Inferno (6 page)

“Yes, ma’am,” Bubba said, standing down.

Nick started for the back, then stumbled.

Bubba caught him and all but carried him to a chair. “Hey, boy? You all right?”

Nodding, Nick tried to get his bearings, but everything spun with a vicious frenzy. It was like time had slipped out of sync or something. Everything moved slow and fast at the same time. He heard the voices of the ether whispering all around him. Some were threatening and some were shrill. Together, they made a cacophony so confusing that it only made his dizziness worse.

All of a sudden, through the spinning haze, he smelled something absolutely foul. It was so bad, he choked and coughed. Hard.

But it brought everything into sharp focus. Bubba, Caleb, Dr. Burdette, and Mark were huddled around him.

Mark pulled his hand back from Nick’s face. “See! Duck urine isn’t just zombie cover, it doubles as smelling salts.”

Nick coughed even harder, then cleared his throat. “That’s the nastiest crap on the planet, Mark. Please don’t ever do that again. I’d rather you shock me … or shoot me, even.”

“Yeah,” Mark said with a twisted laugh, “but it worked, didn’t it?”

Nick screwed his face up in distaste while Dr. Burdette tilted his head back and passed the light over his eyes.

“You’re a little clammy. What did you have for lunch?”

“Same thing Caleb did. Meat loaf, mashed potatoes, two bags of corn chips, a fruit roll-up, chocolate ice cream, and a Pop-Tart.”

He was pretty sure she had the same exact expression that he must have worn when he smelled the duck urine. “I’m not even going to comment … oh yes I am. Boy, are you out of your ever-loving mind? What kind of boneheaded lunch is that? Is there anything even remotely nutritious in that lineup?” She looked at Caleb. “And you joined him with that?”

“It was good, Dr. Burdette.”

“It was nutritious,” Nick said quickly. “We had something from each food group.”

She was aghast. “How you figure?”

“Meat loaf for protein. Fruit roll-up, the strawberry in the Pop-Tarts, and mashed potatoes for my fruits and veggies. Corn chips for my grains and ice cream for dairy. It’s all good stuff.”

“I shudder at what they’re teaching the youth of today. I can’t believe the stuff you call food.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s as bad as the time I caught Michael poking holes in all my biscuits and pouring syrup in them for dinner, and drinking a six-pack of Coke while he did it.”

“Hey, now,” Bubba said defensively. “That was one of the best meals ever.”

“Only if you want to go into a diabetic coma.”

Nick laughed, then sobered the moment Dr. Burdette narrowed her gaze on him. “Sorry, ma’am … but I feel a lot better now.”

She appeared less than convinced. “Are you just saying that so I’ll leave you alone?”

“No, ma’am. I really do feel normal again.”

Doubt clouded her eyes. “Let me call your mama to come get you. You don’t need to be walking around right—”

“I can drive him, Dr. Burdette.”

She frowned at Caleb. “You sure?”

He nodded. “I’ll be glad to. That way Mrs. Gautier won’t have to leave work and get upset.”

“All right.” She turned back toward Nick. “But if you start to feel anything abnormal again, call me immediately. Understand?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Nodding, she patted Nick on the shoulder and stood back so that he could get up.

Bubba handed him the small bag with Kyrian’s RAM chip in it. “You sure you all right?”

“Yeah. Golden.”

“A’ight, then. Be careful.”

“I will.”

Caleb led him out of the store and back to the sidewalk. The moment they were alone and the door was firmly closed, he faced Nick. “What didn’t you tell them?”

Was that a trick question? “You know what I didn’t tell them. It felt like something was clawing inside me, trying to get out and make a Nick-kabob. Kind of like when my powers take hold of me and I can’t control them. But it wasn’t the same as that. Not really … Ah heck, I don’t know. It was just weird. You got any idea about what caused it?”

Caleb shook his head. “Could be a lot of things. Maybe a shift in the time sequence.”

A chill went down Nick’s spine as he thought about Ambrose, who occasionally came from the future to help him. “How you mean?”

