Illusion

CHAPTER 14

While all calamity broke loose on New Orleans, Nick strapped on a Kevlar vest. Across the room from him, Mark and Bubba armed themselves with crossbows and throwing knives. And other things Nick was sure he didn’t want to know about. In the event he was arrested for being with them, he wanted plausible deniability.

His mom watched him in awe. “You look like you’ve done this a few times.”

Nick smiled as he finished up. “Just a few. At home, Caleb’s always terrified I’ll get eaten and he’ll have to face my mother’s wrath over it.”

She wrinkled her nose at him. “Am I that different there?”

Nick hesitated as he thought it over. “Not really. You just dress in more expensive clothes here than the mom I’m used to. And I’m way too close to your height here.”

“Hey, Mike? You there?”

Scowling, Nick turned toward Mark and Bubba, who both groaned at the thick Tennessee drawl over their radio. “Who’s that?” he asked his mom.

She growled low in the back of her throat. “Someone I hope gets eaten by the demons.” She winked playfully at Nick.

With a painful sound of resignation, Bubba picked up the radio and answered the call. “Yeah, Toph, what can I do you for?”

“You and Mark anywhere near a TV?”

Mark went to turn it on.

“What channel?” Bubba asked into the radio.

“Don’t think it’s going to matter much. Sure it’s on all stations by now.” No sooner had the unknown Toph spoken than the TV screen showed a horrific scene in the city.

Nick’s jaw dropped as he stepped closer to the screen. It looked just like something out of his recent nightmares or from the Great New Orleans Fire of 1788 that had destroyed almost every structure in town. Buildings were ablaze all over the Quarter while winged demons and Daimons openly preyed on the hapless humans who’d made the mistake of not taking shelter. National Guard soldiers and police had been mobilized, but it made little difference.

The innocent humans in uniform only became more targets for the nonhuman predators.

Savitar entered the room and cursed as he saw it, too. He cut his eyes toward Nick. “Looks like Thorn is seething that you got away, kid.”

Nick was even more aghast. “Are you saying all that’s because of me?”

Savitar nodded.

Sick to his stomach, Nick turned away from the TV. “I can’t let this happen.”

“What are you going to do?” Savitar asked sarcastically. “Spill your guts on their shoes? Hate to break it to you, kid, but that really is all you can do without your powers to fight them.”

Mark agreed. “You go out there and there won’t be anything left of you but a stain in the cracks of the pavement.”

Nick wanted to growl a denial at them both, but he knew it was the truth. In this incarnation, he was as useful as tears to a warthog.

I’ve never been more worthless. And that was saying something.

His gaze went to the photos that his mom had placed all over the bookshelves in front of him. They showed a boy Nick didn’t know and it wasn’t just because the two of them didn’t favor physically. The boy in those photos had never been forced to swallow air in an attempt to make his stomach feel full because he had nothing to eat. That boy had never walked his mom home from work at three in the morning on a school night, trying to keep her safe from predators—human and otherwise. He’d never been forced to use Bubba’s duct tape to hold his shoes together because he couldn’t afford another pair.

And he’d never had to fight for his life against those who wanted to end it.

A part of Nick envied that boy that normality. That innocence and happiness. He couldn’t imagine growing up in a world with a pantry stocked full of food and snacks. Having parents to check his homework, go to games he played in, or make sure he’d had a good dinner at a reasonable hour.

But all that being said, he strangely missed his real life. And he definitely missed the people in it.

Even Mark’s duck-urine cologne.

Savitar waved his hand in front of Nick’s face. “Are you in a coma?”

Nick shook his head. “Just thinking.”

“You think any harder and your head might explode.”

He snorted at Savitar’s teasing and ignored it. Zarelda had told him that he still had his Malachai powers. That no one could take them from him.

So how could he activate them?

The believing part hadn’t been real conducive to getting them back. And it was so frustrating to know that he’d had those powers at one time and now …

He flinched at the live feed of a patrol car being blasted so hard by a demon that it caused the car to launch into the air, roll, and then land upside down in the middle of the street, right in front of Jax Brewery.

A red fortified pickup with black roll bars and hunting lights went streaking by the overturned patrol car as someone from inside it launched Molotov cocktails into the air, at the demons.

“Topher!” Bubba snapped. “Is that your ignorant hide I’m looking at on TV?”

“Am I on TV? Ha! Daddy, hear that! I’m famous!” All of a sudden, a man, who reminded Nick a lot of the Bubba he knew from home, stuck his head out of the truck and waved at the news helicopter that was now trailing after them.

Bubba growled in the back of his throat. “Son, stick your head back in before you lose it, and tell Big Topher to take his belt to you for being stupid.”

“Big Topher?” Nick repeated to Mark.

A pained expression lined Mark’s face. “Big Topher is Michael’s uncle. Little Topher is his cousin”—he gestured toward the television—“that special moron who’s still waving at the camera.”

