Chapter 23
Chapter
Twenty-Three
MALICE
T hat sneaky little succubus had been in my room. I could smell it.
When I’d woken and she was gone, I thanked my lucky stars I didn’t have to face up to what we’d done. I hadn’t been so bloody vulnerable with anyone in centuries. I didn’t like how raw I still felt about the whole thing. Or that part of me craved another round or ten.
This was why I hadn’t wanted to get involved in the first place.
The rest of them didn’t understand what it meant to have a woman crush you with her lies. To find out you had everything you wanted within your reach but were never given the chance to take it. Merri and her fucking womb were echoes of what Odette had used me for. Except this time I wouldn’t be an unwitting sperm donor.
For just a moment, I’d thought maybe Merri was different. When she touched me so sweetly and refused to feed without my consent. But the first opportunity she’d had, the woman snuck into my room and rifled through my belongings.
She’d tried to disguise her pillaging, but I’d immediately spotted every item that was out of place. The slight dent in the pillow, the crease on the bedspread, the Post-its in a different position in the drawer. It was as obvious to me as if she’d spray-painted her name on the wall.
So what had all of that in her room been? A distraction? Her chance to get me out of the way?
Deep down, I knew it hadn’t. There was no faking how ill she’d been, but knowing that did nothing to abate years' worth of anxious, intrusive thoughts.
I was only important to her when I was useful.
Anyone would have suited her needs.
She was going to use my vulnerabilities against me.
“Fucking hell.”
Yanking open the drawer where I’d kept her cell phone, I stared at the cold, hard evidence right in front of me. All she’d wanted was her phone. Knocking me out with her feeding was a surefire way to keep me from stopping her.
Serves me right.
Feeling like a complete and utter knobhead, I spun out of the room and beelined for the bar cart in the main lounge. The only thing that would comfort me now was oblivion.
Not even turning on the lights, I made for the crystal decanter of Brimstone whiskey, pulling the stopper out and pouring myself a double—no, make that a triple.
“Good thing I went back and replenished our supply.” Grim’s deep voice startled me badly enough that I flinched, and some of the mind-numbing alcohol sloshed over the side of my glass.
“Motherfucker,” I barked. “What the hell are you doing sitting in the shadows like that?”
“From the looks of it, the same as you,” he said, holding up his own highball glass. “Cheers.”
“Doubtful. You weren’t the one who had to sacrifice your scruples tonight.”
Not that it had taken much to convince me in the end. But who the hell wanted to be logical or fair when they were dead set on nursing a grudge?
“Oh yes, because it was such a hardship jerking yourself off all over her. Fucking child,” he grumbled.
“She sucked my soul out of my body through my dick, if you must know.”
“Did she?”
I flopped into the chair opposite him and took a pull of the whiskey, relishing the way it burned. “Well, no. Not literally. But she might as well have. I see why Lilith kept her under lock and key. Merri is...”
Incandescent.
Captivating.
Mesmerizing.
Addictive.
“Potent,” I finally said aloud.
“I’m sure that’s why he wants her.”
“She’s the vessel. Pretty sure he’d want her if she had one tooth and was balding.”
“Lucky for you, she’s not.”
I snorted, lifting my glass to my lips once more. “Lucky for us all.”
“Mmm,” Grim hummed, but I couldn’t tell if it was in agreement.
Heavy footsteps in the hallway betrayed Chaos’s presence before the rumble of him talking to himself reached my ears.
“Should’ve known better than to get a succubus under me. Of course she’d play a dirty fucking trick like that.”
Grim opened his mouth to say something, but I held up a finger. I wanted to hear this.
“She used my own attraction to her against me. Tried to get me by the balls.”
“Welcome to the club,” I muttered, unable to stop the words from leaving my lips.
Grim raised a brow at me, his lips twitching with suppressed laughter.
The lights snapped on, leaving Grim and me to blink owlishly at the sudden shift.
“What the fuck is this? Book club for assholes?”
Grim looked around. “I see no books. Just alcohol and commiseration.”
Chaos’s brow raised at that. “Clearly you’ve never been to a book club.” He stalked toward the cart and filled his own glass. “What are you commiserating about?”
“Do you really need to ask?” I countered.
“Don’t see why you should be complaining,” Chaos mumbled.
Oh, for fuck’s sake. “You weren’t here. Remember your little vanishing act so you could release your power? I would’ve gladly let you take this one for the team. Instead, I had to... let her in.” I whispered the last part.
“Let her in? Like... your butt?” Sin’s voice carried down the hall, stronger than it had been over the last few days.
I scoffed. “No. Not—What is wrong with you, Sinclair?”