“Unlike most of us nonhuman entities, the Malachai can sense whenever someone tampers with time. While we have no clue it’s been altered, Malachais will know.… Or it could be the manifestation of competing powers. Like a warning system to let you know that something’s in town, and it has the ability to bleed you. Think of it like a Spidey sense.”

Yeah, but he didn’t want to think about
that
at all. “That’s not comforting.”

“Not supposed to be.” Caleb started forward.

Nick caught his arm and pulled him to a stop. “Is that it? Are those the only two things it could have been?”

“No. It could be Noir trying to summon you to the Nether Realm. Or a Fringe Guard or other bounty hunter entering this plane, or walking past Bubba’s store. It could have been a god popping into Sanctuary for a bite to eat … or a million other such things. Whatever it is, it’s your powers attempting to charge so that you can face whatever threat might be heading your way.”

Oh, goody. Just what he wanted. Someone else out to get him.

“Do your powers do that, too?”

Caleb nodded.

That gave him hope. “Then did you feel it a few minutes ago?”

“Nope, but all that means is whatever’s after you isn’t after me. Or it could be that it’s not strong enough that I need to charge my powers to fight it. The warning system only goes off when
you
need to prepare yourself for battle.”

Yah, me.

The moment Caleb finished, another foreign wave went through Nick and with it came clarity about his friend. Something he’d never known.

It was the reason Caleb’s powers hadn’t charged just now.…

“You’re a demigod.”

His features paling, Caleb stepped back. He narrowed his gaze in warning. “What did you say?”

Nick paused as he sought the source of that revelation. But there was nothing more tangible than a feeling of certainty deep in the pit of his stomach. He knew for a fact that Caleb was part ancient god, and a major one at that. “You are, aren’t you? That’s why you’re stronger than other mid-level demons. It’s why you were a general in the First War. You can siphon off your father’s powers.”

A shield came down around Caleb, preventing Nick from sensing anything else about him, even his mood. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, right. You know better than to lie to me.” Lie detection was about the only power Nick had that never failed him.

Caleb’s eyes flashed bright orange in warning. “Drop the subject, Nick. Now.”

Why? Why would that bother him? If Nick had the blood of a god in him, he’d dance around the block and tell everyone and their chickens. Loudly. Heck, he’d probably tattoo it to his forehead.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to,” Caleb growled.

And in that instant, Nick saw the trigger of Caleb’s rage in his mind as clearly as he saw the anger on Caleb’s face.

Deep in the past, Caleb stood before his father, who looked so much like him that it was hard to tell them apart. But Nick knew Caleb’s black battle armor that appeared to bleed on its own as camouflage so that no one would ever know if Caleb had been wounded in a fight. Caleb’s black hair was longer then and fell in waves to his shoulders. A short, well-groomed beard dusted his cheeks as he confronted the god who had fathered him.

“What have you done?”

His father ground his teeth in an anger that rivaled Caleb’s. “It’s not what you think.”

“Isn’t it? You’ve sold out all of us … including me.”

“I had no choice.”

Caleb laughed bitterly. “We all have choices, old man.” He raked his father with a sneer. “At least I finally know for sure where I fall in your affections. Not that I didn’t before … Thanks for the rectal confirmation.” With those words, his human skin transformed to that of a demon—as if Caleb no longer wanted to claim that part of himself at all. He jammed his helm down over his head and started away, but his father caught his arm.

“I do love you,
murahn
.”

Caleb snatched his arm free. “I am no son of yours,” he snarled between clenched teeth, “so don’t pretend otherwise. I was nothing more than an unwanted byproduct of your lust for a demon who had no maternal instinct at all. You should have let her devour me the instant I was spawned. But don’t worry. I won’t shame you again by claiming you. As far as I’m concerned, I was born an orphan.” With that, Caleb unfurled his wings and took flight, leaving his father behind to wince in pain.

Nick wanted desperately to know what his father had done to harm him, but his powers wouldn’t cooperate. All he had was that tiny snippet of Caleb’s past.

And if he understood anything, it was paternal conflict. His relationship with his own father made Caleb’s appear normal.

But in the end, one thing was clear. He hated hurting his friend in any way. And nothing hurt worse than bad memories.

