Page 15 of Sidhe (The Incubus Saga #3)

Malak’s eyes shimmered, the yellow irises looking even more vibrant against the black. “My power is what you give me. It’s amazing how little of it I need to be effective.” She tugged against Nathan’s hold pointedly but didn’t break free.

The fire was growing in the pit of Nathan’s stomach.

He squeezed her wrist tighter. “You were able to use your power against me before because of the bounty, I get that. But you only can now because I’m allowing you to infect me.

If it hadn’t been for Jim and Sasha interfering with our deal the night we met you, you wouldn’t have been able to touch them either. ”

“I already proved to you that Jim’s power comes from me.”

“But he’s in control. He still gets to make the choice of who and what he is, what side he’s on. You can’t sway him like you can me with those damn dreams.”

Malak grinned in the face of Nathan’s defiance.

“With the power we could have together, those rules would be different. I’ll admit, if that’s what you’re after, yes…

I need you, Nathan. If you accept my offer then all the power I have in the Veil, we would have here too.

We . Jim would follow you, Nathan. They all would.

Sidhe. Humans. Seals. But it could be a world of your making.

The Hell on Earth I showed you would never have to happen.

You could make sure of it. All you have to do…

” Malak took her free hand and grasped Nathan’s wrist that had grasped hers.

Nathan felt a shock through his arm that forced his hand to release.

“Choose me. Choose me once more and everything I am is yours.”

“You know…you really suck at the David Bowie impression.”

“Nathan,” Malak laughed, “still trying to piss me off? You have no idea how much it pleases me that you’re the one.

So much like myself really. The fae war…

” Her eyes flashed as she trailed. Then she shook herself alert again and yanked Nathan’s jeans down his hips in a single movement.

“Family really should be on the same side. Jim’s already tainted, Nathan.

Sasha’s half dark by birth. Let me in and you can be brothers in arms forever. ”

“You want to possess me,” Nathan said, finally understanding the punch line. The spriggan had been the clue, twice, but at the time Nathan hadn’t understood.

A host to bring Malak physically through the Veil before it falls, but Nathan had to be willing. Malak needed him to say yes, needed him to choose, or the thinning of the Veil would all be for naught—Malak would still be stuck on the other side.

“This would be so much more than possession, Nathan. I’m talking full immersion, you and me, equal.

” She teased her fingertips along the waistband of Nathan’s boxers, challenging Nathan to try and stop her.

“You wouldn’t lose yourself, I promise you.

Everything you love, I will love, and hold sacred and protect. ”

“I’m sure,” Nathan scoffed. He wanted to move. He was certain he had almost gathered enough strength to move more than just an arm, and Malak grazing her fingers where she had no right to touch only fueled him further.

“We’ll be one perfect being, Nathan, don’t you understand?”

“So this is what? Masturbation?”

Again, the sidhe laughed. “It’s inevitable, Nathan.

You’ll choose me eventually. Some act. Some choice.

So why not make it now? All the fear and pain, you’ll never have to feel that again, and the ones you love will always be safe, always by your side.

I promise. Say yes, Nathan. You know you already belong to me.

” Malak dragged a hand over the contours of Nathan through his boxers, like he was property—like she owned him.

Nathan grabbed both of Malak’s wrists fiercely. Using all of his body to back him, he pushed upwards, forcing her to fall back on her ass between his legs. Malak’s eyes were startled but pleased when Nathan pressed down against her.

“Is this what I’m supposed to do?” he said through clenched teeth, fire in his eyes, even if they were black, and all the confidence he could muster filling him as he ground down into Malak challengingly. “Huh? Like this? Taking charge, showing you what kind of king I would be?”

“Oh yes, Nathan,” Malak all but moaned, shifting her hips beneath him. “The power is yours if you’ll only take it. Come on then,” she arched up into him again, her legs spreading eagerly beneath her black dress, as she whispered, “claim what’s yours.”

From the deepest part of Nathan, he shuddered.

All the pressure was gone. He was no longer under Malak’s thrall.

He didn’t have to do a thing she said. But even he couldn’t deny that he was tempted.

Briefly he wondered what it would be like if he accepted Malak’s offer and she was actually telling the truth.

All that power, him still in his right mind, all those he loved at his side fighting with him to bring about the world he saw fit.

But when the hell had Nathan ever been good at knowing what he wanted?

If he didn’t know what he wanted for himself, how could he decide for everyone else?

He wanted peace, he did, something he had only ever felt fleetingly, but he knew better than to believe Malak was the one who could give him that.

“Do you think I’m an idiot?” Nathan glared at those smug yellow on black eyes.

“Fool me once, you fucker .” He pulled back and jerked Malak upright.

“Fool me twice, because you’re a low son of a bitch for using what I love against me.

But you are never fooling me again.” Nathan let one of Malak’s wrists go just long enough to pull back and punch her clean across the jaw.

Malak knocked back against the door, her head smacking into the window with a crack.

Nathan’s satisfaction over the sight of his adversary sprawled in the backseat was brief, however, because when the sidhe turned her eyes on Nathan again, they crackled with electricity.

Malak snarled, shifting once more into the male form with blond hair and red on black eyes, and something shimmered across his face like a shadow of rows upon rows of fangs.

In hindsight, punching the king of all dark fae might not have been the best idea.

The shadows of the car seemed to flock to Malak, filling him and making him look large and monstrous, like he had wings as big as Sasha’s and they were ready to burst the roof right off the car.

He growled and grew with palpable power, his blond and suit-clad form at the core of what was really a great beast filling the space around him.

Trembling despite himself, Nathan scrambled away until his back hit the other door.

Even this image of Malak had beauty to it, radiant with so much power, but what might have been light once was the deepest absence of it now, making Nathan so scared that it choked him.

He was going back to the Veil. Malak would take him and he would have to relive those horrors all over again.

“Nathan Grier, you think you can deny me ?” asked a great echoing rumble of a voice.

No, he couldn’t go back, he couldn’t go back. But even as Nathan thought that, he knew he still would. He would if it was the only choice he had instead of giving in to what Malak wanted.

“Damn right I can deny you,” Nathan said, this time without an ounce of fear. “My answer is still no, you goddamn son of a bitch.”

A howl left Malak’s lips, his mouth still shimmering with what looked like sharpened teeth.

Then he seemed to grow larger, filling the whole car, and Nathan knew that it was over.

Malak leapt for him, but just before reaching him it was as if he struck some unseen barrier that knocked all that darkness and excess power right out of him.

Malak tumbled back, just a man in a suit, his eyes even that feigned blue.

The cry that left Malak split the night, so loud and piercing that Nathan had to cover his ears and curl in on himself to stand it.

When the sound suddenly stopped and Nathan looked up again, he only caught the briefest glimpse of a snarling expression before the sidhe vanished in a shock of fizzling light.

Immediately, the car pitched, spinning wildly off the road without a driver. Nathan tumbled down between the seats.

Shit .