Chapter 24
Nix’s brow furrowed and he actually took a step closer as though to help, watching in growing confusion as the other man’s body jerked with each dry heave.
“What’s going on?” one of the members asked.
“Is he choking on something?” Yejun questioned.
“Should we like, get him some water?” West glanced around the room as though a pitcher would magically appear.
Then Juri hacked and sputtered and this time projectile vomited blood across the table.
People screamed and shot out of their seats to get away as crimson splatted the shiny surface, covering almost the entire image of Nix and Juri that was still up on the screen.
Blood dripped down Juri’s chin as he straightened and swayed on his feet, losing his balance a second later. He crashed into Nix’s arms, both of them going down to the ground. His health deteriorated almost instantly from there, his skin turning sallow so suddenly Nix was almost certain he was imagining it.
He’d caught him out of instinct but now watched in abstract horror as the guy in his arms, the one he’d considered to be a friend only five hours ago, withered away like crumpled paper set alight.
“What’s happening?” the question came out of him on a breathy note, his gaze searching Juri’s face as his skin turned wrinkly as though all of the water was being sucked out of him. He held him tighter, unsure of what to do, momentarily forgetting all about how angry he’d been a second ago.
“I have to tell you,” Juri didn’t sound anything like himself, struggling to get the words out. “It…wasn’t me. Branwen and I, we never…wasn’t…”
“Nix.” Yejun reached down and grabbed onto his arm to pull him away, but Nix refused to budge.
“What’s happening to him?” Nix shook his head. “Juri, stop talking. Just hold on, we’ll get you to a doctor and—”
“Poison,” Juri uttered and Nix froze. “I…” His eyes got glassy and unfocused. “B—”
Juri Ferd made a final wheeze and went limp in Nix’s hold.
“What just happened?” This time when Yejun pulled him, Nix went, Juri’s body slipping through his grasp to settle on the floor.
He didn’t move afterward. Didn’t so much as twitch.
“Nix.” West was there, easing him away, helping June to carefully maneuver Nix around the table.
“Is he dead?” Nix couldn’t make sense of what he was saying.
“Babe.”
“He’s dead? ” But he’d been fine a minute ago. There’d been no signs he was sick, not a single one. Even Juri had seemed shocked when he’d started to cough. Things weren’t adding up. “It doesn’t make sense.”
If he was sick enough to die like that, he had to have known, but if Juri had known, why would he bother fighting so hard for a throne he wouldn’t live long enough to sit on?
“It doesn’t make sense,” he repeated.
“Songbird.” Lake captured his face in both hands and forced Nix’s gaze away from the body. “Nix, look at me. I need you to calm down, okay? We’re still in the Club House and people are watching.”
Who gave a shit about people?
“Juri just died,” he reminded.
“He’s not dead,” Yejun corrected. He’d left Nix with Lake and West and had gone back to check. “He’s got a pulse but it’s very weak.”
“You have to help him,” Nix said.
“We will.” Lake paused and then added, “I’m sorry.”
Was he?
Was Nix?
Yes, yes he was. He was livid with Juri, but that didn’t mean he wanted the guy dead!
Did it?
Hadn’t he been thinking dark thoughts like that all day?
“Hey,” Lake shook him a little to regain his attention, “enough. We need you to focus right now, Nix. You’re our fourth and we aren’t safe here.”
Right. He was one of them, and they had to be careful. Feelings could be viewed as weakness to Essentials. Nix glanced around the room and realized with a start that aside from Demitrious and Sif, everyone else had fled.
“They’re afraid it’s contagious,” West leaned in and whispered. “Cowards.”
Coward.
Juri had called his brother that earlier.
“So they can flee from the scene after a guy has passed out, but we can’t show a bit of remorse?” Nix hated it here. But it was the slap in the face he needed to pull himself together. He blinked and then straightened, nodding at Lake that he was all right.
Lake hesitated but then released him. “The club doctor is on the way. They’ll take Juri straight to the hospital. If there’s something they can do for him, they’ll do it. If not…” he trailed off, seeming to realize they were going to have to talk about the chance that Juri wouldn’t make it.
“Autopsy,” Nix filled in for him. “Yeah. I get it.”
Juri would need an autopsy if he died.
“There were plenty of witnesses,” Sif spoke up then. “If anyone tries to make up any stories,” she set her sights on Demitrious when she said that part, “please know you have me in your corner, Imperial Lake.”
“Oversee the transfer,” Lake ordered, taking control of the situation with ease. “I don’t want anyone allowed near the body aside from the chief surgeon or, if it comes to it, the medical examiners.”
