Invincible

CHAPTER 18

It wasn’t many people who got inspirational speeches from demons. Nick counted himself lucky in that regard.

Or cursed.

“C’mon, Nick,” he said to himself. “Concentrate.” He supposedly had all these untapped powers just waiting to be carefully unleashed. It was time he learned to use them.

Barely one hour ago, another fourteen-year-old had been found murdered only three blocks north of Sanctuary—same style with the peculiar emblem around his body.

His coach was planning on delivering all their souls up to his boss like the cherry on a special homemade chocolate sundae so that Devus could move on and repeat his offenses again and again.

Well, Nick Gautier was no cherry and he was no fool.

Honestly, he didn’t know what he was anymore, but he couldn’t stand by and let anyone else die or become a victim. Not if he could help it. It was time to fight, and fighting was the one thing he understood well.

“You can do this.” He clenched his fist tight around the cord and thought as hard as he could.

It was useless. Grim’s lessons were more aggravating than helpful. Frustrated, he started to lower his hand, only to feel a warm presence next to him. The room was bathed with a soft, glowing light that seemed to emanate the sensation of a mother’s love and acceptance. It was so comforting, he wanted to lose himself in it.

Kody appeared by his side with her feet tucked up under her. “You can do this, Nick.” She smiled at him, and his insides danced. Dog, if she wasn’t the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. She always looked so sweet and inviting.

“Hi,” he whispered, half-afraid he was dreaming and that she’d vanish on him.

Her smile widened. “Hi.”

Kody knew what her job was. Keep Nick straight or deliver his head on a platter to the powers who commanded her. But every time she looked into those dark blue eyes of his, she lost a part of herself to them.

A part of herself to him.

He was a hard man not to love. All that power wrapped in the body of someone who was still unsure and vulnerable. Someone who always put others’ needs above his own. He wouldn’t teach himself his powers to serve his own interests. It was to protect others that he sat here in utter frustration.

She closed her hands around his. “You’re trying to force it.”

“I need it to work. Don’t have time for bull crap.”

She gave him a chiding glance. Her brothers had always been like him, too, blindly forcing their way whenever they ran into opposition.

You see where that got them.

She forced her pain aside. This wasn’t about them and the stupidity that had damned them both and ruined all their lives. A stupidity that had almost ended the world.

This was about Nick and his current idiocy. “And if you’re building a bookcase and you break the nail in half because it won’t obey you, what do you have?”

“Splinters.”

She smiled. “Indeed.”

Nick shivered as she leaned against him and held his hand in hers. She had the softest skin he’d ever felt. Like warm velvet.

“Close your eyes.”

Her breath tickled his skin as he obeyed her.

“Now, picture in your mind what you want to know and then listen to the universe as it speaks to you.”

He tried, but right now all he could really focus on was how good she felt against him. Oh yeah, I’m twisted.

“Are you getting anything?”

Um, yeah, but he wasn’t about to go there. “I’m never going to make this work.”

She dropped their entwined hands, then took the hematite into her palm as if to test its heft. “Maybe the pendulum isn’t your thing.”

“What do you mean?”

“Everyone’s different. What works for one doesn’t always work for another.” She held her hands out in front of her and cupped them so that they formed a ball in her lap. She whispered in a beautiful language he couldn’t decipher. But it was one he could listen to all day. Especially with the sweet musical cadence of her voice.

As he watched, a strange blue light emanated from her hands. It pulsed like electricity, then swirled around until it began to form a shape. After a minute, the mist became a dark gray, almost black mirror. But the surface wasn’t glass. It appeared more iridescent and fluid.

She held it out to him. “It’s a scrying mirror. Try it.”

Still skeptical, he took it into his hands. “What do I do with it?”

“It’s a window to the universe. Empty your mind and look into it. It’ll show you everything you need to know and everything you seek.”

His luck, the only thing it’d show him was that he had something stuck between his teeth.

Or worse. Something hanging out of his nose.

Cringing at the mere thought of that horror, he did as she said. The moment he did, he immediately saw the mirror begin to smoke. He started to drop it, but Kody wouldn’t let him.

“It’s okay, Nick. Watch it.”

His skepticism faded as shapes began to take form and move. At first, he couldn’t identify them, but one by one they clarified until he could hear voices in his head. Wow, it was like watching TV or a closed-circuit camera. He saw people he knew and some he didn’t. One scene quickly blended into another, shifting and changing so fast, it was dizzying. “What am I looking at?”

