What Comes Before

[Nox]

Raffe continued to tease him and Nox couldn't help but smile brightly at it. No one made him feel like Raffe did.

"I ramble all the time, but I'm glad you think it's cute." But Nox shook his head, "You don't want to hear what's going on in my head." Nox laughed. "I'd be running for the hills if my head weren't attached to my legs." He joked. It wasn't like he didn't think about leaving the Atharim. Or about going back. Or any number of things that could make his life both easier and more complicated. Everything was a mess -- everything but Raffe.

The train ride wasn't long but it wasn't short. Nox had to fight to keep his hand to himself. His seated position put the robotic arm nearest to Raffe and Nox didn't dare try to touch Raffee too much with it. Instead Nox leaned his head on Raffe's shoulder and whispered various things he'd like to do with Raffe once they got home.

The jolt from the train pulled them both forward as their train slid into their stop with ease. The Red Light District was just starting to come alive. And Nox felt more at home under their red hue than he did anywhere else. This was where he had last had Aurora. At least that's what Nox told himself. But it was probably more that he'd found a home that accepted him. Nox didn't rush home. He didn't dally either. He wanted to be alone with Raffe -- before they had to do anything. Being at Kallisti even in off hours usually meant one or both of them went down to work for some reason or another. So he wanted as much time with Raffe alone as Kalliisti would allow.

The light sign of Kallisti drew larger until they turned down to the employees entrance. Home was close, Nox could almost taste it. "Only thing missing is a kitchen." Nox poked fun at his prior comments. But it was home. Nox stopped halfway between the door and the mouth of the alley and pulled Raffe into him. Nox leaned in and whispered into Raffe's ear, nuzzling the side of his face taking in his scent, "Almost good enough?" He chuckled, he didn't expect to make out in the employee's entrance not when one or the other's bedroom was so close, but he could tease Raffe too.

[Raffe]

Raffe was ridiculously heated by the time Kallisti’s grand building came into view. He’d poked light fun at Nox’s impatience, but Nox spent the entire journey stoking the flame until it burned bright in them both. This morning he’d been hard pressed not to crawl right into Nox’s lap, warm with sleep and affection and a desire for connection that superseded all their worries at the time. But he’d been cognisant of the way the darkness crossed wires in Nox’s head, and so had packaged all those feelings and needs up in order to do the right thing.

“Close enough,” he laughed as Nox pulled him close, and promptly found the other man’s mouth with his own right there in the alleyway. Warmth shivered his skin as his hands slipped under Nox’s shirt, unapologetic for the self-same impatience he so loved to tease. He let himself sweep away, as overwhelmed as by the kiss in the hospital, when he’d first realised how much he was in over his head. A smile touched his lips for the memory, and all those memories since, and he fumbled for the code to the employee’s door, pulled Nox into the shadowed corridor and onwards into the club.

He doubted any of the girls would mind the brief spectacle as they passed through to the stairs. Not that he was thinking right then, consumed with the rush of his heart, the beating of blood, of touch and taste and need.

Until a voice pierced, unwelcome.

“Fucking hell boys, take a moment for air?”

Oriena sat at one of the tables, feet propped up upon it. An expensive bottle of vodka rested alongside, its accompanying crystal glass in hand, ice clinking as she slowly swirled the liquid. Loose hair rested around her shoulders like shadows. She looked bored, but for the sharp smile that presently twitched her lips, like a shark scenting blood.

[Nox]

They stumbled through the back of the club. The girls were probably getting their own show and Nox didn't care. They had been playing with the fire all day and now it was time for them alone.

An unwelcome voice pierced the heat. Nox growled as he pressed his head to Raffe's forehead in a moment to gather his own voice. There was no shame in his eyes. He wasn't doing anything bad, even by the clubs rules. Nox had almost forgotten how scary scare Oriena could be. Not that she hadn't always been a nasty peice of work. He remembered their first meeting. It was one of his first memories here in Moscow after waking up. How his life had changed since then.

But then again Nox was in a whole new world again since the last time he'd seen the woman. Which was barely months ago. So much had changed. He smiled at her hoping to ease the look on her face. He doubted it was because they were making out in the club, "Breathing is underrated.." Nox stepped into Raffe and motioned for him to go upstairs the right way. The heat was sliding away, but the thrill of getting caught was always a temptation.

[Oriena]

She laughed, low and scathing, while she rolled the glass in her fingers.

