Illusion

CHAPTER 17

You command the power of the universe. Life, itself, is in the palm of your hand. There is nothing that can stop you. No rules that apply to you. You are the only one who matters in this existence. The rest are pawns and tools to be used and destroyed as you see fit.

Embrace your fate, Malachai. Become what you were born to be.

Nick let the truth ring in his ears as he effortlessly pinned Thorn to the lawn with one hand. The demon lord wasn’t so powerful now that he squirmed like a worm caught on drying pavement by the heat of a sun he couldn’t fight. He was every bit as pathetic and helpless as those insignificant creatures that crawled up from the belly of the earth and were used as nothing more than bait for and by their betters.

Kill him and you’ll be even stronger than what you are now. You’ll have powers the likes of which you cannot imagine.

Nick scoffed. I don’t know, disembodied voice in my head. I have one heck of an active imagination. You’d do well not to underestimate it.

In his mind, Nick saw himself as he wanted to be. Confident. Suave. Sophisticated. Tough. Like Kyrian, Talon, Caleb, and Acheron. The epitome of badass respectability. Not the pathetic loser dork who banged his arms and feet into everything he passed. One who bumped his head anytime he neared low-hanging signs or plants.

Just once, he wanted to walk into a room, without tripping over nothing, and not have someone snicker or comment about his clumsy awkwardness or foul clothing.

Kill him and it’s all yours. Everything you want. You will be the very top of the food chain. No one will ever dare to mock you again.

Nick tightened his hold on Thorn’s throat. It was so tempting. All he’d ever wanted in his entire life was respect.

And the voice was correct. Right now, he saw terror in Thorn’s green eyes as he struggled against Nick’s iron grip that would not be broken. Gone was any hint of condescension or contempt. Thorn definitely wasn’t smirking now as he began turning blue and his eyes bulged.

I could kill him and no one would care. Who would miss a creature like Thorn?

No one. It would be easy.…

So very easy.

But as Nick felt Thorn’s weakening grip on his hand, he loosened his hold. I am the Malachai. The baddest beast in the land. What would killing Thorn really prove?

A truth he already knew? That he was stronger? Better?

What was the point? He didn’t need blood on his hands to show the world who and what he was. Nick already knew, and so did the people who mattered to him.

The devil take the rest. He didn’t owe them anything. And they weren’t worth his life.

Definitely not worth his soul.

Nick Gautier had nothing to prove to anyone in this, or any, realm.

But he still had people to protect. People he cared about and loved.

With that in mind, he slackened his hold to give Thorn some breathing space. “Do you yield to me?”

Thorn growled at him.

“That’s not an answer.” Nick traded hands and increased the pressure on Thorn’s throat again. “Do I really have to kill you on the front lawn of Bubba’s house? Is that truly what you want? Because, no offense, killing you is not the way to get my girl to kiss me at the end of the night. And I’d much rather snuggle with her than step over your dead body and tick her off. Pretty sure you’d rather I not kill you, too. Or am I wrong? Are you suicidal? Do we both go home happy or will I later be defacing your corpse because you got me in the doghouse?”

Thorn’s eyes glowed red in the darkness. “I will follow no one ever again. And that includes you.”

“Good. ’Cause I’m not leading. There will be no battle and you’re not being summoned to my army or to any kind of fight on my behalf. The only war I want is the solo one against my own stupidity—which seems a losing battle most days. And while I’d like to defeat that, I don’t want to end the world or you or anything other than this ridonkulous standoff.… However, I will kill you if I have to, to stop this, but I hope it don’t come to that. Honestly, all I expect is for you to crawl back to your hole and stay there like a nice demon lord. Because the next time I confront you, boy, I won’t show mercy. You will bleed and I will be in the perpetual doghouse with both the women in my life. Got it?”

Kody started for Nick, but Caleb caught her arm. She glared at the demon. Did he not understand what was going on? If they didn’t do something fast, it would be over for all of them. “Nick’s metamorphosing.”

A slow smile broke across Caleb’s handsome face. “Yes, he is.”

How could he be so nonchalant? So happy? Did he want Nick to become a bloodthirsty monster? If Nick gave in to his dark powers, Caleb would suffer as much, if not more, than she would. Especially now that Nick knew his real name.

Terrified, she glanced to Nick, who was about to finish Thorn off, then back to Caleb. “We have to stop it! If he becomes the Malachai—”

“Kody,” Caleb said in an even tone, breaking her words off. “Can you not understand what they’re saying?”

She shook her head. “It’s demonkyn. I only know a handful of words.”

“Yeah, well, I know a few more.”

