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.
“Whothe fuckdid 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 inyourblood.”
He said it as if someoneelse’sblood 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 fuckcarved your face.”
“Let mego,” 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’tconvinceany 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 aname.”
“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.”
