Devil May Lie (The Devils of Vitality)

by Chani Lynn Feener

After sex, however, he became possessive. He knew that. His mind was always filled with thoughts of tying the Mad King to him and keeping him forever. Maybe life partner wasn’t too far out of the realm of possibility.

Had he messed up despite his efforts not to? Good Light, why was conversing with people so difficult? Why couldn’t everyone always just say exactly what was on their mind without fear of how it might be perceived?

“His body was what I was after from the beginning,” he confessed since it was just the two of them in here, and he knew he could trust Baikal not to spread that around to the others. Madden especially could never find out that he…No. He wouldn’t even think it. Better not to. Just to be safe.

“Ways the rest of us have failed at?” Baikal didn’t seem offended by that possibility. “It’s not a bad thing if someone can make you feel seen, Butcher.” “I’d prefer to be left to the shadows, thanks. It’s safer there.” “Safer for who?” “Everyone.”

“Oh? And how is that going?” “What if we have to break up?” “That’s not going to happen.” His voice hardened briefly when he added, “Listen closely, Void. It’s not.”

Berga said, shifting closer to Baikal when the abyss crept in closer, as though hoping the hand still holding his wrist with the multi-slate would help ground him. It never had before. Only the Mad King had ever been able to reach him and pull him from a hallucination.

“Fine.” Excited, actually. The second the Mad King mentioned seeing each other, his heart had picked up the pace in his chest. Had he…missed him? It’d only been a couple of days…How odd.

“The only precious baby I’ve got here is you.” He shut Berga’s visor with a click and laughed.

Madden couldn’t help but laugh at that. The Butcher was always so creative with his word choices. They kept things interesting and more often than not, Madden found himself bringing random things up in conversation just to see what his Mad Scientist might respond with.

“Why are you so good at this?” It was… Sexy as hell.

“Tell me anyway,” Madden insisted. “I want to hear you say it.” “I want you.” “Again.”

“I want to map your entire body and commit it to memory. I think of you when I’m awake and dream of you when I’m asleep. You’re my damn multi-slate wallpaper background.” “No shit?” Berga seemed surprised and Madden chuckled. “When did you take a picture of me?”

“Once when you were sleeping. I’ll show you later. My point is, I’m already there, baby. If this isn’t obsession, I don’t know what is. I want to take you apart and sear my name over every single piece of you, so that no matter which angle you’re looked at, everyone who sees you will know you’re taken.”

Madden hadn’t been exaggerating. There was this burning desire within him to mark the Butcher and make his ownership known, and in order to do that, they needed to solve this problem with the mafia and their mistaken assumption they had a claim to his man.

“We’ll figure it out,” Berga replied, eyes opening onto his, maybe so he could see the sincerity in his gaze. “There’s got to be a way.” “And if we can’t find one?” “We’ll make one,” he growled.

Knowing how important Flix’s opinion was to his Butcher put him on edge, and he wasn’t a fan of that feeling. Didn’t like the idea of coming in second place to anyone in Berga’s eyes.

“Kind of overprotective for a guy who’s supposedly just a friend.” That was the story and always had been, but Madden couldn’t shake the jealousy he felt whenever he thought of the two of them alone in Berga’s house having sleepovers on the couch.

Had the Butcher ever invited him into the bathroom with him because he was afraid of his own ghosts? Had he— “Why do you look like you’re about to punch me?” Flix scowled. “I’m the angry one here.” “Have you ever fucked?”

He knew what he wanted, even if it was taking the Butcher a lot longer to catch up. Madden was never going to let him go.

“He would never betray the Brumal.” Even Madden knew that. “He’d never betray you.”

“Oh, for the love of Light,” Flix snapped. “We have not fucked, we are not fucking, and we will never fuck, got it? Stop being bitter over our friendship and listen to me. Yeah, Berga would never betray me because he’s formed a deep attachment to me.” “If I smash this glass over your head,” Madden picked it up, “how mad at me do you think he’ll be? Scale of one to ten.”

If he’s abandoned by the Brumal, he won’t survive. His condition—” “I would never let him succumb to that.”

Now that he’d realized and decided to put in the effort, it was only a matter of how long it would take to cure Berga. “There is no if in this equation. The Butcher wants to be with me. So he will be.”

“Correction, actually, he’s mine. He works for you. He’s loyal to you. But don’t overstep here, Dominus.” Berga was going to be livid when he found out about this, but Madden couldn’t hold himself back any longer, the words pouring out of him gruffly.

