Illusion

CHAPTER 16

Closing his eyes, Nick took a deep breath and reached down deep inside himself to tap the powers he barely understood. It was time for this to stop.

Sooner rather than later.

His heart pounded a fierce rhythm. Come on … work. Surely if he could set Stone on fire in class without trying, he could weasel some modicum of power out of himself with this herculean effort born of stringent Cajun stubbornness and all-out desperation.

Right?

Right!

And despite everything, nothing happened.

Arthritic minutes dragged by as he struggled for the most minuscule ability. Move a hair … bust a seam. Have a thought. Anything. But the harder he tried, the less he achieved. Like him, it was useless.

Just as he was about to give up, he heard a piercing drone inside his head. Suddenly, the darkness around them seemed to expand and then contract like a rubber band snapping back on him. And in that one moment, his senses sharpened and he saw …

Everything.

Literally. The entire universe was laid out before him. The Nick he’d replaced in this realm was destined for law school. He’d graduate at the top of his Harvard class and end up in Congress, an advocate for real change that helped everyone. Best of all, he’d marry his college sweetheart and have a huge family that adored him and their grandparents. In the flashing images, he saw Kyrian’s death in ancient Greece. Saw Kyrian’s resurrection at Artemis’s hands, and his centuries of guardianship where Kyrian stood strong. Until the day a kidnapped Kyrian awoke with Amanda Devereaux by his side, and the two of them were forced to run from an enemy out to kill them both.

Unable to control the visions that came at him like a supersonic strobe, Nick swung toward his father.

Only he didn’t see the fierce beast he knew the man to be. He saw his father much younger, in the hands of their enemy gods. Beaten and branded. Bleeding and chained. Trembling from the weight of his physical agony, his father knelt at the feet of a creature who held no compassion or mercy. “You were born to serve us, Malachai. Never forget who owns your life. Who you answer to.”

Noir—the god Nick couldn’t even mention by name without feeding his powers—savored his control over the Malachai. And he was aptly named. His hair was blacker than Caleb’s and his eyes were so dark it was hard to see where the iris stopped and the pupil began. Laughing, Noir fed from Adarian, draining his powers until the Malachai could no longer support his weight even on his knees. He hit the ground and lay in a defeated lump with tears streaming from the corners of his eyes while he begged silently for death. It was how all Malachai had been kept since the dawn of time, and it was what had made them so lethal and brutal. A weapon of ultimate massacre.

Instead of being treated like people, they’d been kept as animals and trained to kill on command. The more feral and afraid of their masters they were, the better. That was why Nick’s Thorn and Caleb had been so determined to keep Nick from Noir’s grasp. They knew exactly what the primal god would reduce him to before he unleashed Nick onto the world to end it.

More and more images came, faster and faster, clearer and clearer, but the most disturbing were the ones of Nick himself, in the future, destroying the very world that had birthed him. The world Kyrian and Acheron fought every night to protect. Lost and abandoned by everyone, Nick, too, had turned on humanity. All he wanted was to end his own pain.

The only way to achieve that was nuclear-level devastation of the entire planet.

I am the Malachai. The end of all things. Spawned for no other purpose than to bring down the primal light gods and serve Noir, Azura, and Braith—the originators of darkness and death—in any way they demanded. All of his species were born to suffer. And there could be no escape.

Throwing his head back, Nick roared with the weight of a destiny he wanted no part of.

I will not become that monster!

His body began to spasm and seize up, until he no longer had control of it. His teeth chattered so hard, he was amazed they didn’t shatter. The darkness slithered over him like a deadly boa constrictor. It wrapped itself around his limbs and climbed up his chest, squeezing him ever tighter.

“You will always be mine,” it whispered to him before it licked his cheek.

Adarian pulled back from Nicholas as he realized what was happening. Each of the primal gods had an element they controlled completely.

In all realms.

Somehow Noir had located Nicholas in this one. And he was using the darkness to reach the new Malachai and claim him. To bring him home. If Adarian didn’t do something, the boy would be sucked straight into Noir’s greedy hands.

A slow smile curved his lips at the thought. It would serve Nicholas right to know the horrors Adarian had survived. The little punk had no idea what real humiliation and pain were. He thought his pampered life was hard.…

He had no concept.

Nicholas had never tasted true brutality. Degradation. He had no idea what it was like to be surrounded by creatures who lived to break you. Creatures who could only feel pleasure while they drove pain into every molecule of your body.

It’s what you deserve. Suffer and choke on Noir’s kindness, just as I had to.

