Inferno (15 page)

“Thanks, Dev.”

“Any time, sweetie.”

Kody walked inside and scanned the tables that were clustered around the entrance. A smile curved her lips at the coffin in the far left corner that had a sign draped over it. Written in what appeared to be blood were the words
Aimee’s last boyfriend
.

Aimee Peltier was the only daughter of the bear family, and she was a knockout with a body Kody would have to pay a surgeon to get. As such, Aimee’s eleven brothers and giant father tended to be a little overprotective of her.

Kody winced as that thought reminded her of her own family. Her brothers had made her every bit as crazy with their incessant interference and overprotective lunacy. Back in the day, they’d line up to inspect any guy she was interested in. Then they’d threaten him with horrific images of what they’d do if her would-be guy even so much as made her frown.

And they were angels compared to her father, who couldn’t stand anything male, other than him, his brother, and her brothers, coming near her.

Gods, how she missed them all. What she wouldn’t give to have them make her crazy one more time.…

Trying not to think about it, she headed for the bar in back. The door to the kitchen was beside it.

She nodded at Cherif, who was drying glasses and putting them away as she pushed the kitchen door open. This time of day, it wasn’t too busy. Cherise was standing at one of the steel tables, pressing out handmade biscuits.

Kody didn’t see Remi and she was more than grateful for it. The only person in the back with Cherise was the other cook, Jose, who was busy chopping vegetables.

Jose smiled at her. “
Hola
, Kody.”

“Hi, Jose.”

Cherise paused as she caught sight of her. A veil came down over her face, hiding her emotions and thoughts. “What are you doing here?” They could use that tone to ice down sodas.

Kody reached into her pocket and pulled out the box that held the necklace Nick had given her. Closing the distance between them, she set it on a clean area of stainless steel table next to Cherise. “I wanted Nick to have that back. I’m hoping he can get a refund for it.”

Cherise scowled. “That’s very decent of you, Nekoda. Thank you. There aren’t many girls who would be so considerate, especially not with something that cost as much as that did.”

Kody reluctantly let go of the box. Not because the necklace was valuable—she couldn’t care less about that—but because it signified the broken trust with Nick. And that she hated with every part of her. “My parents raised me better. You don’t use people, and you don’t take from them.”

She saw the sympathetic pain in Cherise’s eyes.… And the respect. “I’m sorry things didn’t work out between you two.”

“Me, too. But it is what it is.” She turned to leave.

“Kody?”

She looked back at Cherise with an arched brow.

“Nick is very hot-tempered … like me. It’s that spicy Cajun blood that flows thick in our veins. Give him a few days and—”

“He won’t change his mind, Mrs. Gautier. You and I both know he’s too stubborn for that. Once he makes his mind up…”

“Another thing he comes by honestly. I’d so hoped he wouldn’t inherit some of my less than desirable traits.”

Kody smiled. “Obstinance has its place, and there’s nothing wrong with being passionate about things.”

“Passionate,” his mom said wistfully. “I like that.” She went back to rolling out her biscuits. “You take care, honey. If you need anything, I’m still here for you. Nick or no Nick.”

Those words touched her deeply. And they made her ache for her own mother.

Cherise Gautier had the biggest heart that Kody had ever seen. She was an easy woman to love.

“Yes, ma’am. Thank you.” As Kody reached the swinging door that led back into the public area, she looked back at Cherise.

She had flour smeared across one cheek and her blond hair was pulled up into a bun. Even so, she was incredibly beautiful. In the back of her mind, Kody saw Cherise’s alternate life. Had his mother put Nick up for adoption as her parents had wanted, she would have gone on to Tulane University and would have been married to a lawyer now, living the life of a rich socialite. Instead of an only son, she would have had three daughters who looked just like her. Cherise would have never known the degradations and poverty she’d faced with an infant and no place to call home.

But to Cherise, Nick was so worth every bit of it and then some. You could see it in her eyes every time she looked at her son. She loved him completely, and there were no regrets inside her at all.

And if I kill him, it will destroy her.

Cherise wouldn’t be able to function without her son. Not after she’d suffered so much to keep and raise him.