All of a sudden, Nick stood and backed away from Thorn. With a glower of fury at him, Thorn slowly pushed himself to his feet. She expected him to attack Nick again.

Instead, he saluted him, then gathered his demon minions and Tabitha and her sisters, and left.

Completely confused, she stared at Nick as he went to check on Savitar and Acheron, who were still lying as lumps on the lawn. By the relieved expression on his face while he felt for a pulse, she knew they were okay.

And while that thrilled her, it didn’t take away her shock at Nick’s actions. She gaped at Caleb. “He’s in control of himself?”

Caleb nodded. “Completely. Somehow he pushed the darkness out and resisted it.”

How? It was unheard of. No one turned down Noir. And they definitely didn’t do it like this.

As Nick headed toward her, he gave her that devilish grin that never failed to speed up her heartbeat. But as fast as that smile came, it vanished with a curse. Clutching his chest, Nick fell to his knees on the lawn. Then he collapsed.

Petrified, she ran to him. “Nick?”

Arching his back, Nick screamed out. He shook all over. She met Caleb’s and Simi’s wide-eyed stares as they joined her by his side.

“What is this?”

They shook their heads in unison.

Kody knelt and placed her hand to Nick’s cheek. “Sweetie? Can you hear me?”

He bit his lip and cursed again. “It burns like fire.”

“What?”

He pulled his shirt down so that he could blow across his chest. And as he did so, an ancient symbol formed over his left pectoral. It was a circle that held Noir’s emblem on top and Azura’s on the bottom. The mark of their ownership.

But why was it appearing on his temporary body? That made no sense at all.

Swallowing hard, she met Caleb’s wide gaze. He paled instantly. “What is this, Caleb?”

“He’s marked.”

She understood that part. The demon was being evasive and she wanted to beat him for it. “Elaborate.”

Caleb shook his head slowly. “You really don’t want me to.”

“Oh, I really do.”

Caleb grimaced and continued to hedge. “Why ruin all our days?”

“Caleb!” she snapped simultaneously with Nick.

Nick reached up and grabbed the front of Caleb’s shirt. “What is happening to me?”

“Your parents want their baby home, son. And this—” Caleb touched his mark. “Is their Tactical Trunk Monkey.”

Scowling at the term, Nick dreaded the answer in the worst sort of way. “What’s a Tactical Trunk Monkey?”

Caleb made another grimace. “In a couple of years, you’ll know exactly what I mean. For now, think of it like a homing beacon from hell.”

Nick stifled the fear in him that was trying to take over. Not a good time for that. He really needed his levelheaded sanity. Although honestly, he couldn’t think of anything better than to panic right now. For that matter, his sanity hadn’t proven all that beneficial, either.

Maybe freaking out would help?

Nick ground his teeth against the agony that continued to pierce him. “How do we get rid of it?”

“The Simi could barbecue your skin. That would take it off. Might take some muscles and other things, too. Should we try?”

Nick made a high-pitched noise of disagreement. “No!”

Simi bared her fangs at him. “The Simi don’t like that word, Akri-Nick. It a bad bad thing.”

“And I don’t like being burned by flaming demon breath, either, Simi.”

She blew him a raspberry. “You big demon baby.”

“Dang right.” He tightened his hold on Caleb’s shirt. “What do I do?”

“Run.”

Nick scoffed. Caleb made it sound so easy. But if he knew anything, it was that his life never had a simple answer to his problems, and he couldn’t breathe or stand, never mind get up and sprint across the lawn. “Won’t they find me if I run?”

Caleb didn’t hesitate with his response. “Yeah.”

“Then what’s the good in running?”

“You’ll feel like you at least tried?”

He gaped at his friend, hating Caleb’s sarcasm. “Not comforting, Caleb. Not comforting.”

Kody cupped his face in her hands and forced him to look at her. “You have your powers. Can you take us home? If you’re back in your own body, they won’t be able to track you. Right?”

Caleb shrugged.

Kody popped him on the arm.

“Ow!” He rubbed the spot where she struck him. “I don’t know, woman. Sounds good to me. It’s worth a try, I guess.”

Ignoring them, Nick glanced around the yard to where Savitar and Ash were still unconscious. Bubba, Mark, the two Tophers, and Cherise were cautiously leaving the house. He met Simi’s gaze then Caleb’s and finally he returned to Kody, and all the while the pain in his chest burned deeper and more ferocious. He had to do something. Fast. “I can try.”

She leaned down to place a chaste kiss on his lips. “You will succeed.”

