Instinct (14 page)

Only then did Xev focus on Nick's face. But he still wasn't completely recovered.

“They're coming.” His voice was firm and intense. “We have to secure the children and women. They'll hit where we're weakest. You stay here with the others. I have to get to Lil and warn her. She'll be their first target. If they reach her first, they can neutralize Caleb's forces and crash the gates.”

Nick winced at the anguish in his voice. Lil would have been Caleb's wife. Lilliana. The one Caleb blamed Xev for allowing to die. But from those words and the way Xev was acting, it didn't sound like Xev had betrayed him and led the enemies inside the gate to take them out. More like he'd done his best to keep her safe.

“Xevikan!” he tried again.

Flinching, Xev turned as one of the symbols on the wall lit up. Recognition widened his eyes before they darkened with the bitterest hatred. He hissed like a cat and backed away from it.

Kody approached him slowly. “Xev?” Gingerly, she touched his chest. “Are you with us?”

His breathing still labored, he covered her hand with his and held it as if she were as precious to him as she was to Nick. A tic started in his jaw before he gave a slow nod. “You feel that?”

“Feel what?” Kody asked.

He looked to Simi. “Charonte?”

“Cursed god?” she shot back in irritation.

Xev rolled his eyes before he went to the door to take a defensive position behind the hinges. He manifested fireballs around his hands as someone knocked on it.

Nick scowled. “You know, X, from my experience, the bad guys don't usually knock.”

A snide smile curved his lips. “They do when their brand of evil has to be invited in in order to enter.”

And now his gut was back to producing diamonds. Xev had a very valid point with that. There were Daimons and certain other entities who definitely required specific invitations into domiciles to wreak havoc and harm. Nick really wished he lived a life where he didn't have to know that.

Great. Just great. More nightmares to worry about.

Hoping for the best, Nick went to the peephole to glance out, then passed a droll stare to Xev. “Put away your paranoia. It's just my godmother. No doubt, the police contacted her about the attack on my mom, and she wanted to check on us. She's barely five feet tall, and ninety pounds soaking wet. I don't think we have anything to fear. And she's probably terrified. Last thing she needs is for you to give her a heart attack.”

Unlocking the door, he opened it and pulled the tiny Creole midwife who'd helped bring him into the world into his arms for a tight hug. “Hey, Aunt Mennie.”

She squeezed him back while her sisterlocks tickled his nose. “Hey, Boo. I hope you don't mind. But given all the weirdness I wanted to come by and check on you and your…” Her voice trailed off as her gaze went past his shoulder to Xev. Instantly bug-eyed, she gasped audibly.

Not thinking anything about her reaction, since most people tended to greet Xev like a cross between a leper and Bigfoot's bigger and nastier older brother who was jacked up on steroids, Nick shut the door. “Menyara, this is—”

“We know each other, don't we, Cam?” Xev's voice was so cold, they could have used it to flash-freeze helium popsicles on the Pontchartrain Bridge in August.

Menyara staggered back and would have fallen had Nick not been there to catch her.

“Mennie? Are you all right?”

“What have you done, Nick?” she breathed in a horrified tone as she continued to stare at Xev as if he was the devil incarnate. “What have you done?” she repeated.

Xev glared at her. “Interesting that you would blame
him
, when this all started with you and
your
siblings.”

Shaking her head, Menyara dragged her gaze to each of them in turn—Xev, Simi, Kody, Cherise, and Nick—before she closed her eyes. “Who unlocked Nick's powers? For the love of the Source, why would you do such a thing? Have you any idea what you've done?”

Sheepish, Kody bit her lip before she explained their actions. “We had no choice. Nick's ousia had been split from his body by his enemies who wanted to weaken him enough to kill him. It was the only way to save him and return him to this dimension and save his life. Had we not moved fast, he'd be dead now.”

Menyara let out a weary sigh as she sat down on the armchair and hung her head in her hands. “You should have come to me before you acted.”