Nick rubbed his head in agony of that man’s particular level of idiocy. “Do I want to know what kind of person names their child Little Topher?”

Mark laughed. “Probably not, but … Christopher was great-granddaddy. He went by Chris until he had a son who was named after him. So he was Big Chris, son was Little Chris. When Little Chris had a son, he named him after his daddy, but to keep from getting everyone confused, he called him Topher. Then Topher found someone desperate enough to marry him. My vote still says he must have hit her too hard on the head before he dragged her into his cave … but anyway, he named his son after his father and so Little Topher entered the world.”

“And was promptly dropped on his head by his mother who was horrified she had to name him that,” his mother said under her breath. “I can just imagine the day Topher the Fifth is born.”

More horrified over that than the sight of the demons, Nick shook his head. “Oh. My. God.”

Mark clapped him on the back. “My thoughts exactly.”

“Hey Mark, get Cherise into the shelter.” Bubba turned the television off.

Without asking why, Mark obeyed. At least he tried.

“What’s going on?” his mom asked Bubba, refusing to leave without an explanation.

Bubba sighed in irritation. “Baby, please. Just go. Quick.”

She reached for Nick.

Bubba held Nick by his side. “He needs to stay with me.”

Biting her lip, she hesitated. “Why?”

“Baby…”

“C’mon, Cherise.” Mark placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “You know Mike isn’t going to let anything happen to him.”

“He better not.” She kissed Nick on the cheek before she followed Mark into the basement—something that was exceedingly rare in New Orleans, where the city was built below sea level and flooded often. But then Bubba had installed a sump pump system that was more than impressive. One that had a generator on it that would see them through a month or more even if all the power went out.

As soon as they were gone, Bubba motioned Nick over.

“What is it?” Nick asked in a low tone.

“We’re about to be under siege. That mass you saw following Topher is heading toward us and I didn’t want Mom to see it and panic.”

Nick looked back at Savitar. “Is there anything you can do to stop them?”

Before he could answer, a loud siren sounded through the house. Cringing, Nick held his hands over his ears to shield them from the godforsaken noise. “What is that?”

Bubba pointed to the monitor he had on the gate where the demons were wrenching it off its hinges. “Looks like they figured out you’re here.”

Nick wasn’t sure what he found more disturbing. The demons or the fact that Tabitha, Amanda, and Selena were with them.

Savitar rubbed at his chin. “To answer your earlier question, kid, all I can do is fight with you to the end.”

There was an odd note in Savitar’s tone that made Nick curious. “Why are you so willing to bleed for me?”

Savitar refused to meet his gaze. “Because what was done to your line was wrong.”

Again, that note … Savitar knew a lot more about Nick’s ancestors than he was willing to freely admit. “Were you there?”

Savitar shook his head. “Long time before I was born. But I know what it’s like to lose everything you love and not be able to stop it. To see the one thing you love most be cursed over blind stupidity and fear. And it’s an awful place to live.” He shifted his gaze to Bubba. “I’ll lead as many away as I can.”

Before Nick could say another word, Savitar was gone. He appeared a few seconds later on the monitors, out in the yard between the gate and the house. With a reckless disregard for his own life, Savitar tackled the first demon he reached and kneed him to the ground. After that, it was on in true Roman gladiatorial style.

Unable to stomach it, Nick turned away from the gore and lifted one hand up to shield his eyes from the monitors. “Nos morituri te salutamus.”

Bubba arched a brow. “Pardon?”

“We who are about to die salute you.”

Snorting, Bubba grabbed a crossbow and pushed Nick toward the stairs. “Yeah, but if you die, I won’t see my kid again. And I love my son. So you are not to do anything stupid. You hear me?”

“I hear, master. But I never obey.” Nick clapped him on the arm. “See, that’s where your kid and I differ.”

“And here’s where your ma and I differ.” Bubba lifted him up and tossed him over his shoulder.

Nick did his best to break free, but Bubba was worse than an octopus on steroids. “Hey!”

“Hay’s for horses, boy.” Bubba held fast until he had Nick locked into a small fortified room.

Anger darkened his vision. Nick pounded against the steel door. But as expected, Bubba ignored him completely. His fury mounted. He’d never particularly liked tight spaces, and this one seriously pissed him off. “Let me out!” Nick shouted.

No one responded.

Nick bared his teeth and then grinned as he remembered something his Bubba had taught him. No matter how fortified a door was, there was always one vulnerability that couldn’t be helped.…

Hinges.

They were always inside the room. Even a closet. “Lock me in … I’ll show you something, boy,” he muttered as he toed off one shoe and reached for a coat hanger. Stretching it out of shape, he bent the neck into a makeshift spike that he held underneath the top hinge. Then he used his shoe to hammer at the hanger.

At first nothing happened, but after a few minutes more, the hinge began to lift. Once it was an inch up, Nick moved to the middle hinge.

