Infinity (13 page)

Kyrian laughed. "I noticed. Look, I need to make a few more calls. Wander around the downstairs here and get acquainted with it. Don't get too tired. If you need anything to eat or drink, it's in the kitchen. Make yourself at home."

Nick waited until Kyrian left before he tried to call Madaug again on his new phone.

Still no answer.

Sighing, he had a bad feeling about this. If what Kyrian had said was right, they were down about a quarter of the team.

There wont be any state finals for us this year.

Stupid concern given everything going on, but it was the first thing that popped into his mind.

What he couldn't figure out was what had started it. Yeah, the jocks picked on certain people and now that they were becoming zombified, it would only get worse. Now they'd pick on everyone.

How could they stop this?

Aggravated with the lack of details, he made his way back to the kitchen, where Rosa was making something that smelled unbelievably good.

Licking his lips, he went to investigate the pot while Rosa chopped shrimp and onions on the cutting board. "What are you making?"

"Gumbo."

Nick's brows shot up at a dish that he'd eaten most of his life, but this didn't look anything like his mom's. "Huh ... so this is what rich man's gumbo looks like."

"How do you mean?"

"It ain't got leftovers in it and you're putting real meat into it and not bacon bits or roadkill."

Rosa laughed. "I'm sure you've never eaten roadkill."

He wouldn't bet on it. His mom might have denied it, but some of the meat she brought home ... he was sure it'd been scraped off the street. Maybe even plucked out of the tread on tires.

Rosa handed him a spoon. "Feel free to sample it."

"Really? Thanks." He dipped the spoon in and stepped away for it to cool before he took a bite. Man, it tasted even better than it smelled. His stomach growled so loud, it sounded like a monster was about to pop out.

Rosa turned to stare at him.

"Sorry. I didn't have lunch." Bubba hadn't given him permission to take money out of the till for it, and since school lunches came with his tuition, he didn't have money to buy lunch somewhere else.

Rosa's jaw went slack. "Why didn't you say something about being hungry?" She pulled him over to the island where two tall stools were set. "You have a seat and I'll make you a sandwich."

"I can wait for dinner. I'm used to it."

"No one goes hungry in this house,
m'ijo.
You just sit there while I make it."

This was seriously creeping him out. No one was ever this nice to him. Had he fallen into the Twilight Zone or something?

I'm going to die.
It had to be an omen of doom.
Yeah, I'm going to turn into a flesh-rotting, flesh-eating, no-dating-'cause-l-stink demon.
His body parts, especially the really important one, were going to fall off like in that movie he'd seen....

And all because he'd helped an old couple escape his friends.
Stop being stupid.

But it wasn't stupid. It was a fact. Something was wrong with the world. It'd skittered sideways and nothing was like it should be.

He was doomed. No if, ands, or buts about it. He was going to die.

And no sooner had that thought finished than he heard something scratching around the back door. There was a low growl and the rattle of a pretty large creature. Vicious and guttural, the sound reminded him of a dog cornering a cat. It must be a Rottweiler or something.

He frowned at Rosa, who'd frozen to stare at the door too. "What kind of dog does Kyrian have?"

She shook her head. "No dog."

"Then what--" His words ended as the back door flew open and two members of his team rushed in to tackle him.

In a move he hadn't used since he was a running back, Nick went to the left, turned sharp, and sidestepped them, leaving them to slam into the wall. He grabbed Rosa and pushed her toward safety as he looked around for a weapon.

Rosa grabbed the cleaver in her right hand before he could. His jaw went slack as she took the carving knife into her left and held the two of them like a pro as she faced their intruders.

Nick was aghast. "Rosa?"

"Stand back, Nick. I wasn't always a housekeeper and any
hijo de puta
dumb enough to come in here to attack us deserves to die on the floor, butchered like a pig."

The zombies charged.

Rosa caught the first one with a slash to his arm. He didn't so much as grunt. Instead, he shoved her back and went for Nick, who grabbed one of the pans from the stove.

So much for dinner.

He slung the piping hot food into the football player's face. This time, the jock zombie screamed and stumbled back. Nick whacked him with the pan, then turned to help Rosa battle the other one. He barely reached them before the one he'd bashed grabbed him from behind. Zombie number one locked a hold on him that was like steel.

Nick let out a snarl as his injured shoulder was jostled. "No you din't!" Head-butting the zombie, he broke free.

Two seconds later, something so bright it blinded him ripped through the kitchen.

Nick shielded his eyes as he heard the zombies screaming in agony. When he lowered his hand and could finally see again, he staggered back in shock.

The zombies were gone and in their place was what had to be the tallest man he'd ever seen.

His mouth fell open in stone-cold shock.

"Are you all right, Rosa?" the man asked in flawless Spanish.

"Si, Acheron. Gracias."

The door behind Acheron slammed shut without anyone or anything touching it. Acheron moved toward him with the deadly gait of a ferocious predator. With long black hair streaked with green, he wore a pair of opaque sunglasses that kept Nick from seeing his eyes. Dressed all in black with a glow-in-the-dark vampire skull on his T-shirt, he had a black backpack slung over one shoulder. A backpack that had an anarchy symbol painted on it.

"Nice meeting you, Nick."

He tensed atAcheron's strange lilting accent. He'd never heard anything like it in his life. "How do you know my name?" "I know lots of things."

Yeah ... and that thought seriously creeped him out. Was the dude a stalker?

Nick looked around the room. There was no trace left of their attackers. "What happened to the jocks?"

"My demon ate them." Acheron said that with such a deadpan tone that Nick could almost believe him.

