Nick scowled at the unfamiliar word. "Dis-a what?"
"Disseminating," Mark repeated. "It means distributing it."
"Then why didn't you say that?"
Mark looked at Bubba. "Remind me to get him a word-of-the-day calendar." Then he pinned Nick with a shaming stare over the back of the seat. "You need to up your vocabulary, boy. You can't walk around letting people think you're stupid. Expand your horizons. Besides, it's fun to call people names they have to look up to realize they've been insulted."
Bubba laughed. "Yeah, that's a twofer there. You get away with it and then they're twice as mad when they realize how bad you really insulted them. Especially if they mistake it for a compliment when you say it and thank you for it."
"And," Caleb jumped in, "those insults keep you from getting grounded by your mom."
You know, they all had veryvalid points.
"And best of all, it'll help you with your SATs," Madaug said as he hung up the phone—he would think of that. He looked at Mark. "Eric and the zoo crew are heading to the store for supplies. Do /all have enough stun guns for them?"
Bubba bristled as if Madaug had insulted him. "Does a bear defecate rurally? What kind of question is that for someone who owns the biggest gun store in town? Of course I got plenty. I got enough Tasers to light up New York City and Boston just for giggles."
Good, 'cause Nick had a feeling they might be needing them.
Ambrose grabbed the bookcase and slammed it to the ground, spilling the ancient books he'd carefully collected for centuries across the floor of his stygian office. It probably destroyed a few of them, but at this point, he really didn't care. Rage burned through him with the power of a thousand suns so raw and potent that he could taste it.
"Why can't I stop it?" he snarled. Why, with all the powers he'd mastered, all the elements he controlled, couldn't he prevent a mere fourteen-year-old boy from being an idiot? No matter what he did, certain events kept unfolding.
And he wanted blood.
He felt a calm, soothing hand on his cheek, covering his bow-and-arrow mark that she'd given him during a time so long ago he should have no memory of it. Yet it was forever carved deep in his mind. More beautiful than any other, Artemis, goddess of the hunt, put all women to shame. Her long red hair flowed to her tiny waist, which was accentuated by the white Grecian gown she wore. "Shhh ... You shouldn't work yourself up to such a frizzy."
His anger tripled. "The word is frenzy," he corrected. Because of the differences between the English he spoke and her native ancient Greek, she constantly screwed up sayings and colloquialisms.
"What are you doing here, Artemis?" he demanded.
"I'm trying to calm you down, love. You shouldn't do this to yourself. It pains me to see you suffer like this."
And that dark power inside him wanted to strike out at her and make her beg for his mercy. It was an all-demanding power that was getting harder and harder to fight.
Soon there would be no way back from it. It would consume him and he would become his father. A mindless killing machine that lacked all compassion and humanity. A machine that wanted to end everything.
Kill everyone.
Ambrose stared at the wall, where he saw himself as a boy. Nick Gautier had no idea how the random small decisions he was making right now would turn him into the beast Ambrose had become.
/ have to save myself.
More than that, he had to save the ones he loved. Before it was too late. But how?
God, howcould I have been so stupid, even at fourteen? It was so hard to look back and see the faces of his friends and loved ones, especially since he knew what would become of them if he didn't alter history. It cut so deep that it alone was almost enough to make him insane.
Howdo I stop it?
Ambrose turned to Artemis. He hated her. She, like Acheron, had played a major role in turning him into the Malachai.
No, Nick, you did that to yourself.
But it was so much easier to blame them. They had made it so easyfor him to make the wrong decisions. Decisions he was now trying to unmake before he lost the ability to care.
Sighing in frustration, he met Artemis's gaze. The gaze of the woman who'd brought him back from the dead and unleashed his powers. Powers he was now trying to unlock earlier in his life. Had he possessed some of them as a kid, he could have saved the ones who were most important to him.
He could have saved his mom....
Nick flinched as he forced that memory away and turned his thoughts to something he'd said to himself earlier. "Who is Nekoda?"
Artemis gave him a blank stare. "Never heard of him." "Her, Artie. It's a girl."
One of her perfect brows shot up as jealousy darkened her green eyes. "What kind of girl?"
"I don't know. Nick knows her."
"You are Nick." Her tone was testy.
"Exactly. How can / not know who she is?" How could he not have seen her as he looked back? For some reason, she was a complete ghost to him. No matter what power he used, he couldn't find this piece of his past. Even with certain aspects altered, he should still be able to hone in on her.
Yet he couldn't.
Why?
Artemis shrugged her thin shoulders. "You forgot her. It happens. You were human ... once."
But he wasn't human now. Now he was the type of creature he and Tabitha had once hunted and put down like a rabid animal. More than that, he was hungry.
Starving.
Artemis took a chance by being here with him. Every time he fed from her blood, he grew stronger and deadlier. It was getting harder and harder not to kill her with his powers and absorb hergodhood.
Harder to not destroy everyone and everything.
I wont do it.
Yes, you will. In time. You cant change what you are. Fight all you went. In the end, you are what you were bom to be and nothing will ever change that.
But he refused to believe it.
He stared at himself on the wall as the younger him innocently rode in the back of Bubba's SUV toward a destiny that had been carved in blood onto his heart. C'mon, Nick, dont let us down. I need you to be strong, kid.
Smart.
Most of all, he needed himself not to make the same mistakes. Some things, such as meeting Simi while he was young, were already changed.
But others ...
He ground his teeth as he saw the future as clearly as he saw his past.