But as those words wrung smug satisfaction from him, he saw in his mind the first time Cherise had brought Nicholas to meet him. After what he’d done to her, he’d voluntarily returned himself to human prison so that he would never again be tempted to harm her. He’d been convinced that she would rather die than ever stand for his presence in her company.

Until he’d been told he had a female visitor. Assuming it was Laguerre—his primary general—with some kind of mischief she wanted to start, he hadn’t thought much about it.

Bored and irritated, he’d gone into the common room and scanned the rough occupants. At first, his gaze had swept over the crowd as he sought the dark-haired demon who lived to torment anyone unlucky enough to stumble upon her. Moving fast, he’d barely registered the terrified blonde in a very sedate, over-large blue sweater and jeans.

Then his brain had kicked in with recognition. He’d snapped his attention back to Cherise, who sat at a table in the back, looking tiny, delicate, and petrified. When her gaze had met his, it froze him to the spot. For a full minute, he’d been unable to breathe. Somehow in the last two years, he’d forgotten how beautiful she was. How very precious.

As she’d done on the day they met, she’d stolen his heart. That hesitant, sweet glance had gone straight inside him and gutted him where he stood. A part of him had wanted to run to her and kiss her. But he knew she wouldn’t welcome his touch. Not after the nightmare he’d put her through.

For the first time in his entire existence, he’d been unsure of himself. Scared even. His hands had actually trembled as he made his way over to her.

He’d been almost on top of her before he realized she wasn’t alone. Asleep in her lap was a small human child. Completely baffled by that, Adarian couldn’t imagine why she’d have brought a toddler to such a place. That wasn’t like her.

Swallowing hard, he’d pulled out the chair across from her and taken a seat. For several awkward minutes, neither of them had spoken. Instead of looking at him, she’d kept her gaze on the sleeping toddler to the point he’d been ready to kill it for distracting her.

Then those blue eyes had glanced up and held him spellbound again. When she’d parted her lips to speak, he’d wanted her to declare her undying love for him.

Yet before she could do so, that puny, wretched creature awakened and started bawling.

“Shh, Nicky,” she’d breathed in that dulcet tone that had never failed to weaken him. “C’est si bon, Boo.” And just like Adarian, the boy had been soothed instantly. With a bright, dimpled smile, the small creature had pulled himself up to stand in her lap. Kissing the boy’s chubby cheek, Cherise had attempted to tame the riotous dark brown curls that were rumpled from his nap. The toddler had laid his head down on her shoulder and buried his hand deep in her blond hair while he bounced on his chubby legs and laughed. Adarian had sneered at the child, who seemed to mock him with the fact that he could hold Cherise while Adarian was forbidden to touch her at all.

After kissing his cheek again, she’d wrapped her arms around the child protectively, holding him tight to her as she bravely locked gazes with Adarian and expelled a heavy breath. “Adarian … meet your son, Nicholas Ambrosius.”

Those unexpected words sucker-punched him. In all his wildest imaginings, the thought that they could have had a child together that would survive past its infancy had never dawned on him. He’d assumed the infant she’d carried was long dead and buried. But this …

“My son?”

She’d nodded as tears glistened in her eyes. “He was born just over a year ago … but don’t worry, I expect nothing from you. And neither of us expects you to be a dad to him. I just didn’t feel right not telling you that he was here. I’m sure one day, he’ll have questions about you, and I don’t want to lie to him.”

The Malachai anger inside him had boiled, wanting the innocent blood of the boy in her arms. He’d started to call her a liar until he realized that his powers had done the impossible.

They’d waned.

Something that inside a human prison filled with absolute evil should never happen to him. The only way for him to lose any power at all was for his son to be near him.

No, not his son.

His heir.

It wasn’t unusual for Malachai to have children. That had happened throughout history. But the children never survived for very long. A week or two. Maybe a month. Not unless they were to be the new Malachai. The one who would kill the father and take his place.

Unbeknownst to her, Cherise had birthed his doom.

Horrified by his obvious future, he’d watched the way she’d cuddled her child and he’d hated Nicholas for that love she bore him. For the gentle way she soothed him while Nicholas had buried his mouth against her chin and blew bubbles.

When the boy had turned to him and reached out, Adarian had recoiled from him. He had no intention of touching that creature. Not unless it was to end its life.

Now that tiny, putrid beast had almost grown into manhood. In their realm, Nicholas stood eye-to-eye with him.

And while Adarian still hated Nicholas with every part of his being, he knew that Cherise loved this child, this putrid part of him, with all her heart. His loss would devastate her.

That was something Adarian couldn’t allow.

Growling, he knelt on the ground and reached to save the brat. “Boy!”

