09-16-2025, 07:11 PM
He didn’t say anything. The old Nox would have, and though it wouldn’t have been anything she was inclined to listen to, ironically she didn’t find his silence to be an improvement. His head was propped against her leg and she wanted to kick him for the passive reaction, but he’d only accept the violence and that wouldn’t have done anything to sate her irritation. Instead she was the one to sigh. She didn’t shrug him off – there was no reason to, and she didn’t always reject liberties. Nox was one of the few people in her life who ever bothered to test those boundaries.
Oriena seldom checked in at the club these days, and despite her scorn she had no idea at the actual state of Nox and Rafael’s relationship, though she supposed his single sentence had spoken the same volumes he’d usually expend a whole lung full of breath on. It wasn’t their habit to talk about those kinds of things, and she couldn’t remember the last time she’d actually even seen Rafael. When Nox had given her the information about the Regus, perhaps. The same day she’d told Nox the two of them would never work, just to be spiteful. Not that she hadn’t been right in the end.
But the horde was gone now, and with it the reason for Nox’s broken promise. He must have considered if that meant there was anything left to salvage for their future. Just as he must have considered that love was now a feeling beyond him.
A cold bark of laughter answered his question. Her mood flattened almost immediately. “The drugs barely work anymore,” she said testily. For what she didn’t say, and he probably knew enough to fill in the blanks. But the ijiraq were quiet for once. There was nothing here to entice them to feed, and she wasn’t sure they’d risk another forced communion so soon after the last one knocked her out cold. She didn’t want to talk about it. Nor was it exactly why she’d glared at the packet, or why she’d bothered to check it hadn’t gone astray. But it all amounted to the same thing. A simmering anger. At herself. At the world around her.
“Did Sasha find you? The stupid prick’s going to get himself killed.” Not that Nox could actually help him anymore, or at least not in the way she had intended by sending him.
Oriena seldom checked in at the club these days, and despite her scorn she had no idea at the actual state of Nox and Rafael’s relationship, though she supposed his single sentence had spoken the same volumes he’d usually expend a whole lung full of breath on. It wasn’t their habit to talk about those kinds of things, and she couldn’t remember the last time she’d actually even seen Rafael. When Nox had given her the information about the Regus, perhaps. The same day she’d told Nox the two of them would never work, just to be spiteful. Not that she hadn’t been right in the end.
But the horde was gone now, and with it the reason for Nox’s broken promise. He must have considered if that meant there was anything left to salvage for their future. Just as he must have considered that love was now a feeling beyond him.
A cold bark of laughter answered his question. Her mood flattened almost immediately. “The drugs barely work anymore,” she said testily. For what she didn’t say, and he probably knew enough to fill in the blanks. But the ijiraq were quiet for once. There was nothing here to entice them to feed, and she wasn’t sure they’d risk another forced communion so soon after the last one knocked her out cold. She didn’t want to talk about it. Nor was it exactly why she’d glared at the packet, or why she’d bothered to check it hadn’t gone astray. But it all amounted to the same thing. A simmering anger. At herself. At the world around her.
“Did Sasha find you? The stupid prick’s going to get himself killed.” Not that Nox could actually help him anymore, or at least not in the way she had intended by sending him.
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