Page 2 of The Devil’s Bargain (A Devil to Die for #3)

There were only snippets of consciousness.

Someone whispering something unintelligible in his ear.

Darkness.

A heavy weight on top of him.

Darkness.

Pain where he’d never felt pain before. But where he’d always secretly wanted to.

Darkness.

Longing felt for him.

Darkness.

Pride.

Darkness.

Pleasure.

Darkness.

Pleasure.

Darkness.

Belonging.

* * *

Cal stared at the email, almost not believing what he was seeing. His hacking skills were admittedly not the greatest, but only in comparison to some of the other I.P.F. agents he’d met over the years.

They were certainly good enough to break into an old computer like the one used by the main office of the orphanage. Especially considering Sister Grace’s password was still the same as it had been eight years ago.

He’d done it on a whim, his conscience urging him not to abuse his power, even as he’d snuck into the building and planted the device onto hers. Even as he’d returned to the hover car he’d parked down the street, safely out of sight, and had pulled out his holopad.

There’d been a moment at the party, just as he was fleeing the scene, where he’d thought he saw the back of a familiar head stumble out of the building.

The woman had been wearing a mask, same as everyone else, but the way she’d moved…

Cal had been hopped up on whatever drug they’d fed them there, so there was a good chance he was reading into things. But he’d had to know for sure.

Had to assuage those doubts.

He was sure he’d been mistaken.

But there it was. Proof in the form of an email.

The date, theme, and what he assumed was the address of the party were all written in it and addressed to her.

To Sister Grace, the woman who’d brought him up.

The woman who’d beaten a sense of self-loathing into him.

Who’d made him think all his life that there was something wrong with him.

May the gods have mercy on his soul.

On his soul.

Not hers.

Never hers.

May the gods…

* * *

“…burn…in…hell…” Calix came out of the dream already speaking, uttering the words on autopilot.

He didn’t notice. Didn’t know where he was or what he was doing, only that there was a throbbing pain all over and a rush of accompanying euphoria the likes of which he’d never felt before. “…hope she burns…”

“What was that?” a voice, familiar and out of breath, spoke directly against the curve of Calix’s ear, causing him to flinch.

He moaned and turned his head away, whimpering when the pain got sharper.

“Don’t reject me, Be’urn,” the voice coaxed. “Close contact helps with the pain. We’re solidifying the bond. You’re confused and out of it right now. Your mind isn’t in the right place. It’s okay. We’ve got you.”

Calix shook his head, not comprehending.

The room was dim and he couldn’t make anything out other than shapes and shadows.

He could tell something wasn’t right, but couldn’t say what, only that he was uncomfortable and it was hard to breathe.

Something heavy held him down, crushing his chest, and between his legs—

“Don’t…stop.” Weakly, his hands lifted, and he grabbed onto firm hips.

“We won’t,” a new voice reassured, and Calix blinked against the fog, noticing finally that there were two of them there.

Another dark shape hovered above the first, Mercy’s murky features only just coming into focus before he gave a hard thrust of his hips and sent Calix’s mind shattering all over again.

Where was he?

What was going on?

The pain was…odd, almost smothering him, yet the pure bliss that accompanied it made all of his nerve endings feel like they were misfiring. With a start, he realized he was coming, his dick twitching and emptying against the body draped over his.

“That’s number seven,” Aodhan—it was Aodhan—whispered in a gravelly tone, sentence ending on a groan when he found his own release. His hips went still, but the movements didn’t let up, and he whined as he was pushed into overstimulation by the man controlling them both.

Mercy had his cock buried in Aodhan’s hole.

Aodhan had his cock buried in Cal’s.

“Hold on,” Calix managed to find his voice again, but he wasn’t really sure what he was asking for or why.

“You tried that already,” Mercy stated. “It didn’t work then, it won’t work now.”

“Hold on,” Aodhan parroted, turning to hide his face in the crook of Cal’s neck. “Just…give us a moment.”

“You’ve got to push your stamina his way,” Mercy chuckled. “Don’t let his feelings take the lead, little killer.”

“Easy for you to say,” he growled. “He’s everywhere, Mercy.”

A rush of awe mixed with pride and a dash of humor swept over Calix, and he struggled to sort through the onslaught of emotions.

Tried to untangle what he was feeling from the foreign sensations he realized were coming from the other two, but it was impossible.

All it did was open him up for further attack, his confusion and mild panic rushing through the connection to muddy the already dark waters.

“May the gods have mercy on that poor boy’s soul,” Cal uttered the phrase, then burst out in a fit of laughter that shook all three of them.

