"Valid point. You're right. But while I was born of destruction, I'm trying not to end the world in an ugly war I lead. Which is my big bone of contention. I've read the books and seen the movies. The guy in my role is supposed to be the Chosen One. The good guy in a white hat. The kid who gets superpowers and saves the world. Not the one who eats it. Who do I have to see about an upgrade of my role?"
Xev shook his head. "We are all victims of our births, Nick. And if we're lucky enough to survive childhood, then it becomes a race to see if we can overcome those roles we're assigned the moment we draw our first breath by those who judge our parents, and the labels everyone else wants to place on us. The labels we use to define and hem our own destinies with. Saddest curse of humanity is the day someone teaches you how to hate. And gives you a cause for it. You come into the world a pure, unscarred soul. And your first experience is being slapped on the ass by a callous hand, supposedly for your own good, to draw your first breath."
He winced as if some horrible memory went through his mind as he looked down at Caleb. "Sad really that people would rather focus on what makes them different than on what makes them the same ... compassion, hope." He glanced from Kody to Nick. "Love. For all the differences between us, we're more alike than anyone wants to admit."
And with that, he began a chant.
Caleb tried to interrupt him, but he was too weak. Xev ignored him and continued.
Nick fell silent as he watched the two brothers who'd been divided by a single tragedy that had ruined both their lives.
Forever.
It made him want to seek out his own brother. The thought had occurred to him a lot, especially lately, but since his brother was also a cursed god, he'd avoided it. There was no telling what he might end up with.
Or how his brother might feel about learning of Nick's presence. Nick wasn't even sure if his brother knew Adarian was his father.
Even though his brother was a god, they didn't "know" everything. Case in point, Menyara was currently missing. And she wouldn't have been had she known demons were at her doors.
Like everyone else, gods could be fooled, too. And if his brother didn't know he was part destructo demon, Nick definitely didn't want to be the one to drop that bombshell on him. Lesson learned, never be the bearer of bad tidings to an angry god. It just didn't pay. They tended to rip the wings off and eat those messengers.
As Xev chanted, a loud crack popped. A bright light flashed.
Two heartbeats later, something even uglier than the hell-monkeys outside rose up to come at Nick and Kody.
Instinctively, Nick threw his hands out to attack it, only to remember he was powerless. Kody stepped around to deflect it before Xev caught it and banished it back to whatever dimension it'd come from.
"What was that?"
"When Menyara wrote the protections for her store, she trapped a number of entities in the fields around it. That was one of the things she pissed off." Kody sighed. "What is going on here?"
"There's another Malachai," Caleb growled.
"Ambrose?" Kody arched a brow at Nick.
"That would make sense, but the last time I saw him, he told me to get the Eye, and reset everything. He said he was out of juice. That he couldn't time travel anymore. He was on the verge of slipping over and destroying everything. I don't think it's him. It doesn't feel the same. This is a very different kind of power."
Caleb groaned. "I agree. Totally different essence and feel. More powerful."
"More powerful?" Kody gaped. "That's not possible. There's never been a more powerful Malachai than Ambrose."
And speaking of ...
Nick's pocket began to burn him. Hissing, he realized it was coming from the amulet. "Why's the Eye hurting me?" When he started to reach for it, Kody grabbed his hand.
"Your powers keep waning. We don't know what's going on. If you touch that right now..."
It could kill him.
"She's right. You need to get that off you without touching it."
"How?"
"Drop your pants!" all three of them growled at once.
"Flipping great!" he yelled back. "Woman finally gets me out of my pants and it's humiliating. Only my luck!"
Unbuttoning his fly, he quickly toed his shoes off and pulled his jeans down before kicking them off. Thank goodness he'd worn boxers this morning.
Worse? His mom was right. It paid to always have on clean underwear.
You just never knew.
Lesson forever imprinted on his psyche for all eternity. Especially when Kody glanced down, looked up, and started snickering.
"Kody!" he snapped. "Do you mind?"
"Sorry. It's just adorably cute."
