a/n: I checked out the site for some CHRONICLES OF NICK fics and it was slim pickings. And then I read Chapter 6 of INFINITY, and I couldn't get it out of my head to do a Nick/Kyrian fic. This is their third meeting. Includes Spoilers for IFINITY. Hope you like it. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own the CHRONICLES OF NICK books, specifically INFINITY for which this fic is based, they belong to Sherrilyn Kenyon.
Book Tag: INFINITY.
Contains: Spoliers for INFINITY, lines taken directly from book, altered scenes.
Referenced Chapters (with Lines taken directly from) : 2, 6, 7, 14 & Epilogue.
Included Characters : Nick, Kyrian, Rosa, Acheron, Caleb, Cherise (i.e. Nick's mom).
Mentioned : Kody, Tabitha, Ambrose, Alan and company (i.e. Mike & Tyree). The Triple B.
Includes: Nick/Kyrian slash (nothing graphic, just feelings), Consensual, Underage, Use of prescription drugs.
Summary:
Things don't seem so cut and dry as Nick and Kyrian experience interesting feelings upon meeting up.
Title: DRAW
C—H—R—O—N—I—C—L—E—S ~ O—F ~ N—I—C—K
Nick remembered his conversation with Mr. Poitiers a bit earlier, but all that concern of getting into the car with a pervert went out of his head when he finally came face-to-face with his new boss for the next six months (at least), in order to pay the man back for covering the medical bills over his big mistake concerning Alan and the guys (with whom he vowed to seek personal vengeance—or was it revenge? Was there really that much difference between the two? he wondered) (something to think on later when his mind wasn't going distracted by something altogether different).
Usually, when he met girls that he found hot, like Tabitha—who's hotness should be outlawed entirely form the once that he met her—he wanted her to take all that leather off and let him have what was underneath, and then take his own off for the sake of fairness. Then there was Kody, who he could stare at all day, 24/7—and she could even keep her clothes on. There was just something about that girl that got his heart pumping and a stupid grin on his face that wouldn't let up, even long after she'd gone.
But when he was with Kyrian—now that he wasn't dying in the mouth of an alley—or doped to high-hell in the hospital—his shoulder now at a dull throb with his pain meds wearing thin, he could feel the pull like a magnet. Like in some weird world, Kyrian was making him want to take his clothes off.
He wasn't like that. He was a ladies man, pure and simple, even though he'd never had a girlfriend—but that was beside the point. Though he felt no ill will towards people who swung one way as opposed to the other, that just wasn't him. He'd never felt that. But staring across at Kyrian, he seemed to have to consciously fight his body's wanting to take a step closer.
Just a bit closer, it said, what's the harm in that?
Nick was internally freaking out. It was these pain meds, it had to be. They were doing something to his head, and this preference-swap side effect. He'd never taken pain killers like this before, his body wasn't used to them. That was it.
He felt extremely relieved. Problem solved. As soon as he was off these pills, his head—or was it his dick?—would be put on straight again. But what until then?
He made himself pay attention to the conversation at hand, that way he wouldn't be focusing so much on that other thing.
"One Million American dollars a week?" he repeated, incredulous.
"Yes." Kyrian gave him a tight-lipped smile.
"And I won't have to do anything illegal or perverted?" That was just too good to be true, wasn't it. There was always a catch. He was repaying a debt here, wasn't he, not actually here for the job. And against himself, his mind flitted back towards that last part.
"You'll just run errands for me during the day." Kyrian assured, ignoring the flow in his blood.
There was something about Nick, even as young as he was, that drew Kyrian to him. Usually, if he came across a group of punks like Alan and his gang, he would let it alone. Human affairs weren't his own unless they got mixed up in preternatural.
But when he'd caught sight of Nick, it held him firm. He caught himself by surprise when he found that he was no longer hanging in the shadows and had him flashing onto the scene and tossing those rags around like dolls at the smell of Nick's blood. He didn't even know the kid...
He hardly came back to himself enough not to kill them. As much as the hunter in his wanted their blood, it was the bleeding kid at his feet that needed his attention and focus now.
