Infamous (13 page)
Nick was completely stunned. He’d had no idea. Bubba never really talked about his past, and the fact that he was a football star.…
That absolutely shamed Nick’s Peewee Bowl Championship wins he was so proud of. “Why didn’t you go pro?”
A deep sadness creased Bubba’s brow. “I had a lot of reasons that made sense to me back then.” He swallowed hard. “It doesn’t matter anyway.… I’d have probably had a massive injury on the field that would have cut my career short. As they say, all good things come to an end. Now, moving out of the past ’cause there ain’t no reason to be there, let’s talk about this cybernut on the loose at your school. You guys got a major problem.”
“Yeah, we know.”
“No, Nick, you don’t.” He crooked his finger for him to follow into the back of the shop.
Nick headed in and as soon as he saw the monitor where Mark was working, he froze. There were all kinds of photos on the site about his classmates. Some pretty graphic. Some gross. And some were just wrong. “What the…”
Mark let out a long breath. “If this weren’t cruel, I’d be impressed by the skill level. Someone spent a lot of time and they’ve done some incredible PI work on a whole lot of people.”
“But what concerns us most is this link.” Bubba took the mouse from Mark’s hand and clicked on the word “Sources.” “They’ve named everyone who gave them information on someone else.”
Nick ground his teeth as he read over the list and saw his own name listed as an informer. “They’re absolutely lying. I never told anyone anything about Spencer. Nothing. Not even my mama.” In that moment, he wanted to find the site owner and back over them with his poor driving skills. “What’s under ‘Cyblog’?”
Mark clicked on it. “The social ramblings of a jealous lunatic—keeping in mind that the man who is making this accusation against the site owner sleeps in duck urine and rather than go to a bar to troll for dates, spends his nights in the gator-infested swamp searching for zombies with Bubba. Believe me, I know crazy when I see it.”
Shaking his head, Nick didn’t comment on that as he read the rantings against his classmates. Mark moved his hand so that Nick could take possession of the mouse.
There was a photo of some of the cheerleaders, including Casey, from the haunted house his school was sponsoring. Under the photo—
These are some of the nauseating fleas I have to stomach in class. Couldn’t you just puke? Look at them, the only thing smaller than their IQs is their skirts. Vo-mit.
Nick let out a low whistle. “I’m not sure I want to know what’s under the ‘Classmates’ link.”
Mark crossed his arms over his chest. “No, you probably don’t. It’s basically pages they’ve set up with doctored photos of your classmates in sexually explicit acts, or naked.”
Nick decided to take his word for it. Until Madaug perfected his eye bleach formula, he didn’t need to see something that would disgust him. “And you can’t find anything on the person who did this?”
“Nada, buddy. Nil. Nothing.”
This was so bad.
Bubba put a comforting hand on Nick’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll keep working on it. We’re going to find out who’s responsible.”
“Thanks, Bubba.” Sickened by the kind of callous individual who could do this to someone who’d never harmed him or her, Nick faced Kody. “I’m going home before I get into any more trouble, and wait for my mom to get off work.”
“Okay. Call me if you need anything.”
Most people would hear that and think she meant for him to use a phone. But he had several ways to contact her that didn’t require anything more than his thoughts
He kissed her on the cheek before he left out the back door of the building. If ever his powers would work correctly for him, now would be the time.
Unfortunately, the only thing he could see about the future was his coming restriction that would hang over his head until graduation.
At least it didn’t take long to make it home. He went inside and locked the door, then cursed as he remembered he’d left his backpack at Sanctuary. He wouldn’t be able to finish his homework until late tonight.
You could go get it.
Yeah, and chance another severe tongue-lashing from the mothership? No, thank you.
Grumbling at his own stupidity, he went to his room. He kicked off his shoes, then threw himself across his bed and reached for the radio. He needed some loud, make-the-neighbors-hate-my-guts music to improve his dismal outlook.
But as he reached for the controls, a chill went down his spine.
Unsure of what it meant, he scanned the room and …
Every protection sign he had on his walls—signs that were never visible to the naked eye unless something inhuman was trying to get to him—was lit up like Christmas in the Quarter. His walls literally glowed bloodred …
Crap! He was under attack.
Nick rolled off the bed and grabbed his baseball bat from the corner … yeah, okay, stupid weapon against the paranormal, but it was better than nothing.
