Nik (Nightbound Series)

## Nik Ryder

### Nicknames

Mr. Mysterious (By Kristin, E1)Ace Nighthunter & Hothead Ryder (By Katherine, E4)

Thrice-cursed son (By The Fate, E9)

Carl Drogo

## Series

### Last Appearance

E16

Nik Ryder, a character in the Nightbound series, is April's bodyguard and a Nighthunter. He is also one of April's love interests. Although he is first seen in Episode 1, his name is not revealed until Episode 2. This is a RPG based off of Choices. We do not claim any of it.

## Personality

From what is seen of Nik, he is very professional when it comes to his job. He can even be quoted with saying that he takes his job very seriously. However, he also appears to love money. His father taught him to move on without attachments, as that was the only way to make it in this world without letting it grind him down.

## Background

When Nik was a young child, his biological parents -especially his mother- would take him to the Bayou. His parents were nature buffs, and his mother would take him into the swamps and play hide-and-seek. She was Cajun and knew the bayou inside and out. When he was four or five years old, they were in the bayou, having a picnic for his mom's birthday. There, his parents were attacked by a monster. His mother shoved him towards the brush and told him to run, but when he saw them being killed, he screamed and caught the monster's attention. Something skewed the monster, causing it to fall, and Elijah Ryder appeared. He picked Nik up and ran, the monster howling behind them. Elijah covered Nik's eyes from the sight of his parents' bodies as he passed. He sang quietly to Nik, all the way out of the bayou, and let the young boy cry all over him. Nik didn't have any other family and would have ended up in the system, but Elijah took him in and adopted him, giving him his surname.

Elijah was a Nighthunter, who taught him everything he knows. The day he died (about seven years prior to the beginning of Nightbound when Nik was seventeen years old), Elijah and Nik had an ugly fight. They had been fighting a lot the past few years, on par for the course of teenagers and overbearing dads, but Elijah stormed out and went hunting alone and died. To Nik, the pain hurts like a knife to the ribs. He didn't have the chance to tell Elijah that he loved him, and to apologize for being a stubborn idiot who had to have the last word. Elijah and his parents are the reason that Nik hunts: to honor their memory and to prevent others from suffering what he has

## Relationships

### **April**

Nik is one of April's love interests and her bodyguard. She first sees Nik following her in Episode 1, but then after a bloodwraith attacks April, Nik springs into action saving April after she falls into impending doom. He has been hired to protect her by an unknown client who offered him six figures.

In Episode 5, April learns about his parents and guardian. They also kiss. In Episode 11, when April and her friends are on the run from the bloodwraith, he tells the Fae guarding the entrance to Lamrian that she is Lord Elric's daughter. She is upset with him for hiding this from her, even though he explains it was a theory and he wasn't absolutely certain until the pieces fell into place.

In Episode 15, he tells April that the two must be parting ways and that their relationship was fun, but had to end, even though it meant something to him. She tells him that she is falling in love with him, but he says that the two cannot be together before walking away.

## Trivia

* He tends to stay away from unicorns as the last one he saw tried to skewer him.
* The name Nik is of English, Persian and Greek origin, which means: Lord (English); good (Persian); victory of the people, champion (Greek, derives from a variation of the name Nicholas).
* To see through "glamour", Nik carries a small medallion in his pocket which is charmed.