Either that, or he wouldn't be there and I'd be back at square one.
I had a good feeling about this though. Not about accepting his deal, that was making me so sick I almost needed to pull over and vomit, but about finding him.
"Welcome, ma'am," the valet greeted me politely as I stepped out of Lola in my black spike heel pumps. I gave him a small smile and handed over my keys before heading inside.
At the front desk was the same priggish little man that I'd dealt with the other day and he paled when he saw me.
"Don't mind me," I told him with a caustic smile, "I'm here to see a friend."
Dismissing him with a flick of my ears, I headed into the restaurant and immediately spotted Nix's dirty brown fur sitting at the table we'd shared last time. Walking over to him confidently, I trailed my fingertips lightly over his fur as I circled the table and took my seat on the bench facing him.
He tensed when my fingers touched him, and glared at me with his ice-blue eyes, framed once more with square black glasses.
"You're playing with fire, Thea," he growled, his voice pitched low and rumbling with tension. "I told you not to touch my fur. I could kill you for that."
"And I told you it needs a wash," I informed him with a head tilt. "We don't always get what we ask for."
"Is that why you're here then? To dissuade me from my course?” He said it so blandly that I knew, I knew that he was already confident that he had me right where he wanted me. Piece of shit.
I pursed my lips and considered him. He was such a closed book sometimes and yet so incredibly easy to read at others. "Actually, no. I came here to negotiate terms."
His blond brows rose with mock surprise and his body language immediately changed. "Terms? Of course. But tell me something?" I nodded and he continued. "Does Mik know you're here making a deal with me? And looking … fucking delicious, I might add."
I pursed my lips to hold back a smile at his compliment. "It's none of his business. He told me I'm on suspension, so he no longer has any say over what I do."
"Oh?" Nix's eyes rested on the very obvious vampire/werewolf combo bite on the side of my neck which both Mik and Bennett had been too fucking rude to heal. I can’t believe I fucked that guy. To be quite honest, I was still sore down there. But in a good way, at least. "Very well then. You know what I want. How about you, Miss Hunt? What do you want?"
"I understand that you want to study me because of my unprecedented early ascension to the Nine, is that correct?" I toyed with the stem of his empty wine glass and watched Nix from under my lashes.
"That’s all true, yes" he drawled, sipping a fresh Scotch. An empty plate sat at the end of the table, like he’d already eaten and been about to leave. Lucky I’d caught him. “I need to study you, you and your magic.” I didn’t miss the way he’d phrased that, need. What a load of shit.
"So exactly what do you mean by study? Are we talking live autopsy? Drug trials? Electroshock therapy? What?" I was trying really hard to keep my cool, but my voice shook a little. I was terrified of what I might be agreeing to, but there were no other acceptable options anymore.
Having seen what the disease did to shifters when they were left to go past the point of insane ... and now knowing that could be Revel's fate? I couldn't just stand by and let it happen. Not when I could possibly help find a cure. Greater good and all that.
"So dramatic, Thea." Nix smirked, but his eyes were clear and calculating. "Nothing so barbaric. What do you take me for? A murderer?"
"That's exactly what I take you for," I replied, then paused. "Then again, I'm hardly one to talk, am I? So I guess we're more alike that I first realized."
He chuckled. "Indeed we are." He paused when our waitress approached and ordered two cosmos. I didn’t comment on it. Inari knew, I could use a drink right about now. "So you want my assurance that no physical harm will come to you over the course of my research?"
"Physical or mental." Might as well shoot for the stars. In reality, I was desperate enough to agree to anything ... but he didn't know that.
"I can't promise to spare you from mental anguish, Miss Hunt. Honestly, I can't even promise your complete physical safety, considering the company you keep. I can assure you that I won't actively seek to inflict physical or mental harm." He spread his hands wide. "Does that reassure you?"
"You don't honestly think I'll just take your word for it, do you?" I chuckled, accepting the pink drink from the waitress that had just returned. "I must look dumber than I thought."
"Not at all." His cool gaze raked over me and I shivered. "But of course, you need a more binding agreement. I can provide that, but I’ll need some time to prepare it, and some strands from your fur."
I met his eyes and chewed my lip. "That's a big ask. I'm supposed to trust you with my fur? What if you make a voodoo doll of me or some shit?"
"You have to trust me at some stage or this won’t ever work. In exchange, I’ll cease distribution of the tainted dust and simply work off the data already gathered." Nix drummed his fingertips on the table, but his gaze never flinched.
"No," I said quietly. "No, in exchange you'll stop distribution and you'll share with me everything you know about the disease. Everything. This is personal for me now."
For a long moment, he just stared at me through the lense of his glasses, long enough that I started wondering if he ever blinked.
"I’ll need to run that past my employer. After all, it’s their information to share, not mine." He sipped his own cosmo and then licked his lips, all tricksy like a fucking coyote in a suit. I couldn’t forget that his kind, they were master manipulators. Good thing I was fly like a fox, baby.
I nodded. "Fine. Call me when you get it approved and we can bind this agreement. Okay?" He tipped his head in acquiescence. "As great as all this magical bullshit is, and all these clandestine meetings, wouldn’t it just be easier to exchange numbers?"
"You read my mind, Miss Hunt," Nix purred, pushing a paper napkin across the table at me. I fished around in my bag, moving Ziff aside and pulling out a pen to scribble down both my number, and then his as he gave it to me. I ripped the napkin in half and offered mine up. "Of course, I could also just turn up at your house."
"You could try," I snickered. "Mik installed new security, though."
"Ah." Nix's smile widened and for the first time, it seemed genuine. Too bad I hated him and wanted him dead. If he hadn’t fucked over Revel and the rest of the shifter community, then maybe … "A challenge then."
"Something like that." I rolled my eyes and finished my drink with one swallow. "Nice to see you again, Nix."
"Get used to it, Thea. You just earned yourself a second shadow," he responded with a half-smile, and a wash of prophecy rolled over my tongue. What use was my power of foretelling when all it did was my make my mouth tingle like I’d sucked down sour candy?
Unnerved, I said nothing more, just slipped the strap of Ziff's bag over my shoulder and sauntered back out to my car praying I hadn't just made a massive mistake.
Then again, if it meant saving Revel's life ... surely it would be justified?
A kitsune could only hope.
Arriving home, I half expected to find someone on my doorstep again, but my house was mercifully silent.
"Thank the Fox Father," I groaned aloud, putting Ziff down and watching him scurry off to the kitchen. I knew he wanted one of those mice, so I followed after him to fish it out of the box and set it free. Might as well make Ziff work for it a little; it'd stop him getting fat and lazy.