This is What Happens When you get Nick Drunk

[lc2l]

Fandom: Demon's Lexicon
Pairing: Jamie/Nick
Spoilers: To the end of TDL
Length: 5700
Notes: So I wrote this ages ago (pre-covenant) and, yeah, posting it now to try and keep all my fics in kind of one place?
So according to the original notes on ff.net this fic goes out to Vandulocity (:
Summary:So a demon and a magician both went into a bar...

Nick

Nick stepped into the living room carefully, rubbing his forehead in case that would help with the blinding headache that had come with the hangover. Alan was sitting on the floor in the middle of the living room, surrounded by papers covered in his and Mae's handwriting.

Unfortunately, Alan's presence meant their conversation would be happening sooner rather than later. He cleared his throat, trying not to picture the look that would soon be on his brother's face. "Um... Alan?"

Alan made a sound which meant 'I'm listening but I can't look up right now.'

Nick swallowed. "You know how I'm a demon?" It was getting less strange, acknowledging this fact. The random magic bursts that kept coming from him were helping him come to terms with it.

Alan made the noise again, sounding a little more guilty this time because however much Nick tried to say that he was, strangely enough, okay with the secret, Alan insisted on feeling guilty about it.

"Yeah, well you know about demons more than I do so -" he coughed, in an attempt to draw this out. If there had been any way around it, he wouldn't be telling Alan at all. "What would happen if, hypothetically, I -" he swallowed, trying not to remember the look on Jamie's face when he'd told him. "- markedsomeone."

Alan's head jerked up, his eyes fixing on Nick's - not phased even slightly by Nick's black demon eyes. For a moment he just stared at him then he spoke, in a slightly strained voice. "This is where I say 'you did what?' and you reply with something which I really hope isn't what I think I just heard you say."

Jamie had fainted when Nick finally got around to telling him what had happened. This was when they were back outside, leaning on each other to stay up straight on the way home. Nick wasn't sure if Alan's reaction was better or worse - at least he hadn't had to talk to Jamie. "Well, remember last night when you and Mae were working on that tablet and you told me to take Jamie out somewhere? Well we went to this bar and girls kept buying me drinks, and then there was this cute blonde and a lot of vodka and a dark corner, and it just sort of happened."

Alan was standing up now, dropping his biro onto the centuries old tablet and running a hand through his ginger hair. "You took Jamie to a bar?"

Nick had assumed this was the least objectionable part of the story but Alan's look seemed to indicate otherwise. "He suggested it," he offered helplessly.

"He's a magician," Alan protested. "You're a demon. You should know the kinds of things the two of you could end up doing if you got drunk. You should know better!" He ran his hand through his hair again, leaving his hairstyle irreparable. "Where's Jamie now? Is he all right?"

"He's fine," Nick replied, though his annoyance was rising. Shouldn't they be looking for the girl he marked? He didn't even know how to take marks off, Hnikarr's memories were still vague. "He just started making terrible puns then as he drank more he went quiet. Can we talk about the girl I marked?"

Alan's expression went pained. "I was living in a world where I could pretend you never said that." He let out a long sigh. "Well, you should be able to take it off, so all we have to do is call her and get her to meet you. You do your thing, then she goes away none the wiser."

Nick swallowed. This wasn't exactly getting better. "I - uh - don't have her number. We didn't talk all that much. She was blonde," he added, in case it helped.

Alan's expression went from bad to worse. Fortunately, before he had a chance to speak the door to the living room opened and Mae stormed in, dragging Jamie behind her. She dropped him off beside Nick before storming over to Alan. "Well? Do you have an explanation for why your brother dragged my brother into a bar and got him completely wasted? In the middle of his GCSEs!"

Nick and Jamie both flinched at the volume of her voice, hands moving to their heads. Nick dropped his quickly when he saw what Jamie was doing. Was this bonding? Had he managed to accidently bond with Jamie?

