Chapter 14

"Nix!" Grady called out to him from across the library when he entered. His roommate was seated with a group of three, two male and one female. They'd chosen a spot in the corner of the room, furthest from the stacks and the scolding eyes of the librarian who was usually seated behind the front desk.

It'd only been a few days since the start of classes, and Nix hadn't really made many friends aside from Grady. In the past, that wouldn't have bothered him. He'd always been busy with his nose in his studies or playing the latest release of one of his favorite game series.

Branwen used to tease him over summer breaks when she'd visited his house that the entire world could end, and he wouldn't even know it until he pulled his head out of a book or away from a screen. She'd teased him, but she'd also been the first person to fully accept his dream to become a game developer and root for him.

The two of them had grown up apart, only seeing each other at major family events once or twice a year. It hadn't been until they'd gotten older and been allowed to have their own multi-slates that they'd started communicating more frequently. He hadn't been a complete loner in high school, but there also wasn't a single person from that period of his life he'd kept in touch with.

It was the same with Hyacinth Academy. He'd gotten along with his roommate there and the other students he attended regular classes with. They'd joked around, and there'd always been someone to sit with at lunch. When the professors had assigned group projects, he'd never feared being left the last one standing with no one wanting to work with him. A couple of those people had reached out after the death of his cousin, but none of them had known her, and none of them had been close enough with him to push the issue when he'd made it clear by giving them only offhand replies that he wanted distance.

Call him crazy, but friendship was never something Nix had felt the need for. He'd had Branwen for when he needed to talk to someone, and online friends he gamed with to help blow off steam. He understood it was unconventional, but it'd worked for him. When Branwen had called and gossiped about her friends, he'd laughed along with her and secretly thought he'd made the right choice not to get close to anyone.

The old version of him would have waved absently at Grady and gone on his way. Instead, he found himself approaching the table, a smile already set in place. He nodded in greeting and when one of the guys he didn't know offered the empty seat next to him, Nix took it.

"You're new this year, right?" the female student propped her elbows on the table and asked. She was pretty, with curly black hair and wide violet eyes. The crimson eyeshadow she'd chosen helped to highlight them, and when she smiled, Nix could tell it was with genuine happiness. "I've seen you around campus. I'm Khloe."

"Hi," he waved. "Nix."

The male sitting closest to Grady was giving him a funny look, almost as though he were trying to place him. He had a similar coloring to Khloe, but it was hard to tell if they were related or not, especially since his hair was a deep shade of red. Before Nix could formulate a good way to ask, the guy snapped his fingers and pointed at him excitedly.

"You were in Hunters Cross the other day, weren't you?" He nodded, answering his own question. "I saw you with Yejun Sang!"

Grady groaned and pulled his friend back into his chair. "Man, don't encourage him. In fact," he motioned to the student who'd offered Nix the seat, "Juri, please help me out here. We all know what the Demons are like. Explain to my roommate why they're bad news. Maybe if someone else tries to warn him off of them, it'll actually get through to him."

Juri was a dirty blond who seemed laid back, but he frowned at Grady's comment. "You're trying to make friends with the Demons?"

"Not trying," the redhead interrupted. "From what I saw the other day, they're already pretty chummy. They were walking down the hall and Yejun was whispering something to him. Seemed like they were close."

After being super normal the entire time they'd been in his studio, Yejun had finished up, walked Nix out, and threatened him. It hadn't been anything too extreme, just a passing comment about how if Nix planned on ruining their plan, or Light forbid, had any thoughts of siding with the hacker if he came calling, Yejun wouldn't hesitate to destroy him.

It'd gotten a little colorful toward the end, when he'd leaned in and said he'd make Nix wish he were never born if it came to that, but it'd been said with that same flirtatious smirk, and afterward, he'd winked and bid Nix farewell on the path. He'd gone right toward the Roost, and Nix had gone left toward his dorm.

If that's what the redhead had seen…

"I wouldn't exactly put it that way," Nix replied, uncomfortable with this topic.

"According to gossip," Khole said, "that's not true, like, at all. Aren't you dating them?"

The redhead gasped. "Like all three of them?! At the same time?!"

"Man, shut up," Grady hissed, glancing toward the head of the room. Fortunately, the librarian still wasn't at her station, so there was no one there to scold them. Once that was settled, he turned back to Nix. "Seriously though, I've been wanting to ask…Is it true?"

"Sort of." He couldn't deny it, but it felt strange admitting to something like that to a group of strangers, especially when the vibe was so torn.

