Chapter 2

Nix wasn’t sure how to respond to that immediately. Just when he’d started to finally make sense of things with Branwen, it seemed like things with Lake were falling apart and growing more complicated.

There was no reason he could think of for the Demon to be taking it this far. His acting out of anger was one thing, but right now…

Lake looked serious.

And that was frightening in a way Nix wasn’t aware was possible.

“Claiming marks are a barbaric and outdated practice,” he eventually said. “No court would ever side with someone who tried to make a mating claim based solely off of that.”

“If it was someone else’s mark, that would most likely be true,” Lake agreed.

“This isn’t funny. You’re taking it too far. You were pissed off about my relationship with the person you blame for hurting Yejun, I get it. We can both forget it and—”

Lake captured Nix’s chin and forced his head up so their eyes met. “Look at me very closely, Nix. Do I look like I’m joking?”

Before Nix could answer, Lake’s multi-slate went off. He breathed a sigh of relief when after a moment he was released, retreating a few steps to safety as he watched Lake answer the call.

“What the hell do you want now?” Lake practically snarled.

“Beck said something happened to Nix,” Yejun’s concerned voice came through the speaker. “He’s with you, right? Is he okay? Where are you two?”

“You were supposed to be fucking watching him,” Lake said angrily.

“He ran away before I—”

“We’re coming now.” Lake ended the call and then snatched Nix’s wrist, dragging him to the exit.

“Wait!” His hand went up to the wound on his neck in a poor attempt to try and cover it. Now that he’d been reminded it was there, and he’d recovered some from the shock of learning about Branwen’s secret life, the severity of the situation finally hit him. “We can’t just leave like this! People will see it!”

Lake opened the door hard enough it whacked loudly against the wall and then pulled Nix into the hall, storming past the few students who were in the process of entering and leaving their own dorms.

Nix hung his head and tried to hide the injury, but he could feel the wet material of the shirt beneath his palm and knew Lake hadn’t been lying about the blood having soaked through.

“Don’t bother,” Lake said once they’d made it down the first flight of stairs. He switched to Nix’s other side, capturing his other hand and forcing it away from the wound so it was left out in the open.

“Stop it!”

“I want them to know.”

“Yeah, well I don’t!” With one hard tug, Nix finally freed himself, retreating a few steps quickly to put distance between them.

They’d made it to the foyer of the dorm building, and through the open door, a downpour could be seen. No one else was loitering around, though there were still the sounds of students on the level above them which they’d just come from. Because of that, Nix forced his voice to remain even and low enough not to echo in the wide empty space as he stared Lake down.

“I don’t want this,” he said. “This isn’t what we agreed upon.”

“What we agreed upon?” Lake scoffed. “You don’t even know what you signed, Songbird. Be honest.”

“That’s because you wouldn’t let me read it first!”

“Want to read it now?” Lake cocked his head. “There’s a copy at the Roost. I’ll show it to you.”

“No way.” He took another step back. “I’m not falling for that.”

“Are you afraid of me?”

“Give me one good reason not to be.”

To his credit, Lake didn’t bother. “I can’t do that.”

“Then—”

“I can’t let you go either.”

Nix frowned. “Why not?”

He’d already promised to help with this hacker—hell, that’s what he’d been doing before Lake had interrupted him earlier. He’d been on to something, untangling it all for both of their benefits, but then the Demon had gotten weird and changed the subject. Insisted they leave…

His gaze dropped to the duffle bag still held tightly in Lake’s hand.

He didn’t want to move to the Roost, but now that he’d seen the shoes under Grady’s bed…Could he stay here? Was it safe? Just because he didn’t dare tell Lake what he’d seen, didn’t mean he wouldn’t take precautions where his roommate was concerned. Obviously, this hatred that Grady held for the Demons ran deeper than Nix had realized. The two of them needed to talk it out.

But…

Nix pressed against the bleeding wound on his neck again. There was no way he could confront Grady like this. It was no regular bite. No one would believe him if Nix tried to claim it was an accident.

Centuries ago, the people of Tulniri had control over the elements and could merge their powers by forming a connection. This was done through neck bites, exchanging blood and supposedly energy. It’d been a very long time since anyone here had any sort of power, however, and the practice, though still spoken of, wasn’t something people often took part in any longer. Some did, of course, as a symbol of their commitment to one another, but those were typically married couples.

Lake claimed he’d done it to protect Nix from Yejun.

“Do you really expect me to believe you’d choose me over your best friend?” Nix asked then.

