Chapter 10
Chapter
Ten
MAL
Mal trailed behind the nuns as inconspicuously as someone like him could until they congregated around something Mal couldn’t see.
“It’s disgusting what children get up to these days,” one of the nuns said loudly, nose up in the air like she smelled something disgusting.
“Honestly, I can’t tell if it’s a boy or a girl underneath all that hair,” another one said.
The whole group of nuns was giving off major shitbag vibes, but Mal could tell the two who’d just spoken were the assholes in charge of their gaggle.
His intuition had paid off. Church folk weren’t all bad, but in Mal’s experience, they had a high ratio of bullies in their numbers.
Bullies tasted delicious.
They had so much more fear in them than everyone else, which was probably why they were so awful. Living in a permanent state of fear would make anyone go insane.
It made them tasty, too.
Mal got a glimpse of their target, and it turned out to be a brown-haired teenager huddled near an outlet with an assortment of battered, second-hand devices spread out before them.
The teen was hunched over and staring down through long, messy bangs at their phone, trying to ignore the shitbag humans harassing them.
“One must wonder if this one even has parents. I think only the castaways of society can fall to this state.” Shitty nun number one sniffed haughtily and poked a bag next to the teen disdainfully with her toe. “It even carries its possessions around in a ratty bag like a hobo.”
The teen scowled but refused to engage. Mal rolled his eyes. If it were him, he’d be having nun brisket by now. Kids today had all the fight beaten out of them.
Pity. Once the kid grew up, they wouldn’t be worth eating. You couldn’t feed off the fears of someone who didn’t give a fuck about anything anymore.
“Where are your parents, child?” Nun number one asked nastily. When the teen didn’t respond, she reached out and plucked the headphones off the kid’s head and hissed, “I said, where are your parents, you filthy little thing? Or did you just sneak in here to get warm?”
“It’s probably homeless, Clara,” the second nun said. “We should probably bring it back with us.”
The teen had ignored the harassment well up until that point, but those words had them scrambling up in alarm. “I’m not homeless! I’ll… I’ll go. Just don’t call anyone.”
The teen tried to leave, but the nun gaggle closed in, keeping them from escaping.
Clara the Shitty Nun had a saccharine sweet smile as she said, “Oh no, dear. It wouldn’t be godly to leave you like this. Don’t worry. We’ll take care of you.”
Mal snorted. The kid would likely be safer with Mal, and he ate people for a living. Maybe he should start adding acts godly to his resume. It could get him even more food if he was lucky.
The kid struggled to gather their devices and stuff them into the tattered gym bag Clara the Shitty Nun had poked, but a shiny black shoe stepped on their hand. “You won’t be needing any of these. They aren’t allowed in our church.”
“Then it’s a good thing I’m not going to your church,” the kid said through gritted teeth.
“Don’t touch it, Clara. It needs a bath first,” a random nun said with a simpering tone as she held out a handkerchief. “Let me get that clean for you.”
Suck-ups. There were always suck-ups in every organization. Barf.
The kid was beginning to churn out fear at an impressive rate. Apparently, teens could still feel emotions. Good for them. Too bad it was the wrong kind of fear. The kid’s mind and heart had a soft, flowery flavor to their fear, and Mal couldn’t digest it. It was like sucking on a dryer sheet.
Just… No, thank you.
What did Clayton’s fear taste like? Mal had yet to sample it. Which was odd considering how they’d met. Clayton hadn’t been afraid for a single second of their encounter.
Wild.
Mal’s stomach growled, and he remembered that he hadn’t followed the nuns to sight-see. He’d come to chow down. He’d been hoping to grab a quick snack and leave without anyone the wiser, but these nuns were going to be a fucking meal and a half. He’d struck pay dirt.
“Let’s call security and have them find out where this child belongs. We can watch over it until they decide what to do with it,” Clara announced.