Half of them seemed interested and excited about the news and the other half…

"Are they blackmailing you?" Juri asked.

"Oh," the redhead set his chin on his fist and stared, "are they? Scandalous."

"You're such an asshole." Grady pinched the bridge of his nose.

"What? I've been trying to make it into the Bishop tier for two years now and nothing," he whined. "But the newcomer somehow makes it in less than five days? How even?" He pushed out his lower lip, pouting in Nix's direction. "Tell me your secrets, new guy."

"Um," Nix wasn't sure how to proceed here, "I don't have any? I just…Ran into them the first day. Grady was with me."

Grady shook his head. "Seemed like you already knew them before that."

Well shit. Looked like he hadn't formed a strong enough friendship with his roommate either.

"Only Lake," he admitted. "He and I had talked a couple of times before."

"On the app, right?" the redhead said. He pulled up his multi-slate and opened the app, showing Nix his screen. "This is me. What about you?"

The username was RedHotLover and Nix barely caught himself from chuckling. He'd used a picture of the back of his head as his photo, and the tiny icon showed that he was a part of the Knight tier.

"Aren't these supposed to be anonymous?" Nix managed to point out, only to have the rest of them snort at him.

"Please," Khloe rolled her eyes. "Half of us have hooked up in real life thanks to that app, so for the most part, our identities have already been revealed."

"So," he didn't want to hope but felt it anyway, "you all use it?"

"Not me," Grady stated, but the others all nodded, even Juri.

When they'd first spoken about the Demons, Grady had seemed to have something personal against them. He'd said it had to do with his friend, and considering how he'd asked Juri to back him up…

"Have any of you interacted with one of the Kings before?" he directed the question to the table as a whole, but his eyes were on Juri, searching for any hint that he'd hit a nerve.

"Most people don't," Khloe was the one to reply, and she sounded bummed. "And if they are lucky enough, they're usually ordered to sign an NDA after so they can't talk about it."

"That's because the Demons don't play around," Grady insisted bitterly. "They're monsters. The shit they're into isn't normal."

"How do you know that if you've never been with one and don't personally know anyone who was?" the redhead said, giving off the impression that he was used to listening to Grady complain about them.

"Shut up, Dew. You don't know what you're talking about."

"No, man," the redhead, Dew, snapped back, "you don't. A couple of the guys on the swim team have slept with Yejun and West, and even though they can't give details, they all say it was a good time."

"Not Rase," Juri said.

It was only two words, but it instantly dampened the mood. Even Dew conceded, his shoulders caving in as he dropped his gaze to his folded hands.

Nix frowned. If they used the app, there was a chance they'd interacted with Branwen. He needed to find out more, but curiosity got the better of him, and instead of asking about that, he found himself saying, "Who's Rase?"

"Don't say his name so loudly," Khloe warned, inching her chair closer to the table. "Rase was a senior last year, super popular. Rumors were he'd made it to the King level, but that was never confirmed, and if asked, he'd deny it. He was all set to graduate top of his class, even had a job lined up at Granton Hills, the law firm?"

Nix nodded even though he didn't really know what she was talking about. Didn't really matter since he got the idea that it was a fancy firm around here. "And?"

"He pissed off one of the Demons," Juri picked up the story, looking over his shoulder as if to check and be sure they weren't being listened in on. It was fairly late in the afternoon and pouring out, so there weren't many others around.

"He pissed off all of the Demons," Khloe corrected, and gone was any semblance of playfulness or cheer. She actually shuddered. "Maybe we shouldn't continue. Nix is involved with them already and—"

"I won't say anything," he promised, unwilling to give up this chance to learn more. So far, he'd heard whispers about how the Demons were coveted yet feared, but aside from that time at the Roost, that hadn't been his experience.

Or, at least, not entirely.

The other day, Yejun had been rather kind, hadn't he? Pleasant and almost…friendly, and Lake, well. Lake was cold and hard to get a read on, and he'd forced Nix's hand in that office, but he also hadn't forced that massive cock inside of him when he'd shown a hint of fear and—

Nix inwardly cursed at himself.

He was doing that thing again. Being grateful for scraps instead of taking the abuse for what it was at face value.

Fact of the matter was, while being tied to them helped his plans to root out the person responsible for Branwen, this wasn't at all what he'd intended when he'd enrolled here. He'd never planned to get this entangled with Lake and his friends. Definitely never thought he'd find himself sitting on a dildo in an office building or brutally face fucked by a stranger.

