hotmtlnovel Chapter 88 Help?
Chapter 88 Help?
Chapter 88 Help?October 16, 2025. Thursday. 7:21 a.m.
And no, my day started very differently this time, for I fell asleep.
…In the slumber of dreams, I felt both Silver’s tenderness brushing against me like trembling light and Onyx’s hunger burning fierce and demanding, the two halves of one storm pulling me into their rhythm until I gave myself over to them completely.
I didn’t resist. I let them consume me from Silver with her shy confessions to Onyx with her shameless fire. My body answered in the only way it could, moving with theirs, surrendering to the strange dream where love was war, soft sighs and gasps like weapons, intimacy carved in metaphors of silver light and obsidian flame. It wasn’t just lust. Instead, it was desperation, the craving for connection I’d buried under corpses and violence.
“I love you, Nick,” said Silver.
“I want you, Nick,” added Onyx.
“I know,” I said as I took them in my embrace. “I feel the same…”
It was a union of fire and shadow, sweetness and ruin, their bodies moving with mine in a fever that felt more real than the waking world, a love-making carved out of longing and the need to prove we existed. When I finally stirred awake in the motel bed, the ghost of their touch still lingered, and…
“What the fuck?”
Pajamas clung to me, stained in ways I didn’t want to think about.
“What the fuck!?”
I blinked around the cramped motel room, the curtains letting in a blade of sunlight, and only then did I realize what had happened.
“...”
I was speechless.
Onyx leaned against the bedframe, dark hair damp like she’d already showered, smirking like the devil who got her wish. “Let’s go take a bath.”
Silver was beside her, face flushed, twisting her fingers together. “D-Did you… like it?”
“Of course, he liked it,” Onyx cut in, her grin sharp enough to cut glass.
I kept my face still, the way I did when corpses were at my feet, when enemies begged for mercy. Poker-faced, I slid out of bed and walked past them. The bathroom’s cracked tiles welcomed me with the smell of mildew and rust. I turned on the shower, steam curling upward.
They followed, as they always did. Silver trailed close, her modesty cracking under her own nakedness, arms folded like she could shield herself from me. Onyx strutted instead, bold, teasing, hips swaying like she wanted me to watch.
She winked. “We did tell you we had a surprise, right? Sur-prise.”
Silver’s blush deepened. “H-Hey, Onyx… I think he’s embarrassed… maybe we should… maybe we should leave him alone. Uuuh…” Her voice broke on the last syllable, guilt already drowning her.hat hadn’t been there before. He looked older and rougher, but unmistakably him.
I stood halfway, eyes narrowing. “What are you doing here?”
Many thoughts raced through my head, each one sharper than the last. There was no use pretending anymore. I could feel John’s empathic powers unraveling my camouflage like frayed thread, stripping me bare and letting him see me for what I was. How did he find me? And more importantly, why was he here? I didn’t believe in coincidence. If John was in front of me, there had to be a reason.
I’d done everything right. Clean getaways, no paper trail, not even a digital shadow when I left Markend. Yet here he was. While I didn’t know exactly where John’s allegiance lay, it was safer to assume he wasn’t alone. Nobody who’d dare confront the ‘Monster of Markend’ would operate solo. Through my empathic sense, I felt the subtle presence of several hostile minds lurking around the area, concealed but not perfectly hidden. With John sitting across from me, their edges became clear enough to scrape my nerves raw.
Onyx appeared at my shoulder, leaning on me with a mixture of boredom and disdain. “That was a disappointment,” she muttered. “I guess, you’ll only have us, Nick…”
Silver materialized, her expression softer, wounded. “And here I thought he was a friend.”
John sat down across the booth, his eyes steady on mine. “I just want to talk.”
I remembered his powers. Back when he saved me from drowning, he’d mentioned something about sensing hostility and killing intent. The way he looked at me now, it was clear he could feel every spike of emotion I gave off. He was an empath, like me, but trained in ways I wasn’t.
“Talk,” I said flatly.
“I’m with the SRC,” John replied, his voice felt rehearsed. “And I want you to surrender. Let me help you.”
I snorted, leaning back. “I don’t trust the SRC.”
The bitterness rose up like bile. The SRC had taken my mother from me, and I wasn’t about to let them take me, too. If John was SRC-affiliated, then he wasn’t just another operative. They’d sent him because he was elite. Which meant empathic detection might not be his only trick.
John leaned forward, eyes narrowing slightly, his voice lowering to a near-whisper. “The SRC is willing to cut a deal with you, Nick. But you’ll have to let me help you.”