Page 8 of Saint (Demons of Foxglove Grove #3)

“About last night…” Nix cupped the steaming mug of coffee in both hands and leaned back against the counter.

“What about it?” Lake asked from where he was perched on the edge of one of the stools, eating breakfast with the same level of poise he’d displayed at Demitrious’s dinner table.

“I have questions.”

By the time they’d managed to leave, it’d been well into the night. The four of them had walked past dozens of writhing bodies and Nix had actually gotten embarrassed for them. Seeing people have sex so openly had made him uncomfortable, and he’d asked about Juri, not wanting to go without him.

Only to be told Juri would be occupied until morning.

After what he’d witnessed, Nix thought he had a good idea what that meant now, but he hadn’t had the chance to actually ask. As soon as they’d pulled into the driveway, Yejun had headed to his studio. Lake had gone straight to bed, and West had mentioned wanting to search for the hacker—who they were referring to as the poisoner amongst themselves now since the secret was out—and had gotten to work the second they’d entered his room.

Nix had showered and gone to bed, not wanting to interrupt, and honestly so overwhelmed by everything he’d learned.

Now that it was morning he felt he had a clearer head about him.

“You always have questions, Nixie,” West teased, adding another piece of toast with lava jam to Nix’s half-eaten plate. “Sit.”

Nix shook his head in the negative and stayed where he was, sipping the coffee.

“You can’t be full yet.” West frowned. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Don’t pressure him,” Lake said, only for his best friend to snort.

“Breakfast is his favorite meal of the day, asshole, but of course you didn’t notice how I always have to make him twice as much food than for the rest of us.”

Lake frowned but didn’t give a rebuttal to that.

Nix was tempted to do as he was told and sit and eat more just to keep the peace, but he’d promised himself he was done bending when he didn’t have to. So instead he explained, “I have a lot on my mind.”

“Okay.” West dropped down onto the stool next to Nix’s spot at the table and propped an elbow on the surface. “Shoot.”

“The final test,” he asked, “is it sexual in nature?”

“Everything is sexual in nature on this planet.”

“West.”

“All right.” He held up a hand in surrender. “Yes. It is.”

“Explain.”

“It’s an old practice,” Lake began. “Most likely going all the way back to the beginning of the club. Of course, back then technology wasn’t nearly as advanced, so things were done a little differently, but thanks to things like cameras, we’re able to conserve some of our dignity.”

“He says we,” West cut in, “but he really means everyone else. Legacies don’t have to prove themselves the same way. No final test for us.”

“You’re still being too cryptic,” Nix said. “Lay it out for me plainly.”

“New members have to prove themselves by providing a sex tape that can be used against them as blackmail,” Lake stated, and when Nix blinked at him, he grunted. “That’s why we were trying to ease into it. It sounds—”

“Disgusting.”

“Yes,” Lake shrugged a single shoulder, “well.”

Wait…

“So last night, Juri and Beck…” He slammed his cup down on the counter, fuming. “That’s so fucked up!”

“That’s the club,” West replied. “It’s not a moral place, Nixie, everyone knows that already.”

“If it helps, there’s no rule that intercourse has to happen,” Lake told him. “They just had to film Juri submitting to a member of the club. Since it was Beck who went with him to complete the task, he probably didn’t do all that much.”

“A blowjob most likely,” West elaborated. “Maybe they filmed him kneeling and Beck coming on his face. Or he fingered Juri to completion. Stuff like that.”

“And,” Nix felt a little sick, “who watches these tapes?”

“That’s the kicker. No one.”

He frowned. “What?”

“In the olden days, you used to have to do it right there, in front of the whole audience. But now it just gets recorded in privacy and the tape gets added to the collection that’s sitting on the fifth level of the Club House collecting dust. No one is allowed to view the tapes unless a member has broken a rule and is being exiled. Then the tape can be used to effectively ruin any chance they have at building a normal life on planet outside the club.”

“So then…How do they know it’s not faked?”

“If it is, that’s a death sentence,” Lake said. “And not just for them.”

“If a member of the club submits a blank or falsified tape and it’s later discovered, they and their entire bloodline is wiped out. It hasn’t happened in…what?” West turned to Lake. “Two hundred years?”

“Something like that.”

“Of course, no one will know so long as the member never breaks the rules, but this is a dangerous place to be. Piss off the wrong person, someone with enough power, and they can easily frame you for something you didn’t do. They kick you out and view your tape and see that you never followed through…”

Death sentence.

For everyone.

Nix scowled. “That’s—”

“Fucked up,” Lake filled in for him. “Yes, we know. But that’s how things are done.”

