Chapter 21Nix

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Nix

N ix landed hard on the dusty cave floor.

He was usually more graceful returning to the Void, but he was too stunned to catch himself, and he ended up sprawled out on his back.

He'd completed the contract.

Obviously, since here he was, back in the Void. But worse—so much worse—was that when he reached for Ivan's beautiful, broken soul piece in his chest, it wasn't there. It was somewhere deep inside Nix, dormant with all the others.

Except, unlike with all the others that had come before, Nix felt like a piece of himself was now missing.

He supposed it was funny—his idea for a meeting had proven more effective than he could have imagined. Apparently the boost to Ivan's reputation it was going to give, coupled with the culling of his disloyal men, was enough to cement his foothold in New York and keep him and his brothers safe .

But of course, his brothers were already safe, bonded as they were to their respective vampire and demon.

Nix really should have taken that into account.

He wanted to scream. I wasn't ready! I was never going to be ready.

He'd been an idiot. He should have bonded with Ivan the moment the thought had entered his mind. He should have tricked him into it, if necessary. Should have sucked Ivan's brains out of his dick and pressed his advantage when the human was still gasping for air.

Now Nix did scream, the sound echoing off the cave walls, "I wasn't! Fucking ! Ready!"

He jumped as a raspy voice sounded out from inside the cave, Nightmare's glowing white eyes like a beacon in the dark. "You're back."

"As you can fucking see," Nix snarled, cracking the dirt floor with his talons.

He knew better than to talk to Nightmare that way, but he didn't have it in himself to care. He didn't even have the energy to lift himself off the dirt to face him properly.

But there was no retaliation. No creeping, crawling shadows or horrific visions.

"You're crying," Nightmare told him instead.

"I'm not. I'm a demon. I don't cry." But Nix lifted a hand to his cheek anyway, surprised when it came back wet. Maybe he was bleeding from his eyes. It certainly felt like he had some sort of mortal wound.

"You're crying," Nightmare repeated, his tone unreadable.

Nix sniffed. "Maybe you should give me some privacy, then."

"You won't be here long enough."

It took a moment for the words to register, but then it was like a spark of lightning ran through Nix. He scrambled onto his knees, peering up at those glowing eyes. "Do you know something? Nightmare? Do you—do you know something I don't?"

There shouldn't be any reason he would. Nix knew for a fact that Nightmare never watched the portal to the human realm. But Nix wondered, not for the first time, if he had another connection none of them knew about. Another way of watching.

Or maybe that was only Nix's wishful thinking.

"You found a mate," Nightmare mused instead of answering his question.

"I did. But I fucked it up." Nix sniffed again, blinking back his not-tears. "And he can't summon me twice."

Would he even if he could have? Ivan had said he needed Nix, but that was when he'd had Nix up in his business twenty-four hours a day. Maybe given a moment alone—given some breathing room—Ivan would remember his life had been better without him. Smoother. Calmer. Under his control.

And it didn't fucking matter anyway, because what were the chances Ivan would let someone else summon Nix? Allow another demon into his world that he had no control over? The way he'd reacted to Cooper summoning Chaos…

If only Nix had been given more time. If he'd had more of a chance to burrow under Ivan's skin the way Ivan had gotten under his. More time to convince him what a good partner Nix could be. What a good mate.

But maybe…maybe Chaos would return the favor Nix had given him. Maybe he'd pull his attention from Cooper long enough to find a way for Nix to come back.

And then Nix would hunt Ivan down, and he would demand a bond in return for not burning down the whole fucking city.

But if Ivan wasn't the one who summoned him…

"Can we bond with a human who hasn't summoned us?" he asked Nightmare .

Nightmare hummed—a creepy, tuneless sound. "Goodbye, Nix."

His glowing eyes blinked out, and the cave was dark again.

And then for the second time that day, Nix was tugged away.