“So—” I pretend to yawn as I creep up to stand beside Nox. Always the unaffected leader, he doesn’t startle, but the wave of Onyx dust that falls from his hands says I caught him by surprise. A harsh sigh follows, and the slump of his shoulders is the only sign of his inner turmoil.
Shit, does he feel bad? I didn’t expect him to actually care about harming the middling. It’s not his style.
He hates it when I use compulsion to spy on him, *yes*, but I think he’s really irritated because I caught him *here* of all places. Leaning against the rough stone corner of what looks to be a deli, I stare at the side of his face. “Are we going to talk about why you’re a few blocks from Mid, staring at a liquor store like it personally offended you?”
“Don’t start,” Nox grumbles, rolling his neck. His complexion is splotchy, and he didn’t bother medi-patching his black eye. Also out of character for him.
“Start what? Asking why you’ve tracked the middling’s apartment down in a matter of hours and have decided to stand guard?”
“Selkin, I haven’t slept, and I’m not in the mood,” he says tightly, always trying to pinch down anything that makes him uncomfortable. That’s what I’m here for, though, to pry out those pesky little feelings so we don’t have any more fights like the one that broke out between him and Ryverin when we arrived home.
I haven’t seen our golden boy rage like that since the war.
Emer’s probably still cleaning up the debris from the fallout. Two walls. Half the kitchen. A third of a flight of steps. The living room bar. I grin. It had been a hell of a fight, that’s for sure. And a fight always gets my blood running hot. Maybe that’s why I coerced Nox into letting me tag along, and maybe it’s the intrigue that comes from seeing the middling in her natural element. I learn a lot about the odd creatures from watching them when they think no one sees.
And I’m hoping seeing her in the light of day will make the pressure in my dick finally deflate.
That body was probably as faked as her makeup. Hell, with the mods we sell these days, everything could’ve been fake except her pulse. The sound of Nox’s rough swallow has me remembering why I’m worried.
“So I shouldn’t mention that I overheard you ordering your Truceguards back to the den for discipline? How in the hell did you track the human across the city, and what did they do to earn punishment from their supreme?”
I hesitate to think about those pretty almond-shaped eyes in distress. Tears glistened as they slid down her panicked face. Sex wrapped up in a smart-ass little package. And on her knees for us. Maybe I’ll get lucky, and these idiots will pull their heads out of their asses long enough to make her our informant.
“I wasn’t tracking her,” he says, a little less guarded than he was a moment ago. Nox rubs at the Onyx rings on his fingers. “I was tracking Ryverin.”
That surprises me. He looks over and smirks. “Exactly my thoughts. Last night, he was cagey, and then after the fight, I figured something more than some no-name middling got under his skin. Imagine my surprise when the city cameras show me the same no-fucking-body middling and *him* training in the park only blocks from our bond house?”
“That code for fucking?”
He gives me an unimpressed grunt. “Training as in actual defensive maneuvers. She was all over the place, but the foundation was there. Who knows what she’s like when I’m not hur—” His words die on a clenched jaw.
Now, my mouth really drops open because what the fuck? Ry was on scouting duty today with the Lightblades. “You’re trying to convince me that straight-laced ass Ryverin Ballestraid, the Lightfleck heir apparent for the next council seat… skipped work… his sworn duty… for a fucking middling name Delmyra?”
Nox coughs to hide his laugh. “You’re such a shit. Her name was Devi. Deviera Startlet, to be exact.”
“The weasel’s…?”
“Adoptive sister, apparently,” Nox admits. “I don’t know how the hell a man like that lets his little sister parade around next to nothing, but what do I know of middling affairs?”
I ponder that for a second, remembering that she said she’s been working at the club since she was sixteen. I don’t care if she wasn’t working any rooms, she was a kid, and that shit just doesn’t sit right with me. “And the Truceguards?”
“Taking advantage of their positions. Haffir was the main aggressor again.”
“How long are you going to let that piece of shit run free in your damn guard? Surely you have enough grounds to—”
“He’ll be dealt with, Selk. I know what abusers look like whether they’re heirs or not. We don’t have sympathy for them, alright. Don’t worry.” He returns his pensive stare across the street.
