Nyx jolted awake in the dark on a soft mattress she didn't recognise. Panic stabbed her chest, and she kicked off the weighted duvets searching blindly for the edge of the bed. Tears of frustration escaped when she couldn't find it. She whimpered as she crawled across what she assumed to be metres of mattress.

"What the hell?" she cried, curling into the fetal position and sobbing. "Where am I?" A door opened in less than a minute, and light poured through onto her tear-stained, blotchy face.

Warm hands cradled her shoulders, and a familiar voice silenced her. "Miss knight, you're having a nightmare. You're safe."

Peeling her eyelids open against the light, Nyx saw Neo's face inches in front of hers. His eyes appeared black, and she jerked away in terror. The brief touch in her dazed state was not enough for her to read his soul, but a sinking dread pooled in her gut. "Who are you? What are you? Why am I here, and why won't you touch me?"

Neo pulled back, his eyes returning to their dark brown, whites visible and bright in the darkness. "We have already had our introductions, Miss Knight. You fell asleep after washing your face and were having a nightmare." He cleared his throat slightly before adding, "I assumed you would prefer a stranger didn't touch you on the first night of meeting."

Nyx sniffled and leaned back, almost tumbling off the bed onto the hardwood floors.

How is that possible? It was so much bigger before. 

"What time is it?" she asked, hands clawing into the bedsheets as she found her balance.

"Three-thirty in the morning. Perhaps you should rest more, and we can talk when you wake at a more reasonable hour."

"No!" The word jumped out so quick that Nyx didn't even have time to process her reasoning. "I mean, no, I- Can you stay?"

Neo's expression faltered. "You want me to stay?"

"Yes. I feel safer with you here."

His face seemed dubious, and he looked to the open doorway as if he wanted to escape. The implication hurt Nyx deeply, and she stubbornly wiped another tear from her face.

Get a grip, you idiot. Just because he doesn't like you doesn't mean you need to cry! She chastised herself harshly, and Neo turned to face her with a sigh.

"Lie down and rest."

"But I-"

"I will sit over here. Lie down, Miss Knight." His husky reprimand made her quiver. It wasn't a sensation she had felt before, and she followed his order tentatively.

"You're not really twenty-five, are you?"

Neo groaned and rubbed his calloused hands down his face. "For all intents and purposes, this body is twenty-five years old. Now, will you relax?"

"Your body?"

"Yes."

"And your mind?" Nyx was half delirious from exhaustion which somehow gave her the courage to voice the conspiracies in her head. If she could manipulate the souls of others through touch, and he didn't want her to touch him, maybe he knew what she was, and he was different too.

"Very perceptive," his scratchy voice remarked. "I would say thousands of years old, but I assume you would never believe me, nor remember this in the morning regardless."

"Are you special too? Do you have... abilities?" That was the most Nyx had ever been able to articulate her gift. Every other attempt through childhood would have her tongue twisting in knots and aching. Even attempting to write it down made her pass out.

"Depends."

Nyx propped herself on her elbow and took his features in the dim light. His body's outline had a fuzzy quality, almost as if the darkness wished to pull him in. "On what?" she asked gently.

"What is your definition of special?"

Surprise took hold of her features, and she frowned. "Not the average human, I guess."

Dark laughter echoed around the room, and Nyx shrunk back.

"Then yes. I'm as special as they come."

A yawn overcame her, and she lay back, staring at the ceiling. "I think I'm special too," she mumbled through another yawn, sleep tugging her papery lids.

"I think you might be right," Neo whispered as the woman in his bed drifted off to sleep.

*

Neo sat there watching her for a while, contemplating her fate. If Micah had his eyes on her, it might already be too late. Based on her pull to him though, he guessed they hadn't formed any meaningful bonds yet. The angel was even more of an idiot than he thought if he let her slip through his fingers. 

Her soft inhales stirred a feeling in his chest he hadn't felt in centuries. Not since the heart in his mortal vessel still beat.

After her attack three years prior, where she turned one of his father's demons human, he knew to keep tabs on her.