“Your device.” She put her hands over the images. “This is the one you’ll be strongest with. The one that spoke to you the moment you touched it. Your divination gift is scrying not dowsing.”

Finally, he had something he could actually do. Grim’s lessons had begun to make him feel defective and inadequate. But this …

This he understood. It was just like when he’d looked into Kyrian’s car window.

The light in the room grew brighter.

Scowling, he met Kody’s gaze. “Why is the room alive?”

“It’s my shield around us. Since you’re unused to your powers, every time you really tap them and they flow through you, you send out a homing beacon to others of our ilk. It’s why Caleb threw you into the locker. Because you’re so strong, preternatural beings are drawn to you. But you don’t have the skills to protect yourself or fight them yet. Which means for now you’re their yummy treat. If they kill you while you’re weak, they can absorb those powers and use them for themselves.”

Oh, goody. “That would be bad.”

“Extremely bad, depending on who kills you.”

Those words stabbed him again as his insecurities swallowed him whole. I’m not ready for this.… He looked at her and admitted to her the one thing he’d never admitted to another living soul. “I’m scared, Kody.”

“You should be. But at the same time, you have me and Caleb and Simi, who will do anything to help you. We’re not going to let you get hurt.”

If only he had the same faith in himself. More than that, he didn’t know whom he could really trust. Everyone told him to trust someone else. His gut had its own opinion.

And all of it confused him.

“How do you handle all of this?” he asked her, needing to know how long it would take for him to feel normal again.

“I was born knowing who and what I am. You’re like an infant who just became self-aware. While you’re talking and walking, you still don’t know that the hot burner will scar you or that knives will cut you. You have to be taught the dangers of our world. The predators and serpents who lie in wait, hoping for a chance to sink their fangs into you.” She put both his hands on the mirror. “You’re stronger than anyone I’ve ever known, Nick. And I believe in you.”

When she talked like that, he could almost believe in himself, too.

Squeezing her hand, he took the mirror from her and studied it again. He saw his own reflection at first, and then the images returned. They appeared shadowy and ambiguous. Then more focused. With more clarity.

It took him a full minute to realize he was staring at the past. As Kody had said, it was as if he were watching through a window or like the proverbial fly on the wall.

He saw Devus in an old Victorian suit sitting at a large round table in what appeared to be an office of some sort with several men who were laughing at him.

“Second best is all you’ll ever be, Walter. You might as well accept it.”

Devus raked him with a sneer. “I assure you, Theodore, we’ll win the game. You can bet your millions on it.”

Theodore flicked his cigar ash toward Devus as he cast a scoffing glance at the others. “You were ever a dreamer, my boy. Ever a dreamer.” The older man got up and motioned for the others to follow. Which they did. Their actions reminded him of a group of puppies following their leader.

Devus was so upset, he appeared on the verge of tears. All of a sudden, he began to throw things and overturn the furniture in the room. He ripped leather-bound books from their shelves and tore at his own hair. “I will win,” he ground out between clenched teeth. “If I have to kill every player on the team to do it … I will win.”

When he went to smash the mirror on the wall, he froze. There gazing at him was his own reflection, but with a calm expression, not the crazed one he currently wore.

“Did you mean what you said?” it asked him.

He set down the marble paperweight he’d intended to toss at the glass. “About what?”

“Will you kill every player to win?”

He sputtered for several seconds, his eyes truly panicked. “Who are you?”

“I’m someone who can make it happen. But I need to know if you’re quite serious. Otherwise, I’m wasting my time, and that is one thing I will never do.” The image started to fade.

“No! Wait!”

When it returned with an arched brow, Devus licked his lips. “I—I—I meant it.”

“Then prove it.”

“How?”

“If you are serious, I’ll need a heart brought to me. One freshly carved from the body of a fourteen-year-old child.”

Devus gasped in horror. “No. I can’t.”

“Too bad, then. The satisfaction of winning will go to another.” The image went away.

“Come back!”

It didn’t.

Devus sat there, shaking his head, pawing at the glass to see if maybe he’d imagined it. “I’ve gone crazy. I know it. And yet…”

Nick could see the gears working in Devus’s mind as he debated what to do. He couldn’t believe the coach would even consider it. Was the man insane?

