Inferno (23 page)

Oh yeah … That’s right. Ash had told him that he was a twin, but Nick had forgotten that. “Is that why you hated him?”

“No, and I’ll let you in on a secret. I never really hated my brother. I hated myself, and I took that out on him, and I blamed him for things that weren’t his fault any more than they were mine. When you’re in that kind of extreme mental anguish and absolute agony that you can’t escape no matter what you try, you turn your hatred outward, because it’s a lot easier to focus your hatred on someone you don’t have to look at in the mirror. And my brother was just an easy person to blame since he was everything I wanted to be—respected, intelligent, skilled, a natural leader—and I couldn’t stand that I walked in his shadow as a lesser being.”

Nick scowled. “You tell me these things and I just can’t wrap my head around them. You’re Acheron Parthenopaeus—the baddest of asses … the feared and beloved leader of an army of immortal protectors. You’re wealthy beyond dreams and you have the most epic powers of anyone I’ve ever heard of. I’d kill to have one tenth of your looks and build. How could you
ever
look at yourself and find a flaw? Seriously?”

“Because I’m not the same person now that I was when I was human. I’ve changed in ways you can’t begin to imagine, and in the end, what I’ve learned is that childhood is what you spend your entire adulthood trying to get over. And when it’s a bad one, no amount of success or wealth will ease the vicious, hating voices that linger long after your tormentors are dead and buried. You carry that hate with you everywhere you go. It’s why I keep telling you not to listen to the ones who attack you. Don’t get that never-ending soundtrack started. It’s the most self-destructive thing you can do to yourself.”

Those heartfelt words withered something inside Nick, but not in a bad way. They reached him in a way nothing else ever had before. “Ash?”

“Yeah?”

Nick cleared his throat. “Do not … and I mean
do … not …
take this the wrong way, okay?” He wrapped his arms around Ash and hugged him. “I will always be your brother,” he whispered in Ash’s ear. “And I won’t ever hate you.”

Only then did Ash hug him back, and it was awkward enough to let him know that Ash had neither given nor received many hugs in his extremely long life. “You’re such a strange kid, Nick.”

Laughing, Nick released him. “So everyone tells me. But I like being strange and different … most days anyway.”

Ash gave him a sad smile. “You have a great heart. Don’t ever let life change that.”

“I don’t plan to.”

But even as he spoke those words, Nick had a bad feeling that his change wasn’t ultimately in his hands. That fate would move forward whether he wanted it to or not. Ambrose had tried and tried to keep him from morphing into the Malachai.

Each time he’d failed.

According to his future self, this was their last shot to save all of them. No more do-overs.

If Nick screwed up again …

His mom, Bubba, Caleb, Kyrian, and everyone he held dear would die. He and Ash could become bitter enemies.

And Nick would destroy the entire world and everyone in it.

That thought had barely finished before he heard a blood-chilling scream echo from the living room.

CHAPTER 13

“
Nick!”

That scream shredded Nick’s nervous system like an electrical torture device as he ran from his bedroom to the living room with Ash one step behind him. From the shrill tone and raw panic in it, he was expecting to find blood on the walls and at least ten or twelve dozen armed men attacking his mother.

So the sight of her wailing alone in the living room brought him to a stop so sudden, Ash collided with him. Terrified he’d missed something in his haste, he turned around frantically, trying to find the demons or whatever had her so torn up.

But they were the only ones in the room.

Without warning, she grabbed him into the tightest hug he’d ever had. Dang, for a tiny woman, she was strong.

“Ma, you’re killing me. I can’t breathe.”

Instead of her loosening her hold, she tightened it more as she cried against his chest.

He looked helplessly at Acheron.

To his credit, Ash didn’t react at all to his mother’s insane hysteria. With a nonchalance Nick envied, Ash tucked his hands into his jacket pockets. “Call me crazy, but I’m assuming by all of this that she heard about your little incident tonight.”

Stepping back, she cupped Nick’s face in her hands and turned his head from side to side to inspect it. “Are you hurt at all, baby?”

“I think you might have bruised a rib or two just now.”

She rolled her eyes irritably. “Not from me, boy! When that animal attacked you. Did he hurt you?”

“No. I’m all right.”

