Page 150 of Inbetweeners
“Just that Vin still had to be dealt with and that we needed to tie off loose ends.”
“Did he define the loose ends?”
“No. Did Vin come again while you were regenerating?”
Nix shook his head.
Emmett smiled. “Maybe the holy water worked.”
“Maybe it did.”
“So, do you want to go to see your brother today?”
“I have something I need to do first.”
“What’s that?”
“Very tricky, difficult operation.” Nix slid his fingers under Emmett’s waistcoat and stroked around his navel. “Getting you out of those jeans.”
Emmett laughed. “Worth it though?”
“It had better be.”
It was. Nix lay with Emmett sprawled on his chest wondering why sex between the two of them seemed to get better and better. Not that he’d ever really been with the same guy long enough to notice. He found himself tracing shapes on Emmett’s back with his fingers.I’ve never done that before.Nix didn’t cuddle, hug, caress,fucking draw shapes on a guy’s backparticularlyafterhe’d fucked him. He got up and left or made the other guy get up and leave. Everything felt different with Emmett.
They showered together and Emmett made everythingworth itagain, only to aggravate him by his insistence on re-coating Nix with the last of the holy water after they’d towelled each other dry.
“I know you think it’s a waste of time, but Vin didn’t come,” Emmett pointed out. “It’s worth doing. And preferable to ripping your heart out.”
Emmett smiled, Nix didn’t.
Concern filled Emmett’s face. “I would never do that to you. You know that, right? I’m still trying to get my head around having done it to Greyson. I threw the nailbrush away.” He chewed his lip. “Maybe the first thing we should do is get more holy water before we go to your brother’s.”
“Okay.”
Nix started to get dressed. “Pains me to say it, but wear your regular gear. We’ll take the bike. Okay?”
“Okay.” Emmett pushed to his feet.
Nix thought it was more likely that Vin hadn’t bothered him because he was in too deep a sleep to communicate with as he recovered from losing a life. But if Emmett wanted to get more holy water, they would. It wasn’t going to interfere with Nix’s plan. But he had to talk to Emmett about that before Vin reappeared, and persuade the angel to do something he wouldn’t want to do.
As they set off on the bike, Emmett said, “Stop at the end of the road and I can put those letters in the box.”
“Did you write one from you too?”
“No. I didn’t think of doing that. It wouldn’t achieve anything. My parents don’t care. Whatever I said wouldn’t change that.”
“Do you want to go and see your brother and sister?”
“No.”
They managed to get the bottles filled with holy water without seeing the priest. Nix filled one himself, letting his fingers sink into the font, wondering if Vin would react, and was surprised he didn’t.
It took just over an hour to get to Herne Bay. Nix had checked that Orion Harding was working as a nurse in the same hospital as when he’d last looked up his brother, just before Nix had died, then done a bit of lying to discover which shift Orion was on.
“What are you going to do if he doesn’t want to talk to you?” Emmett asked. “More to the point, who are you going to tell him you are?”
“A colleague off the lifeboat. He’ll talk to me.”
