Chapter 8Nix

8

Nix

N ix had blood on his shirt.

It wasn't his sartorial ideal, but there were worse things, seeing as he could change his clothing at will. He should change it right now, in fact.

But he was kind of enjoying the way Ivan was pawing at him so frantically.

"Let me see," he was growling, turning Nix to face him and tugging at Nix's shirt as if he would tear it in two with his bare hands.

It would have been kind of hot, in a different context. But there wasn't time to enjoy it—they weren't safe staying where they were, and another bullet hitting Ivan instead of Nix was obviously unacceptable.

Nix had already fucked up beyond belief. He should have caught the man who'd shot him—he was fast enough, so that was no excuse. Kai would have gotten hold of him in an instant. But Nix wasn't used to being hit by human weapons. He was an incubus, not a warrior demon. He was strong, but he wasn't skilled in combat.

Maybe he wasn't the right demon for Ivan after all.

Well, too fucking bad , he thought petulantly. I'm keeping him anyway.

Nix grabbed Ivan's hand, stilling it with a gentle squeeze. "I'm fine, Ivan. We need to go. It's not safe. And won't the police be showing up?"

Ivan scoffed. "No one in this building would dare call the police."

He still had a hand on Nix's chest, but with the other, he raised his gun. Apparently the security guard had dared to move.

"Not an inch," Ivan growled, the darkness in his voice stirring up something hot in Nix's insides. "Or you get a bullet to the head. You let him in."

The fear coming off the man was positively rank. "W-We were expecting a shipment of office supplies. As soon as he was in… He had a gun on me, boss. I—I tried to warn you."

Ivan met Nix's eyes, and Nix nodded. The guard was being truthful, as far as he could tell. He reeked of fear, obviously, but not guilt, and certainly no cunning.

And he had cried out.

Ivan lowered his gun, but he didn't holster it. "Send all the security footage to me. Jace will be coming by to double-check it."

With that, he was herding Nix out the door, but at the last minute, he turned back. "And don't let Tara leave the building."

"She knew we were heading out now," Nix mused as they approached the waiting town car.

"Yes."

"What will you do if she's guilty?"

Ivan gave him a look .

"How vicious," Nix murmured.

She'd deserve it, though, in Nix's opinion. Ivan had come much, much too close to getting a bullet in the chest. Ice water flooded Nix's veins at the thought. It was a strange sensation. Was this what real fear felt like? Nix had smelled it on others, but he'd never had cause to feel it so intensely himself.

Ivan steered him into the town car with a firm hand on his back. Oleg was waiting in the front seat. If he'd heard the gunshots, he didn't give any sign of it.

"Drive," Ivan ordered, slamming the car door shut behind them. Oleg obeyed, eyes straight ahead, by all appearances unfazed by the blood staining Nix's shirt.

"Hospital?" Ivan asked harshly.

Nix looked to him. Was that question directed at Nix? Ivan was radiating disquiet, his eyes locked onto Nix's bloody chest. Had he forgotten what Nix was? "Ivan," Nix reminded him gently. "I'm a demon."

"Right." Ivan turned to Oleg again. "My apartment. No—Andresen's Hotel."

Nix raised a brow, and Ivan answered his unspoken question.

"Sergei knows I know. It's the only reason he'd try something so desperate. We need a moment to regroup."

The hotel was closer than Ivan's apartment, and they arrived quickly. Ivan threw Nix his suit jacket, and Nix put it on to cover up his bloody shirt, deciding not to mention the fact that he could summon his own jacket at will.

The jacket smelled like Ivan, after all, and there was just something so classic about wearing one's lover's clothes, wasn't there?

They stepped out of the car, and then Ivan was ducking his head back in to threaten his driver. "If anyone finds me here, your life is forfeit."

Nix tossed in a quick, "Bye, Oleg!" and threw him a kiss for good measure, hoping to offset Ivan's panicked harshness. So touchy after one little bullet.

Then again, when Nix thought about Ivan getting hit…

That fake deliveryman should pray to all his gods that Nix didn't get his hands on him first.

They were given a room quickly enough after Ivan intimidated the poor woman at the front desk, pushing past any questions of a reservation with cold indifference and a heavy credit card. Ivan was on his phone in the elevator, presumably talking to Jace, instructing him to pick up the security footage and to detain Tara until Ivan and Nix had a chance to speak with her, then to stand guard at the hotel and shoot Sergei on sight if he should appear.

Nix eavesdropped shamelessly and with great interest. How exciting it all was.

As soon as they were in the room, the door bolted behind them, Ivan turned to Nix.

"Strip."

Nix placed a hand on his chest in faux surprise. "Why, Ivan."