Aodhan growled and pressed in closer, shifting as his cock grew and lengthened inside of Calix, stretching his walls and pushing him toward that edge all over again. “The only gods here are us, Be’urn.”

“The only god here is Cal,” Mercy corrected, settling himself over Aodhan’s back as he increased the tempo of his thrusts. “And we’re here to worship at his altar.”

“If the altar is his body,” Aodhan licked at Calix’s jaw, “then I’m in. Both literally and figuratively. I’m going to be so good to you, Be’urn. Treat you the way you were meant to be treated. Hurt you and comfort you and love you so,” he rolled his hips, “good.”

“You’re babbling,” Mercy pointed out.

“He likes it.”

Cal did. He’d always enjoyed the sound of the doctor’s voice and the dirty words he spoke so patiently whenever he pinned him down and unapologetically took from him.

Mercy tipped his head and then smirked. “So he does.”

The doctor kept talking as Mercy continued to screw them well into the night and through the morning.

And into the next night.

So on and so on until the days blended together and Calix could no longer recall his own name, let alone what day of the week it was.

* * *

“Hurts,” someone complained and whimpered, the sound coming close enough that it managed to rouse Calix from his slumber.

“I know, baby, bear with it,” Mercy’s unmistakable voice cajoled, and Calix blinked, slowly bringing the world back into focus.

He was soaking in the large tub, propped against the end with his arms and head resting on the edge, no doubt to prevent him from slipping beneath the water.

His muscles ached, but an energy thrummed through him, something potent and strong and foreign.

When he subconsciously reached for it, it tugged, and he followed the sensation to the director who was in the center of the bathroom.

Mercy had Aodhan bent over the sink, his hand between the doctor’s cheeks as he rubbed ointment on the man’s abused hole.

There were scratch marks all over Aodhan’s back and down his sides, and Calix pursed his lips, vaguely recalling being the one who put them there.

When he tried to latch onto a memory, however, it fluttered away, leaving him with a sense of frustration that managed to cut through everything else being thrown his way through the connection.

Sensing it, Mercy glanced over his shoulder at him, catching his gaze with a steady look. Out of the three of them, he appeared to be the only one unaffected.

Calix’s annoyance grew.

“I’ll be with you in a moment, precious,” Mercy told him, “don’t fret.”

Cal shivered at the term of endearment, not sure if he liked it or if it made him feel…delicate. Delicate in a way he didn’t relate to. He may be broken, but that didn’t mean he was fragile.

He was an ex I.P.F. agent. He didn’t need protection, or—

“Quiet, Cal,” Mercy’s tone turned firm. “Aodhan doesn’t enjoy pain the way you do. You’re making his headache worse.”

“Not my head that needs soothing,” the doctor disagreed somewhat petulantly.

“Don’t listen to him, Be’urn. It’s our First’s fault I’m like this.

He’s the one who tore through my hole like it was tissue paper.

I swear, I won’t sit comfortably for days.

If I can’t walk, Mercy, you’re going to have to carry me. No arguing.”

The director chuckled and planted a loving kiss on the back of Aodhan’s shoulder. “Of course, little killer. Now, stay still so I can finish up here. Our Third also needs tending.”

“I’m okay,” Calix surprised himself by saying. It was true, aside from being sore all over, the worst of the pain from earlier was gone.

Aodhan snorted. “He’s tricking you. We took care of you first. You’ve already been rubbed down with suncream, and the bath has healing salts in it.

Mercy is just trying to get at your ass again.

Don’t—” His sentence ended on a howl when Mercy pulled his fingers free and delivered a slap to his right cheek that echoed in the small bathroom.

“Behave,” the director warned. “Just because we have a Third now, doesn’t mean I’ll let you get away with whatever you please. Apologize.”

For what? Cal frowned, but the doctor didn’t seem to be lost like him.

“Forgive me, Mercy,” Aodhan said.

He pretended to consider it, and it was so obvious that was what he was doing, pretending just to get a rise out of the doctor. He shifted on his feet so he was standing directly behind him, and smoothed his palm over the mark he’d just left.

Aodhan tensed and shook his head. “Not again.”

“Calix needs to balance his emotions,” Mercy seemed to be reminding him. “This is a delicate time for him. He can’t handle both of our emotions as well as his own. He needs space to adjust. We can give him another ten minutes, can’t we, baby?”

Aodha shook his head with more force. “No. No, I can’t.”

