Inferno (32 page)

Stone shoved Nick from behind. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Even more confused, Nick stared at Casey. “What game are you playing?”

“Stone!” she snapped. “Do your job and get this stupid dork away from me.”

Stone and his friends fell on Nick so fast and furiously that he didn’t even have time to swing a single punch. One minute he was standing, the next they had him on the ground, stomping him like Alan, Tyree, and Mike had done.

“Caleb?”

For once, he didn’t come to his aid. Instead, Nick’s entire being changed. He went from his current self back to the day he’d started at St. Richard’s.

Barely five two, he was gawky and scrawny as Mrs. Pantall introduced him to the class. “This is Nick Gautier. He’s a new student.”

“What’d he do?” Stone had laughed. “Cheat to get in? I know he didn’t bribe anyone. He can’t afford shoes that fit, he dang sure can’t afford to bribe somebody. And what Dumpster did he steal that 1985 backpack from?”

Laughter erupted.

“Loser! Go back to the trailer park!”

“Is this really what you want?”

Nick turned around, scanning the room for the source of that voice. “What?”

A shadow manifested beside him. “You don’t have to go back to this. It’s your life, you control it.”

How easy the voice made it sound. “I don’t control other people.”

“Don’t you?”

Well, he did have the power of persuasion … when it worked, which was rare. “Not really.”

“Yes, you do,” she whispered in his ear. She placed a dagger in his hand and pushed him gently toward Stone. “Kill him and put your past to rest so that you can move into your future.”

Nick’s heart pounded at the unexpected order. “What?”

“You want to go home … it requires a blood sacrifice. Cut his throat. He’d never hesitate to cut yours.”

Nicky?
He heard his mother calling for him.
Where are you? I need to you to help me. Nicky, come home!

“Your mother will die if you don’t get to her.”

Nick gripped the knife tight and stared at it. He wanted to go home more than anything. And he had no love whatsoever for Stone.

He took a step forward, then stopped. Something wasn’t right about this. It felt wrong.

Real
wrong.

Turning, he ran for the door and jerked it open. But instead of exposing the school’s hall, he found Ambrose in the doorway, glaring at him. His eyes blazed that evil demon red that Nick despised.

“You have failed me,” Ambrose growled.

“How? I’m trying.”

“You are failing … again.” Ambrose seized him and turned him around in his arms so that he could keep Nick from moving.

One moment, they were in the classroom, and in the next, they stood high atop the Jackson Brewery that looked out over a burning New Orleans landscape.

“Embrace your destiny. We are the end of all things.”

Horror filled him as he watched the things he loved most perish. Ambrose’s wings unfurled and flapped around them.

“There is nothing we can do. The harder we fight, the sooner it comes. Give in…” Tightening his grip, Ambrose launched into flight with Nick in his arms. “Say the words, Nick, and we will be one.”

“No!” Nick punched him hard, causing Ambrose to drop him. Winds rushed over his body, tearing at his hair and skin, as he plummeted toward the ground at a frightful pace.

I’m going to die.…

The ground came closer, faster and faster.

Nick kept waiting for Ambrose to return and save him, but he didn’t. There was no Caleb. Nothing.

No one was going to save his life. It was over.

Closing his eyes, he waited for impact.

CHAPTER 19

Caleb paused as he left Kody’s bathroom and a flash of something caught his eye. Her bedroom door was slightly ajar. Pushing it open more, he skimmed the frilly pink room in search of what had called out to him.

It must be my exhaustion
.

He stepped back, then froze as it happened again. It was a symbol she’d painted into her wall. Barely discernible, it only flashed in response when he touched the perimeter of the room. That was normal since he was a demon. It was how protection symbols and spells worked.

What wasn’t normal was the design of it.

Or the ancient bow that was fastened above her headboard.

His breath left his body as he was thrown back in time to when he’d last seen those items. It was impossible for Kody to have them. The lady who’d owned them would never, ever have allowed another to use either.…

“What are you doing?” Kody snapped, moving around him so that she could shut her door.

