“I think I can take it, Mal—”
“Nnh! What did I tell you about using that name?”
“Gautier,” Xevikan corrected. “Believe me, I’ve been in much bloodier battles than this.”
“Doubtful. But keep up that bravery. We’re going to need it.”
Holding his arms out to the sides of his body and shaking them, Nick took several deep breaths for courage then loosened up his neck muscles. Man, he was terrified. But he wasn’t about to admit that out loud, and he couldn’t delay this any longer.
It had to be done.
He inclined his head to Xevikan. “Here we go.” He opened the door and stepped inside.
Nick had barely taken a step before the fiercest beast of all latched on to him with a Velcro-tight grip that no amount of strength could break. “Ma! Ma! Please, you’re killing me! I can’t breathe!”
Instead of loosening her hold, she only tightened it more. “Boo, I’ve been so worried about you. Are you all right?”
“Until you choked the life out of me, yeah.”
Tsking, she finally stepped back and stared up at him with a joyous smile that lit her entire face. Her long blond hair was pulled back into a wavy ponytail that made her look more like his older sister than his mother. Her blue eyes glistened with unshed tears. “You have no idea how scary it is to be trapped with Bubba and Mark in a storm.”
“Actually, it’s probably the safest place to be in New Orleans.”
She scoffed at that. “Did you know—” Her sentence broke off as she realized Nick wasn’t alone. A deep frown creased her brow while she took in Xevikan’s height and unorthodox appearance.
Both Nick and Zavid had tried their best to mask the boy’s multicolor hair, only to learn that part of his curse was that it couldn’t be changed. No matter what they did, the colors bled through.
“Are you Ash’s little brother?” she asked.
Xevikan raised a curious brow. “Ash?”
“A friend of mine,” Nick explained quickly. “No, Ma. This is Xev…” His voice trailed off.
Crap, somehow they’d forgotten to give him a last name.
“Daraxerxes.”
Wow, props to the Šarru-Dara for thinking fast on his feet. Not that Nick could have repeated that name if his life depended on it. “Um … yeah. What he said.” He stepped behind his mom to frown and mouth the name at Xevikan.
What kind of freaky moniker was that?
His mom smiled. “That’s absolutely beautiful, but quite a mouthful … says the woman with a last name no one can ever pronounce or spell correctly, including other Cajuns. Please say it again.”
Xevikan repeated it slowly. “Dah-rah Zuhr-cees.”
“Dara-zur-zur-cees?”
He grinned at her attempt. “Very good, Mrs. Gautier … I’m impressed. You did much better than most.”
“Thank you. Your accent is quite lovely, too, but I have no idea where it comes from.”
“It’s, um … I forget in English. Khvrvarn?”
His mother actually squirmed. “I’ve never heard of it.”
Now it was Xevikan’s turn to be uncomfortable as he looked to Nick for help, as if Nick had a clue where on a map that was. Most days, he could barely find New York state. “Um … it’s Mesopotamia? The land between the rivers?”
“Oh! Well, don’t I feel stupid, now. Sorry.”
“No, you should never apologize for such, Mrs. Gautier. I’m the one who couldn’t translate it correctly. It was my bad.”
His mom smiled again at his colloquialism that sounded extra weird through his heavy accent. “It’s always nice to meet one of Nick’s friends.” She took his hand and patted it kindly.
The moment she touched him, an unexpected tear slid down his cheek. Embarrassed, he pulled his hand away and wiped at it. “Forgive me.”
His mom frowned in concern. “Are you all right, sweetie?”
Nick wouldn’t have believed it, but the ancient being was as cowed by his tiny mother as everyone else.
Nodding, Xevikan looked about nervously. “I never had a mother so I don’t know what’s appropriate. Nick failed to warn me that you would be … warm and gentle.”
“Oh, you poor Boo!” His mother pulled him into her arms and held him tight about the waist.
Eyes wide, Xevikan appeared terrified as he held his arms out, away from her, over her shoulders.
Nick bit back a laugh at the sight of his tiny mother who barely reached mid-chest level on the fierce Šarru-Dara. She had absolutely no clue. “Just go with it, Xev. My mom mothers everything. She can’t help herself. And whatever you do, don’t take her to a pet store, especially not on adoption days.”
Making a sound of irritation, his mom pulled back and rubbed Xevikan’s arm. “Are you staying for dinner? I have chicken jambalaya almost ready and there’s more than plenty.”
“About that, Ma…”
She turned toward Nick. “What?”
“Xev’s place got flooded during the storm. Do you mind if he bunks here a few nights until it’s habitable again?” Or more to the point, until they found him someplace to live.
She drew her brows together into a puzzled expression. “Where’s your family?”
“I-I don’t have any.”
“Then how are you here?”
Nick jumped in with an answer before Xevikan accidentally outed them. “He’s on a student visa. Don’t worry, Mom, he’s not a serial killer. If he was, I wouldn’t have him near you. I promise I’ll keep him locked in my room. You won’t even know he’s here, and he’s not nearly as messy as I am.” At least, he hoped that was true.
She shook her head at him. “Of course, it’s fine for him to stay. You know I can’t stand to see anyone on hard times. Now let me go check on our dinner before it burns. Y’all get cleaned up and I’ll see you in a sec.”
Xevikan watched her leave with a longing in his eyes that wrenched Nick’s gut.
“You all right, buddy?”
Blinking, he nodded. “I now understand.”
“What?”
“Why you are who and what you are.” He locked gazes with Nick. And there in his eyes was a quiet longing Nick didn’t understand until he spoke a single question. “What is it like to be loved?”
“Don’t you know?”
He shook his head slowly.
Nick laughed, until he realized it wasn’t a joke. “C’mon, seriously. Brother? Father? Pet? You had to have family at some point. Right?”
“Yes, but we didn’t have love. We had honor, obligation, and responsibility. Nothing more.”
“Nothing? Is that why you betrayed them?”
His eyes turned as red as his hair. “I did not betray them,” he ground out between clenched teeth. “I was the one who was betrayed … by all of them.”
Nick held his hands up in surrender and to calm down the older being. “Okay, sorry. I heard a different version of the events. I’m not judging you. I wasn’t there. Consider me Switzerland.”
“Switzerland?”
Nick patted him on the arm. “We got a long way to go with your education.” He jerked his chin toward the hallway. “C’mon, I’ll show you to my room.”
Xevikan followed even while he kept waiting for something terrible to happen. For Nick to turn on him and lunge for his throat.
Or bury a dagger in his back.
After all, Caleb had welcomed Zavid and Livia in to stay in his home, but he’d mercilessly thrown Xevikan out of his house and told them both that Xevikan would never be allowed there again.
Though to be honest, everything considered, it was a much kinder expulsion than the last one Caleb had given him. He wasn’t bleeding nearly as badly this time.
Inside or out.