Alan was looking from Mae to Jamie when he seemed to realise what she'd said. "Wait, what my brother did?"

"Yeah," Jamie replied, edging away from Nick as though he thought it might help if Nick decided to attack. "I mean, I was telling Mae that we went out and then Nick said that we should go to a bar." When Nick looked at him he cowered pleadingly.

Alan turned to focus on Jamie who quailed very slightly. "So Nick suggested the bar?" His eyes moved to Nick as he tried to keep up.

Admittedly it was more the kind of thing Nick would suggest, but fortunately Jamie's argument had one glaring flaw. "Hello!" Nick reminded him. "Demon here. Terrible with words. Can't lie."

Jamie blushed pink as Mae turned on him. "I'm going to ask this once," she said, pink hair bobbing fiercely. "And you'd better tell me the truth because magician or not I'm still your big sister. Who suggested the bar last night?"

Jamie actually managed to look over at Nick for help, as though Nick suddenly wasn't the scariest thing in the room. When Nick shrugged he quailed. "I did." He took a step closer to Nick as though assuming Nick would stand between him and Mae if a fight broke out. "I mean, I was stressed because of exams and Nick was all tall-dark-and-brooding and you two were all cuddled up here and it was that or bowling but Seb was bowling so-"

Nick took advantage of their proximity to tap him on the shoulder, he hadn't anticipated Jamie jumping three feet in the air but it made the gesture more amusing. "You're babbling."

"I do that when I'm terrified," Jamie replied meekly.

"I thought you made terrible jokes."

"That's when I'm scared, like when I'm around you. When Mae goes all pink-haired-valkyrie I babble." He swallowed as said pink-haired-valkyrie rested her hands on her hips.

"I can still hear you, Jamie. I think you should know that I greatly disapprove of your brilliant alcohol plan and I'm sure Alan agrees with me on every count." She looked over her shoulder for Alan's support but he was standing a short way back and counting on his fingers.

"GCSEs," he murmured, audible now Mae was no longer shouting. His head snapped up. "Nick, didn't you have an exam this morning?"

Nick, who had been hoping Alan would forget, scowled. "I thought we should sort the girl I marked," he replied, which was technically the truth, but not turning up to the exam would've been a good bonus. Unfortunately, Alan was already checking his watch and reaching for the phone.

"I'll call the school to let them know you'll be a couple of minutes late. You should be there in time to sit it if you leave now and you run."

"But the girl," Nick protested weakly.

"We can find the girl, you need to get to that exam hall."

Nick scowled again and glared at Jamie because he was the only person in the room who looked even a little scared in the face of Nick's glare. "Fine."

It was only as he was leaving the room that he realised he was doing what his sibling said. Another thing he and Jamie had in common. This was getting downright embarrassing.

Alan

Alan eventually got off the phone with Nick's school after convincing the secretary that Nick was arriving late due to a family disaster rather than because he had worked out some cunning way to cheat the entire examination system if he arrived five minutes late to the exam room. When he finally put the phone down, Mae and Jamie were watching him as though they expected him to know what to do when his demon brother came home from a bar with the news that he'd marked a girl.

"So what now?" Mae asked while Jamie apparently attempted to melt into the living room wall.

Alan ran his hand through his hair again, a habit he'd never had before Nick grew old enough to be of interest to the ladies. "We have to find this girl. Jamie, did you see her?"

Jamie looked up from the corner. "Um, yes. I think. Well, there were a few but I think I know which one he marked, yes."

That was a relief. "Okay," Alan said, quickly switching into planning mode. "What did she look like?"

Jamie swallowed. "She was... blonde."

Alan narrowly resisted the urge to bash his head against the wall. He could've guessed that she'd be blonde. Demon or not Nick liked blondes and when a guy looked like Nick did apparently everyone liked him back. "Yes, I got that from Nick. Did you notice anything else? Did she have a round face? Was she tall?"

Jamie swallowed again, looking around for an exit and Alan felt slightly guilty. "She was definitely blonde," he repeated. "I think. She might've been... no, she was blonde."