Like Caleb, Kody made it all sound so easy. But Nick lacked her optimism. At this point, they’d been told so many differing things on what he needed to do to get home and be safe that nothing made sense anymore. He felt as though he’d been stuck here forever.

Stop complaining. At least you have your powers back.

That was true. Not to mention, his father had told him that this body couldn’t contain his real spirit. If he could bypass that realm his father had been in, then maybe, just maybe, he might make it back to where he came from and no one would be able to track him there. All he had to do then was kick the other Nick out of his skin and hope for another miracle.

Yeah, he felt like laughing at the ridiculousness of that, too.

Closing his eyes, he tried to focus.

“You can do this, Nick,” Kody whispered in his ear as she clutched his hand in hers. “I have complete faith in you. Think of your mom and Aunt Mennie and Liza and Kyrian. All the people who love you. The ones who need you.”

Her voice was so hypnotic. It lulled him into a sense of complete peace while she continued to remind him of the things he valued at home. The people who were his family, even without blood ties.

Instead of helping him, though, it felt more like she was putting him to sleep. In spite of the pain, his eyes became heavy. His limbs weak. Before he knew what was happening, he went completely limp and fell into a black hole.

Panicking, Nick tried to grab hold in the darkness. Nothing was there. He couldn’t even hear Kody’s voice anymore.

Was he dead?

Dying? He had no way of knowing. This was an absolute cessation of sensory input. He could no longer hear, see, taste, smell, or feel anything. His eyes rolled back in his head.

And still he fell.

Angry and scared, he summoned his powers with everything he had and did his best to stop the free fall.

Suddenly, the darkness began to cradle him. It slithered around his limbs and wound itself tightly over his chest just as it’d done earlier. He heard the sound of a thousand hooves running far away like a powerful thrumming heartbeat.

Then he saw the Ambrose Malachai in all its glory. Tall, evil, and unstoppable. Covered in armor, the beast was terrifying. Caleb stood to his right, with a sick look on his face. Dressed in his own battle armor and with his wings extended, Caleb brushed his hand over the blood that covered him. “Your enemies have been routed, my lord. They are down to only a tiny handful who’ve taken refuge in the church.”

Nick, as the Ambrose Malachai, arched a brow at Caleb’s tone while he gave his report. He turned his red gaze to his once trusted friend who no longer meant anything to him. “You dare condemn me?”

“No, my lord. It’s not my place.” What had he done to Caleb to make him so subservient? Never had he known the demon to be so obsequious.

Nick hated seeing him like that.

Fear was not respect. It was only a cold substitution. He would rather have Caleb’s biting sarcasm than this shell of a boot-licking sycophant, trying to placate him. But the Ambrose Malachai didn’t seem to care or to notice the difference. He merely walked all over everyone around him.

Disgusted by the sight, Nick shook his head to clear it and forced his thoughts to his mother and his home. He had to return to her. Without him, she was defenseless.

“Talk to me, Kody. Guide me back to my New Orleans.”

Oppressive silence answered him. It rang in his ears until it overrode the sound of his own heartbeat.

I’m lost.

No. He couldn’t think that way. If he did, he really would be lost and he’d never return to the world he knew. The world he loved.

I must stay focused. Keep his eye on the target. The landscape was home. Back to the world that made sense to him. To the place where Madaug was his nerdy friend and Stone was the one who slammed him into lockers.

Natural order.

Positive. Negative.

Abnormal normality.

“Come to me, Nicholas. I can make it all better.”

Nick hesitated at the beckoning voice that filled him with an inexplicable joy. It was like a mother’s caress. Soft. Gentle. Soothing. Alluring.

He almost gave in, until he remembered one fact he’d learned the hard way—beware the easy path. It’s never as simple as it seems. Even Zavid had warned him of that, and he knew it for fact. Don’t sell your soul for a lifetime of slavery to avoid a brief time of misery. This, too, shall pass.

If he was going to go down in flames, it’d be to the tune he picked. Not something forced on him by someone else.

“You want me, lady. Come get some. But I’m not going to you.” And he dang sure wasn’t going to make it easy on her.

Nick concentrated as hard as he could on the home he wanted to return to. He imagined himself in his room, grounded for life by his mother. The darkness spun faster as if trying to drag him away from that image.

In true Gautier form, he dug his heels in and refused to let it sway him. “I am not your pawn or your tool!” he growled. “You will not own me. You will not control me.”

As if offended, the darkness let go and he fell fast enough that his eyesight blurred.

He slammed into a wall so hard, it shattered around him like glass. His spine felt busted. Fragments showered him as he finally came to a rest, flat on his back. His breathing labored, he groaned out loud in utter agony. Afraid yet determined, Nick opened his eyes to meet his newest threat.

