Illusion

EPILOGUE

“All right, Xev,” Nick said, just outside the locked door. “Brace yourself. There’s no telling what we’re about to walk into. It could be bloody bloody.”

“I think I can take it, Mal—”

“Nnh! What did I tell you about using that name?”

“Gautier,” Xevikan corrected. “Believe me, I’ve been in much bloodier battles than this.”

“Doubtful. But keep up that bravery. We’re going to need it.”

Holding his arms out to the sides of his body and shaking them, Nick took several deep breaths for courage then loosened up his neck muscles. Man, he was terrified. But he wasn’t about to admit that out loud, and he couldn’t delay this any longer.

It had to be done.

He inclined his head to Xevikan. “Here we go.” He opened the door and stepped inside.

Nick had barely taken a step before the fiercest beast of all latched on to him with a Velcro-tight grip that no amount of strength could break. “Ma! Ma! Please, you’re killing me! I can’t breathe!”

Instead of loosening her hold, she only tightened it more. “Boo, I’ve been so worried about you. Are you all right?”

“Until you choked the life out of me, yeah.”

Tsking, she finally stepped back and stared up at him with a joyous smile that lit her entire face. Her long blond hair was pulled back into a wavy ponytail that made her look more like his older sister than his mother. Her blue eyes glistened with unshed tears. “You have no idea how scary it is to be trapped with Bubba and Mark in a storm.”

“Actually, it’s probably the safest place to be in New Orleans.”

She scoffed at that. “Did you know—” Her sentence broke off as she realized Nick wasn’t alone. A deep frown creased her brow while she took in Xevikan’s height and unorthodox appearance.

Both Nick and Zavid had tried their best to mask the boy’s multicolor hair, only to learn that part of his curse was that it couldn’t be changed. No matter what they did, the colors bled through.

“Are you Ash’s little brother?” she asked.

Xevikan raised a curious brow. “Ash?”

“A friend of mine,” Nick explained quickly. “No, Ma. This is Xev…” His voice trailed off.

Crap, somehow they’d forgotten to give him a last name.

“Daraxerxes.”

Wow, props to the Šarru-Dara for thinking fast on his feet. Not that Nick could have repeated that name if his life depended on it. “Um … yeah. What he said.” He stepped behind his mom to frown and mouth the name at Xevikan.

What kind of freaky moniker was that?

His mom smiled. “That’s absolutely beautiful, but quite a mouthful … says the woman with a last name no one can ever pronounce or spell correctly, including other Cajuns. Please say it again.”

Xevikan repeated it slowly. “Dah-rah Zuhr-cees.”

“Dara-zur-zur-cees?”

He grinned at her attempt. “Very good, Mrs. Gautier … I’m impressed. You did much better than most.”

“Thank you. Your accent is quite lovely, too, but I have no idea where it comes from.”

“It’s, um … I forget in English. Khvrvarn?”

His mother actually squirmed. “I’ve never heard of it.”

Now it was Xevikan’s turn to be uncomfortable as he looked to Nick for help, as if Nick had a clue where on a map that was. Most days, he could barely find New York state. “Um … it’s Mesopotamia? The land between the rivers?”

“Oh! Well, don’t I feel stupid, now. Sorry.”

“No, you should never apologize for such, Mrs. Gautier. I’m the one who couldn’t translate it correctly. It was my bad.”

His mom smiled again at his colloquialism that sounded extra weird through his heavy accent. “It’s always nice to meet one of Nick’s friends.” She took his hand and patted it kindly.

The moment she touched him, an unexpected tear slid down his cheek. Embarrassed, he pulled his hand away and wiped at it. “Forgive me.”

His mom frowned in concern. “Are you all right, sweetie?”

Nick wouldn’t have believed it, but the ancient being was as cowed by his tiny mother as everyone else.

Nodding, Xevikan looked about nervously. “I never had a mother so I don’t know what’s appropriate. Nick failed to warn me that you would be … warm and gentle.”

“Oh, you poor Boo!” His mother pulled him into her arms and held him tight about the waist.

Eyes wide, Xevikan appeared terrified as he held his arms out, away from her, over her shoulders.

Nick bit back a laugh at the sight of his tiny mother who barely reached mid-chest level on the fierce Šarru-Dara. She had absolutely no clue. “Just go with it, Xev. My mom mothers everything. She can’t help herself. And whatever you do, don’t take her to a pet store, especially not on adoption days.”

Making a sound of irritation, his mom pulled back and rubbed Xevikan’s arm. “Are you staying for dinner? I have chicken jambalaya almost ready and there’s more than plenty.”