He'd crouched down next to the kid, offering up a hand, but he'd just slapped it away, even as he was seconds from passing out. The kid was one tough SOB, that was for sure. And when Nick passed out, and Kyrian picked his battered body up, his own instinctively cradled it against his own.
Even after he got the kid to the hospital, it wasn't his responsibility anymore, but he found that he couldn't leave. There was something drawing him to the boy that he couldn't cut loose. This fact proved true when he offered to pay the kid's medical bills to his mom and then offered work as his staff for Nick to pay it off.
It was an offer that couldn't be refused. Even the visit from Acheron refused to derail him. He hadn't felt something like this since... Since… he didn't want to think about that.
Now that the kid was in his house, alone in the office... He nearly missed what the kid said next, and caught his reply.
"Are you sure you I don't have to strip naked?" Nick snapped his mouth shut, his eyes widening and his cheeks going a bit warm. What the hell? Why'd he say that? Didn't they already establish that this wasn't what this was?
Yes. "No." His voice was strained at the kid who had an odd look on his face. What the hell was wrong with him? This was a kid, get a grip! "Please keep your clothes on." And then without consent, the thing inside him added, "There's a pool out back though, that you're free to use whenever."
Nick looked at him curiously, was he—?
"Trunks!" Kyrian added quickly, in case that sounded like something it wasn't. "Always have trunks on when you swim." As he said that, was it just his wishful thinking that saw a flash of disappointment come and go on Nick's face.
"That's fine." Nick said, stupid for getting his medically induced hopes up. So he was tall, blond and lethal; there were five billion girls out there just the same. So what was the deal? Did he turn gay under the influence of the pain drugs? Like, if he drank would he be a happy-drunk, angry-drunk, a sentimental-drunk... A horny-drunk?
"Are you sure you don't want me to take my clothes off?" Nick blurted, his mouth forming words on their own accord.
Kyrian raised a brow at him. "Nick—"
Nick turned deep red. "I'm just making sure!" he protested quickly. "I ain't gonna work for no pervert, got it?"
"Alright." Okay. So maybe Kyrian wasn't the only one.
A short silence stretched between the pair before Kyrian continued on with the introduction of what Nick's job would be working for him until his debt for the medical bills was paid—but hopefully the kid would stay on even after that.
"I've have a bit of business to attend to at the moment, so why do you get acquainted with the layout of the house a bit, and if you're hungry, I'm sure Rosa will be happy to make you something." Kyrian told him.
Nick nodded, tight-lipped and the older man was sure he saw that same flash of disappointment—he needed to get a grip! Maybe a cold shower would do the trick.
Nick did as he was bid, giving a cursory look-around before he headed down to the kitchen, following the sweat smells like a blood hound. It wasn't long after talking with Rosa as she worked, that two of the football team (in zombied forms) made a battle ground out of Kyrian's kitchen.
His stomach grumbled aggressively at the mere smell of the Gumbo that Rosa was making. Real food, not powered-something, not road-kill-another. So he felt a deep hearted agony when he was left no other choice to defend himself other than by throwing the simmering pan of dinner at one of the football guys that was coming at him.
And then, just as he was grabbed from behind by the second zombie, there was a bright blinding light. When it cleared, any mess from the fight vanished and what was left was a spotless kitchen—and don't forget the giant.
"Are you alright, Rosa?" the hulking man asked.
"Si, Acheron. Gracias." Rosa answered graciously in Spanish as if nothing untoward had just happened.
And that was how he met Acheron—and talk about sex appeal! If Nick's shoulder wasn't killing him, and he had one ounce less self-control, he might've just found himself wrapped around the tallest-man-he'd-ever-seen's leg, humping it like a dog in unbearable heat.
He shook the feeling off. What was up with these drugs? He was sure that horny-for-dick wasn't an official side effect.
But before that, the power coming off this guy was attempting to make him piddle where he stood. Nick took a step back as the guy's hidden gaze levelled on him—he didn't knew to see his eyes, he could feel them.
"Nice meeting you, Nick." He said in a strange lilting accent.
"How do you know my name?" Nick managed to say.
