Necromancer Legacy - 11. Not unless you want me to

“You.” Lucas jabbed a finger toward Raven. “You promoted him,” the finger flicked toward Cyan, “when there are plenty others that deserve it more.” Lucas’s voice was composed and surprisingly soft, and he spoke with a Spanish accent.

Raven stepped forth. His arms, clad in leather guards, were crossed against his bare chest. The silvery light emanating from the ceiling caught bluish highlights in Raven’s black hair and wings.

“You mean like you?” Raven said to Lucas.

Laughter vibrated across the room. Not everyone laughed, though. Glancing to the side, Nick saw that Cyan looked very tense.

Lucas said, “You’re biased. Your decision isn’t based on a professional opinion. This is favoritism.”

People lapsed into silence after hearing this. Nick glanced at Lucas. He was swathed in black with a sword sheathed at his belt. He wasn’t very tall. Standing next to him in her red heels, Liv was a few inches taller. When she saw Nick looking her way, Liv blew him a kiss.

“That is a very serious accusation,” Raven said.

“I’m well aware,” Lucas replied. He had a hand on the hilt of his sword.

Nick frowned as he noticed there seemed to be blood on Lucas’s hand, and some more staining the hilt of the sword, too.

“I can assure you,” Raven was saying, “that my decision was strictly professional. I like the way Cyan works. We need more like him. Too many let their powers get to their heads.”

Lucas gave a wry smile. “You like the way he works? Fair enough.” Lucas spoke slowly, with the emphasis on every single word: “But I think you like the way he pleases you in bed even more.”

The people in the room stifled their comments. Standing next to Nick, Cyan had gone very pale.

Raven’s traits were an unreadable mask. His eyes—a dark blue color, like cobalt—were as cold as ice.

Nick felt somewhat agitated. He felt like yelling just to break the awkward silence. This was ridiculous. Nick thought he was in Hell, not in a freaking soap opera. Why this over the top drama? Why would people care who slept with whom?

Suddenly Sasha gripped Nick’s arm. He was looking toward Riley and his dog.

“He’s crying,” Sasha said and Nick realized he was talking about the dog. “I think that guy’s really hurt.”

Before Nick could stop him, Sasha darted off, rushed past Raven and the two party crashers, and went to sit next to Riley.

“He’s bleeding,” Sasha said, and now everyone turned their attention to him.

“Lucas must have stabbed him,” Nick added. “There’s blood on his sword.”

Raven stepped forward menacingly, his wings spreading a bit in a rustling of dark blue feathers. Lucas wasn’t the only one with a weapon at his belt; Raven’s pale hand grabbed hold of a slim dagger. It was pure white with a single emerald-like gem embedded in the hilt. It was so delicate that Nick hadn’t noticed it before.

There was a wave of whispers among Raven’s guests.

“You stabbed one of my friends with a reaper blade? How dare you?” Raven said.

Liv was stepping back, and she silently motioned for Lucas to do the same. But he held his ground.

“This isn’t over, ladies and gentlemen.” Lucas smirked. “This was just a warning. Allow me to deliver some good news: Louis is coming back. Very soon. But you probably knew that already, Raven. Didn’t you? Trying to have one last party before someone comes in and puts you in your place? Good luck with that. Come on, Liv, we’re leaving.”

Lucas went to put his hand on Liv’s back. They were soon shrouded in black smoke and in a few instants they were gone. Nick supposed that was faster than the spiral staircase.

The silence broke across the club. Everyone started talking at once, looking at one another, interrogating Raven, and wondering what was going on.

“Is this true, Raven?”

“Could he be bluffing?”

“I thought we weren’t letting anyone come back from Purgatory anymore.”

Nick’s head hurt too much if he tried to make sense of it—who the Hell was Louis anyway?—so he ignored them all and he rushed over to see how Sasha was doing instead. Or rather, how Riley was doing.

“Are you… healing him?” asked Nick incredulously, dropping to his knees.

