Page 39 of Inferno (Chronicles of Nick 4)
His mom turned to defend him, but Nick wouldn’t let her. “It’s all right, Mom.” He stepped around to block her from his father. “I’m not a kid anymore and I’m not afraid of him.”
His mother touched his shoulder. “I don’t understand what’s going on here, Nicky … where are we? Why can’t I leave?”
Kody put her arms around his mother’s shoulders and pulled her back. “Everything’s fine, Mrs. Gautier. It’s just a bad dream. That’s all.”
Nick inclined his head to Kody, grateful for her support and strength. When he turned back to his father, he caught his father’s unguarded expression as Adarian made sure Kody wasn’t hurting his mother.
The worthless bastard really did love his mother.…
But the love in his gaze turned to brutal hatred when he met Nick’s eyes.
Yeah, they were still at war with one another. No mistaking that look.
“Have you any idea what you’ve done?” Adarian snarled at him. “They now have us both, and there’s no way out of here.”
“That’s not entirely true.”
Both Nick and his father looked at Kody.
“I don’t have demon blood. I can open the door. But the problem we’re going to have is that your mom is human. She’s the Godiva chocolate to all the creatures hanging around here. When we get out, they will all be after her.”
“And Kody,” Caleb interjected, “doesn’t have the passcode for this room. So when she opens the door, an alarm will sound and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. The dampeners will come on and we won’t be able to teleport. Our powers will be weakened. The only way back to the human realm is to get to the arch and run through it.”
His father shoved at him. “You are so stupid.”
Nick started for him, then stopped himself for once. This wasn’t the time and place for losing his temper. Not while his mother and Kody were in danger.
He glared at his sperm donor. “We are going to fight. One day, one of us will kill the other. That’s a given. But today, we have something more important to fight for.” He passed a meaningful glance to his mother before turning back to Adarian. “Now, you can be the dick I know you are. Or you can finally be the man my mother needs you to be.”
“You don’t know who or what you’re dealing with, boy.” His father went to poke a finger into Nick’s shoulder.
Nick grabbed it and shoved his father back. “I’m dealing with a really old and pathetic, dying Malachai, and every second I’m here with you, you’re getting weaker and sicker. Unfortunately, while I may have all the power, you have all the control of it. We need each other to get her out of here. So are we going to fight each other, and let everyone die, or are you going to learn how to play on a team for once?”
The expression on his father’s face said that they were about to deathmatch.
Nick braced himself for the fight.
His father sucked his breath in so hard that it sounded like a vicious roar. And as he did so, he grew in height until he was twenty feet tall. His skin changed from its normal tawny shade to a mixture of gold and black that swirled in a beautiful pattern. His eyes bright gold, Adarian opened his mouth, showing his fangs.
Completely unimpressed, Nick gave him a cold, dry stare. “Are you trying to scare me? Doesn’t work.”
Caleb laughed. “Yeah, but put on a clown suit and he’ll scream like a girl.”
Bristling at his words, Kody cleared her throat.
“You’re not a girl, Kody.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, stop while you’re behind, Malphas.”
Adarian took a step toward Nick’s mother, then stopped. He glanced to Kody. “Open the door, girl. But once we’re back in the human world…” His eyes glowed red as he pinned Nick with a murderous sneer. “I will kill you.”
“Bonne chance.” Nick covered his mother while Kody manifested a short recurve bow.
Nocking an arrow, she aimed it for the wall. “Straight and true. One shot and we’re through.” She winked at Nick, then turned around and placed her back to the wall. The moment her skin touched it, it swung open.
She readied her bow while she held the door. “Go.”
They ran for it. But as Caleb predicted, they didn’t get far. Demons descended on them like park ants on sliced watermelon.
Kody fired her bow while Caleb manifested his armor to fight. Nick used his fire bombs to attack them.
His father tore the thronging demons apart with his bare hands.
Nick paused as he watched his father fighting. It would be impressive if it wasn’t so terrifying.
Step by slow, excruciating step, they made their way down the hall toward the entrance. Nick kept his mother between him and Kody. And just when he thought they might make it, his father slipped and fell to his knees.
Adarian tried to stand, then fell again.
What was wrong with the elder demon?
His father looked straight at him. Nick sucked his breath in hard at the sight of his face. His features were hollow and pale. Gaunt. A thick blanket of sweat covered him.
Nick was weakening his father a lot faster than he’d have thought possible. Guilt stabbed him hard. Without thinking, he reached to help his father up.
Adarian bit at him and hissed. “Don’t touch me!”
“You’ll weaken him even faster,” Kody warned.
Nick put more distance between them. As they reached the front room of the hall, a shadow shot out of the wall. Before anyone could identify it, it grabbed his mother.
He lunged to stop it and missed. Adarian didn’t. He grabbed the demon by the throat and brought it down.
Nick grabbed his mother and moved even faster for the door. Just as he reached it, his mother was torn from his arms.
“Mom!” But it was too late. The demon had taken flight with her. Nick shot out his wings and launched himself toward them.
Then slammed into the wall. He cursed at the pain that tore through his entire body. He so did not have the hang of this.
But man, his father did. He watched as Adarian put his head down and streamlined his drag coefficient so that he moved like a bullet. He and the demon rolled and fought in the air.
Taking advantage of their inattention, Nick placed his mother’s hand in the crook of his elbow and kicked open the door.
Not much farther.
Yet as they descended down the steps, he came face-to-face with the wolf who’d freed him from Helheim. Blocking their escape, the wolf growled and snapped.
“What are you doing?” Nick asked it.
