He caught Dina with his good arm and hauled her back from Brynna. When he spoke, it was in the Malachai’s voice and in his native tongue. “You have no right to possess this girl. Let her go.”
The demon protested its orders. “She invited me in. She wanted me.”
“And you have used her against me. Have you any idea what I do to demons who come against me?”
The demon sniveled obsequiously. “Forgive me, Master. But remember, I have helped you grow stronger. You have learned from me.”
Nick tightened his grip. “And there are much better ways to teach.” With his powers and the words Xenon had taught him when they’d gone up against his coach, Nick forced the beast out of Dina.
As soon as she was free of the demon, she passed out in his arms. Nick laid her down on the porch at Brynna’s feet.
“Watch her.”
Eyes wide, Brynna nodded.
Nick went after the Trexian to keep it from jumping into someone else’s body. But instead of fleeing, it went into attack mode. With a resounding cry, it spun on him.
Kody froze as she saw the Trexian tackle Nick. She took a step forward to help him, but Caleb caught her. “What are you doing? He has to learn to protect himself. We can’t keep jumping in and helping him.”
Kody didn’t want to hear that. “But—”
“No, buts, Kody. If you want him to live and to thrive, he has to do this himself.”
Easier said than done. “He’s hurt.”
“And it’s strengthening him. Look.”
She did, and he was right. Since the Malachai was born of the darkness, it was those negative emotions that fueled him.
Still, she cringed every time the demon got a punch in. It went low and swept Nick’s feet out from under him. But instead of falling to the porch, Nick twisted his body and even with his arm in a sling, flipped to land on his feet.
The Trexian tried to bite him. He caught it in one hand and drove it back.
Nick felt his grip weakening. While he’d had the demon under control, he was fast losing it and he wasn’t sure why.
“You are not the Malachai,” it sneered, mocking him. “You don’t have your full powers. You are nothing. Worthless spittle on the sidewalk. Trash.”
That last word, instead of kicking him in the gut and making him feel less than human as it had in the past, fortified and angered him. For the first time in his life, he realized it wasn’t true.
Nick Gautier was not trash. And he fully understood Grim’s warning about how silkspeech and influence could backfire.
He smiled at the Trexian. “Baby, I ain’t trash. Trash is something you throw away. My people keep me.”
And with that, he felt his powers rise up and shoot out.
The Trexian screamed as Nick finally banished it back to the darkness that had birthed it.
Unfortunately, as it went, so did Nick’s anger. And it left so fast that it zapped every bit of his strength. One moment, he was standing. The next …
Ow …
He hit the boards on the front porch face-first. Oh yeah, they definitely had to work on this. It was not dignified to kick butt and then hit dirt like a deflated balloon.
Kody came running to his side. “Nick? Nick?”
“I’m all right … well, all right is a stretch. I should say I’m breathing. Kind of.”’Cause breathing was really hurting right now. “And I’m really wishing I’d taken something for the pain.” But unfortunately, he could never do that again. Bad things happened to him whenever he lost control of himself, and the last thing he needed was a painkiller knocking him out.
Gently, Kody rolled him over and held his head in her lap. “My poor baby, but you looked totally K-A!”
And she looked totally beautiful.
By the time Caleb double-checked that the demon was gone and made it up to the porch, Dina groaned from where she still lay at Brynna’s feet. Pressing her hand to her head, she blinked open her eyes.
“Brynna?” she asked in disbelief. “What are you doing here?”
Brynna scowled. “Don’t you remember?”
Dina’s brow furrowed. Then she gasped. “The locket!” She snatched it off her neck and threw it into the bushes.”
They all stared at her as if she’d been possessed again.
“What was that?” Brynna asked.
“Evil! I bought it in a store on St. Anne because I was feeling really bad. The man told me it would make me feel better about myself.”
Caleb licked his lips. “When did you buy it?”
Dina blinked. “Yesterday, after school. Bryn and Shon were talking about what they were going to do for the dance and who they wanted for the committee.” She sat up and glared at Brynna. “I kept waiting for one of you to invite me and you didn’t! Instead you invited that geek and the trash and…” Her voice trailed off as she realized the trash was also on her front porch.
“W-w-what are you doing here?” Dina gasped.
Nick wanted to stand and do his tough guy strut. Unfortunately for his ego, his body was through listening to him. “Saving your butt, but now I’m thinking I should have fed you to it.”
“Dina,” Brynna said, her voice dropping an octave. “That wasn’t yesterday. That was weeks ago.”
“No, it was yesterday.”
Brynna shook her head.
Nick’s phone rang. And of course, it was in the pocket under his broken arm. He tried to reach it and couldn’t. “Um, help, somebody.”
Caleb backed up. “Ah, heck no, I ain’t even groping in another guy’s pants pocket. Forget it. That’s your girlfriend’s job.”
Laughing, Kody reached in for it. For a full minute, Nick felt no pain whatsoever. All he felt was her hand sliding against his thigh. Yeah, he liked that. Definitely worth getting beaten with a bat to have her do that.
She pulled his phone out and answered it. “It’s Madaug.” She handed it to him.
“Hey, what’s up?” he asked.
“Me and Mark finally cracked the site. It was weird. At first the code was like some living entity. Everything we tried, it deflected. I’ve never seen anything like it. Then a couple of minutes ago, bam. It opened right up. Go figure.”
Because a few minutes ago was when Nick had banished the demon. “Let me guess, the site is owned by Dina Quattlebaum?”
“Close.” Madaug sounded impressed. “Her father. How did you know that?”
Nick glanced over to her. “Really lucky guess. Tell Mark I said thanks, and Madaug…”
“Yeah?”
“Good job, buddy. You’re the best.”
“No problem. Talk to you later.”
Nick hung up and sadly slid his phone into a pocket he could reach. “That was Madaug.”
Caleb crossed his arms over his chest. “We heard.”
Nick sat up slowly to meet Brynna’s gaze. “We found out who posted those photos of you, and who’s been running the trash site about our classmates.”
Dina’s face went white. “How do you know about my domain?”
“That was you!” Brynna shrieked. “You made photos of me … of me…”
The all-out panic on Dina’s face said that part of the cruelty had been spawned purely out of her own jealousy and anger, not the demon’s.
“Why would you do something like that?” Brynna yelled.
“It was a joke.”
Brynna curled her lip. “No one laughed.”
“Oh please … you and all your rich friends with your perfect Norman Rockwell lives … you all deserve to be knocked off your high horses.”
Brynna screwed her face up. “My life isn’t perfect, Dina. Good grief, my parents are divorced and they split us kids up like we’re silverware. The one person in this world I love, loves someone else. I’m flunking math. I’ve flunked my learner’s test four times now. I have a little brother who’s a monster and my parents won’t correct him. And I’m the only Addams in nine generations who can’t cook. Believe me, there is nothing perfect about my life. And you don’t see me maliciously attacking other people over it. I’ve read your aweful hate-filled postings. You’re the one who thinks you’re superior to us. And at the end of the day, what makes you angry isn’t the money or the clothes or popularity. It’s because you’re jealous over the fact that even though our lives aren’t perfect, even though life is doing its best to bring us to our knees, too, we still manage to be happy. In spite of everything, we don’t attack other people and we laugh at things that are funny. And sister, no one worth a damn laughs at cruelty. That’s what you’re really jealous over. And that is what makes us better than you. We’re compassionate human beings, not conniving, self-serving, bitter harpies spreading misery everywhere we go.”