Ash curled his lip. “You think you’re amusing.… Tell you what, let’s see just how long you can keep this up in the cage.”
Nick mentally winced. Ah man, this can’t be good. I should have kept my stupid mouth shut.
One instant Nick was in the “guest room,” and in the next he was dropped into the center of a fighting ring that was enclosed with steel bars. Welcome to the Thunder Dome … Rising to his feet, Nick bit back a smile. “What? You’re going to cockfight me?”
Acheron walked around the outside of the cage. “Not me. I don’t want to get blood on my clothes. I think I’ll let my pets have a go at you first.”
Nick cracked his knuckles. “Fine. Send in the hell-monkeys. I’ve got a score to settle with a couple of them, anyway.”
“Since you’re so eager to get started…”
A bright flash blinded Nick an instant before smoke filled the area in front of him. His jaw dropped as it cleared to reveal a huge Aamon demon—the same kind of beast as Zavid. And as with Zavid, this one was dark-haired and seriously pissed off.
Bracing himself, Nick stood steady. He refused to show fear to any creature. It just wasn’t in him. “C’mon, Lassie. Let’s go check out the well.”
“Grandpa! Please, stop. You’ll kill him!”
Holding back the demon that was trying to bite him, Nick turned his attention toward Acheron and the girl who held on to his arm. It took him a second to recognize the Simi from his school.
Acheron glared at him for a long minute. Then he glanced down to the angelic face of his granddaughter and snapped his fingers.
The demon on top of Nick vanished instantly.
Man, wish you’d done that an hour ago. His breathing ragged, Nick tried to push himself up, but his body was finished. It wouldn’t do anything more than throb from the strain of holding the wolf away from his neck. He had a few bites on his arms and shoulder and a busted lip, yet all in all, it could have been a whole lot worse.
Acheron walked over to him. He reached through the bars to touch the blood on Nick’s face. His gaze never wavering, he pulled his hand back so that he could taste Nick’s blood.
Nick grimaced in distaste. “Dude, that’s so nasty. You could get like hepatitis or parvo or something. Rabies even. Has your dog been vaccinated recently? I would also suggest some neutering and doggie breath mints.”
His gaze darkening while he ignored the question, Acheron rolled the blood around his tongue. “You’re absolutely human … something about this is very wrong.” Without another word, he walked toward the door.
Biting her lip apprehensively, Simi approached Nick. “I’m so sorry. He’s really not as bad as you think.” She reached out to touch his hand. “He’s just—”
“Simi!” Acheron barked.
She jumped away. “Coming.” Without a backward glance, she ran after Acheron.
Sighing, Nick thought they’d forgotten him completely until he was flashed from the cage back to the doorless guest room. Well, at least Acheron put him on the bed. He’d take that for now.
Bewildered and tired, Nick stared up at the ceiling and tried to make sense of everything. So the short Ash and Simi were Acheron’s grandkids in this world. But it begged the question, who were their parents?
As if on cue, the Ash from school flashed into the room. He visibly winced at the sight of Nick’s torn clothes and the blood that stained them. “I’m sorry.”
“That’s what your sister said.”
Kid Ash moved to stand next to the bed. He waved his hand over Nick and the pain went away instantly. Too bad the injuries didn’t go with it. But hey, he’d take it. “Why didn’t you just tell my granddad what he wanted to know?”
“Because I don’t know the answer.” It was mostly true.
“Then I’m doubly sorry.”
Nick swung his legs over the edge of the bed to sit up. “Why do you live here with him? Where are your parents?”
Sadness darkened Ash’s eyes as he moved away from the bed. “They died a long time ago. It’s why my grandfather is the way he is. After my parents were killed, he turned on everyone, especially anyone who was human.”
“Why? What happened?”
The wall shimmered before the chair formed out of it. It walked forward, into the room, and stopped beside Kid Ash. As if that was a normal occurrence and not totally whacked out, he sat down on it and sighed. “I guess you’ve figured out we’re not entirely human, right?”
Nick glanced at the chair. “Um … yeah. Not like it’s hidden here, and the hell-monkeys pretty much blew the lid off it in public.”
He nodded. “My father was human. My mother a … I know you’ll laugh, but she was a goddess.” He paused to study Nick’s non-reaction. “You believe me?”
Nick let out a bitter laugh. “After everything I’ve seen today, I’m willing to expand my definition of believable.”
Ash glanced away from him. “Yeah, I guess you are. Anyway, she gave up her powers to live in the mortal world with my dad. One weekend when me and Simi were with my grandfather, some men broke into our house and killed my parents. After that, my granddad went crazy and kind of declared war on the entire world.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Thanks. I’m sorry you got caught up in my grandfather’s lunacy. But when he heard that Thorn was looking for you and that you went to our school, he was paranoid you might pose a threat to us. Me and Sim have been on lockdown ever since and we’ll remain here until he decides you’re not a threat to us or he kills you. He’s terribly overprotective that way.”
Nick could have respected that, had he not spent the last hour trying to keep a demon from tearing out his throat. “So what’s he going to do with me?”
Leaning forward, Ash appeared to be holding something back. “I don’t know. I hope he lets you go.”
Nick arched a brow. “You say that like he ate the last person he trapped here.”
Oh yeah, that was not a look a guy wanted to see on someone else’s face when his life hung in the balance. “I should be going.”
“Ash?”
He paused to glance at Nick.
“The Thorn I met earlier is a psycho, but I promise that I would never hurt you or Simi. I don’t turn on my friends and I don’t cause them harm. My mama raised me better.”
“I know. I just hope we can convince my grandfather of that. He’s not used to honorable people. Only those who are out to do as much damage as possible … and usually to the most innocent.” And with that, Ash vanished and left him alone. The chair backed itself into the wall again and melted.
Baffled, tired, and defeated, Nick stared up at the ceiling and tried to remember what life had been like before all the insanity had started. In some ways, he missed the naive assumption that the world was only inhabited by humans. But honestly, it’d been no less evil. Not really. The enemy had only taken other forms in those days. One good thing about demons, they didn’t pretend to be your friend. They declared their enmity and attacked accordingly. Full frontal assault.
Humans, alone, pretended to be your friend while plotting ways to stab you in the back and cut your throat. Many times for nothing more than their own petty amusement.
That, he definitely didn’t miss.
Closing his eyes, Nick allowed his thoughts to drift back to the world he knew. The friends he could count on. While his life was hard—sometimes impossible—aggravating, and grueling, it was his.