Page 44 of Martyr

“Who’s this one?” West pointed to the first guy that popped up on the screen as soon as the game loaded. The virtual character was currently berating Nix for being away too long. “He’s frisky.”

“That’s Ransom.”

“His name is Ransom?” West blinked at the character. “That’s so stupid.”

“Yeah, but he’s hot so…”

“True. Show me the others.”

Nix opened up the screen, which would have a photo of each of the guys along with his attraction levels in small star-shaped boxes next to them.

“Dude.” West clicked his tongue at him.

“What?”

“That guy is up to level one hundred and seventy-nine,” he pointed to the one at the bottom. “Which is at least thirty points higher than any of the others.”

“So?” He was Nix’s favorite so the one he interacted with the most.

“Are you really going to pretend not to notice?”

“Notice what?” Nix cocked his head and took a closer look, but he wasn’t getting it.

“That guy looks like Lake.”

“No he—” Well fuck. He kind of did now that West had pointed it out.

The character had a blank expression on his face, but his eyes were hard and his arms were crossed, giving him a cold and strong presence. His hair was white, so close enough to Lake’s platinum blond.

“His eyes are black,” Nix said, but it was too obvious he was trying to deflect at this point.

“No wonder you rolled over for him so easily.”

“I did not.” He tried shoving West away, and surprisingly the Demon let him, laughing all the while.

West held up both hands in the sign of surrender still grinning ear to ear. “All right, all right. I’ll stop teasing you. Show me your avatar.”

“You really want to keep looking?”

“Yeah, I’m curious about it. Is this the type of game you want to develop one day?”

“I don’t know.” Nix just liked the idea of creating something in general. “I want to make something that people can both get lost in and find themselves in. I know it’s just a false sense of escape, but sometimes that’s what a person really needs, you know?”

West nodded. “That’s cool.”

He frowned, but the Demon patted his thigh.

“No, I mean it. We’ve got Pax Armendis in the club.”

“He’s an Essential?” That was the CEO of Galactic Games, the second largest company on planet.

“Yeah, I’ll introduce you two sometime,” West promised. “I know you’ve got your heart set on Star Eye Holding, but it can’t hurt to meet the competition. He might be able to give you some pointers, at the very least, a glimpse into their inner workings.”

“Why would he show me that?”

“Because you’re about to be one of us,” he reminded casually.

Nix’s good mood noticeably damped.

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