The teen’s fear spiked, and Mal’s nose wrinkled as his entire being was flooded with the flavor of a fresh spring day.
Blech.
Time to get to work.
There were very few people in this part of the airport, and Mal could sense that none of them were magic, so he was free to do his thing.
“You’re all incredibly ugly. Were you aware?” Mal drawled.
“Excuse me?” Clara put a hand to her chest in indignation.
“You are absolutely not excused. You’re about to put me off my lunch. Hey kid, do you have a spare bag I can stick over her head so I don’t have to look at her while I eat?”
The teen gave a startled laugh. “Sorry. I only have the one.” They nudged their gym bag awkwardly. Mal gave it a pointed look and jerked his chin in the universal sign for scram.
The kid didn’t scram.
Sigh.
“You’re just as bad as this one with all that hair. Where are your parents?” Clara’s words were still nasty, but the second she laid eyes on Mal properly, there was a spark of fear he could feel blooming in her chest.
Mal didn’t look any particular age as far as he knew. He just was. So it was up to the viewer to decide what to make of him, if they were willing to look. Apparently, to Clara, he looked like an unruly child.
“I don’t have parents,” Mal said casually. He never had, never would.
“So the two of you are together then? Good. That’ll make this easier. Go get security, Beth,” Clara ordered the nun who had offered to clean her shoe.
Beth scurried off, but Mal couldn’t have that, so he stopped her. Considering his low reserves, he shouldn’t have used magic to do it, but he was about to get a huge payout, so it didn’t matter.
Beth slammed into an invisible wall, and her fear spiked deliciously.
Mal breathed it in, and his mind went hazy from pleasure for a moment.
It was enough magic for him to do something fun.
The kid deserved to see something fun after what they’d just dealt with, and Mal deserved it because he was Mal, and he deserved all the fun things.
He made a gathering motion with one hand and pulled. All the nuns lifted off their feet and turned to face him.
Mal gave them the toothiest smile he had. He was proud of that smile. It had made many a grown man wet himself throughout the decades. The teen didn’t wet themself, but the nuns? Yeah, at least one of the ladies soiled herself, and Mal hadn’t even gotten started.
He pointed at the teen and said, “You should be running now.”
Then he forgot about them entirely and faced the gaggle held frozen before him, whispering, “Dread.” It came out as a little sigh that drifted through the women. As it touched each one, they shivered violently but couldn’t move because they were held fast by Mal’s compulsion.
Mal didn’t have to be so theatrical. He could just give them all a little spook, have a quick snack, and be on his way, but something about that didn’t work for him. He wanted more than to startle them. He wanted to taste their pure, unfiltered terror.
He walked up to Clara and whispered, “Show me.” The woman's eyes filled with a cloudy haze, and Mal gave a small chuckle. “Fire, hmm?” Mal hadn’t gotten to play with fire magic in quite some time.
It worked better when playing with his own kind, but if his target was deeply afraid of something, Mal could bring it to life for a short period of time.
If it were a nightmare or a demon, Mal could play with their fear and turn it into reality for an extended period of time.
But they were all generally afraid of him the most, so that rarely gave Mal something new to play with.
Fire was fun. No need for creativity. Just chaos and screaming.
“Thank you, Clara. I’m going to enjoy this. I don’t think you will, though.” Mal flicked his hands, and they burst into flames. Clara and the other nuns squealed in terror, and Mal shivered in ecstasy as their fear rushed into him.
He moved a hand down Clara’s arm, just shy of touching the fabric of her sleeve, making it smoulder.
“Oh… and in case you were wondering… This is personal, and I do hope you hold it against me. If you survive, that is.” The fear essence flooding into him was so heady that it made his voice sound sensual.
Too much energy too quickly had to go somewhere. For Mal, it was usually his dick. Raw essence was a massive aphrodisiac for him, but he didn’t want to fuck a bunch of nuns or a random teen. So instead, he set fire to the airport.
Fire magic was so much fun.