“I’m sorry, Caleb. I won’t go there again, okay? Whatever is between you and yours is between you and yours. It’s none of my business.”

Caleb drew a ragged breath. “You’ve only just discovered what it’s like to be born hybrid. To feel torn between two cultures and two warring parts of yourself. That’s a battle I’ve had my entire existence, and honestly, it sucks. It’s exactly like being torn between two women. The best thing to do, kid … decide which one you want to be and ignore the other.”

“And if I can’t?”

“Then you really are screwed and you will never know any kind of peace. Split loyalties work for no one.”

As Nick opened his mouth to respond, another image flashed through his mind. It was one of Caleb and six other men who stood as a formidable wall against their enemies. Ferocious power emanated from them as they waited to confront whatever was coming for them. He didn’t know who those other men were—if they were demons, gods, or some other group—but it was obvious they had been brothers, if not by blood, then by bond.

“Who were your allies when you fought against my father in the First War?”

Caleb snorted. “I never fought against
your
father, Nick. I led my army against the first Malachai.”

That stunned him. “But I thought—”

“You are a direct descendent of the firstborn, but there have been several Malachais before your father. Adarian has lived the longest out of them all. Several only lasted a handful of years … long enough to spawn a replacement and then they were gone.”

And the one thing that made those Malachais so different from Nick was that each had known who and what they were from the moment of birth. Nick was the only Malachai who’d been born thinking himself human.

It was hard to wake up one day and learn that everything you thought you knew about yourself was a lie. That nothing in your past was what it seemed or what you’d been told. That your parents weren’t who and what you’d believed them to be.

He was still fighting hard to wrap his mind around it most days.

Gah, but it was impossible at times. Everything was changing so fast that it made his head spin even more than what it’d done inside Bubba’s store.

Yesterday, he’d been a dirt-poor kid whose biggest concern was keeping his grades up and getting to school on time—walking his mom home whenever she worked late. Now he was two years from graduation with a job that carried a buttload of responsibility and secrets. And while he’d thought he was the man of the house when he was a kid, he now fully understood what taking care of his mother really entailed. How her safety hinged on every decision he made. One wrong move and her life would end … because of him.

Not to mention, his body was changing and growing faster than he could keep up with, and if that wasn’t enough …

He was a dang demon half the universe wanted to hunt down and kill.

Including his girlfriend.

And the one thing on his side … stupid powers that were more of a detriment than help.

Thanks for that, universe. Glad you have me to pick on.

Closing his eyes, Nick sighed. “I’m too young to deal with all this.”

Caleb snorted. “I know the feeling.”

Yeah, right. “You’re thousands of years old.”

“I wasn’t born this old, Nick, and because of my parents, I had a bounty on my head, too, when I was a kid. So I do know what you’re feeling. And it’s a hard place to call home. Trust me, I’ve had that address every day of my life.”

Wow. Caleb could actually share. This was a first.

“How did you survive?” Nick asked him.

“I had an uncle who protected me. Taught me how to fight and shield myself and powers. Most of all, he taught me how to figure out when I should engage in war and when I should walk away and let it go.”

“I haven’t noticed you doing a lot of the latter.”

Caleb laughed. “We have a lot in common, Nick. Stubborn and stupid to the core of our souls.”

Yeah, but was what they called a friendship enough for Nick to be able to always trust Caleb at his back? Or would Caleb one day try to kill him, too?

Only time would tell.

Time …

Ah, crap!

Nick checked his watch and winced as he realized how late it’d gotten. “Can I catch a ride over to Kyrian’s?”

“Sure.” Caleb led him back toward their school, where his black Porsche 911 Turbo cabriolet was parked. It hadn’t been all that long ago that Nick had been so intimidated by a car this expensive that he was scared to touch it.

Funny how fast things changed. Now, he was around expensive cars so much that he’d started thinking of them as normal. Who would have ever imagined that? Definitely not him.

Nick opened the car door to get in and paused as he caught sight of several classmates leaving the building. Two of them called out a greeting to Caleb, who ignored them completely, like he always did. Caleb hated having to play his role of Mr. Jock Popularity. Everyone at school thought he was a rich kid whose parents were always out of town.