She glared at the blood on his clothes. “Who was bleeding?”

“Not me. Promise.” Much, anyway.

Only then did she release him and go to Acheron. She grabbed him in an equally fierce hug even though she barely came up to his waist. “Thank you so much for seeing my baby home and staying with him until I got here.”

Wow, Ash looked even more uncomfortable and uncertain with Nick’s mom holding him than he’d been when Nick hugged him a few minutes ago. That man really wasn’t used to open affection. He reminded Nick of a puppy being held by a small child. While he tolerated it, it was obvious he’d rather be getting a root canal or colonoscopy.

With a ragged breath, she let go of Ash and turned back to Nick, who stepped away before she seized him again in that tight anaconda grip. “That’s it,” she snapped. “Tomorrow you’re getting your license, and I won’t hear any argument from you about it. I’m not having you walk anywhere else, ever again. From now on, you drive my car anywhere you need to go and that includes school, you hear me?”

Was she nuts? It would take him twice as long to drive to school, and then he’d most likely have to park even farther away than what their condo was. “Ma, it’s just around the corner.”

“I don’t care. It’s not worth the chance.” She broke down into more tears.

Cringing, but knowing he had to do something to calm her down, Nick forced himself into her anacondic hug range and held her against him so she could squeeze all the blood to his head. He looked helplessly at Acheron.

Ash shrugged. “Don’t cut those pernicious eyes at me, kid. Kyrian’s the one who had the mom and all the sisters. Maybe he can tell you what to do for her. I’m clueless.”

“Oh stop. Both of you.” His mom stepped back and pressed her hands against her face as she finally calmed down. “I’m well aware of the fact that I’m a basket case, okay? I can’t help it. Neither of you has any idea what it does to a parent to find out something bad happened to your baby when you weren’t there to help them. It’s like the universe sucks all the air out of your lungs and you can’t breathe again until you see for yourself that they’re okay. It’s an unimaginable hell.”

“I’m not saying anything, Mrs. Gautier. I have no problem with your mothering at all. More power to you.”

Nick held his hands up in surrender. “Stupid ain’t on my forehead and I don’t want to get grounded. Cry all you want, Mom. Anytime.”

She let out a sound of supreme irritation and then scowled at Nick’s new clothes. “What are you wearing?”

Nick looked down as a bad feeling went through him. With all the crap that had happened, he’d completely forgotten to change.

I am screwed.…

“Clothes,” he said hesitantly.

Not his smoothest comeback. It was like throwing a grenade in a nitroglycerine factory. “Whose clothes?”

“Mine.”

“And where did you get them?”

“Store.”

She hissed in anger, making his stomach shrink tight in Pavlovian expectation of her overreaction. “Nick, you look like some lowlife hoodlum up to no good and out to get into trouble! Good boys don’t wear solid black on the street. For that matter, why don’t you just grow your hair down your back and pierce your ears and other body parts so that everyone will think you’re nothing but no-account trash with no one who cares about you?”

Horrified by her tirade, Nick cut his eyes to Acheron, who was swathed in black from head to toe and whose hair fell to the center of his back. Not to mention the earring in his left lobe and the small stud in his right nostril.

Ash was the poster boy of what his mom had just condemned.…

His mom’s entire face flamed as she realized what she’d inadvertently said and implied about his friend. She turned to face him. “I didn’t mean it that way, Ash.”

Ash gave her a kind smile. “No offense taken, Mrs. Gautier. I’ve been called a lot worse and that was just a couple of hours ago.”

Still, his mother was mortified by her insensitive comments. “I have never, ever thought that about you. I know you’re a good man and I did not mean to imply otherwise.”

“Really, it’s fine. I’m not offended in the least,” he reiterated. “I dress like I do because I want people to leave me alone and cross the street when they see me coming. Everything you said to Nick about other people’s perceptions is correct and I back you one hundred percent.”

“It was still thoughtless and cruel, and I would never hurt you that way, Ash.”

“I know.”

Her features sad, she reached up and pulled Ash’s face down to hers, then kissed his cheek. “I think the world of you, and I’m glad you’re Nick’s friend.”

