Page 28 of Saint

“Not at all what I mean.”

“Then let us handle this,” Lake told him. “It’ll be just like with Juri. Nothing has to be shown on camera at all.”

Nix opened his mouth to argue but then snapped it shut again. He had a better idea. If they were going to take the risk anyway, may as well benefit from it fully.

Yeah. Yeah, this could really work.

But he couldn’t tell them about it just yet.

“Let’s go.” He brushed past West, intent on getting the ball rolling. “The sooner this is done, the faster we can get back to searching for the poisoner, right?”

“You really think he’ll strike before Demons Passing?” West asked as the Demons trailed behind Nix. “He’s lain pretty low up until this point. We still don’t even know if he was behind Dew’s actions or not.”

West hadn’t been able to link Dew to anyone else through any of his devices, but they knew there was another person involved in all of this. Dew wasn’t smart enough to create the poison himself, and neither he nor Branwen had the computer skills necessary to hack into the system and erase all traces of themselves. If they had, they would have done so, but now that they were aware of Branwen and Dew’s involvement, it’d been easier for West to locate traces of them.

He’d used the school's security footage and was in the process of viewing all of the tapes of Branwen and Dew moving about. Most of it was them going to and from class, but there were obvious missing pieces, a deleted chunk of time when Branwen had entered the library or Dew had stepped into the bathroom. Stuff like that. Someone had to be responsible for the doctored footage.

Someone didn’t want to be seen.

But who?

And were they willing to give up on whatever their end goal may be now that Demons Passing was so close?

“I think,” Nix shoved the front door open and stepped out onto the porch, “we need to be way more cautious than you threehave been. No eating any outside food, even from the school cafeteria. And let’s stick together from now on, yeah? At least until Lake’s secured his position. That way—”

One of them grabbed his wrist and spun him around, and when he bumped into Lake’s solid chest, he realized it’d been the Imperial.

“What?” Nix snapped, not bothering to try and free himself from Lake’s hold.

“You know our schedules don’t line up that way,” Lake said. “There are some days when—”

“I’ll have to be alone with Yejun.” He’d already figured that out. “Yeah, I know.” On Tuesdays, West and Lake were in the same general vicinity on campus, but he and Yejun were on the opposite side for at least an hour. “If I had to guess, I’d say you and I are the two most likely targets. We shouldn’t travel alone.”

“How do you figure?” Lake asked.

“Because they failed with me and June once before,” West answered for him. “Since he’s short on time, he’ll go straight to the source and skip over the bullshit this go around. That’s if this guy tries anything at all.”

West thought the poisoner had already learned their lesson and backed off, but Nix wasn’t convinced. Or, maybe he just wasn’t willing to let his guard down, even a little.

He’d already learned the hard way what that got him, and something told him if this poisoner went for his jugular, he wouldn’t walk away after like he had with Lake. No, they needed to adapt to survive, at least for a little while.

“Come on.” Nix tugged lightly on his wrist. “We have to secure my position before we spend any more time worrying about yours.”

Lake’s brow winged up, but after a moment of hesitation, he shifted his hold, slipping his palm against Nix’s. When hepulled him toward the steps and kept their hands tightly clasped, Nix didn’t protest.

He planned on making the Imperial do far more with those hands before the day was through anyway. Nix would let him do as he pleased for now.

But later.

Later it was his turn.

And he had no intentions of showing any mercy.

Chapter 9:

“Are you sure there’s nothing else you’ll need help with?” Beck’s voice came through the earbud in Yejun’s left ear as the Demon stepped into the elevator.

He was the first to arrive at the office building downtown, an envelope stuffed with paper documents under his arm. They’d need Nix to sign digital copies as well, but the club liked to kick it old school from time to time, and having hard copies meant having a backup in case there was a technical issue.

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