Instinct

  Or worse, someone assigned them homework.

  He cringed as the storm outside picked up its fury. "Not sure it's a good idea for anyone to be out in this."

  "Yeah," Kody agreed. "But not sure how wise it is to be in here with Mason already shifted, and the others on the verge of turning into animals, either."

  No sooner had she finished her sentence than a pack of wolves came tearing down the hallway.

  Since they were in the cafeteria, out of the line of sight, the wolves ran past them, toward the exposed students who were at their lockers.

  Ah, crap.

  The wolves attacked without pause. The humans screamed and ran for cover as best they could. Some even tried to climb straight up the lockers.

  Wincing, Nick knew he couldn't stand by and do nothing. Before he could move, Kody grabbed an unattended lacrosse stick and ran after them to protect the humans.

  By the time Nick caught up to her, she was barely holding the wolves off. Stone--he could tell by the size, color, and ferocity of the beast who'd attacked him on previous occasions--had the scoop in his massive jowls and was trying to wrench it free to bite Kody. It was so tempting to send a jolt through him and watch him change into a naked human in the middle of the hallway. Only the screaming, fleeing baretos kept Nick from it. While Nick might want to traumatize Stone to get back at him for all the times he'd embarrassed Nick in public, no need in sending the innocent into therapy.

  Or blinding himself with the unwanted sight of Stone's hideous naked body.

  Instead, he whistled for the wolves and then ran so that they'd chase him back toward the gym. They wasted no time in coming for him like he was the only bowl of Alpo to be had. It was a pants-wetting kind of intensity.

  And as Nick slid through the gym door and Mason sank fangs into his arm, he regretted that decision in the worst sort of way, especially since the room was filled with witnesses who prevented him from using his demonic powers to get Mason off him.

  Dang you, nonsensical rules of sanity! Dang you all!

  Mason dragged him down hard. Nick tried to pry his arm free as the rest of the pack descended on him with vicious bites.

  Yeah, this had definitely been a better idea in the abstract. The reality was much more painful than he'd imagined and it made him really miss Caleb. At least with Caleb around, his enemies had another moving target to chase and chew on.

  "Get off him!" Kody tossed a net over Mason she must have manifested out of the sight of the others. She dragged him away from Nick.

  Stone went for her throat. Reacting on pure instinct and forgetting the rules about using magic in plain sight, Nick threw his hand out and zapped him. The bolt sent Stone skidding into the bleachers, where he flashed from human to wolf and back again.

  Nick started to panic about his slip until Kody distracted them with a scream. As the teachers and adult Weres took over herding the wolves, he saw that the zeitjagers were back and watching everything closely.

  Too closely for Nick's sanity.

  Without a word, Kody pulled him into the hallway, out of the line of fire.

  Nick took a second to make sure no one could overhear them. "What are the odds that one of the Were-Hunters made a bad time jump and that's what brought out our ugly giant plague doctors?"

  "Sadly, the young Weres do that all the time. No. Something much more treacherous is going on here."

  "Like..."

  "No idea. But it has to be bad. I've only heard of zeitjagers appearing in number right before something catastrophic."

  And given the fact she was a warrior who'd been killed during Armageddon and sent back in time to stop it from happening, that basically said it all.

  They were screwed.

  Sighing, Nick looked up at the ceiling. "I swear, if I survive this, I will never, ever say that a day is going good again in my life. Lesson learned. All days suck from now on."

  As the adult Squires began to arrive to evacuate the school, Nick saw Bubba Burdette come in among them. At six foot four and being a former college football linebacker turned zombie-survivalist, Bubba tended to stand out even in a crowd. He was a strange combination of horror-movie buff and redneck, complete with a well-trimmed beard and black hair.

  But the one thing everyone knew about Big Bubba Burdette, he hated mornings with a burning passion. The fact that he was awake and here at this ungodly early hour more than anything else confirmed that the end of the world was upon them.

  His heart pounding, Nick met Kody's gaping expression. "What new hell-monkey wakens?"

