Page 11 of Infinity (Chronicles of Nick 1)
"You don't trust me?" Mr. Poitiers asked.
"I don't trust nobody. My mama ain't raised no fools. I don't get in cars with people I don't know. Ever. You could be a pervert or psycho or something. No offense."
Mr. Poitiers laughed. "None taken. Tell you what..." He pulled out his wallet. "I'm going to give you fifty dollars for a taxi and write down Kyrian's address. I'll see you at his house.
Nick hesitated. The offer did nothing to alleviate his suspicions. "How do I know you're sending me to his house and not someone else's? For all I know that's the address where you take all your victims."
"God, I hope my son's as streetwise as you are." He pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number. After a few seconds, he spoke. "Hey, Kyrian. Sorry to bother you. I'm here with the kid, but he won't get in the car with me. He's even more suspicious than you told me he'd be." He held the phone out to Nick.
Nick narrowed his eyes on the man as he placed the phone to his ear. "Yeah?"
"Hi, Nick. Phil won't hurt you. Get in the car and you'll be over here in a few minutes."
Uh-huh. Nick still wasn't sold. The voice was familiar, but... "How do I know you're Mr. Hunter?"
"Because I'm the only person, besides you, who knows you were helping your friends mug those tourists when you changed your mind and saved them."
Nick's stomach hit the ground at those words. He hadn't breathed a word of that to a single soul. Not even his priests. That was a secret that was supposed to be between him and God and no one else. "How did you know that?"
"I was there longer than you suspected and I saw everything. Now get in the car."
Nick hung up the phone and handed it back to Mr. Poitiers. "Okay, I believe you." He held the money out to him too.
Phil refused to take it. "Keep it."
Nick shook his head. "I really can't take this."
"Yes, you can. Just consider it a reward for being a smart kid."
Unused to people not being angry at him, Nick was still reluctant to accept the money. "You're not mad at me?"
"For protecting yourself? Not at all. I tell Kyi all the time to behave just like you did. It does me proud to see a kid with a brain. Now get in."
Nick hesitated. How weird for someone like Phil to not look down on him. It felt really weird.
He got into the car and buckled himself in.
Phil pulled away from the curb then turned his radio down so that he could talk. "I should have brought Kyi with me to ease your mind."
"It wouldn't have eased it. My mom says pervs use other kids to lure vies too." Not to mention Kyi didn't exactly travel in Nick's circle of friends. He was a stuck-up snot who annoyed him almost as much as Stone did.
That being said, his father seemed to be decent enough in spite of his perfect speech. Made him wonder where Kyi got it from.
They didn't say anything else as Phil navigated traffic. It didn't take them long to reach Kyrian's house that was down in the Garden District. This was the coveted highbrow area where antebellum mansions went on row after row like hulking beasts from a bygone era of gentility and manners that most people nowadays lacked.
Nick and his mom would sometimes come walking down this way... mostly 'cause his mom's favorite author lived here and she wanted to catch a glimpse of her whenever she could.
His jaw went slack as they pulled up to a gate that opened into what had to be the biggest house he'd ever seen. It was a huge Grecian-style home with Doric columns supporting what seemed to be a never-ending porch. Top and bottom.
Phil pulled around the circular drive until he got to the front steps. "We're here." But he didn't turn off the engine.
Nick frowned. "Are you staying?"
"My orders were to deliver you to the door. Mission accomplished."
Weird, but okay...
Nick had no idea why he was so intimidated, but something about the house seemed eerie and forbidding. It wasn't like he hadn't known Kyrian had money, but knowing something and seeing such obvious proof were two different things.
What in the world would it be like to have this kind of wealth?
For that matter, he couldn't even imagine not having to count pennies to eat at McDonald's.
Gathering his courage, he got out of the car, grabbed his backpack, and headed up the stairs to the front door. Made of mahogany and etched glass that reminded him of cut crystal goblets, it looked like something out of a movie. He lifted his hand to ring the bell, but the door opened to show him a tiny Hispanic woman who eyed him like a warden greeting a new inmate. Dressed in a coral shirt and jeans, she had her dark hair pulled back into a tight bun.
"Nick?" It sounded more like "Neek," which was a much prettier version than the normal drawl he was used to.
"Yes, ma'am."
She stepped back to let him enter. "Mr. Kyrian is waiting for you upstairs in his office." She reached for his backpack.
Nick shied away from her.
"You no trust me?" Her tone was offended.
"No disrespect meant to you, ma'am, but I don't even know your name."
Her face went completely stoic. "I am Rosa and I keep Mr.
Kyrian's house for him. Nowwould you like me to put your bag away while you're here?"
He felt foolish for not letting her have it. It just wasn't in him to let anyone take anything from him without a fight no matter how worthless it was. It was the same reason he hadn't wanted Brynna touching it earlier. "I guess." He shrugged it off.
She umphed as he surrendered the full weight of it. "Goodness, you're much stronger than you appear. How you carry this without being hunchback?"
Nick shrugged. "It's what I have to have for school."
She gestured at the mahogany staircase that curved up to the second floor. "Third door on the right. No need to knock. He will hear you coming."
Yeah, okay, that was creepy too.
Nick headed up, taking his time to scan every inch of the impeccable palace. The banister had what he was pretty sure were gold medallions in the center of the black iron railing and the polished floors were some kind of something really expensive—like marble or tile or... whatever. Part of him wanted to run back to the street.
/ so don t belong here.
He felt like a fraud or unworthy. Until he realized what really made him so uncomfortable. There was no daylight....
Every window in the house was covered with shutters and heavy drapes. Every single one. Not so much as a tendril of sunlight came in. How weird was that? His mother was always yelling at him for burning electricity in the daytime.
