Page 71 of Malice
“I... Holy shit, you might be right,” Merri said, stopping my thoughts in their tracks.
With a grin, Sinclair booped her on the nose and said, “I know.”
I shot Malice a look, wondering what he thought about this new development as a cold sweat broke out across my skin. Was he like me? Feeling a very unwelcome mix of panic and jealousy? Panic because how did this happen, but jealousy because if she loved him, where did that leave me? I mean us. No. I didn’t care about the others right now. They could fight their own battles. She said it herself. Loving someone meant the center of your world changed. So if she truly loved Sin, how could there be any part of her world left for anyone else?
“As touching as this moment is,” Grim interrupted, attention locked on the corpses beside us, “we’ve got bigger problems.”
Thankful for the reprieve from dealing with a plethora of unwanted feelings, my gaze followed his to the bodies... and the demons that were climbing out of them.
Chapter
Twenty
SIN
“Fucking hell, can we never catch a break?” I muttered, swiftly coming down from the high of what Merri did for me. And what it meant.
“What do you think this is, a bloody vacation?” Malice snapped, eyes darting between the growing demon horde.
“It was supposed to be a sex-cation. Like a babymoon, except we haven’t made the baby yet.”
One by one, the demons shuffled to their feet, all different shapes and sizes, but they were all lust demons. Their forms varied, along with the specificity of their powers. A handful of them gathered together closer to Merri than I’d like. They were reminiscent of satyrs with horns and goat legs, their power rooted in distraction via sex seemingly harmless, but in truth, it was often deadly. Another group had more humanoid figures, their bodies shaped like the most beautiful, well-formed statues that could lock you in a loop of ecstasy with a single kiss that would only end with your death. And then there were the most dangerous of them, the shapeshifter. These creatures fed on desire and could transform into whatever their target most craved. The perfect lure.
People assumed lust was always sexual, but it wasn’t. Ever heard of a lust for power? What about a bloodlust? At the end of the day, it was about desire. A longing to fill the void within. The highest tier of lust demon, the shapeshifter, was able to tap intowhateverit was that you most desired. Be that a need for fame—hello darkness, my old friend—money, sex, family... You get the idea. There was nothing more addictive than finally obtaining something you thought you’d never have.
Merri’s gasp pulled my focus from the demons currently approaching. She was feet from me, too far for my liking, and a satyr had his goat-like eyes locked on her, his almost comically large member standing at attention as he sized her up.
“Get away from her!” I snarled, intending to rush over and tackle the asshole. Unfortunately, the Mystique wannabe closest to me had other plans.
The cool brush of fingers gliding down the back of my neck had my muscles locking in place. But it was the sensual croon in my ear that had my vision shifting. “She’s right here, Sinclair.”
As she spoke, a new scene took place, superimposing itself over the mouth of the property. Had I been anyone else, I wouldn’t have been able to sense the trap. But I was also a creature of lust, so I recognized it for what it was.
The surroundings were perfect. Everything I could want was laid out before me. Merri, wearing one of my band’s T-shirts—the Apocalyptic Unicorns logo had never looked so good—and nothing else, her hair tumbling over her shoulders, a smile on her face that was only for me.
“I love you, Sin,” she murmured as she reached for me. “Come back to bed.”
God, I wanted her.
When I didn’t immediately move, she pouted. “What are you waiting for? Don’t make me start without you.”
Unfortunately, just because I knew it was fake didn’t mean I was fully immune to it. I might still be able to make out my brothers also frozen in place with shapeshifters of their own latched onto them like a bunch of fucking leeches, but the vision of Merri pulling her shirt up and over her head had me paralyzed.
I was a slave to my desire for her.
Helpless.
Weak.
Prey.
No.
That wasn’tmyvoice. Those weren’tmywords. They were hers. The creature trying to unmake me.
Merri’s palm traced down my front, stopping at my belt as she looked up my body. “Please, Sin. I need you.”
It almost got me. The gentle begging, the big-eyed stare. But then I heard the real Merri scream. My hand shot out in front of me, gripping the creature by the throat and shattering the illusion.