While he worked, he heard the sound of fighting outside. And it was coming closer. He had no idea who was winning. But it was going bad for someone he prayed wasn’t Bubba.

Just as he moved to the bottom hinge, the door was ripped open and slung back. On his knees with one shoe in his hand, Nick looked up to meet Thorn’s furious glower. Without a word, Thorn grabbed Nick by the arm and wrenched him to his feet.

For once, Nick held his smart mouth at bay as he saw Mark, his mom, and Bubba in the custody of demons. Bubba held his mother against his chest while she sobbed uncontrollably. Another group came forward and dumped an either dead or unconscious Savitar into the foyer.

“I told you, you wouldn’t escape me.”

Nick still didn’t speak even though Thorn’s taunt set fire to every piece of Cajun in him. He was too busy skimming every enemy around him, looking for an opening.

Thorn grabbed his arm again. “Now, we’re—”

“Don’t touch me!” Nick snarled, wrenching his biceps away from Thorn. “You want me, fine. Let my mom go. And Bubba and Mark.”

Thorn laughed. “You have no power here.”

“There you be wrong, boy.” Nick dug down deep for every piece of courage he’d ever had and stood strong in front of his enemies. “I am the Malachai.”

Granted, that might have been a little more impressive had he been wearing both shoes and not holding one in his hand, but looking like an idiot had never stopped him from being brave before. It certainly wouldn’t stop his stupidity today.

Nick dropped the shoe to the floor and stood up to his full less-than-impressive height, which barely reached the middle of Thorn’s chest. Even so, he refused to be intimidated. Or rather refused to let Thorn know he was intimidated by the much larger and more powerful being.

Thorn seized him by the throat. “You’re a Malachai with no powers. Do you know what that makes you?”

Dead was the most obvious answer. But Nick never went with the first answer to anything. That made life too easy.

“Seriously pissed off. I got me one bad bad case of short man syndrome, buddy. Just letting you know.”

Ignoring that, Thorn leaned down to whisper in Nick’s ear. “No, little friend. It makes you bait.”

Nick snorted. “Trust me. You don’t want to catch the things that want to make me their lunch. Met a few. They’re guaranteed to give you even more indigestion than I am.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that, Akri-Nick. The Simi thinks nothing can be harder on the digestive track than them blue-eyed Cajun people. They’s so hard to go down. Kick the whole way. Scream a lot, too.”

A slow smile broke across Nick’s face as he heard the most wondrous singsongy accent imaginable. A blessed accent that belonged to only one person he knew.

“Simi! Welcome to the fais do-do, cher. So glad to see you. You are truly a sight for these mighty sore eyes.”

The look of confusion on Thorn’s face was comical as he turned his head to take in the exceptionally tall teenage demon. Dressed in a black fishnet shirt that was covered with a modest purple corset, Simi had black hair streaked with green. She wore a frou-frou short black skirt over purple and black leggings, and the tall Goth biker boots Nick was used to. At first glance, there was nothing to mark her as supernatural. But only an absolute moron would make that mistake.

Unfortunately, Thorn wasn’t an idiot. “Get her!” he roared.

Simi let loose a stream of fire at them as her wings unfurled and she took flight. Thorn went to grab Nick.

Twisting away, Nick headed toward Simi. She seemed his safest bet. But as he reached her, someone grabbed him from behind. He swung with intent, until he realized it was Kody.

Nick barely caught himself before his fist made contact with her beautiful face. “Ma bele,” he breathed before he kissed her cheek. “Did you bring Simi?”

“No. But I’m glad she’s here.”

He nodded in agreement. “Where’s Ash?”

“Covering my retreat. He said he’d join us as soon as he could.”

For a moment, Nick almost felt like himself again. Until he went to blast the demon after Simi and couldn’t throw a fireball for anything. Luckily, Kody could, and she nailed it, but as she did so something strange happened. Nick staggered back as he felt that weird sensation he’d had at school. Glancing down, he saw his hand was translucent again.

“Nick?”

He heard Kody’s voice, but he couldn’t respond. She seemed to be falling away from him. Or maybe he was falling away from her. It was hard to tell for certain.

Why is this happening again?

What was happening to him?

“Nick!”

Kody’s scream echoed in his head. He tried to make his way back to her. To will it so. Nothing listened. Not his head or pounding heart. And definitely not his fading skin.

Instead, he drifted faster away from her.

Give me your name! It was the voice again. The one he’d heard when he’d been yanked out from Selena and them.

Why did it keep asking him that?

“Don’t you know?”

Name! Now!

Suddenly, he slammed into something hard and unyielding. At first he thought it was a wall, until he realized the wall radiated warmth.

And was covered with hard muscles. Ew!

“Barely one day a Malachai and you’ve already screwed it all up. You are even more worthless than I thought.”

Nick’s eyes widened as he recognized his father’s angry growl in his ear. No. It wasn’t possible. It wasn’t.

“You’re dead.”

Adarian snorted. “Not as dead as you’re about to be, boy.”