Sloth (The Damning Book 4)

by Katie May

  “Listen to what?” I shoved my large hand into my hair, the brown strands

  no doubt sticking up in all directions. “That you were willing to let my mate

  die?”

  “I never would’ve let it come to that,” Atta insisted firmly, wrapping her

  arms around her chest and dropping her gaze to her slipper-clad feet. “I

  just…”

  When she trailed off, apparently unable to continue, I quirked an eyebrow

  and pressed, “You just?”

  “I just needed to make sure Mali was all right,” she confessed at last, her

  words running together in her desperation to make me understand, make me

  see. But how could I? My sister, my closest friend, had let my mate suffer for

  days. I wasn’t saying that I’d forgiven Z for keeping this a secret from the

  others and me, but in her mind, there was no cure, no way to save herself.

  She’d chosen to suffer in silence, only so we wouldn’t bear the brunt of her

  burden.

  But Atta?

  This entire time, she knew exactly how to save Z, and she chose to

  remain silent. She could fire off all of the excuses she wanted, but it didn’t

  change the fact that betrayal carved open my chest, slicing at my sensitive

  heart until it wept red, sticky blood.

  “I don’t want to hear your excuse.” I focused on something over her

  shoulder, as it pained me to stare directly into her eyes.

  Wrath percolated in my stomach, demanding an outlet. I wanted to rage,

  scream, attack. Break everything inside of this room until the carpeting was

  covered in glass and wood.

  But instead of doing any of that, I thought of my sweet, precious mate

  and her bright eyes staring back at me. Gradually, my temper abated until my

  bear was no longer clawing at my brain, demanding to be set free.

  “I was doing what I needed to do for Mali,” Atta hissed through gritted

  teeth, her hands clenching and unclenching repeatedly by her sides. “I had no

  idea what would’ve happened if that bitch Aaliyah discovered she told me the

  truth about Z. I couldn’t risk—”

  “So you’ve been meeting with Mali?” I glared at my sister, who at least

  had the decency to look sheepish. “The woman who betrayed her best

  friend?”

  “She didn’t know what was going to happen,” Atta protested

  immediately. Weakly though, as if she didn’t quite believe it herself.

  Mali’s second mate, Zack, was the man who’d poisoned Z in the first

  place. Not only that, but he killed one of Z’s best friends, Diego.

  All because of Mali.

  All because the stupid girl believed his false words and lured Z and Diego

  straight to him.

  “She loved him,” Atta continued softly, and I scoffed.

  “Zack was a monster. No one is capable of loving him.” I shook my head

  to banish some of the mounting anger that always seemed to arise when I

  thought of the cold-hearted assassin. “But enough about Zack and Mali and

  Aaliyah. Tell me what you know.”

  Atta tentatively smoothed a hand down her golden dress, the color that

  represented all shifters, as her green eyes flashed with pain. Maybe it was my

  tone of voice, since I never usually raised it with her, or maybe it was the

  stiffness of my posture.

  Either way, she knew that something between us had been altered

  irrevocably.

  Taking another deep breath, she whispered, “It’s a poison common in the

  Mage Kingdom.”

  “Obviously.” Fuck, did I really think she could help? That she would

  suddenly procure the answer to all of our problems in a vial?

  “It’s commonly used for their executions,” she continued, watching my

  reaction carefully. At her words, I froze, my spine straightening.

  “I’ve heard about that,” I murmured in fear, my mind spinning a mile a

  minute and my heart racing. “It’s one of the most potent spells in the entire

  world. Apparently, it’s created by generations of mage kings. As soon as one

  ascends to the throne, he adds a tiny bit of his power and blood to the potion,

  making it even more potent.”

  Fuck! No wonder Bash couldn’t heal her and Dev couldn’t wish away the

  poison. It was literally centuries of magic combined.

  “Exactly,” Atta said with a decisive head bob. “But I was also told that

  they keep a cure nearby. Apparently, one of the kings came into contact with

  the poison a few hundred or so years ago, and since then, they always keep a

  vial of the cure on standby.”

  I’d heard that rumor too, but I hadn’t even begun to believe that the

  poison in Z’s veins was that. How the fuck did Aaliyah get her hands on

  something like that?

  “Atta.” I moved so I was directly in front of my little sister and placed my

  hands on her shoulders. I was so large and she was so small, she appeared

  delicate and breakable beneath my much larger hands. She didn’t flinch as

  she would’ve done with my father. She knew that I would never hurt her.

  “Thank you.”

  “I can’t even begin to explain how sorry I am for keeping this from you,”

  Atta admitted softly, tears filling her mossy green eyes. “But I hope we can

  move past this, brother.”

  “I…” Hesitating, I bit down on my lower lip. I knew Z would want me to

  forgive her, and I knew I would, but not yet. “I need time.”

  Her face fell, but she didn’t try to stop me as I stepped around her

  towards the door. I needed to go to my brothers and Z and tell them the news.