He'd almost managed to convince himself they weren't actually that bad thanks to Yejun, but what if that was all an act? The difference between Nix and everyone else was that they needed him. Maybe they were only being somewhat nice because of that. It would certainly help explain it.

"It's not like he can't find out from someone else," Dew said.

"Was your friend one of the guys who were told to have sex on the field?" Nix guessed.

"That would have been kind." Khloe picked at the edge of her mutli-slate. "We don't know what Rase did, but whatever it was, it was bad. The Demons rule this school, hell, this city, and sometimes they can take things to the extreme but this…" She shivered again, and when it became apparent it would be difficult for her to continue, Juri picked up for her.

"I was there when it happened. We were eating in Café Soul when West stormed in and went straight for him. Rase had to have known what he'd done because he actually got up and tried running. Only Yejun was entering through the other exit and caught him first."

"Beautiful," Dew grimaced, "but deadly."

"West beat the shit out of Rase right in front of all of us," Juri said. "It was a nightmare. The guy fights professionally, did you know that?"

Nix shook his head in the negative.

"He's won competitions all over the country. Rase was a waif player, so not small and could hold his own against a normal person but not someone like West. Have you ever heard the sound a bone makes when it snaps? I have."

"He broke bones?" Nix felt his stomach churn uncomfortably.

"He broke eight," Juri corrected.

"Okay," he blew out a breath. "Note to self, stay on West's good side."

"West is bad," Khloe hummed in agreement, "but Yejun is the one to look out for."

His brow furrowed. That wasn't the first time he was hearing something along those lines, but it didn't really make sense to him. Yejun had followed Lake's orders at the Roost, but aside from that, he hadn't done anything untoward to Nix. He seemed more interested in holing up in his studio with his art than anything else.

It'd actually sort of reminded Nix of himself and how he'd rather be left to his own devices.

"If all you're doing is fucking them," Dew patted Nix on the back and gave him a reassuring smile, "then no big deal. Yejun is a super charmer, everyone knows that."

"Just like how everyone knows he's also the scariest," Khloe added.

"Why?" Nix really didn't get it. Sure, he'd only heard two real stories thus far, but out of them, Yejun had ordered two guys to fuck in the field leading to their suspension. West had sent a guy to the hospital. As far as he was concerned, one of those things was way more serious than the other. "Seems like West is the scariest."

"West left Rase a bloodied mess in the middle of the cafeteria floor," Juri said. "But it was Yejun who finished him off."

"Finished him off…how?"

"He stabbed him in the left eye with a fork and then pissed on him."

For a lengthy moment, he thought for sure he'd misheard and could only stare at Juri, waiting for him to repeat himself or correct himself. When that didn't happen, Nix opened his mouth to say something, anything, only to come up blank.

"I did get to see his dick though," Dew broke the silence with a sigh. "Probably the only chance I'll ever get to."

"Good Light." Khloe tossed her stylus at his head. "Can you not right now? This is a super shitty story we're telling. Stop being horny for five seconds."

"I can't help it," he whined.

Had Nix been feeling bad about himself earlier? Nope. There was something seriously wrong with someone at this table, but it wasn't him. "You…Want to get with Yejun even after having witnessed that?"

"Well, yeah." He shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. "He's a Demon. That means he's a King on the app and is a shoo-in for a spot in Club Essential. Are you kidding? Of course I want to get with that. Being the property of one of them means being set for life, man, don't you already know that?" He laughed at his own comment. "Of course you do. Why else would you be with them?" He clapped him on the back, unaffected when Nix leaned away.

"You see why I tried to warn you now?" Grady flung a hand out toward Dew. "Some idiots at this school can't see past their greed, and half the time, that gets them hurt."

"You seem nice, Nix," Juri told him. "Quiet, a good student. If they aren't blackmailing you, I suggest you try and distance yourself as soon as possible."

"How's he supposed to do that?" Khloe asked dryly. "The whole campus is already talking about how it's been three generations since the last time a group of Demons publicly dated the same person. He'll turn them into a laughingstock if he tries to dump them now. You really think they'll let him get away with that?"

She clearly didn't.

And neither did Nix, if he were being honest. The problem was he couldn't actually be honest with them. Couldn't explain what he was really doing with the Demons, or what they were really doing with him.

So he did the only thing he could do and nodded solemnly at them.

"I'll try my best," he said.

He just left out the part about how he meant he'd try his best to use them back every bit as much as they were using him.