Page 21 of Inferno (Chronicles of Nick 4)
Alan grinned. “Yeah. I think we might do that.”
Like heck you will.…
Nick held the purse out to Alan, making sure to keep it just a hair past his reach. “I think that would be a very unhealthy thing for you to do, tchu,” Nick said, his voice dropping an octave as his hands began to heat up. “Kind of like smoking two packs a day, only much more lethal and quicker to kill you.”
“You don’t scare me, dog, and you damn sure don’t tell me what to do.” Alan snatched at the purse, thinking Nick would loosen his grip and let him have it.
Instead, Nick jerked it forward, bringing Alan into his range. Before Alan could catch his balance, Nick ripped the gun out of his hand and aimed it at Tyree. He fired it.
Screaming, Tyree ran for the parking lot.
Nick would have pursued him, but Alan punched at him and tried to get the gun back. In that instant, Nick felt his powers surge forward with an audible rush that filled his ears with a fierce, drumming beat.
The smell and taste of blood permeated everything.
Kirast kiroza kirent. Conceived in violence to do violence and to die violently. That was the promise written in the first language that wrapped around Nick’s Malachai symbol. It was the Code of his breed.
Alan’s hatred and propensity to hurt others fed the Malachai inside Nick, making him all the stronger. It was why Nick’s father chose to live in prison when there was no human power in existence that could hold Adarian.
Hatred, prejudice, jealousy … all the negative emotions around a Malachai were like handing a can of supercharged spinach to Popeye. The more violence that was directed near them or to them, the more power and strength they could draw from it.
Heat engulfed Nick’s hands, burning both him and Alan.
With a fierce cry of rage, Nick caught Alan a hard punch to the jaw that sent him straight to the ground. Nick fell on top of him, raining fiery blow after blow on Alan’s body as he sought to make some kind of peace with the past where Alan had intended to kill him.
Over and over, he saw that fateful night in his mind when he’d been a scared fourteen-year-old boy, and the three of them had stomped, beat, and shot him while he tried only to protect himself from their unwarranted brutality.
And for what?
For refusing to traumatize and rob an elderly couple whose only mistake was walking down the wrong street at the wrong time?
Scum like them needed to die. Alan and his crew were a disease on this earth and it was time to cure it.
“Kill him, Nick!” Casey shouted. “Kill him! It’s what he deserves!”
The smell of blood thickened in his nostrils as Alan begged for a mercy he hadn’t shown Nick, meanwhile Casey continued to scream for him to end Alan’s life until their two voices mingled like some kind of macabre duet.
Inside his mind, he heard his Malachai demonic voice laughing. Saw his skin starting to mottle with its true black and red tone.
A thousand sounds assaulted him, but one voice rang out loudest.
We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm. Winston Churchill … Kyrian quoted that so much that it perpetually rang in Nick’s ears. It was so common a mantra for the Dark-Hunters that many of them used it as the tagline in their e-mails or had it tattooed on their bodies. It was second only to the Spartan motto: È tàn è epì tâs. Return with your shield or upon it, i.e., victory or death.
And Alan definitely deserved to die for all his sins against this world. All his crimes against the innocent people he’d victimized. Nick had promised himself retribution for his own gunshot should they ever meet again.
Fate had brought Alan back into his reach. Who was he to argue with what was obviously a God-given gift?
I have to keep my word. Gautiers were known by the oaths. It was the one thing his mother had drilled into him. You never break a promise, especially when it’s to yourself.
He held the gun to Alan’s temple, and in his mind, he saw a clear image of Alan standing over him while Nick lay beaten and helpless on the street. Saw the eager gleam in Alan’s eyes as he’d looked forward to blowing Nick’s head off.
“Say your prayers, Gautier.” Those had been his words to Nick. “You’re about to become a statistic.”
The coldness of Alan’s actions that night spurred Nick as he pulled the hammer back with his thumb to c**k the gun.
He tightened his grip on the trigger.
Just as he was about to do it, his brain kicked up a voice that drowned out both Alan and Casey.
Kody’s …
Every person is born with feelings of envy and hate. If he gives way to them, they will lead him to do violence and crime, and any sense of loyalty and good faith will be abandoned. Then he is forever lost. He is forever damned. Not by the world or the circumstances of his birth, but by his own free will.
All of a sudden, his vision cleared and it felt like he slammed back into his body. Hyperaware now, he saw the bloody mess he’d made of Alan. The horrific sight sickened him. He barely recognized Alan’s features. Blood was splattered all over both of them. The new clothes he’d been so proud of were now ruined.
How could I have done that to another human being? He wasn’t an animal.
No, you’re worse. You’re the Malachai.
“P-p-please,” Alan begged through his swollen, bleeding lips. “Don’t kill me.”
Releasing him, Nick stumbled back.
“What are you doing?” Casey demanded as she closed the distance between them. “He was going to rob you and rape me. He’s an animal! Kill him before he harms someone else. You owe it to the world to make it safe and end his life.”
At her incessant nagging, his rage started rising once more.… Everything faded until he was again focused only on making Alan suffer.
I’m going Malachai.…
And there was nothing he could do to stop it.
CHAPTER 11
Caleb looked up from the Sumerian text he was reading as a chill rushed over his skin. It was an ancient stirring in the ether that he hadn’t felt in centuries.
And it was one that made his hackles rise and his molten blood run cold.
Somehow Nick was quickly pulling his father’s powers into his body.
This was not good. Nick wasn’t used to the power he had, never mind the greater power of a full Malachai. “What have you done, kid?” He rose and started to go after Nick, but before he could, he felt another deep, undeniable ripple.
Adarian summoning him to his side.