He had to be.

The smoke from his scrying mirror swirled again as it showed other images. Horrific images.

Appalled and sickened, Nick turned his head as the coach stalked an innocent girl who was making her way home after work from a factory job. In a dark alley in downtown Atlanta, the coach cruelly strangled her, then removed her heart.

For a moment, Nick thought he’d vomit. How could anyone be so cold? So brutal? Any sympathy he might have had for Devus was gone, and in its place was a harsh, cold conviction.

Devus had taken his last life. This madness was going to stop here and now.

Kody watched as Nick struggled not to be sick. As he kept his head turned away from the grisly actions of the coach. That gave her hope. He wasn’t curious or interested in the brutality at all. He was disgusted—as any normal person would be.

In fact, he didn’t watch again until the coach had returned to the mirror with the girl’s heart inside a wooden box. And even then, Nick cringed.

Please let me save you, Nick. Please. Stay like this so that I won’t have to kill you. She had enough blood on her hands. She didn’t want any more.

Kody turned her attention back to the coach as he made a bargain he should never have made.

Devus opened the lid to show his enchanted mirror what he’d done. There was no missing the proud glint in his eyes. The hopeful swagger of a man who would achieve his goal at any cost. “Is this good enough?”

The image in the mirror smiled. “Perfect. Better than I’d hoped.”

“Then tell me what to do to win.”

“You will have to gather a single, very personal item from each one of the players.” The image in the mirror reached out with one hand to give Devus a red velvet bag. “Put their items into this.”

Devus took it and nodded as the arm curled back into the mirror. “Then what?”

“You will burn wormwood and arsenic mixed with basil and cedar. Put those ashes in the bag with your players’ personal items, and then at three a.m. on the morning when you’re to play, you will spread them over the heart you took as a sacrifice. So long as you keep the box with you for the whole of the day, you will be invincible. Nothing can harm you, and no bad luck will befall you. Your team will play as they’ve never played before, and you will be victorious.”

“You swear this to me?”

“I do, but don’t be so happy, Coach. For this all comes with a steep price.”

Devus’s brow furrowed with confusion. “I’ve already killed a girl. What more is there?”

The mirror image tsked at him. “Her heart is only the catalyst for your players to do their best. That has nothing to do with your payment.”

He swallowed in trepidation. “And that is?”

“Your life.”

His face went completely white. “What?”

“You will have fame, Coach. Just as you wanted. A brilliant win over your opponents. I’ll even be kind and give you an evening to bask in that victory. But come noon the next day, you and your players must die together. Imagine the news coverage then. Oh, the tragedy of champions dying on the heels of their great success. You’ll be legendary. Over and over again.”

Devus gulped heavily. “That’s not what I want. I didn’t sign on for that.”

There was no pity in the mirror’s eyes. “Yes, you did. You should have asked the terms before you made your contract. Have you never been told to read the fine print?”

Devus’s hands shook uncontrollably. “It’s not fair.”

“Life never is. But don’t despair. Unlike your players, you won’t stay dead.”

“What do you mean?”

“That is your bargain, Walter. So long as you gather souls for me, I won’t take yours. However, if you fail to deliver the winning team to me by noon, you will suffer unimaginable torment for the rest of eternity. Do you understand?”

He nodded.

“Good. Now, be a good boy and don’t lose your heart.”

Nick pulled back from the scene with his stomach knotted and his fury hot. How dare the coach make a pact like that. And for what?

Vanity?

He’d never understand it.

Kody sighed, drawing his attention to her. “Well, now we know how it all began.”

Nick opened his mouth to respond to that, but before he could, images started playing through his head. They came fast and furious, as they’d done in the mirror. And just as in the mirror, he had no control over them. It made him dizzy and nauseated.

Oh, the pain …

Gasping, he lay on the floor and pressed the heel of his hand to his eye, trying to alleviate some of misery. It felt as if his brain would literally explode.

“Nick?” Kody sucked her breath in sharply as she watched him convulse on the floor.

What was happening? What should she do?

She didn’t sense him being under attack by anything, and yet that’s what he acted like. Had she accidentally unleashed something on him? The very thought terrified her.

“Nick?” she tried again.

Again he didn’t respond.

She thickened her protection in the room, just in case. It was so tight now, nothing could breach it. She pulled Nick’s head into her lap and held him, hoping whatever had him would let go.