  Bash should have more information about the poison and cure. If my

  estimation was correct, the ride to the mage kingdom should take less than a

  day. That would give us a few hours to find the cure before we had to travel

  back to the capital, located in the center of all the kingdoms.

  We could do it.

  We had to.

  Just before I left, though, I hesitated, looking over my shoulder to spear

  my little sister with a soft look.

  “Thank you, Attie,” I whispered, and her answering smile was glorious.

  “Go save your mate, brother,” she said. And just before the door swung

  shut, I could’ve sworn she added, “While I go save mine.”

  FIVE

  AXEL

  For some reason, the little girl was afraid of me.

  It was completely ridiculous. I wasn’t even carrying around my

  favorite machetes, creatively named Mary and Larry. Mary was a

  little shyer than her brother, more subdued. Her kills were always quicker

  too, due to her sharp nature. Now Larry, on the other hand…

  He liked to take his time. Make his victims bleed and hurt.

  Larry likey when they hurty.

  Was it weird to talk about your weapons as if they were your children

  instead of inanimate objects? Probably. I blamed it on my lack of sleep the

  last few nights.

  Oh, and the fact that I murdered people almost daily, earning myself the

  nickname of the Butcher. You couldn’t be what I was without losing tiny

  pieces of yourself, and consequently your mind, in the process.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” I told the little hybrid for the one millionth

  time. Well, one million and one times.

  “Go away, butt face!” s
he bellowed, and though her tiny voice quivered

  with fear, her face, when it popped over the top of the sofa, was hard.

  The girl, whose name I still didn’t know, was the younger sister of Miles,

  the teenage boy Z met and befriended at the vampire carnival. When he died,

  Z had made me promise to find his little sister and take care of her.

  I didn’t know why Z trusted me, maybe she didn’t know about Larry and

  Mary, but I was determined not to let her down.

  At least not yet.

  I knew that would happen eventually, though, when we returned to the

  capital.

  Unease slithered in my stomach, but I forced it away as I peered at the

  little girl and attempted to make my voice calm and soothing.

  The strange, strange little girl who, somehow, had both mage and human

  DNA inside of her. A hybrid. The first of her kind.

  Something fiercely protective entered me.

  I knew without a shadow of doubt that this tiny human would be hunted

  and killed if anyone discovered what she was. For so long, humans and

  nightmares had been living side by side, with no sign of harmony in sight.

  But this girl? She was proof that change was upon us. That nightmares and

  humans could live as one. That breeding between our two species, which had

  once been deemed impossible, could actually occur.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” I said again, holding my hands up and

  forcing a smile on my lips. Since I didn’t usually smile, unless I was

  embracing Mary while Larry jealously looked on, it probably came out all

  weird. I was pretty sure only one side of my mouth quirked upwards and my

  eyes started blinking rapidly.

  Dammit.

  “Where’s my brother?” the teeny tiny human continued, once again

  popping her head up from behind the couch. The windmill she’d been living

  in with Miles was surprisingly well maintained. Only a few cobwebs rested

  on the highest wooden boards where they couldn’t reach, and there was no

  dust in sight.

  “What’s your name, kid?” I asked, venturing a step forward. When a fire

  ball ripped by me, just barely missing my adorable face, my grin widened.

  She was definitely a little badass spitfire.

  “I’m not a kid!” Her chestnut hair, streaked with red and gold, flew

  around her face as her brown eyes sparked green with her mage power.

  “Look,” I rolled my eyes and took another step closer, “I’m not gonna

  hurt you, Spitfire. I don’t even have my lovers here with me today.” I spread

  my arms to show that Mary and Larry were, in fact, absent.

  She didn’t need to know that I’d put a spell on them to make them the

  size of toothpicks and then shoved them in my pants, right next to my balls.

  They made them all tingly. My balls, I meant.

  “How do I know that?” she demanded, and I had to give her credit—she

  may have been young, but she wasn’t stupid.

  She had every reason to fear me, and rightfully so. If she knew who I

  was, the Butcher of the kingdom, she would cower and run.

  But instead of confessing that to her, I simply let myself dematerialize

  into nothing but a shadow, the threat clear enough.

  If I wanted to, if I intended on harming her, I could easily disappear and

  reappear seconds later behind her, a blade to her neck.

  But I didn’t hurt children. That was a line I would never cross, not after

  my own old man beat the shit out of me and my mom before meeting his…

  err…untimely demise.

  Mary didn’t like Daddy Dearest. And Larry liked to join in on the fun.

  Hesitantly, her face betraying her nerves, the tiny girl scrambled to her

  feet, keeping her back against the wall so I couldn’t sneak up behind her.

  “Mary-Lynette,” she stated at last, and I swear it was fate or some shit.

  “I know someone named Mary,” I said, smiling wistfully at the thought.

  Shaking my head, I focused back on the tiny human. “But, kid, there’s a lot

  we need to talk about.”