The last time she’d seen Nox, he’d been standing between her and the Ascendancy’s bullets. The memories crunched like broken glass in her mind, inviting the skittering feel of the ijiraq’s orders in her mind, a drone that: Never. Fucking. Stopped. Nails on chalkboard; an oath was made. The pressure was unbearable, tearing up impotent rage in her chest despite the haze of intoxication she was using to keep it caged. She downed the last swallow of her drink.

It was the scorn. The fucking scorn. Nox’s smile was dismissive. He urged Rafael up the stairs.

He would walk away, just like Brandon did.

Like they always fucking did.

Ori pulled the power in, knowing he would feel the shiver of it. She closed her eyes, grit her teeth, and for one bizarre moment she wondered if pain would break the chain. Just squeeze the glass in her fist until it burst like fire, and rivers of red ran down her wrist. But she’d done enough bleeding lately; she knew it would not work.

After all, a fucking oath was made.

Meanwhile Rafael’s eyes were wide and wary. He half moved with Nox’s nudge, only to pause himself. “What did you do with Kasun?” he ventured. The words were mangled and low from the scar at his throat; an injury inflicted by the very first person he thought to ask about.

Ori ignored him.

Her eyes were a storm, but this time she was the wreckage. “The pain every time one of them died. She felt it. I felt it. And fuck, Nox, she wants vengeance and she wants it bad.” She leaned forward; swapped the empty glass for the bottle in her grip. “Do you want to know what it feels like? Because she wants you to feel it.” Her eyes moved for a moment to Rafael. Beautiful, innocent Rafael. Then she gestured to the chair across the table. Took another burning swallow.

“We need to talk. Sit down.”

[Nox]

A shiver. Glass shattering. It all happened so fast. He turned to look at the woman who's power was now in her grasp. There was no hesitation. Nox reached through the sludge and felt the darkness rise. It drove him to pull more than he wanted to and it took all his will to stop at the brink of exploding. Her words at first he felt sympathy and then she threatened the one thing he cared about the most in the world. Nox looked back at Raffe, he wanted to tell him to go. To flee, run for the hills. But Raffe might be the only thing that pulled him back from the darkness as it crept in on the edge of the emptiness he felt. It pushed hard against the void of nothingness. It hurt, the power hurt. He remembered the pull of the Ijiriq. He remembered it all to well. He shuddered.

Nox didn't sit down. "I'll stand for now." Nox wove the weave to shield someone. He'd seen Ascendancy place it on her before, he'd been the one who had created it, but he had been too weak to cover the power she was pulling. And he might be now, but he wasn't going to go down without a fight. Nox split the flow and made a fireball ready to go up in the air if she did anything that he considered a move against Raffe. He would not miss with that. "I might have sympathy for her if her friends weren't trying to kill me in the process. What do we need to talk about?" There was anger on his mind but it washed away in the emptiness. His voice came out low and emotionless.

[Raffe]

Raffe shivered. He was still catching his breath, but the atmosphere had gone dangerously taut. When a slowly familiar sense of menace joined the fray, he finally shifted. Swallowing, he searched the club’s shadows, wondering if anyone else was here. He hoped not. Oriena could be fickle and unpredictable; could lash out as easily as smirk and crook a sly finger. But she was part of Kallisti, which meant she was family even when she was being a royal bitch. Right now there was a glaze in her eye like fury and madness warred, but maybe she was just drunk. He didn’t even know what they were talking about, but he understood that power was flickering around the room like electricity.

This was a bad cocktail. Though he wasn’t sure it was wise, he broached the distance to touch Nox lightly on the arm, his actual arm, as ever first to the fore as a peacemaker.

[Oriena]

If he insisted on being difficult about it, Oriena would pay in kind. Granted, Nox had been one of the men responsible for saving her life (as paltry a gift as it felt right now) and she didn’t forget it, even if he would never hear her thank him for it. But patience was fluttering on gossamer wings; there was a monster living in her head, and she no longer knew the delineation between it and the shredded remains of her own soul. Feelings bled. Anger fuelled. And oh she was burning in that inferno.

Burning, and bound, and screaming, as the ijiraq had been for eons.

“You never wondered why.” She laughed, bitter. “Of course you didn’t. No one did.”

Why they attacked. Why they fed. What they were.

She pulled her feet off the table. “But you said it yourself. You said it your fucking self. A tablet. Do you think they had a choice? Do you think I do?”

Power still swarmed and wreathed, though she had yet to do anything with it; it was the beacon upon which she was clinging to like a mast in a storm. The emotions weren’t all hers, but they leeched to the rot already inside. Nox was emotionless. He didn’t care, and she didn’t expect him to. Oriena was hardly the damsel upon which heroes clamoured over themselves in order to rescue. Whether he wished to help her was immaterial, though.

