Page 25 of Malice
“Don’t. You. Dare,” Grim warned.
Sin began to squawk and peck at the air.
An irritated grumble preceded Grim’s heavy sigh as he closed his eyes and concentrated. As I watched on, Grimsby’s shadowspread outward onto the floor, then rose in front of Sin, slowly taking shape until it was a man.
“Hey! Great jo—ow! Motherfucker.”
While Sin had been congratulating Grim, the shadow form had cocked back its arm and nailed Sin straight in the nose.
“Why do you have such a hard-on for breaking my nose?” Sin muttered, his words thick and distorted from the trauma to his nose.
“Because it hurts, shuts you up?—”
“Does it?” Sin mocked as he dabbed at the trickle of blood rolling down his lip.
“—and feels really bloody good,” Grim continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted, pulling his shadow back into himself and adjusting his cuffs.
“Nothing ever really shuts him up,” Chaos groused.
We needed to get back on track. Sin was a runaway railroad car, and if none of us took control, we’d never get to where we needed to be.
“Now that we’ve established Grim isn’t beholden to Merri if he wants to use his shadow form, can we address the other major issue?”
Sin turned to me and shrugged. “I don’t know what you want me to say, man. I already told you this is way out of my wheelhouse. Best guess is we just have to keep her fed.”
“If she lets us,” Chaos grumbled.
“I believe the answer lies in the dreamwalks,” Grim added.
“So we’re back to those again,” Sin said, slumping back down onto the sofa and tipping his head forward to stanch the bleeding in his nose. “Dammit, man, you really got me good this time. It’s taking forever to heal.”
“They’re the most viable way to make sure she gets what she needs.” Grim ignored Sin’s complaint, choosing to focus on the topic at hand instead. Good man.
I trained my gaze on Death, a knowing smirk curling my lips. “And whatyouneed.”
“It has nothing to do with me.”
“If you say so,” I intoned, my disbelief evident. “So you’ve found your solution. Now all we have to do is get her to agree to it. Should be easy. Will only take us, what? An entire bloody apocalypse?”
“Get me to agree to what?”
We all flinched in unison at the sweet and unexpected sound of Merri’s voice from the doorway.
“Hey! You’re awake!” Sin called from the couch.
Merri frowned at his blood-streaked countenance. “What happened to you?”
“He earned it,” Grim said under his breath.
“Oh, this? I’m fine. Nothing for you to worry about, kitten.” He still sounded stuffed up and ridiculous, but the bravado was strong as he stood and puffed out his chest.
Chaos strode over to Merri and leaned down to peer into her face. “How are you feeling?”
Merri jerked her head back. “Ever heard of personal space?”
He pinched her chin between two of his fingers and tugged her back so he could continue his inspection. “Answer the question.”
“Fine.”