It came in the form of a slobbering, growling wolf with bared fangs.

Nick started to attack until he realized where he was. He knew that elaborate crown molding. That ornate French mural that was painted across the ceiling.

This was Caleb’s house.

That would mean the wolf was …

“Zavid?”

The wolf pulled back to glare suspiciously at him.

Nick pushed himself up. “Dude, we need to get you some serious breath mints. Stop panting on me, I’m not your Saturday night girl.”

Backing away, Zavid returned to his human form. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Gautier? That really you?” He reached out and his hand passed straight through Nick’s body.

Nick let out a sound of disgust. He didn’t even want to know what he looked like right now. “That’s not a good sign, is it?”

“Depends. Are you alive or dead?”

“I’m going with alive because it beats the alternative.”

Zavid rolled his eyes. “Where’s Malphas?”

“Cabal!” Nick shouted, hoping it would work. He glanced to Zavid. “Do I really have to call a demon in triplicate every time I want to summon it?”

Before the wolf could answer, Caleb appeared by his side.

“Guess not,” Nick answered. This was getting better. His powers were holding and doing what they were supposed to. At least for the time being. “How do I get S—”

As if sensing the question, Simi appeared instantly on his six. “Akri-Nick! You made it. Good for you.” She slapped Caleb playfully on his arm. “See, the Simi done told you that that mean ole darkness wouldn’t eat his head like you said it would. You didn’t believe me. Next time the Simi tells you something, you’ll listen. Mmm, and speaking of, all this inner dimensional travel done made the Simi hungry again. What you gots to eat in this place?”

Caleb pointed to Zavid. “I hear barbecued wolf is a delicacy on most continents.”

Offended, Zavid glared at him. “Excuse me?”

“I would, Z, but you keep doing stupid crap. And there’s just no excuse for that.”

Nick ignored them while he waited on Kody to join their group.

After a couple of minutes, he glanced back at the two demons, who were still arguing while Simi was rooting through Caleb’s kitchen pantry. Lightning flashed outside before the sound of thunder rattled the windows.

“Hey, guys! Can I have your attention for a sec?” He counted his concerns off on his fingers. “One, where’s the alternate me so I can repo my bod and get back to normal? Kind of miss it, and I don’t want to stay like a ghost. And two, where’s my girl? I miss her more than my body.”

Zavid grimaced in distaste. “Since I don’t hear the screeching whine of a child that makes my ears bleed, I’m assuming Nick Two is still unconscious inside the closet I locked him in.”

Caleb rolled his eyes. “Are you serious?”

“You told me not to let him get eaten or kill him until you got back. He’s not eaten and I didn’t kill him. Really, you should congratulate my restraint … which was seriously hard won.”

“Congratulations. I’m not going to kill you.”

And still, neither answered the most pertinent question. “Where’s Kody? Do I have to summon her by name, too?”

“She’s not a demon,” Caleb reminded him. “That only works on us.”

“Then where is she?”

Zavid shrugged while Caleb scratched uncomfortably at his neck. That was never a good thing where Caleb was concerned.

An awful feeling went through Nick. “What?” he asked Caleb.

He refused to answer.

Oh yeah, this was going to suck.…

With a box of Ding Dongs in hand, Simi drifted back into the foyer where they stood. “Man up, demon. Tell the boy what he’s asking about.”

Still, Caleb hedged.

“What?” Nick repeated, this time to Simi. “What’s happening? Why isn’t Kody here?”

Simi sighed heavily then swallowed her mouthful of cupcake. “You know Miss Akra-Kody not human, right?”

“Yeah, I’m not that oblivious.”

Simi dug out another package from the box. “Well, see, there’s a little problem. Akra-Kody be a ghost and they can’t travel like we does and Caleb couldn’t bring her back like he did me, ’cause she got no real living body. She gots one of them borrowed bodies that are … different. Once they leaves a dimension, they can’t really get back to it.”

The knot in his stomach tightened to the point he thought he’d be sick. “I don’t understand.”

Caleb groaned under his breath before he picked up the explanation. “You know the old joke about the dead, don’t go into the light?”

“Yeah.”

“We went into the light. Kody won’t be able to cross back … ever.”

Rage erupted inside him. Before he could stop himself, he grabbed Caleb and slammed him into the wall. He wasn’t sure how he could do that while Caleb still couldn’t touch him, but he was too angry to question it right now. Not while he had more pressing concerns. “You’re lying to me!”

Caleb shook his head. “I wouldn’t do that. And you know Simi could never.”

