He swung his mother up to carry her to safety as he ran inside. Once Kody closed the gate behind them, he set his mom on her feet. But he was far from safe. As soon as his mother was assured the demons couldn’t follow them in, she turned on Nick with the wrath of the Furies.
“What do you think you’re doing?” She poked her tiny finger into the center of his chest hard enough to hurt. “You’re supposed to be at school, boy. Instead, I get a call saying you’re about to be arrested and then I find you covered in demons. What is wrong with you? What were you thinking doing something so reckless?”
Now there was the angry Chihuahua he was used to facing, but it’d been awhile since he stood eye-to-eye with her. He’d forgotten how scary it was to be within her actual striking range.
His mother growled at him. “What have you to say for yourself, boy?”
“Sorry, Ma, I’m a sexy demon magnet?”
She actually pulled the bat back like she was planning to hit him with it.
“Cherise!”
She swung around, ready to battle until she saw the massive, muscled Bubba nearing them with the same fear in his eyes Nick was sure he had. “Don’t you even take that tone with me, Mr. Triple-Threat-I-don’t-have-to-listen-to-anyone-because-I’m-the-size-of-a-tank. You’re in the doghouse, buster. You might as well pack a bag ’cause you’re going to be in there so long your name’s going to be engraved on the mailbox.”
Bubba placed his hand over his heart as if her words wounded him. “Ah, what’d I do, cher?”
“You dragged my baby into danger, and you—” She turned on Savitar then. “Are you one of them?”
Savitar actually took a step back from her. “I’m going with whatever answer doesn’t get me swatted with that bat.”
Bubba disarmed her. “Cherise, calm down. What are you doing here?”
“What do you think? I’m protecting my boys. Both of you … Because Mark values his own life and in particular his male body parts, he called me after he got off the phone with you to tell me what the two of you were doing.” She raked Bubba with an angry glare that made Nick take a step closer to Kody for protection. “You didn’t honestly believe that I’ve been ignorant of what you and Mark do at night all these years? Did you?”
Bubba shifted nervously. “Um, yeah.”
“Well then you’re a fool, Michael Burdette. And I’m not.” With a disgusted sigh, she gestured up at the sky where the demons circled like vultures. “And how do we get rid of those?”
“Not easily, and we need to get into the building before they start throwing—” Savitar’s voice broke off as a car came hurtling over the wall at them. Barely missing them, it rolled across the manicured shrubs and slammed against the wall on Nick’s left. “–things at us.”
With Savitar leading the way, they ran for the old convent. Savitar used his powers to unlock the door. Nick stood back to allow Kody and his mother to enter, but then Savitar shoved him in headfirst.
“Hey!”
Savitar curled his lip. “Don’t hey me, kid. Not after the hour I’ve had because of you.”
Bubba locked the door behind them. “That’ll keep the demons out, but the humans are another story. Holy ground won’t stop them from coming in after us.”
“I don’t know … it stopped Tabby and Amanda earlier at St. Louis.”
Bubba gave him a droll stare. “What say we don’t bet our lives on whether or not humans can get in? We’ll just hedge our bets and assume they can. That okay, punkin?”
Nick snorted. “Yeah, sure.”
Kody agreed with Bubba. “And let’s also assume they’ll head straight here as soon as the demons tell Thorn where we are.” She let out a half-hysterical laugh. “Or they could just follow the circling demonic cloud over our heads. Surely they have to know that’s not normal. Even for New Orleans.”
Savitar sighed. “Too bad they know you’re a ghost. We could have used that advantage. Now it’s just a liability.”
“Yeah.” She glanced at Nick. “It wasn’t information I’d ever planned on being free with. Extenuating circumstances and all that.” She ground her teeth in anger. “I knew better than to let my guard down. I can’t believe I was so stupid!”
Cherise patted her on the back. “Don’t be too hard on yourself, Boo. We all have moments of stupid.”
“Yeah,” Bubba agreed. “How you think Cherise ended up with me for a husband? I swear, that woman needs better lawyers. A really good one could have had her off for good behavior by now.”
Cherise walked into his arms and hugged him. “That wasn’t stupid, Michael. A bit masochistic, no doubt, but definitely not stupid.”
Ignoring them, Savitar grabbed Nick’s chin and held him by his side.
Her eyes flaring with anger, Cherise started for them, but Bubba caught her. “Don’t, baby. While that’s our son’s body, that ain’t our boy.”
“What?”
Bubba nodded. “Our Nick was switched out with another soul.”
Dumbfounded, Cherise couldn’t speak as she sputtered.
Savitar narrowed his gaze on Nick while he turned Nick’s head from side to side to study him. “And whoever did this to you, boy, knew exactly what they were doing. There’s no sign of your bloodline. I didn’t even know it was possible to hide a Malachai so completely.”
Kody folded her arms over her chest. “You should be with him in our world. He has stood next to Acheron Parthenopaeus many times, and not even Ash can tell.”
Savitar finally released him and stepped back. “You’re sure he’s a Malachai?”
Kody lowered the neck of her sweater to show a vicious scar over her heart. “I was looking him in the eyes when he killed me. It’s him.” She paused before she continued. “Well, not him, but it will be one day.” Biting her lip, she faced Cherise, who was still struggling with the unbelievable reality. “Have no fear for your Nick, Mrs. Burdette. Your son is safe in my world. He couldn’t be more protected. I promise you I left him with two powerful men who would die before they allow him to be harmed.”
