Page 101 of Villain

“That’s one way of putting it,” Nix mumbled, pretending not to notice when Lake glared.

“In their final year, Demons are given another luxury,” Beck continued. “They’re allowed to bring in one other person. The catch is, all of the current Demons need to be in agreement, and only one can be selected. For this reason, it’s rare for this to actually occur. They’re named by number since the gender and identity of the chosen person can differ. Because there are already three Demons this year, your signifier is the fourth when you’re spoken of amongst club members.”

“I told you to pretend to be our boyfriend,” Lake stated. “It’s the same concept.”

Beck quirked a brow. “Hardly.”

“How so?” Nix’s shoulders tensed.

“There’s nothing pretend about being named their fourth, for starters,” Beck began, but Lake had had enough.

He grabbed Nix’s hand once more and began dragging him toward the exit.

“Let go!” Nix struggled, but his heart wasn’t really into it. Lake could tell because, typically, his strength was better than what he was currently exerting.

Or maybe he’d merely used all his energy up while trapped.

He did not like that idea.

“We’re going to find out who did this to you,” he announced, pleased when that at least ceased the Songbird’s squawking.

Nix allowed him to tug him along the rest of the way without fuss, quiet until they entered the attached building to the right. “And then?”

“Then?” Lake caught that anger and held it close to his chest. “Did they push you with both hands?”

Nix frowned. “I…think so?”

“Then I’ll cut them both off at the wrists.”

And watch as the culprit bled out on the ground.

Chapter 28:

The security room was empty when they entered, but that didn’t deter Nix. His nerves had settled on the walk over, and he was trying not to allow the fact that a lot of that had to do with Lake’s presence to linger on his mind.

At first, he’d suspected the Demon when Lake had stormed into the stall, but it’d quickly become evident that he was just as upset by what had happened as Nix was. He was also still dressed in his waif uniform, further proving he’d come from the field. That, added to the fact there was no reason Nix could think of for Lake to want to frighten him, it was clear someone else had done it.

But what exactly had it been meant as?

A prank?

A warning?

Since the person who’d shoved him hadn’t stuck around to specify, Nix was left scrambling in the dark for answers, and he wasn’t a fan of that at all.

“We can come back,” Lake said when they entered the room and the security guard who was meant to be monitoring the screens wasn’t there.

Nix ignored him, taking the seat himself, fingers already dancing across the keyboard. “Like hell. I want to know who did this to me.”

“Are you afraid of cramped spaces?”

He shook his head, busting through the password protection on the device.

“Are you hacking into the system, Songbird?”

“What do you expect me to do?” he shot back. “Wait?”

Lake sighed and moved behind him, dropping his hands onto Nix’s shoulders, though he didn’t attempt to pull him away from the computers. “Did you really learn how to do all of this because you wanted a job at Star Eye Holding? What does being able to hack have to do with creating video games?”

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