Page 59 of Martyr

“You can’t be jealous of an actor,” Nix chuckled. “Besides, he’s hot, sure, but that doesn’t mean I’d let him finger fuck me in front of a classmate.” He hit the play button before Lake could argue further and then settled back, placing the pad so it was centered and resting on Lake’s right thigh and his left.

The movie started, the soundtrack beginning with long drawn-out notes that elicited a sense of mystery. Nix recognized it as beiska music.

“Drink your tea,” Lake reminded.

He picked up the mug and quickly turned back in time to see the camera pan down a dark alley.

Chapter 14:

Wildflower:I’ll switch over to regular texting.

Serendipity:Ill-advised.This is the most secure network on planet.

Wildflower:I thought that was the club’s system. Lol.

Serendipity:Have you done it?

Wildflower:Yes. How long will it take again?

Serendipity:Not long.

Wildflower:It won’t like…hurt them, will it?

Serendipity:Of course not. We’re just teaching them a lesson, remember? It’ll knock them out for a bit, that’s all. You’ve used something similar on Yejun before.

Wildflower:Why didn’t we just use the same stuff this time?

Serendipity:This is better.

The timestamp between that message and Branwen’s reply said she’d taken over three minutes to respond.

Wildflower:Okay.

She’d been uncertain. Had she begun to grow suspicious?

Nix scrolled through the short chat log for what had to be the twelfth time in the past three days. He was in one of the Adirondack chairs on the porch that wrapped around the second level of the Roost, facing the campus and the entrance, so he’dspot one of the Demons before they entered the building. It was difficult to steal moments alone like this, and he’d used them to go over the information he’d downloaded from West’s computer.

So far, there hadn’t been much, which was disheartening.

Yejun had made it sound like all of the logs were immediately and permanently stored on West’s hard drive, but it was clear someone had wiped Wildflower’s past logs, leaving only this one. It seemed like this was the last time she’d spoken with the King who went by Serendipity. It wasn’t difficult to put the pieces together.

Right after this was when she must have been caught. Lake had mentioned they’d realized she was drugging Yejun. This log confirmed as much. Once she’d been discovered, Serendipity must have abandoned her.

The only thing that didn’t add up was her hesitation. She sounded like she didn’t fully comprehend what she was doing, like she’d been left out of an important part of the plan. Supposedly, she’d knocked Yejun out so she could plant devices on his artworks that were entering the Club House, but she made no mention of this in the log.

Had she been manipulated, or was she just being cautious and leaving as little evidence as possible?

Would that change how she’d manipulated Nix into coming here to unravel her dirty business?

Heaving a sigh of frustration, Nix dropped his head into his hands. “What the hell were you thinking, Wen?”

At least he had a name now, even if it was only a username. Perhaps Lake or one of the others could place a face to it…He just had to figure out a way of asking without admitting he’d hacked into West’s computer. Things had been relatively easy between the four of them the past couple of days, and the last thing Nix wanted was to rock the boat.

If he was going to be trapped, he make as well be as comfortable as possible, and when they weren’t hovering around him and making threats? He was the most comfortable then.

He’d had sex with both Yejun and West since Juri’s unexpected visit, but he still hadn’t gone all the way with Lake. West had kept his word and not said anything, and even though things were starting to mellow out between them, Nix found he was still holding a grudge for the claiming mark and hadn’t revealed it himself either. That couldn’t last. Eventually, one of them was going to have to come clean, and then he’d be fucking all three of them.

He shivered, gut-clenching guiltily even as he felt his dick twitch in his pants. Before this, he hadn’t even considered being in a two-person relationship, let alone four. Traditionally, a romantic entanglement up to five people used to be fairly common in Tyniri’s history, but that had mellowed out some over the past century. Nix had certainly never envisioned himself to be comfortable in a multiple-person relationship.

---