Chapter 30

ChapterThirty

Gluttony had never been so happy. He hadn’t thought it was possible to feel like the weight of the world was off his shoulders. After all, it had been there since he’d taken mortal form.

But the incredible woman who now shared his bed had proven to him time and time again that he was so very wrong. Instead, she had gifted him with all the things he’d never hoped to dream of. She had stayed the night in a bed with him. She’d given him every reason to fall in love with her. And now he.... Well, he rather thought that he might be.

Gluttony knew these were dangerous thoughts. He knew he couldn’t keep thinking she would stay. No one ever had before her, and it certainly would not change just because he had bedded her, but... He could hope.

He filled his day with thoughts of what it would be like if she did stay. How they would be together every day. How he would surround himself with her scent and the lingering sense of her touch.

How light his home would suddenly be.

And that was the reason he whistled as he worked. The reason he meandered down the halls as though he were a hundred pounds lighter.

Even though it had been hours since he’d gotten out of bed, finally releasing her from his arms because it had been harder than he’d expected, Gluttony hadn’t realized that she would walk with him for the rest of the day.

Not literally, of course. They’d parted ways as she jokingly said she should take another bath and he gloated a bit, considering he was the reason she needed to do so. But figuratively, he couldn’t get her out of his head.

No matter what he seemed to do, she was always in the forefront of his mind. And while that wasn’t all that different from the past few months of knowing her, it felt different now that he knew what she tasted like.

He wasn’t even concerned about his body going into battle form at a rather inopportune time. Because that monstrous tongue had done rather incredible things to her, and she hadn’t complained one bit.

In fact, he thought she might have liked his tongue. Even though it wasn’t even remotely human at all.

Still jauntily moving through his home, he made his way to the lab. There were only a few more tests he wanted to make with his formula before he thought he had it. Most of the reagents he was now using had responded well. Though he hadn’t tried to use the black mist he had created, at the very least to see it if would mimic what Greed’s kingdom had created, he had a feeling it would work the moment he tried. This was, without a doubt, the solution to all of their problems.

Though he wasn’t all that interested to know what his brothers had to say about it. For the first time in a very long time, Gluttony didn’t care what they thought. He didn’t want to be the brother who wasn’t the monster. Nor did he care if they thought him to be a disaster.

They were lesser in his mind in comparison to Katherine. She liked him, and that was all that mattered.

Maybe that would change soon enough once he had to talk with his brothers again. Once he saw the disappointment on their features the moment they remembered what he’d done.

But for now, he felt a little better about himself, and he would cling to that feeling like the blessing it was.

Not even the massive shadow darkening his lab would ruin this for him. He refused to look at his brother, who was, yet again, touching things that he shouldn’t. Instead, Gluttony made his way to his main workbench, sat down, and got to work.

“You’re rather happy today,” Envy mentioned as he strode closer. “Why is that?”

“I am allowed to be happy without explaining it to you.”

“Yes, you are. But generally speaking, happiness on the face of a monster is a bad thing.” Envy rounded his table and crouched in front of him.

It didn’t take long for his brother to smell it. Rearing back, Envy’s eyes flashed a deep green and his voice deepened as his emotion got the better of him. “You didn’t.”

“My personal life has nothing to do with you, brother.”

“It does if you’re fucking humans again.” Envy dragged a stool in front of him and plopped down. His massive arms took up too much space on the other side of the table, and that meant that Gluttony had absolutely nothing he could do other than stare at his brother.

Sighing, he leaned back and pinched his nose. “Can I at least enjoy this for a few moments before you ruin it?”

“Not while I’m here.”

“I’m not the only one fucking humans.” He arched a brow. “We’ve all been doing that for many years. You cannot tell me you haven’t indulged yourself in over a thousand years, Envy.”

“Never with feelings involved.”

“Oh, come off it.” Gluttony tossed his hands in the air. “I don’t think you understand anything anymore! You were just saying for me to fix it. I fixed it! Just like Lust and Greed, I am focusing on what I want. No, what I need. I’m with her. Enjoying every moment of her body that I can, as well as moments of her mind. The closer I get to falling in love, that’s the hope, isn’t it? That I will change for her?”

Envy stared at him with so much pity in his eyes it made Gluttony’s skin itch. “Do you really think Greed changed for anyone other than himself?”

No. And he’d been there to watch the whole mess fall apart when Greed tried to change for Varya.

Still. He didn’t like it being pointed out.

Hissing out an angry breath, he pursed his lips in disgust. “I don’t like you pointing this out to me.”

“I don’t like being here as your babysitter, either. But we’re both here and there’s nothing we can do to stop that. So why don’t you just be a good boy and send the poor thing home?”

“I’m not sending her home.”

“Gluttony,” Envy groaned. “You have to send the girl home. You can’t do this, and you know it.”

“Why not?” Gluttony burst out. He stood, raking his hands through his hair and pacing in front of his brother. “Why can I not do this? You know as well as I do, there is nothing wrong with me. The humans fear what they do not know, but that doesn’t mean that I am in the wrong. We have needs. Urges. She understands that, and fuck, I think she might even enjoy the urges that I have. Why can I not enjoy that?”

“You know why.”

“I don’t!” He spun on his brother, glaring at him and wondering how much a fight between the two of them would destroy. “I don’t agree with or understand with anything that you’re saying. Why can Lust and Greed do this while I cannot?”

Envy’s face shuttered, and then his eyes went a flat black like Gluttony had never seen before. “Because you eat people, Gluttony. You are the first of us to fall prey to that battle form. You know why Wrath is worried.”

“I don’t.” Gluttony took a deep breath, steeling himself for the truth he knew Envy would tell him. “Wrath never said a word about anything. He just yelled at me, sent me away from this kingdom, and did whatever it was that he did here. That was all.”