“Of course, Imperial.” She bowed her head and then turned toward the door just as a team of paramedics dressed in outfits with the club logo on the sleeves instead of the hospital’s came in. “This way.”
Yejun stepped into Nix’s line of sight, blocking them as they presumably lifted Juri’s body onto the stretcher. “Just breathe, Firebird.”
It wasn’t like it was Nix’s first body—he’d seen Dew after the fall—but somehow it was…different.
“I was so angry at him, but now…”
West hushed him. “You don’t have to make sense of it right this second.”
“But you do have to keep yourself together,” Lake reminded. “West, go with Sif. Make sure nothing happens.”
“Will do.” He planted a kiss to the top of Nix’s head and then disappeared without a backward glance, completely ignoring his father.
“June, take Nix home. His cousin is still there with Beck.” Lake took Nix’s hand and squeezed once. “I have to stay here and make sure there are no rumors and no one contaminates the room until the authorities arrive. The Ferds have lost respect due to their sons, but they’re still members of the club. They’ll want an official investigation done.”
And Lake didn’t trust Demitrious or one of the other Order members not to plant evidence trying to pin this on them.
“Okay.” Nix allowed Yejun to walk him toward the doors, but then thought of something and stopped. “What about him?” He motioned toward Demitrious.
“Surely you don’t believe I truly ever meant to work against you?” Demitrious gave a nervous chuckle. “Lake, Yejun, you both know me better than that. Yes, I don’t approve of your choice in life partner, but that’s neither here nor there. I would never mix our personal lives with club business.”
“Of course not,” Lake said. “That’s very professional of you.”
“Yes.” Demitrious smiled. “I’m glad you’ve noticed.”
“I, however, am not as professional. But then, I don’t have to be.” Now that it was just the three of them there, Lake’s mask dropped, the enigmatic expression he was so known for wearing making way for his terrifying true nature. With just a look, he gave the impression he could peel the skin straight down to a man’s bones, and enjoy doing it.
The sight he set on Demitrious was purely demonic, villainous enough it actually had the older man stumbling back until he hit the wall even though Lake never made any moves toward him.
“I am the future Emperor of Tulniri,” Lake announced. “Tell me again, who is in charge here?”
“You,” Demitrious replied quickly. “You, of course. Of course. I’ve always rooted for you. You know I have.”
“What I know,” Lake stated, “is that if you ever threaten or lie to Nix again, I’ll chop off your feet and make you crawl up all one thousand steps of the Club House from top to bottom and then bottom to top. If you bleed out before you make it, I’ll have your body dragged the rest of the way. Club members will be allowed to come and leer at your decaying form, and West can take all of your assets and dismantle what he pleases. Am I making myself clear, Demitrious, or are you struggling to comprehend what I’m saying because I’m mixing business with my personal life?”
“Not at all,” his voice shook. “I understand.”
In a way, Nix could kind of see what Juri had been trying to tell him. The Order was nothing more than a bunch of middle-aged losers playing politics from the safety of their tower and their penthouses. If their planet had a hope of breaking free from the vicious cycle Club Essential enforced on everyone, they were going to need a strong leader who wasn’t afraid to tell them no.
But Juri had been wrong about who that needed to be, having witnessed the way all of those arrogant people had cowered in the presence of the Demons, that was apparent.
“Come on.” Yejun offered his hand to Nix. “Let’s go home. Lake can handle things here. Trust us.”
Trust.
“What did you really think when you first saw that photo?” He had no clue why he was asking that now, but the question just sort of poured out of him.
Yejun didn’t so much as flinch. “I thought you looked upset.”
“Did you?”
“Yeah. Weren’t you?”
Nix licked his lips. “Yeah.”
When he placed his palm against Yejun’s the warmth he felt radiating off of the Demon felt right. Welcoming, and comforting.
And honest.
“Take me home,” Nix said.
“I’ll be there soon,” Lake promised.
Then Yejun led Nix out of the room, and the two of them kept their heads up as they made their way down the halls and past the Order members who’d fled the scene. They were quiet in the elevator that took them to the main level, didn’t speak even once they were out of earshot from lingering members and had made it to Yejun’s car in the parking lot.
Nix let Yejun open the door for him and he slipped into the vehicle, and when the Demon slid into the driver's seat and reached for his hand again, he allowed him to take it.
They’d just pulled into the driveway of the Roost when they received the news.
Juri Ferd had died on the way to the hospital and the official diagnosis had already been released.
A foreign substance had been found in his bloodstream.
Death by poisoning.