Invincible (28 page)

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
tsk
ed 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.”