"I know lots of things."
Acheron turned to back to Rosa and leaned in. Whispering in what Nick knew was Spanish but didn't get how he understood it, seeing as he didn't speak Spanish himself. "Forget everything that happened. The food spilled on the floor by accident and you cleaned it up. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. No attack. Just another day..."
He turned back to Nick.
That was it. Acheron raised his hand and Nick bolted for the front of the house.
Get out of here. Now! A crazy demonic-sounding voice said in his head and he didn't stop to think about it—he just did. He ran like mad.
In front of the stairs in the lobby, he skidded to a halt as Acheron suddenly appeared directly in front of him. Only he didn't see Acheron the man, but something else.
Fangs. Mottled blue skin. Black lips. Horns.
Nick jumped back with an exclaim.
Holy crap! His pain meds really were screwing with him. He blinked and Acheron looked human again.
He swallowed. "What are you?"
Acheron scowled at him. "Completely perplexed. You remember everything that happened."
Nick let his sarcasm override his fear. "Yeah. Duh. You tend not to forget killer zombie stalkers. What kind of freak show is this?"
"You have no idea."
"That's why asked. So, what's with the horns and black lips?"
"What?" he was taken aback.
"I saw you a minute ago when you freak-flashed in here. You had horns and blue skin. What are you?" Yeah, Nick wasn't so sure that all of this was the nonexistent pain meds in his system, none of it was adding up, even as a hallucination.
Acheron crossed his arms over his chest, his expression stoic, eyes hidden behind his opaque sunglasses. "What kind of funky vegetables have you been eating? Meth is death and inhalants can kill you, kid. You should stay away from them before they destroy your last three brain cells."
"Nuh-uh." Nick shook his head; his mom would skin him three times over if he even thought about doing drugs that weren't prescribed. "I'm stone cold and you... you're not human. I know you're not human." He insisted, crossing his uninjured arm over his chest in simulation with his sling.
A irritating grin suddenly crossed Acheron's face. "Very few people are."
Nick glared at him. "That's not a straight answer. I know you're not human. What you did to those zombies... to Rosa. Are you going to kill me because I know?"
Nick felt that fear bloom inside his chest. Acheron actually seemed to be contemplating it! But the fourteen-year-old suppose after what the guy did to those zombies and Rosa, what was killing him really?
Acheron finally sighed. "I'm Acheron Parthenopaeus."
Nick snorted. "Dang, and I thought my name sucked. You're parents must have hated your guts."
"Call me Ash." He said instead. "It's easier and takes a lot less time."
After a second, Nick held out his good hand. "Nick Gautier. So... what are you again?"
Acheron gave him a long-suffering look in answer.
"Acheron?" Kyrian questioned, coming down the stairs in changed clothes and damp blond hair. "What happened?"
"Zombie attack in the kitchen."
"What? Is everyone all right?" Kryian paused beside the taller man at the bottom of the stairs, but his gaze went to Nick. He was so distracted that he hadn't even heard a fight happening in his own kitchen. He really needed to get it together!
"He handled himself well enough." Acheron answered the silent question.
Nick scoffed, hating being talked about when he was right there, and the warmth he felt at Kyrian's stare, it somehow making his pain a bit less. "Ash is just omitting the part where I ran away from him like a girl."
"Oh, you're not the first to react that way." Kyrian smiled.
"Uh-huh." Acheron didn't sound impressed.
Nick suddenly noted with irritation just how close the two men seemed to be standing next to each other. "So, Acheron is what to you?"
"Well, that's a random switch in topic." Ashe muttered to Kyrian.
There was a sudden awkwardness between the pair, so thick in permeated the air.
"Oh," he said, downtrodden, "You two are 'special' friends."
Kyrian frowned. "How do you mean?"
Acheron sent a peeved expression his way. "He thinks we're a couple."
Kyrian quickly cleared that up (after taking a step away from said man). "No. No. No. Definitely not. No. Not that Acheron is not an attractive man—not that I have really noticed that he's attractive—he's unquestionably not my type."