The guilty feeling faded pretty quickly. "I know she was blonde," he repeated, trying to stay as patient as possible. "Even Nick managed to recall her blondeness. You saw her. There must have been something else you noticed."

"She made out with Nick," Jamie offered. "And can you stop shouting? Mae wouldn't let me take an aspirin." He swallowed. "She was blonde and... and..." he shook his head. "Sorry, that's all I've got."

Alan closed his eyes, taking a deep breath the way Dad had always told him to if people were annoying him. He supposed Nick would have pulled out the swords and let them do the talking, but Jamie already looked pitiful enough. "Okay," he replied wearily. "I guess we'll just have to go to the bar you guys were at and start asking questions. I'll get some pictures of Nick, we just have to ask people if they saw him or if they got intimate with him."

Jamie coughed and raised his hand.

"Yes?" Alan asked, reaching for his coat.

He shifted uncomfortably. "Well, uh, he, uh, 'got intimate' with, um, a couple of people."

Alan let his hand fall, mentally wondering how many lectures he was going to have to give Nick on how girls were people too before the message sank in. "How many?"

Jamie stared avidly at his hands. "Two brunettes, four blondes not counting the drag queen, one ginger but he didn't seem too keen on her." He paused. "Oh, and one average gay guy. But I think he was just experimenting, I don't know, he was drunk." His pink blush upgraded to a bright red one. "Turns out he's not all that fussy when drunk."

Alan took a few moments to stand there, hand still poised over his coat, and let this sink in. Mae just stormed across the room, grabbing her brother and pulling him out the corner. "He made out with a drag queen?"

Jamie bit his lip. "To be fair, I don't think he actually realised she was a man until a bit later. He got away pretty fast."

"And you?" Mae demanded. "I hope you didn't do anything that stupid."

Jamie's blush slipped into scarlet but he shook his head. "Uh-uh. No way. Wouldn't dream of it. Magicians are supposed to look after demons so I just kept an eye on him. You know. Responsibly. Because I have intelligence and -"

"Is this the same intelligence that led you to suggest the bar in the first place?" Alan asked, finally dropping his hand to actually pick up his coat and head for the door. "And if you think letting my brother make out with a drag queen is responsible I think you need to have a long hard look at your priorities." He paused by the door to grab a gun and three knives off the dresser, dropping them into the various sheaths around his body. "Come on, we have four blondes and a drag queen to find. Mae, do you still have Nick's knife? Jamie, there's a penknife in the drawer behind you. Be careful with it."

He ignored the annoyed sparks that flicked from Jamie's hand, even though they caused Mae to release him in surprise, in favour of pushing through the door. "I don't suppose you know which of the blondes Nick marked?"

Jamie shook his head quickly. "I just remember Nick coming up to me and there was a blonde walking away and then he reached across me for the vodka and fell on me and -" he swallowed. " - and I, uh, thought we should head home. Quickly. Later he said that was when the marking happened."

"Leaving sounds like the first good decision you made all night," Alan replied sharply, snatching the knife from Jamie's fingers before he could cut his hand, flicking it shut and dropping it into the younger boy's pocket. "We'll have to split up when you we get there. If either of you finds the right blonde, call Nick first - as long as it's after half ten and his exam's over - then call me. We need to get this over with as soon as possible."

Mae nodded quickly and stepped through the door he was holding. When Jamie stepped up to it, Alan rested a hand on his shoulder. "And Jamie?" The boy turned to him, eyes wide with panic. "Don't take my brother out drinking again. He's dangerous enough as it is."

The bar was, as it turned out, attached to a nightclub, which explained why there were so many blonde girls there. As soon as they were through the doorway - looking about as out of place as a boy in a shirt, a boy in a pink T-shirt, and a girl with a flowing skirt and pink hair can look anywhere - they split up, Jamie immediately pushing his hand into his pocket to close his fingers around the tiny penknife.

