Page 24

“I—” Niko took in a deep, slow breath. His body was responding, deeply hungry for this act.

And he’d wanted a date with Elliott, even if it had been in a dead man’s house.

But this room, this bed—he’d seen it in the videos.

It was cleaned of any trace of the filthy, horrific acts Cnrys had engaged in then.

The people he had harmed and ruined. In fact, the room was distinctly pristine, not a single thread out of place.

But Niko couldn’t get it out of his mind.

This wasn’t where he wanted to fuck or get fucked.

Even if it was with Elliott. “Not here, okay, babe?”

Niko reached up and touched Elliott’s wrist.

Elliott’s expression darkened. He pulled back and sat up now. “You get weird when I say I want to fuck you. I wish you’d just be honest, Niko.” His words slurred into one another slightly; he was clearly a little drunk, still.

“No— Elliott, no, it’s not that. I promise , it’s not that.”

He slowly climbed off of Niko, then the bed, seeming deeply embarrassed. Niko noticed he wouldn’t look his way now, nor at the mirrored closet. He took particular care not to meet his own reflection.

“It’s not you,” Niko insisted.

“Then why?”

“This room is just… horrible. All I can think of is what happened here. It feels haunted.” He glanced around. “Don't you think so? I know what happened here, and I can’t. I don’t want to in this house at all, really.”

After a moment, Elliott spoke again, barely audible this time. “You’re the one who wanted to have a date here. You’re the one who made me a candlelit dinner in a dead asshole’s kitchen and said we should enjoy his luxury . You were fine with it all, until now.”

“Because I—” It did sound a little hypocritical when put like that.

Niko reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose.

He was stripped down to only his clothing from the waist up.

“I can’t do that at the facility. When do we get a chance to do anything like this?

I can't take you on a date in the same place we always are, day after day. And going out to a restaurant isn’t going to work.

I wanted to do something sweet for you.”

After a moment, Elliott stooped to pick up the pieces of Niko’s suit that he’d tossed to the floor and handed them to him, still not meeting his gaze. “...I’m sorry, Niko.”

“Thanks, babe.” Niko reattached each piece with a heavy snap. He wanted out of this room. Its pristine, luxurious walls pressed in on him like a phantom nightmare. The indicator on his wrist lit up, reading CONNECTED . “It’s not you, Elliott.”

“Right.”

I want to do that with you, he wanted to say. I want you to do those things to me. Just not here.

Elliott spoke before he could get there, though. “I just want to—” He seemed at a loss for words. “To desecrate and destroy everything about these monsters. Their memories. Their homes. It’s not even enough to just kill them anymore.”

“Hey,” Niko said, getting up and going over to him.

He pulled him into a hug and was relieved when Elliott didn’t try to fight against him.

The words scared him a little, another slip down into somewhere darker.

Elliott was losing his footing. “I know. I get it. I do. It’s not fair that they get to continue hurting so many people like this, only to keep getting away with it.

But we’re making sure they don’t hurt anyone ever again, okay? That’s what we’re here doing. Right?”

Elliott pushed his palms against his eyes. “I miss my sister. I watched her die. Oh god, Niko, I was—”

Niko cut him off quickly. “Elliott. Come on.” This wasn’t where he wanted this to go today.

Today was for them. Not being drowned by the unspeakable cruelties of Honeybliss.

Not being dragged down into the airless, lightless depths of a painful memory.

He tugged at his hand. “Let’s go out to the beach and watch the last of the sunset. ”

Elliott acquiesced with a nod, and Niko led him out of the house and down the private walkway to the beach.

It was beautiful and empty, the scent of saltwater filling Niko’s nose, the open breeze tossing his hair about.

The last of the sun was glowing orange over the oceanic horizon, a scattering of the first bold stars dusting above them.

The antitwilight arch painted the opposite horizon a dusky lavender, purple as a bruise, from which the gargantuan swell of the violet gas giant that Eanan orbited had begun to crest.

A flock of azure, mottled creatures Niko remembered from his last visit years ago but couldn’t recall the names of flew overhead, letting out somber songs as they passed on outspread leathery wings, their long, spaded tails trailing behind them like kites.

This was where he wanted to be, out in the open air beside Elliott, enjoying each other’s company.

Not in a bedroom where nightmares had been countlessly rendered.

Elliott peered out at the sea and the sliver of orange-golden arc that peaked above the water.

His wild, blond locks were caught by the sea breeze, giving him the look of something ethereal.

Niko pulled him against his side, wishing not for the first time that he could be free of the suit and stand beside him, skin to skin, feet sinking into the warm sands.

The chair didn’t do so great on beaches.

“What are you thinking, babe?”

“That I like it better out here too,” Elliott admitted. He was sobering up, his words closer to their usual clarity now. “I don’t know what I was thinking in there. I think I drank too much. I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright, Elliott. I wanted you to enjoy yourself. I wanted to give you something nice.”

“This is nice, Niko. This is—” Elliott seemed to almost choke on the words, his body giving a shudder of emotion but his face remaining impassive, a veil to his thoughts. “This is nicer than anything I ever thought I’d get to see or experience again. And I get to be here with you . So… thank you.”