“About that, Ma…”

She turned toward Nick. “What?”

“Xev’s place got flooded during the storm. Do you mind if he bunks here a few nights until it’s habitable again?” Or more to the point, until they found him someplace to live.

She drew her brows together into a puzzled expression. “Where’s your family?”

“I-I don’t have any.”

“Then how are you here?”

Nick jumped in with an answer before Xevikan accidentally outed them. “He’s on a student visa. Don’t worry, Mom, he’s not a serial killer. If he was, I wouldn’t have him near you. I promise I’ll keep him locked in my room. You won’t even know he’s here, and he’s not nearly as messy as I am.” At least, he hoped that was true.

She shook her head at him. “Of course, it’s fine for him to stay. You know I can’t stand to see anyone on hard times. Now let me go check on our dinner before it burns. Y’all get cleaned up and I’ll see you in a sec.”

Xevikan watched her leave with a longing in his eyes that wrenched Nick’s gut.

“You all right, buddy?”

Blinking, he nodded. “I now understand.”

“What?”

“Why you are who and what you are.” He locked gazes with Nick. And there in his eyes was a quiet longing Nick didn’t understand until he spoke a single question. “What is it like to be loved?”

“Don’t you know?”

He shook his head slowly.

Nick laughed, until he realized it wasn’t a joke. “C’mon, seriously. Brother? Father? Pet? You had to have family at some point. Right?”

“Yes, but we didn’t have love. We had honor, obligation, and responsibility. Nothing more.”

“Nothing? Is that why you betrayed them?”

His eyes turned as red as his hair. “I did not betray them,” he ground out between clenched teeth. “I was the one who was betrayed … by all of them.”

Nick held his hands up in surrender and to calm down the older being. “Okay, sorry. I heard a different version of the events. I’m not judging you. I wasn’t there. Consider me Switzerland.”

“Switzerland?”

Nick patted him on the arm. “We got a long way to go with your education.” He jerked his chin toward the hallway. “C’mon, I’ll show you to my room.”

Xevikan followed even while he kept waiting for something terrible to happen. For Nick to turn on him and lunge for his throat.

Or bury a dagger in his back.

After all, Caleb had welcomed Zavid and Livia in to stay in his home, but he’d mercilessly thrown Xevikan out of his house and told them both that Xevikan would never be allowed there again.

Though to be honest, everything considered, it was a much kinder expulsion than the last one Caleb had given him. He wasn’t bleeding nearly as badly this time.

Inside or out.

“And this is the bathroom.” Nick opened the door.

Sweeping his gaze over the room, Xevikan had no idea what anything inside there was. “I assume you bathe in here?”

“Um … yeah.”

“Then where’s the pool?”

Nick grimaced. “Ah man…” He sighed heavily. “We don’t have a pool. You bathe in the bathtub or shower.” He showed him how to use it. “You do your business in the toilet, use some TP and then flush it or my mom will kill us both. Understood?”

“Understood.”

“And you wash your hands here.” Nick illustrated how the sink worked and where the soap was kept.

“Got it now. Thank you.”

“No problem.” Nick headed back to his room across the hallway.

Xevikan took a moment to experiment with the wall switch and lights. He had a lot to learn about this human world. He hadn’t been free in more centuries than he could count.

And so much had changed.… But for his powers, he’d have no way of understanding their language or anything else. Yet for all his abilities, he had a lot of gaps in his knowledge, as Nick was proving repeatedly.

I will make do. He always had. Still, he felt lost. Unsure. Hatred and anger, he was used to.

Kindness …

That was scary stuff.

Turning the light off, Xevikan headed back to Nick’s room, to find him on the phone.

“Caleb, there has to be some spell or something to bring her back. I don’t care what it takes. We can’t leave her stranded. I want my girl. I miss her.”

“Nick!” his mother shouted suddenly.

He covered the phone with his hand. “Coming, Ma.” Glancing at Xevikan, he returned to his call. “I have to go. But we have to find something. Fast. Talk to you later.” He hung up.

“Your girl?” Xevikan asked as Nick slid the phone into his pocket.

Nick let out a sad sigh that was nothing compared to the pain in his blue eyes. “Kody was left stranded on the other side when I returned to this realm. She helped me reach home and now there’s no one to free her.”

He related to that a lot more than he wanted to. It was an awful feeling to be imprisoned in an unknown dimension. Alone. Afraid. Ignorant of its rules and customs. “Is she human?”

Nick shook his head. “A ghost.”

