Page 72 of Wreaking Havoc
“Oh, I can think of a myriad of ways our dear Vanya could use me,” Nix told him with a sly smile, licking his lips for good measure.
Always evading the point, and never with a single ounce of subtlety. Kai pressed, “What was the bargain for exactly?”
His only answer was another sly smile.
But Kai had spent centuries with this creature. He might have laughed, if it were any other human they were discussing. “You tricked him, didn’t you?”
“Ah, ah.” Nix wagged his painted talon at him. “You know how it works. It was a bargain, fair and square.”
“And why not wait for someone who could use your real…services?”
Nix shrugged, studying his nails. “I only have three contracts left. Maybe I’m eager to be finished.”
“You hate the demon realm. You’re in no hurry to—” Realization came swift and sudden. “Ah,” Kai murmured. “You plan to draw this one out? Stay in the human world as long as possible?”
Nix’s purple eyes flashed, then darted away. “A bargain’s a bargain,” he said easily. “Plus, he has a deliciously complex soul. Very tasty.”
“Rotten, more like.” Kai knew that wasn’t true, exactly. But it was damn close.
Nix pursed plush lips. “Not rotten. More…twisted.” He shimmied his shoulders. “Gives me the chills. In a good way,” he said with a wink.
“From what I’ve gathered, he doesn’t dally with men.”
Nix stood to his full height, cocking a hip in a practiced pose. “But I’m more than a mere man, aren’t I?” he purred.
Pain.
Kai stiffened, the frustrating conversation immediately forgotten. Sascha was hurting. Not physically—he hadn’t been harmed, or Kai would have smelled the blood. But his soul piece felt…wounded.
Kai put a shoulder to the door to the office, but before he could open it, there was the incubus in his way. “Now, now,” Nix scolded, ignoring Kai’s warning growl and the hand upon his throat. “Your bargain’s safe. Vanya’s not going to hurt him. Let them talk. Humans need to air their trauma. Let it breathe, as it were.”
Kai squeezed. “What do you know about what humans need?”
“Babycakes, my entire existence is about what humans need.” Nix wrapped a hand around Kai’s wrist, and Kai allowed him to lower his arm from his throat. “Let them talk,” he repeated.
The insufferable creature had a point. So Kai held off, standing there at the door, tense and miserable, his ear keyed into the soft murmur of voices. He ignored Nix’s many attempts to start another conversation.
After an eternity, Sascha’s voice rang out clearly. “You can come back in now.”
Kai was at his side in an instant, hands on either side of his lovely face. Sascha’s eyes were red-rimmed, his cheeks pale.
“You’re hurting,” Kai murmured, running his thumbs along the soft skin of his cheekbones.
“I’m okay,” Sascha told him. But the tone was all wrong, dull and lifeless, with none of his usual saucy spitfire, or even a demanding pout. “I’ll tell you on the way to the apartment.”
“We can leave now?”
“We can leave. And look what I’ve got.” A shadow of a smile graced Sascha’s lips as he lifted the Book.
Kai grabbed Sascha’s other hand, tugging him out of the office. He wanted out of this poisonous place with this poisonous brother.
The incubus’s voice followed them out. “Leaving without a goodbye? Does this mean you don’t want to spend another eternity together? I’m hurt, Kai!”
Kai hit the button for the elevator with more force than necessary, furious they had to wait for the contraption to arrive. Sascha was quiet at his side.
“What did he say to you?” Kai asked, half expecting him not to answer.
“He told me my father killed my mother.”