Nick couldn’t respond as something choked him even harder than before. Was his father still trying to kill him and regain his place as the single Malachai?

His vision dimmed more. Just as he started to black out, he was jerked from the floor and slammed against granite. Someone slapped at his cheeks.

“Nicholas? Can you hear me?”

What was crushing him? Nick blinked slowly as the pain and pressure receded. Coldness brushed his cheek with a tender caress.

“Speak to me, boy!” It was only then that Nick realized that the granite crushing him was his father’s muscles. The elder Malachai was holding him and it was his father’s hand he felt stroking his face.

Yeah, right. The devil was eating ice cream from his own hand and sitting on icicles. That was the only way for his father to be this nice to him. It just wasn’t possible. Not unless pigs were flying around the moon, and cats were building homes for dogs.

“Am I dead?”

That familiar sneer twisted his father’s lips, but still he held Nick against his chest. “I should kill you.”

Now that sounded right. Murder. Maim. Slap. Skin. That was what his father was into. Not playing nice and being cuddly. His father would rather throw him through a wall than toss a ball at him.

Groaning, Nick pressed his hand to his eye, where he discovered something warm and wet. He pulled back to see the blood on his fingers.

“It’s all right.” His father wiped the blood from his hand before he cleaned Nick’s face with a tenderness Nick would have never thought him capable of.

And that terrified him more than anything. “Who are you and what have you done with my father?”

Adarian paused his rough cleaning to stare down at him with a fierce, frightening scowl. “You have your mother’s eyes.”

Nick duplicated his father’s frown. “Yeah. I know.”

His features softening, Adarian cupped Nick’s face with his cold, dry hand. “I never noticed that before. All I ever saw in you was me, and I hated you for it.” He took Nick’s hand in his and studied it as if it were an alien object. “How can she love you like she does when you look so much like me … after what I did to her?”

“I wonder that same thing every day.” Nick swallowed hard as he stared up at his father. “She tells me that she hated you with everything she had until the moment I was born. And from then on, she couldn’t hate you ever again.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Yeah, me either. Some reason, she’s delusional and thinks that my sorry butt is the best thing that’s happened to her. It’s why she’s tolerated you ever since and why she used to take me to visit you in prison, even though she’s terrified of you. Without you, she wouldn’t have me. And for that, she says she’s eternally grateful to you. Go figure, right?”

Adarian shook his head. “But for you, I would have never seen her again, would I?”

“Doubtful. Like I said, you scare the bejesus out of her. I can’t even raise my voice in happiness that she doesn’t jump back in fear. It was bad when I was a kid. Now that I dwarf her, I have to be careful to make no sudden moves, ’less it startles her.”

Adarian winced in pain as he gentled the tight hold he had on Nick. “I’m sorry I tried to kill you.”

Nick had no idea how to respond to that. Gee, thanks? Yeah, that didn’t quite cover the mixed emotions at war inside him. They had never been father and son.

Or even friendly.

But even so, Nick had always wanted to have a dad like other kids did. He’d wondered countless times what it would be like to hold his head up with pride at school functions and proudly introduce his progenitor to his friends and teachers. He had no idea what that felt like. Only the sick cringing dread in his stomach whenever someone asked him what his father did for a living. He would dodge the question as best he could, and when he couldn’t, he’d tell them that his father worked in the prison system.

Not really a lie. Just not the whole truth.

It wasn’t something anyone wanted to admit to, especially not a kid who feared other people thinking he’d grow up and be a criminal, just like his father.

Now, Adarian held him as if he actually cared. As if Nick mattered to him. But he knew better. He was nothing to his father. He never had been.

Despising that truth, Nick started to pull away from his father, yet Adarian refused to let go.

“You have seen the future, Nicholas. Noir will not rest until he has you in custody. And as strong as you think you are, he will break you. When you rise to subdue your generals in your world, he will know you as the Malachai. No one can spare you that. And he will send everything he has after you.”

“Can’t wait,” Nick said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Been needing a good party to attend. Nice to know I won’t have to pay for it myself.”

Adarian snorted. “I was arrogant like you once. After I killed my father, I thought nothing could touch me. That I was without equal. The strongest, most powerful Malachai ever conceived.” He laughed bitterly. “There’s a reason I spent the last two hundred years in and out of human prisons. Why I spent centuries in hiding. While we are the most powerful of all demonkyn, we are not gods. And we cannot kill the ones who created us. The best we could hope is to imprison them, and that is impossible for us. They made sure of it.”

