Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
MALICE
“ C elibate? Well, isn’t that interesting?” I murmured as Sin’s words finally registered in my overstimulated brain.
He narrowed his eyes. “Interesting? That’s the word you’re going with? Try in-fucking-convenient. Or even giant hurdle. Big problem works too if you want to keep it simple.”
“Plot twist?” I offered, amused at his mounting ire even as my temples throbbed from my lingering migraine.
I wasn’t one for social gatherings on a good day, but take me prisoner and drain my power, and I could barely handle a conversation with one being, let alone four. Add in the constant competing noises of Iniquity’s dance club and sex dungeon, plus Lilith’s yammering, and I was in a downward spiral akin to a whirlpool in the ocean.
“That’s what I said. Helluva plot twist. The succubus who won’t fuck. That’s like... an eating disorder. How are we supposed to do our duty now?” He stared off into space for a moment, then flicked his gaze back to me. “Turkey baster?”
I raised a brow. “And how do you propose to talk her into that? ‘Come over here, love, and spread your legs for me, will you? I need to leave a deposit.’ Or were you planning on a more gynecological approach? Do we need to purchase one of those tables with the stirrups?”
“Pretty much.”
Sighing, I shook my head. “And this is why I’m the only one who procreated.”
“I don’t see you coming up with any ideas.”
“That’s because this isn’t my show. I’ve already done the accidental pregnancy thing. Not interested this time around.”
“Yeah, but it’s not going to be an accident. We’re doing it on purpose. You’ve never had an on-purpose before.”
I could barely check the impulse to snarl at him. My son was off-limits, and this fucker damn well knew it. I didn’t talk about him or any of the events surrounding his birth and subsequent excommunication from my life. To say it was a sore subject would be like referring to a global pandemic as flu season.
“Are you done?” I drawled.
“I guess so. I just don’t know how we’re going to do this if she’s not interested in making the beast with two backs. I mean, I’m sex personified, and she’s not the least bit interested.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose in an attempt to counter the tiny sledgehammers working at my temples. “Did you ever consider that you might have to help spark her interest?”
He stared at me. “What?”
“Seduction, Sinclair. I’m talking about fucking seduction. You know, foreplay?” He continued to stare at me blankly. “Jesus. It’s a wonder you’ve ever gotten laid.”
The look on his face was priceless. It was as though I’d told him Father Christmas and the Easter Bunny weren’t real. “Well, yeah, but I am the foreplay. I don’t have to work for it. I have to turn them away in droves. They come to me, not the other way around.”
“Those poor, unsatisfied women. Do you even know how to tell if they’re faking it?”
This garnered a reaction. “How very fucking dare you. I feed on their sexual energy, you putrid, festering herpe. Of course I know what a real orgasm feels like.” Then he paused, his expression going inward, and I could practically hear him thinking back through his conquests.
“Sounds like something someone who hasn’t felt a woman come around his cock would say.”
Sin’s expression turned stormy. “I hate you.”
“You’d better go write down your best chat-up lines and work on your seduction techniques, Famine. This one looks like she’s going to be a challenge.” I held out my hand, palm up, and made a beckoning gesture with my two middle fingers. “Might I recommend the come hither? Emphasis on the come .”
“Go fuck yourself, Malice.”
“Sounds like you’re going to be doing enough of that for the both of us, Sin. Unless you start studying.”
He flipped me off.
“Now you’re just being redundant,” I taunted.
His scowl would have withered a weaker man. Alas, while I might currently be weakened, I wasn’t a man. Not a mortal one, anyway.
“I hope you sit on a cactus, dill hole. Or you have a rampant case of anal leakage.”
“Ah yes, one of my better side effects.”
Sin left me, his grumbles audible as he made his way down the hall before he stopped and called over his shoulder, “She needs you to set her up to feed. Work your computer wizardry, will ya? Since she won't ride my dick, she’s gonna have to get off strangers on the internet.”
I chuckled under my breath and muttered, “Ouch. So it’s clear she’d choose a bear over a man in the woods, then.”
“I heard that!”
“I meant for you to, you walking wankstain.”
I spun on my heel and headed to my room before he could come back with some other insult. I had no desire to spend time in anyone else’s company, but a starving succubus would be bad news for all of us, so I needed to get that sorted immediately. I didn’t have access to most of my usual supplies, but I should be able to scrounge up the basics.
I really missed my fucking lake house. Not just for the stockpile of electronics but also the solitude. I’d chosen the remote location in northern Europe for a reason. After centuries of wandering among the suffering masses, I was done with them all. I was sick of phlegm, bodily fluids, fevers, and the like. So when the twentieth century came around, along with technology, I let Odette take the reins when it came to physical pestilence, leaving me to focus on greener, unexplored pastures. The types of viruses I could spread now didn’t just kill bodies; they destroyed spirits and brought down entire countries. The latest one I created shut down a hospital’s server for a twenty-four-hour period. It was beautiful. The panic, the chaos, the sheer terror. All with one little string of code.
Since the dawn of time, it was the microscopic, sometimes invisible menaces that were the most prolific killers. Chaos may revel in his body count, but mine trumped his by millions. Take that, War.
Not that I was stupid enough to say so to his face. I’d leave that to Sin.
The others may have felt as though their specialties made them the most fearsome, but the truth was, in a world reliant upon technology for survival, I was king. I could destroy empires, make planes fall from the sky, and fire nuclear weapons, all with a few keystrokes. I simply chose not to.
