Nikolo
“Gods, I think our first stop is going to have to be somewhere I can get a steak or something.” Willan massages the spot on his neck where the collar of his oqic is rubbing right over the spot where I mauled him again in the shower.
I’d say I regret it, but I don’t.
Knowing that he’s all marked up under there? It makes me want to do it again and again, until his being healing abilities give up and leave a scar so everyone can see that he’s mine.
Still flushed with my second helping of blood, I’m practically skipping down the stairs.
“I think we can manage that.” I throw a wink over my shoulder and jump down the last two stairs.
Willan’s rolling a lot slower than I am right now—which is entirely my fault—so I do a little dance while I wait for him, rolling my hips and shaking my ass in the narrow corridor.
The t-shirt I’m in tonight is cropped extra short.
It's more of a shrug than a functional top, so my abs are on full display with each exaggerated body roll.
“You’re ridiculous.” Willan rolls his eyes, but the smile on his lips gives him away.
On the second to last step the smile gives way to laughter, and he launches himself at me.
Even though he’s taller than me, I manage to catch him, effortlessly swinging him into my arms and spinning us until he’s pressed against the wall.
I pin him there, leaning in so we’re pressed chest to chest, threading my legs between his so we’re as close as we can possibly be. Heat seeps through the layers between us, and despite being more than well sated, being this close has my senses lighting up again.
I don’t think I can ever truly have enough of Willan.
Our eyes locked on each other, he gently pets the nape of my neck, knotting his fingers in my curls. His breath hitches, lips—still swollen from the kisses we’ve already shared—falling open. Mesmerised, I rise, closing the distance between us.
The gentle brush of our lips is achingly tender. Willan hums in contentment, his hands leaving my hair so he can wrap his arms around my shoulders, anchoring me to him.
“We’re never going to get you fed if we keep this up.” I mutter when Willan nudges my head to the side so he can brush more sweet kisses down my neck.
“Fuck food. I’ll feast on you.” His teeth sink playfully into my neck, making my knees buckle.
My groan feels obscenely loud, but I can’t find it in me to care. Hands still trapped between him and the wall, I squeeze his ass, pulling him tight against me. If only he could feast on me.
I wouldn’t change Willan for anything in the world—and I would never dream of him giving up his life and turning—but to feel him feed from me, too? To share each other in that way? To give and receive life from one another.
I ache for it.
But this, this is more than a satisfactory substitute—Willan’s mouth on me. Biting and licking, sucking hard enough to leave a mark that will last at least a short while. It may not be the same, but it’s still fucking incredible.
“Oh, fuck.” Willan stops his spine melting work on my neck with a loud groan. “I forgot my phone. You go say hi to Lusce. Give him a little thrill.”
With a last kiss he shoves me into the shop and races up the stairs two at a time.
“Willanator! Little bro! How’s it going?” Magic pulses through the shop with the booming announcement.
Whatever floaty, happy feelings I was just riding evaporate immediately.
Because there, on the other side of the shop, resting oh so casually against the counter, is Aleksi.
Fuck.
Despite his blunder, Aleksi recovers first, while my brain struggles to catch up.
“Oh, Nikolo.” His hazel eyes look almost familiar.
Except, over the years he’s matured, making his features harsher and more menacing than I remember.
They are completely devoid of warmth or affection as he takes me in over the shelves separating us.
“I didn’t expect to see you there man. How’s it going?
” He’s as rattled as I am, even though he’s trying to appear totally at ease about my presence.
I’m too shocked to answer—all I can do is stare.
Each brother may favour one parent, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t similarities. Aleksi and Willan both have their father’s nose, and their mothers lips. But Willan’s face is more narrow like their mothers, while Aleksi has the same imposing jawline as their father.
And despite the brothers being the same height, Aleksi is bigger, broader, and significantly more muscular. Obviously he’s spent the past few years working in the caves, mining the metal for the clan’s work.
Willan’s no slouch in the magic department, and he’s definitely got that authoritative present down pat. But between his physical size and the obvious power he wields having mastered the four elements, Aleksi is an imposing man.
“Does Egbert know you’re here?” Aleksi asks when I take too long to respond, a very specific smirk I remember well, lifting the corner of his lip.
