Page 73 of Malice
Grabbing Merri by the nape, I tugged her into me and kissed her hard, not caring that I was mostly coated in dried blood.
“You,” I said through a weirdly tight throat. “Don’t do anything stupid. We’re going to kill these fuckers and regroup. Stay here and let us do our jobs.”
Her only response was a swift nod.
“Oh, and kitten?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you too. In case you hadn’t figured that out yet.”
She opened her mouth to reply, but I vanished and rematerialized in the middle of the carnage with my brothers before she had the chance. As suspected, Malice was still lost in the thick of it with his demon while Chaos and Grim dealt with the remaining monsters. There weren’t nearly as many of them as there had been of the humans, but the demons required a bit more effort for us to dispatch. Grim couldn’t simply touch them and kill them. They didn’t have the requisite souls for his type of magic. But he was just as strong as the rest of us, and he could rip a demon’s heart from its chest with a well-placed blow.
Realizing that those two had things in hand, I turned my attention instead to Malice, thinking he might need some help getting free. Cracking my neck and shaking out my arms, I stepped into place behind him and set my hand on his shoulder to establish a connection. The physical contact wasn’t necessary for me to slip into his mind, but it certainly made things easier. And right now, every second counted.
But, Sin. Why wouldn’t you just kill the demon? You ask. Good question. I would love to tell you. These demons altered consciousness. They sucked their prey into a dreamlike state, much like Merri and I could. This was almost like sleepwalking or a night terror. Everyone knows you don’t wake someone up in the middle of that without risking serious damage. The last thing Malice needed was more trauma.
Slipping into someone else’s mind was second nature to me, but it was still jarring every time. If only because you never knew what you would find waiting for you on the other side. And this wasn’t a normal situation; I was quite literally sliding into a demon’s lair. It just so happened to also be Malice-coded.
If I was being honest, I was pretty curious to find out what Malice’s deepest, darkest desire would be. Gotta say, though, as open-minded as I was, I was in no way prepared to come face-to-face with Malice standing off with a seven-foot tall purple demon.
“Can you ever forgive me for my absence, Pan?” Malice was asking, a pathetic plea in his voice. “I want to be a father to you. I always wanted to.”
Oh shiiiiit. I really shouldn’t be seeing this.
“You’re not capable of being a father. Why else would my mother bar you from my presence? She knew what a waste of space you were. You’ll never be part of my life, no matter how you beg.”
Yikes. No wonder Malice was struggling to break free. This had to be a nightmare scenario for him.
“Hey buddy, it’s time to go,” I called, propelling myself forward until I was right beside Malice. I’d heard the word tormented before, obviously, but I’d never seen it in action. Not like this. A couple more barbed comments from Pan and Malice would be in the fetal position.
“Pan... p-please. Just listen to me,” he whispered.
“I. Despise. You. And I always will.”
One hand on Mal’s shoulder, I gripped him hard enough to cause pain and said, “This isn’t your son. Open your eyes, Mal. This is trickery.”
A shudder ran down Pestilence’s body, but his gaze was still locked on the manifestation of his lost child. “Pan, please,” he whimpered.
Whimpered.
Fuck my life. He was going to murder me when he realized what I’d seen. He barely forgave Merri, and helikedher.
“Okay, listen, I didn’t want to do this, but I’ve got no other choice.” It wasn’t the wisest decision to interfere, but Malice wasn’t getting on top of the creature’s power. He’d forgive me. Eventually.
I reached past Mal and grabbed the demon’s shoulder, sending my magic into it in an attempt to break the connection between them. If I could get the glamour to drop, Mal would snap out of it.
It was harder than I wanted it to be. Not only were these demons powerful in general, but this one had been allowed to latch onto Malice without challenge, which only strengthened its hold. The longer the fantasy played out, the tighter the bond became until it was the equivalent of mental superglue. We were somewhere in the setting cement stage of things. In other words, difficult but not yet impossible to undo.
It went a long way that my desire to overpower the demon’s mind was stronger than the demon’s desire to hold on to Mal. They weren’t here for us. We were an obstacle keeping them from their goal—Merri. I guess you could say they were just following orders while we were fighting for our lives. Willpower went a long fucking way in evening the score.
Being a horseman didn’t hurt either. The demons were badasses, but so were we.
The clash of wills went on until I sensed the first crack. If it were a physical thing, I’d say the demon’s knees buckled. I pounced, seizing the opportunity and pouring more of my influence into the opening until I was the only one in control. In a rush of shifting energy, the veil lifted, and Pan disappeared, revealing the truth. He’d never been there at all.
A guttural snarl escaped from somewhere deep inside Malice as the change registered. I released him, backing out of his mind and letting him take control so he could get his vengeance.
It was a thing of terrible beauty, watching Malice rage.
