“Sorry. But just remember this. No woman has ever killed a man while he was washing dishes.”
Nick scowled at him. “What?”
“It’s another Atlantean saying. If you keep the woman happy, she’s less likely to cut your throat.”
“Man, y’all were whacked. So what did these troublemaking, excrement-stirring goddesses do?”
“The kind of stuff you’re talking about at Your School. They’d go in and tell someone’s secrets and claim they’d heard them from someone else, usually a friend. Or they’d just make things up to break apart friendships and homes. It was what they lived for. They’d go to humans and whisper in their ears, playing off their fears. Sometimes it was overt and other times it would be as subtle as saying, ‘Hey Nick, I saw Kody this afternoon when at the mall. Man, she’s looking really happy these days. And her friend Tom she was with … wow. You could tell he was loaded. Expensive clothes. Rolex. He was so impressive and smart.’”
“How would that upset me?”
“Let’s say that Kody had told you she couldn’t be with you that same afternoon because she had to study.”
“Yeah, okay, that would not make me happy.”
Acheron nodded. “And you’d probably fight with her over it, especially if she hadn’t done it. You’d think she was lying about it, and she’d think you didn’t trust her.”
Nick let out a low whistle. He could see where that would get ugly fast. “It’s kind of like an evil silkspeech.”
Ash stiffened for a second. “How do you know what silkspeech is?”
Nick let his Cajun accent out in all its glory. “I be hanging with me some Goths.”
That placated him. “Silkspeech isn’t just the tool of demons and gods. While it’s potent in their hands, it’s deadliest when in the hands of a human who’s incapable of feeling happiness. Or worse, one who takes happiness by hurting others. Jealous people who trade in gossip and who feel the need to take someone down a notch so that they can feel superior.”
“Oh, I know people like that.”
“Sadly, Nick, we all do.”
Yeah. And it was sad.
The nurse came in to glare at Nick. “Those men got away. But I will find out who they were. What were they doing in here anyway?”
“Protecting me.”
“From what?” she asked, arms akimbo.
Acheron arched a curious brow.
Nick didn’t want to tell her or Ash about the demon part, so … “There’s an escaped felon trying to kill me.” There. The truth with vague details. The Echrichta might excel at lies, but Nick excelled at creative truth. Something that was a talent in and of itself.
“I’ll warn security about this.” She checked his IV bag, then put a needle into it.
Acheron cocked his head. “What are you giving him?”
“Just a small sedative.”
One that was already kicking in. Man, it was strong. The room blurred. He heard Acheron saying something, but he couldn’t make it out at all.
Freaky weird. It was even making him hallucinate. Instead of seeing the nurse, he saw his father.
No, wait …
That was his powers kicking in. The nurse was his father.
Nick tried to speak, but couldn’t. All he could hear was the sound of him coding as he passed out.
CHAPTER 12
“Come home, child, and be rewarded.”
Nick heard that tender voice. It was feminine, but not his mother’s. Warmth suffused him as he tried to find that unseen woman through the darkness that enveloped him.
“Fight her, Nick.” That was Kody. “Think of me, baby, and come toward my voice.”
Nick hesitated. It wasn’t in him to blindly follow anyone. “How do I know it’s you?”
“You know me, Nick.”
Yeah, but he wasn’t stupid. Any more than he was trusting. “If you’re really Kody, tell me where we met.”
“In school.”
That was a vague and safe bet. “Where in school?”
“In class, silly.”
He made the sound of a warning buzzer. “And for the million-dollar question … you’re absolutely wrong. No Nick for you, jerkweed!”
Now he was being cursed by a man’s gruff voice. In the back of his mind, he wondered if that might be Noir, but there was no way to know for sure. And he wasn’t about to ask since the last thing he wanted was for the dark god to get any kind of boost to his powers.
“Nick?”
He jumped at the sound of “Kody’s” voice right behind him.
A dull greenish light flared so that he could see her. Only …
His mind locked up over the way she was dressed. Her brown hair was pulled back from her face and held high on her head in an intricate braid, with the majority of her hair falling down her back. She had a leather halter with fringe hanging down the front and back. Her short leather skirt was also fringed and leather bands that held sheaths were wrapped around her arms and thighs. Along with another sword and sheath that she wore diagonally across her back.
Ringed with heavy black eyeliner, her green eyes were the color of deep emeralds.
She smiled at him before she chucked him lightly on the chin. “Close your mouth, baby, you’re drooling.”
He probably was. Any normal heterosexual fifteen-year-old would. “My baby is h-a-w-t!” Then he remembered the masquerade trick. “You are my baby, right?”
She handed him his sword and grimoire. “Yes, I am.”
Only the real Kody would have known to bring those to him, and where he kept them. Grateful she knew him so well, she took his weapons, then heard the sound of something beating loud and fierce in the sky above them. “Where are we?”
“The Fringe Realm.”
She said that like he should know exactly what she was talking about. But, he had no clue. “I don’t understand. Where’s the Fringe Realm?” What’s the Fringe Realm?
“Think of it like a protective membrane that keeps the worlds within their respective boundaries.”
Nick placed one hand over his ear as the sound became louder. “And what’s causing that?”
Before she could answer, that attacked. They were like flying monkeys that had mated with dragons. Their bodies were more humanoid, yet their faces were dragon-shaped and their pale tan skin made of scales. Large fangs curled like tusks out of their mouths.
Kody flipped around his back to catch the first one that reached them with a sword stroke. The others descended on them rapidly.
Pulling his sword hilt out, he held it in his palm and imagined it the size of a Scottish claymore. It quickly shot to that size so that he could fight. His heart pounding, he stood at Kody’s back as they fought against the beasts.
“Don’t let them separate us,” Kody warned.
“I’m not letting them do anything.” They definitely had the home team advantage, and were making use of it. I’m not going to be kibble today.
At least that was the intention. But intending something and being able to do it …
Much easier said than done. Nick crouched low as one of the dramonks came at him. He rose up and stabbed it in the middle of its chest. Screaming, it twisted around and reached a huge claw toward him.
One second, he thought he was a goner, and in the next, Kody pulled him back and was between them.
Instead of it grabbing him, it got her. She cried out in agony and anger as it snatched her from the ground and launched toward the black sky, clutching her in its claws.
In that moment, a rage he’d never felt before came over him. His vision dimmed as words formed themselves in his mind. When he spoke them aloud, they came out as a guttural growl, in a language he knew without ever having been taught it.