Instinct

  To never again see her child, if she wanted him to live.

  Since the day they'd been locked away from the world of man, Azura and Noir had been trying to get back to it and restart the war they'd lost. Each generation of Malachai had been a tug-of-war of wills between the two ancient gods and the Malachai, who was both a weapon and tool for them. Without Braith, Azura and Noir lacked the total control they needed for the Malachai to make him do their bidding.

  No matter how hard they tried, they could never bring him under full heel. And so the balance between good and evil had been maintained.

  Until now.

  Nick was a very different beast. No one knew why, but he was much, much stronger than his predecessors. He, alone, could tip the balance into the dark gods' favor and allow them to finally defeat the Kalosum, and forever extinguish the side of light in the world of man.

  Worse, something was going to realign in the future that would bring Braith home. Something that would make Nick snap and side with her against the world. Together, they would bring about Armageddon.

  No one knew what would cause that, either.

  Not even Ambrose.

  But it was coming.

  All they knew for a fact was that Noir and Azura were hell-bent on claiming Nick as soon as possible.... That if they were to lay hands on him, he'd be in worse shape than Xev, and he'd never again know freedom.

  Never again be human.

  Yet there was also a prophecy that said Nick was the only Malachai who could change and become a force for good. If they could find a way to anchor him to the Kalosum, they could forever alter the course of history.

  It was all up to him, and him alone. But it was something much easier said than done since the Malachai was born of pure wroth and hatred--born of violence to do violence. His nature was to harm and spew venom. To kill and to maim. Kindness and love didn't come easy to him. None before Nick held any understanding of those words. The only reason Nick did was because of his saintly mother.

  Should he ever lose her ...

  Everything would come undone. He would lose himself to the darkness and become the soulless Malachai. An unfeeling, invincible killing machine.

  Kody laughed nervously as she faced Xev. "Sheez. No wonder Caleb was so nervous about you being free."

  Nick frowned. "What do you mean?"

  She released a deep breath. "Don't you see, Nick? Xev's one of the keys to unleash Noir and Azura. It's what makes his being free so dangerous. So long as Xev remains in this dimension, you're just one step closer to being the very thing you don't want to become. He's not just a god. He's a key."

  Maybe, but throwing Xev into a pit and locking him there to be abused when he'd done nothing to deserve it didn't seem like the way to redemption, either. To him, that lack of regard for someone else's life and well-being was more in line to becoming the Malachai than his stupidity in taking a chance on someone who appeared to need kindness, even though everyone said he shouldn't.

  So long as this act of charity only bit Nick on the butt, and not someone he cared for, he could live with the consequences. He didn't want to be that guy who let other people make up his mind for him.

  But there was one question he had for Xev. "Who's your mother?"

  Xev pointed to his vivid blue eyebrows--another part of his curse--and spoke the last name Nick ever expected to hear. "Azura. Firstborn of all evil, she seduced my father, Verlyn, in an attempt to control and manipulate him. I was nothing but a tool to her and a source of continual aggravation to my father, who despised me for binding him to her." He swallowed. "Like you, I was born of two warring natures that constantly pull at me. But unlike you, I never chose good out of any kind of loyalty or decency to the Kalosum. Rather, I did it defiantly as a way of striking back at my mother, and making her regret and curse my conception and birth."

  "And what of your father?" Kody asked.

  Xev laughed bitterly. "What of him?"

  "Aren't you loyal to him?"

  His features turned to stone as he glanced away from them. "After what he and Caleb did to me, I have loyalty to nothing and no one. We have a mutual understanding. Verlyn never wanted to be my father. I never wanted to be his son." But Nick didn't miss the pain that lay beneath the dry delivery of those words. Their rejection had hurt Xev so deeply that he'd been left with the same choice Nick had faced with his own father.

  Deny any want of love. It was easier that way. To pretend you didn't care. That you didn't need or want your father. But deep down in places you didn't want to own up to, you knew the truth. It always cut and bled. An open wound that wanted what they would never give.

  A single damn about you.

  And that was why Nick couldn't turn his back on Xev. Why he'd kept him here when everyone else told him he was an idiot for it. He knew that same pain too intimately to dole it out to someone else.

