Illusion

CHAPTER 18

Nick’s head swam as he appeared in a large living room with antique furniture. He wasn’t sure if he was still in a human realm or in an alternate one. There was no way to get any real bearings here. It might be New Orleans.

Heck, it might all be a dream or hallucination. There was no telling. Especially when it came to his extremely screwed-up life.

The woman holding him let go and stepped back to give him a hot once-over he might have found seductive had she not just taken a chunk out of his neck. He glared at her as he rubbed at the nasty wound that held a perfect impression of her serrated teeth. “For the record, nibbling on a guy’s skin is nice. Taking a bite out of his flesh, not the way to get a second date. Just letting you know, you need to update whatever whacked-out guy manual you’re using.”

Tall, raven-haired, and pale-skinned, she licked his blood from her lips as she smiled and playfully ruffled his hair. “You’re much sweeter-tasting than Adarian. I think I like you better already.”

Yeah, okay … There was so much about this that made him uncomfortable, he had no idea where to start listing things. But the primary concern he had was simple—“How can you bite me and make me bleed when I don’t have a physical body here?”

She laughed. “You’re very real to me, and no matter where you are, I will always be able to find and touch you.”

Had that come from Kody, he’d be thrilled with it. From this woman … that ranked up there with a Freddy Kreuger threat. “Who are you?” More importantly, what was she?

Laughing again, she nipped at his chin with enough pressure to make it hurt. “I’m your Šarru-Ninim, Livia. As soon as I awoke, I followed the scent of your blood to you. Or so I thought. I knew the real Malachai couldn’t be that sniveling coward who feared my lesser form so. While many things have changed about the world while I endured my stygian nightmare, some things will always be. And a strong, fearless Malachai is one of them.” She ran her hand down his chest toward an area of his body that made him jump away from her reach.

Nick caught her hand and pulled it away. “Babe, I don’t know you and my no zone has a very short guest list. Consider my belt the velvet rope no one crosses without an express invitation.”

She fisted her hands in his shirt and pulled him against her for another kiss.

He dodged her lips then twisted out of her arms. “Demon, please. You don’t just bite a guy, make him bleed, and expect him to fall all over you. Don’t know where you’re from, but here, that’s considered rude.”

She scoffed at him. “You need to feed from me, Malachai. I am the one who will always give you the most power. I’m the one šakkan you have on your team that no one is immune to.”

He removed her hand from his arm. “I still don’t understand how you can touch me when I have no body.”

“Like you, there is only one of me, and we are bound by the blood of your ancestors. Corporeal or not, makes no difference. Now come, kiss my lips and feast on the nectar you need to take your rightful place to unite and lead us into battle.”

Nick shook his head. “No offense, I don’t want to feast on anyone’s nectar.” Mostly ’cause it didn’t sound all that sanitary or healthy, especially given how free and nonchalant she was with handing it out. But he didn’t want to hurt her feelings, either, so he quickly added, “Not until I have my body back. Until then I don’t need to be partaking of anything other than working on an eviction notice for an arachnophobe who’s currently humiliating my real body.”

She stared at him as if he made no sense to her whatsoever.

“Malachai!”

Startled, Nick turned around to find Zarelda behind him. “What’s wrong?”

“They’re coming.”

“They?”

“The ones who want you dead. They’ve tracked you down.” She passed her hand through both him and Livia. “I can’t stop them. Not even she can see me. Only you, Nick. But you need to know. They’re about to attack my brother. Please help him.”

“What is wrong with you?”

Nick glanced over his shoulder at Livia. “You really can’t see her?”

“See who?”

Nick shook his head as Zarelda ran for a wall and vanished into it. “Never mind. You have to put me back together.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’m your commander, right?”

She nodded.

“Then that’s my first round of orders. I need to get back to the others. Now. Take me to where you found me.”

Her eyes turned deep, dark red. Resistance burned bright inside them as if she was fighting against some inner force so that she could disobey him.

Finally, she let out a frustrated sound. She threw her head back, wrinkled her nose, and stomped her foot. Then she sighed and looked at him as if nothing had just happened. “Fine.” It came out like an insult the way she said it.

But before she could make good on his order, another flash blinded him to the point he saw stars from it. He held his hand up to shield his eyes from the intense light source. A loud, enraged hiss rang out, followed by a blast that exploded so close to Nick, he could feel the heat of it.

Livia returned the attack with a blast of her own. “Xevikan! Down!”

“I’m not your dog, Livia. Mind your place.”

It took Nick a second to understand the creature’s words through his thick, heavy accent. Man, it made Kyrian’s and Talon’s sound mild by comparison. Not an easy feat by any stretch of the imagination.