That was the last category Xevikan had expected. “Your girl is a ghost?”

“Yeah, I know. My life is really messed up. And so are most of the people in it. But I don’t mind.” Nick swallowed hard. “I wouldn’t have made it back here without Kody, and I can’t leave her there alone. I owe her too much to just walk away while she needs me.”

“I see.”

Nick headed for the hallway, then paused as he realized Xevikan wasn’t following after him. “Something wrong?”

“I need a minute. Is that all right?”

“Yeah, sure. We’ll be in the kitchen. Don’t wait too long or I might scarf up all the jambalaya. No one makes a better batch than my mom.”

Xevikan waited until he was alone before he shut the door. As he turned, he caught sight of himself in the dresser mirror and winced. No wonder Mrs. Gautier had reacted to him the way she had. He was hideous like this. His family had left him with nothing.

Not even his dignity.

If only they’d listened. But no, they’d been too angry to hear anything more than their own condemnation. He’d been used and then thrown away as if he was nothing more than useless, unwanted rubbish.

Nick and his mother, alone, had treated him as if he mattered. They had finally given him a modicum of dignity. He wasn’t sure how much of his powers were left. His family had stripped the majority of them from him when they cast him out. And the Malachai who’d enslaved him had taken his own toll on them.

But maybe, just maybe, he might be able to repay Nick’s kindness.

Closing his eyes, he mustered as much as he could and allowed his conscious spirit to leave his body and traverse through realms he used to travel effortlessly.

It took several minutes before he was able to gain his bearings. He’d forgotten how dizzying it could be. How disconcerting.

“Kody!” he mentally called, trying to find the right spirit.

“I’m Kody. You are?”

He turned toward the demon and shook his head. “You’re not the one I seek.”

“But I could be.”

Shaking his head at her offer, he drifted away from her and kept searching. It seemed to take forever as he retraced Nick’s path to the other side.

He was just about to give up when something struck him hard between his shoulders.

Hissing in pain, he turned toward his attacker, ready to battle. Until he saw the small Arel who was glaring at him. Instantly, he remembered what Zavid had told him about Nick’s girlfriend, and it all made sense. “Kody?”

“You are not overtaking this world!” She rushed him.

Xevikan ducked and twisted away from her. “I’m not trying to take over.”

“Don’t lie to me. You’re the Šarru-Dara! I can smell it on you.”

“And you are Nick’s Kody.”

She retreated a step. “How do you know that?”

“I’ve come to return you to him.”

Suspicion clouded her green eyes. “You can’t do that. I can’t go back there. Ever.”

“Yes, you can. I have the power to restore you.”

“As what? Your blood slave? Forget it!”

He laughed at her assumptions. “I can’t enslave a ghost. You have no true blood with which to feed me.”

“Oh. There is that.” She screwed her face up as she continued to watch him warily. “Then how can you take me back?”

“I can pull your spirit with mine.”

“Only a god can do that.”

He forced himself not to react to her words. “I can do it, too.” He held his hand out to her. “Trust me, Kody.”

“Why should I trust the Šarru-Dara?”

“For the same reason you trust the Malachai.”

She snorted at him. “You make all kinds of sense, don’t you?”

“Only on occasion.” Still, he held his hand out in invitation, waiting to see if she’d spit on him like everyone else. Honestly, he couldn’t blame her if she did. Trust wasn’t something he was familiar with either.

She stared at his proffered limb. “Swear to me that this isn’t a trick.”

“Are you willing to believe me if I do?”

“Strangely, I think I am.”

“Then I swear. It’s not a trick, Kody. I will take you home to Nick.”

She stepped forward and placed her palm against his. For a full minute, Xevikan couldn’t breathe at the warm softness in his hand. It’d been centuries since anyone had touched him for any reason other than to cause him pain.

First Cherise.

Now Kody.

In that moment, he hated Nick for what he took for granted. Unlike all the ones who’d come before him, the Ambrose Malachai had no idea what it was like to exist in solitude. To be truly despised and betrayed by everyone. To have no friends.

No family.

But Xevikan knew. And it hurt to a level unimaginable.

Unable to resist the impulse, he closed his eyes and pulled her hand to his cheek to savor the sweet scent of her warm, soft skin.

She shifted nervously. “Um … excuse me, Mr. Šarru-Dara? What are you doing?”

He wanted to hold her there forever. But she didn’t belong to him. Or even with him.

Opening his eyes, he lowered her hand and pulled her back with him, through the darkness. As he returned to his body, she was almost ripped from his grasp, but he refused to let the others take her.