Ivan gave him a frustrated look. "I don't care that you say you're fine. I want to see."

Far be it for Nix to refuse to get naked when his master commanded. Nix snapped his fingers, the jacket sliding off and his bloody shirt disappearing. (He didn't actually need the snapping, but it added an extra bit of fun, and he figured they could use the levity.)

The bastard had gotten him squarely in the chest. Twice. Ivan stared hard at the blood that remained, then wiped his finger through it, revealing the unmarked skin below.

The hand he brought up to his face so he could eye the blood was shaking, but his voice was firm with his next command. "Change back into your demon form."

Nix cocked his head, then widened his eyes in surprise as he realized Ivan's reasoning. "You think this might be an illusion? "

It was laughable, that Nix would only be pretending to be unharmed, but he shifted anyway. The blood smearing his chest turned a dark purple, but his skin stayed unmarked beneath it.

Nix hadn't realized quite how tightly wound Ivan had become until the tension in his frame eased. "Good," he said with a harsh breath. "Good."

He eyed Nix's nipple piercings for a long moment before his gaze tracked down the rest of Nix's torso, as if Nix might be hiding more bullet wounds from him. His assessment stopped abruptly at the waistband of Nix's low-waisted leather pants, where a bit of red lace was peeking out provocatively.

Ivan's gaze shot back up to Nix's. "What the fuck is that?"

Nix grinned at him, all sharp teeth. "My panties, of course."

He thought for a moment that Ivan would turn away, perhaps begin to strategize revenge or something equally appropriate, but his human surprised him. "Show me," he ordered.

Nix wouldn't make him ask twice. He snapped his fingers, and his leather pants went the way of his shirt.

Ivan was close enough that the long breath he let out cooled Nix's skin. "Jesus."

Nix preened. He was awfully fond of this conjured pair of red lacy underwear. He liked the way it framed his bulge in particular. He hadn't been sure if Ivan would feel the same, given his silly ideas about appropriate appearances and whatnot, but the budding tendrils of desire cutting through Ivan's panic said otherwise.

And yet Ivan's gaze was roaming over Nix again, like his brain hadn't caught up to the evidence before him. Nix grabbed his chin, forcing Ivan to meet his eyes. "Ivan Kozlov," he said firmly. "I am a demon . A gun isn't going to be the end of me."

"I'm going to kill him," Ivan swore.

It was Ivan's scent more than his words that made Nix take notice of the fact that he was trembling not in fear but in rage. It was thick in the air, spicy and hot, a rich, heady sauce blanketing whatever arousal Nix's naughty panties had inspired. "I'm sure you will," Nix murmured.

They stood there, breathing each other's air, and Nix soaked up that rage, letting it run through him in turn. Anger wasn't usually his food of choice, but it was still a strong human emotion, and those were hard to resist for a demon.

Ivan's gaze kept dropping back to Nix's panties, where Nix's cock was beginning to strain against the lace.

He couldn't help it—Ivan was acting all fierce and angry and ordering people to strip willy-nilly. How was Nix meant not to get turned on?

He'd been very good in Ivan's office earlier. He'd feasted on Ivan's desire and had asked for nothing else for himself in return. But he wanted more now. He wanted that thick cock inside him. Wanted Ivan to paint his insides the way he'd painted his face. Wanted to drain Ivan of all he had, then coax him back to hardness and do it all again, until Ivan was begging Nix for a reprieve.

"I can take these off too," he offered, his voice low and sultry.

Ivan's hand drifted to Nix's waist, fingering the lacy band of his panties, and then dipped just below, his light touch sending tingles along Nix's skin. But he stayed silent.

Of course. In all the hubbub, Nix had let himself forget Ivan's preposterous "one time only" assertion and his own annoyance with it.

Nix didn't want one time. He wanted all the times. It had been the hottest thing in the world, to have Ivan's harsh grip in his hair and his full cock in Nix's mouth, his hips thrusting hard enough to bruise Nix's throat (if he were human, that was). To have him lose control of that tight restraint of his, all at Nix's hands.

No illusions. No tricks. Just Ivan wanting Nix exactly as he was, so fiercely he'd been mad with it.

"What will happen if you fuck me, Ivan?" Nix asked softly, running his hands along Ivan's broad shoulders. "Will the world collapse?"

Ivan snapped Nix's waistband against his skin. "Bratva men…they're old-fashioned. Toxic, Sascha would say. It was challenge enough with Alexei and Sascha preferring men. But all three of us? The leader of the family? I'd be shot in my sleep."

Nix scoffed. "I'm not sure if you noticed, baby, but you were just shot at in broad daylight."