"Cute? Really? That is not something a guy wants to hear the first time his girl sees him without his pants on. Dang, woman. Could you make this any worse on me? You know I have no ego as it is."
"Sorry. So sorry." And still she laughed. Pressing her lips together in an adorable expression, she batted her eyelashes at him. "It's just ... how Cajun are you that even your underwear is the New Orleans Saints? Seriously? I guess I should be grateful it's not purple and yellow with masks and beads."
Caleb snorted. "You should just be grateful it's clean and that he's actually wearing some that doesn't have holes in it."
Nick glared at him. "Shut up and die already! I thought you were on your last breath an hour ago! Shouldn't you have bled out by now?"
Just as Caleb opened his mouth to retort, another bright flash almost blinded Nick. He expected it to be a new hell-monkey.
It wasn't.
No, this varmint was far worse. Far more sinister.
Tall, dark, and terrifying, it was something that hell itself had spawned and spat out. Forget the Malachai. This made Nick's father look like Mickey Mouse up against Godzilla.
They had bantered about the term primal power, but until now Nick hadn't understood what that meant.
Yeah ... if this was the good guy, he dang sure didn't want to meet the bad ones.
Ever.
His head was bent low like a vicious predator that smelled fresh meat as he met Nick's gaze. He had one eye that was a vibrant green and the other a dark, earthy brown. That stark contrast was as unnerving as it was startling. Shockingly enough, his features were almost identical to Caleb's whenever Caleb was in human form. Same sculpted jaw. Same aquiline nose and arched brows, tawny skin, and jet-black hair. They were even the same height and build.
Only difference was the height and length of hair. Whereas Caleb's hair was short, his father's brushed his shoulders. There was also something even deadlier about his father's demeanor. Colder.
Far more sinister.
Nick wouldn't have thought that possible.
And when he turned to face Xev, his eyes blazed a vibrant red. The green amulet around his neck glowed with an ethereal fire a moment before he blasted Xev so hard, it lifted him from his feet and sent him slamming into the wall behind him.
"I warned you!" He snarled at Xev as he closed the distance between them. "This time, I will rip out your worthless heart and feed it to you!"
CHAPTER 8
Nick tried to reach Xev to help him, but some unseen force held him in place. He couldn't move or speak.
Kody?
She could only move her eyes. I'm frozen, too. Jaden's got me locked.
Horrified, he couldn't do anything other than watch as the ancient god grabbed Xev by the throat and held him against the wall. Cut and bleeding, Xev appeared to be as helpless against his father as they were.
His breathing ragged, he fearlessly met his father's gaze. "Kill me if you must, but help Malphas. He carried your banner and paid the highest price of all for it. The least you could do is save his life. Cam needs him in this fight. Without him, Jared dies. If you have any feeling for anyone besides your own selfish hide, save them."
Raw fury and hatred twisted Jaden's handsome features as he snarled at his son. "What did you do to him this time?"
br />
Xev laughed bitterly. "Why ask when you won't believe a word I say?"
In that moment, Nick saw the strangest image in his mind. Since he no longer held the amulet, he had no idea where it came from, but he saw Xev with Myone. Tall and lithe, she was absolutely gorgeous.
The epitome of feminine perfection. No wonder Xev had lost his head to her.
Graceful and elegant, Myone had long black hair that fell in soft, thick waves to her waist. It was the kind of hair that a guy wanted to sink his hands and face in.
With the round face of an angel, she had large eyes and a pert nose and full lips. Her skin had a golden cast to it, as if it were made of gold or brushed with it. Even her wings appeared to be made of spun gold. Though barefoot, she was dressed in a thin red gown that left one gold-kissed shoulder bare.
Xev wore ancient bronze chain mail that moved like articulated dragon scales, and gold greaves buckled over burgundy boots that matched his cloak. The center of his bronze breastplate had the head of a hideous, terrifying chimera. With solid jet-black hair that matched his iridescent wings and normal blue eyes, he looked like an entirely different person. Nick barely recognized him.
