Defy my destiny.
He should be good at that. He'd never been the kind of kid to mind anyone or do what was expected of him. If he was, he'd be in county lock-up now. Not an honor student at one of the most exclusive prep schools in New Orleans. A school that rarely took in students who weren't from the blue-bloods who'd founded it. Or the kids of Dark-Hunters, their Squires or Were-Hunters.
Yet Nick had scored higher than anyone in the school's history.
Yeah, if he could do that, he could do this.
With a deep breath, he flew through the portal, into his bedroom and quickly changed into his human body. Then, he waved his hand and closed the portal behind him, sealing it shut.
A nervous twinge made the hairs on the back of his neck rise. Could it really be this easy?
He still wasn't completely sold. After all, tricks on him were commonplace. Especially here lately. It would be routine for this to be yet another act of cruelty.
Cautiously, he made his way through his room, looking for any sign of another attack. Not to mention, the last thing he needed was for someone to see two Nicks. Life was confusing enough. And while he was creative, he doubted he could make anyone believe a "good twin" versus a "bad twin" scenario. Especially his mom, since she knew for a fact that he was an only child.
"Thought you were going out?"
Nick jumped at the unexpected deep voice. Cursing, he jerked around to face Zavid who was in human form. "What are you doing here? Besides trying to kill me? With a heart attack?"
Zavid normally stayed with Caleb.
Cocking his head, Zavid sniffed at the air then relaxed. "Oh thank the gods, it's you."
"Me?"
"Yeah. You. Not the fake Nick. I have to tell you, I've been getting sick as a dog of his crap."
If Nick wasn't still hyperventilating, that would be funny given that Zavid was a shapeshifting Hel hound.
Was he dreaming?
Nick wasn't sure if he could trust in this, or not. "You knew?"
"Of course I knew. Took a bit to make the others realize it. But he doesn't smell like you." Zavid pulled him back into his room.
Nick relaxed a degree. "Did anyone else notice?"
"Only your mom. Though she blamed it on a faze you were going through. And Kody, too, but it took her a little while."
That made him feel a lot better that he wasn't completely irrelevant and replaceable. "How long have I been gone?"
"Two weeks."
"Two weeks!" Nick started to flip over it, until he remembered something. "Did the weasel pass my Chem test? Or do I have summer school?"
"He aced it."
For that, he could almost forgive Cyprian. "Good. 'Cause I'd have knifed him if he'd damaged my GPA."
"Seriously? That's your biggest concern, given everything else?"
"End of the world ... and a close second is being forced to attend junior college. Yeah! Have you seen the difference in the campuses?"
Suddenly, Zavid had that disgusted look Caleb got so often around him.
"Don't you even take that expression, old dog. It's a big deal. I'm supposed to go to Loyola and Tulane. Can't do that with failing grades." He gestured toward his desk where his phone was normally docked. "Check with Caleb. He'll tell you what my future was."
"Anyway," Zavid said, grabbing Nick by the arms. "Getting back on point. Your little friend has been playing havoc with everyone. It's so bad, Bubba's banned you from his store. He even threatened to shoot you if he saw you again."
Nick's jaw went slack. "Pardon?"
"Yeah. Your mom's about ready to call in a priest to have your exorcized."
"That's priceless. So what happens if you exorcize a Malachai?"
"You really don't want to find out."
"If it's done to Cyprian, I do."
Zavid rolled his eyes. "Fine. Get Caleb. He knows a few to call. I dare you."
Normally, Nick would call that bluff and raise it, but not today. He was a little tired of the fight. "So how do we get rid of this jackass?"
Before Zavid could respond, Nick felt a peculiar ache in his stomach. It was a soured feeling. Like being sucker-punched after eating way too much cake. For a moment, he feared he was going to be sick.
"Nick?"
He couldn't breathe. The worst premonition went through him. One he prayed he was wrong about.
Unable to stand it, he teleported to Kody's house.
The moment he appeared in her living room, he knew something was wrong. And it wasn't just because the place was wrecked. This was more than that.