Dressed in black pants and a long leather coat of an archaic style with a hood that concealed his features completely, the newcomer seemed humongous. Until he stepped closer to Livia and Nick realized he was probably only an inch or two taller than Nick was in his normal body. Their build was about the same, too. Only this guy had an aura about him that would rival Acheron’s for sheer lethal grace. He definitely had a high body count on something other than Castlevania.

For that matter, Nick held no doubt that the guy’s heavy combat boots were probably laced with some victim’s intestines.

Rigid from head to toe, Livia stood up to him without flinching. She raked him with a sneer that said she was unimpressed by his grand entrance. “Oh little boy, do I have to school you on your manners? I know you were thrown out by your mother just minutes after she spawned you, but trust me, I hold even less love of you than she did.”

He stepped closer to her as if trying to intimidate her with his much larger frame. And he did dwarf her. Even so, she didn’t flinch or back off a bit.

“Why do you protect something so weak and ineffectual, Liv? The only place this one can lead us is straight into defeat.”

Laughing, she stepped back and held her hand out toward Nick. “Fine. If you really believe that, take him … if you can.”

Nick gaped at the way she just casually threw him to the … whatever kind of demon, inhuman nightmare creature this was. “Excuse me? I’m not pour chien here, cher.”

Livia didn’t comment as she stepped back, out of the line of fire.

Great. He really was dog food. With no place to run, Nick braced himself for the fight.

An inhuman growl came out from the bowels of that black hood. He held his hands out and lightning sizzled over the creature’s entire body. It intensified and danced around him. Throwing his head back, he let loose a cry of anguished fury. The hood fell down against his shoulders, exposing his perfect features.

Nick held his arms up to defend against whatever attack he planned to unleash. Suddenly, the lightning stopped. For a full minute, nothing moved. No sound came from any of them.

Not even breathing.

Then slowly, the man lowered his arms and raised his head. He curled his lip. “Damn. He really is the Malachai.”

Completely confused by the display of power and free light show, Nick arched his brow as a pair of searing hazel eyes met his gaze. They were the strangest he’d ever seen. Like a kaleidoscope of reddish earth browns and greens. The color reminded him of rust nestled in summer leaves.

But that wasn’t the most peculiar thing about him and his pretty-boy looks. Oh no … This guy not only wrote the book on weird, he printed and owned every copy. Unlike virtually every guy on the planet, his hair wasn’t a single color.

It was three.

He parted it on the left side of his head. The bulk and longest strands of his hair that fell from the part were a very vivid and unnatural dyed bloodred. From his part down the shorter right strands, it was a bright unnatural yellow—like anime hair. That being said, his peekaboo roots, and strands that were laced through in places, were jet black—which had to be his real hair color. Cut short in back and longer in the front so that the red draped over his right eye, his hairstyle gave the impression that the guy was targeting whatever he was looking at. Well, that, and the intense hatred that came from the visible left eye. Yet the oddest part of all was his dyed, arctic blue eyebrows.

Nick started for a snarky Toonami refugee comment until he realized something.

Xevikan’s unorthodox hair and eye color represented each of the six primal gods.

For that matter, he was as perfectly formed as Acheron. His features would be considered beautiful if not for the rugged line of his jaw and the sheer ferocity of his presence. He stood with his legs planted and his body tense as if ready to go to war with the entire world.

Xevikan ground his teeth so fiercely, it caused his jaw to tic. “I can’t believe this is what I’m forced to follow.” Sneering his obvious contempt, he slid his gaze to Livia. “Where are the others?”

“They’re not here yet.”

Xevikan cursed. “Of course not.” He turned his sullen glare back to Nick. “Let me guess … don’t get too comfortable here. This one lacks the same stones as his predecessors? Back into the box we all go?”

Nick went rigid at the insult to his manhood. “Let me guess. Xevikan isn’t the Babylonian term for happy optimist?”

“Swap places with me, Malachai. Just for a week. Then see if you’re still up to cracking jokes about it.”

Biting her lip, Livia sidled up to Nick. “I don’t know, Xev.… This one might let us ride.”

Xevikan scoffed as he lifted his hood and covered his features again. “Get it over with. Send me back.” There was no missing the relegated pain behind those words. The raw anger.

As much as Nick hated to admit it, Xevikan’s resignation to an existence that sounded deplorable brought out his compassion. When his father and Kody and the others had talked about the ušumgallu, he’d envisioned heartless creatures like the hell-monkeys or Adarian, who lived to brutalize others. Scarred and jaded adults who had no ability to feel for anyone other than themselves. But Livia and Xevikan didn’t look any older than his group of friends, or Acheron.

They seemed …

Human.

Vulnerable even.

And that made him very curious about them. “So, Xevikan, which member of my merry band are you?”

Sighing heavily, Xevikan crossed his arms over his chest and stood as rigid as a statue. “What difference does it make?”