Nick heard the girl’s voice in his head. Julianne … She was talking to him in a tone that sounded like Madaug’s little brother. High-pitched and painful.

Free me, she begged him. Please. I don’t want to hurt anyone else. I want to go to my rest and be left alone. Why won’t he go away? It’s been so long, and I’m so very tired.

It was the girl Devus had murdered. She …

Something thick and warm went through his veins. It wasn’t like the other times when his powers had seized him. This was different. For once, he felt like he had control of it. Like he could channel and direct it.

Closing his eyes, he tried to focus.

Kody gasped and pulled away as she saw an orange aura engulf Nick’s entire body. It was a demon’s essence, and it made the hair on the back of her neck rise.

When he opened his eyes to look up at her, they were no longer blue. They were a vibrant lavender. The kind that didn’t belong to a human.

“You have to teach me how to raise the dead.” His voice was low and deep, and sounded nothing like the Nick she knew.

She blinked twice as her mind wrapped itself around his request. “It’s forbidden.”

His voice calmed down to its normal cadence as he pushed himself up to face her. “No, it’s not. It’s ill advised. But the only way to stop this is to let the girl confront her killer. She wants to be free, and I think we should let her.”

Kody shook her head. “We can’t do that, Nick. You’re not strong enough, and you have no idea what doors that will open. Doors that don’t shut easily.”

She’s lying to you.

Nick groaned as an unfamiliar voice filled his head. “Who are you?”

It didn’t say.

But he’d felt it and honestly, he was tired of having Grand Central Station for a head. People, things, animals. Keep out! The station was closed for business. Go haunt somewhere else.

Kody put her hand on his forehead to check for a fever. “I’m Kody. Are you all right?”

He gave her a no duh look. “I wasn’t talking to you. I hear voices in my head.”

“What do they sound like?”

He struck himself against his ear in an effort to try to clear it. “I can’t explain it exactly. I … My powers are slipping. I can feel them. They…” His words ended with a fierce groan as his insides twisted until he couldn’t breathe.

Kody panicked as she saw his eyes changing again. His skin was marbling and swirling. She had to do something fast or she’d lose him.

“Look at me, Nick!”

He ignored her.

She had to calm him down and force those powers to recede. Get his thoughts to focus on something other than his pain. With no better thought, she kissed him.

Nick shuddered at the sensation of Kody’s mouth on his. And as he tasted those full, soft lips, an inexplicable calm came over his entire being. He felt like he was floating. Cupping her face in his hands, he let the warmth of her mouth soothe him until he could think straight again.

In one act, she’d cured his headache and grounded him back in this reality.

Pulling back, he stared at her. “Thank you.”

She inclined her head. “Anytime. Now, can you explain to me what you heard?”

“No. Not really. At first it was the murdered girl, Julianne.”

She appeared less than convinced. “Are you sure it was her?”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s extremely simple for a demon to appear as a dead person. It takes very little energy, and it’s an easy way to motivate people to do things. Go to someone in the guise of a loved one or child, and they’ll do most anything you bid them. Think of it like a cheat code.”

Nick didn’t care for the thoughts of that, but at least he understood what she was getting at. “You’re right. She could have been lying. But I don’t think so. One thing I’ve learned in my life is that nothing is ever easy. And the mirror Devus thing even warned him not to lose the girl’s heart. I’m telling you, Kody. The key to this is the girl whose death started it.”

He could see the reluctance in her eyes before she banished it. “You’re right. In order to undo things, you usually have to go to where they started. But…”

“But what?”

“You’re talking about necromancy, Nick. That’s not something to play with, and it’s not something you learn in a few hours or days. Necromancers are a different breed entirely.”

“How so?”

“To do what they do, they lose a part of their soul every time. And you are talking about the darkest part of evil. It’s not just the reanimation of the vessel—making the body move again. You have to reunite the soul, which means you’re ripping that soul out of wherever it’s gone to. And if it’s been reborn … I don’t think anything or anyone can touch it. But again, I don’t know. I don’t go there. For real good reasons.”

He begged her with his eyes. “But you know someone who does—”

She remained firm in her conviction to avoid this catastrophe. “No, I don’t.”

“But you know someone who knows someone.”

His persistence was as annoying as it was playful and cute. Ugh! She was the train derailing, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

If she knew anything about Nick, it was that he was stubborn. There was no way she could sway him from this.

