Out of breath and sweating, Nick beelined for the small font of holy water on the left, just outside the interior doors, and crossed himself with it. Only then did he turn around to find the twins outside the threshold of the church. They eyed him with malice, but for whatever reason, didn’t step one foot onto holy ground.
Thank you, God, I’m safe.
Take that evil and choke on it … in your fugly face!
Overconfident and euphoric, Nick strutted back and forth, taunting the twins, who couldn’t reach him. “That’s right, bitches! I made it. Hah!” He cringed as he realized what had just come out of his mouth.
In church.
Horrified, he glanced over to the gaping volunteer who was running the gift store cash register. “Sorry, ma’am. The devil’s an evil beast. It’s why I came to pray.”
Stiffening her posture, she narrowed her eyes with disdain. “Make sure you add your shameful language to your confession on Saturday, Mr. Burdette.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Tabitha threw her hands out as if she was cursing him. Nick started to return that with a gesture of his own, but he’d already shamed his upbringing. He wasn’t about to add more to it.
Grateful he was safe, he went into the tiny gift shop and bought candles. No one would mess with him so long as he was praying.
The clerk glared at him the whole time. Like she’d never screwed up in her life. Umm-hmmm …
“Judge not lest ye be judged,” he said with a smile as he handed over the money then took his candles to the prie-dieux so that he could light them and pray while he waited for Kody.
Please get here soon. He had no idea what he’d do if she failed to show.
Nick had barely begun the third round of prayers before a shadow fell over him. Looking up, he saw a cop.
“I need you to come with me. Now.”
Nick gestured to his candles. “Dude, I’m in the middle of prayer here.”
“And I have two women who claim you shoplifted from their store.”
Anger over the fact that the twins would accuse him of something so foul widened his eyes and made his jaw tic. “Yeah, right.” Nick stood up and pulled his pockets out for the officer to see what he had in his possession. “I don’t have nothing but my wallet and the two candles I paid for.”
“Well, that’s not the story they’re telling.”
“Then they’re lying.”
“Why don’t you come with me and we can straighten this out at the station.”
Nick shook his head. “I didn’t do anything and I’m not going anywhere.”
“Is there a problem, officer?”
Nick looked past the cop to see the rector, who thankfully was the same one who presided over the church in his realm, too.
The cop bristled. “This doesn’t concern you.”
Father Jeffrey smiled patiently. “You’re in my church, officer, disturbing the faithful who are here to pray, so it would seem that it does.”
Nick stepped toward the priest. “I didn’t do anything, Father Jeffrey.”
The priest patted him on the arm while he continued to speak to the cop. “Do you have any probable cause?”
“Two witnesses claim they saw him steal merchandise from their store.”
“And what store is this?”
“Erzulie’s.”
Father Jeffrey gaped. “The Voodoo store on the corner?”
“Yes, sir. He ran in here after they caught him and told him they were calling the police.”
The priest turned to Nick with an arched brow. “Nicholas?”
He met the priest’s gaze dead on, without flinching or faltering. “They’re lying. Father, you know me. I’m not perfect, but there’s nothing in this world I want bad enough that I’d make myself out a thief to have it. And if I ever did, you’d be the first one I’d tell about it on Saturday.”
Father Jeffrey smiled. “And your mother would be beating you every step of the way to the confessional.” He returned his gaze to the police officer. “He’s right. I’ve never known this boy to take anything from anyone.”
In more ways than one.
“Well, I have a complaint.”
“And I have a phone. What say we call Nicholas’s parents and have them escort him to the station for you?”
The cop bristled. “I don’t have all day.”
“It won’t take all day, officer. They both work here in the Quarter. For that matter, his mother’s office is just around the corner and his father’s is less than two miles away. It’ll save you paperwork later.” Father Jeffrey pulled out his cell phone and handed it to Nick. “Call your parents, son.”
Nick reached for it before he remembered that he had no idea what the numbers were. For that matter, he didn’t know where his “parents” worked.
The cop eyed him coldly. “Is there a problem?”
“I don’t have their work numbers memorized. They’re on my speed dial and I don’t have my phone on me.” It was in the backpack he’d thrown into Caleb’s arms before he left school.
Father Jeffrey stepped between Nick and the cop, who was quickly losing patience with them. “Then I can look it up. It won’t take but a moment. Both of his parents are frequent volunteers here and their numbers are on my desk.”
It was obvious the officer didn’t want to wait, but he didn’t say anything more.
Nick followed Father Jeffrey to his office, but with every step he took, he couldn’t help wondering what was happening with Kody. What was taking her so long to get here?
And what would happen to him once the cop got his way and hauled him out of the building?
This was the first time in Nick’s entire life that he’d ever felt truly defenseless. Even when Alan and crew had held him on the ground and shot him, he’d felt more in control of himself and his fate.
But this …
How do I fight against evil when I have no powers?
For all intents and purposes, Amanda and Tabitha were human and female. He couldn’t even hit them to protect himself. There was nothing he could do. The moment he left here, they would be on him like spice on sausage. And there was no telling what they planned to do with him once they had him alone again.
