“None,” Savitar repeated as he grabbed Nick from the SUV and shoved him toward the curb. “Michael, get the kids to the convent. I’ll cover you.”
Bubba pulled out a gun the likes of which Nick had never seen before as they ran down the street. Nick looked up at the dark sky and gaped at the sight of a thousand winged demons that were headed straight at them.
“Run!” Savitar barked as he sent more fire blasts at the demons.
Nick didn’t hesitate.
As soon as Nick reached the convent wall, he heard shots. He started to look back, but he knew better. That fool always got eaten in movies. And Nick didn’t want to be on anyone’s menu.
Except maybe Kody’s, but not when they were on a death run from things out to kill them.
He dashed to the gate, and tried to open it. It was locked tight. And the demons were landing on the street in front of the church entrance.
Shooting her own fire blasts at them, Kody met his fearful stare.
Without thinking, he grabbed her and threw her up on the wall as high as he could.
She scrambled over the top then leaned back and held her hand out to him. “Come on, Nick.”
He took a running start and leaped for it. His hand touched hers an instant before he was thrown to the ground, on the wrong side of the fence.
“Nick!”
Dazed from the impact, Nick kicked the demon off him. But as he tried to rise, three more landed on his back and drove him to the ground again. His ears rang with the sound of their hisses and flapping wings.
Something warm and wet covered his face.
Blood. His blood.
He grimaced as pain consumed him. So this was how his life ended. Not with some great battle against horrible odds, or from some noble sacrifice for the ones he loved.
It ended with hell-monkeys slobbering all over him.
CHAPTER 8
Nick was still trying to get free when all of a sudden something knocked the demons off his back and sent them flying. And not with their wings.
“Get your filthy paws off my son, feet pue tan!”
Nick’s eyes widened at the Cajun insult his mother hurled at the demons as she literally batted them away from him. Where had she learned that? He hadn’t even known she’d ever heard such. For that matter, she once washed his mouth out because he called someone an idiot.
Impressed, and terrified of her, Nick held his hands up to shield his face as she came a little too close with her frenetic swings. “Ma! I’m under here. Don’t kill me!”
She jerked him up from the street by his arm and shoved him toward the convent, where Kody had opened the small pedestrian gate. “Get inside, Boo.”
He swung his mother up to carry her to safety as he ran inside. Once Kody closed the gate behind them, he set his mom on her feet. But he was far from safe. As soon as his mother was assured the demons couldn’t follow them in, she turned on Nick with the wrath of the Furies.
“What do you think you’re doing?” She poked her tiny finger into the center of his chest hard enough to hurt. “You’re supposed to be at school, boy. Instead, I get a call saying you’re about to be arrested and then I find you covered in demons. What is wrong with you? What were you thinking doing something so reckless?”
Now there was the angry Chihuahua he was used to facing, but it’d been awhile since he stood eye-to-eye with her. He’d forgotten how scary it was to be within her actual striking range.
His mother growled at him. “What have you to say for yourself, boy?”
“Sorry, Ma, I’m a sexy demon magnet?”
She actually pulled the bat back like she was planning to hit him with it.
“Cherise!”
She swung around, ready to battle until she saw the massive, muscled Bubba nearing them with the same fear in his eyes Nick was sure he had. “Don’t you even take that tone with me, Mr. Triple-Threat-I-don’t-have-to-listen-to-anyone-because-I’m-the-size-of-a-tank. You’re in the doghouse, buster. You might as well pack a bag ’cause you’re going to be in there so long your name’s going to be engraved on the mailbox.”
Bubba placed his hand over his heart as if her words wounded him. “Ah, what’d I do, cher?”
“You dragged my baby into danger, and you—” She turned on Savitar then. “Are you one of them?”
Savitar actually took a step back from her. “I’m going with whatever answer doesn’t get me swatted with that bat.”
Bubba disarmed her. “Cherise, calm down. What are you doing here?”
“What do you think? I’m protecting my boys. Both of you … Because Mark values his own life and in particular his male body parts, he called me after he got off the phone with you to tell me what the two of you were doing.” She raked Bubba with an angry glare that made Nick take a step closer to Kody for protection. “You didn’t honestly believe that I’ve been ignorant of what you and Mark do at night all these years? Did you?”
Bubba shifted nervously. “Um, yeah.”
“Well then you’re a fool, Michael Burdette. And I’m not.” With a disgusted sigh, she gestured up at the sky where the demons circled like vultures. “And how do we get rid of those?”
“Not easily, and we need to get into the building before they start throwing—” Savitar’s voice broke off as a car came hurtling over the wall at them. Barely missing them, it rolled across the manicured shrubs and slammed against the wall on Nick’s left. “–things at us.”
With Savitar leading the way, they ran for the old convent. Savitar used his powers to unlock the door. Nick stood back to allow Kody and his mother to enter, but then Savitar shoved him in headfirst.
“Hey!”
Savitar curled his lip. “Don’t hey me, kid. Not after the hour I’ve had because of you.”
Bubba locked the door behind them. “That’ll keep the demons out, but the humans are another story. Holy ground won’t stop them from coming in after us.”
“I don’t know … it stopped Tabby and Amanda earlier at St. Louis.”
Bubba gave him a droll stare. “What say we don’t bet our lives on whether or not humans can get in? We’ll just hedge our bets and assume they can. That okay, punkin?”
Nick snorted. “Yeah, sure.”
Kody agreed with Bubba. “And let’s also assume they’ll head straight here as soon as the demons tell Thorn where we are.” She let out a half-hysterical laugh. “Or they could just follow the circling demonic cloud over our heads. Surely they have to know that’s not normal. Even for New Orleans.”
Savitar sighed. “Too bad they know you’re a ghost. We could have used that advantage. Now it’s just a liability.”
“Yeah.” She glanced at Nick. “It wasn’t information I’d ever planned on being free with. Extenuating circumstances and all that.” She ground her teeth in anger. “I knew better than to let my guard down. I can’t believe I was so stupid!”
Cherise patted her on the back. “Don’t be too hard on yourself, Boo. We all have moments of stupid.”
“Yeah,” Bubba agreed. “How you think Cherise ended up with me for a husband? I swear, that woman needs better lawyers. A really good one could have had her off for good behavior by now.”
Cherise walked into his arms and hugged him. “That wasn’t stupid, Michael. A bit masochistic, no doubt, but definitely not stupid.”
Ignoring them, Savitar grabbed Nick’s chin and held him by his side.
Her eyes flaring with anger, Cherise started for them, but Bubba caught her. “Don’t, baby. While that’s our son’s body, that ain’t our boy.”
“What?”
Bubba nodded. “Our Nick was switched out with another soul.”