Page 75 of Chaos
“Hey! That could have left a scar.”
“I know.”
Chaos might’ve acted like he hated me, but I knew the truth. He only strongly disliked me.
Malice handed him a fresh stick before moving to sink his next shot. “She’s been distant ever since you two slept together.”
“Not true,” I said, though on second thought, he was sort of right. Kinda. A little. “She was really affectionate and sweet with me. I thought we’d made some headway, actually.”
“We’d broken down some barriers as well during our training sessions. There’s undeniable chemistry between us, but still she refuses me.” Chaos’s lips twisted in a frustrated frown.
“Are you sure the chemistry is on both sides?” I asked.
“I’m fucking sure.”
I held my hands up in surrender. “Just asking.”
“What did you do?” Grimsby accused. I hadn’t been paying attention to him, so I’d missed him standing and sneaking up behind me.
“Nothing! Nothing! It’s not my fault if she fell in love with me. Obviously she’s decided to be a one-horseman succubus.”
The eight ball soared across the room as Malice overshot the cue. Grim caught the ball with one of his shadows, holding it up with a question in his eyes. “If that logic stands, then why isn’t she feeding from you? Why is she avoiding you, as well as the rest of us?”
“She’s not.”
All three of them gave me varying expressions of disbelief.
I sighed and raked a hand through my hair. “I mean, yeah, she hasn’t invited me back to her bed, but she’s not, like, avoiding me or anything.”
The air of incredulity in the room shot up several notches.
“Seriously. You know how big a deal it was for her to be intimate with someone without a screen between them. I think she’s just adjusting to it. She needs a little time to make peace with the shift or whatever.”
They didn’t need to know she’d told me she couldn’t be monogamous. In my heart, I knew it was more than that. The truth was that she’d gotten scared. Her feelings for me were just too powerful, and Merri didn’t want to be vulnerable with anyone. Not truly vulnerable.
“I think there’s more to it,” Malice drawled, echoing my own conclusion. “She’s afraid of something.”
“What did you say to her, Sin?” Chaos bit out.
“Why is this all on me? Everything was fine until she was alone with you, Chaos. She was feeling great, looking all glowy and healthy. Then you tried to smolder her to death, and she stopped giving any of us real attention.”
A soft snarl escaped Chaos before he muttered, “Everything was fine until I admitted that I’d been dreaming about her.”
One by one, the rest of us went still.
“You dreamed about her?” Grim asked, his voice carefully neutral.
Chaos’s brows furrowed. “Yeah. Why?”
“So did I,” Malice admitted.
“Me too,” Grim finally said.
They all turned to me expectantly. “Yeah. So? I had a dream about her. What else is new?”
“Is it a coincidence we’re all dreaming about her?” Chaos asked, putting his pool cue away before leaning his hip on the side of the table.
“It’s not that strange. Especially since we’re all under the same roof with a succubus. Her power calls to us.” Malice wandered over to the chess board and knocked over the white queen with a smirk. “It stands to reason she’d infiltrate our dreams. That is the nature of fantasy, after all.”
