Page 30 of Inferno (Chronicles of Nick 4)
Caleb cursed in pain.
Nick started forward to help, but Caleb’s orange eyes flared in the darkness as he summoned his demon powers. “Get to safety, Nick. Dammit, boy, move!”
Even though the very idea of running stuck hard in his craw, Nick turned and did what Caleb ordered, knowing that if he stayed, he’d only be a distraction that could get Caleb seriously hurt or killed. He clutched at the bag so he didn’t lose anything, and didn’t slow down until he reached the locked iron door of their condo. As he punched in the code, he felt a stirring in the air behind him.
Please be Kyrian.…
He turned to see a giant black shadow closing in.
Definitely not his boss. The pungent scent of sulfur choked him. It was so dense he could taste it. Get in, get in.…
Why was it anytime you needed to hurry, electronics slowed down to a crawl and lagged? How did they know?
He finally heard the light beep, followed by the whir of the lock opening.
Just as he grabbed the door handle, the blackness seized him and threw him to the side of the building.
Nick hit the brick so hard, dancing lights clouded his vision. Caleb’s supplies scattered everywhere, rolling across the sidewalk. The creature grabbed him by the throat, cutting his air off.
His eyes widened as his gaze focused on her perfect, translucent features. Ethereal and ghostly, she floated above the ground like some graceful angel with tendrils of ribbon spiraling around her. But her stark white eyes were pitiless as she leaned in to kiss him.
Only it wasn’t a kiss. The instant she placed her lips to his, he felt her pulling his breath out of his body with the force of a full-blown hurricane. Her laughter echoed in his head as his very soul was ripped from its foundations.
Nick tried to fight her off, but since she had no real form, there was nothing to hit or push against. No way to stop her from suffocating him. How she was holding him down without a body made no sense, yet he couldn’t escape her. He tried his best to breathe, yet no air would fill his lungs. It only left them.
With no choice and growing weaker by the heartbeat, he fell to the sidewalk. Still, he fought on, crawling his way back to the stairs so that he could get inside to where Menyara had painted her symbols of protection. They would get this thing off him.…
They had to.
After what seemed like an eternity, he reached the door again, only to discover it’d relocked itself, and jammed shut. There was no way he could stand up under her onslaught to reach the keypad.
His head spinning, he knew was dying.
And there was nothing he could do to stop it.
CHAPTER 16
“We have a serious problem.”
Grim opened his eyes to see Wynter Laguerre in front of him while he sat on his cold throne that was made from the bones of fallen heroes. Even now, he could hear their whispers as they’d tried to barter with him for their lives.
Mmmm, how he loved the sound of hopeless misery. No matter how brave the soul, they all had a tendency to turn craven when they knew their death was imminent.
When they learned firsthand that Death didn’t negotiate.
But that wasn’t what he needed to focus on. “You have nerve waking me from my slumber, War. Of all creatures, you should know better.” Because he very seldom slept, Grim was never a happy morning person. Rather, he woke up with bloodlust and rage.
War, however, had no natural fear of him since they were ancient allies, and he relied on her to feed him a steady diet of victims. “Oh … well then,” she said nonchalantly, “return to your sleep. It’ll wait.” She started to leave.
Her frigid tone told him that whatever it was, it was urgent. “What will wait?”
She tossed her long dark hair over her shoulder. Even though it was pitch-black in his study, he saw her perfectly because nothing could ever hide from death. “You said you wanted your rest. Far be it from me to disturb you.”
Grim rubbed at his eyes and squashed his natural inclination to snap at her. She was trying to pick a fight with him. It was what she lived for and he had no intention of giving it to her. “I’m awake now. The damage is done. Tell me what brings you to my humble abode.”
She cast her gaze around his massive throne room where he’d amassed some of the world’s greatest treasures. “Yeah, your shack is such a dump. You should hire a maid.”
He sighed irritably. “Are you really here to discuss my spring cleaning?”
“No … I’m here to warn you that Thorn knows someone freed his pet from his pit, and is furious over it. He’s already summoned his army to go after it, and return Holler to his hole immediately.”
Grim cursed under his breath. Thorn was an aptly named pain in his nether region. Much like the Dark-Hunters Grim loathed, Thorn helped the humans by leading a group called Hellchasers—damned souls Thorn had bargained for so that they could earn their redemption by returning the worst preternatural escapees to whatever hell or prison realm they’d escaped from.… He was an even bigger bleeding heart than Acheron.
But what stung the most was that Thorn had once been Grim’s biggest ally. Until the day, during the greatest plague of all time, the beast had turned against Grim and snatched Holler from his side, then imprisoned Holler in Thorn’s dungeon and dared Grim to release him.
They’d been at war with each other ever since.
He glared at War. “How did he find out?”
“Do I look like a crystal ball?”
Oh to relive the past when he’d been able to take an ax to her for that kind of snark. Such fond memories he had, but they were worthless right now when he had to deal with her and her quirks.
“Then how do you know he knows we freed Holler?” he asked, letting the full weight of his agitation taint his tone.
She stepped aside to show him the shimmery ghost form that had been hiding behind her back.
Zarelda swallowed in fear as she faced him. “Holler cast me out of the girl’s body tonight, and I can no longer get into it.”
Really? Did he have to do everything for them? “Sacrifice another victim and return.”
“I tried.”
“And?”
“I was stopped by a huge male Hellchaser who then interrogated me for Holler’s whereabouts. He marked me with some kind of device, and now I’m noncorporeal no matter what I try.”
“But wait,” War said, her eyes gleaming with perverse pleasure. “It gets better.… After your little chitchat with Hel about freeing Zarelda’s brother from her custody in exchange for Holler’s slavery, our favorite Norse death goddess got curious, went digging, and found out you were after the Malachai. Since she doesn’t trust you, Grim, she has called out her Mara and Hel Hounds to fetch him to Helheim.”