Xev's is pale eyes twinkled with devilish joy as he snuck with her into the small room of an ancient temple. An oracle chamber of some sort that was lit with wall sconces that threw their flickering shadows up on the wall behind them.
"You're not supposed to be here," she admonished him. "What if someone were to see you?"
Completely unrepentant, Xev gave her a kiss so hot, it made Nick uncomfortable to witness it. He pulled back with a soft moan. "I had to come. I've information about my mother's battle plans you need to know."
Biting her lip, she cupped his face. "Dary ... you must stop spying for us. They'll kill you if they find out."
He shrugged her concern away. "What are they going to do to me?"
"Cut out your heart and feed it to you."
He cupped her hand in his and pressed it to the center of her chest. "My heart is here, beyond their reach."
She opened her mouth to protest, but he silenced it with another tender kiss.
After a minute, he pulled back to smile down at her. "They're planning to attack at dawn on the north gate, where you're usually weakest. I'll slow them down as best I can to give you as much time as I can to fortify your positions."
Fear and concern lined her brow as she stared up at him. "Be careful."
"You, too." He lifted a lock of her hair to rub against his lips so that he could savor the softness of it. "One day, Myone, I hope to have more than just a kiss from your lips."
"You know better. We both do. Even this is more than either of us should have allowed. Now go before someone sees you. And don't come here again!"
Xev's eyes showed the depth of his heartbreak. The depth of how much he loved her and how much those words cut him.
"Sorry I bothered you, agna," he said, using the submissive demonspeak term for owner. The agony of her rejection was tangible as he dropped her hair and stepped back. "I will trouble you no more."
The moment his back was turned, silent tears fell from her eyes. She covered her mouth and sobbed where he couldn't see or hear. And when he closed the door without looking back, she flinched as if she'd been struck.
"I love you, Daraxerxes. I do." She whispered the words under her breath. "I'm so sorry."
She turned to walk in the opposite direction.
"Stop him! Don't let him escape!"
She gasped at the sound of a sharp voice that was followed by the clashing of swords and the sound of fierce fighting in the main temple room. Wiping at her eyes, she flew to the door and threw it open to find Jaden there with Xev, surrounded by guards.
On his knees with his hands and wings tied, Xev was cut and bleeding where they'd outnumbered him twenty to one. Two of the guards held swords at his throat.
"What is this?" she demanded.
"We captured a Mavromino spy." Jaden gestured at his guards. "Take him and lock him up."
She paled at Jaden's cold words as they brutally hauled Xev away, making sure to cause him as much harm as they could while they did so.
Trembling, she approached Jaden slowly. "What are you planning to do with him?"
"He'll be interrogated for information about their army and intentions."
"You mean tortured?"
Jaden didn't respond. "We're at war, Myone. Don't underestimate our enemies."
"He's your son."
"Who came here of his own free will to gather information for his mother to use against me. You think that deserves my mercy?"
"And if he didn't? What if he came to give us information, instead?"
Jaden laughed. "Do you know how he was conceived? Through lies and deceit. He was meant to be a tool to be used against us from the very beginning. And that's what he is. Don't ever be fooled by him. He was born of a lying beast and suckled on the breast milk of demons. Trust me. I made the mistake of trusting him once, when he was just a boy, and it almost cost me my life. It's a mistake I won't ever repeat. Keep your heart hardened where he's concerned, or else you'll pay dearly for your mercy."
Nick flinched as the memory faded and he watched Jaden pull Xev by his hair toward Caleb.
"Are you the one who did this to him?" Jaden snarled in Xev's ear.
Xev refused to speak. He merely blinked slowly and said nothing.
Pale and shaking, Caleb glared at his father. "Told you to let me die. Next time I tell you not to call someone, brother, maybe you'll listen."
Those bitter words took the fire out of Jaden's eyes. "You side with our enemy?"
"Against you?" Caleb let out a scoffing laugh. "I'd side with Lucifer."