Quietly, I follow his gaze. I can’t deny it’s a good spot to watch for her return, with an unobstructed view of her front door ahead and a dead-end alley behind us. No way for her to slip by and no way for someone to sneak up. Unless that person is me. “You going to tell me what happened last night? Or just keep pretending you don’t know?”
Nox shifts carefully, trying not to brush even an elbow against me. That avoidance of physical contact always bothers me. All the years that we’ve spent in each other’s company, and aside from recharging, Noximar limited touch on everything he wanted in one piece. And even during sex, I can’t remember ever seeing Nox intent on touching. Finishing, obviously. But, he never savored a woman’s body the way the me and Emer do. Never seemed to enjoy more than just getting it over with. The last time he dislocated my jaw, I might have suggested he take the asteroid out of his ass where that’s concerned.
“I just think we should address what happened. You’re not usually so volatile. And I know you well enough to know what your guilt looks like.”
“Let’s just do what the hell I came here for and be quiet about it.”
“And what’s that exactly?”
No answer.
“So you don’t want to talk about the way our bond pulsed the second you two locked eyes? Strong enough to get my dick hard? No, no, you’re right. Let’s not talk about how flustered you looked right before Ry tried to take off your head. Because Ry only tasked me with watching the woman, Nox. So you’re here of your own free will, and we both know why.”
“Do you want to be punched in the face, too?”
“I don’t know, will it be by you or her? Because if it’s her—”
Nox’s hand shoots out so fast it’s a blur. I couldn’t have avoided the hit if I wanted to. The difference between the Unsettled like me and the Settled like him is monumental. Speed, strength, reliable ability with our affinities. Emer might be the only Unsettled with near-complete control over his affinities, and that’s because he’s got a few too many screws loose. No amount of training makes my reflexes fast enough to dodge before Nox’s hand smashes my head into the side of the building with enough force to crack a few bricks.
Did he forget my skin still shreds? Brick pieces and dust skitter around my shoulders like water moving through a brook. The raw flesh around my cheek already burns.
“I’m getting the impression that you’re pissed at me, bond,” I laugh, coughing around a loose piece of mortar that lodged in my throat. Nox makes a frustrated sound and brushes the dust off one arm of his jacket, then the front of his shirt. He shoves away.
“I shouldn’t have—I didn’t mean to hit you so hard…”
Sighing, I roll my damaged shoulder and wipe at the bleeding gashes now open along my temple. His emotions are volatile as fuck, but I won’t push the point. “Nothing a few medi-patches won’t heal, and I’m sure I deserved a little pain for being a shit, yea?”
He doesn’t smile, but the corners of his eyes crinkle.
“You could have killed her,” I breathe, stepping up behind him to deal with the issue once and for all. “I get that you’re on edge because of the peace conference. I get that you don’t trust middlings. And I’m inclined to agree with you about that, but she did nothing to deserve your ire. In fact, she told us where the extra cameras were, and you very nearly killed her simply for making eye contact…” I’m only stating what he already knows. I just need to understand… “Why?”
“It won’t happen again,” Nox says curtly, his voice slicing through the chilly air. It’ll be winter before the month’s out. “I don’t like middlings, *obviously*, but it’s more than that. Something is wrong with her. And before you ask, *no*, I don’t have any proof. I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something off. And it doesn’t help that she smells like fucking Lithe. You’ve seen what that is doing to us. We’re losing bonds left and right. It can’t continue like this, you know that! And if New Eden gets its hands on it, welcome to another war.” Nox shakes his head sharply. “Yea, I fucked up, alright? But I didn’t *do* anything to her. I don’t have whatever kind of ability had her in pain like that. When we locked eyes, it honestly felt like—”
I say nothing and wait. Lithe is too touchy a subject for Nox, and the hit that sent me into the wall a moment ago would be nothing compared to seeing him truly angry.
“There shouldn’t be any lasting damage,” Nox offers after a minute of silence, leaving his earlier thought unfinished. “But I’m here to make sure, that’s all. Once I see that she’s good, I’m gone.”
“Great, because she’s here,” I say, pointing through the opening that faces her apartment. He takes a few careful steps back, letting the dark swallow him again.
“Now we wait. And watch.”