"Remember," Alan muttered, stepping close to him, "you're a magician. You're not about to get beaten to a pulp by anybody."

Jamie nodded quickly. "Yeah. Well, I'll call you if I find anything." He headed off towards the bar where he immediately started muttering in a low voice to the barman (who was male, not a drag queen, and not blonde).

Still, Alan couldn't afford to waste time watching Jamie do who-knew-what, so he headed into the mostly deserted dance-floor area of the club and up to a spiky-haired punk with a lip ring who was supervising the set-up of amps around the stage. As soon as he was in sight, Alan felt himself pronouncing his limp as a bright smile emerged on his face. I think I missed my Hollywood calling. "Hello," he opened brightly. "I'm looking for a girl."

The boy looked him up and down, apparently wondering how crazy someone who looked like Alan did would have to be to come into a place like this. "You know, the night club isn't really open until evening. Most of the girls come down then... you might want to change your shirt though."

Alan laughed as though the boy had actually been making a joke and he had actually found it funny. "No, it's more of a specific girl. She was in here with my brother last night and he thinks he left something with her that he really needs back." He smiled companionably to set the boy at ease.

After a moment the boy smiled slightly uncertainly back. "Well, we get a lot of girls here. Did your brother get the name of the one he wanted?"

"Sadly not," Alan sighed. Then he swallowed and said the phrase which was completely useless and he never wanted to hear again. "She was blonde, if it helps."

"We get a lot of blondes in -" he broke off as Alan pulled out the picture of Nick and showed it to him. "Oh. That guy. Well, I don't know quite how to say this, but I see he told you there was a blonde. There were six blondes. Two were guys and only one was wearing a dress."

"I know," Alan replied. "Two brunettes, four blondes, a drag queen, a red-head and a guy. I need to find the blondes, unfortunately my brother couldn't be any more specific than that."

"Well," the boy replied uncomfortably. "You're looking for Cassie, Emma, Ruby or Amy. Those were the only four girls I saw him with. I don't know the location of Emma and Amy; Cassie's at school but Ruby's in the alley out back getting a cigarette." He nodded to the door. "The drag queen's in here most nights, as for the blonde boy I'd never seen him before but they left together."

Alan nodded his thanks and headed quickly to the door, wandering into the alley where a girl in fishnets and a miniskirt was smoking the remains of a joint. Alan coughed pointedly, both to show he was there and to indicate he found her habit unpleasant. "Hello?"

She turned, dropping the remains of her cigarette to the ground and treading on it. Then the light fell on his face and she took a step back, surprised. "You're not Carlos."

"No," Alan agreed, taking a few limping steps forwards. "Are you Ruby?" He never really noticed the pain in his leg unless he was pretending it hurt. When she nodded, he held out the picture. "This is my brother, I believe you saw him last night?"

She took the picture slowly between long red nails and examined it. "Yeah, I saw him. Didn't realise he was gay though, or that he had a boyfriend. I mean, he was making out with loads of girls. Sorry about that but I didn't know so I don't think it's fair you blame me -"

"He's adopted," Alan ground out. "I'm his brother, not his boyfriend and I don't care that you made out with him. I just want you to tell me about it."

Her surprised and slightly disturbed expression made him realise he'd just said completely the wrong thing.

"I mean, he was worried he might have... done something he shouldn't have with one of the girls last night. I just came to check you were all... and to make sure he hadn't." He swallowed, suddenly realising he had no idea where Nick had put the mark. He couldn't see it on any of the visible skin on his girl.

"Oh," she replied uncomfortably. "Well, he was very drunk. And very strange. We didn't really make out much because to be honest he freaked me out a little. I think you ought to have a word with him. His breath smelt of vodka and he was all, 'Hello, I'm Nick-arrrrrand I'm a demon from another dimension who's possessing this body because it's evil magician father called in it. I have black eyes.' And I was like, 'Okaaay, you're strange,' but he was cute so I didn't mind all that much. Then he was like 'Did I mention I kill things? Do you want to see my sword?'" She pushed her hands into the back pockets of her miniskirt. "I mean, I'm a girl. A hot boy asks if I want to 'see his sword' I'm going to say 'yes', aren't I?"

