Page 59

Chapter 17

Malcolm

I t was terrifying and exhilarating, the idea of not going home.

Now, he would definitely go back at least... for his things. Not to talk to Sasha and Jasper and maybe even Declan. They didn’t like him, and he didn’t like them.

They were just his siblings.

Who had accepted him, if not loved him.

Especially Sasha.

But he wouldn’t need to see Elrith. That would serve no purpose at all but to make him second-guess himself. Or rather, Elrith would tell him he was being ridiculous, and remind him of how when they had met, he’d been wearing filthy clothes in the wrong size and living in a rat-infested one-room apartment with his mother and her drug dealer.

Elrith would make him afraid to leave, just as he always did.

Malcolm didn’t know if it was purposeful, or if his father was just a heartless bastard, but the effect was the same. Whenever Elrith said it, Malcolm remembered what it was like to be pathetic and alone, and came to heel, like a good dog.

Not this time. This time, Malcolm was leaving.

He had his siren, and that was all he needed. Kostas. They could live on the beach like vagrants and it wouldn’t matter. They’d been practically doing it already there in the forest, and it had been somehow the best experience of his life, at the same time as being terrifying and awful.

Otis and Kostas had been kinder to him than anyone... ever.

Okay, so Jasper and Declan and Sasha hadn’t been awful to him. They’d been just as lost and frightened as he had, and none of them had been quite what the others had needed. Jasper had needed his bear in the woods, and Declan apparently needed a freaking dragon. Sasha had been sneaking around and keeping secrets for a while, so Malcolm suspected it was only a matter of time before she left him for something better too.

Oddly, he hated the idea of leaving her alone.

He’d ask, maybe. Make sure she would be fine without him. Sasha wouldn’t laugh at the idea of him caring about someone.

But first, they needed to be safe, Malcolm and Kostas.

They needed to escape the men who planned to sell Malcolm to whoever was buying incubi.

If Kostas thought his boss was the best way to make that happen, that was what they would try.

It wasn’t as though Elrith would help.

Right?

Otis didn’t have a car. He had a cabin, solar panels that ran his electricity, and well... that was about it.

“It’s only a few miles,” he was promising Kostas as they stood on the porch together. “Maybe five or six. Just head that way, it’s a straight shot to the city. The road into town’s over there, but it’s a longer walk. Ten miles at least.”

Malcolm wasn’t sure how that worked, but for reasons he couldn’t name, he trusted the old man. Because he’d known Malcolm’s uncle, a man he hadn’t even known existed before, maybe.

Not for the first time, he wondered what had happened to Elrith’s brother.

Otis turned back to head into the house, but stopped in front of Malcolm. “You ever need anything, you come on by. I know your kind aren’t much for nature, but you’re welcome here. And your father ain’t. And gods help him if he sets foot on my property.”

Malcolm couldn’t squash his smile at that.

Never in his life had he been welcome anywhere Elrith wasn’t.

It didn’t matter at all that it was a tiny cabin in the middle of the filthy woods. It was something that was sort of his.

“Thank you, Otis.”

The man gave him a gruff nod and a heavy pat on the shoulder, and as he passed on his way into the house, he muttered, “You take care of that siren. He’s gonna need you to tie him down. You’re his ocean now.”

Malcolm had no idea what the hell that meant, but it felt... huge. Being the ocean to a siren. Like being sex to an incubus.

But Kostas was that to him, wasn’t he?

No one else had ever managed to entirely sate the demon inside him and leave it purring. No one would ever be able to compare to that.

Even stranger, Malcolm had no urge to run out and find someone to compare it to. Why keep looking when you’d found what you wanted? It was like one of those interminable shopping trips Sasha adored, taking all afternoon to try on dresses, only to go back and buy the first one she’d seen.

Malcolm had found the one he wanted. He was finished. He was ready to check out now, and go home with his find.

Except that he didn’t have a home anymore. Elrith was not one to put up with such a horrific concept as (gasp) monogamy.

Kostas’s arm came around his waist as they walked, and Malcolm leaned against him, lowering his head to rest against that strong shoulder. “Thinking serious thoughts?” Kostas asked, his smooth voice unusually soft and concerned.

“I was just”—his damnable voice broke, and he had to swallow and try again—“I was just thinking about where we would live. And what I’d do. I’ve never... I’ve never held a job before.”

He waited for the rush of disgust, the laughter or derision, but of course, none came. “You’ll figure it out. There’s time. You can stay in my apartment. Carson could find you work, if you want. He gave me my job even though I didn’t have an ID or experience. He helped me get what I needed to get on in the human world.”

No wonder Kostas had suggested going to him. That was a lot to do for a veritable stranger.

Not much like Elrith at all, really.

His phone finally pinged at him to let him know it had a signal, and he pulled it out of his pocket.

He tried to call Sasha as they walked, and got no answer, just her voicemail over and over. Jasper’s got the same result, but it usually did since he’d moved off into the woods with his bear. Even Declan didn’t answer his phone. Probably busy fucking his dragon, and who could blame him? Malcolm would rather be having sex too.

When all else failed, he scrolled down to his father’s name and just... looked at it. What good would it do, really? Elrith wouldn’t have called him. Hadn’t called him in the day he’d been missing.

Would Elrith even care if he never saw him again?