Ash’s answer was simple and honest. “We’re friends.”
And it was one Caleb seized and turned on him. “I, too, am his friend.”
An evil grin spread across Ash’s face. “Your kind doesn’t have friends.”
“Neither does yours.”
Acheron inclined his head to him respectfully. “Touché.” Then Kody fell underneath his bold, intense scrutiny. “And the same holds for you. I have no idea why you’d be guarding him.”
Kody smiled. “Aren’t you the one who always says that sometimes things have to go wrong in order to go right?”
“I also say that just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”
Those words haunted her. Did Acheron know about her ultimate orders where Nick was concerned? A tremor went down her spine at the thought.
No one, man, beast or other, could know why she was really here. Nick wouldn’t take it well. And neither would her higher ups.
For that matter, neither would she.
They stopped their conversation as Dev Peltier approached their small group. He opened up the bag he was carrying, which held soft drinks and bottled water. “I figured we could all use something to drink. Aimee has snacks in her bag.”
“Thank you,” they all three said.
Acheron wandered off to talk to Kyrian.
Kody opened her water and resumed her conversation with Caleb. It was odd to her that he was technically more beautiful than Nick. Where Nick had reached that strange phase of turning from boy to man and his body wasn’t quite proportional yet, Caleb was perfectly formed—no doubt enhanced by his demonic powers. His black wavy hair was fashionably cut and his body perfectly formed. Right now, he was leaning forward with his elbows on his bent knees. The ties from his hoodie fell down, brushing against his Coke can. The white of the hoodie was a stark contrast to his dark olive skin.
Yeah, he was made of the stuff that would have both teenage girls, their mothers, squealing, and clawing at each other for his attention.
She might have had stomach flutters for him herself had she not known what he really was. Instead, it was Nick with his boyish charm and the promise of his hotness to come that lured her against her will even when she knew she should stay as far away from him as possible.
Which returned her to his earlier trip that they had yet to discuss. “You never did tell me what you learned from Adarian.”
Caleb snorted as he set his Coke can down on the floor and stared at her from beneath his bangs. Something about his current position reminded her of a panther in the wild, eyeing the prey it wanted to bring down. “He’s going to come after Nick.”
That news jolted her. “What? Why?”
Caleb straightened up, then leaned back in his chair so that he could stretch his long legs out in front of him. “Not really sure. And he didn’t admit it to me. But I felt it, and it was unmistakable.”
“Is he the one behind this attack, then?”
Caleb shook his head. “This was human. I can smell a demon attack from a mile away, and this does not have that stench.”
Maybe, but there was always a first time for being wrong. “Haven’t you ever been fooled?”
He gave her a droll stare before he crossed his arms over his head, against the wall. “No. I’m not a loler.” That was the term his kind used for low-level demons. “Even though I’m technically a mid-level class, I was one of the strongest generals in the Primus Bellum. With more kills than anyone except Jared. And I’m not saying he was the better fighter. We never battled against each other, but I would lay skills against his any time. Any place.”
That news shocked her silent. While she’d known Caleb was old, she’d had no idea he was that old.Wow.… “Are you serious?”
He didn’t react to her questions physically. Instead, his dark eyes alone taunted her. “Before you judge me, ’cause I can feel the hatred surging inside you against me, let me explain my political ties in that war. I personally carried the banner for Verlyn, and I was the one who led the whole of his armies against the Obsidian Triad.”
That news was even more shocking. “You’re not evil, then.” It was a statement of fact.
He sneered at her comment. “You’re as bad as the humans. C’mon, Kody, you should know that we don’t all serve the dark powers.”
“Yeah, but you do now.…”
Pain flashed in his eyes so fast that she wasn’t sure she hadn’t imagined it. “We all make mistakes, Kody. Sometimes I think the only point of our miserable lives is simply to learn how to live with the consequences of the bad decisions we’ve made.”
By his tone, she could tell his were severe. “I’m sorry, Caleb.”
“For what?”
“Whatever it is that brings that light of hurt into your eyes. The worst wounds, the deadliest of them, aren’t the ones people see on the outside. They’re the ones that make us bleed internally.”
Caleb didn’t respond in any way. But as he pulled his watch out of his pocket to check the time, a strange sensation went through her. She saw him then, on an ancient battlefield in full demon armor.
She tried her best to home in on the image, but it was gone almost as fast as it appeared. Still, it left her with one thing that was undeniable, and it explained a lot about his idiosyncrasies.
“You’re not just a demon. You’re a demigod.”
Caleb went perfectly still, then he relaxed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, you do,” she said, her voice rising at the end with bitter amusement. “That’s what Acheron meant when he said you were similar creatures.”
Caleb scoffed. “I’m nothing like him. He’s cut from a very different bolt.”
Maybe, but that brought her back to their original topic. “What you said about Adarian doesn’t make sense. I thought he wanted Nick protected.”
“That’s what he told me originally.”
“Then why do you doubt him now?”
Caleb shrugged. “There’s no reason to. And yet … He’s coming for him. Soon. I can’t tell you the exact minute. Or even the day it’ll happen, but I can feel it building like a simmering pot getting ready to boil over.”
While she didn’t welcome that news, it didn’t really disturb her. “We’ll stop him when he does.” They had to.
“No, Kody,” he said drily. “We won’t. You and I don’t have the ability to defeat him. And I know this for a fact. The one and only time in my entire military career that I was knocked flat on my rump and viciously defeated was by the first of the Malachais. One who didn’t possess a third of the power of the current elder Malachai. When Adarian comes, Nick will die. There’s nothing you and I can do to stop him.”
She didn’t believe that for a minute. “Nick can’t die. We cannot allow that to happen under any circumstance. I know you see what I do. The next Malachai—”
“Will free Noir from his hole, and rain a complete slaughter down on all of us. But there is something even worse than that outcome.”
In that instant, she could swear she had an ulcer—even though it was an impossibility for her species. I don’t want to hear this. But she had no choice. If something was out there worse than their next enemy, she had to know about it.
Forewarned was forearmed.
“What?”
“Adarian doesn’t have to kill Nick. He can absorb him.”
Her throat went dry at the horror of that thought. Whenever a creature like them absorbed the powers of another, they took all of their powers and strengths, and combined them with the ones they already had.