  He and Xev were brothers in pain.

  Brothers in heart.

  Nick couldn't throw Xev aside like everyone else had done him and leave him to rot alone. It just wasn't in him to be that cold. His mother had taught him better than that.

  Xev locked gazes with Nick. There was so much agony and need inside those hazel eyes that it was hard for Nick to see what he, himself, kept hidden from the world reflected back at him. "I told you when you brought me here, Malachai, that I have no understanding of kindness or love. You should have left me in my prison like all the Malachais before you. It's where I belong. It's all I understand."

  Nick heard those words that sent a chill down his spine. They were so similar to what his father had told him from the cradle. Put no one at your back unless you want them to plant a knife in your spine.

  And yet ...

  He sensed something more inside Xev. His instincts told him that Xev wasn't quite the badass he pretended to be. That there was a vulnerability deep inside him he denied. A need for acceptance that Nick related to. Maybe he was wrong. But every part of himself told him that Xev wasn't quite as evil as the ancient wanted him to believe.

  Even if he was the son of Azura.

  Of course that was easy for him to say, being the son of the Malachai. He didn't want to be judged for his parentage, either. He wanted to believe they were both better than their genetics.

  Besides, Xev wouldn't have fought to save them if he really didn't care. Wouldn't have been wounded protecting them. Nor would he have gone back to save Kody when he could have left her trapped between worlds, forever.

  Xev could deny it all he wanted, but he had a heart and he understood decency and kindness both.

  Not to mention, he was older than anyone Nick knew, even Acheron, who was over eleven thousand years old. Right now, they needed that advantage. If Xev had known the first Malachai, then maybe, just maybe he would know some way to keep Nick from turning into the monster Ambrose.

  It was worth a shot.

  And at this point, sadly, it was the only chance they really had.

  Nick nudged him toward the closet. "Go on and get dressed, Xev," he said, gently. "We've had a bad morning and my mom's missing. Caleb's sick and--"

  "What do you mean sick?" Xev asked, interrupting him.

  "He has some kind of cold."

  Xev's jaw dropped. "No. It's not possible."

  Nick exchanged a frown with Kody as he caught the underlying tone of Xev's voice. "You know what's wrong with him?"

  "Are any other gods infected?"

  Nick shook his head. "Caleb's a demon, not a god." As soon as he said that, he remembered that wasn't entirely true.

  "Malphas is a demigod. We have the same father ... Verlyn. And while a demon can't get sick, there was an illness my mother crafted that can strike down the ancient gods, including Caleb, should he come into contact with it."

  Nick struggled with that concept. "That doesn't even make sense. How could something make a god sick and not a demon?"

  "When it's strictly targeted to them. It was biological warfare, designed to take down
an entire pantheon at my mother's command. She was rather bitchy that way, back in her time."

  Kody gasped in alarm. "Does that include you?"

  Xev laughed. "You honestly think my mother would spare me any pain?" He pointed to the words of his curse on his torso that showed exactly how little his mother had cared whether or not her son was left to wallow in eternal misery.

  She winced visibly at his coldly stated answer. "What about Nick? Can it hurt him?"

  Xev studied Nick like some science experiment that had been badly mutated. "He might have some immunity now that he's generations removed from the goddess who birthed the first Malachai. That part, I don't know. I'm not even sure it's the same illness as the one I saw on the ancient battlefields. But it's the only thing I can think of that would make Caleb ill. He should be immune from any other known disease."

  That at least made sense. Finally. "What of my mother's kidnapping?"

  "I know nothing of her being taken. I swear. She was in the kitchen, getting ready for work, when I came in here to sleep. That's all I know of her whereabouts. Had I heard anything, I would have protected her with my life."

  Nick inclined his head to him. "All right. Get dressed. We'll be in the kitchen, waiting."

  Xev was dressed before he finished speaking. "Show me where they grabbed your mother. I'll see if I can detect anything about her assailants."

  Nick arched a brow at Kody. "Dang, I need to remember I can do that when I'm running late to school. Those ninja dressing skills are handy."

  She snorted at his misplaced humor.

