“I want to kill him,” Ivan corrected.
“Those two things aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive.”
Ivan didn’t want to think about that. He didn’t want to think about Sergei at all. Why had Nix even brought him up? “My brother spoke of using the Book to bond,” he said, changing the course of the conversation. “What does that mean?”
Nix shrugged. “Kind of what it sounds like. They’re going to bond their souls together. It allows Kai to stay here, even without a contract. Think of it as a marriage.”
“My baby brother’s getting married?”
Ivan wanted to feel something about that, but everything wasnumb. At least if Sascha was really foolish enough to love someone, it was someone who could protect him.
“I’d say he’s already done it,” Nix said lightly. “I don’t think Kai could bear to wait.”
Ivan stared at Nix. It wasn’t fair that he looked so pretty sitting there, even with his usual spark of mischief dimmed. “You’re not teasing me tonight,” Ivan pointed out.
Nix hummed. “You’re much too sad.”
Ivan didn’t bother protesting. But really, that showed how much Nix knew about human emotion. Ivan wasn’t sad. He was never sad. He was just…numb.
“I’m going to lock my door tonight.” Ivan tried to raise a brow, but he wasn’t sure if he managed it. Or maybe he was raising both of them. “So no watching me sleep.”
“Whatever you need to do to feel safe.”
Ivan frowned at him. “I’m not scared of you.”
Nix flashed him a small grin. “My mistake.”
“You made a mark,” Ivan told him, suddenly remembering. He touched the tender spot on his neck. Sergei must have seen it.
“Oopsie.” But Nix didn’t sound very sincere.
They sat there in silence for a while as Ivan ate half the box of piroshki, washing each down with a gulp of vodka. Nix’s purple eyes never left him. He barely seemed to blink.
Normally Ivan didn’t like people watching him eat—the act was too human, too vulnerable—but he couldn’t find it in himself to care tonight. And Nix’s eyes were so pretty. Ivan liked having them on him. Liked having his demon at hand.
When he finished eating, he stood from his desk, taking a moment to find his sea legs before he crossed over to where Nix sat. The demon stared up at him, his face for once unreadable.
And then Ivan did what he’d been wanting to do since Nix had knelt at his feet when Ivan was only half-conscious, right after their contract had been made.
He reached out a hand and raked it through that fiery hair, loosening Nix’s ponytail and letting the whole wavy mass fall down around Nix’s face.
Nix didn’t protest. He didn’t even blink, his eyes seeming to glow in the lamplight.
Ivan would have liked to say the long, loose hair made Nix look like a woman, but it didn’t. The angles of his face were too harsh, maybe, or the line of his chin too strong, even with those damned plush lips.
Or maybe Nix had dug himself too deep under Ivan’s skin for Ivan to pretend.
Ivan wound the hair around his fist, tugging Nix’s head back. “You’ll behave tonight,” he ordered, his voice strangely husky.
Nix peered up at him with hooded eyes. “Yes, master.”
Whether mocking or sincere, the words were what Ivan wanted to hear. He leaned forward, pressed a firm kiss to that stupid, taunting mouth, tugged Nix’s hair once more for good measure, and walked out of the room.
6
Nix
The days and nights were boring when someone’s mean (and sad—oh so very sad) contract didn’t allow for any fucking. Especially the nights.