Sasha was bent over Riley with his hands pressed against his wound. Lucas had aimed for the heart. There was a puddle of blood spreading on the floor under Riley, and it seemed he was clinging to life only thanks to Sasha. There was a warm aura around Sasha, almost imperceptible. But Nick could sense it. It felt pure and comforting and safe just being close to Sasha; it had a calming, almost hypnotizing effect.

Nick saw black furry boots approaching from the corner of his eye. Cyan came to stand behind Nick and Sasha, looking down at the scene before him.

“I’d heard some fox spirits could do that,” Cyan mused, “but I’d never seen it with my own eyes before. It’s brilliant.”

Nick looked up. “What are you talking about? Do what?”

“Heal an injured person,” said Cyan.

“How come Riley’s hurt, anyway? Isn’t he already dead? Aren’t all of you already dead?” he asked Cyan.

“Aye, we are. Demons, all of us. But we can get hurt, mate. We certainly can.”

Nick looked back at Sasha. His hands and arms were trembling as he continuously applied pressure to Riley’s wound. Sasha looked like he was in pain. Nick grabbed his shoulder, squeezing it.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I think I can do this. Just a little more…”

Riley was waking up, gasping for air. “What happened? What happened? They’re not on the list.” He looked confused, glancing in every direction.

“You mean Lucas and Olivia?” Cyan said. “No, they certainly aren’t on Raven’s list. But it’s okay, they’ve left now. And Sasha here is the one who saved you.”

“Saved me?” Riley looked down at himself. Through his shredded, blood-stained clothing, they saw that the skin on his chest was mended. Riley reached out to Sasha. “Thank you. Thank you so much. Oh, no,” Riley looked down, examining Sasha’s arm, “did Koda do this? I’m so sorry.”

Nick hadn’t noticed it before, but now he saw that Sasha had a bite wound on his arm. It was still bleeding, too. Nick glared at Koda.

“That stupid dog—”

Koda lowered his tail and ears.

“No,” Sasha said weakly. He pulled away from Riley, and instead clung to Nick. He was very pale. “It’s not his fault. Probably thought I was going to hurt Riley…”

Riley sat up and put an arm around his dog protectively. “Yeah, he didn’t know any better.”

But now Sasha was hurt. He looked so weak. It wasn’t just the bite; something was off. Sasha looked up at Nick like he wanted to say something, but then he just fell in his arms. His body was all limp.

“Did he just pass out? Oh, I’m sorry,” Riley said. With one arm still around his dog, he crawled away like he was afraid Nick would start attacking them.

“I think,” Cyan surmised, “the fact that Sasha was bleeding is what allowed him to heal Riley. A connection through their blood. It’s a type of witchcraft. So either Koda was trying to protect Riley like Sasha said, or, he knew, somehow, so he made sure that Sasha was bleeding so he could save him. Either way, Sasha didn’t pass out from just the bite. Clearly he’s too weak to perform this type of witchcraft without his own body getting hurt in the process. Could simply be from lack of practice, or… something else.”

“What do you mean something else?” asked Nick.

“It’s not important. Forget about it.”

Cyan looked over his shoulder toward Raven. Jun was back, and she stood next to Raven in front of the noisy crowd. Together they were trying to answer everybody’s questions.

“You need to get out of here,” Cyan said. “Take Sasha home. Make sure he’s okay.”

“How?”

“What do you mean how?” Cyan looked irked. “I explained it to you.”

“So,” Nick said, “I need to think about blood, and Sasha’s home?”

“You visualize the blood,” Cyan corrected. “That’s your portal.”

Nick considered the puddle of blood on the floor. “Shouldn’t be too hard.”

“And then,” Cyan added, “you focus on your destination, and your destination only. Do you meditate?”

“No.”

“Course you don’t.” Cyan raked his fingers through his long hair, sighing. “If you did, you would know how to focus your mind on something, without any other thoughts interrupting. But no matter. I’m sure you can do it.”