Why did I tell them I was the Malachai?
Because they were supposed to be your allies.
Yeah, in a different time and place. Now he’d trapped Kody and himself.
What would Acheron do?
Stupid question. Ash could teleport. He’d never be in this position. He’d simply wave his hand over the women or the cop and they’d forget that they’d ever seen him. These are not the droids you’re looking for. Ash made those powers seem so easy to command and yet Nick screwed them up every time he tried.
I’m so not Ash.
Nor was he Kyrian, who could fight or talk his way out of the worst event.
His stomach tightened to a painful knot while the priest called and Nick sat in a chair, waiting for the rest of the preternatural world to come get him.
C’mon, Nick. Think.…
There had to be some way out of this.
Father Jeffrey hung up the phone. “His mother is showing a house in the Garden District and his father’s in a meeting.”
“Then they can pick him up at the station.” The officer pulled out his handcuffs.
Nick bolted to his feet. He started to protest, but was distracted by the door behind the cop that opened to show what had to be the baddest of bad. Standing a good six-eight, this newcomer oozed the kind of feral power that Acheron held. Massive. Terrifying.
Lethal.
That don’t-cut-your-eyes-at-me-if-you-want-to-keep-breathing-human stance.
With short dark hair and a goatee, the man had eyes so dark a blue they appeared purple in color. He was dressed black on black and held himself like a predator. Head low, eyes alert to every single thing.
When that deadly gaze locked on him, Nick felt like he’d just been targeted by a nuclear device o
f some kind. One that would take no mercy on him.
“Come with me, kid.”
It was only then that Nick realized both the priest and the cop were frozen.
Ah man, this can’t be good.
What now?
“Who are you?” What was he?
A slow, arrogant smile curved his lips. One that said he enjoyed Nick’s fear a little too much. “Your only hope.”
Last time he heard something like that was in The Terminator movie.
Not a good analogy.
Nick stepped back at the same time another person joined them in the room. One who lacked Nick’s self-preservation as she playfully slapped the supernatural being on his arm. It was tantamount to popping a rabid lion on the nose with a newspaper and telling it to shush. “Savitar, stop. He’s traumatized enough.”
Nick let out a relieved breath at the sweet, soft tone that meant everything to him. He was so glad to see her that it left him weak in his knees. “Kody, thank God you’re all right.”
It wasn’t until she stood in front of him that he saw the bruises on her face where someone had hit her. Hard.
His vision darkened as he gently touched her cheek. “Who did this to you?”
She covered his hand with hers and offered him that tender smile that always made it hard for him to breathe. “Long story, and we don’t have time for that now. We have to get you out of here before Tabitha and Amanda tell everyone where you are. Right now, they think you’re about to be led out to them.”
In spite of the danger, he had to hug her, just to make sure she was really all right and here. The sweet scent of her hair went a long way in soothing his ravaged nerves.
“Break it up before I throw water on you two to separate you.”
Laughing, Kody pulled back and ruffled Nick’s hair. “How did you get away from them?”
“Ran screaming like a cheerleader in a horror film. You?”
“Fought like a demon.”
Nick laughed at her joke. “Are you really a ghost?”
“We’ll talk about it later, okay?”
Nodding, he took her hand and allowed her to pull him toward the back of the church where a side door let them out onto Pirate’s Alley. Savitar pulled up the rear and herded them down the Cabildo Alley to St. Peter.
As soon as they reached the curb, Nick slowed to a stop. Bubba was waiting for them in his large black SUV.
Without warning, Savitar literally picked Nick up and threw him into the backseat. Kody climbed into the back with him while Savitar took shotgun.
“Buckle up, Nick, or Mom will kill me.” Bubba didn’t wait as he pulled away from the curb. “Did you have any trouble?” he asked Savitar.
“No. They had no idea we were there.”
“Good.”
Completely baffled, Nick rubbed his head as he struggled to catch up to this newest and most bizarre turn of events. “Pardon, but I think I left my sanity in church. We might need to go back and get it.”
Bubba laughed. “He looks and sounds just like my boy. Are you two absolutely sure you’re right about him?”
“I’m positive.” Kody took Nick’s hand and squeezed it. “And we stupidly informed the Malachai’s šakkan in this realm what Nick really is.”
Now there was a term Nick had never heard before. “My what?”
“Šakkan,” she repeated. “He’s the head general who leads your strongest forces in battle. And he’s going to come for you, full force, so that he can take your powers and use them as his own.”
Bubba cursed. “Like we needed anything else to fight.”
Kody expelled a heavy sigh. “I know. Sorry.”
“So who is this šakkan?” Nick asked, wanting to make sure he cut the beast a wide berth.
“In our world, he’s someone you haven’t met yet. He was imprisoned until your father died. Here in this realm, the šakkan who leads their dark forces is Thorn.”
Nick frowned at the name of someone he thought was friendly … ish. “The scary dude who helped me out when I was imprisoned in the Nether Realm?”
She nodded.
“Dang, I really liked him, too.” He shook his head. “I don’t understand why he’d be our ally at home and against us here.”
“Free will.”