“But I’ve seen the future where I’ve—”

“No,” Adarian snapped, interrupting him. “You’ve seen your rampage against the gods who hold your leash. Every year we live, we lose more sanity. The hatred inside us grows exponentially. Because of your mother, yours has been tied down and mitigated. Without her … nothing will stop it from taking you over, and it will accelerate. In ways you can’t even begin to conceive. You will turn on everyone near you and especially those who are close to you. You won’t be able to stop yourself. And you will learn the lesson that was spoon-fed to me by my own whore mother.”

Nick so loved the rosy landscape his father painted. “And that was?”

“We came into this world alone and that’s exactly how we’ll leave it. Don’t expect the years in between to be any different. No one can be trusted. You only have friends until you look the other way. That is the truth of all species. But never more true than it is for our kind. Every Malachai born has been betrayed … starting with his own mother. And the one thing I learned at the business end of Noir’s whip is that fear, pain, and intimidation will ensure your safety and make sure that nothing and no one ever goes for your throat. They won’t dare so long as they fear the fact that you will get back up and come for them the way they went for you.”

Nick didn’t believe that. Not for a minute. He’d never had an enemy yet whose jugular he wouldn’t go for if exposed. It didn’t matter how much they beat or bullied him. He would not be intimidated by them and he refused to give them his fear. To the devil with that. No one would ever hold that kind of power over his mind and soul.

No one.

But his mother, Caleb, Acheron, Kyrian, Kody … there was nothing he would do to hurt them. Ever. He would die to protect their lives. And they had all proven the same loyalty where he was concerned. It was love that bound them together much tighter than hatred and fear ever could. As Kody so often said to him—into all gardens rain will fall. But the heart and the love it’s capable of will give us shelter from even the worst storms.

Love and respect kept someone in check a lot more than fear and hatred. He would explain it, yet he knew better than to waste the breath. His father had no concept of those emotions. He never would.

Suddenly, Nick’s head started spinning. He felt like he was falling again.

His father tightened the grip he had on him. “You’re fading back to the false body. It won’t hold you. It can’t. But the spell that separated you is strong. You have to unlock your powers, son. Protect your mother. Be the man for her that I should have been. Not the beast that hurt her. I deserve no mercy and she deserves no sadness. Whatever you do, Nicholas, don’t become me.” And then his father did the most unbelievable thing of all.

He kissed Nick’s cheek.

As he pulled back, his father’s black, inhuman gaze bored into him. “The Ambrose Malachai will never be forgotten. But it’s up to you as to how he’ll always be remembered.”

Nick wanted to speak. Nothing would leave his throat. He reached out for his father.

It was too late. One heartbeat he was in the land of dark nothing and in the next he was back with Kody, who held him just like his father had. Worry creased her brow as her green eyes warmed him.

Had it all been a delusion? Had his mind transposed Kody’s actions into his subconscious and made him think that his father held him while in reality it’d never happened?

Was it a dream?

“See, Akra-Kody, the Simi done told you that he’d be alive and licking again.”

Nick grimaced at Simi’s messed-up syntax. “You mean alive and kicking.”

It was Simi’s turn to make a disgruntled expression. “No. Why you want to kick something when you can put barbecue sauce on it and lick it? You human-like people make no sense to the Simi’s demon mind.”

Nick grinned at her. “That’s okay. You make none to me, either.” He shook his head as he tried to clear his blurry vision. “Are we still under fire from Thorn?”

“No.” Kody brushed his hair back from his face to feel for a fever. “Ash and Savitar, along with Simi, routed them.”

Simi made a sound similar to a horse. “Bah! Akra-Kody helped us a lot, too. She a good helper in a fight.”

Those words of praise brought a slight blush to Kody’s cheeks. “Savitar and Ash are still out, making sure our enemies don’t come back any sooner than necessary.” She stood up, then helped him to his feet. “So what happened to you? You were saying all kinds of crazy things while you were out.”

He could just imagine. “At least tell me I didn’t snore.”

Kody laughed. “You didn’t snore, but you did call me by your father’s name. I hope that’s not some weird psycho thing you have where you subliminally want to date your father.”

Nick choked and shuddered. “Hardly. Besides, I look so much like him, that’d be narcissism to the extreme. And while I occasionally like myself, I definitely don’t love myself. In any sense of that word.”

Taking a deep breath, he surveyed the damage around him, which wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Bubba and Mark were tending wounds not far away and restocking weapons. Nick had to say that they’d looked better. ’Course, they’d also looked a lot worse.

“Where’s my mom?” he asked them.

Bubba set his Neosporin aside and jerked his chin toward the fortified door. “She’s in the shelter with Topher looking out for her, under severe death threats. I don’t know how long Acheron and Savitar can hold Thorn and them off. Thorn promised he’d be back and I’m pretty sure the psycho meant it. Hell-monkeys be danged. I don’t think anything is going to stop him for long. Not even your friends.”

