What did Clayton’s fear taste like? Mal had yet to sample it. Which was odd considering how they’d met. Clayton hadn’t been afraid for a single second of their encounter.
Wild.
Mal’s stomach growled, and he remembered that he hadn’t followed the nuns to sight-see. He’d come to chow down. He’d been hoping to grab a quick snack and leave without anyone the wiser, but these nuns were going to be a fucking meal and a half. He’d struck pay dirt.
“Let’s call security and have them find out where this child belongs. We can watch over it until they decide what to do with it,” Clara announced.
The teen’s fear spiked, and Mal’s nose wrinkled as his entire being was flooded with the flavor of a fresh spring day.
Blech.
Time to get to work.
There were very few people in this part of the airport, and Mal could sense that none of them were magic, so he was free to do his thing.
“You’re all incredibly ugly. Were you aware?” Mal drawled.
“Excuseme?” Clara put a hand to her chest in indignation.
“You are absolutely not excused. You’re about to put me off my lunch. Hey kid, do you have a spare bag I can stick over her head so I don’t have to look at her while I eat?”
The teen gave a startled laugh. “Sorry. I only have the one.” They nudged their gym bag awkwardly. Mal gave it a pointed look and jerked his chin in the universal sign forscram.
The kid didn’t scram.
Sigh.
“You’re just as bad as this one with all that hair. Where areyourparents?” Clara’s words were still nasty, but the second she laid eyes on Mal properly, there was a spark of fear he could feel blooming in her chest.
Mal didn’t look any particular age as far as he knew. He justwas. So it was up to the viewer to decide what to make of him, if they were willing to look. Apparently, to Clara, he looked like an unruly child.
“I don’t have parents,” Mal said casually. He never had, never would.
“So the two of you are together then? Good. That’ll make this easier. Go get security, Beth,” Clara ordered the nun who had offered to clean her shoe.
Beth scurried off, but Mal couldn’t have that, so he stopped her. Considering his low reserves, he shouldn’t have used magic to do it, but he was about to get a huge payout, so it didn’t matter.
Beth slammed into an invisible wall, and her fear spiked deliciously. Mal breathed it in, and his mind went hazy from pleasure for a moment. It was enough magic for him to do something fun. The kid deserved to see something fun after what they’d just dealt with, and Mal deserved it because he was Mal, and he deserved all the fun things.
He made a gathering motion with one hand andpulled.All the nuns lifted off their feet and turned to face him.
Mal gave them the toothiest smile he had. He was proud of that smile. It had made many a grown man wet himself throughout the decades. The teen didn’t wet themself, but the nuns? Yeah, at least one of the ladies soiled herself, and Mal hadn’t even gotten started.
He pointed at the teen and said, “You should be running now.”
Then he forgot about them entirely and faced the gaggle held frozen before him, whispering, “Dread.” It came out as a little sigh that drifted through the women. As it touched each one, they shivered violently but couldn’t move because they were held fast by Mal’s compulsion.
Mal didn’t have to be so theatrical. He could just give them all a little spook, have a quick snack, and be on his way, but something about that didn’t work for him. He wanted more than to startle them. He wanted to taste their pure, unfiltered terror.
He walked up to Clara and whispered, “Show me.” The woman's eyes filled with a cloudy haze, and Mal gave a small chuckle. “Fire, hmm?” Mal hadn’t gotten to play with fire magic in quite some time.
It worked better when playing with his own kind, but if his target was deeply afraid of something, Mal could bring it to life for a short period of time. If it were a nightmare or a demon, Mal could play with their fear and turn it into reality for an extended period of time. But they were all generally afraid of him the most, so that rarely gave Mal something new to play with.
Fire was fun. No need for creativity. Just chaos and screaming.
“Thank you, Clara. I’m going to enjoy this. I don’t think you will, though.” Mal flicked his hands, and they burst into flames. Clara and the other nuns squealed in terror, and Mal shivered in ecstasy as their fear rushed into him.
He moved a hand down Clara’s arm, just shy of touching the fabric of her sleeve, making it smoulder. “Oh… and in case you were wondering… Thisispersonal, and I do hope you hold it against me. If you survive, that is.” The fear essence flooding into him was so heady that it made his voice sound sensual.
