“And this is the bathroom.” Nick opened the door.
Sweeping his gaze over the room, Xevikan had no idea what anything inside there was. “I assume you bathe in here?”
“Um … yeah.”
“Then where’s the pool?”
Nick grimaced. “Ah man…” He sighed heavily. “We don’t have a pool. You bathe in the bathtub or shower.” He showed him how to use it. “You do your business in the toilet, use some TP and then flush it or my mom will kill us both. Understood?”
“Understood.”
“And you wash your hands here.” Nick illustrated how the sink worked and where the soap was kept.
“Got it now. Thank you.”
“No problem.” Nick headed back to his room across the hallway.
Xevikan took a moment to experiment with the wall switch and lights. He had a lot to learn about this human world. He hadn’t been free in more centuries than he could count.
And so much had changed.… But for his powers, he’d have no way of understanding their language or anything else. Yet for all his abilities, he had a lot of gaps in his knowledge, as Nick was proving repeatedly.
I will make do. He always had. Still, he felt lost. Unsure. Hatred and anger, he was used to.
Kindness …
That was scary stuff.
Turning the light off, Xevikan headed back to Nick’s room, to find him on the phone.
“Caleb, there has to be some spell or something to bring her back. I don’t care what it takes. We can’t leave her stranded. I want my girl. I miss her.”
“Nick!” his mother shouted suddenly.
He covered the phone with his hand. “Coming, Ma.” Glancing at Xevikan, he returned to his call. “I have to go. But we have to find something. Fast. Talk to you later.” He hung up.
“Your girl?” Xevikan asked as Nick slid the phone into his pocket.
Nick let out a sad sigh that was nothing compared to the pain in his blue eyes. “Kody was left stranded on the other side when I returned to this realm. She helped me reach home and now there’s no one to free her.”
He related to that a lot more than he wanted to. It was an awful feeling to be imprisoned in an unknown dimension. Alone. Afraid. Ignorant of its rules and customs. “Is she human?”
Nick shook his head. “A ghost.”
That was the last category Xevikan had expected. “Your girl is a ghost?”
“Yeah, I know. My life is really messed up. And so are most of the people in it. But I don’t mind.” Nick swallowed hard. “I wouldn’t have made it back here without Kody, and I can’t leave her there alone. I owe her too much to just walk away while she needs me.”
“I see.”
Nick headed for the hallway, then paused as he realized Xevikan wasn’t following after him. “Something wrong?”
“I need a minute. Is that all right?”
“Yeah, sure. We’ll be in the kitchen. Don’t wait too long or I might scarf up all the jambalaya. No one makes a better batch than my mom.”
Xevikan waited until he was alone before he shut the door. As he turned, he caught sight of himself in the dresser mirror and winced. No wonder Mrs. Gautier had reacted to him the way she had. He was hideous like this. His family had left him with nothing.
Not even his dignity.
If only they’d listened. But no, they’d been too angry to hear anything more than their own condemnation. He’d been used and then thrown away as if he was nothing more than useless, unwanted rubbish.
Nick and his mother, alone, had treated him as if he mattered. They had finally given him a modicum of dignity. He wasn’t sure how much of his powers were left. His family had stripped the majority of them from him when they cast him out. And the Malachai who’d enslaved him had taken his own toll on them.
But maybe, just maybe, he might be able to repay Nick’s kindness.
Closing his eyes, he mustered as much as he could and allowed his conscious spirit to leave his body and traverse through realms he used to travel effortlessly.
It took several minutes before he was able to gain his bearings. He’d forgotten how dizzying it could be. How disconcerting.
“Kody!” he mentally called, trying to find the right spirit.
“I’m Kody. You are?”
He turned toward the demon and shook his head. “You’re not the one I seek.”
“But I could be.”
Shaking his head at her offer, he drifted away from her and kept searching. It seemed to take forever as he retraced Nick’s path to the other side.
He was just about to give up when something struck him hard between his shoulders.
Hissing in pain, he turned toward his attacker, ready to battle. Until he saw the small Arel who was glaring at him. Instantly, he remembered what Zavid had told him about Nick’s girlfriend, and it all made sense. “Kody?”
“You are not overtaking this world!” She rushed him.
Xevikan ducked and twisted away from her. “I’m not trying to take over.”
“Don’t lie to me. You’re the Šarru-Dara! I can smell it on you.”
“And you are Nick’s Kody.”
She retreated a step. “How do you know that?”
“I’ve come to return you to him.”
Suspicion clouded her green eyes. “You can’t do that. I can’t go back there. Ever.”
“Yes, you can. I have the power to restore you.”
“As what? Your blood slave? Forget it!”
He laughed at her assumptions. “I can’t enslave a ghost. You have no true blood with which to feed me.”
“Oh. There is that.” She screwed her face up as she continued to watch him warily. “Then how can you take me back?”
“I can pull your spirit with mine.”
“Only a god can do that.”
He forced himself not to react to her words. “I can do it, too.” He held his hand out to her. “Trust me, Kody.”
“Why should I trust the Šarru-Dara?”
“For the same reason you trust the Malachai.”
She snorted at him. “You make all kinds of sense, don’t you?”
“Only on occasion.” Still, he held his hand out in invitation, waiting to see if she’d spit on him like everyone else. Honestly, he couldn’t blame her if she did. Trust wasn’t something he was familiar with either.
She stared at his proffered limb. “Swear to me that this isn’t a trick.”
“Are you willing to believe me if I do?”
“Strangely, I think I am.”
“Then I swear. It’s not a trick, Kody. I will take you home to Nick.”
She stepped forward and placed her palm against his. For a full minute, Xevikan couldn’t breathe at the warm softness in his hand. It’d been centuries since anyone had touched him for any reason other than to cause him pain.
First Cherise.
Now Kody.
In that moment, he hated Nick for what he took for granted. Unlike all the ones who’d come before him, the Ambrose Malachai had no idea what it was like to exist in solitude. To be truly despised and betrayed by everyone. To have no friends.
No family.
But Xevikan knew. And it hurt to a level unimaginable.
Unable to resist the impulse, he closed his eyes and pulled her hand to his cheek to savor the sweet scent of her warm, soft skin.
She shifted nervously. “Um … excuse me, Mr. Šarru-Dara? What are you doing?”
He wanted to hold her there forever. But she didn’t belong to him. Or even with him.
Opening his eyes, he lowered her hand and pulled her back with him, through the darkness. As he returned to his body, she was almost ripped from his grasp, but he refused to let the others take her.
An act of kindness deserved an act of kindness. It didn’t deserve to be heartbroken. For Nick, alone, he would defy them all.
Even his parents.
No one would take this woman from the Malachai. Not without a brutal fight.