Tears filled his eyes as he choked on her name. He couldn't bring himself to say her name. His fear was too profound for that. Because if she didn't answer ...
Please, be here.
Be okay!
Nick ran through the rooms, looking for her. Each one showed the remains of a vicious fight. Pictures were torn from the wall and shattered on the ground. Furniture overturned and busted. But it was the blood on the walls and floor that made his wings shoot out.
And when he reached her bedroom, everything in his world shattered.
For a full minute, he couldn't breathe. He couldn't move. All he could do was stand there as he saw her lying on the bed. Dressed in her white Nekoda uniform, she was pale and unmoving. Her mother's bow was on the floor near her. As was her sword.
Over and over, Nick saw the future where she died.
He saw the day he met her. The way she'd defended him against Mason and Stone at school. Heard her laughter as she teased him.
Silent tears burned his cheeks as he stumbled toward her.
"K-k-kody?" But it was too late.
She was gone.
Throwing his head back, Nick roared as pain filled him and prayed for this to be another cruel trick. Prayed that he'd wake up in the grimoire.
"Nick?"
Hissing, he turned toward the sound of Caleb's voice to find his protector in the doorway, staring at him.
The expression on Caleb's face said that he wasn't sure it was Nick he was looking at. Or that he could trust his own eyes. "What happened?"
His breathing ragged, he glared at Caleb. "That's what I want to know! What happened, Caleb! Where were you!"
"Hunting for you."
"Why did you leave her unprotected?"
Caleb didn't answer.
Nick started to attack. The only thing that kept him from it was the last shred of sanity he had that recognized the agony inside Caleb's eyes. That haunted horror they shared. And the one worse bit that said he was reliving the moment when he lost his own wife.
Never had he seen Caleb appear weak or affected by anything.
Until now.
"I wouldn't have ..." Caleb's words broke off as his eyes teared up. His breathing turned every bit as ragged as Nick's as he staggered closer. "Can't you bring her back?"
"I don't have those powers. Do I?"
"No, you don't."
Nick gasped as he heard Kody's voice. Snapping around, he saw the shadowy outline of her winged Arel form.
She reached for him, then dropped her hand. "I'm sorry, Nick. I tried."
"I can't do this, Kody. Not without you."
Her lips trembled. "Of course you can, baby. You did it before."
"I didn't know you, then." But no sooner had those words left Nick's lips than he saw a peculiar flash. A glimmer of something that hadn't been there before.
Kody let out a bitter laugh as she nodded. "Yeah, Nick. It's what you're thinking. Crazy, huh?"
"No ... it can't be."
She swallowed hard. "I have to go. But I couldn't leave without saying goodbye. I love you. Now and forever." She started to fade.
"Kody! Kody, wait!"
She hesitated.
"I will find a way back to you. You hear me? I swear to God."
"I'll be waiting." Her gaze went to Caleb. "Take care, my Boo. You'll need each other."
Then she was gone.
Unable to breathe or cope,
"You know I can't."
In that moment, he really did want to die. The last thing Nick wanted was to feel this much pain. Clenching his fists to his sides, he roared at the injustice of it all. It wasn't right.
It wasn't fair!
Since when is life fair?
Kyrian and Acheron would be the first to laugh in his face about that whine. Nothing about life was ever fair. He knew it as well as they did.
And he hated life for that fact. He always had.
Because it should be.
Maybe that was what adulthood really was, after all. The moment when you realized that the sheet wouldn't tally at the end of the day. That one column would always have more than the other. And no matter what you did or how hard you tried, you just couldn't get the columns to balance.
Victim or victor.
Did he really have a choice? Because right now, it sure didn't feel like it.
No. This was life ramming it down his throat and shoving it in a place where he didn't think the sun would ever shine again.
"I'm done, Caleb."
Caleb scowled at him. "What?"
"I mean it, this time. Why are we bothering? Why are you fighting, still?"