A thought occurred to him and his eyes narrowed. “You were going to make me do that.”

“It wouldn’t have been any different than what we did as Maestro and Songbird. It would have just been the two of us and a camera.”

“Did you record any of those times?”

Lake dropped his gaze. “No.”

“And there’s the difference.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Shit. I can’t believe I let Juri put himself through that. What kind of friend am I.”

“You didn’t know,” West reassured. “But he did. He wouldn’t have offered if that was a dealbreaker for him. Which is why I think June needs to stop being so suspicious of him and get a grip.”

“Yejun still doesn’t trust Juri?” Nix asked. “Even after last night?”

“Actually, not sure. Haven’t seen him.”

“I don’t think he came back to the Roost,” Lake said.

“He’s still at his studio?” Nix glanced at the clock on his multi-slate. It’d been ten hours since they’d returned from the Corleone residence. “I thought he was supposed to get a break after the gallery showing?”

Lake and West silently watched him.

“What?” Nix rolled his eyes. “I’m not made of glass. Did it suck having all those people stare at my bare ass? Yeah. But it happened. Crying about it now won’t solve anything.”

“But you’re still pissed at June?” West surmised.

“I’m not mad at Yejun because of the painting,” Nix reminded. Would he rather that particular piece of work had never been created? Yes. But it was Dew’s fault it’d been displayed publicly instead of privately like the artist had intended. “I believe him when he says it was meant to be a gift for Lake’s birthday. Speaking of,” he turned to Lake, “what do you want?”

Lake quirked a brow. “My birthday has passed, Songbird.”

“Not the point.”

“There’s nothing I want.”

He blew out a breath. “Can’t ever make anything easy for me, can you?” He knew exactly what he was going to give the Demon, but he’d wanted to ask anyway. “When’s a good time to give it to you?”

Lake cocked his head. “You’re serious?”

“I never joke about birthdays.”

“Gift-giving is going to have to wait,” West told them, checking his multi-slate. “Yejun is at the office. Apparently, he got the paperwork all set up.”

“Paperwork?” Recalling the last time he was at their office building and there was paperwork involved gave him a rush of different emotions. On the one hand, it’d been one of the scariest experiences of his life, because it was one of his first encounters with Lake outside of the app, and he hadn’t known what to expect.

On the other, he dreamed about being lifted onto that rubber toy, filled with fake cock as Lake stroked him…He swallowed and tried to clear his mind, hoping neither of the Demons noticed how distracted he’d momentarily gotten.

“We convinced the Order to let us read you into the club,” Lake said, only for West to stop him.

“Already filled him in there. But not about the other part.” West shoveled the remaining food on his plate into his mouth, clueing Nix into the fact they were about to leave right now.

“What other part?” he asked.

Lake looked uncomfortable for a second before he cleared his throat and told him, “For our mating. We need to officially file our mating.”

Once they did that, it would be recognizable by the government. No one would be able to comment about Nix changing his mind or getting the mark surgically removed from his neck. Even though it was a big deal, they didn’t require much to make it legally binding. From what he understood, they needed to sign some documents, have a witness there to support their claims, and…that was about it.

Sometimes people had grand ceremonies or weddings and did it there, but Nix had never expected anything like that. Although, he had sort of always pictured his parents at all of his major life events and was a little bummed that he hadn’t even thought to get around to telling them about this.

He sort of just hadn’t figured out how.

“Hi mom, dad. Just wanted to let you know I was forcefully bitten and am now the future Emperor’s claimed mate” didn’t really have a positive ring to it.

Some of his thought process must have crossed his expression because Lake’s darkened.

“Chill out,” Nix stopped him before he could overreact. “I’m not going to refuse to sign the paperwork. Do you want to leave right this second? Because I’m ready if you are. Afterward, I have to swing by the hospital and check up on Briant.”

Juri had texted him about an hour ago letting him know he was on his way there. Now that he understood exactly what the other guy had done for him by taking his position last night, Nix really needed to meet and give him a proper thank you as well. He wasn’t really sure how though, so taking some time between to think about it couldn’t hurt.

There was also the matter of the other thing that’d been bugging him…

Last night, Nix had come face to face with the full reality of their situation. The Demons needed to come off as a united front now more than ever, and they weren’t able to do that in part because of Nix and the unsolved issues he had with Lake and Yejun.

“You’re being surprisingly amicable,” Lake said suspiciously.

“I’ve got my own terms and conditions I want to be met,” he replied, not bothering to conceal his true motive.

“Oh?”

