Invincible (29 page)

He could see the reluctance in her eyes before she banished it. “You’re right. In order to undo things, you usually have to go to where they started. But…”

“But what?”

“You’re talking about necromancy, Nick. That’s not something to play with, and it’s not something you learn in a few hours or days. Necromancers are a different breed entirely.”

“How so?”

“To do what they do, they lose a part of their soul every time. And you are talking about the darkest part of evil. It’s not just the reanimation of the vessel—making the body move again. You have to reunite the soul, which means you’re ripping that soul out of wherever it’s gone to. And if it’s been reborn … I don’t think anything or anyone can touch it. But again, I don’t know. I don’t go there. For real good reasons.”

He begged her with his eyes. “But you know someone who does—”

She remained firm in her conviction to avoid this catastrophe. “No, I don’t.”

“But you
know
someone who knows someone.”

His persistence was as annoying as it was playful and cute. Ugh! She was the train derailing, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

If she knew anything about Nick, it was that he was stubborn. There was no way she could sway him from this.

“We both know that someone. C’mon, grab your jacket and let’s go to Caleb’s.”

*   *   *

Pacing in front of his giant marble foyer, which was so elaborate, it made Kyrian’s look like a pauper’s, Caleb glared at Nick and then Kody. “Are you out of your collective minds? I swear I can’t leave you two alone for three seconds that you don’t go off and hurt yourselves.” He narrowed his gaze on Nick. “I expect stupid out of you, but
you
—” He turned on Kody then. “—know better.”

She shrugged helplessly. “I tried to tell him that. He won’t listen to me. Tag. You’re it.”

Facing Nick, Caleb gestured toward her. “Listen to her, Nick.”

Nick wasn’t trying to be difficult. He wasn’t. He understood their panic and concerns, and he was grateful for it. But he knew what he’d seen and heard. “You two listen to me for once. While I may not be as well versed in this as you are, I do know what I saw. You two and everyone else keep telling me to learn my powers—
arr,
learn my powers—” He imitated a parrot before he continued on in his normal tone. “—and then when I do, you tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about.” He slung his hands out in surrender. “Fine. You win. I quit. You two deal with this. I’m going home. Packing up all my personal items, and when you, Caleb, end up dead because the coach has your jockstrap or something else I didn’t steal but someone else did, don’t call me. I’m done and I’m going to hide in a bunker until all of this is over with.” He started for the door, but the moment he reached it, it locked in his face.

“I hate you, Nick,” Caleb drawled.

“Feels mutual, Demon.”

With a sigh of irritation, Caleb turned to Kody. “Do you really think this is wise?”

“Not at all. But I have no better idea. Do you?”

“I feel like I’m about to enter a Monty Python skit,” Caleb muttered as he pulled out his phone and then dialed it. He glared at them while it rang and rang and rang.

Grimacing at the delay, Nick glanced toward Kody. “Do necromancers not have voice mail?”

She shrugged.

“Hey,” Caleb said finally. “It’s Malphas.… Yeah, been a long time and I need a favor. How far are you from New Orleans?”

Nick could hear a deep voice on the other end, but he couldn’t make out any individual words.

“All right. I’ll see you then.” Caleb hung up the phone and continued to grimace at them. “He’ll be here in a few hours.”

“Where’s he coming from?” Nick asked.

“Wouldn’t say and I know better than to pry.” He rubbed the line of his eyebrow. “You two better know what you’re doing.”

Kody turned on Nick then. “For the record, Nick. Using the mirror shouldn’t scare you.
This
should.”

“Stop complaining,” Nick said “I know, all right? I’ve either made a huge mistake or ended this. Instead of expending our energy on so much negativity, why don’t we do something positive?”

“Like what? Pull the arms off Nick until he cries like a girl?”

Kody laughed.

Needless to say, Nick didn’t find Caleb’s sarcasm amusing. “Thanks for selling me out,” he said to Kody.

She sobered. “I haven’t done that yet, but the night’s still young.”

And they had school tomorrow. Nick checked his watch. “Crap. I need to head back home.”

Caleb contradicted him. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Any chance your mom would let you stay over for the night?”

“If I tell her we’re studying, she might.”

Caleb scoffed. “We are studying. Ways to survive the next few hours. It’s a really important subject, too.”

Nick couldn’t agree more. Pulling out his phone, he called his mom, who was still on the clock at Sanctuary.

“Hey, baby, whatcha need?”

“Can I spend the night over at Caleb’s house? We’re working on a project together and I need more time.”

“Nick.” Her voice was full of suspicious irritation. “You know I don’t like for you to do that on a school night.”

“I know, Mom. And I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t really, really, really important. Please?”

She made a noise at him. “Fine. Don’t forget to brush your teeth.”

“I won’t.”

“Call me if you need me.”

“I will.”

“All right. Tell me you love me, and I’ll let you go.”

His face turned red hot as he gave Caleb and Kody his back. “I love you,” he whispered.

She made a kissing sound at him before she hung up.

Nick passed a sullen glare to Caleb. “Not one word.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it. And I have to say that I’m impressed.”

“By what?”

“Your mom didn’t grill us this time.”

Nick snorted. “That’s ’cause she already did that and you passed. Be grateful.”

Kody swung her arms in front and behind her body so that she could clap her hands together. “So, gentlemen? What are we going to do for the next few hours?”

Nick smiled as he had a brilliant idea. “Hey, Caleb, any chance you have a system and some games lying around in this sprawling mansion of yours?”

“You know it. Name it and I have it.”

