But he was kind of enjoying the way Ivan was pawing at him so frantically.
“Let me see,” he was growling, turning Nix to face him and tugging at Nix’s shirt as if he would tear it in two with his bare hands.
It would have been kind of hot, in a different context. But there wasn’t time to enjoy it—they weren’t safe staying where they were, and another bullet hitting Ivan instead of Nix was obviously unacceptable.
Nix had already fucked up beyond belief. He should have caught the man who’d shot him—he was fast enough, so that was no excuse. Kai would have gotten hold of him in an instant. ButNix wasn’t used to being hit by human weapons. He was an incubus, not a warrior demon. He was strong, but he wasn’t skilled in combat.
Maybe he wasn’t the right demon for Ivan after all.
Well, too fucking bad, he thought petulantly.I’m keeping him anyway.
Nix grabbed Ivan’s hand, stilling it with a gentle squeeze. “I’m fine, Ivan. We need to go. It’s not safe. And won’t the police be showing up?”
Ivan scoffed. “No one in this building would dare call the police.”
He still had a hand on Nix’s chest, but with the other, he raised his gun. Apparently the security guard had dared to move.
“Not an inch,” Ivan growled, the darkness in his voice stirring up something hot in Nix’s insides. “Or you get a bullet to the head. You let him in.”
The fear coming off the man was positively rank. “W-We were expecting a shipment of office supplies. As soon as he was in… He had a gun on me, boss. I—I tried to warn you.”
Ivan met Nix’s eyes, and Nix nodded. The guard was being truthful, as far as he could tell. He reeked of fear, obviously, but not guilt, and certainly no cunning.
And hehadcried out.
Ivan lowered his gun, but he didn’t holster it. “Send all the security footage to me. Jace will be coming by to double-check it.”
With that, he was herding Nix out the door, but at the last minute, he turned back. “And don’t let Tara leave the building.”
“She knew we were heading out now,” Nix mused as they approached the waiting town car.
“Yes.”
“What will you do if she’s guilty?”
Ivan gave him a look.
“How vicious,” Nix murmured.
She’d deserve it, though, in Nix’s opinion. Ivan had come much, much too close to getting a bullet in the chest. Ice water flooded Nix’s veins at the thought. It was a strange sensation. Was this what real fear felt like? Nix had smelled it on others, but he’d never had cause to feel it so intensely himself.
Ivan steered him into the town car with a firm hand on his back. Oleg was waiting in the front seat. If he’d heard the gunshots, he didn’t give any sign of it.
“Drive,” Ivan ordered, slamming the car door shut behind them. Oleg obeyed, eyes straight ahead, by all appearances unfazed by the blood staining Nix’s shirt.
“Hospital?” Ivan asked harshly.
Nix looked to him. Was that question directed at Nix? Ivan was radiating disquiet, his eyes locked onto Nix’s bloody chest. Had he forgotten what Nix was? “Ivan,” Nix reminded him gently. “I’m a demon.”
“Right.” Ivan turned to Oleg again. “My apartment. No—Andresen’s Hotel.”
Nix raised a brow, and Ivan answered his unspoken question.
“Sergei knows I know. It’s the only reason he’d try something so desperate. We need a moment to regroup.”
The hotel was closer than Ivan’s apartment, and they arrived quickly. Ivan threw Nix his suit jacket, and Nix put it on to cover up his bloody shirt, deciding not to mention the fact that he could summon his own jacket at will.
The jacket smelled like Ivan, after all, and there was just something so classic about wearing one’s lover’s clothes, wasn’t there?