"That's different." Ivan shook his head. "I've spent my entire adult life trying to protect Sascha from the wrath of men too bigoted to—"

Nix cut in, impatient, "Then replace your men."

Ivan stopped short, his fingers twitching against Nix's skin. "What?"

"We're already tidying things up around here, aren't we?" Nix continued, eager to have Ivan finally listening. "Then let's switch it all up, hm? Why shouldn't you be able to do whatever you want? Fuck whoever you want? You're the one in charge."

Ivan's gaze snapped to his. "And the men who won't follow?"

"What happens to Mafia men who disobey the boss?"

"Vicious," Ivan murmured, repeating Nix's assertion from earlier. His pupils were taking over his pale eyes, and the desire in the air was thickening.

Nix lowered his voice, letting himself sway into him. "They all knew what they were getting into, didn't they? You can still have your empire. But it will be one of your making, not this mess your father left you."

Ivan's hand had dipped lower into Nix's panties, his fingers practically brushing at the base of Nix's cock. Nix stepped even closer, running his nose along the line of Ivan's neck. "Does that turn you on, Vanya?" he murmured, already knowing the answer. "The thought of taking charge so absolutely? "

Ivan's laugh had a bitter edge to it, even as he continued to stroke Nix's skin. "It's why my brothers hate me. The fact that I want it so badly. They think I should reject it all, not covet it." He wrapped his free hand around Nix's throat, stilling his movements and catching his eye. "Does that disgust you too?"

Disgust him? How could Nix be disgusted by Ivan? By a little thing like Ivan wanting a bit of power in a world that had proven to be harsh and terrifying?

Nix wouldn't want to be powerless here either.

And Ivan seemed to keep forgetting that Nix had tasted his very soul—he knew all its sour and bitter pockets already. There wasn't anything Ivan could say or do that would surprise Nix into hating him.

Nix had been around humans for many, many years. Ivan was hardly the worst of them.

"You think I care about human morals, Vanya?" Nix laughed, low and throaty. "I like that you're vicious, baby. That you want to keep your crooked little kingdom. And if you go too far, I'll be here to rein you in."

There was another charged moment, the air between them electric, and then Ivan was tugging at the waistband of Nix's panties. "Take these off. Now. "

Nix arched a brow. "No more one-time thing?"

"Fuck one time. You're my demon," Ivan growled, tightening his hand around Nix's throat as he lowered his mouth to his. "I'll have you whenever the fuck I want you."

As Ivan claimed his mouth, Nix had to backtrack and give a bit of credit to their fake deliveryman. Because if Nix had known getting shot was the key to breaking down a few more of Ivan's barriers, he'd have managed it day one.

"Off," Ivan growled, repeating his demand and breaking the kiss to stare daggers at Nix's offending panties .

Nix could have disappeared his underwear the same way he'd disappeared the rest, but he chose to slide them down instead, enjoying the way Ivan's gaze was locked onto everything he revealed. Locked onto Nix's dick, in fact.

It was a nice dick, if Nix did say so himself. Slimmer than Ivan's, but long enough, and with such pretty colors, a dark red at the base lightening to a pale lavender at the narrowed head.

"No hair," Ivan murmured, petting the skin at the base of Nix's cock. He brushed his finger along the length, circling the tip, and Nix shuddered at the touch. He'd basically been edged for days now. If Ivan wrapped a full hand around his cock, he might just explode.

But Ivan raised his hand, rubbing the precum between his fingers thoughtfully. "Thick," he mused.

"Mm," Nix answered mindlessly. He didn't need foreplay, no matter how much he was relishing Ivan's interest in all his bits. What he needed was Ivan's cock inside him that very instant.

Ivan's hand slid around, grabbing at Nix's ass. It slid steadily upward from there, palming at the base of his tail. Nix hissed at the touch.

Ivan smirked at him. "Sensitive here?"

"Very."

Ivan looked down to where the bulk of Nix's tail had crept around his leg. If he was put off by having a demon's tail wrapped around his calf, he didn't show it. "And the rest of it?"

Nix blinked innocently. "Has a mind of its own sometimes."

Ivan hummed, his fingers sliding down to Nix's crease, dipping in without hesitation. Apparently having made up his mind, he wasn't going to be shy about it.

Thank the fucking Book for that.

But Ivan stopped short once his fingers brushed against Nix's hole.

Oh, right. That .

Ivan stared at him. "What— Are you wet ?"

"How many times do I need to tell you?" Nix placed a hand on Ivan's chest, pushing him up against the wall. He'd mount the human himself if he had to. "I'm a demon, baby. An incubus." He grinned at Ivan, snapping sharp teeth. "Did you think I wouldn't be self-lubricating?"