  Bubba snorted at his sarcasm. "After all the weirdness of the last few days and what with this storm moving in like it did and throwing down hailstones the size of baseballs, me and Mark wanted to make sure you and your mom were safe. I left him with Cherise and promised her I'd see you home." He scowled as he saw the blood on Nick's arm from where Mason had taken a bite out of him. "What happened? Do we need to get you to a hospital?"

  That mixture of raw fear and concern in Bubba's blue eyes caught Nick off guard. When Nick had been sucked into an alternate universe, Bubba had been his real, natural father there. A part of him he didn't want to acknowledge had kind of liked it. Since his own dad had spent the majority of Nick's life incarcerated or trying to kill him, Bubba had been the only real father figure Nick had ever known.

  At least until two years ago when the immortal Dark-Hunter Kyrian had saved his life and given him a part-time job. Now Kyrian was like a second dad to him, which, while annoying at times, was also kind of nice.

  There was nothing Nick wouldn't do for either man.

  "I'm fine. Just a flesh wound."

  Bubba narrowed his gaze on him, then looked at Kody. "Is he lying to me, Ms. Kody?"

  She flashed a playful grin. "Doubtful. You know Nick. If it was really bad, he'd be whining like a baby and begging for his mom, and a lollipop and sticker."

  Bubba laughed before he took Nick's backpack. "C'mon, runt. Let me get you home to your mama. She's worried sick." He glanced around. "So where's your other cohort? Not like Caleb to leave you alone. Way he hangs all over you, boy, I keep waiting for a wedding announcement."

  Nick snorted. "Sent home for hurling."

  "Lovely."

  "Not really. Except for when he scored on the shoes of my least favorite teacher. That was pretty epic."

  Bubba shook his head. "Did you drive?"

  "Nah. After I got jumped, Ma wants me to, but seriously?" Nick had to force himself to not roll his eyes since he only lived a block and a half away. "Takes longer to find a parking spot than it does to walk it."

  This time, Bubba broke out into laughter. "Being the only son of an overly protective Southern mother, I get it ... in a way only you know. They are truly God's very special creatures."

  "Heavy emphasis on the creature part. Especially those long, clinging, fun-sucking tentacles that wrap around and hold you down till you can't breathe."

  "Amen, little brother. Amen."

  Kody grinned at them. "Your mama still in town?" she asked Bubba.

  "Nah. She left last night. Thank God. I wouldn't want her trying to travel in this mess. I'd be the basket case if she was at the airport today."

  "You two," Kody said with a laugh. "I don't know why you pick on your mothers when you're both worse about their safety than they are with yours. Nick, your mom's younger than Bubba and I've seen you hold on to her arm when she's going up and down stairs."

  "Hey now, you don't know.... I've seen her trip on straight ground. Many times. She could fall. Hurt her arm. Then I'd have to actually wash a dish for myself. God forbid that humanity! I'm not even sure how to work a sink. Could fall in and drown myself on accident or something."

  Laughing even harder at something she knew wasn't true since Nick washed dishes most nights while his mom worked, Kody shook her head. "Like I said. Neither of you has room to complain about them being overprotective."

  Nick paused as he reached the doors and saw the storm out
side. The sky was pitch black. The rain and hail hit the building so hard, it sounded like gunfire. He scowled at the sight of the rain's red spatter patterns. "Is that..."

  "Blood," Kody finished for him. "It's raining blood."

  Nick met Bubba's horrified gaze. "Zombies?"

  Grimacing, Bubba shoved at him. "Don't sass me, boy. You're not that cute in high heels."

  A chill went down Nick's spine as he turned to see the zeitjager behind him, watching them with great curiosity. They had stopped the Apocalypse. He and Caleb had sealed the portal before the usumgallu could gather and summon their armies to attack.

  Why was this still happening?

  It made no logical sense. What else could possibly cause something like this to happen?

  He looked at Kody. Are you sure this isn't from the Arelim civil war?

  No, Nick. I have a bad feeling it's from something a whole lot worse.

  His stomach shrank with dread as stark cold terror filled him. "What could be worse?" Nick asked without thinking.

  No sooner had those words come out of his mouth than a swarm of bat-sized mosquitos swarmed, driving parents, students, Squires, and faculty back into the building. They screamed and ran, fleeing the pests and seeking shelter.