“I would never,” Lake replied, but before Nix could feel even an inkling of disappointment, added, “I don’t plan on ever having to choose at all. The bite isn’t just for you, or me. It’s for Yejun as well.”

“How so?”

“It’ll prevent him from doing something he’ll no doubt regret. He’ll hold himself back from killing you this way. You should be thanking me, Songbird.”

“Thanking you?” he repeated incredulously. “Without cosmetic surgery, this won’t ever—”

The sound of pounding footsteps cut him off, and a second later Yejun shot through the entrance to the dorm. He was soaked from the rain, but he didn’t seem to care, rushing over to Nix the second he spotted him.

“What happened?” He wrapped an arm around Nix’s shoulders and pulled lightly at his wrist, trying to get him to drop his hand away from the injury. “There’s a lot of blood. What—”

They both froze once he finally got Nix’s hand away and saw the mark on his neck. It seemed like Yejun was struggling to process it the same way Nix had been, and it took him a long time before he finally turned his head and rested a blank look on Lake.

“Who did this?” Yejun’s voice was low and rumbly, his grip on Nix tightening.

“Relax,” Lake said.

“Someone put a claiming mark on our—”

“It was me,” he stopped him, eyes never wavering. “I bit him.”

“You—” Yejun frowned, then collected himself. “What the hell, man?! Why the fuck would you do something like this?!”

“I have my reasons.”

He swore. “We’ll discuss this later. West is going to lose his shit when he finds out. This wasn’t part of the agreement between the three of us.”

“Please.” Lake didn’t seem the least bit concerned. “At most, West will throw a fit and want to mark the other side as some twisted sense of competition.”

Nix sucked in a sharp breath, but Yejun hushed him.

“Don’t listen to him, Firebird, he’s just being a dick right now.” He took a better look at the mark and winced. “Come on, we’ve got to get you cleaned up before that gets infected. Which floor is your room on?”

“I was bringing him to the Roost,” Lake stated.

“Not like this you aren’t.”

“June.”

“This isn’t up for debate,” he growled. “You’re the one who forced West and I to accept him. That means he’s also mine . This,” he pointed to the bite, “is fucking serious. What are you going to do when the Council finds out? Did you even think this through?”

“Of course I did.”

“Yeah?” Yejun glared. “With which head exactly?”

They were drawing too much attention. Nix heard whispers from above and tilted his head back to catch sight of a couple of students leaning over the railing. As soon as they were caught they pulled back, but it was clear they’d seen enough for rumors to spread all over campus.

“Can we just,” Nix sighed, suddenly exhausted, “do this somewhere else?”

“What are you doing?” Lake asked when Yejun pulled up his multi-slate.

“Telling West to bring the car.”

“What for?”

“You wanted to take him to the Roost didn’t you?” He flung a hand toward the door. “I’m not walking him out there in this with that thing on his neck. We’ll be lucky if he doesn’t get sick from the stress alone as it is.”

“He isn’t that delicate,” Lake huffed.

Any other occasion, Nix would have agreed out of principle, but as it were…He really just wanted to take a hot bath—alone—to relieve all the aches and pains in his body. His hands still hurt from pounding on the waif stall, and his neck was throbbing. Frankly, the idea of trudging through the rain sounded about as appealing as stripping down and riding one of the Demons in the middle of the foyer did—which was not at all.

Mostly.

Shit.

How could he even be slightly turned on at a time like this. It was official. There was something seriously wrong with him. The only thing left to discover was the source. When did he change from the person who couldn’t care less about sex to this needy monster who wanted it even when he’d been abused and was bleeding out?

“Hey,” Yejun tucked Nix in even closer and gentled his tone, “you still with me, Firebird?”

“He’s fine.” Lake headed toward them, stopping when Yejun sent him a dark look.

An engine roared outside, and Yejun’s gaze shifted as soon as a familiar vibrant yellow sports car pulled up directly in front of the building. Still carefully supporting Nix, he started for the door.

“You can walk,” he told Lake curtly.

“This is ridiculous.”

“I don’t know what you learned over on Vitality, but here we agreed to make all major decisions together ,” Yejun reminded, and it was clear that he wasn’t just angry, he was also hurt. “You just screwed West and me over. You can fucking walk, your majesty.”

Both Lake and Nix flinched.

They were almost to the door by the time Nix gathered up enough courage to glance over his shoulder, sucking in a sharp breath when he found Lake already staring back at him.

The intensity in his eyes spoke volumes.

Yejun might be protectively whisking him away right now, but this wasn’t over between Nix and the Imperial Prince.

Not by a long shot.

Stubbornly, Nix lifted his chin and stepped out into the rain.