He grabbed Nick by the shirt and jerked him so close that their noses practically touched. His dark gaze scorched him with fury. "For the reason you're going to stop feeling sorry for yourself. Strap up and kick that bastard's ass. You made a promise and we don't break our words."
"We're demons."
"And we don't break our words. I made a vow to Lil. Just as Xev made one to Myone. And you just gave yours to Kody. We fight, not for ourselves, but for what we love." He shoved Nick back. "You asked me what you should do. That's it. You fight."
Wiping his eyes, Caleb sniffed. "Go on. See to your mom. I'll take care of Kody."
Nick hesitated. "Did you hear back from Shadow?"
"He hasn't found the swords."
"What's that mean?"
"That our enemies can rebuild their army."
Nick's stomach drew so tight that he felt sickened with those words. "That's how they get us in the future, isn't it?"
Caleb didn't say anything. He didn't have to. The expression on his face said it all.
"We can't win this, can we?"
"I don't know, Nick. The cost has been so high."
"But why? We're fighting for what's right. How can they just walk all over everything that's good and decent, and no one stops them? No one else seems to care about the evil they do. Why should we suffer for the rest?"
Caleb let out a bitter laugh. "You're asking me? The daeve demon? Remember whose side I was on originally? It wasn't this one."
He had a point.
Clearing his throat, Nick wiped at his eyes. "I figured out my powers, Cay."
"About time."
Nick snorted. Yeah, it was. He looked back at Kody and choked on another wave of tears as he realized it was too late for her.
"Ambrose came back to the past and tried to stop it. Three times."
"I know." Caleb rose to his feet while Nick gently wrapped his jacket around Kody's body.
His heart splintering, Nick brushed his hand through Kody's hair. "I'm thinking that if this didn't work, we have one more option."
"Nick--"
"Hear me out, Caleb." Nick glanced past him to Zavid. "This is a longshot, but it's time for the Hail Mary pass. We couldn't stop them here and now. I'm thinking we stop Cyprian in his own time."
"How? You don't know when that is."
"No, but we know someone who does."
Caleb scoffed bitterly. "He won't let you do this."
"I think he will."
One way or another, Nick was going to force him to it.
CHAPTER 13
"You're out of your Cajun mind." Takeshi literally choked as soon as he heard Nick's idea.
Nick shook his head. "Kody's gone." He swallowed hard against the burning lump in his throat that mirrored the one in his stomach. His mood kept vacillating between nauseated grief, righteous fury, and hopeless defeat.
Honestly, he was beginning to think his emotions needed a traffic cop as they swung from one extreme to the other so fast that even he was having a hard time keeping up with them.
One word. One scent. It took next to nothing to send him careening over the edge to near breakdown levels.
And he knew if anyone understood that, it was the ancient being in front of him. "What would you do if you lost Nashira?"
The darkness in Takeshi's eyes churned like a storm front. It was palatable and terrifying. And enough to make Nick take a step back.
"Then you know how I feel right now."
Takeshi winced, rubbing his hand over his heart as if it ached from the mere thought of it. "I'm sorry, kid."
"And I'm mad as hell. I want blood for this and I will have it." More than that, he was heartbroken and wounded to the core of his soul. Really, there were no words to describe how screwed up he felt. Defeated and beaten, and yet the rage and need to strike back burned so deep inside him that it took everything he had not to lash out and annihilate the world, and everyone in it. The fury he felt that everyone around him was going on with their lives, unscathed and untouched, neither knowing nor caring that Kody was gone, while he felt like this ...
It was all he could do to hold himself back. He wanted to see it all burn to the ground. Feel the cinders of souls rain down on his Malachai skin.
Only then would the fury in his blood be appeased.
This must have been how Kyrian felt when his soul screamed out for vengeance after his wife betrayed him, and Artemis came to make him a Dark-Hunter.
Nick finally got it with a clarity he wished to God he didn't know. He'd always wondered what could make someone sell their soul for vengeance.
Now he knew.
There were some questions you shouldn't ask, because you didn't want the answers to them. If the truth were known, he couldn't take it anymore. He was too young to be this tired.