Finally, Cherise found her voice again. “How do we swap them back?”
Kody sighed. “I wish I knew.”
Savitar moved to a window to check on the location and activities of their demons. “We have to find the one responsible. It’s our only hope to undo this and get him back to your world before it’s too late.”
“Well, I can tell you it’s not Thorn. He had no idea the Malachai was here until I accidentally told him.”
Too grateful that she’d survived the attack to mind her slip to their enemies, Nick took Kody’s hand. “How did you escape Karma?”
Savitar glanced back at them. “She summoned me.”
That surprised him. Especially given the trap they’d both walked into with the Devereaux sisters. “How did you know to call for Savitar?”
“I took a wild guess and bet our lives on it. I was hoping he’d be strong enough to be on our side, even in this world. So glad I wasn’t wrong.”
Nick, too. Still, it didn’t answer what he was really asking. “But how do you know him?”
She hesitated like she normally did whenever he asked her a point-blank question. Instead of her usual hedge, for once she answered it. “He’s my godfather.”
Savitar held his hands up as if those words offended him. “Yeah, I had a hard time with that one myself. I’m not exactly a people person and I have never met her before, but she told me things no one else could possibly know. Things my own family doesn’t know about me … yet. I apparently get a looser tongue in the future. Like you becoming the Malachai, I can’t imagine what damage I’ll live through that would allow that to happen. Guess we’re all future fools for something.”
Kody swung Nick’s hand between their bodies. “I’m just glad those events happened in both worlds. Otherwise, he’d have left me to die under torture.”
“Savitar!” Nick reprimanded.
“Don’t take that tone to me, kid. I’m not that fond of you. As for your girlfriend … I learned the hard way not to put my butt in a sling for anyone. It’s a debt they seldom repay.”
Something began striking the walls around them.
Nick growled in frustration that he couldn’t have a minute’s peace. “Can’t you teleport us somewhere?” he asked Savitar.
His eyes burning with regret, he shook his head. “I’m not the Chthonian I used to be.”
“Meaning what?”
Kody answered Nick’s question. “With every god a Chthonian kills, it weakens them.…”
Savitar nodded. “A few centuries ago, I had a really bad day.”
When he didn’t elaborate, Nick prompted him. “And what did you do?”
“I. Had. A. Bad. Day.” He enunciated each word slowly and with great irritation. After a second, he calmed. “Let’s just say I did some things I seriously regret. The biggest of which being the powers I lost as a result of my tantrum. Some of them definitely weren’t worth it.”
Nick hated hearing that. For many reasons. “Are there any other Chthonians left?”
“Just Zebulon, and he’s even weaker than I am.”
Great. Raking his hand through his hair, Nick took a mental inventory of possible allies.
“What about the Charonte?” Kody asked Savitar.
“All enslaved.”
“Even Simi?”
Savitar winced as if that question sucker-punched him. “Simi died a long time ago.”
“Nuh-uh,” Nick said, denying it immediately. “She was at school with me. I saw her.”
Savitar shook his head. “I know Simi and I was there when she was killed. I burned her remains myself. She’s gone, kid. Long gone.”
Then who’d been in his school with him? She’d even answered to Simi’s name. That was just weird.
“What about Menyara?” Kody asked.
“Imprisoned.”
Scowling, Kody let go of Nick’s hand. “Wait … what month and year is this?”
His mom was the one who answered her. “April 2002, why?”
Kody let out her own sound of gross frustration as she started pacing. “I was hoping we could get to my father, but he would still be imprisoned in the Greek Underworld.”
“If he’s alive here,” Nick reminded her.
She disregarded his warning. “If the Harbinger lives, he lives.”
Savitar snorted. “And the Harbinger is definitely alive, but mentally unwell.”
Neither knowing nor caring who this Harbinger was, Nick sighed as he continued to think through an escape route. “What about your mother?” he asked Kody.
“Imprisoned, too. Only my oldest brother would be free and grown right now, and trust me, he won’t help us. He’s knee-deep in Daimon drama.”
That was a serious and most unexpected kick in his stones. “Excuse me? Your brother is with Daimons even in our world? Who are your parents?”
“Long story, Nick.”
Okay, he put that in the to-be-pursued-later bank. “But maybe he’s not evil. I mean, Tabitha and Thorn switched sides. It’s possible your brother did, too. Right?”
Savitar rubbed his hand down the line of his jaw. “Who’s your brother?”
“Urian.”
Savitar choked on the name. “The head general of the Spathi Daimons?”
She nodded.
“Yeah, that’s a lost cause. He’s evil to the core of his rotten heart. I don’t care if you are his sister, he’d still rip your head off and use it for a basketball.”
Kody bit her lip. “Unless…”
“What?” Nick asked her hopefully.
Shaking her head, she paused in her pacing. “Phoebe. He should be married to her.”
“And that helps us, how?”
Raking her hand through her hair, Kody groaned in frustration. “You’re right. It doesn’t. I keep thinking everyone is the same here as they are in our world. For all I know, Phoebe’s gone Daimon, too, and is helping him.”
“Or she’s dead,” Savitar mumbled.
And still the something pounded on the building for entry.
Bubba’s cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and moved away from them to answer it while they continued to futilely explore the path of lost causes.
Kody paused again as she faced Savitar. “If Nick brought me over, do you think we could do that to someone else?”
“What are you thinking?”
“Maybe I could summon a Charonte. Do you think I’d be able to bring our Simi here?”
Savitar shrugged. “You can always try.”