The Seven Deadly Sinners

25

"I'm coming," I said, responding to Colby's Summon. I finished pulling on my strappy black heel and then ran out my front door and hopped into Colby's car.

It'd been a week since I'd given them all their powers. Colby had taught me how to Urge, practicing on baristas and waitresses and store employees. I'd gotten the hang of it pretty quickly. He'd come with me to talk to Axel and Trixie about my stepping out of the ring. I'd read their minds and Urged them to tie up every loose end. They stopped asking questions once I told them I wouldn't need payments anymore, though. Trixie was extremely happy about that.

We were driving to the Traphouse now for the party Kevin had wanted to throw. Kevin was staying at the Traphouse for the time being and I'd been spending almost all of my time there. I even slept there one night with Colby. I adjusted the strapless black leather dress I was wearing and ran my hands through my straightened red hair.

"You look really hot," he said. I chuckled.

"Well thanks," I replied, leaning over to kiss him on the cheek.

"So, uh, not to be pushy, but... when are you going to move into the house with us? You know our chief should be living with us," Colby said. They'd started calling me the chief after I told them I didn't like them calling me their queen. That felt too weird. They called Colby boss still, since he was my second in command. He'd adjusted to the idea of having someone above him pretty quickly and he'd started managing his anger a lot better, too.

We'd spent just about every minute together that we could, except I had slept at home most nights. I'd gotten a lot closer with him and we'd fallen a whole lot more. I was closer with everyone else, too. They had accepted me as their chief and were now moving on to accepting me as a member of the family, too.

"I hadn't really thought about that," I replied.

"That's okay. You can take your time. Mike and Brennen just really want you there to make their job easier, but alleviating their stress is by no means your responsibility. And you can have the extra bedroom," he said.

"What, don't like sharing?" I asked. He literally swerved the car when I said that. "Jesus, Colby, don't kill us before we get there."

"Sorry. I just, uh... I didn't think you'd want to," he said.

"Share a room with you?" I asked. "Why wouldn't I?"

"I don't know. I'm just not used to having someone that wants to spend so much time with me," Colby admitted.

"I know, love. That's okay. Are you okay with that or would you rather I take the extra one?" I asked.

"What! No, no, I definitely want to share," he said. He put his hand on my bare thigh. "Jesus babe, do you really need to wear stuff that short?"

"The whole point of having desire as a power is to be desirable. Lust and seduction is what makes the whole mind reading thing possible," I said. "Seeing them only makes them trust me. I can't read into them unless they're attracted to me."

"Yeah, and you could wear a trash bag and still have guys swooning over you," Colby said. He'd been getting jealous really easy when we went out into public together. Part of his wrath power also included being able to sense how strongly someone was feeling something. He could choose a feeling and make someone else feel it however strongly he wanted, but could also just sense the intensity of anyone's feeling while unable to know what that feeling was. So if he saw someone look at me and that person happened to be really sad or happy or literally anything, he'd sense the strength and immediately assume it was lust or desire.