Nick bit his lip as he considered the best course of action. Bubba was right. Thorn would return as soon as he could. They had to move fast.

“Kode? If we had Caleb here, could the two of you reverse whatever it was you did to my powers?”

“Maybe. But we don’t have Caleb.”

“Or do we?”

She arched a brow at him. “Did you hit your head again, sweetie? I’ve warned you about the dangers of concussions.”

He grinned. “Kind of, but I did learn something that I hope isn’t a lie.”

“And that is?”

Praying his father wasn’t setting him up for slaughter or a ton of therapy-inducing humiliation, Nick took a deep breath then called out. “Cabal. Cabal. Cabal. I summon you to me. Now.”

Simi and Kody exchanged a look that said he was as crazy as he suddenly felt when nothing happened.

Great, Dad. I can look stupid on my own. Didn’t really need you to help out on that front.

That was his thought until he heard a curse and something slammed into him, knocking him against the wall. Nick shoved his attacker away, then froze as he looked into a pair of familiar, startled brown eyes. Now this was the giant, badass-tough demon that Nick was used to.

“Malphas?”

Tense and braced to fight, Caleb turned around slowly, surveying every aspect of his new surroundings. He paused as he faced Kody and Simi. “Where the heck am I? And how did I get here?”

Kody pointed to Nick. “Apparently, Nick summoned you.”

“Nick?” Caleb glanced right past Nick and kept searching the room with his gaze. “Our Nick? Where is the little booger?”

She gestured even more exaggeratedly at Nick’s position. “Right there.”

Caleb’s jaw went slack as he faced him. “Nick?”

“Caleb?”

The word had barely left his lips before Caleb grabbed him into a bear hug and held him tight. Which was extremely awkward and gross. Completely weirded out by it, Nick tried to disentangle himself from the demon. It wasn’t like Caleb to show any emotion toward him other than irritation or frustration. Sometimes anger.

Okay, a lot of times anger.

Still, affection toward anything other than food …

Completely unnatural.

“Stop, C! If you’re going to hug me like this, you got to buy me dinner first, boy. And it’s got to be someplace nice, like Antoine’s or Brennan’s. I ain’t easy or cheap.”

Laughing, Caleb stepped back and narrowed his eyes on Nick as he held him by his arms. “Dude … did you lose a bet with a sorcerer or something?”

Nick gave him a droll smirk. “Don’t taunt me now that I know your real name. I’m told I can do some damage to you with that. Make you fetch my slippers and stuff.”

Now it was Kody’s turn to gape as she understood. “Cabal? His summoning name is Cabal? Really?”

Caleb visibly cringed. “Don’t, Nekoda. Just don’t. I can wreck your day, too, you know?”

She held her hands up in surrender. “Yes, you can. Please don’t. I’ve already forgotten I ever heard it.”

“Good woman.”

Nick tilted his head as he took in Caleb’s bruised face. “What got ahold of you?”

“A lot of things that were trying to snatch your body from my custody. And we can’t leave Zavid alone with it. He’s extremely likely to throw it out the door and let the others have you to save his own hide. Unlike me, he’s not real attached to you, and I don’t like or trust untested loyalty.”

Neither did Nick. “I have been told by countless dead people today that you and Kody have to free my powers first.”

“Countless dead people?” Caleb asked.

“Long story.” Nick inclined his head to Kody. “Can you two fix me?”

She met Caleb’s gaze. “I was told we needed the Magus Stone to restore his powers. It’s what they used to do this to him.”

Caleb choked on that. “Apollymi’s necklace? Are you nuts?”

“Ooo,” Simi breathed. “The sparkly, shiny one. I know that necklace. Akra used to pacify the Simi with it when she was a very little simi. It’s why the Simi loves her sparklies so.”

Kody sucked her breath in sharply. “Do you think you could borrow it?”

Simi burst out laughing, then sobered. “Oh. You were actually serious with the Simi and not making a joke.… Um, no. Akra need it to feed her Daimons and she’d pull the Simi’s wings off if I tried to take it. That mean old Stryker would probably help, too. He bad that way. And no offense, but the Simi done like her wings. They make traveling very nice and very easy. Much faster than walking. And I know you know what I mean.”

Caleb crossed his arms over his chest. “It wouldn’t matter if we had it. Nick would still need his powers. It’s worthless to us without those.”

“How so?” Kody asked. “I have the blood of Set in me. Shouldn’t it work if I used it?”

“Want to bet our lives on it?”