Kody looked up at the ceiling and pushed her thoughts from this realm, into Sraosha’s so that her Guide could hear her words.
We are never to harm or cause the harming of innocents. My orders contradict each other.

Sraosha’s response was cold and brittle.
His life or yours. It’s that simple
.

Simple? Please. It was the most complicated thing she’d ever had to contend with.

But there was no need to keep postponing the inevitable. No matter what, Adarian had to die. He was too dangerous to live with the powers he’d amassed. No Malachai was ever to have grown this strong.

And once he was gone, she’d have to deal with his son. Nick could never turn into the monster who’d fathered him. She couldn’t allow that. Not if she was to save her own family.

One way or another, Nick would have to be stopped. And she was the only one who could do it.

CHAPTER 8

Sitting on a locker room bench, Nick tied his regular shoes and moaned in utter agony. After tackling him with a vicious blow, Mason had discreetly stomped him hard in the ribs—done in retaliation for Stone’s detention that had kept him off the field today and out of the upcoming game. And with every minute that passed, it ached more.

At its current rate of expansion, he should be fully incapacitated within an hour.

Maybe ten minutes.

“You going to live?” Caleb asked as he stopped by Nick’s side.

Nick glared at the bulging black backpack on the floor at Caleb’s feet that he really didn’t want to pick up. “Probably not.”

Caleb snorted. “Well, if you plan to die, give me a little heads-up so I can either save you or go into hiding to save my skin.”

Oh, that just warmed the cockles of his heart. “Yeah … Roger that.” Nick’s phone started ringing again. Sighing, he glanced down to see who it was.… As if there was any doubt in his mind.

“Casey?” Caleb asked.

He cut the sound. “Who else?”

Caleb flung his towel over his shoulder and shut his locker door. “Dang, Nick, she’s like some crazed celebrity stalker.”

“Yeah, well, I said I wanted a normal girlfriend who had no real problems.”

“Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.”

A chill went down his spine. He snapped his head up to meet Caleb’s gaze. “What’d you say?”

“Be careful—”

“Yeah, no, I heard you. It was just … eerie. I’ve been hearing that a lot lately.”

Caleb pitched his towel into the laundry basket. “Well, you know what they say …
Echriana verti yana
.”

Nick scowled as he gingerly rubbed his injured side. “Um, yeah. I hear that one all the time.… What crack are you on, buddy?”

Laughing, Caleb picked the backpack up with an ease Nick envied and set it on the bench beside him. “It’s my language. It means, when the universe speaks, listen. It’s common in demonkyn lore to believe that the gods send us omens and signs all the time. Once you learn to recognize them, it can save your butt a lot of agony.”

“Do you really believe that?”

“Honestly? I think they just like screwing with our heads. But there is something to be said for monitoring anything in your world that’s redundant.”

His phone rang again.

“Ugh!” Nick silenced it.

So she texted him.

He actually whimpered. “Do all girls do this?”

Caleb shrugged. “How would I know? I don’t hook up with girls.”

“T-M-I, Cay. T-M-I. I don’t want to know what, if anything, you hook up with.”

Laughing again, Caleb pulled his car keys out of his pocket. “You want me to take you to work?”

“If you don’t mind. I definitely don’t want to hike with that right now.” Nick got up and stared at his evil five-hundred-pound backpack.

“Really, Nick?” Caleb’s tone was drier than the Sahara. “You want me to carry that, too?”

Nick batted his eyelashes at him. “Why, you’re such a strong, handsome brute, Caleb Malphas,” he said in a thick, overexaggerated Southern drawl. “Why, it’d just mean the entire world to me to have my suitor be so thoughtful and kind.”

Caleb shoved at him, causing him to groan in pain. “Don’t say shit like that out loud. I’ll kill you if someone overhears you and thinks you’re serious.” He jerked the backpack off the bench, tossed it over his shoulder, and headed for the door.

“Caleb, baby, wait! Honey, I didn’t mean to make you mad!” Nick started after him, then had to stop as a wave of pain racked him across his ribs. He cursed Mason under his breath.

You better hope I don’t ever catch you off campus, dickweed.
Next time he set someone on fire, it could very well be Mason … and it might not be an accident.

“Nicky? Baby? What’s wrong?”