But Caleb was in no mood for her attitude. Stepping past her, he entered the room, causing the emblem to blaze like fire on the left-hand wall. A stylized woman, she had her long hair flowing back while she held a bow and arrow aimed for the skies. It was the symbol of Dexaria Belam … the huntress. The same emblem that had adorned his battle shield.

His hand trembling, he reached for the bow. Just as his fingers brushed the wood, it flew from the wall, into Kody’s grasp.

“No one touches my bow.”

“
Your
bow?” he asked incredulously.

She lifted her chin in defiance. “Yes.”

Fury set him on fire and he closed the distance between them. It took every piece of patience he had not to grab her and shake her until she answered his questions. “Where did you get that?”

“None of your business.”

He gestured to the black feathers that were attached to the top of it by a thin leather cord. “Do you know what those are?”

“Tributes.”

“From?”

“None of your business.”

Caleb felt his eyes change to his demon’s vision as she awoke the dangerous part of him with her repetition of the same useless answer. “There you’re wrong. And if you want to live another minute, you will tell me what I want to know or we will go to war until one of us is dead. Where did you get Bathymaas’s bow?”

He watched indecision play across her face as she debated if she was going to answer or fight.

After a full minute, she drew a ragged breath. “My mother gave it to me, and I invoke your most sacred oath that you pledged to her when you offered her your tribute that you will
never
tell another being who and what I am.”

Stunned to silence, Caleb couldn’t move as those words sank in. It wasn’t possible. How could Nekoda be …

“You’re her daughter?”

“I am.”

And then he saw it. Before his eyes, Kody changed from her current pink tee and jeans into the leather armor the women of her mother’s army wore. Her hair was lighter than her mother’s and she was shorter. But the features were the same. Especially the shape of her eyes and lips. The shapely build of her body.

No wonder Kody had been so fearless in their fights. Her mother was the original goddess of Order and Justice.

Clasping his fist to his shoulder, he fell to one knee before her and lowered his head. “I pledged my eternal troth to your mother … and I would die for you.”

Kody felt tears sting her eyes at Caleb’s sincerity. “Out of my mother’s generals, you were the one she prized above all others. The one she trusted most.”

He rose up to tower over her again. “Then why didn’t
you
trust me?”

“Too many centuries have passed. You’ve spent a long time in captivity to a monster who still holds sway over you. Both of those can change even the strongest and most steadfast heart.”

“It hasn’t changed mine.”

“I know. I should have told you sooner. But I didn’t dare. Not while my orders conflicted with yours.”

Caleb turned suspicious at that. Bathymaas had always been about right and justice over murder. She would never condone the murder of even an innocent Malachai. “Your mother sent you to kill him?”

“No. The powers I serve did. It is because of my mother that I haven’t.”

That made sense. “You’re judging him.”

She nodded. “I don’t see the monster yet. Therefore I can’t justify taking his life.”

“And your love of him has nothing to do with it?”

Her face turned bright red.

“Don’t deny it,” he said, cutting her off when she opened her mouth to speak. “I can see it as plainly as a flare over an open sea at midnight.”

She sighed wearily. “When I was sent to kill the Malachai before he took all of his father’s powers, I wasn’t expecting to find Nicholas Gautier.”

“Yeah, me neither.” Caleb narrowed his gaze at her. “So what do we do?”

“Right now? We find him and save him. Then we will see.”

Such sweet ambiguity with life, death, and fate …

Kody was definitely
not
her mother.

*   *   *

Instinctively, Nick threw his arms out as he was about to slam into the ground. The moment he did, his wings came out and spread themselves wide, lifting him up and away from the pavement.

Oh my God …

I’m flying!

Forget driving,
this
was the most incredible thing he’d ever done. Until his wing clipped a wire and he careened sideways. He caught himself an instant before he stained the side of a building.

