Instinct (20 page)

“What is this?” she whispered to him.

“We're getting the cure for my mom and Caleb.”

She clutched at him. “What?” she asked in a hushed whisper.

“They”—he jerked his chin toward Chronus and Tiamat—“are giving us the chance to heal them.”

Biting her lip, she swallowed hard. “Are you sure we can trust them?”

“Not at all. But it's the only chance they have. So, I'm taking it.”

“W-w-w-where are we going?” She'd barely finished asking the question before everything around them went pitch-black nasty. It was so dark, it hurt his eyes and made him see weird spots all around as his eyes struggled to see something out of the absolute nothingness.

When the light unexpectedly returned, Nick flinched in physical pain from it, and found himself in a dark, foggy forest, instead of the streets of New Orleans.

Moonlight cut through spooky trees with knobby knees and hanging moss and thick underbrush and thorns. He'd never seen anything quite like it. Not even Azmodea. Off in the distance, he heard the sound of numerous animals, including wolves. The stench of death, pine, and mistletoe hung heavy around them. It was so pungent, he could taste it.

“What is this place?”

Livia cursed under her breath before she answered him. “Agonia.”

“Aga-what?”

“Aga-nee-yah. It's a hell realm, Nick. The one Xev was banished to centuries ago as punishment for betraying his people and killing Caleb's wife.”

Oh …

Turning around slowly, Nick studied it with care and great curiosity. Other than being dark and a little damp and cold, the place held a strange ethereal beauty to it.

“It doesn't look so bad.” Certainly not as horrible as he'd envisioned it from the way Xev acted about it. He'd expected it to be a blistering desert hell with no comforts at all.

But no sooner had that thought finished than the red crow let out a caw that sounded like a blood-curdling scream. The ground beneath his feet rose up to form a giant beast of a man out of absolutely nothing. One with serrated teeth and a massive stone eye in the center of his bulbous head.

An eye he rotated to glare down at them with. “Who are you? Why have you come here?”

Definitely not for a fun-filled Disney vacation.

Nick stepped back cautiously as he decided to take a clue from the one piece of ancient Greek lit he knew, and pulled an Odysseus on the creature. “Nobody.”

Unfortunately, Livia must not have ever read
The Odyssey,
as she ratted him out immediately. “You're not Nobody, Nick!” She lifted her chin defiantly toward the giant. “He's the Malachai! You better show him respect or else he'll destroy you where you stand!”

Ah crap. Leave it to her to be honest for once.

And literal.

The giant gaped at them. “Malachai? Here?”

Before Nick could respond with anything more eloquent than a helpless shrug, the entire forest came alive and attacked.

 

CHAPTER 12

Xevikan became aware of his surroundings with a start. Sensing something was off about the room, he blinked and scowled until he met Kody's equally confused gaze. His whole body was stiff as if he'd been in a fight.

Yet he hadn't.

Had he?

Rolling his shoulders, he tried to make sense of what he felt and saw.

“Where's Nick?” Kody asked him.

Oh yeah, that's what's missing.
Nick had been right beside him a moment ago.

“I don't know.”

Even Dagon looked baffled by it all.

“What happened?” Rubbing at his temple, Xev felt as if he'd sustained a stunning battle-blow to the head. Nothing had hit him this hard, with this amount of damage, since Caleb. That demon alone could rattle him like this.

Dagon went perfectly still, all of a sudden. “Do you smell
that
?”

“Smell what?” Kody asked.

But Xev knew that unique sickly-sweet stench the moment Dagon mentioned it. “Chronus.”

Dagon nodded slowly. “His keepers were here.”

Skimming the room as he turned a slow circle, Xev narrowed his gaze on the shadows. “Or still are.”

Kody frowned. “I don't understand.”

“Neither do I,” Dagon breathed.

He met Xev's gaze with eyes that betrayed his own concern that this was quickly escalating into something none of them wanted to live through again. “You think they took Nick for the Source?”

