“Hey!” I greeted as Sophie opened the door.

My friend gave me a bright style and gestured for me to enter. Last time I had been here, I had my dick sucked and it was difficult not associating that when I was in this environment.

“How was the gym?” Sophie asked as she took a seat on her couch.

She had on a long green t-shirt with some fitting grey sweatpants, her supernatural good looks were at odds with casual clothing.

“A lot more entertaining recently,” I joked as I flexed a bicep. Soph raised both her eyebrows and then nodded.

“I can now do exercises I wouldn’t have even dared think about a couple of years ago.”

“Nice, glad to hear that you’re diversifying your training. Maybe now your left forearm will match the other one” Soph remarked.

“Jeez, don’t sound too excited for me.”

“What do you want to watch?” she asked.

“Are you still watching that show on Netflix?”

“The one where that guy has to launder money and move out of Chicago with his family?”

“That’s the one” I affirmed.

I joined Sophie on the couch as we picked up where we last left off.

“A little close aren’t you,” she noted without moving her eyes.

“I just wanted to make sure you knew I was honest about the gym,” I explained as I draped my arm over the top of the couch's back. “Got this new lavender body wash I’ve been trying out, curious to hear your thoughts.”

“It’s an improvement.”

We sat there for a while making small talk about what we were watching but as the minutes dragged on I could feel a sense of uneasiness coming from Sophie. She was being even more clipped with me than usual and was quite stiff when she was made contact with me. Why the change in her mood?

"You have the feeling that it’s been a long week for some reason,” I asked.

“Something like that.”

“Jess not here?” I pointed out, “I noticed that she wasn’t at the gym today either.”

“She said she had a ‘thing’, it seemed really personal so I decided not to pry too deeply.”

“No kidding.”

“Yup.”

I waited for an expansion on the topic but she didn’t give one so I moved to speak about something else.

“I’m not exactly sure yet but I think I may be gaining a few inches as with the muscles.”

I again left a brief window to get a response and she did, but after a decent delay.

“That would be cool, I guess.”

“You know I forgot to tell you,” I began, “Jess suggested that you, her, and I should do a three-way sometime.”

“Yeah that would be so hot,” Soph replied not missing a beat. “I’ll plan a time when we can all get together.”

Deciding that I couldn’t coax any more out of her, I went on my phone. I wanted to check and see if Zack had responded to a question I asked.

While I was on said phone it wouldn’t hurt to maybe drop Ray a text; but did I really want to do that?

“I know about the robbery that happened not too long ago,” Sophie shared.

I paused what I was doing on my phone to turn to her.

“Robbery?”

“I know you robbed a club a couple of days ago,” she sighed, "and I know because I was there.”

I stared at her and then my eyes followed her hand picking up her phone; she seemed to be looking for something.

“What do you mean you were there?” I questioned. “And why did you say nothing?”

Soph turned her screen to me to show an image of the wood elf unconscious and her hand holding a stack of money.

“Why do you have that picture?”

“I have it because I took his place a couple of nights ago when the robbery happened.”

My eyes bulged in fury as I ran my fingers through my hair.

“I was only doing this to watch out for you,” she shot back, “and for good reason.”

“By knocking out one of the people I was supposed to do a crime with and taking his money?”

“I didn’t take his money…I just posed with it so I could prove to you what I’m saying.”

I nodded my head as if I understood where she was coming from.

“Since you were there, then you recall the seven feet tall, three-hundred and fifty-pound werewolves that nearly killed three of us,” I reminded. “Tell me, Soph, what did you do to help at that point in time.”

She pursed her lips.

“When I said help I meant as in watch over you, in case they were hiding anything from you. They don’t suspect me at all.”

“Jesus Christ Soph, the whole reason I was there that night was to reduce the chances of you having to be around stuff like that,” I exasperated. “What if you got found out then and they tried killing you for kidnapping the real Brent.”

“But I didn’t,” she emphasised, "and I’m sorry for being deceptive but I have something to prove what I’ve been talking about.”

She paused and looked off to the side unsure of herself.

“Ever since you became a Dragon you’ve definitely become better at the right things but that means that there’s somethings you’re sacrificing. You’re more vulnerable in certain places than you were before.”

I scoffed, turning away from her but then I felt her soft hand on my shoulder.

“When you fought back at those werewolves who attacked you, I noticed the look in your eye and the way you toyed with them.”

More quietly she added.

“It was the same way you dealt with the others at the apartment.”

“Oh, is that it?” I retorted. “You’re disgusted with how I retaliate against those who strike at me first? What the hell Sophie.”

The tension in the room had shifted from awkward, reluctant indifference to slowly increasing friction.

“Oh please,” Sophie uttered with a dismissive tone. “I could give less of a shit about what I saw you do to those guys, I’ve seen worse. Underworld, remember? My point is I don’t want that behaviour crossing over to your normal life, you’re a real earnest and unique type of person. The overconfidence and lack of fear can be a bad thing.”

She took a breath and composed herself a bit to speak more.

“Do what you have to but you have to make sure that kind of stuff doesn't get you in trouble and ruin your life.”

“You ever met a kind dragon, Sophie?” I asked. “That live normal lives, that are kind? I had that night under control, so you can miss me with that out-of-control bullshit.”

How could Soph tell me this shit, I only started just actually living my life and she was lecturing me about the ‘downsides’ like I need to hear that shit now. I still don’t even know why she was being pissy when I first arrived.