The man with the biggest dick in the room never had to announce it to anyone. That was a game for the lesser men who had something to prove.
Arms laden with the supplies needed to set up Merri’s new computer system, I had to resort to kicking her door to get her to come open it.
“Thank fuck, I’m starving,” came the somewhat grumbled and muffled response.
I wasn’t prepared for the wave of lust that slammed into me when the door swung open.
“Oh, Grumpy Brit Number Two. I didn’t expect to see you again,” she said, her eyes dropping to take in me and the equipment in my arms.
“You can simply call me Malice. Mal, if you’d like.”
“I don’t know, Mal. That makes it seem like we’re friends. Pretty sure captors can’t be caught palling around with their prisoners.”
I must have made a face because she tilted her head to the side and mused, “Do you want to be my pal, Mal? Ha! Pal Mal. You’re a Brit. Damn, I’m a comedian, and I didn’t even know it. The jokes write themselves.”
Frowning, I grunted. “Where am I setting this up?”
I pushed past her, a rush of desire chasing across my skin when my arm brushed hers.
“Come on in, I guess. God, I thought you were supposed to be polite, at least.”
“That’s Canadians.”
“Noted.” She gestured to the empty desk across from the bed. “There’s fine. I don’t need much to make it work. They’re not booking me for the ambience.”
No, they’re booking you for your fucking fit body and bountiful... Motherfucker.
I gritted my teeth against the onslaught of thoughts about exactly what her body was made for.
“Do you mind?” I all but growled.
“Mind what?”
Dumping the contents of my arms unceremoniously onto the table, I gestured to her body. “Tamping down the allure. I can’t focus with all these pheromones .”
Her cheeks went delightfully pink, and she lowered her gaze to her perfectly manicured toes as she curled them into the carpet. “I’m sorry. I said I was hungry. I can’t help it.”
What the devil was Lilith thinking, having such a precious creature in her midst? She was little more than a bunny in a den of wolves. Or perhaps I was seeing what she wanted me to see, and she was actually a vixen lurking behind an innocent facade, waiting for her moment to strike. So which was she, truly? Harmless fluffy bunny or cunning little fox?
Why did the idea of finding out make my mouth water?
“Tamp. It. Down.”
She flinched. “I’m trying. It’s not as easy as that.”
“If you can’t control yourself, at least give me some breathing room,” I snarled.
She obeyed with a huff, moving as far away as she could and primly sitting on the edge of her bed.
After setting up everything she needed, I discreetly adjusted myself before turning to face her again. My whole body felt alive, my blood singing with unsatisfied hunger. It took every ounce of control I had not to imagine the things I could do to her in that bed. Things I hadn’t done with any partner since my son was conceived.
Fuck.
My cock throbbed as though reminding me of exactly how long it had been since I’d had a release. Centuries. I hadn’t touched myself or anyone else in literal centuries. I’m pretty sure that made me some kind of born-again virgin, without the religious fanfare of it all.
“This would be easier if you weren’t so on edge,” Merri said as she repositioned herself in the camera view from the desk.
“I’m not on edge.”
“Liar.”
“Don’t,” I warned. “You won’t like what happens if you keep poking at us. We’re not made of stone. We will snap.”
“Right, because you’re the horsemen.” She tapped her lower lip. “Which one are you, I wonder?”
When I didn’t provide an answer, she shrugged and said, “Anyway, the big guy seems like he might be made of stone.”
“Chaos. He has a very short fuse.”
She plopped down on the bed and sighed. “So I can’t poke at you, I’m assuming I’m not allowed to leave, and I probably can’t touch anything. What can I do?”
“I suppose you could leave, but not alone. You need one of us with you at all times. That’s not up for discussion. Also, this is Grim’s penthouse, so I’m not at liberty to tell you what you can and cannot touch, but he’s very... fussy about his things. I definitely wouldn’t go after his whiskey if I were you.”
She wrinkled her nose. “What would I want with his whiskey? Do you think I’m just going to get drunk in my room by myself?”
“I certainly would.”
“Because you’re a million years old.”
“Not quite.”
“Close enough.”
“Grim is older than me.”
“And?”
I frowned, not sure why I’d felt the need to point it out. “Seemed like it was worth mentioning,” I mumbled.
Oh fuck, her little nipples were hard and pressing against the sheer fabric of that damned lingerie she was still wearing. Tearing my gaze away from her, I took a few deep breaths, which was a mistake of epic proportions. She smelled too fucking good.
“Merri, this is important,” I bit out as I made my way toward escape.
“Go on. Lay it on me, Malice. I can see you want to. What is it?”
My cock twitched.
She doesn’t mean like that.
“I’ve installed a number of firewalls and other protective measures on your computer. That will only do so much, however, unless you are also careful.”
“I’m not an idiot, Mal. I’ve been camming for years now. I know how to keep myself safe.”
“Still, it would be irresponsible of me not to remind you that under absolutely no circumstances are you to share the details of your whereabouts with anyone. I don’t care if it's your mother. No one means no one.”
“Well, seeing as I don’t know my birth mother and have absolutely no idea where I am anyway, pretty sure that won’t be a problem.”
“Peachy.”
She stood, stretching her arms and rolling her shoulders before settling in at the desk. Without a glance back at me, she began typing, pulling up her camming website as I stood there.
I recognized a dismissal when I saw one.
And if I happened to linger just long enough to memorize the site and her username, well... that was just a matter of security, wasn’t it?
Someone needed to make sure she followed the rules.