“This is awesome!” he shouted, then glanced around to make sure no one had seen his outburst. The last thing he wanted was to look stupid while doing something so very badass.

Ah yeah … this was living.

“Come get me now!” he dared his enemies.

The words had barely left his lips before someone shot a ball of fire at him. He jerked away from the blast, too fast and too far. Unused to his wings, he didn’t have the best control. So he ended up slamming into another building.

Yeah, that was going to leave a mark.

I’ve got to get away from these things.

Nick headed out for the Mississippi River. There, he’d only have to avoid bridges.

Why do you choose to suffer?

Nick slowed as the voice rang out in his head. “I don’t.”

“Then why do you not join us? You are a Malachai. You don’t have to put up with anyone insulting or belittling you. Ever. You have the power to be anything you want. To
have
anything you want.”

“Fine, then. If that’s true, there’s only one thing I desire. I want to go home!”

“Why? Explain to me the mind of someone who chooses to go where no one wants them. I have seen how they treat you. What makes you desire that?”

Nick slowed even more as those words hung in his head.
You know, the freaky voice has a point.
Why did he want to be put down by others? Was he not abused enough as a kid?

But that was childish, he suddenly realized.
There are two sides to everything.

It was Ash’s wolf story.…

“What you are focused on are my nuisances,” Nick told the voice. “And I have no desire to see them.”

“Then stay and never be insulted again.”

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

Nick laughed as he finally understood the point of this journey … and the way home. The wolf had given it to him.… “You know the answer. You wrote it in my notebook.

“It can be stolen, but never bought.

“It can be given, but never taken.

“It can be stepped on, but cannot walk.

“It can fly, but has no wings.

“It can sing, but has no voice.

“It can be broken, but still it works.

“It can be left, even while it follows.

“And though it’s easily commanded, it can never, ever be demanded.”

The shadow fluttered in front of him with an arched brow. “Do you know the answer?”

Of course he did. “My heart.”

The shadow appeared impressed. “In all these centuries, you alone have learned our riddle.”

“Does that mean I can leave?” Nick asked hopefully.

The scenery faded until they were again in the dark cavern. But this time, there was only the one door that had no window. The phantom lowered itself to the ground to tower over him. “When you are ready, you may go.”

Nick headed straight to it. “Don’t have to tell me twice.”

“But…”

Hesitating, he looked back at the spirit.
I seriously hate that word.
“Yeah?”

“You can stay here where you will be respected and feared by all. Where no one will ever dare to mock or belittle you. The choice is yours.”

“I already gave you my choice. I want to go home.”

The door opened. But instead of being elated, Nick was duly cautious.

Was it another trick?

With your luck? Why should you doubt it?

Yet for once, he decided to go with faith and to follow his heart like the wolf had said. Bracing himself, just in case, he walked through the door and ended up right where he’d started.

Outside his condo.

You’re messing with me, right?

Nick scanned the street. It was a lot darker now and so quiet it was downright spooky. But that didn’t matter. He had to let his mom know he was safe.

Opening the iron door to his building, he rushed in and sprinted up the stairs. When he got to their condo, the door wasn’t quite pulled to. A wave of furious fear rushed through him.

His mom would never leave the door ajar. Not for anything. She was so paranoid, she even locked her bedroom and bathroom doors.

“Ma?” he called, pushing it open cautiously.

Stopping dead in his tracks, he surveyed the damaged living room. But it was the blood on the floor and ceiling that he couldn’t stop staring at. Was it his mother’s?

That very thought terrified him.

“Mom!” he called, running to her bedroom, hoping she might be safely locked in there.

She wasn’t. It was as empty as his heart. And it was just like Ambrose had warned him. He had put his mother in harm’s way and when she needed him most to protect her, he hadn’t been here.

How could I do this to her?

How?

Unable to stand the pain and guilt, he turned with the intention of finding Caleb and then hunting down his mother’s whereabouts so that he could kill who or whatever had taken her.