Livia answered for him. “He’s your Šarru-Dara, who reigns over blood and fire.”

Suddenly, Xevikan threw off his hood again and cocked his head as if listening to something in the ether. He cut a harsh stare to Livia. “Hear that?”

“What?”

His skin turned as translucent as Nick’s had done when he’d been in the future. Lightning appeared to flash all through his body before his skin tone returned to normal. “It’s our enemies. They’re coming for the Malachai.”

“How do you know?” Nick asked.

“Xevikan is the oldest šarru we have. And he was the first. He knows more than any of us.”

As Livia spoke, Nick saw something flash in his mind. It was an image of Xevikan in armor, with wings, fighting alongside Nick’s demon form. But he wasn’t sure if it was an image from the future or if it belonged to the memory of a previous Malachai.

Xevikan growled before he charged at the wall and vanished through it.

Nick looked to Livia for an explanation.

“He’s after the Arelim who have come to claim your human’s body.”

“Then why are we still here, wasting time? Let’s go!”

She shook her head. “You’re safer here.”

“Yeah, but if they kill my body, I’m screwed. I need that.”

“Oh.” Her nonchalance might have been amusing if his life didn’t depend on her quick action. She took his arm and teleported them back to the bedroom where Nick Two had been treed by her spider form.

Unfortunately, there was no sign of him now. Nick started to ask where he was when he heard a loud crash from the first floor.

He ran for the stairs and tore down them as fast as he could.

As bad as the battle had been in Acheron’s house in the alternate future, it was nothing compared to this fight. Nick tried to join his friends against their attackers, only to learn he couldn’t. Since he didn’t have a body, their enemies couldn’t see him at all. And no matter what he tried, he couldn’t harm them.

This was so irritating. He couldn’t stand not being able to help them.

Caleb fought against two of the armored Arelim while Zavid held three more off the other Nick, who was even more worthless in this battle than he was. At least he wasn’t crying and whimpering on the floor.

Xevikan was bleeding badly while he fought a small group with Simi at his back. But not even the Charonte could make much of an impact on the Arelim. They were incredible warriors. Unlike anything Nick had seen before. It was as if they’d been born for nothing but battle.

Without a word, Livia ran to help Zavid protect Nick’s body from Ameretat. He was a beast as he tried his best to kill Nick Two.

“Hand over the Malachai and we’ll leave.”

Nick Two whimpered for mercy and cowered in the corner, behind Zavid.

Caleb scoffed as he kicked back the Arel in front of him and turned to fight another. “Not going to happen, Ameretat. We will defend him to our bitterest ends.”

Ameretat raked him with a sneer. “Why?” he asked incredulously. “I know the future, Malphas. He will kill you one day. Brutally.”

“There are worse things than dying.”

Ameretat arched a brow. “Such as?”

“Living with the knowledge that I betrayed someone who trusted me. I’m not that kind of demon, Arel.”

“Then the End Times begin.”

Nick rushed past them to his body. He tapped Nick Two on his shoulder. Unlike the Arelim, his double had no problem seeing him.

“Give me back my body.”

“If I knew how, I would. Believe me. I don’t want to be here. I just want to go home.”

Boy, did he know that feeling. Inclining his head to him, Nick summoned everything he could and then tried to walk into his body. For a few heartbeats, he felt an electrical current rush through him as if something was happening.

But as quickly as he felt it, it was gone, and he was still separated. Dang it all!

“Could you at least put up some kind of fight?” he said to himself. “Help out my friends, who are about to be slaughtered while they protect you.”

“I don’t know how.”

Nick was flabbergasted. “Big Bubba Burdette’s your father and you don’t know how to throw a punch? Seriously?”

“I was never allowed to fight. My mother wouldn’t let me.”

Rolling his eyes, Nick heard a strange gurgle coming out of Livia. He turned to see her falling to a sword stroke as a group of Arelim brutally attacked her.

They were losing this battle. And there was nothing he could do. He didn’t have his grimoire. His dagger.

Kody.

His body.

Nothing.

“Simi!” Caleb snapped. “Behind you!”

She turned and barely ducked a blow that would have beheaded her. Breathing out a stream of fire, she tried to barbecue the Arel, but they were too fast and too well trained. Not even the Charonte could make an impact.

Where’s a sawed-off when I need one? As tight as they were fighting, one blast would take out at least three of the Arelim.

For that matter, a stick of dynamite. Heck, he’d settle for a jug of Clorox.

A can of hair spray and a lighter …

It just wasn’t in his genetic code to go down without a fight. Nick manifested a fireball, but unlike before in the other realm, these wouldn’t leave his hand here.

Xevikan disengaged his opponent to help Zavid cover Nick’s body. He cast an angry glare at the disembodied Nick that accused him of being as useless as he felt.