Releasing Caleb, Nick didn’t want to believe it. Tears made his vision swim as an unbelievable agony tore through him.

Kody gone? How could that be true?

“Why didn’t she say something?”

“She knew you wouldn’t come back without her and we didn’t have time to waste. We still don’t. You have to merge back into your body, kick down your army, and seal them out before the next new moon. Which is roughly sixteen hours from now, give or take.”

A loud, piercing screech erupted from somewhere Nick couldn’t locate. It sounded like the air itself made it. The storm outside increased its intensity. If he didn’t know better, he’d think they were in the middle of a hurricane.

Zavid flinched as if something had struck him. “Definitely less. That’s the cry from another šarru. Something just broke its seal and released it into this world. We have to move fast.” He rushed for the stairs.

“Nick?” Caleb said in an earnest tone when Nick didn’t rush after Zavid. “What are you thinking?”

He was thinking that he wanted to go back and get Kody. Right now. He was thinking that he had no desire to be here without her. To live in a world where she didn’t exist.

She’d given up everything for them, without hesitation.

And that made him even angrier. Did she not love him at all? How could she just let him go without saying anything, knowing she’d never see him again?

Did she not care?

I meant nothing to her.

She hadn’t even put up a fight about it. She’d just kicked him out of her life as if he was nothing but an unwanted nuisance.

Caleb snapped his fingers in his face. “Nick! Stop!”

He glared at the demon. “Stop what?”

“I can tell by the fire in your eyes what you’re thinking. Kody loves you. More than you understand. What she did, she did for you and you alone. Had you not left, Thorn would have returned and enslaved you, and the others would have killed you. Don’t you dare let that Malachai hate build up inside you and take away from her selfless act. I was there after you left. I saw her break down and weep like you can’t imagine. And now she’s trapped there, completely alone. With no one at all. So don’t you dare hate her for what she did to save you.”

Even so, it was hard. The Malachai wanted to hate, and keeping that at bay was a constant struggle for him. Hatred was quickly becoming his go-to happy place.

But the thought of Kody in tears … that hit him hard. He couldn’t stand the thought of her in pain. Especially not because of him. “I have to go back for her.”

Caleb shook his head. “Without the Magus Stone, you can’t. And right now, the most important thing is to reunite you and your body and put down your army before they get together and party. Not to mention, we don’t know what your spirit will do here in this realm if it’s not grounded in your body, and with the two of you existing in the same time and space … that’s never supposed to happen. And I don’t know the full ramifications if you exist together for long. So let’s take care of one catastrophe at a time. Okay?”

A human scream sounded from upstairs.

Zavid growled low in his throat. “Speaking of catastrophes, wanna bet that’s Nick Two getting eaten by something?”

Without hesitation, Nick teleported to Caleb’s room. Ready to battle to the death, he froze at the sight of the true terror that awaited him.

No, Lord, anything but this.

Demons, vampires, werewolves, brain-hungry zombies, cruel jocks—Nick could handle anything, anything … except this—this was way beyond cruel, and far beyond his ability to cope.

Truly, truly horrified, he gaped at the boy in his body who was standing on a chair, squealing and pointing at the floor, where the most terrifying thing in the world looked up in horror, too.

Disgust overwhelmed Nick as he glared at the stranger in his body. “What are you doing?”

“It’s a spider!” Nick Two screamed as he continued to gesture toward the tiny creature on the floor.

A spider? Really? Thank God it wasn’t a rat. That would have probably sent him into an epileptic seizure.

Nick sighed wearily. “You screamed like that over a bug? Seriously, dude? We live in New Orleans. Ground zero for insects. And here I thought something was about to kill you.”

Something other than him.

“It is! That’s a brown recluse! They’re poisonous.”

Nick scoffed at his unwarranted hysteria. Thank goodness this hadn’t happened at school—he’d never live it down. And rightfully so. Anyone this big a baby over something so ridiculous needed to be mocked. It was a moral imperative. “It’s a granddaddy longlegs and he’s laughing his butt off at the human idiot he chased up a chair. Dude, have some dignity, especially while you’re wearing my skin. Last thing I want is for someone to think I got treed by a harmless spider. It’d kill my rep forever.”

Trying not to roll his eyes or say something really mean about it all, Nick stepped forward to pick up the spider and remove it from the room. But the moment he touched it, an electric shock went through him.

One second it was a tiny, harmless spider, and in the next, it was a beautiful woman with a vampiric dental problem. An evil smile curled her lips as she reached for Nick. Jerking him into her arms, she sank her fangs into his neck.

“You are mine, Malachai … All mine.”