Page 29 of Inferno (Chronicles of Nick 4)
“I can’t take charity. My mama won’t let me.”
“Fine then. You can take out some trash in the back when you get done.”
The next thing Nick had known, he was working on his paper at the counter near the register, laughing at Bubba’s stories of his scary adventures with Mark, and splitting a pizza with him after Bubba had heard his stomach rumbling.
By the time he had his assignment finished, with a lot of help from Bubba, he’d thought the world of the man. They didn’t make many guys like Big Bubba Burdette.
And his mother was a lady in a category all her own.…
If she were ever going to have a relationship with a man, Nick couldn’t think of anyone else he’d rather have her with than Bubba.
“Dang, Bubba,” Caleb said as he joined them. “What’d you do to him?”
“I just asked a question. But I think it sent him into a coma or something.”
“What was the question?”
Nick held his hand up to interrupt them as he finally had a rational thought again. “You know what, Bubba?” He met Bubba’s gaze levelly. “I’d be fine with you dating my mama. I don’t know if she’ll say yes. She’s never been on a date before, but if she agrees, I’m all for it. She needs someone to make her happy. But I just have one question.”
“Yeah?”
“If you two were to get married, would Mark be my irritating stepbrother or my mentally challenged uncle we don’t talk about in public?”
Bubba laughed. “You better be glad he’s not here to hear that, boy. He’d kick your butt.”
Probably so. “Seriously though, I’m all good with it. May the Force be with you when you ask her. You can never tell how she’s going to react to things like this. And don’t hold it against me if she says no.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t.” Bubba inclined his head to him. “Thank you, Nick. I appreciate it. And I promise I won’t do anything to make you uncomfortable or dishonor your mama.” Then he nodded to Caleb and headed for his store at the same time the police began arriving.
Nick met Caleb’s gaze. “It’s a sign, isn’t it?”
“What is?”
“Bubba wanting to date my mom.… The world is coming to an end.”
Caleb laughed at his dire tone. “No, Nick. Not if we can help it.”
Nick wanted to believe that, but as they started back toward his house, a bad feeling went through him. A feeling that only got worse as they were passing a police car and he overheard an officer talking on his radio.
“What was the name of that escaped prisoner again?”
“Adarian Malachai. And they’re pretty sure he’s headed our way. He’s already killed six people who tried to stop his escape. So he is definitely armed and dangerous. Do not attempt to apprehend him alone. We’re getting information now about any family he might have in the area and will pass that along once it comes in.”
Nick felt the color draining from his face as he met Caleb’s wide-eyed stare. While he knew he’d be the primary target his father would want to kill, there was one other person his father would prey on.
“We’ve got to get to my mother. Now!”
CHAPTER 15
Caleb caught Nick’s arm and pulled him to a stop. “Hang on. Something’s not right.”
“Yeah, my bastard father’s escaped and—”
“No!” he growled through clenched teeth. “Listen to me, Nick. I saw your father right before I came to you. He’s not in any kind of shape to fight anyone. Not even a human. He didn’t get out of there on his own. He couldn’t have.”
Wanting to kill Caleb for holding him back, Nick tried to break free of Caleb’s iron grip. “Then he has a helper. What else is new?”
Caleb’s fingers bit harder into his arm, keeping him in place in spite of Nick’s struggles to get free. “Your father has no allies, Nick. I’m it. Do you understand me? The Malachai is the King Shit of our universe. All preternatural creatures, including the majority of the gods who remain in power, exist in a state of absolute fear of him. Even Noir. He might have held your father’s leash, but he knew he was holding his death in captivity, which is why he kept your father weakened and chained.… That being said, everyone covets his power, and if they can ever get to a weakened Malachai, they can take those powers and use them.”
“Then why does he trust you?”
“I’m his slave. There’s no way I can hurt him and he knows it. So long as he lives, my powers are his to command. If I tried to use them against him, they would rebound on me and I could conceivably lose mine entirely or die myself. I’m the only creature alive he can turn to right now who can’t kill him for his powers.”
Nick shook his head. “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“I’m saying that if your father is really out of jail, something went in and got him for a reason, and if he’s still alive, that creature is holding him prisoner. And whatever those reasons are that they haven’t killed him, they are not for your father’s benefit, and especially not yours. The Malachai is the most cursed creature ever born. They can know no love of any kind, and that includes friendship. They can’t even trust their own mothers at their back.”
Nick calmed a degree as he considered that and came to the conclusion that his mother wasn’t in immediate danger from his father. She should be at home, safe. “Who would have taken him, then?”
Caleb finally let go of his arm. “That is the right question. Now let me really taint your Corn Flakes by reminding you that if something has found him and they manage to take his powers, they alone will have the ability to kill you. That’s why I said we had to get you to him immediately, before something like this happened or he dies.”
“Wouldn’t you know if they’d killed him? Wouldn’t they have control of you now?”
“Not necessarily. It could just mean they haven’t summoned me yet. They may not even realize that they have a slave. But you are right about one thing. We need to secure your mom until this is over. Not because of your father, but because she’s your weakest link. Whoever has her, has you by the stones.”
Nick glanced down to Bubba’s store. His first thought was to put his mom with him. Bubba would protect her with his life. He knew it. But the cops were all over the Triple B, and were interrogating both him and Mark about what had happened.
That left him with only one other person he could trust. Pulling his phone out, he called Kyrian, who answered on the second ring.