His stomach churned at the very thought of it. And yet … “Why else would the Malachai have vanished? They had to have taken him.”

But why?

That was the terrifying question.

If Chronus took possession of Nick, it couldn't be good for anyone. Especially not for anyone in this room. The primal god of order didn't involve himself lightly.

And whenever he did …

Tragic things happened for them all.

Xev turned toward Simi. “Charonte? Can you trace the Malachai?”

“The Simi wishes you'd stop calling her that, cursed god. It really, really annoying. She gots a name. Two of them, actually. And they both are quite lovely. So please, pick one and use it when you address me. Otherwise, I might have to do something not so nice to you to get the Simi's point across.”

Sighing irritably at him, she closed her eyes and tried to locate Nick.

After a few seconds, she shook her head. “Nope. The Simi gots no ideas where he went on off to. Maybe he got hungry? Sometimes them boys do that without warning. He the only one the Simi knows who eats as much as she does. He a growing Malachai, after all.”

Xev turned around slowly as he studied the symbols on the walls. Symbols that would be useless against Chronus and Tiamat. As well as their pets. He hoped he was wrong. “I have a really bad feeling about this.”

Dagon nodded. “As do I. If both Chronus and Tiamat are here, there can only be one reason for it.”

“What?” Kody asked.

“Judgment,” Xev and Dagon said in unison.

It was the only thing that made sense, and it explained absolutely everything that had happened so far.

The weather. The demons.

Everything.

They should have realized it sooner. But it was so rare a thing that it just hadn't occurred to him that it could be happening, especially since neither he nor Livia had voted or discussed such.

In theory, the
Å¡
arras should have all met together to decide upon it.
All
of them. Yet none had broached the subject with
him
.

Not even Livia, whom he saw every day.

Kody sucked her breath in sharply. “The others?”

Xev nodded. “They must have called for Nick to be removed as Malachai.”

Her jaw went slack as she finally understood the severity of what they might be dealing with. “Has that ever been done before?”

“Only once. Many eons ago. After that … there's never been another opportunity. Because of their inherited memories, and tendency and need for vengeance, the Malachais put us down too fast for fear of it happening again. They give us no chance to get together for the vote. And take great pleasure in punishing us for what was done back then.”

Dagon turned to Kody. “You better get to Caleb, and make sure Livia hasn't done something to him.”

“What do you mean?”

It was Xevikan who answered her question. “If this
is
the Malachai test, she might be working with the others, and there's no telling what she might have done to him to initiate it. It would take four
Å¡
arras to agree to have a Malachai undergo the hazard. I know I didn't call for it or vote on it. That leaves her, or Bane, as a deciding vote with the others. And I have a feeling Bane didn't bother. Unless he's radically different from the man I remember, he wouldn't involve himself with such politics or treachery.”

Kody shook her head. “It doesn't make sense, though. Why would Livia do that after all Caleb and Nick have done to welcome her in?”

Xev laughed bitterly. “It's her nature, Nekoda. If the
Å¡
arras reached out to her, and asked her to join them, she would have, without hesitation. All she wants is to feel like she's a part of their family. One of
them
.”

As Kody started to leave, they heard a knock on the door.

“Menyara?” Dagon asked, thinking it might be her returning with some of their reinforcements.

No one answered from the hallway.

Simi went to the door and peeped through the hole. “Nope. It that other dog-boy. Zavid … Hi, Zavid!” she said in a louder tone as she opened the door for him to enter the condo.

But as he came into the room with an odd swagger and headed straight for the couch where Cherise was still sleeping, they realized this wasn't Zavid.

It was Noir in his body.

Dagon cut his path off to Cherise. “What are you doing here, Father?”

“You know what I want, boy. Now join me or stand aside.”

Dagon's gaze went to Xev and Kody. “You asked me earlier to pick a side to die for. I just did.”

