Page 27 of Malice
I couldn’t believe their arrogance. “Oh yeah? Tell that to the guy who passed out. Actually, there were two of you who did that. I distinctly recall Sin appearing mostly dead after our first time together.”
Sin held up his hands, palms facing me in supplication. “Okay, okay. We’re sorry. We didn’t mean to imply that you aren’t strong as balls.”
“Balls are weak.”
Sin rolled his eyes. “Strong as ovaries. Better?”
“Thank you.”
He laughed softly as he continued. “We just meant that we are horsemen.”
“You love to point that out.”
“No, you’re not getting it. We’re horsemen. Not mortals. All those other fools that fell victim to succubi? They were humans. Weak for their mortality. We’re not.”
Could it really be that simple? Lilith had been so sure when she’d warned me. I’d asked her what it would mean if I continued, but then her knowledge of how the bond worked was based on humans. Yes, she was aware I was with the horsemen, but no one had ever attempted such a thing with them before. So anything she said was based on theory and assumption, not fact. What if they were right? The bond wasn’t possible because they were too powerful.
That would be an ideal situation. I could continue my dreamwalks, feed nightly, and ensure my succubus had no reason to hop back into the driver’s seat anytime soon. It sounded pretty on paper, but the truth was, demonbond or not, I would still get more attached to these guys if such visits continued. And I couldn’t allow that to happen unless I knew I could trust them.
“And what about your little competition?” I asked, gut churning as I got to the real reason I’d tracked them down.
“Which competition is that? We always have some wager or another going between us,” Grim asked.
“Oh, I don’t know. How about the one where the four of you are all in a race to impregnate me? Ring any bells?”
As my words landed, I recalled what Sin had taught me and sent out my power to infiltrate their minds. Unlike the last few times I’d tried such a thing, I met no resistance. It was like theone time I’d slipped into Malice’s mind and stumbled upon his memory. And I could only assume that had something to do with how much I’d fed the night before. The more I fed, the stronger my power.
Lucky for them, I wasn’t here to snoop around in their innermost thoughts. I only needed the truth from them.
“We aren’t competing with each other,” Sin said, the clear ring of honesty hanging on every syllable.
“Oh, aren’t you?”
He shook his head. “No.”
I searched his emotions, reaching out with my power and filtering through all the noise to find the root of his words. Was it truth or deceit? All I was picking up from him was relief and quite a bit of confidence. Although I couldn’t help but note that the longer I stared at him without speaking, his confidence wavered, making me think that while he may not be outright lying, there was definitely more to it than what he was telling me.
“Sin, you’re keeping something from me.”
Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath. That couldn’t be good. Sin was unflappable on his worst day.
“What’s going on?” I asked, my pulse picking up as the tension in the room rose.
It was Grim who spoke, pulling my attention from the incubus currently sweating bullets under my scrutiny.
“We aren’t competing with each other, but we are competing with someone. Sin was telling the truth, but in this case, omission is the same as a lie.”
I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I confronted them about this. Wait, yes I was. I thought they’d keep on gaslighting me. So for any of them, but especially Mr. Evasive himself, to cop to the truth had completely caught me off guard.
I held up a hand. “Sorry, let me get this straight. The four of you”—I pointed to each of them respectively—“are workingtogether to get me pregnant before some fifth unknown person can do the job?”
“He’s not exactly unknown,” Malice muttered, his eyes locked on the cuticles of his left hand.
“Well, he sure as hell is where I’m concerned.” Anger was taking control of my focus now, keeping me from using my gift in a productive way. I took a page out of Sin’s book and closed my eyes, taking a centering breath.
“How appropriate,” Chaos grumbled.
My eyes snapped open. “What was that, tough guy?”