His gut sank as he met Envy’s gaze. His brother looked defeated, and that was never an expression that Envy wore well. He was the brother who was never defeated. He took what he wanted, stole and maimed and killed if that was what it took. But he never looked like that.

“Gluttony...”

Another voice interrupted them, thin and reedy though it was. Spite coiled up his desk as it spoke, gathering into a ball in the center of the desk. “The battle form you wear is one that only those who have taken physical form can use. Spirits are not meant to have a physical form, and there was a time when many of us were like you. All of these kingdoms were overrun with spirits who thought they knew what was right.”

Gluttony had never heard this before. “This is not information freely shared.”

“No,” Spite agreed. “It is not. But I was in Pride’s kingdom long before I was here, demon king, and I know things that you could not imagine. You seven are not the first. You are merely the ones who have lasted in this form for the longest.”

“This form?” He looked at Envy and saw his brother nodding in reluctance.

His brother sighed heavily before saying, “I have discovered recordings kept secret and safe throughout the centuries. Even Pride does not know all of it, some of the details I’ve kept for myself. But magic is in my blood now, and I know the truth of it. The battle form we use is not simply because we are angry, but because it is who we can become.”

“So our predecessors...”

Envy nodded. “They succumbed to the madness that is in all of us. They feasted, they fucked, they did not care that the battle form is dangerous and soon they became it. True demons who roamed our kingdoms and devoured all that stood in their way.”

“And that is where the name came from.”

“Indeed. They called us demon kings long ago because they knew what we could become. Perhaps it is our bond that keeps us more human, or perhaps it is that deep down we know what we would end up as. But the promise of power has always been the reason why our kind became monsters and...” Envy shrugged. “We have all the power we need. Until you.”

Knees weak, Gluttony sank back onto his stool and stared at his brother. Dumbfounded. “So this was why Wrath intervened. He thought I was... was...”

“Turning into something that none of us could control.” Envy reached across the table and grabbed his hand. “Listen to me, Gluttony. These urges that you have, they are not natural. We feed the beast inside us as much as we want, but you are consuming people. Just as the demons of old did. Of all of us, I believe you are closest to becoming one of them, and I cannot... none of us can take that risk.”

Nor did he wish to.

But he did not feel like a monster or a demon. He wasn’t turning into his battle form regularly, nor was he losing bits of his memory.

A flash of this morning bloomed in his mind. He felt all the blood drain from his face and knew the moment both Envy and Spite had seen it. They both looked at him, strange eyes focused on his features.

“What?” Spite asked. “Why do you look like that?”

“You did something,” Envy added. “Didn’t you?”

“While we were...” He stuttered, not wanting to share those private moments with his brother, of all people. “I... changed.”

“You what?”

“Not entirely,” he corrected, stammering to make sure that his brother understood what he was saying. “I didn’t change completely into my battle form, but pieces of me did. Parts of my body shifted in a way they never have before. It was uncontrollable. Strange, but I didn’t... I didn’t mean to...”

“You’re already changing without attempting to do so.” Envy’s shoulders lifted and rose in a big inhalation. Perhaps his brother was trying to steel himself for what he had to do next, or perhaps he was just affected more than Gluttony could guess. “That settles it, then. You’ll have to leave again.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“This is your life, Gluttony. You cannot take this risk when you are so close to losing everything. What if she is killed? What if you change when you touch her and then you rip her to shreds? I have read the recordings. I have seen the drawings of what we will become and I will not lose one of my brothers to that madness!” Envy stood abruptly, his chair tipping over and striking the ground with a loud bang. “You will return to Greed’s kingdom. If that is what healed you last time, then that is what we will do again.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he repeated, his voice slow and quiet. “This is where I belong.”

“Then this is where you will die!” Envy thundered. “They won’t let you remain like this. You have to know that, Gluttony. If you change into one of those monsters, none of our brothers will allow you to tear through this kingdom and ruin all that we have built. We will be forced to kill you.”

“Then so be it.” Gluttony was not phased by his brother’s anger or declaration. In fact, it was rather... soothing to know it would end like that. “If you are to kill me, then it will be a great honor to know that such a warrior did so. I hope I will have enough control to make it easy on you all.”

“You are a fool,” his brother hissed before conjuring a portal and disappearing from the room.

Silence fell like snow, blanketing the laboratory with a white haze. Spite shifted from its position on his table, a pale gray like ash now. “Why will you not leave?”

“Because I know what it feels like to be held in her arms. And I would rather die than never know that bliss again.” He smiled softly at the spirit, then pat it on the head. “She is beauty and kindness, all wrapped in a warm blanket. It would not be such a terrible way to die, knowing as I do that she is here with me.”

“What if you kill her?”

“I couldn’t.” He had no question of that. Not a single speck of his body would ever lay a hand on her with the intent to harm. Even his battle form had manifested only to pleasure her. “My only fear is that I will scare her. And I do not wish for her to ever be frightened in my presence. She is very dear to me, Spite. I don’t know when it happened or how it did, but seeing a smile on her face is the greatest gift anyone has ever given me.”

Quiet footsteps echoed down the hall, approaching the laboratory as she did every morning. He could smell the coffee she carried and the breakfast rolls she must have made, even though they had both gotten out of bed long after breakfast.

Gluttony wiped the conversation from his mind. Perhaps he was a selfish man for doing so, but he stood with a smile and wide open arms for her as she walked into his lab.

Because he hadn’t lied or embellished the truth. The grin on her face made everything disappear. It was a gift, every time, when she looked at him like a man and not a monster.

So he would steal whatever he could to keep her with him. Forever. As long as she would let him linger in her happiness and bask in the glow of her smile.

Even if that meant he would slowly descend into madness or lose himself, he would do so. Because to know happiness even once in his life was worth the risk.