"Great. I always wanted to be a monkey's uncle. Nice to know I finally succeeded."
"Now, why you want to go and hurt my feelings?"
"Mostly 'cause I can't break any of your bones or feed off your blood." He got up. "C'mon, sport. Let's go see if Menyara has any insight into this."
"Sure thing, Uncle Cay."
"Ah gah," he groaned. "Don't call me that. It could cause an involuntary reaction."
"Such as?"
"Repeat stabbing."
"When did this escalate to violence?"
Caleb arched a brow. "Remember our earlier encounter with Bubba's father? He called me an Esme Daeve?"
"Yeah. What of it?"
"They're the rage Daeves, Nick." Kody stood up. "Much like a Malachai, they live in a state of perpetual ire, and are always looking for a fight or are trying to start one."
Caleb nodded.
"That explains so much about your personality."
"Yeah. I'm just like you. Irritating from my first breath to my last." Caleb clapped him on the back so hard, Nick stumbled. "Good to be alive."
"I really need a book on this. I miss my grimoire girl."
Kody frowned. "Where's Nashira?"
"Don't know. Both her and Aeron have abandoned me. I haven't seen either one in forever."
Caleb passed an irritated grimace to Kody. "Define forever. Three hours or three days?"
That tone pissed him off. "Two days on Shira. And you knew about Aeron."
Caleb cursed. "I didn't know he was the second one to go missing."
"Third if you count Dagon."
Caleb literally froze. He was so still that for a moment, Nick thought someone had cast a spell on him.
But after a few heartbeats, he blinked and turned toward the two of them. "Let me get this straight. Dagon, Aeron, and Nashira are all AWOL? At the same time?"
"Yes."
"And you just now thought to mention this?"
"Didn't think it was that important. I assumed they'd be back."
At least Kody appeared as confused by Caleb's overreaction as he did. "What is it, Caleb?"
"Aeron wouldn't have just taken off. Not if he had an assignment. Same for Nashira. She doesn't have family or friends here. It doesn't make sense that they'd head out alone like that. I would have been more vigilant going after Aeron, but I don't dare leave Nick alone while he's like this, because you and I know what happens when he's left to his own defenses. As for Dagon ... Dagon's a bit more flaky. He might be visiting family on Olympus, but it's still not like him to not check in."
Kody bit her lip as she turned back to Nick. "Are you still having visions?"
"Kind of, but they're weird. Not like the usual ones."
Caleb ground his teeth. "Get Xev," he said to Kody. "Meet us at Menyara's shop."
Inclining her head, she vanished.
Nick was about to ask what Caleb was thinking, but before he could, Caleb took his arm and flashed them to Menyara's lapidary on St. Philip.
For the first time since his powers had come in, the trip nauseated him. Badly.
No sooner had they appeared in the back courtyard than Nick had to make the mad dash to the nearest bush and fertilize it.
Caleb made his own set of noises in response. Unlike Kody and Nick's mom, Cay had a sympathetic gag reflex. Which made no sense whatsoever to Nick given the fact that Caleb was a battle-hardened demon overlord who'd marched his army over the crushed bones of his enemies. Entrails, blood, brain matter, none of that bothered Caleb.
But you let a little bile up, and it was over.
Nick was on his knees, gasping for air and unable to control himself.
Still making a face at Nick, Caleb looked like he was about to join him at any second. "You okay?"
"Yeah. Whatever I got into I want to return. This is crap."
"Just make sure you keep it over there."
Nick rolled his eyes. "You're such a baby."
"Don't make me zap you while you're sick, Gautier. You know I will."
He would threaten to zap him back, but right now, he wasn't sure he could make good on that threat. So he kept his mouth shut and stumbled toward the door.
No need to aggravate the devil when all you could do was upchuck on his shoes.
And speaking of ... a part of him was still angry at Menyara for binding his Malachai powers when he was born, and lying to him for the whole of his life ... never mind setting up his innocent mother to incubate another Malachai without her permission. Because of that, his mother's life was, and would forever be, in danger.
