Page 113 of Changeling
Relief washed through Nathan; he could see the bathroom light on from underneath the door, assuming Malak wasn’t lying. “Right. Haven’t touched him. Wish you could say the sameabout me.” His thigh and hip, and a couple areas too close to home, still burned a little hotter than the rest of him. “What do you want, other than to make my life a living Hell before you whisk me away?”
Malak merely smiled wider, looking so damn comfortable with his legs stretched out and his back leaning against the headboard. “Honestly, Nathan, we know each otherpersonallynow, I have no more need for subterfuge or…dreams. It’s nice to be able to check up on my investments from time to time. I have such high hopes for you. And so far you’re…right on schedule.”
To Nathan’s relief, Malak swung his legs over the side of the mattress and got up. He dusted off his lapels, as if theyweren’tpristine, and straightened his tie. Nathan had at least managed to better situate himself on the bed, the sheets pulled in tight around him to cover as much of him as possible.
Just then Sasha came back out of the bathroom, rubbing his eyes and looking as though he hadn’t slept at all. He glanced up at Nathan and smiled weakly, not seeming to notice Malak beside the bed. “Oh,” the incubus said, “you’re up. Sorry if I woke you. My head is splitting open, I swear to god. This must be what a hangover feels like. That energy high is not so nice on the other end.” His smile was fatigued but genuine. He was too close to the bed to not be able to see Malak standing there.
Nathan just gaped as Malak moved past Sasha, allowing the incubus to take his place beside the bed with a telling grin. Nathan knew he wasn’t crazy or imagining anything; Malak was there. Nathan couldfeelhim.
“Nathan?” Sasha questioned since Nathan hadn’t responded and wasn’t really looking at him.
“He thinks you belong to him, you know?” Malak said, sounding amused as he looked Sasha up and down from only a dangerous foot away. “Keep in mind, Nathan, that you belong tomefirst. And I don’t like to share.” He walked purposely closer to Sasha—intent, threatening.
“No!” Nathan cried, halfway across the bed in a panic before Malak stopped right behind Sasha’s back. He wasn’t as tall as the incubus, being only slightly taller than Nathan in his male form, so he had to peer around Sasha’s shoulders to meet Nathan’s gaze.
By now Sasha was understandably worried. He remained standing beside the bed—naked, Nathan realized, and he hated that because Malak didn’t deserve to see the redhead bare.
“Nathan, what’s wrong?” Sasha asked, not realizing that Nathan was lookingbehindhim.
“Imagine the things I could do to him, Nathan,” Malak grinned over the top of Sasha’s shoulder, raising his hands and ghosting them over Sasha’s bare skin just a hair’s breadth from touching him. “Right now…I could do anything and he couldn’t stop me. Neither could you. Imagine it.Really, go ahead. In fact, allow me. It’ll help put things in perspective for you.”
Horror assaulted Nathan’s eyes like a flash bomb. He couldn’t feel his own body as the images took him but he knew he had to be trembling, and the mark over his heart burned. The visions he saw, it was awful. It was just…carnage.
The incubus, once so beautiful and glorious, was completely shredded. There was blood everywhere. His wings had been torn from his body like a butterfly’s. His eyes stared, dull and open, justopen,looking at nothing because there was nothing for them to see anymore.
Nathan knew it wasn’t real but the images were persistent and so vivid. He tried to cover his eyes but when he brought his hands up, he saw that they were filthy with blood and gore, with remnants of Sasha.
He had done it. It was his fault. He knew it would be his fault.
“Stop it…” Nathan shook his head, trying to close his eyes, and maybe they already were but he could stillsee it. “Stop it.Stop it. Stop it, stop it,stop it!”
“Nathan!”
Strong hands gripped Nathan’s shoulders hard and shook him, breaking him from that awful sight, from the horrific illusion that had appeared so real he could still smell the tang of blood in the air.
But now there was just skin, Sasha’s pale chest, whole, not bleeding or broken, pulling Nathan against him to try and calm him amidst this unexplainable fit. Nathan was shaking, but Sasha was on the bed now. It was easy to bury his face in that chest, smooth and perfect with a scar that no longer bled.
“Nathan, it’s okay,” Sasha said. “It’s okay. Oh god, it’sokay, please stop shaking. You’re just having a bad dream.”
A dream. Nathan wished that was all, and in a way itwasjust a bad dream, only the dream was real. It always had been.
“I don’t wish to hurt him, Nathan,” came Malak’s voice, though Nathan refused to look. “I find the incubus quite…pleasing, in fact. So for both our sakes, don’t make me do that again. You’remineuntil the mark is removed. Remember that.”
Looking up from where he had dug his face into Sasha’s chest, Nathan sunk into an actual embrace so he could glare over the incubus’ shoulder at the sidhe beside the bed. He didn’t want to worry Sasha any further or he might have said something nasty. He said everything he needed with that glare, staring unflinching into red on black with the most potent hatred.
Malak smiled. “That’s why it’s you, Nathan. In all my time here and through the Veil no one has ever looked me in the eyes like that without fear. You’ll do me proud.” And then it was like smoke fading from a blown out candle, rippling Malak’s image and fading him away into nothing.
A sob nearly broke out of Nathan’s throat but he wouldn’t let it. He couldn’t even begin to understand what Malak really wanted, but he knew that the path he was on was for that damn sidhe’s sake and it wasn’t fair. Jim and Sasha were on that same path with him and he didn’t know if it was them saving him or him condemning them. Forever.
Sasha was still holding him so tight, still whispering and speaking like he was terrified Nathan was somehow lost. He felt an added weight on his shoulder now that Malak was gone and knew it was Walter, comforting where he could without intervening. But Nathan didn’t have time to be lost.
“It’s okay,” Nathan managed, parroting what Sasha kept chanting to him. He clung to Sasha tighter. “It’s okay, just…a bad dream.”
“Was it…Malak?”
Nathan squeezed Sasha once more and then pulled back. He didn’t see Walter, but he felt the hand tighten briefly on his shoulder before pulling away. Nathan was half on his knees and so was Sasha, in a tangled mess of covers on the bed.
“Doesn’t matter. He’s gone now. Just popped in to feed me a little crazy on this fine winter morning.” The smirk Nathan threw at Sasha was feeble, he knew that. “You okay?”
