Page 59 of Villain

Yejun cleared his throat, and straightened from the window to slap a hand down over Lake’s shoulder. “It won’t be a big deal if I call him right now then.”

“You can call him whenever you fucking want to,” Lake stated. “You don’t need my permission.”

“Never did.” West blew him a kiss.

“Well then.” Yejun made a big show of detaching his multi-slate from his wrist. He entered the Enigma app and hit the call button, bringing the device up to his ear instead of putting it on speaker like he typically did. When Lake noticeably tensed, he grinned, but before he could say anything, the line connected. “What are you up to, Firebird?”

Nix inhaled on the other end of the line and then said calmly, “I’m in my room studying. Why?”

“Studying?” He snickered. “Cute.”

“Um, is there something you needed, Yejun?”

That was cute too, the way he said his name, kind of breathy. Almost as though he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to or something. Had Lake brought the name-game into the bedroom perhaps? Or was it just regular nerves?

“Yeah, actually,” he replied, figuring he’d get to the bottom of that later. “You at Hunters Cross in the next fifteen minutes.”

It would take him longer than that to make it down the mountain, but there was something kind of hot about the idea of making Nix wait for him.

Something thrilling about knowing Lake was well aware that’s what he was doing.

West wasn’t the only one who sometimes liked to rattle the Imperial’s cage.

The sound of a chair scraping lightly against the floor echoed through then, and a moment later, Nix spoke again. “It’s pouring out. Can we maybe meet tomorrow?”

“Nope,” he popped the p for good measure. “Gotta be tonight, Firebird.”

It really did, because Yejun was starting to feel that thrumming beneath his skin, shaking his insides. That kind of wild energy needed to be dispersed as soon as possible. They all felt it in one form or another, the three of them. They just dealt with it differently.

Yejun dispersed his.

West let his consume him.

And Lake bottled it up.

“All right,” Nix sighed. “I’ll head out now.”

Yejun stared Lake right in the eye and cooed, “Good boy.”

West chortled as Yejun ended the call and placed his device back on his wrist.

With a wink at them both, Yejun spun on his heels and made his way toward the other side of the room where the elevators were located. When he finally reached them and turned inside, it was to find Lake still glaring.

He winked again as the elevator doors slid shut.

Chapter 16:

Nix waited for Yejun outside the locked door of his private studio in Hunters Cross. Even though it was well into the evening, the lights in the building were all left on, and he’d passed more than a handful of rooms that were clearly occupied. Apparently, it wasn’t abnormal for artists to work this late.

He was used to late hours himself. Back home, he’d studied so long that more often than not he’d be heading to bed while the sun was waking. Nix had known what he wanted to do with his life since he was eight, and everything he’d done since had all been toward that goal.

Until now.

His mind wandered back to what Yejun had said the other day, about how this could potentially give him an in. Star Eye Holding was the largest gaming company on the planet, and had been Nix’s dream job for years. He’d been well on his way to achieving it, top of his class at his old university, good reputation with his seniors and professors…He’d been so close.

An inkling of anger toward Branwen flickered to life in the center of his chest, and he did his best to try and bank it down, like he did every other time this occurred. It wasn’t right to blame the dead, and yet…

No. No, the only person to blame was whoever pushed her past her limits. That was who Nix needed to hang all of this on. If he was lucky, he’d discover their identity sooner rather than later. If he were really lucky, it wouldn’t be one of the Demons.

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