Her frantic, racing thoughts in the club, on the street and in his bed officially revealed she had manipulation abilities of the soul sort. In all his time on earth, he'd never seen such capabilities.

He knew of other supernatural powers, of course: communion with the dead, conjuring spirits, demons, djinn and the Sight. But changing souls, that was something new entirely.

He shuddered at the thought of his soul being meddled with its tar-drenched darkness staining his being. Most of the light from his mother was long snuffed, dulled by his father's actions and his role as ruler.

Goodness was weakness, and no demon would follow a weak Leader. So, no. No, he would have to keep it a secret if only to keep the woman close and out of the angel's grasp.

Reaching down to his bedside, he conjured a small portal opening directly into his hellscape. Slithering down his arm like a viscous slug, his soul stored itself in a safe beside his bed, currently being used by his hounds, Ruz, A'ren and Var.

"Take care of it for me," he commanded. "With your lives." Their unnatural snarls answered him, and he sat back, satisfied closing the portal and laying against his pillows.

This time when Nyx stirred, reaching for him, he let her. Her dainty hands curled tightly into the fabric of his shirt. Again, an uncomfortable feeling tickled beneath his ribcage, and he looked down at her with disdain. "What are you doing to me, woman?"

***

Nyx awoke with a start. Her eyes darted around the room, desperately trying to clear the bleariness until they fell on a heated mass beneath her hands. She locked eyes with Neo, who lay on his back, hands tucked relaxedly behind his nape and gasped.

"Well, that's not the reception I would have expected."

She threw herself back, almost tumbling to the floor, when a hand reached out and gripped her wrist. Deja vu. How drunk was I last night?

Her eyes glued to the bare skin on hers and tentatively searched for the soul she'd been curious about from the moment she met the man, but she came up empty. I can't see it. The essence of his being was hidden from her completely. "What?" her voice came out in a harsh whisper.

She froze when her eyes met the charcoal orbs still attached to the hands holding her. His brow rose, and a ghost of a smile brushed across his lips. "Care to come closer?" Nyx blanched, unable to respond when Neo finished his explanation. "So you don't fall off the bed."

"Oh." Using his arm as leverage, she pulled herself back onto the bed and sat cross-legged, bunching the blankets around her waist. She still sported her chiffon blue dress, which looked a lot more ruffled than the night before.

"Is something wrong?"

Nyx stuttered before coughing and clearing her throat. "No, I just can't- I can't do- do the thing." The words twisted and flopped on her tongue, and she just about laughed at the absurdity. "Sorry!" she almost shouted before turning and burying her face in her hands.

"We found your friend." Neo's soft statement pulled Nyx from her embarrassment.

"Really? Where?"

"Not too far from the club. She was unconscious in a bush, and one of my employees took her home."

"What? Was she attacked?" Nyx's mind raced. She shamefully assumed her friend was far drunker than she initially thought. But, no, she wouldn't have. She refused ever to get 'shit-faced' again—her words, not mine.

"I don't believe she was attacked, and she didn't remember anything after Maeze woke her up."

"Oh God, I have to get home!" She jumped up and tripped on the blankets that bunched around her feet. "Shit!" Her knees painfully slapped against the cool floors, and Neo appeared at her side in an instant.

"Let me take you home. We can go get breakfast once you see she's safe and well." He lifted her by the hands and guided her back to the bed. "But first." He knelt before her. "Let me check your thoroughly tortured knees."

He brushed a tender fingertip across her knee to her shin. The action sent tingles up her spine, and she shuddered involuntarily.

"You'll live," he murmured with a crooked smile, his sharp teeth glinting in the dimly lit room. Another shudder threatened to ripple through Nyx's body, and she pulled away, swallowing past a colossal lump in her throat. A warm heat rushed around her body, and she stood, realising Neo still knelt before her, his head squaring up perfectly with her hips.

"Oh shit, I'm so sorry," she yelped, leaping to the side.

Neo's face split into a delicious full smile as he stood to full height, towering over her.

"Miss knight, follow me."

A/N

Thanks for reading <3