Invincible (27 page)

This time when Simi smiled, Nick saw that her teeth were serrated and sharp. With a cry of delight, she vanished with the demon in tow.

Nick blinked several times as he tried to digest everything that was happening. “Simi’s a demon.”

“Yeah.”

Simi was a demon. He kept repeating that in his head.

Well, that certainly explained a whole lot of her weirdness away. But still …

Nick was aghast. “For the record, do I know anyone not a demon or a freak?”

“Yes, you do. Not sure if Bubba and Mark go into the latter or not, though. I’m too tired to mentally categorize them. You figure it out, and I’ll go with your Dewey decimal.” Caleb collapsed on the sofa with a loud groan. “Are you all right?”

“Maybe, but my mom will kill you if she sees that blood on her couch.”

Caleb looked down at the big stain that was spreading across the cushion where he lay. “I’ll clean it before I go. I just need to lie here for a minute. You have no idea how much pain I’m in. And—” He narrowed his gaze on Nick. “—who told you?”

Um, that was random. “Told me what?”

“About your destiny.”

Was he serious? “Dude.
You
did.”

Caleb cursed, then winced. “It wasn’t me, Nick. That stupid Fringer grabbed me and tossed me into Lataya.”

Nick had no idea what he was talking about. “Who is that?”

“Not a person. It’s a place. Think of it like a dungeon for demons where your powers get zapped.”

A chill went over him as he realized that he’d been spending time with his enemies and he’d had no clue about it.

Yeah, that was terrifying and sobering.

“So when was the last time I spoke to you?”

Caleb licked the blood from his lips. “When I pulled you out of the locker and unwrapped you.”

“Which really sucked, just so you know. You’re the one who deserved to be tossed…” Nick changed his tone as he saw the deep gashes in Caleb’s body. Wounds he’d taken for him. That put everything in perspective and made him feel both bad and grateful. “Okay, so you didn’t deserve that, but still … I don’t like being tossed inside lockers. For future reference, okay?”

“Duly noted.”

Nervous over everything that had happened, Nick paced around the couch. “So what’s going on with all of this?”

“This is what I was trying to tell you, kid. Fringe Hunters can take any form they want to. It’s what makes them so deadly. For that matter, one shouldn’t even be able to get into this condo, which is supposed to be protecting you from things like them and yet…” His eyes flashed to those freak show snake eyes. “Did you invite him in?”

“I thought I summoned
you
.”

He leaned back with a groan. “Nick … we have got to get your powers honed. Your perspicacity is not where it needs to be. I swear I’m going to tie Simi to you until your eyes are opened to others. She has the best of anyone I’ve ever met. No one gets anything over on her.”

He’d noticed that like Rémi and the rest of the bears, she hid in plain sight. “Where does she come from?”

“Her people are called Charonte, and they originated in Lemuria then moved to other places I can’t talk about with you.”

“Why?”

“I just can’t, Nick, okay? Now, please give me a second to lie here in silence and bleed.”

That was the least he could do, since he was the whole reason Caleb was hurt. “You want something to drink?”

“Human blood would be fabulous. But since I doubt you’re donating, let me suffer for a minute longer.”

Nick paced back and forth as he tried to understand just how scary his world was now.

“No, Nick,” Caleb whispered from behind him. “The world has always been scary. You’ve just been lucky enough to be shielded from it. It’s the saddest part of childhood, really. When that shimmery veil is ripped away by something horrible and you’re left with the unvarnished truth. When the world no longer becomes safe and you see the ugly side of it. You, like most humans, fear us demons. But we’re not the worst predators out there. You know what we are. It’s the ones who lure you in with kindness or who attack from the back. Those are monsters far worse than us. All this time, you thought you knew. We all do. But now you have
seen
.”

“And I can’t take that back.”

Caleb shook his head.

Nick paused to look at him. “Were you ever a child?”

“Very few creatures are lucky enough to be born adult. We all suffer through childhood and adolescence.”

“Did you enjoy yours?” Nick asked, wanting to know.

“Parts. But I grew up in a vastly different time and place. You can’t even begin to imagine it.”

No, he guessed he couldn’t.

Caleb’s eyes returned to their human appearance. “But there was one who was kind to me. Someone who wasn’t supposed to have kindness. What I know of it, I learned from him. You should be glad that you’ve met me after he did. I assure you the Shadow Me you dealt with earlier was far kinder than I would have been before.”

“But you don’t want to be my protector.”

“I never said that.”

“Your expressions do.”

Caleb laughed. “You haven’t mastered your lessons, boy. You’re misreading impatience. I have that with all creatures. I want my freedom. I make no bones about that. It’s what I’ve yearned for these countless centuries. But my freedom would be wasted if I allowed you to be swallowed by darkness.”

“You said prophecy couldn’t be fought.”

Caleb pushed himself up from the couch and cleaned the blood away with a swipe of his hand. “Since when do you pay attention in class? And especially
Moby Dick
?”

Nick shrugged. “Apparently I do. Who knew?” He sobered as he met Caleb’s sinister gaze and the horrible reality of his future sank in with steely hooks. “Do you think I can be saved?”

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. I’d be off building a really deep bunker.”

“What if you’re right, though. What if I can’t fight it?”

“That’s the wrong question, Nick. What if you can?”

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.”