Ameretat tsked at Xevikan. “You never could choose a winning side.”

Backhanding the Arel in front of him, Xevikan snorted. “Win, lose, or draw, if it’s opposite of you, I consider it a definite win.”

Ameretat raked him with his distaste. “You think it was painful when they ripped out your wings? You haven’t met misery yet.”

Xevikan scoffed as he turned to fight his verbal tormentor. “I already kissed that bitch this morning. Trust me, anything your pathetic kind does in comparison is a mother’s tender loving touch.”

Ameretat head-butted Xevikan and stabbed him through the side. He knocked Zavid away before he grabbed Nick Two and held a dagger to his throat.

Nick and the others froze instantly.

“Stand down,” Ameretat ordered them all. He turned his glare to Simi. “And drop your barbecue sauce, demon.”

The look in her eyes said that she wanted to send out a blast of fire for him. Just as Nick was sure she would, she knelt down and placed her barbecue sauce bottle on the floor.

Simi tucked her wings down. “You an evil bad thing. The Simi’s going to enjoy the day she gets to eats that big old head of yours.”

“Please don’t hurt me,” Nick Two sobbed as he tried to pull Ameretat’s hand away from his throat. “I just want to go home to my parents. I don’t understand why I’m here. I can’t hurt anyone. I’ve never hurt anyone.”

“Shh!” Ameretat snarled in his ear. “You don’t speak!”

Caleb took a slow step forward. “Let him go, Ameretat. That’s not the Malachai you’re holding.”

“You think I don’t know that? But it is his body. His blood. His heart.”

“Yeah, and his shoes and shirt. What’s your point? None of that holds his power. That stays with his soul.”

Ameretat stepped back, dragging Nick Two with him. “But we both know his power without his blood is weak at best. And without his heart … he’s nothing more than a blind pup who can’t even find his mother’s teat to suckle.”

Nick screwed his face up in distaste. So not the image he wanted in his head. C’mon, Caleb. Pull out one of your miracles. Blast him through the wall.

Instead, the daeve kept talking. “You know you can’t kill him. It’d destroy the balance.”

Ameretat shrugged. “Everything will eventually end by his hand, anyway. What difference does it make if it’s now or a thousand years in the future? Either way, we all die.”

“Please!” Nick Two cried. “Just let me go. I’m not going to hurt anyone.”

“Oh shut up!” Ameretat plunged the dagger straight into Nick’s body.

Nick gasped as pain exploded through his chest while he watched the other Nick sink to the floor. It burned and ached so badly that he could barely breathe.

It’s over. I’m dying.

And there was nothing he could do.

Ameretat stepped back from his body and smiled at the others. “We’ve done it. We’ve ended the reign of the Malachai! Forever!”

“No!” Livia shrieked, crawling toward Nick’s body.

Xevikan and Zavid stood motionless as the Arelim withdrew. Simi made her way to Livia and they tried to heal Nick Two.

But there was nothing they could do.

Simi pulled the knife from his heart and tossed it aside. She gathered him into her arms so that she could rock him while he bled out. “Shh, don’t cry, little human. You go home soon and everything be okay.”

Coughing and wheezing, Nick Two clung to her while he wept.

Nick met Caleb’s gaze. At first, it was stone cold. Then, as Nick began to fade away, a slow, insidious smile curved Caleb’s lips. Nick couldn’t believe it. Caleb was actually happy that he was dying. And here he’d mistakenly thought they were friends. Family even.

Yet in the end, Caleb was thrilled to see him go.

Tears filled Nick’s eyes as he realized all the things he’d miss. All the things he’d planned to do that he would never be able to do now. All the things he should have said to the people who mattered in his life that he’d let go unsaid. But the worst was the pain he knew his mother would feel once she found out he was gone. She’d be alone in the world, with no one to watch over her.

And in that moment, he truly understood the love Kody must have felt for him. It was one thing to have someone say that they loved you, it was another to actually understand the sacrifice they’d made for you.

To know absolute grief and true regret firsthand.

Nick glanced over to Xevikan as his words to Ameretat about misery became crystal. In that moment, the magnitude of their shared pain hit him hard. They were all puppets and pawns who’d been placed into a game none of them really understood. A game with no rules and no boundaries.

Winner take all.

If I could have one more day, I would so make it count.

Death brought clarity. And in that moment, Nick realized that what he missed most was the fact that he’d never see Kody again. Never have a chance to prove to her that he could be more than what he’d been born for.

That even he, Nick Gautier, could defy his cursed destiny and become the man she and his mother thought him to be. Now he would never be able to do better for them.

Game over.

A tear slid from the corner of his eye as the darkness he’d fought so hard against claimed him for the final round.