“I asked you nicely, Nox.” She tsked. One of the chairs jerked out, waiting. Darkness touched Ori’s expression, and also challenge; gasoline begging for the match. “You can try it the difficult way first, if you want. But I promise you, neither of us will like the consequences.”

[Nox]

Raffe's gentle touch on his arm cooled the fury. And Oriena was not a trifle to play with. He didn't need to feel her strength in order to know that. And the look in her eyes said she hurt just as much as he did. Nox took Raffe's hand and pulled him towards the chairs. Nox sat in the offered one however much he didn't want to but there was no way he was leaving Raffe standing their alone. And he couldn't ask him to leave. His sanity might not make it past this confrontation.

"No I didn't need to wonder why they were attacking me. Some asshole told them to. Powered by magic or technology of that table. She still has her hooks in you. I know that feeling." Nox dropped the power, the darkness clawed to reach for it and Nox felt the world go dark and dim and the only thing that let him resuface was knowing Raffe was there. They wanted him to come to them. They could come to him eventually. But for now they stayed in their homes doing his bidding, but with every new addition to the horde, the more powerful they became and his control grew weaker. They knew it. Nox knew they could feel it. He wouldn't be able to keep them back. "Drop the power and we both can be civilized. I'm not a threat to you or her. If she wants revenge then I'll give you what I have on the man who had the tablet. I don't know if he still has it. Or where he is now. My intel lost track of him somewhere in Siberia. But know that you are not the only one hunting him."

[Oriena]

He sat. Oriena watched with sly eyes, but was apparently satisfied with the capitulation. Rafael tagged behind, pulled along by the hand, though by the look on his face he had no intention of being anywhere else. The way they clung seemed awfully pathetic, but there was no accounting for taste. Rafael was beautiful to look at, she supposed, and sweet as sunshine, but she could hardly imagine the attraction to something so wholesome. Nox would burn him right up.

“Oh sweetheart, she didn’t leave her hooks in. I welcomed the cunt right in.” Oriena smirked, but it twisted cold and was quickly smothered by a sip from the bottle. The alcohol wasn’t doing much, but everything did suddenly feel easier. The pressure a little less. She leaned back in her chair, ran a hand through her hair as she watched the two men opposite. She wasn’t afraid of Nox’s retaliation, and even if she was, she knew now what happened when the ijiraq came to protect their investment.

She had no way of knowing if Nox held the power himself. Likely, given the snake he’d once been. Ori only held her own for comfort, which was precisely why it winked out from her now, and without protest. If Nox fucked her over she would make him regret it -- and she imagined he knew that too. She doubted the intention though: she perceived a man who did dark things and cloaked it in the guise of a hero, unlikely to be duplicitous unless she pushed him. Juliana was right about these two. It was nauseating, but it also meant Nox was unlikely to do anything that would risk Rafael’s disapproval. Which might even include refraining from lying about the help he was willing to offer, apparently absent any terms at all.

She laughed to herself. Felt suddenly weary. All that delicious leverage completely unnecessary, but for once Oriena wasn’t complaining. If there were strings she would find them. She lived and breathed and bartered on secrets.

“Who else is hunting him?”

Nox called it revenge, her own words really, but it was nothing so simple. It was the defiant howl for freedom. The blood-soaked promise of war. The ijiraq were predators, and they were angry. But she was hardly going to point it out.

[Nox]

Nox bristled at the word sweatheart. There was evil in the tone and it made him shiver. The emptiness gone, he felt the word more than heard it. She welcomed the queen into her. Welcomed whatever she had to offer. Perhaps if he'd been asked he might have given over the same, but he hadn't been asked. The ijiraq came and took and pulled beyond his capacity for the power. It burned and tormented his soul for months after, and it was only the darkness that made the pain of it ease. The only god send. But now the light beyond was covered in filth and it tainted his very soul with each use, but Nox couldn't stop. Whatever the bite had done, it had done the damage to the part of him that could touch the power.

The power slipped away from her, the chill disappeared and Nox nodded at the release of power. She didn't have proof he was not wielding but Nox kept his hands in plain view, though he rubbed at the connection of the new arm. It was starting to aggravate him as new as it was.

Nox answered the simple question with a simple answer. "I gave the same information to the Ascendancy several days ago." Nox didn't know if the Ascendancy intended to use it or not. But Nox had given it freely to him as well. He had no need of it, but he obviously knew people who wanted it.