Nick pulled up short the instant he left the locker room and came face-to-face with the Queen of the Multiple and Annoying Texts.

“Hi, Casey.”

She arched both brows as she noted his arm across his middle and his slumped stance. “Is something wrong, sug?”

“Took a bad hit during practice.”

“Is that why you’ve been ignoring me?”

Nick cringed as he ran through a list of possible responses that wouldn’t cause her to do further harm to his body. The only problem? He couldn’t think of a single one that wouldn’t get him jack-slapped.

“He wasn’t ignoring you, Casey,” Caleb said as he backtracked to Nick’s side. “It was my fault. I took his phone away. I didn’t want him distracted after he’d already been hurt. Sorry.”

Score one for the fast-thinking demon friend.
Thank you,
Nick shot over to Caleb’s thoughts.

Caleb inclined his head to him.

“So are you done?” Casey asked Nick.

“Not yet. I’ve still got to go to work.”

She flashed a mischievous grin at him. “No, you don’t. I already talked to Mr. Hunter, and he agreed that you could use a night off. So it looks like you’re mine tonight.”

Nick feigned a smile over the sudden lump in his stomach. “Goody.” He glanced past her to Caleb.
Help me.

Caleb gave him a wicked grin.
Not on your life, amigo. Your girl. Your problem.
He handed Nick the backpack so hard that it caused Nick to grunt. “You kids have fun,” he said with an evil gleam in his eye. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Caleb!

He ignored Nick’s desperate call as he headed out of the building.

Coward.

I heard that.

Of course he did. And then the rat chose to ignore it.
Fine, I’ll remember this, Malphas.

Casey rose up on her tiptoes and kissed him. “Finally, we have some alone time.”

“Yeah, but I’ve got a lot of homework.”

She nipped his chin. “You’ll get it done. You always do. Besides, you’re number one in the class ranking. Let a night slide and give Brynna some hope that she might actually snag valedictorian away from you before graduation.” She took his hand and pulled him toward the door. “I have a surprise for you.”

That really made the knot in his gut tighten to the point he’d probably pass a diamond later tonight. “I’ve learned to really hate surprises.”

“You won’t hate this one.”

He wasn’t so sure about that. Last time he’d heard that, he’d almost been eaten by a demon.

Casey pulled him to her car, then put his backpack in her front trunk.

“Where are we going?” he asked as they got into the car.

“You really don’t like surprises, do you?”

“Not even a little.”

Sighing, she started the car and waited until they were on their way before she answered. “Did you hear that Alex Peltier is starting a band?”

“Yeah, I heard him say something about it. Why?”

“They’re looking for a drummer.”

He still wasn’t following her train of thought or overly perky attitude about it. “Okay…”

She turned her head to pin him with a pointed stare.

That didn’t help him guess at all. His telepathy only worked with other telepaths. And since Casey was normal, he was clueless. “I’m apparently missing a vital clue. Can I buy a vowel, Pat?”

To his utter relief, she turned her head back toward traffic before they crashed and became a hood ornament for a semi. “They’re looking for a drummer, Nick. You’re a drummer, right?”

Was she insane?

“Uh … no. No, I’m not.”

“You played in band. I remember it.”

So did he, even though he’d tried his best to forget it. “Three years ago for six weeks, and then I had to drop out.”

“Why?”

He clamped his jaw tight before he admitted to her that they hadn’t been able to afford drumsticks. How embarrassing was that? Drumsticks were only a couple of bucks, and until Kyrian had hired him, they hadn’t even had a buck and change left over for him to stay in band.

Sadly, the whole reason he’d picked drums was because it was the only instrument he didn’t have to buy or rent. He’d used his schoolbooks as practice pads. And even that had been more than his mother could afford.

But he would never admit to that poverty out loud. He had too much pride for that.

“I didn’t have time for it,” he lied.

“You still learned how to play.”

“Not well,” he added quickly. “You know, there’s a really big difference between learning what a note is, and being Tommy Lee.”

“Yeah, but I bet you remember a lot more than you think you do.”

He appreciated her confidence in him, but at some point, common sense had to make an appearance in this conversation. “No, Casey, I don’t. I barely learned anything.”