It didn't matter that Menyara was an ancient god who claimed she only did it to protect others. No one should play with someone else's life like that. Nor should they make those kinds of decisions for them, without at least consulting them.
People weren't pawns. Or a means to an end. They were sentient creatures who deserved to be made aware of their choices and allowed to decide if they wanted to be jerked around or not.
Or used like broodmares.
Yet that being said, Menyara was the closest thing to a family Nick and his mom had ever known. She'd stood by them when no one else had, and had always made sure they had what they needed.
That alone allowed him to continue to speak to her.
After all, family was family. You didn't have to always agree with each other's point of view or actions to still care about the other person as a whole.
Not to mention, Menyara had taken his mother in and helped birth him on her own sofa. So it was hard to stay angry at her all the time. No matter what came, she would always be his Aunt Mennie.
Even when they were fighting.
It took several minutes before a tiny woman came to the back door and opened it.
She scowled at Nick who scowled back at her. "Can I help you?"
"Uh ... you must be new. I'm Nick. Just here to see my aunt Mennie."
A slow smile curled her lips. "Ah, Nick. I've been waiting for you." Her expression turned dark.
Sinister.
Then the sclera of her eyes turned completely jet. "Malachai."
Before he could move, she attacked.
CHAPTER 7
Nick threw his hands up to counter and fight as the mortent demon came at him with its messy, sloppy jaws snapping. Was it too much to ask for his telekinesis to be left intact?
Of course it was.
Or for a napkin so that the creature could clean up after itself and stop demon-drooling all over him? It was so gross! Made him never want to have a teething child. He'd done his time in the crying room at church.
Nick slugged the demon, causing the mucus to go flying.
Gah, his mom would have a fit if this was in her house. They'd have to fumigate. Defunk and do who knew what to make it livable again. Just once, couldn't they get an attractive succubus after him?
No. Way too much to ask of the universe at large.
Nick hit the demon with a blow that slimed his whole fist and left his entire arm numb.
D-i-s-g-u-s-t-i-n-g.
His stomach churning with revulsion, he felt another visit to the bushes coming on. Which was definitely not something he needed to do in the middle of being attacked by demons. That would probably not work out well for him.
Them either, really.
Unless he wanted the demon to keel over laughing at him. But hey, he had the tacky shirt for that. It had happened before. There was something to be said for being a demon laughingstock.
He ducked a punch the demon aimed at his head and twisted away from it.
"Caleb! Stop napping!" Nick head-butted the demon. "I need a little hand over here. One not covered in demon snot."
Sliding in from the left, a colorful blur caught the demon in front of him, and slammed it to the side. Ah, he knew that blur and never had he been more grateful for that mass of mismatched hair, and almost seven feet of immortal fury.
While Xev continued to battle in his stead, Nick turned to find Caleb on the gro
und, oozing his black blood all over the pavement. Pale and shaking, his friend could barely breathe.
What the heck?
Terrified, he ran to Caleb.
Kody had already peeled his shirt back to expose an ugly, jagged wound where Caleb had been stabbed in his side, to the left of his navel. She was trying to tend it. She held Caleb's balled-up T-shirt to it in an effort to stave off the bleeding.
"What happened?"
Caleb grimaced. "Demon came in behind me while I was distracted. Stabbed me before I killed it."
Nick scowled. "You don't get distracted."
Sucking his breath in sharply, Caleb gestured at his side. "You would be wrong. Apparently."
Xev came running to their sides.
Kody looked up at him. "Did you get the demon?"
With a nod at her, he grimaced at the sight of Caleb's injury. "This is bad."
Yeah. It wasn't healing and Caleb was getting paler by the heartbeat. His breathing became more and more shallow as it rattled in his chest. Even his form was beginning to fade from human to demon, which meant he was losing power and getting too weak to maintain his human disguise.
Nick froze at the underlying dire note in Xev's voice. "What's going on with him?"
"The blade was coated. I can smell the poison. They were assassins sent to kill Caleb."
"They can't kill him. He's immortal."