Stepping back, he let fly a blast from his hands and declared his eternal enmity.

 

CHAPTER 13

As every single piece of bramble and brush on the forest floor came alive to attack them, Livia shrieked and ran to hide, leaving Nick as the sole nummy treat for them all.

Pissed and aghast, Nick gaped at her as he pulled out his Malachai sword, and expanded its size to fight as best he could. “Livia! A hand, please! You're supposed to be one of my
Å¡
arras, you know!”

She shrieked and dodged. “I don't fight hand-to-hand. I lead.… Other demons fight. Not me.
Never
me. That's not what I do.”

Now …
now
she tells me this? Really?

Stunned, he gaped at her as he realized just how badly he'd chosen his partner for this venture. Wow. Talk about hindsight.

And extreme stupidity. Lethal stupidity, for that matter. Bubba would be so proud.

Or disappointed that Nick hadn't paid closer attention in all those survival classes he'd attended and mocked Bubba for teaching.
That'll learn me for daring to make fun of others.

Artemis was right. Payback was a cat.

Nick fought back as best he could. Alone. “Out of curiosity,” he panted, between near-death blows. “Why were you chosen as a
Å¡
arra, if you can't, and don't, fight?”

She lifted her chin as if offended by what, to him, was an extremely reasonable question. “I'm very handy, I'll have you know! I induce envy and conflict into battle and war.”

Oh … great. In other words, she was a dung-stirring troublemaker. Pure and simple. That was her entire value in war. Wonderful. Just … effing beautiful.

That was exactly what he wanted in a fight right now. Yeah.

Nick cursed himself for not asking that question sooner. That explained why she'd outed him so fast and hurled his bleeding carcass under the bus with the one-eyed giant on their arrival.

That was her nature and her job.

It actually explained a whole lot about many things since he'd brought her on board with his crew. She was a troublemaker. The one who lit the fire in others and watched it burn.

Crap … I'm such a flaming moron
. And he was about to be a dead one.

He realized too late the mistake he'd made, putting her at his back, and leaving her alone with his friends after he'd freed her.

Oh, the things people learned about others when it was too late to make it better. The last thing anyone wanted on their team was someone whose sole purpose in life was causing drama and stirring up jealousy and intrigue.

How could I have been so stupid?
How could he not have seen it before now? Not known what she was doing with her subtle comments and snide innuendo?

But it was easy to do. The thing about jealousy and gossip was that they slipped up on everyone. The trick was to recognize them and stop them immediately. To not let them under your skin.

Because, just like now, they were worthless things that existed for no other purpose than to destroy lives. No one needed them and they served no real use.

Nick looked at Lerabeth. “Hey, bird? A hand or wing here, please?”

The bird snorted. “I'm your guide. Not your soldier. You're on your own, Malachai.”

That was how he'd wanted it, but … He was beginning to realize alone wasn't all it was cracked up to be, either.

Especially against
this
number of attackers, who were hell-bent on ending his days and ruining his boyish figure.

Sticks and stones continued to rise up from the ground and twist into more armored soldiers. Which would have been cool when he was a kid, playing toy war. But these sticks and stones fully intended to break every bone in his Malachai body and not stop until he was fully dead.

Fine. What do I have in my arsenal?

Lethal sarcasm. A sword. Malfunctioning powers.

And one trapped demonic spirit …

Nick laughed at a ridiculous idea. A real Hail Mary move.

You are Catholic
.
Those tend to be your specialties.

True. But there was no guarantee it would work.

You have a full guarantee that it won't work if you don't try it.

Nick ducked as the ugly and very-skilled-with-a-sword giant in front of him swung for his head. He caught the blow with his own sword and parried, then narrowly missed the next attack from another creature moving in at his back. Man, he could use Kody and Caleb, and their wicked sword skills right now. These guys were going to win just by their sheer numbers against him. One person, even a Malachai, couldn't stand for long against this onslaught.