“Is that—”
“Our former allies?” Mark asked, confirming Nick’s worst fear. “Yes, it is.”
Horrified by the sight of Savitar and Acheron in Thorn’s custody, Nick barely heard the words Caleb and Kody chanted behind him. He was too transfixed by the fact that they were all about to die a painful and grotesque death.
Rising up from the others, Thorn flew at the house and threw a fireball that slammed against the fortified front door. It was so powerful that it shook the entire structure. Mark and Bubba went pale. Without a word, Mark hurriedly finished arming himself. Bubba continued to sit in his chair as if unable to cope with what was coming for them now.
Simi started for the door, but Nick stopped her. “It’s me they want. Maybe I should just hand myself over and stop this.”
The Goth demon tsked at him. “Akri-Nicky, on the grand scale of stupid, that would be epic. And lethal.” She patted his shoulder. “Trust the Simi, you don’t want to do that. It’d ruin your clothes and you look very nice out of your ugly shirts.”
He smiled at her, until he felt the hot stab of something going through him. For a second, he thought he’d been shot. He felt his stomach for blood.
Nothing was there.
Apprehensive, he glanced over to Caleb and Kody. And as he did so, he felt that light-headed sensation again. His hands turned translucent.
The Malachai power resides with your spirit and soul. It can never be separated from that. He looked around for his father, but he saw nothing. Just the voice in his head.
Suddenly, that familiar warmth filled his entire body. That indescribable je ne sais quoi he had whenever he tapped into his demonic inheritance. Leaning his head back, he closed his eyes and let it wash over him. The ether roared in his ears as he heard a million voices at once.
Someone grabbed him from behind. Instead of fighting, Nick leaned against them and allowed them to hold him while he swayed with the weight and pain of everything.
“Just breathe, baby. Just breathe.” He felt Kody’s gentle hand on his cheek as she whispered in his ear. “I have you and I’m not letting go. Don’t fight it. Remember that your powers are a part of you. Like breathing.”
He tried to do what she suggested and not tense or fight the flow of power inside him. At first he thought he was settling down and returning to normal. Until his stomach heaved. Nick staggered away from Kody and ran to the bathroom. He’d barely made it to the toilet before his stomach unloaded itself with a violence that would make the girl in The Exorcist movie proud. Over and over, his stomach spasmed with no mercy given to his dignity.
To his complete shock, Kody knelt by his side and stroked his back until he was finally finished. With a shaking hand, he flushed the toilet.
She gave him a small damp towel that he pressed to his lips. “Better?”
His breathing ragged, he nodded, then shook his head. “You have an iron constitution, you know that?”
Laughing, she brushed the hair back from his forehead. “Compared to what you see in battle, vomit’s not so bad.”
He heard the pain in her voice that belied her light tone. Honestly, he didn’t want to know what horrors she’d been through that this was preferable to them.
And all because of him and what he’d do to her and her family in the future.
Not wanting to think about that, he looked down at his hand that had finally returned to normal. He balled it into a fist. “Are my powers back?”
“Not sure. Care to try them and see?”
Nick cupped his hand and concentrated so that he could manifest a fireball. Instantly, fire engulfed his hand. Now it was his turn to laugh as he repeated it with his other arm.
Oh yeah …
He was back and he was ready to battle.
Extinguishing his arms, he rose to his feet and headed for the door with a deadly intent.
“Nick?” Kody chided. “What are you doing?”
“Going to ruin Thorn’s day.”
“Do you think that’s wise?”
“Not at all.” He kept going.
She tried to stop him, but he gently shrugged her hold off. He was too set on payback. Nothing, not even Kody, was going to get in his way. Determined, he headed straight for the front door and ignored Mark and Bubba, who were armed to their teeth as they gaped at him and his apparent intentions.
Without a word, Simi and Caleb fell in behind him as his escorts.
Nick opened the door with his telekinesis and stood on the front porch. Caleb took position just behind Nick’s left side while Simi squared off on his right.
Arching a brow, Thorn froze a few feet from the bottom step. “Well, well … how stupid and brave of you, little boy. But it’ll take something more than two demons and elementary parlor tricks to scare or stop us.”
Nick glanced to Simi and Caleb, then looked over to where Thorn’s soldiers were dragging what he hoped was only an unconscious Acheron and Savitar onto the front lawn so that they could dump them by the driveway. He wanted to go to them and make sure they were alive. But that would be all kinds of dumb.
And while stupid was his better friend most days, this wasn’t the time to court it.
Forcing that urge down, Nick locked gazes with Thorn and gave him a slow, taunting smile meant to irritate the other being into performing his own kind of idiocy. For further effect, he rolled out his thickest Cajun drawl. “Oh now, why you want to go and insult me, eh, Boo? What’d I ever do to you?”
Thorn stepped forward.
Nick rubbed at his jaw. “I would advise against doing that.”
Another step. “I don’t take orders.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, bon homme. Last I heard, you are my general … and you take orders from me.”
Thorn scoffed with a mocking laugh.
Nick tsked. “Last chance.”
“Or what?”
Nick unfurled his wings and let the fire roll down both his arms until it pooled into his hands where it flamed in pulses that matched his rapid heartbeat. “I’m gonna barbecue me some Thorny meat and let the Simi here break out her hottest sauce and say, bon appétit, cher.”
Simi sucked her breath in sharply. “Don’t go teasing me, Akri-Nick. Don’t say something you don’t mean. That’s just wrong.”
“I mean it, Simi.” He glanced back at Thorn. “So what’s it to be? You ready to make Simi’s day or you want to back down and leave with all limbs attached?”
Thorn paused as he considered his answer.
“He’s bluffing,” Tabitha said as she walked through the demons to reach Thorn’s side. “He doesn’t have his powers. They’re trying to trick us. I saw what he looks like as the Malachai and that’s not it.”
Thorn swept a speculative glance over Nick’s body. “My girl’s calling you a liar.”
“If my girl was here, she’d be calling you an idiot.”
Thorn growled.
Nick growled back.
Caleb laughed at them both. “Simi, we should be filming this. We could make a killing on it.”
“Already recorded, akri-demon. Just let the Simi know whenever you want the full-color playback.”
“Good.” Caleb turned back to Nick. “This is probably where I ought to inform you that the way you subdue the ušumgallu is you have to confront each general in your army, and prove yourself worthy of leading them.”
The fire went out on his arms immediately. Nick held his hand up to Thorn. “Hang on a minute.” He glared at Caleb. “Clarify that last statement.”
“You. Malachai.” Caleb stepped forward to clap him on the back. “Must sally forth unto each šarru and proclaim yourself the Uma-Šarru. For lack of a better term, head badass. Then when they laugh in your face, you throw them on the ground and make them cry uncle. Clear enough for you?”