“Uh, not really, and especially not with our combined luck.” Kody sighed. “Fine. Let’s try to unlock his powers and see where it gets us.”

“Hopefully not the hospital,” Nick mumbled under his breath.

Bubba cleared his throat to get their attention. “Whatever you have planned, you might want to step it up a notch and be quick about it. We have bad guys heading in again and they’re moving double-time.”

Nick moaned out loud. “Can’t we catch a break?”

Caleb snorted. “Pretty sure one of them would be willing to break a knee or any other bone they can reach.”

“Ha, ha.”

Kody held her hand out to Caleb. “Let’s do this.”

While Caleb took it, Nick glanced over to the monitor that Bubba and Mark were watching via webcams stationed down the street. His eyes bugged at the sight of their impending doom. Bubba wasn’t exaggerating even a little bit. Thorn was back with a lot of reinforcements. Reinforcements that were dragging, bound in chains, a number of Acheron’s hell-monkeys in their wake.

And then he realized what else they were carrying.

No … it couldn’t be.

“Is that—”

“Our former allies?” Mark asked, confirming Nick’s worst fear. “Yes, it is.”

Horrified by the sight of Savitar and Acheron in Thorn’s custody, Nick barely heard the words Caleb and Kody chanted behind him. He was too transfixed by the fact that they were all about to die a painful and grotesque death.

Rising up from the others, Thorn flew at the house and threw a fireball that slammed against the fortified front door. It was so powerful that it shook the entire structure. Mark and Bubba went pale. Without a word, Mark hurriedly finished arming himself. Bubba continued to sit in his chair as if unable to cope with what was coming for them now.

Simi started for the door, but Nick stopped her. “It’s me they want. Maybe I should just hand myself over and stop this.”

The Goth demon tsked at him. “Akri-Nicky, on the grand scale of stupid, that would be epic. And lethal.” She patted his shoulder. “Trust the Simi, you don’t want to do that. It’d ruin your clothes and you look very nice out of your ugly shirts.”

He smiled at her, until he felt the hot stab of something going through him. For a second, he thought he’d been shot. He felt his stomach for blood.

Nothing was there.

Apprehensive, he glanced over to Caleb and Kody. And as he did so, he felt that light-headed sensation again. His hands turned translucent.

The Malachai power resides with your spirit and soul. It can never be separated from that. He looked around for his father, but he saw nothing. Just the voice in his head.

Suddenly, that familiar warmth filled his entire body. That indescribable je ne sais quoi he had whenever he tapped into his demonic inheritance. Leaning his head back, he closed his eyes and let it wash over him. The ether roared in his ears as he heard a million voices at once.

Someone grabbed him from behind. Instead of fighting, Nick leaned against them and allowed them to hold him while he swayed with the weight and pain of everything.

“Just breathe, baby. Just breathe.” He felt Kody’s gentle hand on his cheek as she whispered in his ear. “I have you and I’m not letting go. Don’t fight it. Remember that your powers are a part of you. Like breathing.”

He tried to do what she suggested and not tense or fight the flow of power inside him. At first he thought he was settling down and returning to normal. Until his stomach heaved. Nick staggered away from Kody and ran to the bathroom. He’d barely made it to the toilet before his stomach unloaded itself with a violence that would make the girl in The Exorcist movie proud. Over and over, his stomach spasmed with no mercy given to his dignity.

To his complete shock, Kody knelt by his side and stroked his back until he was finally finished. With a shaking hand, he flushed the toilet.

She gave him a small damp towel that he pressed to his lips. “Better?”

His breathing ragged, he nodded, then shook his head. “You have an iron constitution, you know that?”

Laughing, she brushed the hair back from his forehead. “Compared to what you see in battle, vomit’s not so bad.”

He heard the pain in her voice that belied her light tone. Honestly, he didn’t want to know what horrors she’d been through that this was preferable to them.

And all because of him and what he’d do to her and her family in the future.

Not wanting to think about that, he looked down at his hand that had finally returned to normal. He balled it into a fist. “Are my powers back?”

“Not sure. Care to try them and see?”

Nick cupped his hand and concentrated so that he could manifest a fireball. Instantly, fire engulfed his hand. Now it was his turn to laugh as he repeated it with his other arm.

Oh yeah …

He was back and he was ready to battle.

Extinguishing his arms, he rose to his feet and headed for the door with a deadly intent.

“Nick?” Kody chided. “What are you doing?”

“Going to ruin Thorn’s day.”

“Do you think that’s wise?”

“Not at all.” He kept going.

