Chapter 10
“You like that?” Bael’s voice floated down the hallway as Nix ripped open the door to the house. “Because I love it.”
Ready to burn the house down with everyone in it, Nix stomped into the living room, still naked and encased in flames, and shouted, “She’s not—”
She blinked, and the fire extinguished on her skin instantly.
Tied to a chair, much like Nix had been before she freed herself, was someone who looked exactly like Nix. But she was actively sobbing and shaking with fear. Snot and tears streamed down her face.
“Nixie, you’re back just in time,” Bael cheered, turning toward her. He dropped an unopened bottle of gasoline and a shiny red lighter onto the couch, strode over to wrap his arms around Nix, and tugged her body to his. “I’ve been interrogating this imposter for the last hour.”
Nix opened her mouth to speak, but she was still stunned at just how much the enchantment made the girl look like Nix. How had Bael known it wasn’t her? “You…knew?”
Bael shrugged. “Pretty much immediately.”
“She’s here?” Thierry’s voice sounded just before the glasses and suit-wearing gargoyle shifter burst into the living room. “She’s here,” he shouted behind him, and Ryker appeared.
Ryker’s fingers clenched over his heart, and he took a heaving breath like he had not inhaled since they separated after combat class.
“Who the fuck did this?” Bael asked in a deadly voice as he skimmed a finger over the long, jagged cut over Nix’s lips and the marker on her forehead spelling “Whore.” “Your face is covered in your blood.”
He said it as if someone else’s blood on Nix’s face would have been entirely acceptable.
“Who is she?” Nix asked instead, gesturing to the girl who looked like Nix’s reflection in a mirror.
“Just a patsy. Hardly knows anything.” Bael pouted. “Her fingernails basically pop right off when I pull on them. Very disappointing. Now, tell me who the fuck carved your face.”
“Let me go,” the other version of Nix wailed. “I don’t know anything. Let me go.”
Nix glanced at the gasoline and lighter on the couch. “Were you about to light her on fire?”
Bael winked. “The real Nix would have liked it since you are fire-resistant. Now, stay on topic. Who cut your face? I would like to return the favor in a timely manner. No dilly-dallying. Give me a name.”
“She didn’t…” Nix examined Thierry and Ryker’s intense and grim expressions. “She didn’t convince any of you?”
“By ‘convince,’ you mean fuck?” Bael clarified.
Ryker strode forward and brushed a thumb over Nix’s bleeding cheek. “Only you—” Ryker grunted. “—smell like home.”
Joining them, Thierry stepped up beside Nix and commented, “She didn’t even know the contents of chapter one of my textbook.”
Nix snorted out a strangled and exhausted laugh. She clutched the protection potion vial in her hand and sighed.
“Baby,” Bael said. “You are currently butt ass naked, which is making me hard, but your face is injured, which makes me want to kill someone. Which, murder, also may or may not make me hard.” Bael clucked his tongue. “I am still waiting to receive a name.”
“And he is not a patient incubus,” Thierry remarked.
“Tell us,” Ryker said softly to her. “What happened?”
“I…” How much could Nix share with them without sounding crazy? I’m from the future, and I think my presence here is causing bad, twisted things to happen. “My face stings.”
“Shift and heal,” Ryker said.
Right. Because that was easy for them. Shifting. Something Nix had never been capable of.
“Yeah, I wanna see what my dragoness mate looks like in scale form,” Bael said.
Thierry tilted his head and frowned at her, reading her frightened and frustrated expression. “Why do you not want to shift in front of us?”
Nix bit her lip. She glanced at the girl, who was enchanted to look like her, and asked, “Can we kick her out now, please?”
“You don’t want to pull off any more of her fingernails with me?” Bael asked, sounding genuinely disappointed.
“I’m, uh, tired.” Nix sighed again and strode toward the stairs. “I’m going to bed.”
“Not until you shift,” Bael said, blocking her path. “You shouldn’t let the wounds sit without shifting and healing them.”
“I’ll pour some rubbing alcohol onto them.”
“We don’t have rubbing alcohol. We only have massive amounts of coconut oil,” Bael deadpanned.
“Can we get her out of here already?” Nix pointed to the girl who looked exactly like her. “It’s freaking me out.”
Avoiding their questioning gazes, Nix sprinted up the stairs, knowing full well that her men followed close behind her. There were a few masculine thumping noises as her mates shoved at each other to be the first to follow her.
“Is this cause of what Professor Bowen said that one day?” Bael asked as Nix walked into Ryker’s room, where she had slept the night before. “About you taking a potion that was harming your ability to shift? Are you scared about shifting?”
“I’m not scared.” The truth was, Nix was embarrassed. For so long, she had thought she was powerless. Now, when she gained new confidence and a sudden knowledge that she could burst into flame, she hated admitting that she could not shift.
She wanted them to see her as a badass. Not a damaged victim.
“You can shift, yes?” Thierry asked.
Nix carefully placed the protection potion vial onto Ryker’s dresser and turned to face the men. Her crumpled expression told them all they needed to know.
“Oh, baby,” Bael whispered and yanked her into his arms again. Nix begged her eyes to suck back the water works and not betray her.
“I’ve never been able to shift,” she admitted onto Bael’s shoulder.
“That’s just…so incredibly unlikely,” Thierry thought aloud. “Could it be a mental block?” Thierry asked.
“Cygnus shifters are not encouraged to shift since their main power lies in enchantments rather than their shifted form. No one ever taught me how.”
“But, there are shifting classes—”
“Not for cygnus shifters,” Nix replied stiffly.
“I could…show you,” Ryker offered.
An hour later, Nix kicked a tree in frustration. To her shock, the tree actually shook at her assault. Ryker is right; I am getting stronger.
“Calm,” Ryker reminded her. “Breathe.”
Ryker had taken Nix to the field behind the off-campus house where she could shift in peace and not break anything around her, depending on the size of her dragon form.
“I don’t know,” Bael commented from where he ate popcorn and sat on a tree stump. The incubus enjoyed being a spectator. “I don’t think the whole ‘relax’ and ‘be calm’ and ‘feel the air’ thing is working, Ry.”
“Shut up and eat your popcorn,” Nix told him. From her seat on the ground, legs crisscrossed, Nix closed her eyes and tried to find her inner peace. Hello, Miss Inner Dragon. You can totally come out whenever you want.
A piece of hot, buttery popcorn hit Nix’s face, and any calm she experienced evaporated into invisible smoke.
She snapped at Bael in disbelief, “Did you just throw popcorn at me?”
“I’ll throw this dick at you.”
“Gods, you are so…”
“I am trying to express an idea here, and no one is listening to me.”
Thierry said, “I am almost scared to ask your idea, Baelfire.”
“The times I’ve witnessed Nixie burst into flames, it was driven by anger. Hot, powerful, impulsive anger.”
“What?” Nix snorted. “Are you going to purposefully make me angry?”
Bael’s lips split into a wicked, evil grin. He tossed another piece of popcorn at her.
This time, she was expecting it and leaned over to catch the piece in her mouth. She shot him a haughty, triumphant expression as she chewed and swallowed.
Her heart skipped at the genuine pride and adoration lighting up his face.
“Fuck yeah, baby,” Bael said. “I’m going to make you livid.”