Acheron sent a raised brow at Kyrian for his reaction—
"Okay!" For whatever reason, hope soared inside Nick and his mood seemed to brighten—Zombie attack or not.
—and then turned said brow-raise at the kid. What was up with these two?
"Nick?" Rosa called from the kitchen.
"Yes, ma'am."
"Didn't you tell me you hadn't eaten?"
"Yes, ma'am." Nick answered again, he had in fact told Rosa that, though she had a gap in her timeline after Acheron's memory-wipe.
"Are you coming?"
"Yes, ma'am." He sent one last look at Kyrian, then Ash before he dutifully made his way to Rosa and the food he was starving for.
Ash was astonished at the amount of glamour that seemed to be coming off the kid, now that he paid attention—Nick's immunity to his memory-wipe seemed to just be the start. He glanced over at Kyrian, who was still looking after Nick's departure with an odd look on his face.
He didn't have to wonder if the hunter felt it, because the answer was yes. It was obvious now just looking at him. Acheron hadn't met anyone that strong in a while. It was both amusing and concerning.
Kyrian finally came back to the present, and the silence was loud. "What aren't you saying?" he wondered after looking over at him.
"Ever have one of those feelings you can't shake?"
Kyrian let out an ironic chuckle, if only he knew. "Like right now." He muttered.
Ash gave a short laugh at the man's response. "He's already snared you, hasn't he?"
Kyrian's mouth tightened. "What are you talking about?"
"Okay. Be that way." Ash shook his head. "That kid's a glamouring hard-on." Didn't the hunter realise how obvious he was being. "Still plan on taking the kid as your Squire?"
"He's not old enough yet. But when he is, that's my plan."
"Bet that's not your only plan, huh, you rapscallion, you!" He winked. "Gonna take him out for dinner first, I hope. Don't ruin him, though, it'd be a waste of a future Dark-Hunter."
Kyrian gave him a scathing look.
"Kidding. Just kidding." Acheron held his hands up in mock surrender (even though if he really wanted, he could take out the Dark-Hunter before the end of a second—immortal or not).
"Want me to take Nick home for you?" Ash asked after a moment.
Kyrian ignored the inane feeling of jealously at the thought of Ash alone with Nick in tight confines. "Thanks. I have to rendezvous with Talon in the Quarter and to see if we can get a handle on this zombie outbreak."
"Don't go getting eaten." Was Acheron's departing shot before he disappeared into the kitchen to collect Nick, a smirk on his lips.
Kyrian thought that he might have needed another cold shower, but the first one didn't quite sway his thoughts from the kid, as swung them more towards—thinking about Nick and the pool…
This was not good, not good at all.
Nick only saw Kyrian once more after that, before this whole zombie mess was taken care of, and his world really was turned on its side.
Low on pain meds, his gaze stood transfixed as he watched Kyrian with a sword, doing a lethal dance as he dispatched zombie (the real dead kind this time) after zombie in front of the Triple B.
There were a few things in his life that Nick would describe as beautiful. His mother and Kody were among then—and so was Kyrian. It was with lethal grace that Nick got to watch a violent ballet staring Kyrian Hunter.
Caleb elbowed him in the side and gave him a look. Nick quickly closed his mouth and cleared his throat awkwardly. This needed to stop. He needed to heal and quick so he'd stop drooling like a fool—just like he was always on the verge of doing when Kody was around.
The week done with, world perspective flipped onto its back, he stood in front of Kyrian's house with barely hidden terror. He'd faced off zombies and a demonic horde that night, but nothing was going to be as frightening as his mother—that, and there was still the whole matter of Kyrian (which would be solved this night as well). His injuries were healed, thanks the grimoire that Ambrose had given him and his Malachai heritage, the meds were out of his system—he was about to see whether it really was the drugs or not.
"Thanks for everything you've done to keep me safe. I'm really sorry you got swarmed tonight and beat on so badly." Nick held his hand out to him.
After a moment, Caleb took his hand. "My pleasure, Nick." He said, "By the way, you might want to keep that arm in the sling for a bit yet. Your mom'd freak out if you showed up good as new."
"Right." But Caleb didn't release his hand. Nick glanced at their hands and then up at his friend curiously. "Yes?"
