Page 6 of Martyr

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.

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