Jaden took those words like a slap. Apparently, they stunned him enough that he loosened whatever hold he had on them.
Kody stumbled forward while Nick hung back, unsure of this new being who didn't appear to be the most stable of creatures.
The one thing his psychotic father had taught him was to lie low out of a striking range until they either calmed down or went away.
And to be prepared for any attack.
"Caleb was poisoned," Kody said.
The moment Jaden saw her, he cocked his head and frowned. "Bet?"
"I'm her daughter."
"You can't heal him?" Jaden asked her.
"I don't have her powers. My father was a Chthonian."
He nodded. "I need lapis lazuli ground with red jasper."
Kody went to gather them and crush the stones for him.
"You're not asking payment for this?" Xev wiped at the blood on his lips.
At first, Nick thought Jaden wouldn't answer. Or that he didn't hear.
But after a few seconds, he spoke. "You are my sons, regardless of how you were conceived." He glanced up at Nick. "Lesson to you, boy ... beware of any woman who comes near you with a tongue laden with flattery. And twice as wary of anything she hands you to drink." He scowled. "Where are your pants?"
"Uh ... over there." He pointed toward them.
"Why?"
Xev almost grinned. "Our latest Malachai isn't quite as competent as his predecessors."
Jaden went completely still. "He's the Malachai?"
Nick nodded. "I had much the same reaction, only with a bit more screaming." He paused as he remembered the day Ambrose had told him his destiny. "And a lot more cursing and denial."
Aghast, Jaden glanced from Caleb to Xev. "That idiot killed Adarian?"
Caleb laughed, then choked and groaned in agony of his wounds. "Yeah, he did. Don't underestimate him. He kicked Grim's butt, too."
"And Noir's," Xev added.
"Him?"
Nick pouted at the insulting tone. "Wow. My ego is taking one serious butt-whipping today. Anyone else want to pile on, and I don't mean the hell-monkeys outside?"
Kody returned with the stones Jaden had requested already crushed inside a granite mortar. "And before you say anything more a
gainst our Malachai ... you should know, Jared's his grandfather."
Jaden would have dropped the mortar had Kody not caught it from his slackened grip.
Time hung still. It honestly felt as if something had sucked the air from the room as Jaden stared at him with those eerie bicolored eyes.
"How is that possible?"
Xev sighed. "Cam orchestrated it. He's the Malachai of prophecy. Born of light and darkness. The most powerful one ever."
"Standing here with no pants on." Nick grinned and winked at him, then clicked his tongue and pointed with both index fingers at the ancient being.
Jaden wasn't charmed ...
Or amused.
"Okay ... I'm going to put my pants back on now." Nick cleared his throat and headed toward them.
"Un ... believable." Jaden took the mortar from Kody's hands and returned to treating Caleb while Nick carefully picked his pants up, making sure to slide the amulet out of the pocket without touching it.
Well, the good news was that lack of belief had saved Nick's neck more than once. So while Jaden's reaction didn't help his ego, it did serve to spare his life. He'd take it.
Kody came over to brush his hair back from his face. "You okay?"
"Sure, cher. I know what I am. His rejection don't bother me none. There's only a handful of people whose opinions matter where I'm concerned. And I don't give him permission or power to hurt me."
Smiling, she pulled him into her arms. "Love you," she whispered.
"Moi, aussi." Nick fisted his hand in her hair and ground his teeth at the realization that she was one of the handful of people who could completely destroy him. While he honestly didn't care what Jaden or his enemies thought, he did care about Kody.
And in the back of his mind was the image of the day he killed her. It haunted him constantly now.
Even with his eyes open. It forever played like a game day slow-mo clip.
From across the room, he met Jaden's gaze as the ancient god watched them curiously. He didn't speak while he worked on Caleb.
And Xev ... he had turned away to give them privacy.
He always did. Nick didn't need his powers to know why. Xev still mumbled Myone's name in his sleep. Half the time, he woke up whispering it under his breath as he reached for her in the bed only to curse once he realized he was no longer in the past, and that she was gone.