She tried to stop him, but he gently shrugged her hold off. He was too set on payback. Nothing, not even Kody, was going to get in his way. Determined, he headed straight for the front door and ignored Mark and Bubba, who were armed to their teeth as they gaped at him and his apparent intentions.

Without a word, Simi and Caleb fell in behind him as his escorts.

Nick opened the door with his telekinesis and stood on the front porch. Caleb took position just behind Nick’s left side while Simi squared off on his right.

Arching a brow, Thorn froze a few feet from the bottom step. “Well, well … how stupid and brave of you, little boy. But it’ll take something more than two demons and elementary parlor tricks to scare or stop us.”

Nick glanced to Simi and Caleb, then looked over to where Thorn’s soldiers were dragging what he hoped was only an unconscious Acheron and Savitar onto the front lawn so that they could dump them by the driveway. He wanted to go to them and make sure they were alive. But that would be all kinds of dumb.

And while stupid was his better friend most days, this wasn’t the time to court it.

Forcing that urge down, Nick locked gazes with Thorn and gave him a slow, taunting smile meant to irritate the other being into performing his own kind of idiocy. For further effect, he rolled out his thickest Cajun drawl. “Oh now, why you want to go and insult me, eh, Boo? What’d I ever do to you?”

Thorn stepped forward.

Nick rubbed at his jaw. “I would advise against doing that.”

Another step. “I don’t take orders.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, bon homme. Last I heard, you are my general … and you take orders from me.”

Thorn scoffed with a mocking laugh.

Nick tsked. “Last chance.”

“Or what?”

Nick unfurled his wings and let the fire roll down both his arms until it pooled into his hands where it flamed in pulses that matched his rapid heartbeat. “I’m gonna barbecue me some Thorny meat and let the Simi here break out her hottest sauce and say, bon appétit, cher.”

Simi sucked her breath in sharply. “Don’t go teasing me, Akri-Nick. Don’t say something you don’t mean. That’s just wrong.”

“I mean it, Simi.” He glanced back at Thorn. “So what’s it to be? You ready to make Simi’s day or you want to back down and leave with all limbs attached?”

Thorn paused as he considered his answer.

“He’s bluffing,” Tabitha said as she walked through the demons to reach Thorn’s side. “He doesn’t have his powers. They’re trying to trick us. I saw what he looks like as the Malachai and that’s not it.”

Thorn swept a speculative glance over Nick’s body. “My girl’s calling you a liar.”

“If my girl was here, she’d be calling you an idiot.”

Thorn growled.

Nick growled back.

Caleb laughed at them both. “Simi, we should be filming this. We could make a killing on it.”

“Already recorded, akri-demon. Just let the Simi know whenever you want the full-color playback.”

“Good.” Caleb turned back to Nick. “This is probably where I ought to inform you that the way you subdue the ušumgallu is you have to confront each general in your army, and prove yourself worthy of leading them.”

The fire went out on his arms immediately. Nick held his hand up to Thorn. “Hang on a minute.” He glared at Caleb. “Clarify that last statement.”

“You. Malachai.” Caleb stepped forward to clap him on the back. “Must sally forth unto each šarru and proclaim yourself the Uma-Šarru. For lack of a better term, head badass. Then when they laugh in your face, you throw them on the ground and make them cry uncle. Clear enough for you?”

A little too clear, honestly. His stomach pitching again, Nick nodded. “You know, Cale. This information would have been a lot more useful to me before I walked out the door.”

“Yeah, well, you got that whole bad habit of leaping over a crack while not noticing that it’s right in front of a cliff with no guardrail. Maybe you should look a little farther ahead than the tip of your nose from time to time. Just saying.”

Thorn laughed out loud. “Seems Tabitha was correct then. You belong to us.”

This time when Thorn moved forward, Nick set him on fire and forced him and Tabitha backward, into the yard. “Did I say you could move, Alpo? Pretty sure I told you to stay put. Think you, I didn’t mean it?”

“Nice work,” Caleb congratulated in an amused tone.

“Thank you. Now back to what we were talking about.”

“Uh, not to interrupt, but…” Caleb pointed to the demonic army that was now attacking them.

Nick let out a sound of fierce irritation before he sent a wave across the yard that knocked them down and sent them skidding toward the street.

When they rose back to their feet and ran at them again, he passed a droll stare to Caleb. “They ride the short bus, don’t they?”

“Pretty sure that big demon in back is the short bus.”

Kody grimaced at them both as she joined them on the porch. “Gentlemen, this isn’t a video game. Those are real live, breathing monsters on the lawn who want us dead. Could you please focus?”

He took a step, but Caleb grabbed him. “Stupidity! It’s taking over the world. Run, Nick! Save yourself before it’s too late.”