“I cannot let you pass this time. Not after I freed you. The human is my charge and I must keep her here.”
Nick shook his head. “Let us pass.”
“I cannot.”
“You can and you will.”
The wolf launched at his throat. Nick ducked and twisted away while Kody moved in to protect his mother for him. Walking backwards to put more distance between him and the women, Nick prepared himself for another attack.
“Zavid!” the masculine shout rang out.
The wolf hesitated. Then he lunged at Nick only to have an arrow land right in front of him.
“Zavid, surrender yourself or you will be executed.”
The wolf turned and snarled, finally giving Nick a look at who was after him.
It was Caleb’s friend Tristan. He nocked another arrow and aimed it for the wolf.
Nick started forward to keep Tristan from killing Zavid, but Caleb grabbed his elbow and held him in place.
“Let it go. The fight’s between them.”
“I owe the wolf.”
Caleb glanced sideways to where the women were waiting, yet still in danger. “Think of your mother.”
Nick nodded. Caleb was right. His mother was much more important than the debt he owed Zavid.
Shielding his mother, he made sure none of the demons came close to her. When they finally reached the arch, he let out a relieved breath. A few more feet …
Caleb went out first. Kody. And Nick was by his mother’s side. He’d just put one foot under the arch when his mother cried out.
A demon had her by the hair.
Cursing, Nick grabbed the demon and twisted its hand until it let go of his mother. The demon fell back.
“Malachai!”
Nick jerked around at the same time his father did. The demon who’d shouted shot a lightning blast at his mother. Acting on pure instinct, Nick threw himself in front of her and wrapped his body around hers so that the blast would strike him instead.
It didn’t.
Confused, he waited several heartbeats for that impact. Then he looked up. The demon who’d shot at her was pinned to a wall high above the floor. Nick glanced to Caleb, expecting it to have been his kill. But Caleb stood completely slack-jawed.
As did Kody.
Even more baffled, Nick had a bad feeling settle deep in his stomach. He turned ever so slowly to see his father on the ground with a huge, smoking hole in his side.
No …
It couldn’t be.
With sharp, jerking breaths, his father reached for him. “Here, boy!” he snarled.
“I’m not a dog.” But Nick obeyed anyway. “Why?”
Adarian curled his lip. “I weep at your conception.” Then his gaze went past Nick to his mother and softened instantly. “What I give to you, I give for her protection. You hear me? Embrace your destiny and let no harm touch your mother.” He grabbed Nick’s head and jerked him close.
Nick felt something hot and piercing slash through him. It burned and twisted as if it were alive. Agony exploded in his skull. Unable to see, hear, or smell, he fell forward and still the pain worsened.
Crying out, he wanted it to stop. But it wouldn’t. It didn’t even lessen.
Out of nowhere, a pair of arms wrapped around his waist and held him. From the awful buzzing, he heard Kody’s voice lulling him. “Drink this,” she whispered, holding something to his lips. “It’ll help, I promise.”
Nick gulped at it, but still the pain persisted.
With one last roar, his father released him. Nick fell back into Kody’s arms.
Dizzy and nauseated, he couldn’t breathe. It hurt so much.…
Nick met Caleb’s frown. By the expression on his friend’s face, he knew he must be fugly. His gaze went to his father, who was now nothing more than a dark stain on the floor. There was no blood. No dust. Nothing to say the elder Malachai had ever lived.
A tremor of fear went through Nick. Would that be his fate one day?
“Nick!”
He jerked toward his mother to see a demon trying to carry her off. With a hiss, he launched himself at the beast and caught it about the middle. The demon fell back.
Nick went for its throat and would have ripped it out had Caleb not stopped him.
“Your mother.”
Nick nodded. Picking her up, he unfurled his wings and flew her to the arch, then through it.
Only when he was back on neutral ground did he stop to look back for the others. Caleb and Kody were right behind him.
Doubling over to catch his breath, Caleb coughed and coughed. Kody let go of her bow as it vanished into thin air.
His heart pounding, Nick glanced down to see his mother sleeping in his arms. He tucked his wings in and frowned. “Why is she asleep?”
“She’s human.” Caleb wiped at the sweat on his brow. “She won’t remember any part of being on the other side. Humans can’t.”
That made him feel better.
Caleb shook his head incredulously. “I can’t believe your father died for you. That he sacrificed himself for your mother.…”
“You’re free now,” Kody said to Caleb.
Caleb snorted in derision. “I wish. Nick inherited me.”
“Can’t I release you?” Nick asked.
“Only if you kill me, and for now, I’d rather you not.”
Hissing, Nick grimaced as a sudden pain sliced through his arm.
“You’re wounded.” Caleb took Nick’s mother from him. “You need to tend that.”
He nodded as he finally saw what appeared to be a violent gash in his bicep. “Thank you. Both. I couldn’t have done this without you.”
Kody smiled. “Anytime, sweetie.”
Caleb inclined his head to Nick’s slumbering mother. “Let’s get you two home.”
They crossed the empty, silent street. At three A.M., there was almost no one out as they trudged toward home.
“Hey, guys?” Kody asked. “Why are we walking? You know we can flash ourselves home, right?”
Nick started laughing as the ludicrousness of his life hit him. “I’m still not used to all this.”
Caleb snorted. “In my defense, I’m too tired to think straight.”
Intending to flash out, they paused in front of the parking deck at Canal Place. Before Nick could move, the sound of an animal in pain cut through the silence. A bad feeling went through him.
He started forward.
“Leave it!” Caleb snapped.
He couldn’t. Not when he heard the ferocity of the fight. Bending his head down, he ran to help.