“Thank you … and on that note, I’m going to make myself scarce so that you can finish reaming your son without worrying about feelings I don’t have.” He grinned at her, then looked over to Nick. “I’ll see you tomorrow, slick. Try not to get into any more trouble between now and then.”

“Later.”

His mom didn’t speak until after Ash was gone, then she turned on him with a look that made him want to hold a crucifix up in front of his face to banish the evil coming toward him. “Now explain those clothes, boy, and what’s this I heard at work from Alex Peltier about you joining a band? A band, Nicky? Really?”

He shrugged. “It’s harmless, Mom. I thought I’d try something new.”

“Then try taking out the trash without me having to nag you for it. Make up my bed for me in the morning. Scrub out the tub and lower the toilet seat. I can think of a thousand things new you can do that wouldn’t make me want to spank you even though you dwarf me.”

“Mom … c’mon. I don’t mean to be rude, but you’re really overreacting to this. You know Alex and his entire family. He’s as clean-cut and upstanding as they come. I’m just playing the drums for him. It’s no big deal. As for my clothes … I hate those tacky used Hawaiian shirts, and I’ve told you that for years. Ash, Caleb and Kyrian, and Dev and dozens of other people wear black all the time. No one thinks anything about it. Really.”

She narrowed her gaze on him. “I want better for you, Boo. I spent my entire youth with people looking down on me and calling me trash.”

“I was there with you for it, Mom. I heard them, too. And I know exactly how you felt, and I promise you that those god-awful shirts you’ve forced me to wear have not spared me the wrath or insults of my fellow morons. If I have to be insulted, please let me do it in Dolce and Gabbana, and real suede loafers, rather than backyard tacky wear.”

Biting her lip, she nodded. “Okay. You’re right. You’re sixteen, and you have your own job that pays good money you work hard for. As much as I hate it, you are a man and not my little baby boy boo anymore. I just…” She broke off into a small sob.

He pulled her into his arms and held her tight. “It’s okay. I’m still your baby boy boo, but I don’t want the rest of the world calling me that. Just you.”

She laughed and squeezed him tight. “We’re a pair, aren’t we?”

“Two peas, you and me, as snug as bugs in a rug,” he said, quoting one of her favorite sayings from his childhood. Anytime he’d been sick or had felt bad about something, she’d scooped him into her lap and whispered that to him while she made him feel better.

God, he loved his mom so much.…

She sank her hand in his hair, then let go. “Have you eaten anything?”

“No, ma’am. I was on my way for food when…” He stopped as he realized what he was about to say. The last thing he wanted to do was start her crying again.

To his relief, she held it together. “I’ll go warm up something good for you.”

“Thanks, Mom. I’ll be in there in a second. First, I’m going to change into something without bloodstains.”

She growled at him. “You’re
not
funny.”

Without commenting on that, he returned to his room to find Caleb standing just inside his closed window. Sucking his breath in sharply, he quickly shut the door before his mom caught a glimpse of their home invader and had another hissy. “What are you doing here, C?”

“Checking on you.”

Nick scowled. Surely Caleb didn’t know about the mugging … did he? “Why?”

Caleb pushed himself away from the window and went to Nick’s desk. He pulled out the chair and straddled it. “Something weird is happening.… Your father’s dying.”

While he didn’t have a lot of feelings for his dad, that news shocked him. “What?”

Caleb nodded slowly. “He’s in bad shape. Are you the one killing him?”

“No!” he said emphatically. “What kind of fool question is that? Why would you let that thought even enter your head? Jeez!”

Caleb leaned forward to prop his arms across the back of the chair. “Because the only thing I know that can kill him is
you
.” He paused and then frowned as he noted Nick’s rumpled clothes. “Why are you covered in blood?”

“Real swift on the uptake there, Sparky. Glad I wasn’t hemorrhaging on the floor, needing help. With those keen powers of observation you possess, I’d have died ten minutes ago.”

Caleb snorted. “Don’t worry, punkin. I’d have cauterized the wound for you long before you bled out.”

“And you’d probably enjoy it, too.”

Caleb flashed a grin. “Not as much as I’d enjoy drinking your blood, but…” He sobered. “What really happened?”

“I got mugged at the Riverwalk.”

He let out a low whistle. “By a demon? A Daimon? Couch potato?”