Xev scoffed. "We're not immortal. We're just hard to kill and immune to normal human decay, and weapons. But this wasn't a man-made weapon. This one was made specifically for Daeves." His eyes teared up as he wiped at the blood on Caleb's cheek. "And I'm not losing you, brother. Not like this!"
Caleb grabbed the front of Xev's shirt in a fierce fist. "Don't you dare!" he snarled. "Don't you even think about it. So help me, if you do it and I live, I will kill you."
"You're in no position to stop me."
"What's going on here?" Menyara rushed from the back door of her shop. No taller than his mom, she was a tiny slip of a woman who barely came up to the middle of Nick's chest.
Dressed in bright yellow, she had her sisterlocks twisted into a loose bun. "What happened?"
Nick would gesture at the bodies, but since the demons were self-cleaning and had burst apart at death, Caleb was the only thing that gave testament to their earlier presence. "I was attacked by demons."
"In my courtyard?"
Nick nodded. "One came out of your shop to get us."
"That's not possible. Demons can't get through my barriers to enter my store."
"This one did."
Nick had never seen terror in her hazel-green eyes, but he saw it today. And that did nothing to alleviate his own stress level. Rather it jacked that bad boy through the roof. He also knew what that expression on her face meant, and it wasn't "hey, Nick, how ya doing?"
"What aren't you telling us, Mennie?"
Before she could answer, he realized that her fear wasn't over what he was saying.
It was what Kody had been doing behind his back that she'd been watching.
Quicker than he could blink, Kody shot Menyara between the eyes with her bow at the same time Xev tackled Nick to the ground to get him out of the firing range. They fell a few feet from Menyara's body.
Angry, grief-stricken, and a whole lot of confused, Nick shoved at the much larger being. "What the hell, man?"
"It wasn't Menyara. Look." He gestured toward the body that Kody was now toeing while she kept another arrow nocked and ready to fly.
A body that burst apart into ashes a moment later, showing him that it'd been a demon who'd come at them again, and not Menyara, after all. The sudden wind carried the swirling embers until they were burned out and gone.
Stunned over the deception, Nick met his gaze. "My powers are gone." Perspicacity had been the first he'd developed and it'd been the only one to never fail him.
Until now.
He'd been completely deceived. No part of him had been able to tell that wasn't Mennie. Not even a hair on the back of his neck had risen in warning.
Ah, this was not good.
I'm defenseless. That thought ran through him like a freight train and sent him reeling. And with it came a new, overwhelming fear.
Menyara!
If the demons had made it into her store, what had happened to her and her staff? It wasn't like she'd have opened the door and said, "Here, demon, come on in. Make yourself at home. Pull up a chair and have tea."
His heart rose to painfully lodge itself in his throat as he jackrabbited for the store. He slung the door open to find a battleground of shattered shelves, destroyed merchandise, and utter destruction. They had rained down a mini Armageddon in here.
"No," he breathed. How could they have gotten to Mennie? It shouldn't have been possible. She was a goddess. Her powers absolute.
Yet there was no denying the mess that surrounded him. There were even scorch marks on the ceiling and walls where they'd fought with god-bolts. The protection seals on the walls continued to glow as if trying to contain whatever evil had happened here.
"Nick?"
Unable to breathe, he turned at the sound of Kody's voice. "What did they do to her?"
"I don't know, sweetie. But we have to help Caleb, right now. He's in bad shape."
"What's Xev wanting to do?"
"Call their father."
"I thought he was being held captive like yours."
She bit her lip. "Not like mine. Even though he's enslaved, their father has the freedom to come and go."
"Then let's do it!"
As Caleb had earlier, she hesitated. "It's not that easy, Nick. You're talking about raising a major power. He won't come willingly and he holds no love for either son. There's no guarantee that he'll do anything to help them. Not without your cooperation."
"What do you mean?"
"You're the Malachai. Their father is subservient to you. You can control him, but he won't like it and he will fight you every step of the way. But ... I might know something to leverage his cooperation."
"How can I command him when I don't have my powers?"
"I didn't say it wasn't risky."