Lusce’s snort winds through the tension. “It’d be easier for Egbert to keep track of when he’s not here, to be honest.” He teases, flipping his silver hair over his shoulder.
I’m not sure if Willan told everyone about my past. Considering the frowning side eye Lusce is giving Aleksi behind his back, I’m pretty confident Lusce is in the dark about the suddenly heavy tension in the room or why Aleksi’s suddenly acting like a dickbag.
From the look on his face, though, Lusce is quickly catching up—to the important bits anyway.
Willan arrives just in time, or maybe actually several moments too late.
“For fuck’s sake. It was in one of my pockets.” He’s panting from his run up and down the stairs, his chest slamming into my back, arms wrapping around my waist. “What’s wrong?” He kisses my neck again, squeezing my middle tightly.
I’d be flattered that he’s so wrapped up in me that he hasn’t noticed his brother standing there. But at the same time—his brother is right fucking there and my brain has left the building.
“Oh. Well, isn’t this an interesting development?
” Aleksi’s smile doesn’t even come close to reaching his eyes.
They’re like ice. He rounds the shelves, moving to where he can see us.
Externally, I feel every second of Aleksi’s icy gaze raking over us.
Internally, I feel… I don’t know. It’s entirely blank. But for how long?
“Aleksi.” Willan’s arms turn to steel bands around my waist, locking me in place. Except, I need to go. I really, really need to go. Now.
Laying a hand on his arm, I twist as much as I can in his tight hold. Keeping my voice low I meet Willan’s worried eyes. “I—I’m going to—I need to go.”
“Wait, no.” He protests with a pained hiss and a furious look in his brother’s direction—all of our plans for the evening evaporating.
“Please. Just—I’ll go to Kroy’s.” My voice is painfully neutral, even though inside I can feel something—I have no idea what, or which emotion yet—rushing toward me. Something in my face must convince him because he squeezes me again.
“I’ll go with you.” Willan offers, just as his brother scoffs.
“What’s that, Little Nik? You gotta run? That’s a shame.”
Everything shifts, the world tipping sideways, before righting itself again. Completely different, yet exactly the same. But only for me.
Strangely, the combination of my brief teenage nickname—a really shitty joke about my light-fingered tendencies—and Aleksi’s goading solidifies the strength I’ve been building. Like the last ingredient in an enchantment, it all comes together.
Aleksi might be the big bad mage clan leader. But I’m not fucking clan anymore. I’m not Little Nik. And I’m not tolerating anymore bullshit from beings who don’t deserve my angst.
I’m not running—I’m walking away.
I’m walking away knowing I’m going to have a safe place to come back to.
It feels surreal.
Keeping a cold shoulder towards Aleksi, I keep focused on Willan, cupping his face with the palm of my hand, my thumb stroking over his cheek.
Willan’s eyes flutter, but he doesn’t close them, he doesn’t want to look away from me.
“Stay. Please. You can’t leave him with Lusce until Egbert gets here. ”
“This is fucking ridiculous—” Aleksi starts, but Willan cuts him off with a look so ferocious, I’m surprised Aleksi doesn’t drop down dead.
With one last kiss—a tender graze of his lips so tender and sweet my heart stutters—Willan lets me go. I take the long way out of the shop, considering Aleksi has strategically blocked the exit.
I nearly float my way to Kroy’s, in a strange half daze. The Flimsy Sheath is closed, and I don’t have my keys. Thankfully, he’s inside, running to answer my rapid pounding on the door.
“Gods, Nikolo, what’s wrong?” Kroy yanks me inside, wrapping me up immediately in his arms to smash me against his chest. Thank the Gods I don’t need to breathe—it’d be a struggle.
“Aleksi. At shop. Willan.” I manage to get out, still being not-suffocated by Kroy.
“Are you okay?” He lets me go, pushing me back by my shoulders, but only long enough to inspect me and pull me back into another spine crushing hug.
“Yeah—yeah, I’m okay.” I pull back against the tight hug, and he lets me go for real this time. “Felt like the world kinda tipped over? But then…. I was okay. Willan, though. Willan is there with Lusce. Do you know where Egbert is?”
Kroy’s eyes slowly pan upwards, to his place above the shop.
“I’ve got a pretty good idea.” Oh. Right.
