Page 56 of Chaos
“You mean Merri,” Malice corrected.
If he was annoyed by the interruption, he didn’t show it. Grim simply kept talking. “This is the first time one was released and hasn’t had a lead on where to find her, or by proxy, us.”
“He’s trying to smoke us out,” I murmured.
“I think he could be. Which means we can’t take the bait. This might be the safest Merri has been since she’s come under our protection.”
“And if we’re wrong?” Malice asked.
“Yeah, what if Hades really needs us?” Sin added.
I sighed. “Hades is a god. He doesn’t need us. He will figure it out, or he’ll find us.”
“Chaos is right. We can’t risk Merri.” Grim settled himself in a chair, the antique wood creaking in warning as though protesting the use.
“Okay, so we ignore it,” Malice summarized.
One by one, the rest of us nodded.
“Speaking of Merri,” Grim asked, “how are the training sessions going?”
“She’s getting better but still has a long way to go,” I admitted. “She’ll never be able to beat a Knight on her own.”
“She doesn’t need to beat one. Just survive long enough that one of us can get to her.”
“She’s getting there. We have something scheduled this afternoon. I have a couple of things planned that I think will help.”
“Great. What about you?” Grim asked, turning to Malice.
“Well, she was able to push me out in half the time today. But not before I got fairly deep into her mind. Merri is strong, but...”
“But what?” Grim’s brow lifted in question.
“But she hasn’t been feeding like she should. She’s not able to reach her full potential because she’s refusing to feed deeply.”
Sin cocked his head. “She’s seemed fine the last few days. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.”
“Not today. After she used so much energy to block me, she was winded and tired. She’s doing a camming session right now to help her perk up.”
Sin frowned. “She insisted on camming instead of feeding from me yesterday too.”
“Did something happen?” Grim asked, looking around, accusation heavy in his voice.
“Don’t look at me,” I said, hands up in a placating gesture.
“Beats the hell out of me,” Sin said.
Malice met Grim’s gaze head-on, shrugging. “No clue. She definitely seems skittish, though.”
Grim was quiet, long fingers stroking his chin as he stared hard off in the distance. “We might have to force the issue. We can’t have her collapsing on us again. If Merri won’t take care of herself, we’ll do it for her.”
“Sooo, you want us to just burst in and jerk off for her? Like a dick flash mob?”
Everyone glared at Sin.
“What? It sounded like that’s what you were suggesting.”
“We need to convince her to take from us. And someone needs to get to the bottom of why she’s pulled away.”
