Page 15 of Chaos
Mal narrowed his eyes as he crossed his arms. “And?”
“Why should I bother to listen when you’re constantly going on about the same bloody thing? I’ll pay attention when you actually have something of consequence to say.”
Chaos poured himself a fresh drink and knocked back the entirety in one long swallow. “She’s a menace. A very pretty menace.”
“Relying on camming isn’t going to serve her well enough. We’ve seen evidence of that twice now.” Malice flopped down in the leather club chair across from me. “But us working as a team seemed to suffice.”
I sighed and dragged my fingers through my thick hair. “You seem to have forgotten one very important detail of why we were charged to keep her with us, Mal.”
His unnerving purple irises locked on me. “I haven’t forgotten. Neither has Sin, if the sounds from upstairs were any indication.”
“Do you really think they were going at it again?” I asked, shocked at the suggestion. Merri had been devastated. How did one go from that to a romp in the sheets?
Chaos shrugged. “Don’t underestimate the power of a beautiful woman.”
“Beautiful succubus, you mean.”
Chaos’s sharp glare said he didn’t like me reducing her to her species. I held his glare without issue. The distinction had to be made. Not only were the four of us not immune to her power, twice over, one of us had been rendered unconscious because of them. We could not afford to forget what she was.
Eventually Chaos sighed and scrubbed a hand down his face. “A woefully unprepared one. Malice, have you made any headway on those shielding sessions?”
Malice gave him an incredulous once-over. “And when exactly was I supposed to have done that? While we were fleeing London? While getting the château ready for five unexpected occupants with a need for internet access and security? During the orgy?”
Chaos held up a hand. “Okay, okay. I get it. We’ve been busy. But I do think we need to make her lessons a priority. I’ll handle the hand-to-hand. You deal with the mental stuff.”
“I don’t care when you do it, but she needs sessions with each of you every single day until we are confident she can control and defend herself.”
Merri was a liability in so many ways, chief among them how open she was to outside influence. That pride demon should have never been able to draw her away so easily. But a powerhouse like Merri with no protective skills was a prime target. She had been a sitting duck. The woman was basically a bowl of candy left unattended on Halloween.
Chaos nodded his agreement. After a beat, Malice huffed out a breath and did the same.
Under any other circumstance, he would absolutely refuse to assist, but we didn’t really have a choice here. If we wanted to keep Merri out of Lucifer’s clutches, she needed every advantage she could get.
“Fine,” he sighed, reminding me of a put-out babysitter.
“You guys, you promised you wouldn’t have book club without me again.” Sin stood in the doorway, hair wet from the shower, shirt in one hand, jeans not even buttoned.
“Welcome back,” Malice said, sounding not at all welcoming.
“Don’t hate me ’cause you ain’t me,” Sin said smugly, tossing his shirt at Malice’s face.
He had no idea how true that statement was at the moment.
“What happened to you?” I asked.
He gave an obnoxious wink as he sank back into the authentic rococo settee, his arms slung across the back. “If you have to ask, you’re not old enough to know.”
Chaos lost his temper first. “We don’t care that you fucked her, asshat. Why did she knock you out cold?”
“She didn’t. I just... overloaded on power. Had to sleep it off. Like after a Thanksgiving dinner.”
“So you were in a sex coma?” Malice asked.
“Exactly. Best meal of my life.”
“Is that what happened to Malice?” I asked.
Sin shook his head. “Nope.” He made a point to pop theP. “Mal Pal wasn’t strong enough to survive the experience.”