Niko leaned down and kissed him on the hair. “The first time I saw you without your mask on, I thought of this place. Of Eanan. Your eyes are the same color as this ocean.”

“You were on Vhesa station, waving a gun at me as corrosive melted the floor, and you were thinking of the ocean.”

Niko laughed at the absurdity of it all. “Honestly? Yeah. I was. You were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen in my life. I was so pissed about that fact.”

“You shouldn’t lie, Niko.”

“I’m not.” He pulled his glove off and reached over, taking Elliott by the chin, the golden light of sunset somehow managing to make the other man all the more striking, transforming his features into its graceful canvas. “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve seen.”

“Kiss me,” Elliott said. He closed his eyes. “Please.”

Niko obliged. He leaned in, meeting Elliott’s lips with his own. It wasn’t fast, nor sloppy, nor hungry; rather, it was sensual and slow, a honeyed invitation. Elliott tasted a little of champagne, still.

“This is what I feel for you,” Niko murmured. He leaned in and kissed him again, just as slowly, just as warm. “This is what I feel every time I look at you.” He kissed him again. “This is how I feel when I think of you. This is how you make me feel.”

Elliott let out a soft sigh, his breath warm. He turned his gaze up toward Niko’s. “When I make love to you, I lose myself. You make me forget who I even am. That’s how you make me feel,” he said.

Niko smiled. He ran his hand up along the side of Elliott’s face, gently caressing it, before twining his fingers around a few loose curls, capturing them from their dance in the sea breeze. “I make you forget who you are? Who are you then, when you’re with me?”

“I’m someone that somebody could love,” Elliott said.

Niko ached.

“You are someone to be loved, Elliott,” he said, his pulse spiking suddenly at the realization of how close he was coming to admitting what he’d been afraid to say until now. “You deserve love.”

“I don’t know,” Elliott muttered, turning away suddenly to watch as the sun slipped somewhere beyond the great ocean, leaving a pastel twilight in its wake. “Maybe.”

Niko winced, knowing he was losing him, that Elliott was retreating into himself as he often did. It wasn’t enough. He had to say it, had to go all the way. He wasn’t one to half-ass things, anyhow.

He turned Elliott around to look at him again and leaned in, giving him another deep kiss, this one longer than those previous, his ungloved hand snaking up to touch at Elliott’s face as he did. When they finally parted, Niko was breathless. They looked each other in the eyes.

“I love you, Elliott. I’m in love with you.”

Elliott let out another shuddering breath. He seemed to be barely keeping himself together. After a moment, he closed his eyes, and said so quietly Niko almost missed it, “Can you say it again? Will you? I just want to hear it.”

“ I love you, Elliott . I’ll say it as many times as you want me to.”

“Even with everything that I am? That I’ve done?”

“Yeah. Even then. Especially then, maybe. I would never have met you, otherwise.”

Elliott smiled at him, something that was both at once broken, yet resplendent.

Niko felt lighter, like gravity had no hold over him any longer. It felt as if were he to jump, he would never return to the ground. He’d finally said what had been sitting so heavy inside of him and now it was free, was inside Elliott.

Niko had spoken what he’d wanted to say, and now he wasn’t afraid anymore.

Maybe, somehow, once this was all over, they could have this every day. They could have a life together to just enjoy one another’s company. To call it tricky would be putting it lightly, but there were ways out there to make it work. Niko was determined to.

His phone rang.

The sound made them both flinch with such violence that it actually made Niko chuckle a little wildly.

He was suddenly aware all over again that even here, on this private beach, they had never been truly safe.

The police could have caught on somehow, someone could easily have snuck up on them and ambushed them after a failed wellness check on Cnrys.

The possibilities were endless and they’d been quite stupid.

Niko didn’t regret the time spent with Elliott, though.

Not at all.

He pulled up the caller ID hologram, and his heart nearly leapt into his throat at the name.

Lady Death.

Whatever she must be calling him about was undoubtedly important.

“Gotta take this.” He answered. “Yeah?”

“Killjoy,” Death said.

“What’s up, Deleera?”

“I’ve made the stars align. Let’s make this happen.”

Niko paused and stared at Elliott. Elliott’s face was what he could only imagine was a likely mirror to his own expression—eyes wide, mouth agape in shock. Then Niko’s own mouth twisted into a grin. “Yeah?” he tried to ask without too much excitement creeping into his voice, and failed.

“Yeah. So, you’d better start working out whatever it is you intend to say. Because you’ll only get one chance. I can’t stress this enough. This is a once in a lifetime. How soon can you get your asses to these coordinates?”

“W-wait, like, right now?” Niko said, staring at Elliott still.

“Like right now. Give the word and we’ll make it happen.”

Niko looked to Elliott for consent, and the other man nodded enthusiastically.

“Alright,” Niko said. He opened the coordinates she’d passed along in a new hologram. They appeared to lead to a major broadcasting station in the Luunvan system. “We’re gonna be on our way. ETA six hours.”

“Understood,” Death said. “I’m going to pass that on. Six hours, Niko. Don’t let anything stop you from getting there.”