Chapter 29
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
MALICE
G rim was right. His penthouse was engulfed in flames, the ash raining down on us from where our cabbie had dropped us off across the street. Flashing blue lights reflected off the nearby buildings and the firefighters standing nearby were debating the best way to douse the fire safely. Grimsby was speaking with the police while the rest of us waited off to the side and tried to figure out what our play was.
“Did you hear that?” Sin asked, blatantly eavesdropping on Grim’s conversation. “They’re saying it was a gas leak.”
“That’s no fucking gas leak,” Chaos muttered.
“His poor plants.” Merri’s words were so soft I was sure they weren’t meant for our ears, so I didn’t say anything.
“Plants?” Sin asked, taken aback. “What about all our stuff? I had so many vintage records stored there. Oh man, and my guitar! I’ll never be able to get another one like that.”
“You can buy a guitar at any pawn shop,” I deadpanned.
“Not one played by Hendrix. Not unless Daddy Death over there can raise him from the ground.”
“So check out some auctions. There are lots of other dead musicians with memorabilia you can hunt down. It’s not like you can’t afford it.”
“The world is ending, Malice. You think I have time to go to a fucking auction?”
I shrugged. “What else are you going to do? Your sole purpose was to end the world, and that was already taken care of, so the way I see it, you have nothing but time on your hands.”
“That is not my sole purpose, and you know it.”
“Don’t see you doing anything about your other purpose, so it might as well be.”
Grim’s form cast an ominous shadow as he strode back to us, his expression well... grim as he shook his head. “It’s a total loss. We’re not getting back in there. They say it’s a gas leak, but?—”
“Envy.”
“Pardon?” Grim asked.
“It was demons. Specifically, envy demons. I can sense them.”
“More Knights?” Chaos asked, hand brushing over his stubbled jawline.
“Has to be.”
“So the earthquake . . .” Sin trailed off.
“Another Prince was released. The timing is too perfect for this not to be connected,” I confirmed.
“Why do they keep going after you guys?” Merri asked, her blue eyes bright and so fucking naive.
“They’re not after us, Red. That pride bitch wasn’t trying to steal you from us just to make us angry. They want you.”
All the color drained from her face. “They... they’re the ones trying to get back at Lilith for interfering with the”—she glanced around at all the bystanders and dropped her voice—“you know what?”
Fuck. I wasn’t sure of the right way to proceed with this conversation. Letting her assume this was about Lilith was misleading, but at the same time, as long as she knew she was the target, where was the harm? If she knew the full truth, that Lucifer needed to use her as his vessel—as his breeder—to birth the antichrist and bring about the complete destruction of the mortal realm as she knew it, I had no doubt it would traumatize her. How could it not?
Before I could offer an answer, Grim beat me to it.
“We need to get out of the open. Come with me.”
He didn’t even wait for us to respond. Grim made a beeline for the entrance to the underground garage, and we followed like fucking lemmings. But the sight of all those cars had me concocting a plan for all of us to escape so we could reconvene somewhere no one would find us. At the very least, it should buy us some time against future attacks.
Grim walked to a biometric scanner on the wall and pressed his thumb to the screen. A hidden panel opened with a soft whir, revealing rows of car keys. He grumbled something under his breath before selecting a key fob and pointing it at a shiny black Range Rover.
“Are you secretly a superhero or something?”
Grimsby stared at her until she squirmed.
“Right. Horseman. So, supervillain, then.”
He grunted before walking to the SUV. “Get in. All of you.”
“Where are we going?” Sin asked, opening the back door and gesturing for Merri to crawl into the far back before him.
“I have no fucking clue, but we need to get away from here.”
“I have a place we can go,” I offered. “It’s a safe house of sorts. Not too far, but not close enough for them to track us down.”
Grim tossed me the keys. “Let’s go.”
I caught them one-handed, already moving toward the driver’s side. I winced, thinking about what might await us. Hopefully Christian had been earning his wages. If not, there’d be hell to pay.
Unless he’d died or something.
Hmm.
As far as I knew, the monthly wire transfers were still going through as scheduled. So he was probably alive.
Probably.
Guess we were about to find out.
“Are we there yet?” Sin whined.
Chaos reached back and smacked him. “So help me if you ask that one more fucking time.”
Sin pouted and rubbed the side of his head, careful not to move too much and jostle the sleeping succubus curled up against him. “But he said it wasn’t far. We’ve been driving for eight fucking hours. Eight hours is far. The last time I traveled in a moving vehicle for this long, it was a tour bus. With a whole ass bedroom. Not squeezed in the back of this clown car like a fucking sardine.”
“From my vantage point, you look more comfortable than the rest of us,” Chaos snarled, looking over his shoulder at the man in question.
Was that jealousy in his voice?
“We’re almost there,” I said, clocking the sign I’d been looking for and turning onto the road that would eventually take us to the gate.
I loved it here and hadn’t been back in far too long. Isolated, remote, on a small island in France, this home offered every comfort I needed with none of the annoying people I was forced to encounter in a city. As we drove down the road covered by a canopy of trees that would be strikingly beautiful in the summer and fall, I wondered if Merri would be as pleased with what I had to offer as she was with Grim’s penthouse. She may have pretended to be unaffected, but she took advantage of every amenity there.