“Are you sure it’s not dangerous?” Nick pulled Sasha closer. He was still unconscious.

“You’ll be fine, Nicky,” Cyan insisted. “Now get out of here.”

“Good luck,” Riley told him.

Nick focused on the blood, and it was surprisingly easy. The red substance started to shimmer as everything else around him blurred. He couldn’t hear people questioning Raven anymore. Soon he couldn’t even discern Cyan or Riley. Nick tried to remember as many details as he could from Sasha’s bedroom; the messiness, the pile of clothes on the chair, the pale green and dark orange walls, but he couldn’t really remember much else.

Black smoke rose; a dark, supernatural wind carrying them away.

And they ended up on the street.

Well. At least they were on 34^th; they were close to Sasha’s apartment. Nick was kneeling on the cold sidewalk pavement with Sasha still in his arms. There weren’t any people nearby. It was still night. But Nick had a feeling dawn wasn’t too far. He heard the sound of cars driving by and looked behind his shoulder at Lexington Avenue; the street corner where the cab had dropped them off on that first night—only two weeks ago.

Sasha was waking up. He moaned and pushed himself off of Nick, trying to stand. But his legs were shaky.

“Are you okay?” Nick rose to his feet and stayed very close to Sasha, just in case.

Sasha rubbed under his eyes and then ran his hands through his messy blond hair.

“What happened?”

“You passed out...”

“Seriously?”

Sasha sighed, and shook his head. He looked at the buildings lining the street—some shops and stores with apartments on the higher floors.

“Feels like it was all just a dream, you know? Like it wasn’t real,” Sasha said.

“We need to get you home,” Nick said carefully, “and take care of your arm. Okay?”

Sasha looked down at his arm and winced as he saw the blood there.

“Guess it was real…”

Nick said, “It can’t be a dream if we both have the same one, remember?”

“I don’t want to go back there. Ever”

Nick felt a pang of guilt. He shivered; the wind was unusually cold for the end of March, and it smelled like it was going to rain.

“Let’s just get you home,” Nick said again.

Sasha nodded, but he didn’t move.

Instead he leaned closer, and he kissed Nick, just like that. It was soft, and sweet, and so brief, but it sent shivers all over Nick’s body—a different kind of shivers.

The wind blew in their hair. Nick’s eyes opened—he hadn’t realized he had closed them. “What was that for?” he whispered.

“I don’t blame you. Don’t feel guilty, okay?”

They started walking, side by side, but without touching.

“You’re perceptive,” Nick said quietly.

“I try.”

“Let me add it to the growing list of Sasha’s powers. How many powers do you have, anyway? You can turn into a fox—which I won’t truly believe until you show me, by the way—and now you can heal people? Or is it just demons? In which case, do I count as a demon, because I pulled a leg muscle the other day, and—”

“Shut up Nick.” Sasha started to walk faster.

“Fair enough. The leg muscle thing was a lie.”

“I just hope I’m not freaking you out too much.” Sasha shoved his hands in his pockets, averting his eyes.

“Little chance of that happening.”

Considering I brought my best friend back from the dead, I probably deserve the gold medal if we play the freakiness game.

Nick wanted to tell him, but the words remained stuck in his throat. Sasha’s powers seemed all cute and lovely. He was a fox spirit. Come on. Even the name was adorable, like some peaceful Native American deity.

Necromancer just sounded spooky and bone-chilling.

He would tell him another time.

They made it safely to Sasha’s apartment, without waking Gabriel once they were in, which was great because Sasha mentioned Gabriel was really tired from working too much lately. So they went in Sasha’s bedroom with some disinfectant and bandages, and Nick started to take care of Sasha’s arm as they sat on the bed.

He tried to memorize as many details as he could from Sasha’s bedroom this time. Just random things. He saw that he kept all his converse sneakers in one corner. He had at least six pairs, all in different colors.

Another thing he noticed right away, and he wondered how he had not seen this the first time: there were some plushies lined on the shelves over the desk, and some more also rested on the dresser. There were definitely some foxes in there, and some dogs, cats, dolphins, that sort of thing.

