Page 29 of Malice
“No, actually,” Chaos said with a sigh. “It’s the other part of your bloodline he’s interested in.”
“Oh God,” I whispered, feeling lightheaded. How could there beanotherbomb to drop on me?
“Sabine planned this very meticulously. As soon as she realized she wouldn’t get a chance at an apocalypse of her own, she tracked down everything she’d need to ensure she’d have a place at the end of the world. You weren’t engineered in a lab, but you might as well have been.”
The way Malice spoke, so detached, so formal, made my stomach clench. “Sabine is my mother’s name?”
He nodded.
“And she’s Famine.”
He nodded again.
“Do you know who my father is? Was he in on it?”
The four of them looked at each other in turn, clearly waiting for someone to jump in with the answer to my question.
“No,” Sin finally answered when it was clear no one else was going to. “The horsewomen don’t tend to clue in the men they use as breeders on their plans.”
Malice snorted in derision, and another piece of the puzzle fell into place. Pan’s mother was one of these horsewomen.
Tucking that nugget away for a future conversation, I returned my focus to the matter at hand. “So he was an unwitting sperm donor.”
“Yes. But one with a very special bloodline that makes you exactly the vessel Lucifer needs. You’re built for him,” Grim answered.
I scoffed. “How nice for him. Too bad I’m a succubus. I don’t know if you’ve realized this, but we aren’t the most fertile.”
“About that,” Sin said, pulling my attention back his way.
“Nope. This one I’m confident about. Lilith gave me the birds and bees chat when I moved in with her.”
“I bet you she didn’t mention that dreamwalks increase your fertility, did she? That everything that happens in them is real, and anything... deposited stays where it’s put?”
I opened my mouth to refute him, but closed it again when snippets of our brief conversation about dreamwalks returned to me. Lilith had sort of mentioned that part of the reason they’d been banned. I’d just assumed, since we were talking about incubi, that it was only the men leaving mortal women pregnant. Not that it worked both ways. And I knew firsthand, given the bruises I’d worn, that what happened in one plane impacted the other.
“Your kind are strongest in the dream realm,” Chaos said, interrupting my musing. “All of your abilities are amplified there.”
“Well, shit,” I whispered. My hand slid to my lower belly. Had they already been successful?
“You’re not pregnant, wildflower. Not yet.”
“But I need to be?”
Grim nodded, his lips set in a firm line. “If we succeed before Lucifer can, there’s a chance we can save the world.”
“And if not?”
“If he gets his antichrist, it’s game over,” Sin offered.
My knees finally gave out, and I sank down onto the ottoman behind me. A little pang had me rubbing at my chest by the time I finally gave voice to my next question. “So your willingness to help me feed, and well, all of this... It was never about taking care of me. It was about beating Lucifer?”
“Yes,” Grim said.
“Not exactly,” Sin countered, glaring at Grim.
Chaos was the next to try to explain. “Taking care of you is a privilege. But, yes, saving the world is the end goal.”
Malice sighed. “I don’t know why I allow any of you to talk. You’re always putting your giant feet in your mouths.” Then he looked at me, his expression as severe as ever, but his eyes unusually kind. “Two things can be true, hellcat. We were asked to protect you, and we’ve done that in every sense of the word. It just so happens that the ways in which we care for you also allow us to accomplish our other task.”