*   *   *

Nick was in the middle of pwning Caleb for the three thousandth time when the doorbell suddenly rang.

All three of them jumped out of their skins.

Kody covered her heart with her hand. “Guess that’s our friend.”

Caleb used his powers to flash himself downstairs to let him in.

Nick took the more human route and walked through the house until he reached the landing that looked down below. From the way Caleb and Kody had carried on, he’d expected some huge, hulking long-coat-wearing brute of a mountain man to appear.

But the guy who strode inside was anything but.

Dressed in a pair of loose-fitting olive green cargo pants, and a thin black T-shirt, he appeared extremely normal. His hair was a little long and a lot of shaggy, but the brown waves with the blond highlights were fashionable enough. He had his hands in his pockets, and a dark brown canvas messenger bag was hung across his body.

As Nick headed down the stairs, he realized that the guy also had on a pair of worn-out Birkenstocks. And a thin braided anklet of green and black thread.

While he had good muscle definition, he was more lean than beefy. Still, he was a typical man in his late twenties to early thirties with mirrored aviator sunglasses and an unassuming air about him.

At least until Nick drew closer. Then everything changed. You could feel the power emanating from him like an overcharged battery. Nick even swore he could hear the hum of it. And that wasn’t the only thing to make a brave man run. He was covered with scars and burn marks and tattoos. Like a combat vet who’d been tortured by his enemies.

Nick hesitated.

Caleb cleared his throat before he introduced them. “Xenon, meet Nick Gautier.”

Nick grimaced. “Xenon? What kind of name is that?”

“The only kind I answer to.” His voice was deep and gravelly, like he didn’t use it often. And as Nick closed the distance, Xenon approached him with a scowl. He raked his body slowly from top to bottom. Not in a rude way, but in a very thorough one. “Aren’t you an enigma wrapped in a thick coating of contradictions.”

Caleb snorted, “Don’t eat the help, X. We need him.”

“Pity.” Xenon reached up and pulled his sunglasses off and then put them in a case inside his messenger bag. As he did that, Nick saw the tattoos on his hand. His left knuckles each carried one letter that spelled
EASY
. This right spelled
HARD
.

Nick laughed. “Cool tattoo. Does it have any special meaning?”

“Pray you never find out.” Ignoring Nick, he turned his attention to Caleb. “What’s the situation?”

Nick drifted back to where Kody stood on the bottom stair. She had her arms crossed over her chest, letting him know how uncomfortable she was. She didn’t say it, but he could hear it loud and clear in her body language.

He creeps me out.

“So how long will it take you to set up?” Caleb asked.

“Two days.”

“You have one.”

“You can’t rush me, Malphas. It’s more an art than a science. And if I screw this up … you know the consquences.”

“Yeah. Still having flashbacks.”

“Flashbacks? I’m still having therapy.” Xenon’s tone was flat and dry. “Where do I do this?”

Caleb led him to the study on the right side of the front door.

While they did whatever they were doing, Nick looked at Kody. “Are we … What exactly are we?”

She lifted a quizzical brow. “We who?”

“You and me. What exactly is going on between us?”

She fell silent for a few minutes as she thought it over. “I honestly don’t know. I like you. A lot.”

That was good to know. “But?” He dreaded her answer, even though he had to have one.

“We shouldn’t be so familiar.”

“You’re the one who keeps kissing me.”

Her face flamed bright red. “I know. I’ve got to stop tripping and falling on your mouth all the time.”

“Ah … so that’s what it was?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Of course it was.”

He felt crushed by her words. “Glad you told me. Now I know.”

As he started away from her, she pulled him to a stop. “Let’s just take this one day at a time, okay? See where it takes us.”

“I’m young. I’m good with that.” He fell to his knees, and pretended to whimper and cry out in pain. “I’m going to die old and alone. Every loser in high school has a girl, but me. Why? Why?”

“Are you off your medication?”

Nick winked at her as he stood back up. “I must be ’cause I’ve been hallucinating all day long.”

She shook her head and started for him. But she’d taken only a step when something slammed into the front door.

They exchanged a bemused scowl while Caleb came out of his study to answer it.

The moment the door was opened, a swarm of demons burst in and attacked.

CHAPTER 19

The demons came into Caleb’s home like locusts, swarming them and pinning them to the floor. Nick couldn’t move without being mobbed by them, and the same was true of Kody and Caleb.

“What kind of bachelor party are you throwing, Malphas?” Xenon asked as he came out of the study.

“Feel free to join us.” Caleb was trying as hard to break free as Nick and Kody were.

It was useless.

Xenon vanished back into the room before they swarmed him, too.

“We’re dead.” Nick looked at Kody, wanting to memorize the beauty of her face in case they didn’t have women so lovely where he was headed.

Neither of them bothered to contradict his dire prediction. There was no need. The demons sat on his chest, banging his head against the floor so hard, he was amazed it didn’t split open. Same for Kody and Caleb. They fought with everything they had, but it wasn’t enough to even hurt their attackers.

The demons swarmed together and lifted them up as if they were about to fly them somewhere.

Just as Nick was convinced they wouldn’t survive, Xenon came out of the study like the Terminator. He sprinkled something into the air that acted like acid, especially when he shot fireballs out of his hands that ignited it. As soon as it hit their attackers, they shrieked and flew off with their skin melting.

Chasing them out of the house and down the driveway, Xenon spoke in a calm, soothing voice while he attacked them. It was an impressive feat. One Nick would love to learn. But yelling out obscenities and sarcasm was more his style.