“We both know that someone. C’mon, grab your jacket and let’s go to Caleb’s.”

Pacing in front of his giant marble foyer, which was so elaborate, it made Kyrian’s look like a pauper’s, Caleb glared at Nick and then Kody. “Are you out of your collective minds? I swear I can’t leave you two alone for three seconds that you don’t go off and hurt yourselves.” He narrowed his gaze on Nick. “I expect stupid out of you, but you—” He turned on Kody then. “—know better.”

She shrugged helplessly. “I tried to tell him that. He won’t listen to me. Tag. You’re it.”

Facing Nick, Caleb gestured toward her. “Listen to her, Nick.”

Nick wasn’t trying to be difficult. He wasn’t. He understood their panic and concerns, and he was grateful for it. But he knew what he’d seen and heard. “You two listen to me for once. While I may not be as well versed in this as you are, I do know what I saw. You two and everyone else keep telling me to learn my powers—arr, learn my powers—” He imitated a parrot before he continued on in his normal tone. “—and then when I do, you tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about.” He slung his hands out in surrender. “Fine. You win. I quit. You two deal with this. I’m going home. Packing up all my personal items, and when you, Caleb, end up dead because the coach has your jockstrap or something else I didn’t steal but someone else did, don’t call me. I’m done and I’m going to hide in a bunker until all of this is over with.” He started for the door, but the moment he reached it, it locked in his face.

“I hate you, Nick,” Caleb drawled.

“Feels mutual, Demon.”

With a sigh of irritation, Caleb turned to Kody. “Do you really think this is wise?”

“Not at all. But I have no better idea. Do you?”

“I feel like I’m about to enter a Monty Python skit,” Caleb muttered as he pulled out his phone and then dialed it. He glared at them while it rang and rang and rang.

Grimacing at the delay, Nick glanced toward Kody. “Do necromancers not have voice mail?”

She shrugged.

“Hey,” Caleb said finally. “It’s Malphas.… Yeah, been a long time and I need a favor. How far are you from New Orleans?”

Nick could hear a deep voice on the other end, but he couldn’t make out any individual words.

“All right. I’ll see you then.” Caleb hung up the phone and continued to grimace at them. “He’ll be here in a few hours.”

“Where’s he coming from?” Nick asked.

“Wouldn’t say and I know better than to pry.” He rubbed the line of his eyebrow. “You two better know what you’re doing.”

Kody turned on Nick then. “For the record, Nick. Using the mirror shouldn’t scare you. This should.”

“Stop complaining,” Nick said “I know, all right? I’ve either made a huge mistake or ended this. Instead of expending our energy on so much negativity, why don’t we do something positive?”

“Like what? Pull the arms off Nick until he cries like a girl?”

Kody laughed.

Needless to say, Nick didn’t find Caleb’s sarcasm amusing. “Thanks for selling me out,” he said to Kody.

She sobered. “I haven’t done that yet, but the night’s still young.”

And they had school tomorrow. Nick checked his watch. “Crap. I need to head back home.”

Caleb contradicted him. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Any chance your mom would let you stay over for the night?”

“If I tell her we’re studying, she might.”

Caleb scoffed. “We are studying. Ways to survive the next few hours. It’s a really important subject, too.”

Nick couldn’t agree more. Pulling out his phone, he called his mom, who was still on the clock at Sanctuary.

“Hey, baby, whatcha need?”

“Can I spend the night over at Caleb’s house? We’re working on a project together and I need more time.”

“Nick.” Her voice was full of suspicious irritation. “You know I don’t like for you to do that on a school night.”

“I know, Mom. And I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t really, really, really important. Please?”

She made a noise at him. “Fine. Don’t forget to brush your teeth.”

“I won’t.”

“Call me if you need me.”

“I will.”

“All right. Tell me you love me, and I’ll let you go.”

His face turned red hot as he gave Caleb and Kody his back. “I love you,” he whispered.

She made a kissing sound at him before she hung up.

Nick passed a sullen glare to Caleb. “Not one word.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it. And I have to say that I’m impressed.”

“By what?”

“Your mom didn’t grill us this time.”

Nick snorted. “That’s ’cause she already did that and you passed. Be grateful.”

Kody swung her arms in front and behind her body so that she could clap her hands together. “So, gentlemen? What are we going to do for the next few hours?”