  Nekoda glared furiously at him. "What did I tell you about saying things like that, Nick?"

  Not to be stupid. But that was like asking him not to breathe. It seemed to come a little too naturally to him most days. "At least they're not loc--"

  She covered his lips before he could say finish saying "locusts." Which was probably a good thing given what kept happening to them. But ...

  Nick stumbled back as a weird feeling came over him. One second everything was weird.

  The next, it went dark. He struggled to breathe against a frigid cold calm that invaded him. It paralyzed every part of his being until he couldn't see or hear.

  His eyes rolled back in his head and his knees buckled.

  "Nick!" Kody panicked at the way he hit the ground. It was as unnatural as the sudden pallor of his skin. Terrified and shaking, she met Bubba's gaping stare as he knelt beside them.

  Bubba gasped in his own alarm. "Nick? C'mon. Talk to me! Say something stupid, boy!"

  Yet it was too late. Tears filled Kody's eyes as grief choked her. She couldn't find Nick's pulse in his wrist or neck. He wasn't moving.

  Not breathing. No. It couldn't be.

  Yet it was.

  Nick was dead.

  CHAPTER 4

  Nick choked and wheezed as someone gave him mouth-to-mouth. "That better be you, Kody. I swear to God if it's Bubba, I'm about to need a truckload of Listerine."

  Bubba snorted as he rolled Nick over toward her. "For the record, it was. Again, you ain't that cute in high heels, boy. Though I guess I'd have done it for you if I had to. But only 'cause your mama is, and she'd have stabbed me someplace real uncomfortable with hers if I let something happen to your rotten little hide."

  Laughing, Kody brushed the hair back from Nick's face. "You okay?"

  "Yeah. What happened?"

  Her brow lined with worry, she kept her hand on his cheek. "You stopped breathing and turned a shade of blue I only want to see in your eyes. Not on your skin or lips."

  Grateful he'd remembered to shave extra close that morning, Nick rolled to his back and scowled up at his friends, especially as he realized there was a crowd gathered around them. Great. An audience for this embarrassing display. Just what he craved ...

  'Cause puberty just wasn't humiliating enough on its own.

  Kill me now.

  Bubba held him down as he started to rise. "I've already called an ambulance. You ain't going nowhere till you get checked out. Not with that heart condition you have. My mama and yours would slaughter me."

  "He's right," Mr. Head said as he pushed through the nosy onlookers. "Don't move, Nick. Just lie still till they get here. Last thing we need's a lawsuit."

  Double awesome. More hospital bills. At this rate, he was going to be indentured to the insurance company for the rest of his natural life.

  Grinding his teeth, he met Kody's worried gaze. He didn't really have a heart condition, and they both knew it. His early childhood health problems had stemmed from his human body rejecting the demonic parts of his DNA. He was a freak of nature who should have never survived his father's biological gifts.

  "Guys, I really do feel fine." He met Bubba's gaze. "C'mon, Triple Threat. Let my Nicky go."

  "I'm not chancing it. Nor am I facing your mama without a thorough screening from a licensed doc. I happen to value and appreciate all my body parts being in their current locations."

  Nick groaned in agony as he regretted ever allowing Bubba to take his mom out on a date. They'd only gone out once, but since then, Bubba had assumed the role of Nick guardianship with a terrifying iron grip. "Then please don't call her. Go get her and take her to the hospital to meet me. She'll be too tore up to drive and I don't want her out in this mess alone. She drives bad enough as it is."

  "Mark's with her. I'll have him drive her over while I follow the ambulance."

  Nick gaped at the mere suggestion. "Are you nuts? Have you seen the way that man drives? He's worse than she is. I don't know what loon approved his license, but dang! I swear he found it in the bottom of a cereal box. And he took lessons from Mario and Luigi."

  Snorting, Bubba pulled out his cell phone to call Mark and tell him what had happened.

  Before Nick could continue his protests, the EMTs arrived. Kody stepped back so that they could check his vitals. With the exception of a fever, they confirmed that there was nothing wrong with him. But because of his heart condition, they insisted that he go in for more testing.