Zarelda sucked her breath in sharply at the mention of the Hel Hounds. “Is Zavid among them?”
War shrugged. “Again, I am not a crystal ball and I really couldn’t care less about your brother.”
“Then how do you know so much?” Zarelda snapped.
Grim leaned back with a slight smile, waiting for War to tear the stupid little chit apart.
To his great disappointment, she didn’t. Her voice was almost kind when she answered. “I unleashed one of my harvesters on the junior Malachai, hoping to help you season him up for his conversion. My agent has been watching and terrorizing him ever since, and she happens to know a Hel Hound and Mara when she sees one. She was just about to move in when they tore past her.”
Grim closed his eyes and hissed in anger as he sorted through this latest development. His plan had been flawless. Borrow Holler from Thorn to weaken Adarian while Zarelda strengthened Nick and tied his heart to her. Once Adarian was dead and Nick was firmly in their camp, he’d planned to trick the goddess Hel into releasing Zavid to make Zarelda happy, and keep her around to pacify the younger Malachai so that Nick didn’t turn on them.
Not to mention the bonus round of having Zavid kill Caleb for them. The Norse god, Holler, was only a nugget to get Zavid free. After that, Grim would have gladly returned Holler to Thorn’s dungeon and then dealt with Hel’s wrath over his little lie. Since she wasn’t nearly as powerful as Thorn, he hadn’t been concerned about duping her at all.
Now …
Disaster.
Damn Hel for being smart enough to know he was lying to her.
War met his glower without flinching. “So, genius. What’s your plan now?”
“Where’s your harvester?”
“On standby, awaiting orders.”
Grim stood up and descended his dais. “Then by all means, let’s unleash her.”
CHAPTER 17
Caleb slowed as he neared Nick’s condo and saw his supplies scattered all over the ground in front of it. “What the…?” Closing his eyes, he reached out with his powers to contact Nick.
No one answered.
His heart pounding, he punched the code into the door at the same time Kyrian pulled up to the curb in his black Lamborghini and got out. Caleb held the door open until Kyrian joined him on the stoop.
The ancient Greek general scowled as he came close enough to see the blood, bruises, and scratches the Hel Hound had given Caleb as a memento of their lovely time together. “What happened to you?”
“Dogfight.” Caleb snorted. “New Orleans definitely needs stricter leash laws.”
Kyrian didn’t respond to that. “Is Nick inside?”
Caleb glanced back at the mess that littered the ground and squelched the fear that gripped him. “I hope so.”
Trying not to panic prematurely, he led the way in, and then upstairs to the condo. Knocking on the door, he waited, but no one answered.
C’mon, give me a break. Let the kid just be his usual slow-to-react self.
Kyrian pushed him aside. “Nick?” he called, banging on the door himself. “Cherise?”
Still no answer.
Of course not. ’Cause that would just make his crappy life a hair better.…
Gods forbid.
Grimacing as his own panic and concern rose, Kyrian pulled the keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door. The minute they stepped inside, all doubts that something had happened dissipated. Caleb cursed. A major fight had gone down here. Pictures were knocked off the walls. The side table was upturned and the lamp that normally rested on it was shattered. But even worse was the blood on the floor.
And on the ceiling.
No …
They were too late. Kyrian quickly searched the rooms, but Caleb knew that there weren’t any bodies here. Whatever had nabbed them had taken them out of the human realm. There was absolutely no sign of Nick on this earth. Had there been, he would have felt it and been able to locate him.
The same was true of Adarian. Caleb couldn’t find him, either.
Kyrian came back to the living room with a fierce growl. “Call the cops. I’m going to look for them.”
Lot of good that’ll do. But he was happy to have Kyrian occupied with a wild-goose chase. The Greek general had no idea that Caleb was anything other than a normal teen boy and he wanted to keep it that way. He’d never been real chatty about himself anyway and the fewer creatures who knew who and what he was, the easier he breathed and the longer he lived.
Enemies kill. Friends betray.
He not only believed that, he had the words tattooed across his back beneath his demon’s mark.
“Call me if you find anything,” Caleb said.
As soon as he was sure Kyrian had left, he rushed outside to gather up the ingredients for his binding spell. If Nick and his mother were still alive, it was even more important now that they get Adarian’s powers into Nick.
Don’t be dead. The pain that thought caused was not something he wanted to examine. I don’t care about him. It’s my own butt that concerns me.… Over and over, he tried to convince himself that the only reason it mattered was because he didn’t want to be enslaved to an unknown dickhead.
Yeah, that was it. Otherwise he wouldn’t care at all. But deep inside a place he didn’t want to admit to, he knew he was lying.
Caleb found the last dropped container buried in a crevice by the next house. Now he could start the spell. Rising, he sighed as he scanned the dark street. “Where are you, Nick?”
What had happened to him?
He had no way of knowing, but he knew someone who could find out. Fast. If she’d speak to him …
Caleb would probably have to do some serious begging to get her back on their side.
I hate swallowing my pride.
But sometimes it was a necessary evil. And this was definitely one of those times. Hoping he could pull off a miracle, he flashed himself from Nick’s condo on Bourbon over to Kody’s home on Burgundy Street. He had no idea if she’d be there or if she’d even open the door.
It didn’t matter. He had to try.
That being said, he was unprepared for what awaited him when he appeared on the sidewalk outside of her building. Unlike Nick, he’d never been here before. He’d had no reason to visit.
He only knew the address because he’d added it to his phone in case of an emergency. Course he never thought the emergency would be this.…