He strode in, went straight for the decanter, and got himself a drink.
“We’re going to need more whiskey,” Grim said to himself.
“She’s ruining everything,” Sin answered.
The three of us exchanged looks before I sighed. “Fine, I’ll ask. How is she ruining everything when you clearly just had a successful evening?”
He’d looked little better than a pile of three-day-old manure when he’d left this evening. Now he was the picture of health, all smoldering rockstar once more. Even with the chip on his shoulder.
“Because I couldn’t enjoy it,” he spluttered, his face twisted in confusion. “Like... at all. I think I’m obsessed with her. How did that happen? I don’t get obsessed. They do.”
“Trust me, you don’t want her coming after you,” Chaos said bitterly.
Sin’s eyes narrowed, and he finally seemed to realize that the rest of us mirrored his mood. “What the fuck did I miss?”
“Hurricane Merri,” I replied.
“You guys played with her without me?” The sulk in Sin’s voice was damn near petulant. “That’s not fair.”
“She played with us. Well, from the sound of it, at least two of us.” My traitor of a dick twitched at the memory of her whimpering my name as she writhed on her bed.
“Mal fed her while we were out.”
Sin’s gaze snapped to Chaos, absolute shock written all over his features. Then he turned on me.
“What happened to ‘I’m never procreating again’?”
“You weren’t here. Either of you,” Grim said, surprising me by coming to my defense. “It was either Malice assist her or let her lapse into a coma.”
“It was that bad?” Sin asked.
I nodded, remembering how poorly she’d been.
Grim shifted in his seat before clearing his throat. “She was starved. It’s my fault. I took away her only source of sustenance.”
“For good fucking reason.”
Grim sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Yes, but if this is the alternative, then we’re going to have to figure out something else. We can hardly let her waste away before we accomplish our goal.”
“I love that he says ‘we’ when he has no intention of participating,” Sin said.
I rolled my eyes, ignoring him as usual. “I’m already working on a better firewall.” It was far more complicated than that, but these three barely knew how to use their cell phones. It wasn’t worth the breath to try and explain the nuanced details of my genius to them.
“And what if she needs to feed again before you have that up and running?” Chaos asked.
“She shouldn’t. Most succubi and incubi only need to feed every week or so.” Sin’s brows were uncharacteristically furrowed.
“She’s not most succubi.” I said what he hadn’t.
“So we don’t know how often she’ll need to feed?” Grim asked. “You’re saying she could need to take from one of us tomorrow? Or twice a day.”
“That won’t work. She drained me until I couldn’t help but pass out.”
Sin’s frown deepened. “That’s unusual. It must have been because she was so depleted.”
“Or because he was,” Chaos pointed out.
The four of us wore matching scowls at the reminder of Hel’s trickery. When we got our hands on her, she was going to have one seriously bad day.
“Maybe a bit of both,” I mused.
Sin nodded, though he still looked troubled.
“Where is she now?” Grim asked, his voice holding more than a hint of concern.
“Safely tucked away in her room. I took her to the gym for some self-defense training. Speaking of.” His gaze shot to mine. “I thought you could help her learn how to shield her mind against thralls and compulsion. If we learned anything from the break-in, it's that she’s severely lacking in those kinds of defenses.”
Alarm shot through me at what he was implying. If I worked with her and taught her how to protect her psyche against these kinds of attacks, it would mean she and I would spend far too much time with our walls down. I’d have to see into her soul just as she’d see into mine.
But I was also the only one capable of teaching her. Shielding of that kind was sort of like building up an immunity, which, as an expert on spreading infection, was sort of my wheelhouse.
“Fine,” I gritted out, already dreading it.
“Good. Malice will repair the firewall so Merri can get online and feed as well as teach her to protect her mind. Chaos will train her to defend herself physically.”
Sin raised his glass. “I’ll work on knocking her up. Grim will keep us lubricated with whiskey.”
Grim rolled his eyes. “I will continue to keep my distance so I don’t kill her.”
“Annnd break,” Sin said like we were a sports team about to return to the playing field.
“Why do we tolerate him?” I asked.
“Because we have to.” Chaos sighed.
“Because you love me,” Sin countered.
“He’s not invited to the next book club,” I said.
“Definitely not,” Grim agreed.
“Book club?” Sin asked, confused.
The rest of us laughed, purposely keeping him out of the loop.
“You think this will become a regular thing, then?” Chaos asked.
“With Merri around? It’s practically assured.”
“To book club then?” Chaos said, holding up his glass.
“To book club,” Grim and I said in unison.
Sin looked between the three of us, his frustration at being left out mounting. “What fucking book club?”