“My dad bought me those when I was a kid,” Sasha said.

Amused, Nick replied, “You don’t have to explain yourself.”

“I want to.” The corners of Sasha’s lips twitched into a smile. “It was the funniest thing. My dad really liked those. He was the biggest dork. As long as I was a kid, he had an excuse. And then, when I wasn’t a kid anymore, he kept buying them anyway. He just told everyone I really liked them. And we all played along. I mean, how am I supposed to get rid of them now?”

Nick finished bandaging his arm, and looked up at him, to see if he was crying or something. But his green eyes were dry. And he was staring right back.

You said something about my eyes earlier, but yours are just—

Sasha let his hand slowly climb up to Nick’s shoulder, and he pulled him into another one of those sweet but really intense kisses; another one of those short-lived moments. Nick felt something break inside him. He wanted to throw himself at Sasha. He wanted to lash out, to rip his clothes off and to turn the whole bedroom into even more of a mess and to just be with him, he wanted it so badly that it hurt.

“You know,” Sasha said, “I really like you.” He pulled his legs up and folded them under himself, rustling the sheets.

“I’m starting to get the hint that you do.”

“But,” Sasha’s eyes wandered down, “what I really like is that I can kiss you like this, and you don’t… you don’t rush things, you know what I mean?”

You have no idea how hard it is though.

Sasha went on, his voice all clumsy and vulnerable, “I’m starting to feel safe around you, and that’s what I need, you know?”

“You can kiss me,” Nick teased, “as many times as you like. I promise I won’t ‘rush’ you. Not unless you want me to.”

Sasha looked away. “Don’t make fun of me.” But he was smiling.

His smile disappeared really quickly when he checked his cell phone.

“What is it?” Nick asked.

He checked his phone, too. Might as well. The first thing he saw was that he had about fifty texts from Shane. What the—? Had something happened?

Nick panicked at first, but then he saw that they were all just stupid texts, with Shane fussing about him again:

‘Where are you?’

‘I’m worried about you.’

‘When are you coming home?’

‘Are you with Sasha?’

‘Tonight was fun by the way. Gay clubs are so much better. You were right!’

‘Of course you were right. You’re always right. You’re the best!’

He was so never bringing anyone back from the dead, ever again.

But Sasha was freaking out for a different reason. “I have to start getting ready for work in like, one hour.”

Nick checked his phone again—he had checked it without noting the time just now; that always happened. It was a little past 5 am already.

“Shit. How early do you work?”

“The first class is at eight. But I have to be there early.”

“Are you gonna be okay? You look so tired.” He reached up with a hand to brush Sasha’s hair away from his face. His eyes were a bit red.

“I’ll just drown myself in coffee, or something.”

Nick sighed. “I should probably go home, anyway. I have to work too.”

“Do you work at your two jobs today?”

“Yeah.”

“Same here,” Sasha said.

“How do you even find time for homework?”

“I don’t,” he admitted.

“Oh.”

“Don’t you dare lecture me!”

Nick raised his hands in surrender. “I didn’t say a word.”

Sasha went on anyway, “I already have a big brother. Who also happens to be your brother. Huh. This is going to be weird.”

Right. “Let’s not… bring that up now,” Nick said.

“Text me today. Let me know if you don’t die from exhaustion.”

“Same to you.”

They padded out of the bedroom and stalked up the hallway without flicking on any lights, as Sasha walked with him to the front door, and… Well. This was the boring part, wasn’t it?

“You look really depressed,” Sasha told him. “Anything that would make you feel better?”

Nick bit back a smile; Sasha was such a tease.

“Like?” Nick asked.

Sasha leaned closer and pressed a hand to Nick’s chest to pin him back against the wall softly. His eyes seemed to gleam in the dark before he closed them and kissed him.

“Like this.” Sasha said.

“Yes.”

So they kissed one last time.

And then one more time.