As Adarian’s personal slave, Caleb had no choice except to do as he was told. And there was no missing the franticness of this summoning. Adarian was panicked.
Maybe he’s finally dying.…
A bolt of white-hot hope shot through him. He’d been praying for Adarian’s death for so long that he couldn’t remember the last free breath he’d enjoyed.
Die, already, you worthless POS.
Transforming into his raven form, Caleb flew out of the open upstairs window and headed upstate for Angola prison where Nick’s father hid in plain sight among some of the most dangerous criminals in the country. It was the one place where Adarian could keep his powers fully charged without even trying. The one place his enemies would never dream of seeking him. After all, who would voluntarily incarcerate himself after he’d broken free of the hellish otherworld prison Adarian had spent most of his life in?
Obvious answer—the Malachai. But other creatures didn’t think like them. The Malachai breed was a special kind of twisted that defied most brains and moral codes.
Reaching the famed prison, Caleb flew to the window where Adarian’s solitary cell was. But the elder Malachai wasn’t there. Caleb cocked his head. It was too late for Adarian to have one of his yard breaks.…
Since he was on death row for one of the most heinous killing sprees in Louisiana history, he was supposed to be kept in his cell twenty-three hours a day.
He’s finally dead.
For one half heartbeat, Caleb rejoiced.
Until he realized that he was still being summoned by his master.
Crap. It lives.…
Disgusted with his luck, Caleb followed the sensation until he reached the R. E. Barrow Jr. Treatment Center, where inmates went for medical care. Returning to his human form, he flashed himself into the building and stayed invisible as he searched for his master.
He knew he’d found Adarian when he came to the most secured room in the facility. Something that was really laughable since Adarian could get in and out of the building as easily as Caleb did.
Without slowing, he walked through the guarded door and into the sparsely furnished room where Adarian was strapped down by all fours to the hospital bed.… Yeah, right. That would really stop Adarian if he wanted to kill someone.
But that being said, Adarian looked awful. The elder Malachai was pale and gaunt in appearance. Weak. Caleb had never seen him like this. Adarian even had a bandage over his head and dark, deep bruises covered his exposed skin.
Yet that wasn’t what stunned Caleb the most. It was the color of the blood that seeped through Adarian’s gauze dressing.
Dark red. That could mean only one thing.…
“Are you dying?”
Adarian curled his lip at Caleb’s stupid and obvious question. “Take the joy from your tone, slave. I’m not dead yet and I still have enough power to end your pathetic existence.” But the death rattle in his chest mocked that threat.
Caleb moved closer to the bed to examine the numerous wounds marring Adarian’s body. “What happened?”
His breathing labored, he licked his dry, cracked lips. “Riot. At first, it strengthened me. Then…” He lifted his strapped hand to show his bleeding skin. “What is going on, Malphas? I should not be weakening while the humans are fighting each other here. I should be growing stronger than ever. How can this be?”
Caleb had no idea why Adarian would be losing power like this. In the past, it’d always been simple. The elder retained his full strength until the younger Malachai came into his own. Then the younger would confront his father and drain him. Once the elder was weak enough, the younger killed him and assumed his rightful place as the sole Malachai.
A perfect blood exchange and inheritance.
Well, not perfect if you were the Malachai who died.…
But Nick hadn’t been near his father since Adarian had gone to Nick’s hospital room and tried to kill him first and absorb Nick’s fledgling powers before Nick learned how to kill him.
“Was it a demon that attacked you?” Caleb asked, thinking it was one of the many predators pursuing Adarian who’d landed a lucky shot on the beast.
“Human, of all disgusting things. I was wounded by a mere mortal!” He had a right to be indignant. Caleb would be highly offended, too, had a lowly human reduced him to Adarian’s current state.
Adarian’s jaw quivered. “Find whatever has done this to me and kill it.”
“And if it’s Nick?”
“Bring him here so I can kill him myself.”
Ah, paternal love …
How he loathed it. Like Nick, he’d never known what it was like to have a real father. His father had plotted against him and used him just like Adarian had done with Nick. But one point in his father’s favor, the bastard hadn’t tried to kill him.
Yet.
“I’m running out of time, Malphas. Do not betray me in this. Know that if something kills me, you will not be freed.”
Caleb scoffed. “That’s not the way it works.”
Adarian laughed cruelly. “It is when you bargain for it.” He glared smugly at Caleb. “I know your ilk, and I know you wouldn’t lift a finger to save me unless your own ass was on the line, too. So I have tied your geist to mine. Whoever takes my powers takes your servitude with them. Forever.”
Caleb cursed as that cold, brutal reality racked him. Only the Malachai had the ability to bond demon geists. It wasn’t easy, but …
“I have no way to gain my freedom? Ever?” he snarled at Adarian.
“You can only control who holds your leash.”
Well, wasn’t this all hunky-dory? Just what he wanted to hear. It ranked right up there with Sorry, you were accidentally turned into a eunuch while you slept.…
In that one moment, he wanted to kill Adarian more than he ever had before. But the laws of his people would drain his own powers and kill him if he even attempted it. And if he died in bondage, his geist would be trapped in a grisly nether realm where he would never have any kind of peace or rest whatsoever.
Eternal hell that made mockery of the one mortals feared.
Impotent rage clouded his vision. “I hate you.”
Adarian closed his eyes as if he savored those words, and why shouldn’t he? Caleb’s hatred only fueled Adarian’s power and made him stronger.
After a second, he opened his eyes to glare at him. “Go, Malphas. Find my attacker.”
“As you will it, my burning external hemorrhoid.” Caleb withdrew as fast as he could before his hatred fed Adarian more. He didn’t want to do anything for the beast he didn’t have to.
