Chapter 14

~~~~~NYX~~~~~~

Nyx's eyes struggled to open as he finally became aware of his surroundings. The pain in his shoulder and leg was still there but it felt distant, more like an ache now. 

He blinked to clear the fog from his gaze as he examined his surroundings. 

He was in some kind of cave. The sun was long gone leaving the only light to the fire crackling a few feet away from him. His eyes snapped to the movement in his peripheral vision. 

There she was, in all her glory. Her hair was pulled back, held in a bun by a small dagger. Her armor was removed. He was staring at her bare back as she wrapped bandages around a wound in her back and chest. 

He took a moment to examine her, scars littered her pale skin all the way down her arms and back. He watched the strong muscles flex and winch with each movement she made. The whole time her leather gloves remained on.

He was nearly feral watching his mate. Shirtless. Injured. And sooooo Cauldron damned pretty. 

"I can hear the change of your breathing and I smell your arosal from here." Her voice broke the stillness as she tied of the bandage and threw back on her bloodied undershirt. 

Nyx thought about apologizing for staring, but he never wanted to lie to his mate. 

"Hello, Loki darling." A smirk pulled on Nyx's features as he saw the hairs on her arms stand at attention. 

She turned her head to look at him. All his arrogance and breathe left him when he saw her face. It was clear this time, not obscured by a mask or hazy as the result of poison. 

She's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. 

"When you can move, I'll escort you back to the night court. I've got a feelin' your parents will pay a pretty penny to see you again." Her cold voice startled him.

It was as if she was not effected by the bond that was wrenching him towards her. 

"What?" His voice nearly shook at her indifference.

"They paid well for a book. Imagine how much I'll get for their son." She continued as she began refastening her leathers.

"W-what are you talking about? I know you feel it, Loki. I felt the bond snap into place. You saved me, because you know what we are to each other. You are my mate." Nyx continued allowing the despiration to seep into his words.

"I saved you, because I'd get paid more to bring you back alive than dead. That's why I'm wasting my effort. You are a good investment, nothing more." Her cold eyed stared at him unflinching and it nearly crushed his heart.

"Don't lie darling, its unbecoming." Nyx scoffed. 

"I'm the lady of lies and I leave plenty of people coming."

Nyx growled at the mention of other's touching what was his. The image of her with anyone else was the worst type of agony. 

He calmed himself. 

He couldn't get mad, they had not even officially met. He had to do this right. He had to let the fantasy that mates equate to undying love at first sight. He needed to win her heart.

"Let's start over, I'm Nyx Archeron."

"I know who you are. You know who I am. You've already said my name in the time you've been running your mouth. Now be a good little prince and raise your arms."

~~~~LOKI~~~~~

Loki Brekker was use to self hatred. 

She hated herself for surviving the massacre at the orphanage. She hated herself for every crime she's ever committed. She hated herself for outliving everyone who's ever cared for her. 

But she had never hated herself quite so much as she did when she saw the heartbreak in Nyx Archeron's eyes. 

But what was she suppose to do?

Tell him that he was lovely and brave and better than anything she deserved. 

That Loki Brekker was twisted, crooked, wrong, so broken that she couldn't begin to pull herself together into some semblance of a good mate for him. 

That without meaning to, she'd been enraptured by him, she began to look for him, to need him near.   

No. He would not be forced under the water with her because the Mother decided to curse this man with the darkest monster in Hybern. 

He was good.

And she knew she was not.

She felt a claw of darkness scrape down her impenetrable mental shields.

A daemati... her mate was a mother-damned daemati.

Ohhh the mother truly loved to make her life hell, huh?

She flung him out of her mind so fast and hard that he winced in pain. "Don't go sniffin' around my head, Prince. That kinda darkness is no place for a hero like you." 

There was a moment of silence. She felt him staring at her but she made no move to make eye contact again.

To get lost in those deep blue eyes and forget what she was. 

"You're a business woman, right? You make deals and stuff for money, that's what you do? I know what's said about you. Everything is a negotiation with you, Brekker darling. How you probably bartered your way out of the womb." Nyx's voice was playful, light. 

As if she hadn't called him a pon and smashed his heart to pieces. 

"What of it." She kept that mask, that cold hard mask. 

"If I have a job for you, would you keep your word."

"Depends. Whats the job."

"You spend one week in the night court with me, every month. I pay you 20 Million each time. The deal ends one of two ways, you accept the bond or pay back whatever you made with interest... What do you say brekker? Hell I'll even let you bring your crows with you." 

Her heart skipped in her chest.

He knew who she was, what she was. He still invited her into his home. Not that she hasn't been in his home before but she doesn't know that.

She didn't know what was driving her to agree.

Greed.

Selfishness.

Or simply the unyielding burning desire to never leave his side.

But regardless she made a deal. 

"Two days and 30 mil. And add a clause that the deal ends and you pay triple what ever I've made if any one of my crows or me gets hurt on your turf no matter what. Also I get to pick which days." She negotiated. 

"Three days and 25 Million. And I can agree that I will pay triple what ever you've made if any one of your people or you gets purposefully hurt in the Night Court no matter the instigation. And you come for three days within the first week of every month."

"...Deal."

"Shake on it."

She hesitated.

She hated touching people, hated physical contact.

All she felt was flesh and death each time, making her want to vomit and cry all at once. But then her gloved hand met his and she didn't feel that gut wrenching disgust. 

She didn't see Jordies dead body, or feel all the people she's killed. 

She felt sparks, safety, home.

A tattoo crawled up her arm, vines and swirls of darkness that went all the way to just below her elbow. An identical one crawled up his forearm aswell. 

She ignored the shiteaching joyous grin that etched itself onto his face.

Sure she made a stupid deal that she would never make if it was someone else. But she didn't care. She didn't care that it was stupid and reclace.

She didn't care that she'd have to go into a den of powerful fae that she has robbed before.

She didn't care if she was killed the moment she stepped foot in the night court.

She would see him again and that's all that mattered.

.