Now that I look, I notice that Kroy’s t-shirt is on inside out, and quickly un-notice it again.
“Come on, chook. Let’s get you some blood.
” Kroy sighs, leading me back to the staff kitchen.
While Kroy fusses about making my blood and getting out some biscuits and a drink for himself, I whip out my phone.
“I’m—I’m just going to message Laurence.” I tell him.
“Do whatever you gotta do. Now where’s those bloody—” Kroy’s head is deep within a cupboard, searching for something I don’t quite catch.
So Aleksi is here. At Willan’s. He’s come down from the mountain to visit. They are talking right now.
I don’t really expect a reply, but one comes almost immediately.
Laurence
Do you need me to call?
This is Ambrose BTW. But Laurence is right here.
I don’t think so? I left. I’m chilling with a friend until they’re done.
And how do you feel?
Surprisingly okay? But then being okay is actually what’s freaking me out…
My phone buzzes in my hand, just as Kroy places the blood on the table in front of me. I give him a quick apologetic smile before answering. But then he pulls his phone out too, tapping away quickly before putting it down again.
“Hey Laurence, hey Ambrose.” I greet them both knowing the chance I’m on speaker phone is high.
I’m right because Laurence’s bellowed hello echoes from across the room to the microphone.
“Hi Nikolo, thought it would be best to just call.” Ambrose is at a much more appropriate distance from the phone. “So, tell us what’s up.”
“I… I don’t even know.” I chuckle, glancing over at Kroy in the other seat who’s happily munching on the biscuits he’s found.
“I thought I’d be more…. I don’t know. Worked up or something that he’s here.
Especially after I freaked out over knowing Willan was in town.
I know I talked a big game to Kroy about being all chill about it, but now that it’s happening and I’m actually chill, I’m freaking out about that.
I mean. I freaked out a little about him being here, but then I realised…
it doesn’t matter. He doesn’t matter. And that freaked me out. ”
Closer to the phone now, Laurence clucks his tongue.
“It’s entirely normal, darling boy. You’ve learnt, you’ve grown, you’ve changed.
It’s unfamiliar territory—even if it’s good territory.
” Hearing Laurence settle in for a lecture is more soothing than it ought to be.
I settle in, too, getting comfortable on my chair.
“And things around you are different now, too. Willan may have been the cause of your angst in the beginning, but from how often he’s the shining feature of your stories now, it appears his role has very much changed.
With all of those changes, I’m not surprised you feel stronger and more secure in facing the ghosts of your past.”
“Not that all of this is because of Willan.” Ambrose cuts in quickly, before Laurence can really get on a roll. “You’re strong because of you, Nikolo. Not because of a boy.”
Even though they can’t see me, I roll my eyes. And even though we’re separated by continents and oceans, I swear they can still see me do it.
“Yeah, yeah. I know. I’m strong and independent.”
“Exactly!” Laurence exclaims. “You’re absolutely perfect, all on your own.”
“That’s not what you said the other day!” I crow. “You called me an ungrateful, spoiled child who’s never appreciated a single thing you’ve done for me. You said that I was going to get written out of your will and you were going to leave your silks to Milson.”
Milson is another one of Laurence’s collection of lost beings. He’s an ogre who insists on living completely off grid. The only compromise the pair has reached is that he does so in the jungles close to Laurence’s villa. And that he comes back once every three months to bathe.
“Posh. I said no such thing. And if I did, it was only because you called the new wallpaper I wanted for the living room ‘a bit much’.”
“Laurence, it had gold tigers, embossed over hot pink, emerald and black stripes. It was a bit much.”
“He has a point, Laurence. That wallpaper is hideous.” Ambrose chuckles, causing Laurence to squawk so loud even Lusce can hear it. “Right, well, he’s stalked off in a huff, so I better deal with that. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah. I’m actually feeling better now. Shockingly, this has helped.”
“I’m glad. Talk soon?”
“Yeah, definitely.”
After a quick goodbye, I tuck my phone away and take a long sip of the blood.
“Hey Kroy.” I come to my decision real quick. “Tell Egbert to hurry up with whatever he’s doing. I think I’m going to go back.”
His smile is just as indulgent as ever, but I can’t mistake the pride there, too. “Atta boy. I’ll just see if he’s out of the shower.”
Gross.