Page 4 of Malice
Lilith:Rosie still bears my mark. I can always find your sweet little mate if I need to.
Crombie:My Lilypad is so resourceful.
Remi:There’s something different about you . . .
Remi looks between the two of them, his eyes growing wide.
Remi:What happened to your chain?
Lilith:Drystan broke it.
Asher:Are we happy about that or . . .
Lilith:Or. But we’ll have to get into that later. I have some rather urgent news.
Asher:Good timing, I guess. We were just wrapping up one of our?—
Lilith:This is a private matter, I’m afraid. Drystan, darling. Would you mind?
Crombie:It would be my pleasure.
Crombie holds up his hand and sparks fly from his fingertips toward the camera.
Asher:Wait! That’s expensive equipm?—
Blinding light consumes the screen before it goes black.
End of transmission.
Chapter
One
LILITH
Five minutes earlier
“If you want to leave this room alive, you will tell me everything there is to know about one Meredith Deveraux.”
My blood ran cold as the devil I knew far too well stared me down. The last thing I would ever do was betray Merri to the likes of Lucifer Morningstar. I’d outsmarted him before, but there was no way out of this one. He had me cornered, quite literally.
I met and held his stare, my heartbeat erratic but my face expressionless. I knew better than to give myself away. Even a twitch of my eyelashes could be used against me.
“Well? I’m waiting.”
Drystan threaded our fingers and gave my hand an almost imperceptible squeeze.
“Oh, how sweet. He’s not only a pet, he’s an emotional support faerie.” Lucifer’s taunt—as lighthearted as he made itseem—had a thread of steel running through it. “I think I’ll make him watch me take you apart piece by piece.”
Lucifer shoved away from the desk, his eyes flashing with the promise of agonizing torture. The chair toppled backward, and it was all I could do not to flinch from the anticipation of what was sure to be a future filled with misery now that he’d come to collect.
A hint of ozone was my only warning before Drystan’s palm burned against mine.
I didn’t have the opportunity to consider what that meant before it occurred to me that I had yet to hear the clatter of the chair against the floor.
“Lilypad, let’s go,” Drystan urged, giving my hand a tug.
My gaze drifted to Lucifer, who, by all rights, should already have his fingers around my throat. He was still as a statue, his luxurious mane swept back from his face and held in place as though he’d been carved from wax. In fact, everything in the room was frozen aside from my fae and me.