"Riiiight." Nick nodded his head in an act of brazen sarcasm. "And I suppose the Big Bad Wolf will be coming in right behind you to finish up? Or is it the Gingerbread Man I need to fear?"

Acheron gave him a lopsided grin. "Kyrian was right, you are a smart--" He glanced to Rosa before he amended what he'd started to say. "Aleck." He pulled his cell phone out, which looked freakishly tiny in his huge hand, and called someone.

Nick frowned at Rosa, who'd gone over to the sink to wash the blood from her cleaver and knife like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Why was he suddenly hearing the
Addams Family
song playing in his head?

What kind of bizarre crack-house lunacy was this?

"Am I the only one weirded out by what just went down? You two are acting too ... too ... normal about it all. I mean this ... is definitely
not
your typical day."

Acheron snorted. "Depends on the neighborhood...." He paused to talk into the phone. "Hey, Kyrian, you might want to finish that shower and get down here. Your home was just invaded by zombies while Rosa and your boy fought them off. Just FYI."

Well, that explained why Kyrian hadn't heard the commotion and come down to investigate it.

Hanging up the phone, Acheron walked over to Rosa and whispered in Spanish. Nick wasn't sure how he understood, since he personally didn't speak Spanish, but he did. "Forget everything that happened. The food spilled on the floor by accident and nothing out of the ordinary took place. No attack. Just another day...."

He looked at Nick, who took a step back in severe trepidation of what this stranger was going to do to him. When Acheron lifted his hand, Nick bolted for the front of the house.

Get out of here. No\M
That was a crazy demonic-sounding voice in his head, but he didn't question it. He just ran like mad.

Rounding the staircase, he skidded to a halt as Acheron appeared directly in front of him out of thin air. Only this time,

Nick didn't see Acheron in the body of a young man. He saw ...

Someone with fangs, mottled blue skin, black lips, and horns. The image was there in a flash and then gone. Like a freaked-out hallucination.

What had been in that gumbo?

It's supernatural.

I dont believe in that.
Yet how could he deny what he was seeing? This wasn't normal. This wasn't chemical-induced, bioweaponed zombies.... There was no logical way for Acheron to have gotten in front of him and just appeared like that. Just like the door slamming shut when he entered the kitchen, or the flash of light.

It was impossible.

Utterly impossible.

No longer sure what he could believe, Nick swallowed. "What are you?"

Acheron scowled. "Completely perplexed. You remember everything that happened." It was a statement of fact and nota question ... as if Acheron was inside his head.

"Yeah. Duh. Not like you're going to forget the killer zombie stalkers and psyched-out kitchen staff. What kind of freak show is this?"

Acheron gave an evil laugh. "You have no idea, Nick. But my question is: Why are the zombies after you?"

"Oh heck no, bud. The question is: Why you got horns on your head and black lips?"

Acheron's smile faded. "What?"

"I saw you a minute ago when you freak-flashed in here. You had horns and blue skin. What are you?"

Acheron returned that question with one of his own. "What funky vegetables you been eating? Meth is death and inhalants can kill you, kid. You should stay awayfrom them before they destroy your last three brain cells."

Yeah, right. "I'm stone cold and you ... you're not human. I know you're not human."

That irritating grin returned to Acheron's face. "Very few people are."

"Ha, ha. I saw you, man. What you did to the zombies when you arrived and with Rosa.... I know you're not human. Are you going to kill me because I know?"

Acheron paused as he considered his options. Nick Gautier was a lot more than he seemed. At fourteen, Nick's mind should have easily been wiped by his powers, like Rosa's had been. Not that Acheron liked to use those powers on anyone. As a rule, he seldom did, but there were times when circumstances demanded it.

Killer zombies exploding in a kitchen happened to be one of them.

And it wasn't until someone was older that they developed the ability to block that particular talent of his. And even then only the stoutest of wills could stand against his powers.

Come to think of it, no mortal human being had
ever
stood against his powers. Only gods and a handful of demons could fight or circumvent him against his will.

More than that, somehow, some way, Nick had glimpsed his true god form.

How?

Kill him and be done w'th it.

That was probably the most logical thing to do. But Kyrian, for whatever misguided reasons, had his heart set on saving the kid. Closing his eyes, Acheron used his powers to see into the future--to what would happen if he killed Nick.

Nothing was there.

Just a vacuous space of nothingness.
Crap...

Two weeks ago, when Nick had been injured, he'd seen the kid's entire life from start to finish as clear as a summer sky. Now he couldn't even glimpse what Nick had bulging in his front pocket.

This is so not good.

Because that meant only one thing--this kid was going to significantly impact his life somehow and the Fates had blinded Acheron to him to prevent him from interfering with Nick's choices.

/ hate it when this happens.
It was why he tried to never let anyone near him. Why he had no real friends other than his demon companion.

This little bugger in front of him was destined to alter his future. No wonder he couldn't use his powers against him.

Sighing, Acheron opened his eyes. There was no need to fight destiny. He'd learned centuries ago just how useless it was to try.
Might as well embrace the inevitable and introduce myself.
Because anytime someone had tried to alter his future, it'd only made things worse. Much worse.

"I'm Acheron Parthenopaeus."

Nick snorted. "Dang, and I thought my name sucked. Your parents must have really hated your guts." If he only knew....

"Call me Ash. It's easier and takes a lot less time."

Nick held his good hand out to him. "Nick Gautier. Now what are you again?"

"He's the best friend you'll ever make or your last enemy."

Nick looked up to see Kyrian coming down the stairs. "Oh, I get it," he said sarcastically." 'Cause he'll kill me if I tick him off. Ha, ha, ha."