Page 7 of Martyr

“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 alsomine. 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?”

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