Nix set his empty mug in the sink. “We can talk about it at the office, with Yejun.” He turned to West. “He’s meeting us there?”

“Yeah.” West stared at him for a moment, seemingly searching for something before giving up with a shrug. “All three of us need to be present when you sign the club paperwork. It needs to be filmed too.”

Nix bristled.

“Relax, Nixie.” West came over and brushed the bangs off his forehead tenderly. “We won’t do anything you’re not comfortable with. You believe me, don’t you?”

He considered every angle possible, trying to think the way West would. “No one actually watches the final test.”

“Exactly.” West grinned at him and then winked.

“Okay, but what about the death sentence?” Nix glanced between the two of them, but neither seemed all that concerned. “Hendrix is already out to get us, if he succeeds for any reason and that video is brought out to be used as blackmail…”

“Like I would ever let that happen.”

“West is right,” Lake agreed rising from his seat. “Once I’m emperor, none of this will matter anyway.”

“There’s only a few more days,” West reassured. “We just have to make it until then.”

“All the more reason to exercise extreme caution,” Nix said. Despite his protests, he was already reevaluating his plans in his head. This could work in his favor.

“What?” West quirked a brow. “Suddenly you’re not camera shy?”

“Not at all what I mean.”

“Then let us handle this,” Lake told him. “It’ll be just like with Juri. Nothing has to be shown on camera at all.”

Nix opened his mouth to argue but then snapped it shut again. He had a better idea. If they were going to take the risk anyway, may as well benefit from it fully.

Yeah. Yeah, this could really work.

But he couldn’t tell them about it just yet.

“Let’s go.” He brushed past West, intent on getting the ball rolling. “The sooner this is done, the faster we can get back to searching for the poisoner, right?”

“You really think he’ll strike before Demons Passing?” West asked as the Demons trailed behind Nix. “He’s lain pretty low up until this point. We still don’t even know if he was behind Dew’s actions or not.”

West hadn’t been able to link Dew to anyone else through any of his devices, but they knew there was another person involved in all of this. Dew wasn’t smart enough to create the poison himself, and neither he nor Branwen had the computer skills necessary to hack into the system and erase all traces of themselves. If they had, they would have done so, but now that they were aware of Branwen and Dew’s involvement, it’d been easier for West to locate traces of them.

He’d used the school's security footage and was in the process of viewing all of the tapes of Branwen and Dew moving about. Most of it was them going to and from class, but there were obvious missing pieces, a deleted chunk of time when Branwen had entered the library or Dew had stepped into the bathroom. Stuff like that. Someone had to be responsible for the doctored footage.

Someone didn’t want to be seen.

But who?

And were they willing to give up on whatever their end goal may be now that Demons Passing was so close?

“I think,” Nix shoved the front door open and stepped out onto the porch, “we need to be way more cautious than you three have been. No eating any outside food, even from the school cafeteria. And let’s stick together from now on, yeah? At least until Lake’s secured his position. That way—”

One of them grabbed his wrist and spun him around, and when he bumped into Lake’s solid chest, he realized it’d been the Imperial.

“What?” Nix snapped, not bothering to try and free himself from Lake’s hold.

“You know our schedules don’t line up that way,” Lake said. “There are some days when—”

“I’ll have to be alone with Yejun.” He’d already figured that out. “Yeah, I know.” On Tuesdays, West and Lake were in the same general vicinity on campus, but he and Yejun were on the opposite side for at least an hour. “If I had to guess, I’d say you and I are the two most likely targets. We shouldn’t travel alone.”

“How do you figure?” Lake asked.

“Because they failed with me and June once before,” West answered for him. “Since he’s short on time, he’ll go straight to the source and skip over the bullshit this go around. That’s if this guy tries anything at all.”

West thought the poisoner had already learned their lesson and backed off, but Nix wasn’t convinced. Or, maybe he just wasn’t willing to let his guard down, even a little.

He’d already learned the hard way what that got him, and something told him if this poisoner went for his jugular, he wouldn’t walk away after like he had with Lake. No, they needed to adapt to survive, at least for a little while.

“Come on.” Nix tugged lightly on his wrist. “We have to secure my position before we spend any more time worrying about yours.”

Lake’s brow winged up, but after a moment of hesitation, he shifted his hold, slipping his palm against Nix’s. When he pulled him toward the steps and kept their hands tightly clasped, Nix didn’t protest.

He planned on making the Imperial do far more with those hands before the day was through anyway. Nix would let him do as he pleased for now.

But later.

Later it was his turn.

And he had no intentions of showing any mercy.