Alan sighed, making a mental note never to let Nick in range of alcohol ever again. "Then he pulled out a sword?"

Ruby looked at him strangely. "A knife," she replied. "But I think the principle's the same. He said he'd left his sword at home, though he hastened to inform me that it was 'lightning forged.' Is he a D&D player? Because my brother does that and it's not hot."

Jamie

Jamie pushed the gold ring round and round in his ear, looking awkwardly from the unconscious body of Amy to the mouth of the alley. He'd got her address from the barman (after threatening to having his boyfriend come beat the man up) and had naively gone to her house only to stand outside it for about ten minutes with no idea what to say.

'Excuse me, I need to check your butt for demon marks,' hadn't seemed like the best opener, even if he added: 'It's all right, I'm gay.'

Fortunately (or unfortunately) she hadn't appreciated a guy standing staring up at her window for ten minutes so had gone out the back door and come up behind him with a cricket bat, at which point his sparkly magician powers had leapt up and suddenly she was out cold. He dragged her round into a dark alley and - with great trepidation - pushed up her skirt to check the top of her thigh.

Fortunately (or, again, unfortunately) the mark had been there and he could pull her skirt back over it and reach up to push the ring in his ear uncomfortably for a few moments before he remembered Nick wouldn't just magically know where he was and come to see him.

He pulled out his phone quickly, checked the exam would be over then dialed Nick's number (2 on speed dial, 1 being Mae).

"Who is this?" Nick asked, clearly being too impatient, demony and hot for caller ID.

Jamie couldn't even see him and he still turned bright red. "It's uh, um -" cough "- Jamie. You know, from... school. In Exeter. Mae's brother."

"Remember that babbling thing," Nick replied, because he could be cool and suave no matter what the circumstances. "You're doing it again."

Jamie coughed. "Yeah. Yeah. Where are you?"

"School, that place I'm not allowed to drop out of. I just completely failed a French exam and I suspect Alan will kill me." He paused. "Or maybe get Merris to trap me in a circle for the rest of my life until I can conjugate every French verb in existence."

Jamie forced himself to get over the urge to just stand there like an idiot listening while Nick talked to him. (To him. Just to him. Nick, the great girl-magnet who would never be interested in a small weedy person like Jamie even if he wasn't a guy.) "I've found our girl. Goes by the name Amy."

"You mean my girl," Nick corrected. "She blonde?"

Jamie glanced down at where Amy's blonde hair was turning the colour of the brown puddle it was draped it. "Yeah. Definitely blonde."

There was the sound of movement on the phone. "Where are you? Can you make sure she stays until I get there?"

Jamie obediently gave Nick the address then looked down at the girl. "I... don't think she's going anywhere."

"It is a girl, isn't it? Because amidst the numerous girls and other mistakes I distinctly remember someone who I thought was a girl until we got a bit carried away and that was awkward."

Jamie nudged Amy with one foot until she rolled over and he could get a good look at her chest. "Definitely a girl."

Nick breathed a sigh of relief across the phone. "See you in a minute then. Oh, and Jamie? Please tell me you didn't tell Alan where to look for the mark."

"I didn't," Jamie assured him. He had just opened his mouth to say something else when there was the click of Nick hanging up. He sighed, bent down to check Amy's pulse for the third time then pulled one of the slightly less disgusting looking bins over to sit on, his feet hanging an embarrassing foot above the ground, and hoped no one came in sight of the alley until Nick got there. He didn't think he had enough sparkles to knock anyone else out, even if he knew how.

Nick's school had to be at least half an hour's walk away so when Jamie saw a black motorcycle drive past the entrance to the alley slowly then stop five minutes later, he slid off the bin, pushing his right hand into his pocket to close his fingers over the penknife as he stepped in front of Amy's body, in case he managed to hide it at all.

