Endless

Rogue | Nick

Ryan led me to an office nearby and shut the door. The place was plain vanilla. Except for his diplomas on the wall behind the desk, nothing personal indicated that the medium sized office even belonged to him. Nothing gave a hint of the life he led, or the lives he took to keep living.

"Didn't think I'd see you again, Niko," Ryan said.

Yeah. That had been the plan. "What the fuck are you doing?"

He crossed his arms, eyeing me down his nose the way he used to. "I'm a doctor, now."

"What did you do? Disappoint Daddy?" I dropped into the visitor's chair and rested my feet on his desk.

Ryan's expression darkened. Bingo. "I'm rogue."

"The hell?" If he said he'd upped and married Aleria, I'd have been less surprised.

Going rogue meant kicking the absolute worst habit in existence: power addiction. It never really went away. Especially not when the griffon in question had spent centuries hunting phoenixes for their life forces. The longer we hunted, the harder it became to kick the addiction. Ryan was the second oldest griffon I knew.

"You," I said, recovering some of my cool. "That's not possible. You're the worst of us all."

Ryan rolled his eyes and went to his desk. He stacked his papers carefully and slowly, buying time to figure out what to say. "I didn't say it was easy. Living on juice is a bitch."

Which explained why he became a doctor. Easy morphine source. Bastard. "What the fuck are you doing with Aleria?"

"Not your business."

"You know it's my business," I shot back, hands itching to deck him. The nicotine cravings didn't help either.

"Last I recall, she told you she'd rip out your spine if you came near her." He ran his hand across his stubbled jaw. "That's why—"

My eyes narrowed. "If you're doing this to kill her—"

"I'm not." Ryan's shoulders sagged and he swiped his hand up his face.

The surprises kept coming. "Really?"

His hand slowed to a halt in his hair. "I don't think."

Now I had to laugh. It was bitter, though. Dry. "Typical. Why don't I just put you out of your misery and leave it at that?"

He took the utmost care to lay the papers back onto his desk, but the stare he fixed on me told me all I needed to know. That the morphine kept only the barest traces of control over his killing instincts. That despite his having stopped hunting decades ago, he was still the single most powerful griffon in existence.

If I so much as twitched, he'd hand my ass back to me in three minutes tops. I wouldn't even have time to burn through my own morphine dosage before he kicked my ass. He'd have me before I drew my gun.

"Then why are you hanging around Aleria like a vulture?" I asked, trying to figure out if potentially revealing my location to rogue-hunters was worth the joy of wringing Ryan's neck. Because the moment I didn't have morphine dulling my power, any un-medicated griffon in the area would be able to sense me.

Ryan's jaw set, but after a moment, he did answer me. "To protect her."

My face went slack. "Protect? You? Her?"

"She's alone, unguarded and one of the most vibrant phoenixes in existence. If someone in the Firm finds out she's vulnerable..."

She'd be as good as dead. Damn griff had a point, but it still didn't explain why he'd want to keep her safe.

"What brought the change of heart?" I demanded.

All I got was one of his empty stares. "Goodbye."

He moved past the desk and gestured toward the door.

That really pissed me off. Him ordering me around like I was still one of his side-kicks. Like I was still his baby brother. Like I could be dismissed at any moment just because he grew tired of my presence. I stood up, keeping my movements insolent and uncaring. He wasn't the guy I looked up to anymore. He couldn't awe me. Intimidate me, yes, but I'd never show it.

I smirked at him.

"Touchy, are we?" I asked, baiting him. If he was rogue, he couldn't do anything to me anyway. He prepared to speak, but I jumped right in again. "Too bad. I get the feeling you'll see me again real soon."

Ryan's glower went as dark as night during a blizzard, but someone knocked before he replied. The door opened and Dean popped his head inside. His keen gaze traveled from me to Ryan, then back to me. Great, I'd have tons of questions to deflect now.

"You ready to go?" he asked me.

Ryan's expression remained inscrutable, but I sensed a bit of smugness. He thought he had me under control.

"Yeah." I strode out. Out the office, out the hospital, out the lot. I walked to the end of the block and lit up, waiting for Dean to catch up. Let him kiss Ryan's ass. I wouldn't. I'd show Ryan exactly how uncontrollable I could be when I wanted. When it came to Aleria's safety, Ryan would have a tough time keeping me away.

There you have at least part of Nick and Ryan's history. They're brothers, but there's obviously way more to their tension than that. Thoughts as to what that might be? 

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