“I tried. I really did.” Kody started forward, but Xev stopped her.

When he spoke again, his tone was like that of a patient parent to a beloved child. “This isn't on you, little one. This started long before you were sent here to kill Nick. Long before you were recruited to your cause. Don't let her put her sins on your innocent shoulders.”

His eyes flashing bright red, Xev curled a furious lip as he neared Menyara. “How could you do such a thing to
them
? Have you learned nothing over the centuries about tampering with human fate and free will? About playing with lives when you should leave well enough alone?”

Looking up, Menyara met his gaze without flinching. “We had
no
choice. You've no idea how powerful Adarian had grown. How incredibly dangerous he was to everyone and everything he came into contact with.”

“And whose fault was that?”

She ignored his question. “We couldn't control him anymore. He'd been unleashed on this world. An unstoppable monster. We had no other way of even finding him. Everything we tried, failed. He was becoming such a threat that at any moment, he could have come for us and won. Torn out our throats and laughed about it as he drank our blood from his own fists. It was our only hope of fighting him. The only way we could think to even slow him down long enough to put him back in chains.”

“By making his powers stronger? Who thought
that
was a good idea?”

“It was meant to negate his powers.”

Xev scoffed angrily. “You had no right to involve an innocent life without telling her what you were doing! Without asking her permission!” He paced the floor like a caged beast looking for a way to attack its taunter, who in this case appeared to be Menyara.

“We had every right to do whatever it took to protect all the innocents of this world. One sacrifice for millions of others. It was an equitable exchange.”

Still, Xev denied her logic and clung to his steadfast argument. “It wasn't your place to make that call.”

She ignored his fury. “Mankind couldn't stand against the u
Å¡
umgallu centuries ago when they knew about them and were prepared to fight them. Now … they're completely helpless against the Malachai and his allies. They don't even know of them. Never mind raise an army to fight him, or use magic and the elements to bind him! What would you have had us do? Stand aside and watch all of you mow the humans down for your sick pleasure?”

Slack-jawed, Xev froze in response to her question as if he'd just realized something. His breathing labored, he met Menyara's furious glower. “Her father isn't Verlyn. He can't be. I would have sensed it instantly were we siblings.”

“No. Azura keeps him sterile for fear he will father a child who can kill or enslave her.”

“Rezar?”

“Has been missing for centuries. No one knows what happened to him.”

Absolute horror washed over his face as he turned toward Nick. He looked at him as if he'd never seen him before. As if he was looking at him through new eyes.

His gaze fell to Nick's mother and for a moment, Nick thought Xev might actually kill Menyara.

Or toss his cookies.

“You chose a warrior of light for the task.” It was a flat, whispered statement, not a question.

“There was no one else. We needed a father born directly from the Kalosum Source powers. He was the closest to them who could still father a daughter for the cause.”

Biting his lip, Xev winced. “They're people, not disposable pawns for your selfish games, Cam.”

She glared at him. “No one knows that better than I. Everything I've ever done was for the protection of others. For the protection and benefit, and my love of this world, and all those who dwell in it.
I
was the one who stayed here in this hole, to watch over and protect. To be here every step of the way. For them all.”

And still Xev's gaze condemned her for her actions. “Does he even know he's a father?”

“Of course not. It would have been a disaster on multiple levels had he ever learned the truth. His daughter was conceived, delivered, and raised under the guise of a completely normal, orphaned human, and appears so to all. No one has ever suspected that she is more than she seems. She never even knew she was an adopted orphan. For all she knows, her adoptive parents are the ones who birthed her.”

Xev laughed bitterly. “And yet you did it without his knowledge or consent. You broke every supreme law we once lived by. Used him and her mother. Did the mother
ever
know? Did
any
of them?”

“No. We couldn't afford for them to have any idea. They could have tipped off Adarian if they had. The mother met him one time … in a bar, and took him home. As far as she knew, he was a human, just passing through her town for the night.”