There was a loud thudding, as though of someone large pounding on Amy's door and it suddenly occurred to Jamie that maybe she had a boyfriend. Or a father.

Then an unmistakable, loud-but-still-emotionless voice called out. "Jamie? Where the hell are you?"

Still somewhat confused (could demons teleport?) Jamie took a few steps closer to the mouth of the alley. "Nick? Nick, down here."

There was a pause, then a large figure walked back into view wheeling a black motorbike. He looked up at Jamie through dark hair, black eyes smouldering and toned muscles shown as shadows beneath the white school shirt. As Jamie watched, he shook his head very slightly to get hair out of his eyes and his skin caught the light in a thousand different colours.

Then the bike dropped to the floor with a crash that made Jamie leap into the air, his fingers sparking and all his senses suddenly restored as his cheeks turned crimson. He looked down at his feet quickly and managed to get out: "You know, that's what the stand is for."

"There's a stand?" Jamie glanced up in time to see Nick lifting the bike and looking at it carefully. "Where?"

Jamie swallowed down his hormones and walked over to Nick, reaching around the bike until he found the stand and knocked it down. "I didn't know you had a motorbike. I didn't know you could drive a motorbike."

Nick grinned. "Turns out, I've driven them before. Who'd have thought I'd have had to, but apparently I once possessed a guy who did a lot of bike riding. As for this one -" he kicked it affectionately and it fell over again. "- Well, I liberated it. Turns out I can hotwire vehicles. Who says being a demon doesn't have its perks?"

Jamie swallowed uncomfortably as Nick brushed past him to walk towards Amy. "Okay, when you said you could keep her here I assumed she'd be a bit more conscious. You know, most guys would walk up to her and say hi, not knock her out with a cricket bat."

Jamie blushed again, following after him. "The cricket bat was hers. She was going to hit me with it and my -" he made a vague gesture that seemed to him to represent fireworks. "-leapt out and knocked her unconscious."

Nick looked at him strangely. "Your jazz hands?"

"My-" he wasn't entirely sure what they were called. "My magic powers." Great. That sounded like he was preparing to go to Hogwarts.

"Oh. Cool." Nick apparently had no compunctions about looking at unconscious girls' rear ends because he just rolled her over and pushed her skirt up. "I don't suppose you know how to do this," he asked, looking up at Jamie who was steadfastly looking anywhere except at the girl.

"Should I?" he asked, making the mistake of looking down at Nick and getting a good view of the girl. "Isn't this sort of an invasion of her privacy?"

Nick glared at him and he felt his heart jump out of his chest and run away in terror at the cold look of those black eyes. "Would you rather I let her get possessed? Get down here, maybe we can work something out."

Jamie swallowed and knelt down beside him, trying to think of the mark as just a mark rather than a mark on a girl's bottom. "You put it there," he said helplessly. "Shouldn't you know how to get it off?"

Nick glared at him again. "You knocked her out," he replied. "Shouldn't you know how to wake her up?"

Jamie swallowed, looking back at the mark because that way he wasn't looking at Nick. "Touché." He reached out to hold a hand over it, and a single spark flicked from his finger to the mark. Nothing else happened. "I think I'm out of juice," he replied, shaking his hand slightly then trying again. This time there was nothing.

"Out of juice?" Nick repeated disbelievingly. "You knocked out one teenager. To think we were always scared of magicians." He paused, then reached out to put his hand beside Jamie's. The point where his hand brushed Jamie's tingled for several moments before Jamie remembered to pull it away. "So how do I do this?"

"Um." Jamie trembled slightly but reached out to rest his hand on top of Nick's. "Well, I've done a bit of work at controlling my power, so I guess... can you just channel yours into me and I'll give it a go?" He hoped his hand wasn't trembling too much and that his irregular breathing wasn't giving away too much the amount his heart was racing.