Nick snorted at Caleb’s words then winked at her. “Fine, belle.” He glanced to the demon over his shoulder. “Simi … lunch time. Break out your sauce, baby.”

With a giddy laugh, she took off after them.

“But don’t eat Thorn or Tabitha or Selena or Mandy!” Kody called. “We might need them!”

Caleb heh’ed as he watched their enemies splinter and run from a jubilant Simi, who was all intent on adding them to her menu. “Chaos. It’s a lovely thing, isn’t it?”

“My grandfather always thought so,” Kody mumbled. “Me, not so much. I’d like to try boring for a few days. Months would be even better.”

Nick scoffed at her wish. “So long as you’re with the Malachai, cher, ‘boring’ will never be in your vocabulary.”

She sighed. “Sad, but true.”

“Malachai!” Thorn shouted.

“Khan!” Nick returned with his best Captain Kirk imitation. “Do we have to put down every creature in your army? Really?”

Thorn headed for the steps again. “Fine. You want me to stop? Prove yourself to me.”

Caleb turned to face Nick. “Remember. Make him cry uncle.”

“Cry uncle, my posterior. I’m going to make him cry like a girl who broke her mom’s designer heels at the prom.” Nick headed down the steps to meet Thorn.

Thorn raked him with a stare that said he didn’t think Nick would be much of a challenge. As soon as Nick was close enough, he swung out at him.

Nick ducked and rammed his shoulder straight into Thorn’s stomach, knocking him down. Rolling on the ground, Thorn shot to his feet, then sent a fireball straight at Nick that Nick blocked with his powers.

He sent it straight back into Thorn, who barely dodged it. And it succeeded in wiping the smirk off his face. Nick followed it with a blast of his own that caught Thorn’s shoulder. Yelping, Thorn manifested a sword and lunged forward.

With his powers, Nick created a staff and deflected it, then parried with a blow that caught Thorn across his spine.

Kody gaped as she watched Nick and Thorn spar. She met Caleb’s equally stunned expression. “When did he learn to do all that?”

“Not one hundred percent sure. But remind me the next time I say something snarky that he’s come a long way with his battle skills.”

Yes, he had. In the past, Nick could always take a punch. Now, he was able to give them.

He fought like a boss.

Until Thorn turned it on him. Kody started forward, but Caleb stopped her. “He has to defeat Thorn on his own. Without help. Otherwise, he won’t be able to subjugate the ušumgallu.”

She glanced around the yard where Simi had already routed the other demons. Selena and Amanda had vanished into the crowd. Tabitha was heading for Nick and Thorn. I might not be able to help with Thorn, but … She could definitely take that witch down. No one was going after Nick while she was around.

Kody headed for her.

Nick saw Kody from the corner of his eye. That distraction cost him as Thorn moved in and caught him a significant blow to his jaw that sent his head spinning. He staggered back. Thorn kicked him hard in the solar plexus.

Everything darkened. And for a second, he honestly thought he was going to black out. Until he saw the darkness slithering again. It was like a living, breathing creature.

I’m hallucinating.

What if he wasn’t? Given all the other weirdness in his world that wasn’t crazy, what if …

Nick held his hand out to pet it. The dark rose up to caress his arm and lick it. Before he could rethink it, Nick slung his hand out and sent the darkness for Thorn. With his thoughts, he commanded it.

One second Thorn was about to stab him, and in the next, the darkness jerked him out of reach. It was only then that Nick saw it for what it really was. Not one single creature, but an amalgam of night. Lifting his hands, he orchestrated it to go after the others, including Tabitha.

Holy crap … it was working. He could actually do this and the power wasn’t malfunctioning on him. At least not yet.

Kody froze as Tabitha was pulled back from their fight and held immobile by nothing. No, not nothing.

By the element of night.

Terror filled her as she realized what was happening. Nick had embraced the darkness. He was commanding it. Something he shouldn’t be able to do for decades yet. And for him to do that now boded the worst kind of evil for them.

Biting her lip, she watched breathless as Nick started to transform from a human into a demon. He stalked toward Thorn with eyes so red they glowed and snapped like a living fire. The Malachai powers were alive and they had possession of him. Completely.

What have we done?

Once tapped, Noir’s powers were seductive and all-consuming. Irresistible. Worse, they allowed the primal god to locate his property. So long as Nick used them, Noir could hone in and attack him.

She met Caleb’s concerned gaze and saw the same horror mirrored on his face.

“Nick!” he cried.

But it was too late. Nick was transforming in front of them. And he was about to kill Thorn and absorb his powers, too.