“Connects sex drive increases when they take a mate.” Mercy gripped his cock and stroked it once before bringing it to Aodhan’s already red entrance. “I have to fuck you. I need to disperse the influx of energy between us so we can all keep a clear head.”

“Bullshit,” Aodhan cursed. “You’re enjoying this! It hurts. I don’t—”

“You can dish it out, but you can’t take it?” Mercy tsked. “Deal with it.”

“Wait—” Aodhan screamed as he stuffed full of Mercy’s massive cock in one hard thrust.

Calix watched, enthralled, as his First drove his Second into a wild frenzy.

* * *

Later, Aodhan held Cal’s hand as he slept, clinging to him, completely unaffected by the shaking bed or the sounds Cal and Mercy were making.

Calix was lying on his stomach with the director looming over him.

Mercy screwed him into the mattress as though he were trying to shove him through it, fucking Calix like it was their first time and the guy had gone without for months and not the mere fifteen minutes since their last round.

A part of Cal knew if he woke Aodhan up, he could get a brief reprieve.

Aodhan was needy, and Mercy didn’t like leaving him unattended for too long, constantly quelling that yearning that seemed to always be present in the center of the doctor’s chest. If he woke, it’d be no different, despite the fact that Aodhan’s body was bruised and severely lacking rest.

As Mercy drilled into him, Cal’s fingers tightened around Aodhan’s.

But he didn’t wake him.

“Worried for him?” Mercy settled himself firmly over Calix’s back, using his knees to force his thighs further apart so he could drive in deeper. “You should worry about yourself.”

“Isn’t that the same thing?” he was genuinely asking, brow furrowing as soon as the question was out.

Because…It was still too difficult to tell where he stopped and Aodhan began.

Even now, as his heart was racing and pleasure zipped through him, Calix could still feel the steady rhythm of the man sleeping next to him.

Aodhan’s energy pattern felt calm. Soothing in an odd way. Like a presence Cal was aware of but couldn’t physically touch. Something he could feel but not see.

“Is it always this…?” he was at a loss for words.

“No.” Mercy understood him anyway. “We’re almost through the worst of it, in fact. You’re doing so well, little one. Adjusting better than I hoped. Better than Aodhan did even. He’ll be jealous when he realizes. I bet you he’ll give himself credit for it.”

“You keep calling me weird things.”

“Let me. I have a lot of affection I’m working through. For all your complaints and denials, you’re feeling rather gratified by our joining. When Aodhan feels too enraptured, he gets a little harder to control. Same as when he’s bored. You’ll have to be more careful around us for the time being.”

Calix pursed his lips. “You’re managing him.”

“I’ll manage you, too.”

“Is that a promise or a threat?”

“The promise is that I’ll never let you stray too far from who you truly are ever again,” Mercy told him. “But the threat is one and the same. You aren’t alone now, Calix. You put yourself in danger, and you put us in danger. I won’t allow that. Is that understood? Say yes.”

His nipples rubbed against the sheets with every thrust, and his dick was getting too much friction from where it was trapped between him and the bed, but Cal somehow managed to nod through it.

“Words,” Mercy demanded, nipping at Cal’s shoulder with the same teeth he’d dug into Calix’s neck…at some point.

“Yes,” Cal gave in, waiting for the other man to make a sound of approval before asking, “How long have we been here?”

“Only five days.”

He blinked, certain he’d misheard.

“I would have starved to death if it’d been that long without food,” he said.

“You don’t remember feasting on Aodhan’s cock?

” Mercy laughed when he shuddered. “Setting aside the fact there’s enough energy between us to keep us all alive, and the fact that I’m a Connect and your life force is now tied to mine, there’s arguably enough nutrition in Vital come to keep you going for two weeks, let alone one. ”

“Why do you know that?” Calix would deal with the rest of that statement at a later date, ideally when he wasn’t being impaled and could think properly.

Before the director could respond, however, Aodhan groaned and slowly came awake.

He stared at Calix, vision clearing before his fingers flexed around Cal’s hand. “What are we talking about?”

“Eating,” Mercy supplied.

The wicked curve of his lips gave him away before he spoke. “Flip him over, Mercy. I’m famished.”

“Wait a second!” Calix went ignored, as per usual.

In the next instant, he was lifted and turned, Mercy lying back on the bed and settling Calix over him. His cock remained buried the entire time, and he didn’t start thrusting again until he’d spread Cal wide and Aodhan had moved to settle between their legs.

Mercy held him as Aodhan’s mouth dropped down over Cal’s dick, and they all moaned in unison.