He cursed her under his breath. “How very typical of you all. You put them in the line of fire without warning or defense. Without full knowledge or understanding. How could you?”

Nick whistled, interrupting them. “Hello? Who here has the faintest clue what they're talking about?”

Not even Simi held her hand up, which said it all. Simi usually knew everything.

But for once, she simply shrugged.

Nick turned his attention back to the only two who did.

Menyara and Xev.

“All right. In that case, could one of you catch the room up? Please? Especially since this seems to be my life and family you're discussing? And I have a really bad feeling about this?”

“You should.” Xev crossed his arms over his chest as he continued to glare at Menyara. “Your conception and birth were no accident, Nick. Your entire existence was a trap set for your father.”

That had better be a joke. “Excuse me?”

Nodding slowly, Xev turned to face him. “It's what makes you so powerful and dangerous, and sets you apart from all the Malachais who've come before you. You're not just born of the Mavromino. Like the very first Malachai who started this, you, too, through your mother, carry the blood of a Sephiroth warrior.”

Those words hit Nick like a fist to his gut. “Excuse me?”

Kody sucked her breath in audibly as Simi gaped so wide, she exposed her fangs.

“It's what gives us hope for him.” Menyara stood to face Nick. Wringing her hands, she swallowed hard. “But it wasn't supposed to happen like it did. None of it.”

Fret knitted her brow as Menyara tried to explain it to them. “You have to understand, child. We never meant to hurt you or your mother. That wasn't our intent. We only meant to curb Adarian's powers. To leash his anger and fulfill a prophecy that was given to us long ago.”

Stunned breathless, Nick exchanged a frown with Simi as he took Kody's hand. Just knowing she was there kept him anchored and grounded as he struggled to come to terms with what Menyara was trying to tell him. Part of him had always suspected this truth, but the other part was angry and hurt. “I'm so confused.”

“The Simi bewildered, too. I done gots lost around the block a whiles ago.”

Xev laughed bitterly as he spread his arms out and braced his hands on the couch to lean against it. His eyes turned a bright, flaming red as they blazed hot with his own anger and hatred. “It's what they've done to us since the dawn of time, Nick. We who are born of darkness are creatures of great power. Tiamat. Braith. Caleb. Me. You. Your father. The list goes on
inf
Ä«
nit
ā
s
. It is hatred, pain, bitterness, and rage that feeds our strength. Adversity is the stone on which we hone our swords for battle. What breaks lesser beings and sends them sniveling to their graves fuels us to victory. The cruelty of others doesn't faze us even a little. It's all we know. It is why we are invincible. Why they,” he jerked his chin toward Menyara, “can't stand toe-to-toe in battle with us. And they know it. So they break us with the one thing we have no defense against.” His gaze went to Kody and then to their locked hands.

Nick frowned. “I don't understand.”

Xev swallowed hard before he spoke again. “Because of who we are and how we are born and raised, we tell ourselves that we need nothing. We want nothing. We
are
nothing. That we are despised creatures of darkness. And that's okay by us. We don't need or want the approval or acceptance of
them
.” His gaze fell to the floor at Kody's feet. “But there is one thing that will always draw us out against our will, and make us weak.”

“The light,” Kody breathed.

He gave a subtle nod. “No one will ever take us in battle. We know how to fight against all odds. How to stand strong in any maelstrom. We know how to deal with insults. Cruelty. And viciousness. That
is
and will always be our mother's milk.”

Xev gestured toward Nick's unconscious mother. “Sadly, it's unexpected kindness that disarms us. A simple smile that throws us completely off guard. Innocent love that renders us defenseless and sends us to our knees. That's how they cripple and defeat us. Not with war. But with friendship.”

Kody shook her head. “Love is never a weakness.”

He laughed cruelly. “Your own mother would be the first to violently disagree with that statement, Nyria.” His gaze went to Nick. “It's what killed
your
father, Malachai. It's what enslaved me and Caleb to our enemies, and it's what will kill us all in the end.”