

“Chicken shit,” Sin mocked, pushing to his feet so he could flap his arms and paw at the ground with one of his feet.

“Don’t. You. Dare,” Grim warned.

Sin began to squawk and peck at the air.

An irritated grumble preceded Grim’s heavy sigh as he closed his eyes and concentrated. As I watched on, Grimsby’s shadow spread outward onto the floor, then rose in front of Sin, slowly taking shape until it was a man.

“Hey! Great jo—ow! Motherfucker.”

While Sin had been congratulating Grim, the shadow form had cocked back its arm and nailed Sin straight in the nose.

“Why do you have such a hard-on for breaking my nose?” Sin muttered, his words thick and distorted from the trauma to his nose.

“Because it hurts, shuts you up?—”

“Does it?” Sin mocked as he dabbed at the trickle of blood rolling down his lip.

“—and feels really bloody good,” Grim continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted, pulling his shadow back into himself and adjusting his cuffs.

“Nothing ever really shuts him up,” Chaos groused.

We needed to get back on track. Sin was a runaway railroad car, and if none of us took control, we’d never get to where we needed to be.

“Now that we’ve established Grim isn’t beholden to Merri if he wants to use his shadow form, can we address the other major issue?”

Sin turned to me and shrugged. “I don’t know what you want me to say, man. I already told you this is way out of my wheelhouse. Best guess is we just have to keep her fed.”

“If she lets us,” Chaos grumbled.

“I believe the answer lies in the dreamwalks,” Grim added.

“So we’re back to those again,” Sin said, slumping back down onto the sofa and tipping his head forward to stanch the bleeding in his nose. “Dammit, man, you really got me good this time. It’s taking forever to heal.”

“They’re the most viable way to make sure she gets what she needs.” Grim ignored Sin’s complaint, choosing to focus on the topic at hand instead. Good man.

I trained my gaze on Death, a knowing smirk curling my lips. “And what you need.”

“It has nothing to do with me.”

“If you say so,” I intoned, my disbelief evident. “So you’ve found your solution. Now all we have to do is get her to agree to it. Should be easy. Will only take us, what? An entire bloody apocalypse?”

“Get me to agree to what?”

We all flinched in unison at the sweet and unexpected sound of Merri’s voice from the doorway.

“Hey! You’re awake!” Sin called from the couch.

Merri frowned at his blood-streaked countenance. “What happened to you?”

“He earned it,” Grim said under his breath.

“Oh, this? I’m fine. Nothing for you to worry about, kitten.” He still sounded stuffed up and ridiculous, but the bravado was strong as he stood and puffed out his chest.

Chaos strode over to Merri and leaned down to peer into her face. “How are you feeling?”

Merri jerked her head back. “Ever heard of personal space?”

He pinched her chin between two of his fingers and tugged her back so he could continue his inspection. “Answer the question.”

“Fine.”

“Fine is not an answer. You were hardly yourself only hours ago.”

She removed herself from his grasp and stood taller. “I slept all night, woke up, showered, and here I am. Fresh as a fucking daisy. What more do you want from me?”

“That’s a loaded question,” I muttered under my breath.

“Everything, Red. I want every-fucking-thing.”

He was posturing, trying to intimidate her into compliance, but my little hellcat was having none of it. She placed her palms on his chest and shoved at him, not even answering as she waltzed past him into the room.

“Let’s try this again. You four were clearly scheming and talking about your plans for me.

So why don’t you go ahead and say it to my face?

Feels like I should probably be a part of the discussion, right?

Since it’s about me and all.” She crossed her arms over her chest and chose me as her target, leveling those blue eyes on mine.

I had a moment of relief at the sight of the clear blue instead of the solid black we’d all witnessed last night. But then she spoke again.

“Tell me.”

Chaos answered before I could. “What do you want to know?”

Her head whipped to the side so she could stare him down. “Every-fucking-thing.”