“Wake up, kitten. Mal says we’re almost there,” Sin murmured.
My gaze flicked to the rearview mirror, and I watched her as she stirred. As we breached the canopy cover, I smiled to myself when the chateau came into view and my hellcat gasped.
“Where are we?” she breathed.
“Don’t get too excited. He’s probably taking us to the groundskeeper’s shack,” Chaos said.
“I can’t believe you still have this place.” Grim turned his silver eyes on me, a curious expression on his face.
He was the only one of my brothers who’d ever spent time here, and that had been centuries ago.
“Call me sentimental.”
“Did you win this place in a bet or something?” Sin asked, craning his neck around to take in more of the sprawling estate.
“Or something,” I muttered, recalling the day I’d first set foot on the property and decided I had to own it. After suffering from a short but deadly battle with an unexpected illness, the original owner had transferred the title over to me.
I pulled to a stop in front of the main entrance and just sat for a moment, taking it all in.
“You said a safe house.” Merri’s tone was almost accusatory.
“Yes.”
“This is a castle.”
“It’s a chateau.”
“Which means castle.”
I fought a grin. “Technically it means ‘large French country house or castle’.”
She rolled her eyes.
The others were already attempting to climb out, but my attention was pulled to the man coming around the side of the house. Ah, so he wasn’t dead then. Splendid.
“Who the fuck is that?” Chaos growled, his whole body stiffening next to the car.
“It’s Christian. The groundskeeper. He’s one of mine, don’t worry.”
“A groundskeeper? This is totally not a safe house,” Merri grumbled, climbing out after Sin.
“Monsieur Laurent?” Christian questioned as he approached, speaking to me in French. “I recognize you from your picture.”
“Call me Mal. You look just like your grandfather,” I replied in perfect French.
“Did you know him? How is that possible? You can’t be much older than me.”
Fuck. I’d forgotten myself for a moment. “There’s a photo of him in one of my other familial estates.”
“Ah, very good. Shall I show you inside?”
I nodded and gestured for him to lead the way.
Merri rushed over to me, her voice low. “You speak French?”
“Clearly,” I answered, lips twitching with amusement. Dropping my voice and switching back to French, I asked, “Does that turn you on, hellcat?”
When Merri’s only response was a blush, I chuckled. I’d take that as a yes.
“So that’s a yes to the French, then,” Merri whispered.
“We all speak it,” Grim added.
“Not me. I only speak French kissing,” Sin said with a wink.
Chaos shoved him. “Jesus. It’s a wonder you ever get laid. Seriously. Your game is so fucking weak.”
“As far as I can tell, neither one of us has gotten laid in a long fucking time. Your game is as weak as mine.”
Chaos’s gaze lingered on Merri. “Don’t be so sure about that.”
Christian pushed open the heavy arched door, and we followed him inside the chateau. “My apologies for not having everything ready for you, Monsieur. I was not aware you were coming or that you would be bringing guests. I will have supplies for you within a few hours. How long will you be staying?”
“It’s not a problem. We will be staying indefinitely. Our lodgings were destroyed in the earthquake.”
Christian nodded. “I understand. We were lucky here. The improvements your father insisted upon were fortuitous indeed. They kept the structure of the chateau strong and aside from a few broken windows and an unfortunately unlucky chandelier, the estate escaped unscathed.”
“My father was a very wise man indeed.”
Christian gestured to the left. “The main salon is aired and cleaned per your usual requirements. There are also a few snacks and some wine in the kitchen. The rooms will need to be prepared, but I will do that now so that you may clean up and rest. Is there anything specific you’d like for dinner?”
I looked to Merri and then realized she was following none of this. Switching back to English, I repeated the question for her.
“Oh, um, anything will be fine. I’m not picky.”
Christian’s eyes widened as it dawned on him that Merri didn’t speak a lick of French. “My apologies, mademoiselle. I will speak only English from now on.” He stepped forward and took her hand, dropping his head as he placed a kiss on her knuckles.
I thought Chaos was going to rip his head from his shoulders for touching her.
But it was Grim who growled, “That’s enough.”
“You have a most beautiful daughter, sir,” Christian said to Grim, a dazed expression on his face.
“Tone it down, kitten. You’re gonna get the guy killed.” Sin’s voice was full of humor as he pulled her away from the unfortunately smitten groundskeeper.
Merri blushed. “Sorry. I blame the French.”
“So do everyone else,” I muttered.
“Is this beautiful creature spoken for by any of you?” Christian asked, taking a step toward her, fully enraptured by Merri.
Even as I hated the attention he was giving her, I couldn’t blame him. The succubus was captivating. It was her literal nature. Still, best I remove temptation before one of my brothers decided my groundskeeper had outlived his usefulness.
“Yes,” snarled Grim, clearly put out at being referred to as Merri’s father.
Christian’s face paled as he finally realized his faux pas. “Erm...”
Grim began slowly removing his leather gloves as he took a step toward Christian. Well, fuck. This just went from bad to worse.
“How about we all take a walk and stretch our legs while Christian gets those rooms ready,” I suggested, taking Merri by the elbow and hauling her back toward the door. “Come on, Grimsby, I think you’ll really love what I’ve done with the gardens.”
With a final scowl in Christian’s direction, Grim trailed after us, and we all left my groundskeeper blissfully unaware of his painfully close brush with Death.