  Nick took them to the rear of the condo, but didn't open the back door since the police were still there. He jerked his chin toward them. "Who or whatever it was attacked her and Mark as they were getting into his Jeep. Busted him up enough that he was sent to the hospital."

  A strange look descended over Xev's face.

  Nick turned toward Kody. "Is he having a vision or does he need to go potty?"

  Kody shoved at him. "Nick," she chided.

  "What? It's the same look the toddlers used to get on their faces in the crying room I had to help monitor as part of my charity work when I was going through Confirmation."

  She groaned out loud. "You're awful."

  "I'm the Malachai, baby." Nick winked at her to let her know his cocky attitude was a joke. "Goes with the territory."

  Xev's eyes glowed the same way Caleb's and Nick's did whenever they accessed their powers. That was not a joke.

  Nor was the dark, shrieking cloud that was headed straight for them.

  At first, Nick thought it was another swarm of mosquitos. Yet as it drew closer, the sound was unmistakable.

  It was a murder of crows. And not just a standard murder. More like a Quentin Tarantino-style slaughter fest of them. With friends, family, and every feathered acquaintance they'd ever made.

  In a mad, gory frenzy, the crows attacked like something out of the old Hitchcock film. They descended on the police and people, who, screaming and cursing, ran for cover while the birds pecked and slashed at them. Thunder and lightning crackled, threatening to dump more rain. Some of the police shot at the birds. But nothing deterred them.

  Total pandemonium broke out.

  As people flooded into his building for protection, Nick ran through a mental list of his powers. He could talk to the dead and sort of control zombies.

  Okay, it didn't work quite the way it should, but it was useless on fowl creatures.

  He had partial telekinesis, which was also iffy at best. His grimoire, that was even lippier and more sarcastic than he was. Of course, if sarcasm were lethal, he'd be a legendary killer. Sadly, that skill only served to get him grounded, or added days to his detention. Slammed into lockers by Stone and crew ...

  And it pissed Kyrian and Acheron off to no end.

  His sword ... Not a good idea to pull that out in front of skittish police.

  Nothing he had could help with this problem. Not even his wings. He wasn't Dr. Dolittle. He had no control over murderous birds that he knew of. But at least the crows didn't appear to be able to enter the building.

  They stopped at the threshold as if the protection spells Menyara and Caleb had put in place were binding for them, too.

  Even so, Xev pulled them back, further into the building. "Death," he breathed. "Those are his carrion birds of choice. You think he sent them here?"

  Nick went cold at the mention of Grim. "Does this mean he had anything to do with my mother's disappearance?"

  Xev considered that. "Or he's looking for you, perhaps."

  Kody met Nick's gaze. "Grim does know where you live and who your mother is. What she means to you. Maybe he decided to go rogue, and on the attack?"

  Grim also knew that his father was dead. That Nick had come into his full Malachai powers. Though he should be subservient to the Malachai, that really wasn't their relationship.

  Death had a massive superiority complex where Nick was concerned.

  Even so, it didn't quite add up. Up until now, Grim had been casually insulting and somewhat helpful.

  Nick glanced back at the murder of crows that was eyeballing them through the barrier. "But why snatch her and then send those"--he jerked his chin at the crows--"after me? It's not like he doesn't have my phone number. Literally. Had he called, I'm dumb enough to have met him somewhere without the theatrics."

  Xev's scowl deepened as the crows moved to sit on the sills of the building as if waiting for something specific to happen. It was so creepy, it made the hair on the back of Nick's neck stand on end.

  The ancient god stepped back and paled even more.

  Her own features paling, Kody bit her lip at the way Xev reacted to them. "What is it?"

  He moved closer to the window, then fell back again. "They're Memitim."

  "Mem-a-who?" Nick asked.

  "Memitim. They were the soldiers used against Arelim." He turned to face Nick. "Back in the day, they were under the command of Malphas. They were his army."

  "I don't understand."