But if they didn't do something, Caleb would be lost. And he wasn't willing to take that loss.
Nick glanced around at the store, and the destruction that had been wrought. Whatever had broken through Menyara's protection sigils and burst in here to take her had incredible abilities. In the past, they'd known their foes. Known what they were up against and how to fight them.
That's not true.
Shut up, mind, I'm trying to give myself a pep talk. Last thing I need is you crapping all over it, and throwing logic and truth at me.
'Cause honestly? He was terrified about this, and getting more so by the moment. Logic and truth would only serve to scare the bejesus out of him. The less sense and facts he had, the braver he'd be.
His breathing ragged, he met Kody's worried frown. "What do we have to do?"
"We'll have to leverage the farm for it, but ... I know the one thing their father wants that you can use to bargain with. The one thing he'd never say no to."
"My soul?"
She laughed. "Unfortunately, it's not as simple as that. Your soul we'd have no trouble giving him. What he wants will take a miracle and the best Cajun charm you possess."
Gah, what was she wanting? "My freedom?"
"Maybe. I don't know the price. But whatever it is..."
Nick would pay it to save Caleb's life. He owed him that much.
Steeling himself, he inclined his head to her. "Let's do this."
They'd just started for the door when Xev and Caleb came through it. Caleb was leaning hard against Xev's side. Quickly and carefully, Xev let him slide to the floor, then used his powers to slam and seal the door.
That, too, was concerning.
"What's going on?"
"We've got company." Xev moved past Nick to sift through the debris. "Kody, I need you to help me find hematite, malach
ite, bloodstone, and jet or obsidian. Quickly. As much as you can."
"On it."
Caleb cursed him, but Xev ignored him as he searched until he found a bottle of black salt and sea salt. He handed them to Nick. "Seal the doors and windows."
Nick moved to do it as fast as he could. "Do I need to say anything?"
"No. Cam's protection will return once we seal the thresholds."
"Is that how they got in?"
Xev shook his head. "Someone invited the evil in. Probably one of her employees who didn't know better." Then, under his breath, he muttered, "How many times do you humans have to be told to leave evil alone, and never, ever invite it into your circles?"
"Not exactly our fault, you know? It's all pretty and shiny. If it came in looking like Nosferatu, we'd know to run." Nick finished pouring the salt mixture, then returned to Xev's side.
He was laying out the crystals.
Kody frowned. "You're summoning him here?"
"We can't exactly leave. Not to scare you two, but you might want to peek through the blinds."
Nick did, then wished he hadn't as he saw the demon spectacle going on in the street. "Is that viewable to the rest of humanity or are we just cursed?"
"I think we're cursed," she said, stepping away from the glass as a giant demon came up and screamed at it.
Nick jumped away and let the blinds fall back into place. "Okay, the hell-monkeys have returned and are having a party on our block. All they need is a float and krewe, and they're ready for Mardi Gras season. Have I said today how much I don't like them?"
"I think that feeling's mutual." Nekoda cringed as they slammed against the glass, trying to break through.
Nick winced. "That didn't sound like them slinging beads at us. Think if I whip my shirt off, they'll go blind and leave?"
No one commented on his stupidity.
Instead, Kody turned back to Xev. "I didn't think he could be summoned unless it was at an oak tree with full moonlight."
Xev passed her an irritated grimace. "I'm not a demon. Those rules don't apply to me."
That was true. He'd been an ancient god, which made Nick curious. "What exactly were you a god of, anyway?"
Caleb answered for him. "He was a chaos god, Nick. The god of blood disease, fire, plagues, famine, violent death, fear, and destruction."
"Yeah," Xev said drily. "I was in charge of all the fun stuff."
Wide-eyed, Nick passed a concerned look to Kody that he'd been dumb enough to set Xev loose in the world again. That might have been a mistake, in retrospect.
"Don't give me that." Xev passed an irritated smirk at him. "Through chaos, order is born. I was the balance for a goddess whose powers negated mine. And before you judge me, need I remind you of what your role is in this universe, Malachai?"