"Are you sure I can do that?"

Jamie swallowed, wishing that whatever Nick was going to do he would do it quicker. "Magicians get most of their power from demons, don't they? Just get on with it."

He'd thought it would happen slowly, blossom out from the point of contact but it didn't. One minute he was sitting there normally with his hand on Nick's and the next minute every vein in his body was throbbing with heat and what felt like electric shocks were crackling at random points across his body. It was getting harder to breathe and rain was falling on his arms from somewhere as thunder rolled around them.

He leant his head back, letting the power slow through his body. So much power. He could do anything. He raised one finger and lightning forked across the storm-ridden sky. He let out a laugh and thunder echoed it across the heavens. He could have everything, he could be all powerful. He could burn rivers dry and flood towns. He could pay back everyone who'd ever pulled away from him.

He could become someone better, someone stronger, someone taller and prouder and better looking and... and... and someone Nick could love. Someone Nick would notice. Someone who wouldn't be afraid of Nick, wouldn't be afraid to look at him and touch him and tell him... tell him...

He could be anything he wanted to be, with the storm raging overhead and the burning in his veins feeling less like pain and more like power every minute.

"Jamie!" the voice had to shout over the storm and Jamie felt a hand on his shoulder. "Jamie, you have to focus! The girl, fix the girl!"

Focus... Jamie... girl... the words swirled around in his head mixing with the thunder of the storm. He didn't have to be Jamie, he could be anyone, he could be... Hnikarr...

Then someone kissed him. Someone tall and dark and beautiful kissed him and Jamie leaned into it and suddenly the heat of the Power was nothing compared to the touch and the feelings and...

Nick pulled away. "Jamie?" he repeated, quieter now the rain had somehow faded into a mild drizzle. "Jamie, are you there?"

Jamie slowly came back to himself and reached up to touch his lips, feeling the strange jolt of shock there as he touched them. "You-"

"The girl, Jamie."

"Girl..." He turned his head to see the girl still lying on the ground, soaking wet now. They were all wet. He reached out with one hand, holding it over the mark. Sparks flickered from his hand into her skin and slowly it faded. After all, Nick's power had made it and Nick's power was taking it away.

Nick's power. As he let his hand fall into his lap with only a small firework of spark, he could feel the power easing inside him and trickling away. No! He wanted to shout, he wanted to keep hold of the sensation. The power, he needed it inside him, and he was starting to understand why magicians summoned demons, because he would kill anyone in that moment to feel it again.

He swallowed, breathing slowly, then reached up to touch his lips again. There was no spark this time.

"I gave you too much." Was it his imagination or did Nick sound uncomfortable? "I think, I don't know. You weren't yourself for a minute and... I could see from your eyes, that was strange. Did I possess you?"

Jamie blinked once. He remembered a time when he would've just started talking, but now he thought about it before opening his mouth. He remembered rain falling and the thought that he didn't have to be Jamie, he could be... "Nearly. But you pulled me out of it in time." He touched his lips again.

"Yeah."

For a moment they just sat there, looking at the body of the girl while the rain drizzled lightly down around them and Jamie felt the last of Nick's power drain away, leaving his veins feeling empty and lifeless and void.

"By the way," Nick said suddenly. "Last night, at the end of the evening when we were... you know... really wasted. Did you - um - tell Alan and Mae what - uh - happened?"

Jamie didn't think he'd ever heard Nick use the word 'um' before. "No," he said quickly. "Uh-uh. No way. Wouldn't dream of it."

"Because I was drunk," Nick added needlessly. "Very drunk."

"And this morning?" Jamie asked, unable to stop himself.

"I had to do something."

"And that was the first thing you thought of?"

Nick pushed himself up, grabbing Jamie's hand to pull him after. "Just don't you dare tell Alan, okay?"

Jamie smiled slightly, closing his fingers a little around Nick's hand before it was pulled away. He didn't want to kill people and as much as he wanted the power, he could live with this.