“What do you need, Cajun?”
“Can you meet me at my house? I just heard from the police that my dad escaped jail and I’m afraid he might come after my mom.”
Kyrian didn’t hesitate with his response. “I’ll be there in five minutes.”
Nick hung up and slid his phone back into his pocket. He met Caleb’s bemused stare that silently asked if Nick had heard a word he’d said about his father’s real situation. “It’s the only thing we can use that will get my mom to cooperate,” he explained. “Otherwise, she’d refuse to stay at Kyrian’s. But if she thinks my father might show up at our doorstep and hurt me…”
“Good thought.”
“Yeah, I know. Some days I’m not totally stupid.” Nick headed for home with a sick feeling in his gut. Was all of this the harvester playing havoc with his life or was this something else?
Someone new?
Every day seemed to bring a more powerful enemy out of the ether to screw with him. It was worse than playing the ultimate level of a video game with no more spare lives.
And no cheat codes.
“I’m too young for this crap,” he said under his breath.
“If it’s any condolence you handle it like a man, and better than anyone I’ve fought beside in a very long time.”
Caleb’s rare praise stunned him. Unsure what had motivated it, he frowned at his friend. “Will it ever get easier?”
“I could lie and say yeah, but honestly? Life isn’t supposed to be easy. Ever. But with the hardest challenges go the greatest rewards. And every incredible moment of my life came only after I did something that made my gut clench with fear.”
Nick scoffed at his words. “You’re full of more crap than a sewage plant.”
Caleb laughed. “I know it feels like everything in the universe is out to get you, and in your case it’s actually true, but—”
“No offense, Caleb, pep talks are not your forte. Please stop. Any more and I’ll be knotting a noose around my throat.”
“Let me finish, jerkweed. We all have moments when we’re sure the gods in power have chosen us to be their personal whipping boys, but if you take a step back, you’ll see the way out, and years later when you look at it with some perspective—”
“If you tell me it won’t seem so bad, I swear to God, in the mood I’m in, I’m going to punch you.”
“I wasn’t going to say that. There will be many an event in your life that no amount of time will ever take the sting out of it. Days when you know your heart has been brutally ripped out and thoroughly stomped. But every one of those events is a defining moment in our lives that, for better or worse, changes us forever and carves a scar on our souls. They will leave us angry, bitter, shell-shocked and bleeding—that is a guarantee from a cold, brutal universe that hates us.”
Nick really didn’t want to hear this.
But there was no stopping Caleb when he was on a roll. “We don’t have a choice in how or when our bad days will blindside us. But what we do choose is how we allow them to leave us once they’re gone. You can use those moments as a catalyst to spur you on to greater things or you can let it be the event that breaks you and leaves you shattered and forever lost in darkness. That, my friend, is the curse of free will. You can blame it all on fate and the universe, but in the end you alone decide if you’re going to lie down and let hell take you under, or if you’re going to stand strong in defiance of it all with your middle finger raised.”
Caleb stopped on the sidewalk to pierce him with a fiery gaze. “If you muster that courage to stand under fire and not go down, you will amass an inner strength that no one can touch. You won’t be another faceless, nameless, forgotten human in a long historical line of the defeated. You will be a steeled warrior, and a force to be forever reckoned with. And beneath the pain that lingers, you will have the comfort of knowing that you are strongest of all. That when others caved and broke, you kept fighting even against hopeless odds.”
Nick scoffed. “And that’s really supposed to make me feel better? Seriously?”
“No one can take your dignity or hold you down, Nick, unless you let them. I was once the most feared commander in an army of demons and am now a slave to a creature I would rather gut than look at. Every morning when I get up and have to ready myself to face the horror of putrid human high school, condescending teachers, and hormonal teenagers so that I can protect your worthless hide, is a morning I want to paint the walls behind me with my brain matter.”
“Thanks, Cay,” Nick said bitterly. “Way to motivate. You should think about charging admission.”
“But…” Caleb held his finger up in front of Nick’s face to silence him. “I don’t pull that trigger because I know that even though I don’t see an end to my hell right now, nothing is ever final or eternal. Not success, and definitely not failure. High school will pass and we’ll move on to the next phase. I can’t guarantee what’s going to happen or what crap the universe will decide to gut me with, but I do control whether I’m a fighter or a victim … and I will never be a victim.”
“Neither will I.”
“And that is why I fight for you, Nick. Even when I have an urge to kill you.”
Nick shook his head at the surliness of that last comment. “You really do suck at this.”
Caleb laughed. “But I don’t suck at everything, and we need to get to your mother and secure her safety.”
As they started forward, Nick heard a deep, low growl. He searched the darkness for the source. “Is that the Mara again?”
Caleb picked up the pace and pushed Nick to walk directly in front of him. “No. It’s something worse.”
“One day you need to write down the hierarchy of spooky crap for me.”
Caleb didn’t comment as he shoved his bag into Nick’s hands. “Get to your mother and send her with Kyrian to his house. You don’t leave that condo until I come for you. Understood?”
“Yeah, but I don’t—”
Caleb pushed him with both hands. “Run!”
Nick hesitated as a huge black wolf that was the size of a horse launched itself for his throat. Right before it would have bit Nick, Caleb caught it by the neck and tackled it to the ground. With glowing purple eyes, the snarling wolf sank its teeth into Caleb’s arm.