Karnarsas, the final battle where he would command his father's army, was coming. And when it did, if he didn't change the past, he would destroy the rest of the people he loved....
All of them.
CHAPTER 14
Nick got out of the SUV in front of Bubba's store and checked the time on his cell phone. Ooo, he was cutting it close. So much for food....
"Hey, guys? I need to be heading up to my mom's club before I get grounded." Again.
Mark, who was standing on the sidewalk, shot his head up in a gesture reminiscent of a spooked deer. "Hey, Bub? You catch a whiff of that?"
What? Had someone ripped one in the car?
Nick was just about to blame Caleb when Bubba froze. Two heartbeats later, he tossed keys at Nick. "Kids, get in the store. Now!"
He started to ask them what was up when he saw something that left him stunned. Zombies.
Not like the ones who were his converted classmates. These were the real thing. Flesh rotting. Bad smelling. Limb losing. Eye jelly oozing ...
Zombies.
And they were coming at them with speed a puma would envy. Madaug let out a yelp as he ran to the door. Nick and Caleb followed while Bubba and Mark pulled out two baseball bats from under the seats of the SUV in an act that strangely reminded him of Mary Poppins and her bag of goodies.
Simi came out of the SUV and acted like she was going to head for the zombies until Bubba caught her arm.
"Get inside with the boys, Simi."
She actually pouted. Nick could tell she wanted to argue, but with a curt nod, she ran to them.
Bubba cursed. "Tell me again why I put the flamethrower up in the store?" he asked Mark.
Mark hefted his bat over his shoulder. "I'm pretty sure the cops had something to do with that."
Bubba popped the first zombie to reach him in the head with his bat. "Well, the next time I decide to do something so stupid, remind me it's better to be in jail than dead."
"Hurry, Nick!" Madaug pushed up against him as Nick fumbled with the keys and lock.
Nick ground his teeth. It was hard to do this with only one hand. "I'm trying. Dang, Bubba. How many keys you got on this ring, anyway?" He'd already tried a dozen and not a one worked. He only had ten more to go.
"It's the one with the green rubber piece around it." Bubba knocked the head from the zombie closest to him. "Green." Strike two. "Rubber." Strike three. "Piece."
Caleb pulled the keys out of his hand so that he could open the door. "They're getting through, Nick. We gotta hurry."
"I knew I should have left that duck urine on!" Mark snapped. "That'll teach me to bathe when I know better."
Nick could feel the putrid breath of the zombies on his neck when he finally slung open the door and fell into the store. Simi ran inside, Madaug started in, then cried out as one of the zombies grabbed him and yanked him back toward the street.
Caleb had to force himself not to expose his powers and use them as he fought the zombies off and let the other two into the store. He could feel the stank of dark magick. It permeated even the air he was breathing. Whoever controlled the zombies was a force to be reckoned with.
An ancient force.
Not as old as him by any means, but still someone comfortable with their powers who knew them intimately.
He'd fought it earlier. This time, the bokor had reinforced his or her strength. And because these zombies had no living force or will of their own, they were far more dangerous than the students had been.
Unlike the students, they had no attachment to life anymore. No lingering compassion or reason. They were evil souls summoned into the bodies of the dead.
This was the blackest of magick. The kind that not even he dealt with. Only a true dark spirit like the Malachai could summon an army this size and control it.
These were mindless killing machines.
Kind of like the Charonte, though Caleb had to give Simi credit. Unlike the others of her species he'd known in the past, she was holding her human guise and not breaking it to chow down on the zombies. Someone had trained her well.
Growling low in his throat, he hit the zombie holding Madaug. The zombie's skull broke, leaving its mandible to hang from a strip of tendon as some kind of cold green ew slimed his hand. It felt like two-day-old snot.
"Oh, gross!" Caleb wiped his hand against his shirt. "Zombie goo."
"Ooo," Simi breathed. "I wonder if it tastes like chicken? What do you think?"
Caleb scowled. "I think I'm never eating guacamole again as long as I live."
Ignoring them, Nick beat the other zombie back until he was able, with Simi's help, to shove Madaug into the store.
"Hey!" Caleb snapped as he realized Nick was about to lock him on the outside with their attackers. He pushed the door open and glared at him. "No man left behind."
Nick scoffed. "This ain't the army, boy. It's every man for himself. Fall behind. Get eaten."
"I'll remember that the next time you're the one on the outside and I'm the one in the store."
Nick flashed an evil grin at him. "Yeah, but then the rules will change." He grabbed the door as another zombie tried to open it. "Ah no."
"What?" Caleb asked.
"You left the keys outside."
Caleb groaned at his stupidity, then helped Nick hold the door closed as more zombies swarmed. "What kind of idiot doesn't have one of those flipper lock things on their door?"
Nick gave him a duh stare. "Bubba. 'Cause all someone has to do is break the glass and then they can switch it open and be inside the store. You know Bubba's Code: Always use keys." Which was why he had so many on his key ring.
Caleb felt his muscles bulge as he held the door tight while the zombies tried to pull it open. "I swear, Nick, I should throw you to them. After all, I don't have to outrun the zombies. I just have to outrun you."
"That's cold, dude."
Maybe, but if the zombies got in, he was going to sic Simi and her barbecue sauce on them, humans be damned. "Stand back," Madaug said.
Nick looked over his shoulder to see Madaug with a rocket launcher. Oh, no way. Where on earth had he found that? Was it loaded?
What a stupid question. It was in Bubba's store. Of course it was loaded and functional. And probably modified to take down half the city block whenever it was fired.