  It was so frustrating.

  And scary since there was always a chance that they might actually uncover something "abnormal" about him. Something that could land him locked in a lab somewhere for testing since he was about as abnormal as any X-Men could be.

  Of course, it didn't help any that he had a new hell-monkey best friend in that one of the zeitjagers decided to hitch a ride with them as they took Nick to the ambulance and closed the doors.

  Why did that have to be his new psycho stalker? Couldn't there by a supermodel somewhere, obsessed with gawky teenage boys with bad wardrobes and velcro-mother issues?

  What did it want with him, anyway? And why couldn't anyone else see it?

  He stared at the hell-monkey.

  The hell-monkey zeitjager twisted the sickle in his hand and stared back.

  Very disturbing.

  While the EMT kept an eye on his vitals, Nick continued to watch his silent harbinger. Kody slid carefully past it and sat in the corner, out of the way.

  Nick glanced pointedly at the zeitjager, then her. Why is he still with us?

  Kody shrugged. I can't exactly ask while we have company. If I do that, they might take us both to the psych ward.

  At this point, he was almost willing to chance it. Anything to get to the bottom of what was going on.

  "Some weather, huh?" the EMT asked them as they were shut in and the driver took off.

  "Yeah." Nick watched as the woman rechecked his blood pressure. "Still a normal teen, right? I haven't mutated into an Avenger or anything?"

  She laughed. "Not yet, Tony Stark. Are you trying?"

  "Some days. I'd like to try being a billionaire playboy for a change."

  She shook her head. "Well, you might get your chance. Given the size of the mosquitos we had to battle to get inside your school, it wouldn't surprise me if they weren't refugees from a nearby radiated science facility of some kind."

  "Probably got into some of my mama's uncle's bayou moonshine. She always said that stuff could bring the dead back to life. And strip the finish off anything, including cars and kidneys. Wouldn't surprise me if it couldn't mutate a few skeeters, too."

  The EMT laughed so hard, she choked. "Is he always like this?" she asked Kody.

  "Yes, he is."


  "Girl, you've got your hands full, don't you?"

  "You have no idea."

  And still the zeitjager stared at them as if waiting for something more unholy to happen.

  It was so creepy and disturbing. But not nearly as much as the storm that continued to slam against the ambulance until it was forced to slow down to a crawl to get through the streets that were beginning to flood. Even the EMT started sweating.

  Their nervousness wasn't helped as the mosquitos began to gather on the outside of the truck to the point that the evil beasts completely covered the windows.

  The EMT gulped audibly. "It's like one of them horror movies, ain't it?"

  "Yeah," Nick breathed. "And I didn't even play with a Ouija board ... this time."

  Kody snorted. "Maybe this is one of those hundred-year storms or something that drove the bugs out of their nests. You know, the kind of thing that we'll tell our grandkids about?"

  The EMT's face paled as more mosquitos hit the truck. "Maybe, but I've never heard of anything like this." No sooner had she finished those words than something struck the ambulance and sent it careening.

  Nick grabbed Kody and shielded her and the EMT as the ambulance turned onto its side and slid down the street. Loose objects flew around them, striking his body and bouncing off them. While the EMT screamed and Kody wrapped herself around him, he used his powers and kept the women safely cocooned and padded from harm until the truck stopped and everything settled down.

  For a full minute, he didn't move. Not until the door was wrested off by an unnatural force that skittered down his spine. The EMT shouted out prayers as Kody pushed herself back to deal with their latest threat.

  The winds howled. A black smoke rushed forward into the ambulance like giant talons, freezing everything it touched. The EMT shrieked and crawled away from it. She tried to hide as best she could.

  Frost covered the ambulance and turned all surfaces white and brittle. Yet they were hot to the touch. Rising up like some ghastly black misty angel, the smoke spread out to form a body and wings. It wore a cowl that covered its head and hid its features.

  "Fringe Guard?" Nick asked Kody, assuming it was one of the fierce creatures that protected the boundary between the human world and the spiritual one.

  She shook her head. "He's demonic. And he's definitely after you. Probably for the bounty. But not a Guard."