“I have no idea what it must be like living as a Succubus, I get it,” I conceded. “I can’t convince people to do things for me like you do, once I set my mind to something now I’m going to see it through. No more being passive, no more compromising when it comes the things I’ve earned.”

Sophie’s bottom lip twitched and she did not seem all that convinced.

I decided it was her turn to do some explaining.

“So what do you have to show me for all the cloak and dagger shit?”

“I do have something on Zack?” she revealed.

I stared intently as I eyed her up and down.

“Go on.”

She dipped her head to stare at nothing in particular on her phone and then back at me.

“Zack wanted you to get hooked on Gold Rush so you’d be easier to manage because he was afraid of what you’re capable of.”

I gave her a slow side-eye as I turned my head just slowly in the opposite direction.

“Bullshit.”

She hit a play button on her phone as a recording started, as if she had rehearsed this.

“-brought him on didn’t you?”

“Yeah but he’s not going to be a problem.”

There were two distinct voices, the former was most likely Vince while the latter was definitely Zack.

“How do you figure that?”

“I going to get him hooked on Gold Rush,” Zack revealed, “heard that Dragons can get hooked on that stuff really easy. Especially the younger ones.”

“Damn so you don’t trust him?”

“Niko and I are good,” Zack insisted, “best to just make sure it stays that way, that he knows his position.”

There was a bit more talking but Sophie cut the recording.

“The rest is just a bunch of them bragging about what girl they’ve boned lately,” Sophie told me. “I’ll send you the rest of the whole recording if you want.”

I was genuinely caught off by what I had just heard.

“That’s not real,” I argued.“How do I know you didn’t just shift and record that?”

“I wasn’t going to put myself through all that shit just to fake it,” Sophie said. “There’s no way I’d risk angering you over a lie.”

She was completely right and the fact made me angrier instead of calming me.

“Being a Succubus I know what it takes to seduce people and what that can look like, especially early on,” Sophie explained. “One of the most subtle ways to control someone is by having something they desperately need. I get it, you guys are tight and he’s had your back longer than I have but it’s obvious that he doesn’t trust you as much as you do him. He doesn’t mind having you around as long as his needs come first.”

“Oh well I’m so glad to have you around Soph,” I thanked sarcastically. “It seems my intelligence wasn’t improved like my body, I should probably run my decisions by you from now on.”

“Oh get over yourself Niko,” she declared in an outburst, something I had never seen from her. “Do you know why I’m so pissed, why I’m so worried? Because it extends beyond your nightlife activities.

“Please, enlighten me because clearly, I need your help.”

“Why are you threatening Ray Kim to sell weed for you?” she questioned.

This was probably the biggest surprise I heard since I’ve been here.

“Yeah, look surprised,” she said, about to go on a rant. “He knew that you and I were friends so he came to me, that’s how I found out. At first, he didn’t want to say anything but with the powers that you ‘oh so’ love to mock I was able to get him to explain the situation.”

“It’s none of your business,” I countered, unwilling to let this go.

“None of my business?” she challenged, "he came to me Niko. That’s when your little dope operation became my problem; why did you decide to get into drugs anyways?”

“It has nothing to do with you,” I insisted, keeping my tone more level now. “I’ll just speak to him later and-”

“Don’t bother,” interrupted Sophie. “He was terrified but I was able to calm him down and he won’t recall us ever having a conversation.”

Then she added.

“You’re welcome.”

I was actually speechless at this point, this knowledge had completely blindsided me. Sophie was not done yet.

“What if he had spoken to someone else other than me? You may be doing your best to ‘protect’ me with your thrills but don’t ruin the life I’ve tried to build for myself. Jess depends on me as well.”

Guilt was starting to make its way to the forefront of my mind. Most of my anger was now directed at myself rather than Soph.

“So is that what you do now?” she asked scathingly, “you just go around intimidating people into doing stuff for you.”

“The guy wasn’t exactly innocent, he screwed me over earlier at the start.”

“Did it make you feel better at least? I mean surely that’s what drugs you’re snorting are for, right?” she inquired with a quirked eyebrow.

The gesture had the effect of someone sticking a hot redshank in my side.

“Was it worth nearly screwing me over? Because I really don’t want, your protection, if this is how you’re going to act.”

She completed her statement with a slow shake of her head, and as I sat there and heard every word my blood seemed to boil a new degree.

I did everything in my power to hold myself in check as I slowly turned to Soph. There was no way I could say jack because I knew if I did it would just anger me more.

Embarrassment, rage. Awkwardness, rage. Self-loathing, rage. Every emotion I was experiencing just continued to feed my anger. It was like hearing each word leave her lips dug into the back of the neck.

“Not to say-“

“I get it!” I cut off.

Standing up and grabbing my bag, I gripped my face with my other hand to help me maintain my composure. I couldn’t afford, wouldn’t afford to go off and to give her or myself another reason of what a fuck up I was reverting to again.

Releasing my face, I turned to look at Sophie who had now lost her antagonistic glare, and put on a more compassionate one.

“Did I go too far?”

“You said what you said,” I deadpanned.

I made my way to her door to exit the apartment.

“This didn’t go the way I wanted it to,” Sophie admitted, “let’s talk this over?”

I had already opened the door but turned face a bit to look at her out the corner of my eye. She paused a few feet from me when my eye landed on her.

“Send me the recording and, take care.”

“Niko let’s-“

Before she could finish what she was saying, I was already out the door.