“should probably get going. My last communication with Yuze said he’d lost track of Ives. While it’s doubtful he’d be stupid enough to attack Berga head on, there’s always the chance—” The Butcher was in danger.

Dating, it seemed, was weirdly good for him. It was nice knowing there was someone there he could always rely on. The fact it was someone outside of the Brumal actually made it better even, something he hadn’t predicted.

He wasn’t. For the first time in a long time, Bega didn’t feel trapped by his past or anxious over his future. He was living in the present, and that alone had a million weights seemingly lifting off his shoulders.

He’d developed an odd fascination with the guy’s hair and his eyes, that was it. A fascination he’d been denied the chance to explore because his friends were concerned he’d take things too far and accidentally harm the Retinue member. He’d proven them wrong though, hadn’t he? He would never hurt Madden.

“so you were planning on tossing him aside once you’d satiated your curiosity?” “Yes.” Initially, that had been the plan. Finally scratch the terrible itch that was Madden Odell and put the whole thing behind him where it belonged.

He’d be annoyed about that, about the free show he was putting on for all the onlookers if Berga wasn’t so worried about being misunderstood.

“You never wanted me.” Madden removed the earrings. “You’ve never thought of me as a person, let alone a partner. You were just going to take what you wanted and then walk away like nothing even happened.” “That isn’t true,” he insisted. “Yes, it started out that way, but—”

“Take these back.” He held out his hand, clutching the earrings in a tight fist. “No,” Berga shook his head. “What are you doing?” “What I should have done from the beginning,” he said bitterly. “Chasing after you was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. Take them. We’re done.” Berga refused.

“Wake up!” He shook Madden, clutching him close and inspecting the various injuries. And there were many.

hip. It was thin and had pierced through skin, but had mostly avoided bone, which meant it could have damaged his internal organs instead. There was so much blood. If something wasn’t done quick, he would most likely die.

He caught Sila’s gaze and warned, “I can’t lose him.” “I’ll help you,” Sila swore. They had Madden loaded into Flix’s car in less than three minutes.

It seemed like people kept coming and going in a blur of motion. But not Berga. He’d sat down in this chair as soon as Madden came out of surgery and was allowed visitors, but he hadn’t moved from it since.

“Berga,” Baikal patted his shoulder—the one that hadn’t been dislocated in the explosion—and squeezed comfortingly. “Think about what he’d want for you. You’re covered in blood. Do you really think he’d want to wake up and see you like this?” “Yes,” he said, voice hoarse and weak. “He’s always wanted to see me like this.”

At least so that Berga could better explain. There was so much he needed to tell him, but he couldn’t do any of that if the Mad King kept sleeping. What if he never woke up? What if— No.

“She isn’t here. I haven’t seen or heard her once since the accident.” He’d been too scared of losing Madden to be bothered by ghosts. “Accident,” Flix growled.

“He heard the mechanism,” Flix said, exhaling when they all seemed surprised by that. “I saw him quickly spin away from the car and reach for Berga just before the explosion. He had to have heard it and reacted.” “Reached for Berga?” Bay frowned.

“Yeah.” Flix jabbed the toe of his boot against the vinyl flooring. “Protectively. He was trying to shield him.” Why? Why would he do that?

Flix had to be wrong. The way Madden had looked at him just before…He’d been disgusted by him. Why would anyone risk their own life to save someone they loathed?...

Yes, that made much more sense. Madden had tried to avoid the explosion, ...

It was on the tip of his tongue to demand he be the one to handle it, but…Baikal was right. It wasn’t Berga’s place. Not because he wasn’t Retinue, but because Madden wanted nothing more to do with him.

“He knew there was something going on between us and chose to attack the thing I cared most about before coming for me directly.” “Good thing he failed.”

“If you hadn’t reacted so quickly, he would have died out there. You got his heart started again and stopped the bleeding as best you could.”

If he’d confessed from the start, however, there was no way Madden would have pursued him. That made things tricky. On the one hand, he felt bad that he’d hurt the Mad King. On the other, Berga couldn’t bring himself to wholly regret keeping the secret. He glanced down at the blood covering his arms again.

“Come on. You are insane. But that’s what we love about you.” “Love?” “Yeah, of course.”

The most important thing to him had been finding somewhere to belong. No. That wasn’t right. Not somewhere. Someone.

He stared at Madden. For a brief blip of time, Berga had been successful. He’d belonged to someone. And he’d ruined it. Just like everything else he came into contact with.