Life had finally kicked him in the stones one time too many. He just didn't want to get up again. Every option seemed closed and alien. In some ways, it was like being inside someone else's skeleton. As if his own skin didn't fit anymore.
While he'd outgrown many shoes and clothes over his lifetime, this was the first time he'd felt as if he'd outgrown his own body. Must be how a snake felt right before it shed its skin ...
"It makes perfect sense. I drink the water of the Lethe and forget this and everything that's happened since the night Kyrian saved me. Caleb can use his magick to bind my powers again and plug in the right memories. That way, my life will go on and reset the way it was supposed to be. I won't remember Kody or being the Malachai. Everything will be normal."
Takeshi rubbed at his chin. "What about your mom?"
"Taken care of. Caleb's going to help me with that, too. We'll find a way to stop it when I'm older and able to better handle this. I just need you to get me to the future, later on. Can you do it?"
Takeshi let out a deep breath. "I can do lots of things. But as Acheron says, just because you can doesn't mean you should. And what you're asking could get us both smacked down in ways you don't understand."
"I know. But I need you to do this for me ... Please. Help me save my mom and Kody."
Takeshi met Caleb's harsh stare. "And you're good with this, Malphas?"
Caleb let out a bitter laugh. "I don't know. It's Nick, so I'm sure it'll get screwed up in ways we can't even conceive. But he's right. I don't see any other way to get them out of here and control the disaster they're bringing down on us."
Nick handed Takeshi his grimoire. "In exchange for this favor, I'll leave you with permanent custody of Nashira. You two can be together forever. With my blessings."
He cursed under his breath. "My one weakness."
"And Kody's mine."
Taking the grimoire, Takeshi clutched it against his chest as a tic worked in his jaw. "You found the one bit of leverage you knew I could never say no to."
"Yeah, I know. I'm a Malachai. Fighting dirty is what we do best."
"And you're sure about this?"
He nodded. "It's the only way. I just need a few hours to clean this disaster up."
"All right. I'll see you at midnight."
Nick inclined his head to him. As he started past Caleb, his friend stopped him.
"It's been my pleasure, Malachai."
Those words actually made his throat even tighter as another wave of tears choked him. It took everything he had to hold them back because he knew Caleb didn't say things like that lightly. "That must have hurt to say out loud."
"Like the fires of hell scalding my tongue."
Nick laughed. "Thank you, Cay. For everything you've done. For every wound you've taken in my name." He held his hand up. "I wish I could always remember just what a great brother you've been."
Caleb took it and pulled him in for a bro-hug. "I can't believe I might actually miss you."
"Yeah, me and kudzu. We defy all logic, and tend to grow on the most unlikely of things."
Caleb clapped him on the back. "That you do."
Nick handed his phone over. "I put everything in there you'll need. Including the dates I know. Please, make sure nothing happens to Bubba and Mark."
"I will do my best. But you know how they are. Can't help what they get into when I'm not around and they're determined to play with explosives and buckshot."
Well, there was that.
"Take care." Tapping him on the shoulder, Nick used his powers to teleport home. He had one last bit of business that he needed to see to.
Track down Cyprian.
This wasn't going to be pretty. But if the truth were known, he was looking forward to it.
He'd barely reached his room before Xev was there, in human form.
"You're not really planning this level of stupidity, are you?"
Nick shrugged and flashed his famous Cajun grin. "Ah, now, Grand-pere, c'est moi. Of course I am. Laissez les bons temps rouler!" Let the good times roll. "Man's gotta do what a man's gotta do." He sobered as he thought about what lay ahead for them. "I didn't start this dance. But last call's on me. Free drinks, all around."
Xev sighed. "I never understand ninety percent of anything you say."
"I know." Nick hugged his great-grandfather. "I'll miss you, Grans."
"I will not miss you calling me that." Xev tightened his arms around him and held him for a moment longer. "But I will miss you, too." He brushed his hand through Nick's hair. "Keep your nose clean."
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