Stop shaming the daylight, boy. Turn out the lights. Have you any idea howmuch money you're wasting?
Pushing it out of his mind, he reached the door Rosa had mentioned and opened it.
Kyrian satin front of a computer with a headset covering one ear. "Talon, I hear what you're saying. I'm just not listening to it. Look, the kid's here. I'll talk to you later." He hung up the phone and pulled the headset off before placing it on his desk.
"Talon?" Nick asked.
Kyrian smiled without showing his teeth—another peculiar habit Nick had noticed about him even back when he'd come to the hospital. "A friend I'm sure you'll eventually meet." He inclined his head toward Nick's sling. "How are you feeling?"
"Cranky. Pain meds wore off and it hurts like a mother."
Kyrian ignored his curt tone and semi-profanity. "Heard you had some problems at your school today."
"I didn't have no problems at school 'cause they wouldn't let me on campus. Makes it a great day if you ask me."
Kyrian rolled his eyes, but didn't comment on Nick's irritable tone. "Have you called your mom?"
"No. Why?"
"Don't you think she might have heard about the attacks at school and been worried?" "I don't see how."
"Nick ... She's your mother. She's going to be worried. Honestly, you have no idea how much your parents love you until something happens to you—then it's too late." There was a note in Kyrian's voice that Nick couldn't quite define. Something like buried pain from a bitter memory that still bothered him....
But that didn't matter. Nick wasn't being stupid or disrespectful. "I know she'd be worried if she knew about it but I know she hasn't heard anything. We don't have TV or anything. Heck, we don't even have a phone. You have to call Menyara and she takes messages to us."
The shock on Kyrian's face set his temper on fire.
"We don't need your pity," Nick growled. "We get along just fine without it and them other things too. You don't need electronic crap to live. You know, people lived for thousands of years without it. There's a big difference between stuff you want and stuff you need."
Kyrian held his hands up in surrender. "Settle down, Nick. I don't feel sorry for you. I didn't have any of that when I was a kid either and believe me, I know how people used to live."
Nick looked around the expensive furnishings that belied those words. It was hard to imagine Kyrian having ever done without anything. "You've come a long way, huh?"
"In some ways ..."
"And in others?"
Kyrian shrugged. "Let me put it to you this way... money doesn't solve your problems. It just brings new ones to your door."
"Meaning what?"
"Meaning I hope you never know the betrayals I've had. My father once told me that no friend would ever be loyal to me because of what I had and who I was."
Nick's dad had told him basically the same thing. Trust no one at his back, 'cause all people did was betray. And that they usually laughed while they did it.
But he didn't want to be so jaded. "Was he right?"
"Absolutely not. There was one friend I had who was loyal. But when he died, it left me with others who more than proved my father a wise man. I know it's hard to listen at your age. The gods know I never did, but—"
"The gods?"
Kyrian chuckled, again without showing his teeth. "You'll have to forgive me. I'm a little eccentric sometimes." "Is that why all the windows are closed?"
Kyrian arched a brow. "You're observant. Impressive. Most people don't catch that."
"Yeah, well, few things escape me. I tend to watch silently from the shadows. You learn a lot more that way."
"I'll keep that in mind then." Kyrian stepped from around his desk and handed him the phone. "Go ahead and send a message to your mom. In the event she's heard about your school, I don't want her to worry."
Nick screwed his face up. "Boy, with that kind of uberconsideration, your parents must really love you." Mr. Goody Two-shoes.
Kyrian hesitated before he responded. "My parents died a long time ago. And you know the sad thing? I still miss them everyday. I spent my entire youth fighting with my dad over every little thing and damned if I wouldn't sell my soul to see him one more time and tell him I was sorry for the last words I said to him. Words I can never take back that should have never been said. So call your mom. No matter what kind of relationship you have with your parents, I swear to you, you'll miss them when they're gone."
Nick wasn't so sure about that. He barely knew his dad. His mom was another subject though—he would never intentionally hurt her. Dialing Aunt Mennie's number, he put the phone to his ear.
"Hello?" Mennie's Creole accent was thicker than normal.
"Hey, Aunt Men, it's Nick. Can you—"
"Boy? Where you been? Your poor mama done sick with worry over you. She's sitting right here, right now, all tore up and crying. She ain't slept or had a minute's peace since this morning when she heard about your school. Shame on you for worrying her like this. We went to the school and everything looking for you and couldn't find a trace of you anywhere. No one would tell her anything and there you sit all nice and fine. Shame on you, boy! Shame on you."
Nick felt like the lowest form of dog spittle as his mom took the phone. It wasn't like Menyara to fuss at him for anything. She usually left it to his mom to do. That more than anything told him how worried his mom was.
"Baby Boo?" Those words wrung his gut. It was his childhood nickname that she seldom used anymore. "You all right?"
"Yeah, Mom. I'm good. I'm really sorry I didn't call. I—I just didn't think you'd hear about it."
"It's okay, Boo. I'm just glad you're all right. It's so good to hear your voice. The police wouldn't tell me nothing about the victims. They said they hadn't notified the families so I was waiting for them to come to my door and ..." She broke off into sobs.
Nick cringed until he was sick. "I didn't mean to scare you, Mom."
"It's okay. It's all good. You're safe and that's all that matters to me. Where are you?"
He looked at Kyrian, who was giving him an "I told you so" glare. "I'm at Mr. Hunter's now. I was at Bubba's store, helping him out this morning since they canceled school. He said he'd pay me double time for it."
"But you're safe?"
"Yeah, I'm safe."
"Oh, thank God."
