Chapter 16
Chapter
Sixteen
MALICE
C haos’s words lifted a weight from my chest as they registered, but I needed to see with my own eyes. If anything happened to her, we’d lose. I never took a loss well. Not once.
Clearly.
It’s the entire reason we were in this fucking mess in the first place.
Grim and Sinclair were hot on my heels as we raced down the stairs and skidded into the kitchen.
I noted the piles of once-demon ash beside a fuming Chaos and how pale Merri’s face was as she stood in shocked silence a little ways behind him. This had been too close of a call. We’d nearly lost her, and Chaos was the only reason she was still with us.
Sin and I’d had one fucking job.
Her.
Despite his ability to sense the emotions of others, Sin barreled forward, completely unaware or uncaring of the volcano about to erupt. Part of me wanted to sit back and watch the carnage about to unfold. Sin was the youngest of us, the cockiest too. He thought he could charm his way into anyone’s good graces. Not this time.
“I wouldn’t—” I started, but Chaos snarled as Sin closed the distance between them on his way to Merri.
The crack of a fist meeting Sin’s nose echoed through the kitchen, accompanied by Sin’s cry of pain.
“You were supposed to watch her,” Chaos roared, rearing back to deliver another punch.
Blood poured from Sin’s crushed nose as he braced for another blow, but Chaos stopped as Merri touched the warrior’s elbow and begged, “Please, stop. Don’t hit him again. It’s not his fault. I slipped away when the angel beckoned. I couldn’t stop myself. I was trapped in its thrall.”
A shudder ran through Chaos before he knocked away her touch. “That was no angel. It was a pride demon.”
“Knight, technically,” Sin corrected, proving he’d learned absolutely nothing about squaring off against an enraged War.
Chaos growled at him. “If you want to keep your nose on your face, I suggest you shut the fuck up. Actually, why don’t you take Merri back to her room and stay fucking put while the grown-ups figure out how the hell any of this happened.”
Sin wiped his bleeding nose with his sleeve and sniffed before locking eyes with Merri. “Come on, kitten. We’re in trouble.”
Surprisingly, Merri didn’t argue. She was still pale and looked shaken. Hopefully she didn’t die of shock before the night was over. That would really be salt in the wound of this attack.
Prickling awareness made the hairs on the back of my neck rise as soon as Sin was out of the hot seat. Here it came. I had a lot to answer for, questions I’d been asking myself the moment the demons breached our walls. I stiffened and turned around to find Grim standing a fair distance from me, arms crossed, jaw set, eyes boring into me.
“Explain.”
The one word carried the promise of endless pain and suffering if my answer wasn’t what he wanted to hear.
Chaos settled in, still fuming as he leaned against the island.
I cleared my throat, suffering none of the same illusions as Sin.
“I’m not sure what you want me to say. Our security system can’t account for winged demons dropping onto your balcony.”
“That seems like one hell of an oversight,” Chaos muttered.
I threw my hands up in the air. “What do you want me to say? It’s not like they set off any of the proximity alarms until after they were already breaking the door. We didn’t get advance warning like we would have if it was a helicopter or something. No one would have been able to prevent this.”
“How did they find us?” Grim demanded.
“Well, you live in a great bloody penthouse, Grimsby. Not exactly subtle.”
“Protected by wards that conceal my identity. To the rest of the world, I’m a reclusive billionaire, not a horseman of the apocalypse. And no one knows we have her.”
“But you’ve lived here for decades,” I pointed out. “And there are many who do know who you are and where you reside. It’s an open secret. Anyone could have outed you for the right price.”
“I don’t think it was us they found. He was surprised we were here, remember?” Chaos said, his eyes finding Grim’s.
“So they managed to track down Merri,” I mused.
“Fine, but only Lilith and her pet know where Merri is. So how did they find out?” Grim pressed.
“Loose lips sink ships.” Even as I said the words, I knew they weren’t true.
“Lilith can’t be bought. She’s unflappable,” Chaos added with a shake of his head. “It had to be something else.”
“There’s only one option. Merri’s camming site. It’s her only link to the outside.”
“I thought you said you took precautions that would make her untraceable,” Grim accused.
I shrugged. “If you know where to look, nothing is truly untraceable.” It was a blow to my ego, but it was the truth.
“Fine. The camming is out.”
I shook my head at Grim’s heavy-handed ultimatum. “That’s not an option. Merri has to feed.”
His stare was icy as he focused on Chaos. “Yes. She does. Which brings us to a bigger issue. If the Princes are already being released, time is of the essence. We don’t have the luxury of a slow courting process to make her love you. The clock is ticking. Lucifer nearly took her from us in a matter of days. We cannot afford to waste any more time. Breed her.”
Chaos straightened and scowled at both of us. “I’m not taking something she’s not willing to give.”
Dark laughter left Grim as he adjusted the cuffs of his sleeves. “Then you and Sin better get to work and do whatever it takes to ensure she gives everything to you. I don’t care how you do it. Make her want you. Get it done.”
Grim stormed from the room, and Chaos looked at me. “Has he met her? No one can make that girl do anything. She’s as stubborn as he is.”
I snickered, giving his arm a pat as he brushed past me. “Better you than me.”
He cocked an eyebrow at that. “You’re not as impervious as you pretend to be, brother. I saw your face and heard your fear. You care for her.”
“I could say the same about you.”
“I do not.”
I mutely raised a brow, matching his expression. “Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”
“Fuck you, Malice.”
“I think you mean fuck her . And if you’re lucky, Sin will have already gotten the job done while we were down here arguing. Nice work, by the way.”
Confusion swept across his features.
“You punching him and then sending the two of them off together so she could care for his wound. Brilliant.”
A scowl marred his brow before he wiped his expression clean. “Yeah. Whatever. Clean up this mess, will you?” He gestured with his head toward the ash on the floor. “Since it is your fault and all.”
He left me there, staring at the pile of demon remains, but I didn’t mind. I had far more to think about than how to breed Merri. We’d never be successful if the Knights were able to get to us. Granted, they hadn’t realized who they were up against, which worked out in our favor since I knew we were all still weakened by Helene’s ritual. Thankfully they’d all been decimated this time, but what would happen when more followed in their wake? Surely her location was now known. Wasn’t it? I needed to overhaul the security measures in this place, perhaps find a coven willing to work with us on setting more powerful and demon-proof wards. Before all that, I’d build Merri a server even I couldn’t hack into. It would at least buy us time if not hide her entirely.
We still had one ace up our sleeve. No one else knew Merri had the power of the four horsemen behind her.
Yet.