Nick cocked his head at Savitar’s words. “Say what?”
Savitar ran his hand over a vicious scar on his forearm. “For better or worse, every decision we make, good or bad, small and large, puts us on a course to nightmares we don’t see coming until they’re in our face.” Savitar turned his gaze to the road. “In every universe, we play out different decisions we’ve made for whatever reason. What breaks one person at one time can make them strong at another. And one small variable can have devastating consequences. Timing is everything, kid.”
Kody nodded. “In our world, your mother was attacked by the Malachai and you were born. In this one, there is no Malachai so she was able to live out her life under more normal circumstances.”
“But she still had me.”
“And Bubba’s still your father.”
Nick fell silent as he considered that. In many ways, Kody was right. Bubba was the closest thing to a dad Nick had ever known. And though they weren’t blood related in his world, they were still family. “But what about Kyrian?” He was as much of a mentor and father for Nick as Bubba. “I found out this morning that he’s dead in this world.”
“Nick Burdette didn’t need to meet a Dark-Hunter to put him on the right path, away from the darkness that was trying to claim him. He has Bubba here to keep him straight. He doesn’t need Acheron to watch over him. Or Caleb to guard him from forces he’s not strong enough to fight yet.”
He was struggling to make sense of it all. Everything she said was valid, but … “What about Amanda and Tabitha and Karma? Why are they good in our world and not in this one?”
Kody sighed. “In both worlds, they, like you, were born to walk the line of shadows. One foot in the light and one in the dark. A few are scared enough of both that they stay in the middle and never pick a side. Others are strong enough to choose the light and stay firmly planted there, even while the darkness tries to claim them. And others are too weak or blind to fight the lure of darkness. It overwhelms them with false promises and before they know what’s happened, it owns them. Sometimes, like the Thorn you know in our world, they can battle their way back to the light and put the darkness behind them even though it continues to try and reclaim them. But those people are very rare. I don’t know what kept our Tabby and Amanda on the right side in our world nor do I know what corrupted them here. As Savitar said, it’s a matter of free will. Decisions made at the wrong or right time, for the wrong or right reasons.”
Nick picked her hand up from the seat and studied the scars on her knuckles. Even though she was a veteran warrior, her hands were soft and tiny. Delicate. And yet they held a strength that was unfathomable to him. “How old are you, Kody? Really?”
“I had just turned nineteen when you killed me.”
He sucked his breath in sharply as her words slapped him hard. He wasn’t that far away from turning nineteen himself. Just a little over two years. “And you were fighting the Malachai at that age? Why?”
She snorted. “By the time my father was nineteen, he was an experienced war veteran and a feared general.”
“And he was okay with you following in his footsteps at that age?”
“Not really, but he had no say in it. I became a soldier after you killed him.”
He winced and wondered how she could stand to be in the same car with him right now. Why she didn’t try to claw his eyes out every time she looked at him.
Kody squeezed his fingers as if she knew what he was thinking. “As an infant, my oldest brother was taken from my parents and they weren’t allowed to raise him. For centuries, my father thought him dead while my mother … well, both of them really, were imprisoned by different gods. When they were finally reunited, long
after my oldest brother was grown, they had my brother Ari right away.” A bittersweet smile curled her lips. “They were so overprotective of him that I’m told it scarred him for life. And for the longest time, they were afraid to have another child. They just wanted to protect the two they had and make sure nothing bad happened to them.”
“Were you an uh-oh baby?” Nick teased, trying to ease the grief in her eyes.
She wrinkled her nose at him. “No. I wasn’t an uh-oh.” There was a hint of laughter in her voice. “Many centuries later, after Ari was grown and married, my parents decided that they were finally ready to have another baby to viciously overprotect.”
The light faded as sadness darkened her eyes again. “I was only two when something happened to you. I don’t know what. But it unleashed the Malachai and you went crazy on the world. I was sent into hiding and trained to battle your forces while my family rallied their allies and did what they could to keep your army at bay and protect the world.”
Nick ground his teeth at the horrors of her life. Horrors he’d caused for her and all the people they loved. He’d never hated himself more than he did right now. “I’m so sorry I hurt you.”
“You didn’t.”
That wasn’t true, but he appreciated her saying it. At the end of the day, he was the Malachai. Whatever his future self did, it was him, too.
Now he understood why Ambrose was so desperate to change the past. His future self had told him that he could feel the last of the goodness inside him dying. That any day, he expected the Malachai to devour his conscience and render him a merciless monster. Because of it, Ambrose was barely sane at times as he tried to keep Nick from making the same mistakes he’d made at Nick’s age. To steer Nick onto another path that kept him firmly planted in the light.
And once that decency was gone, the Malachai would take over and kill everything and everyone. That was what his species had been born to do.
Man, it sucked.
“You should have told me the truth before now, Kody.”
“You weren’t ready to hear it, and you definitely weren’t ready to accept the reality of what you’re headed toward.”
Who would be? No one in their right mind wanted to be told that they would one day destroy the entire world and everyone who lived in it. That they would kill or cause the death of every being who mattered to them.
Illusion: Chronicles of Nick Page 8