  SIX

  Z

  The Mage Kingdom.

  We were traveling to the Mage Kingdom.

  I’d never been there before, not even on missions when I worked

  for the Alphabet Resistance, but I’d heard rumors about the kingdom that

  evoked the sin of sloth.

  When Lupe told us about the potential cure, I’d thought my men would

  be ecstatic. And they were, at least at first.

  But then they all looked at Bash, whose face had drained of color, and the

  whoops and cheers diminished until the room was silent.

  “I haven’t been there in years,” Bash confessed, shakily running his

  fingers through his blond hair.

  “The Mage Kingdom can’t be as bad as the vampire one,” I said, trying to

  joke, though my tummy tightened at the thought of all I’d endured at the

  hands of those sadistic bloodsuckers.

  The pervy vamp I’d killed.

  Miles’s death.

  What seemed like a lump of coal became lodged in my throat, and I

  attempted to clear it away.

  “I wouldn’t be too sure,” Bash murmured, and when his eyes flickered in

  my direction, I saw something pained and haunted in his expression,

  something I had trouble articulating into words.

  “I’m not going to run into your harem, am I?” I joked. It was common

  knowledge that a lot of powerful male mages had harems of women to give

  them pleasure. Those fuckers were too damn lazy to do anything themselves.

  When Bash didn’t immediately respond, I narrowed my eyes into slits.

  The thought of him with a harem of beautiful women made me a teeny tiny

  bit stabby.

  Okay, a lot stabby.

  Bash rolled his eyes in exasperation. “Of course not.” He gave me a look

  like my question was ridiculous.

  “But did you ever have one?” I pressed, turning my head to cough into

  my sleeve. All of my mates stared at me in concern, Lupe practically

  growling, but I ignored them. There was something immensely more

  important than my impending death. “Before me, I mean. Did you have a

  harem, Bash-hole?”

  A cocky as fuck smirk danced on his lush lips. “So what if I did? Would

  that bother you, little mate?”

  “Fuck off.” I folded my arms over my chest and gave him a completely

  unimpressed look, like the thought of him with other women didn’t cleave me

  in two.

  I knew I was unsuccessful when his grin widened, seemingly pleased

  with my show of possessiveness and jealousy.

  “Do you truly want the answer to that?” Bash took a step closer, placing

  his arms on either side of me where I was caged in on Lupe’s lap once again.

  “Here we fucking go,” Devlin murmured.

  “I can sense the sexual tension,” piped in Killian, but we ignored them.

  “Fine.” I held my chin up and met his dark green gaze. “Let me hear all

  about the women you fucked. Your perfect harem.” His white teeth flashed

  when he smiled before immediately disappearing with my next words. “And

  I’ll tell you all about the men I fucked. About the way they—”

  Lupe growled harshly, and another one of my mate’s made a disgruntled

  noise in the back of his throat. But I didn’t look at t
hem. My attention was

  fixed on Bash.

  His eyes darkened, and his jaw clenched.

  “Z…” he warned.

  “What?” I asked innocently.

  He leaned closer until his breath brushed against the shell of my ear,

  sending goosebumps skittering down my spine.

  “Don’t test me, woman. I’ll spell the shit out of every one of those men.

  They won’t have cocks left once I’m done with them.”

  I shouldn’t have found his words as hot as I did. Even with the pain

  reverberating through me, tightening all of my muscles, I still found myself

  growing needy.

  Damn. Why did that turn me on so much?

  I filed that under “topics for therapy,” right alongside my stab first, ask

  questions later tendencies.

  “But I thought you were going to tell me about your harem,” I pressed,

  cocking an eyebrow, and he glowered.

  “You damn well know that I have no harem. That I never had a harem.”

  He leaned away from my ear, only to immediately press his lips to mine. It

  wasn’t quite a kiss, but it sure as shit felt like one. The heat he emitted sent

  waves of lust through me. “You’re just fishing for compliments. What do you

  want me to say? That you’re the only girl I dream about? The only girl I

  want? The only girl I—” He cut himself off quickly, backing away from me

  with a thunderous expression on his face.

  “The only girl you what, Bash?” I queried, my voice uncharacteristically

  serious.

  But instead of answering, my mage mate rolled his eyes and leaned back

  against the wall, folding his muscular arms over his chest.

  “I need to plan out the trip to the Mage Kingdom,” he said, changing the

  topic with an ease that left me staggering and lightheaded.

  Or that could just be the poison.

  Sometimes, my mental thoughts cracked me up.

  “We need to leave within the hour,” Devlin added.

  “It’s going to take most of the day to get there,” Dair threw in. “And once

  we’re there, we’re only going to have a few hours to find the cure and

  administer it to Z.” His blue eyes, as bright as the sea itself and just as

  inviting, met mine. “I don’t fucking like this, guys.”

  “None of us do,” Lupe growled out, his arms tightening around me until I

  felt blissfully trapped.

  “But we have no other choice,” I finished for all of them.