  "Long before Caleb met his wife and decided to live the life of a peaceful farmer, he fought with my mother and his against our father. He was one of the Mavromino's greatest and strongest generals. The Memitim were his soldiers that he used against the Kalosum. After centuries of warring against us and laying waste to mankind, he switched sides because of his wife and swore off his sword forever. When the Memitim went after him and refused to let him live in peace, he single-handedly put them down, and they swore vengeance upon him. These are their spirits and they're here to make good on their vow." His gaze burned into Nick. "Someone resurrected them for their revenge."

  "How do you know that?"

  "You're the Malachai. Listen to them and you can hear it in their cries."

  Nick tilted his head as he closed his eyes and did what Xev said. He opened up the part of himself that honestly terrified him. Anytime he tapped those powers, there was always a part of his heart scared that he wouldn't make it back to be normal again. A part scared that he'd be lost to the darkness forever.

  But Xev was right. He could hear them now.

  Malphas! We've come for you! It's time for you to pay for what you've done! Come out and face us, you craven dog!

  Nick almost told them he wasn't here, that they had the wrong address, then caught himself. Better they stay misinformed. So long as they were surrounding the wrong building, they wouldn't be trying to break into the right one and kill his friend.

  Yet one thing he knew for certain. Those crazy, batty crows weren't going anywhere. Not until they had Caleb's heart in their bloody little beaks.

  And they had no intention of allowing anyone else to leave the building, either. Something proven when one of the cops tried, and the birds descended on him like a bunch of winged piranhas.

  People screamed as two cops shot at the birds in an attempt to drive them off their colleague.

  While they were distracted, Nick opened the door to retur
n to his individual condo unit and let Xev and Kody in before they got caught in the cross fire.

  Kody stepped away from the door. "I don't understand. If the Memitim want revenge on Caleb, why are they here? Shouldn't they be at Caleb's?"

  Xev shrugged. "His most recent scent would have been at your school or on Nick. It must be what they locked on to and followed when they were freed. Since they're carrion spirits, they can't come into this building because it's protected. And they can't find him because Nick teleported him to his home, correct?"

  "Yeah."

  "Then Caleb should be safe. For now."

  "Again with the should," Nick mumbled. "Really hate that word."

  Ignoring his comment, Kody crossed her arms over her chest. "Could they have made Caleb sick?"

  "You're focused on the wrong concern." Xev stepped away from them.

  "Meaning?"

  Xev looked past her shoulder to the window, where more crows were gathering. "It's not whether or not they carried the illness that should concern you. It's who opened the hell-gate that unleashed them."

  CHAPTER 6

  Nick grimaced at Xev's dire words. "Dude, if my gut draws any tighter, I'm going to pass a diamond soon. So what hell-gate doth thou mean now, my lord demon? Or is it demon lord?"

  Xev ignored his sarcasm. "You should know, since you're part of the usumgallu that controls them. Or, more to the point, the head of the beast."

  "Yes, but see, in the midst of my learning all about econ, biology, locker combinations, and American history, they foolishly ignored and neglected this part of my most vital education, and so I'm seriously lacking. Please, do catch me up before any more loathsome creatures come perching on my sill, and singing me such lovely death serenades."

  Xev ignored his sarcasm. "You know the story of Pandora's Box?"

  "Yeah?"

  "It wasn't a box or a jar the curious human opened that unleashed those ill spirits into this world. It was a living membrane she ruptured that could never again be closed or healed. That's why Death, Bane, and War are always in this realm with humanity. Why no one can defeat them or banish them completely. Not even I."

  Sighing wearily, Xev closed the curtains to block the crows from seeing into the condo and spying on them. "Because of one woman's defiance of a divine order, mankind was forever condemned to suffer them and their cruelty, with no way to fully banish them from this human plane. Think of it as the eleventh hour for Man. Forever walking hand in hand with their own destruction and death. With humanity's only tenuous hope for salvation being this terrifying thing we call free will. When the first woman so innocently and blindly gave birth to those three, she unknowingly damned this world to disease, war, and death. To the eternal battle for this middle ground and the fate of all humanity. But ... thanks to the gods who care about her kind and who took pity on them, the other four Snake sarras or chieftains remain supernally bound and contained. Restrained. Each with their own malevolent group they uniquely control as pawns in this eternal war to the one suzerain who leads them."