Nick smiled as he had a brilliant idea. “Hey, Caleb, any chance you have a system and some games lying around in this sprawling mansion of yours?”

“You know it. Name it and I have it.”

Nick was in the middle of pwning Caleb for the three thousandth time when the doorbell suddenly rang.

All three of them jumped out of their skins.

Kody covered her heart with her hand. “Guess that’s our friend.”

Caleb used his powers to flash himself downstairs to let him in.

Nick took the more human route and walked through the house until he reached the landing that looked down below. From the way Caleb and Kody had carried on, he’d expected some huge, hulking long-coat-wearing brute of a mountain man to appear.

But the guy who strode inside was anything but.

Dressed in a pair of loose-fitting olive green cargo pants, and a thin black T-shirt, he appeared extremely normal. His hair was a little long and a lot of shaggy, but the brown waves with the blond highlights were fashionable enough. He had his hands in his pockets, and a dark brown canvas messenger bag was hung across his body.

As Nick headed down the stairs, he realized that the guy also had on a pair of worn-out Birkenstocks. And a thin braided anklet of green and black thread.

While he had good muscle definition, he was more lean than beefy. Still, he was a typical man in his late twenties to early thirties with mirrored aviator sunglasses and an unassuming air about him.

At least until Nick drew closer. Then everything changed. You could feel the power emanating from him like an overcharged battery. Nick even swore he could hear the hum of it. And that wasn’t the only thing to make a brave man run. He was covered with scars and burn marks and tattoos. Like a combat vet who’d been tortured by his enemies.

Nick hesitated.

Caleb cleared his throat before he introduced them. “Xenon, meet Nick Gautier.”

Nick grimaced. “Xenon? What kind of name is that?”

“The only kind I answer to.” His voice was deep and gravelly, like he didn’t use it often. And as Nick closed the distance, Xenon approached him with a scowl. He raked his body slowly from top to bottom. Not in a rude way, but in a very thorough one. “Aren’t you an enigma wrapped in a thick coating of contradictions.”

Caleb snorted, “Don’t eat the help, X. We need him.”

“Pity.” Xenon reached up and pulled his sunglasses off and then put them in a case inside his messenger bag. As he did that, Nick saw the tattoos on his hand. His left knuckles each carried one letter that spelled EASY. This right spelled HARD.

Nick laughed. “Cool tattoo. Does it have any special meaning?”

“Pray you never find out.” Ignoring Nick, he turned his attention to Caleb. “What’s the situation?”

Nick drifted back to where Kody stood on the bottom stair. She had her arms crossed over her chest, letting him know how uncomfortable she was. She didn’t say it, but he could hear it loud and clear in her body language.

He creeps me out.

“So how long will it take you to set up?” Caleb asked.

“Two days.”

“You have one.”

“You can’t rush me, Malphas. It’s more an art than a science. And if I screw this up … you know the consquences.”

“Yeah. Still having flashbacks.”

“Flashbacks? I’m still having therapy.” Xenon’s tone was flat and dry. “Where do I do this?”

Caleb led him to the study on the right side of the front door.

While they did whatever they were doing, Nick looked at Kody. “Are we … What exactly are we?”

She lifted a quizzical brow. “We who?”

“You and me. What exactly is going on between us?”

She fell silent for a few minutes as she thought it over. “I honestly don’t know. I like you. A lot.”

That was good to know. “But?” He dreaded her answer, even though he had to have one.

“We shouldn’t be so familiar.”

“You’re the one who keeps kissing me.”

Her face flamed bright red. “I know. I’ve got to stop tripping and falling on your mouth all the time.”

“Ah … so that’s what it was?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Of course it was.”

He felt crushed by her words. “Glad you told me. Now I know.”

As he started away from her, she pulled him to a stop. “Let’s just take this one day at a time, okay? See where it takes us.”

“I’m young. I’m good with that.” He fell to his knees, and pretended to whimper and cry out in pain. “I’m going to die old and alone. Every loser in high school has a girl, but me. Why? Why?”

“Are you off your medication?”

Nick winked at her as he stood back up. “I must be ’cause I’ve been hallucinating all day long.”

She shook her head and started for him. But she’d taken only a step when something slammed into the front door.

They exchanged a bemused scowl while Caleb came out of his study to answer it.

The moment the door was opened, a swarm of demons burst in and attacked.