Caleb gave him an intent look. "Be careful."
"There's five feet between me and the front door," Nick replied, amused, "I hardly think anything dangerous will happen to me. It's once inside, that'll be the scary and life-threading part."
Caleb gave his hand a squeeze. "I'm serious."
"So am I."
Caleb looked at him a moment longer, and Nick was sure that this had gone past awkward a long bit ago. He'd never held someone's hand this long before, especially not a guy's—he kind of wondered what it'd like to hold Kryian's hand.
"Nick..." He was a demon, not dumb; it didn't take him long to figure it out.
Nick's eyes snapped back up to Caleb. He sure as heck hoped the demon couldn't read his mind.
"Be careful." He repeated, finally releasing the kid's hand.
"See you tomorrow?" Nick asked, feeling relieved that mind reading didn't seem to be in Caleb's skills bank.
"Yes, you will. Evil always stalks you, kid." He smiled before he turned into a raven and flew off.
Nick put his healed arm back into the sling and took a deep breath as he stepped up to Kyrian's front door and pressed the bell. Hesitating any longer would only make it worse, better to just dive in before he could think about it too much.
It was a few seconds later that Kyrian opened the door. He let out a relieved breath. "Thank the gods you're home."
Nick's heart raced at the sentiment. "Thanks. Me, too."
Kyrian let him in before he closed the door, locking it tight and set the alarm. When he turned around, it was to find Nick not but a step away. "Nick—"
"Kyrian," Nick murmured and he found himself actually biting his lip. Okay, so maybe the pain meds he'd been taking had nothing to do with it. He loved Kody, he really did—but Kyrian—he... Nick found his cheeks flushed and Kyrian looked down at him in astonishment.
"Nick!" his mom came running from the living room, crashing into him with a fierce hug before the man could say anything.
Nick stumbled back into Kyrian before he quickly righted them as he hugged his mom back—flushing further as he could still feel the man against his back—thinking things he shouldn't while hugging his mom.
She finally pulled back and gave him a proper look. Let's just say things got a little tense for a bit after that. But the talk ended with his mom getting offered a job as a waitress for some people that Kyrian knew—something that Nick would be internally grateful for.
"Now get upstairs to bed." She said.
Nick was stunned by her order. "We're staying here?"
Kryian nodded from where his back was still pressed against the door. "It's been a long night. I've got to get to bed and you're mom can't drive a stick. So it was a consensual decision. Rosa will be here in a few hours, but if you need anything don't be afraid to come to my room" He wondered belatedly why he had to use that kind of wording.
"Come on, Nick." She headed up at the stairs; thankfully she didn't seem to notice.
After an intense stare a Kyrian, Nick headed after his mom already at the top of the stairs.
Nick stopped halfway up the stairs and turned around, intending to say—well, he kind of forgot, on the account that Kyrian was yawning at the bottom of the stairs and Nick finally glimpsed the set of sharp fangs that the man had been hiding this entire time with his tight smiles.
Spotting him, Kyrian quickly closed his mouth, a hand hovering in front of his mouth. "Nick?" How would he react to seeing his fangs? Something he worked to conceal, the thing that outwardly distinguished him from not being decidedly human.
Wicked and inappropriate thoughts for his age shot through Nick's mind—one's that would make his mom beat him to within an inch of his life if she ever found out about them—and he gave sultry grin. "Goodnight,"
"Night," Kyrian replied quietly, enticed.
Nick strutted up the stairs and out of sight around the corner.
When Nick turned to a consenting age, things were going to be on a completely different table, thought Kyrian. He was immortal and very patient, but time on this subject matter couldn't seem to move fast enough.
(the end)
C—H—R—O—N—I—C—L—E—S ~ O—F ~ N—I—C—K
I wish I could finish my WW,W&W fic like I typed this baby out in 2 days. If only...
I hoped you enjoyed and wish you'd review, but the decision is ultimately up to you. (*looks at 'persuasion' tools longingly*) (*looks up with an encouraging and innocent smile*). Right? You'll be nice and do it, won't you?
:)
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