An act of kindness deserved an act of kindness. It didn’t deserve to be heartbroken. For Nick, alone, he would defy them all.

Even his parents.

No one would take this woman from the Malachai. Not without a brutal fight.

And once Xevikan was restored, fully, there would be plenty of paybacks to come. But that would have to wait.

First he had this to take care of.

Finally, he got her through in one piece. Unscathed. He released her hand and left her to stand by the bed as he merged his spirit back into his physical bondage.

He gasped out loud the moment his spirit reunited with his body. He’d forgotten how much pain his wounds had left him with. That brief respite from the physical realm cost him now as he struggled to breathe.

“Are you all right?”

Stumbling against the wall, he barely heard Kody. “I just need a moment.”

“You’re shaking.”

His breathing ragged, he doubled over in absolute agony. It hurt so much, his teeth chattered. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t bring it under control.

“Are you bleeding?”

He must have reopened the wound on his return. “It’ll stop.” Eventually. At least the external injuries would.

“Let me see.” She pulled at his shirt.

“No!” he snarled, but it was too late. She’d already seen his shame that had been branded into his flesh.

“You’re cursed.”

He glared at her. “Aren’t we all?” He pulled away and sank to the floor so that he could steady his breathing and acclimate to the pain of his wounds.

“What are you?” she breathed. “Really?”

He met her gaze without flinching. “As you said, my lady … Cursed.” Finally, the pain overwhelmed him. Before he could stop it, it dragged him back to the darkness he hated with every molecule of his being.

“Hey, Xev, what’s keep…” Nick’s voice trailed off as he opened the door and saw the last thing he expected.

Kody, in the middle of his room.

A million emotions ripped him apart and froze him to the spot as their gazes met and locked. But the most overwhelming one was joy at seeing her there.

How was this possible?

“Are you real?” His voice trembled with the fear that this was another illusion. That he’d reach to touch her and she’d vanish.

Tears flooded those beautiful green eyes. “I’m real.” She ran to him and hugged him tight.

Nick trembled as he buried his face in her hair and inhaled the most precious scent on the planet. He rubbed his face against the silken strands. “How? Simi said you couldn’t come back.”

She pulled away to kiss him, then gestured toward Xevikan. “I don’t know how, but he rescued me.”

Flabbergasted, Nick released her and ran to check on his new friend. “Xev?”

He came awake slugging.

Nick barely had time to duck out of the way.

Snarling, Xevikan rolled into a crouching position, ready to attack. His eyes feral, he glanced around as if looking for something that wanted to eat him.

“Xev! You’re safe. It’s me, Nick.”

Finally, he calmed down and relaxed even while he remained on all fours. “Did I pass out?”

“Yeah. You okay?”

He sat down on the floor. Leaning his head back against the wall, he closed his eyes. “I can’t die.”

“Not the same thing.”

“Sure it is.”

Kody pulled the blanket from the foot of Nick’s bed and tucked it around Xevikan. “Thank you.”

He licked his lips. “Just repaying a debt. We’re even now, Malachai.”

Nick shook his head in denial. “No, Xev. We’re not.” He laced his fingers with Kody. “What you did for me … for Kody, I can never repay.”

“As I said, Malachai, we are even.”

But Nick knew better. And though he didn’t know how, he was going to make this right for his newfound friend.

“You want me to bring your dinner to you?”

“I don’t want to be rude to your mother.”

“Dude, you’re bleeding. I don’t think you should be moving around right now. Just rest and I’ll be back in a few minutes with a plate.”

Pulling the blanket tighter, he nodded. “Thank you.”

Nick hesitated as he brushed the back of his hand against Kody’s cheek. “You want me to bring you some, too?”

“Please. I’m starving.”

He gave her a light kiss before he left them alone.

Kody bit her lip as she turned back toward the Šarru-Dara and a weird feeling went through her. He had a presence that was unmistakable and it wasn’t just the fact that he was a member of the ušumgallu.

This was very different.

And very scary.

“Nick called you Xev?”

He nodded. “I’m Xevikan.”

Absolute horror filled her at the name of a creature who was only half a step less deadly to the world’s future than a Malachai.

Please, please, let me be wrong.

“Xevikan,” she repeatedly slowly. “Or is it Daraxerxes?”

His gaze snapped to hers and held it prisoner. “How do you know my title?”

Kody stumbled back, away from the creature on the floor. Dear gods, Nick, what have you done while I was gone?

Her boyfriend had not only opened the gates of hell, he’d just unleashed the most dangerous ancient god of all time.