In spite of all the symbols and Caleb’s assurances that nothing could breach the sanctity of his room, a mist appeared in the corner closest to the window.
Nick tightened his grip on the wood. Just as he was about to put out the cosmic call for help and go all Louisville Slugger on his intruder, the creature materialized. Tall, shapely, and evil to the core of her soul, she stood on the other side of his bed in a short ruffled skirt, a black leather bustier, and purple leggings. Her red and black hair was pulled into pigtails that were held in place by spiked bands that matched the collar around her neck.
“Good grief, Simi, you scared me senseless.” Nick let out an audible sound of relief as he let the bat slide out of his hands and back to the floor. “What are you doing here?”
She blew out a hard breath that made her bangs fly up as she pouted in irritation. She was even tapping her burgundy Docs on the floor. “Akri done gone off with that dumb old heifer goddess again, and the Simi done got bored sleeping all the time and started twitching, and making Akri jumpy, which makes the old cow-faced heifer grumpy. Which personally, the Simi thinks is great. Anything the Simi can do to rankle the heifer, the better. One day, the Simi gonna eat that heifer, too. No matter what Akri say. Yum. Yum. Or actually, probably more tummy ache than yummy full. But anyways, ’cause the Simi was doing the St. Vitus dance of stir-crazy impatience and thereby Akri was doing the St. Vitus Dance by default, Akri say the Simi could come and visit them bear people to get some good eats. Soooo, the Simi decided to come see her favorite blue-eyed demon boy and since he always being grounded for being stupid, Simi said, hmmm … let’s go check his room, ’cause that’s where he normally is when he’s grounded. And here you are. And now so am I. Hi, akri-Nick.”
Nick rubbed his hand across his face as he tried to make sense of her prattle. But that was the thing about Simi. She seldom made sense. “I’m sorry your dad ditched you for his girlfriend again.” He seemed to do that to her every few months.
Simi shrugged. “It’s okay. Akri more miserable than the Simi is. And he say he come get me as soon as he can. Until then…” She pulled a white bib out of her coffin-shaped purse and tied it around her neck. “You wanna come get eats, too? You the only one the Simi knows who can eat as much as she does.”
“I would love to, Simi, but…”
“Akri-Nick grounded.”
He nodded. “Sorry.”
She sighed heavily. “Don’t be sorry. The Simi’ll eat some for you. Now cheer up. It all be okay.”
“I hope so, Simi.” He really did.
“Trust the Simi. She ain’t never wrong.” She made a kissing noise at him before she vanished.
It wasn’t until then that he remembered something.
Simi
never
set off the alarms in his home.
Caleb?
He used his thoughts to summon his protector.
What?
Wow, Caleb sounded put out.
I have a situation here. My walls are glowing and I don’t know why.
He’d barely finished that last word before Caleb appeared in front of him.
Without a word, Caleb turned a slow circle as he scanned the room from floor to ceiling.
Nick frowned as he watched him. “What is it?”
“Not sure.” Caleb’s eyes glowed, then glazed over. He spoke in demon tongue with that thick, gravely voice that was made for scaring the life out of people. “They’re coming for you, Nick.”
“Who?”
“Noir. One of his demons found Adarian somehow. I have to go warn your father.”
Nick scowled. “I don’t understand.”
“And I don’t have time to explain,” he growled. “Nekoda! Come, sit on Nick until I return.”
She flashed into the room beside Nick. “I won’t go anywhere.”
“I’ll be back.” Caleb vanished.
Nick wasn’t sure he liked this at all. “What’s going on?” he asked, hoping she’d be more forthcoming than Caleb.
“I’m not sure. There’s something probing your perimeter.”
Lovely. Just what he needed. More demons who wanted him dead. “Who is Noir, by the way?”
For once she actually answered his question. “One of the six primal gods. And he’s the one who owns the Malachai.”
Now he fully understood the bone-deep chill. His master was trying to summon him home. “Why hasn’t one of you told me this before now?”
“We were hoping we wouldn’t have to. That we could keep you protected from him.”
“Why?”
“Because you and your father are what fuel him. He gets the majority of his power from the Malachai. Every time you think of him or say his name, you give him a charge. Do you understand?”
Yeah, he did and he hated it. “Even if I’m sleeping and I dream of him, I can charge him?”
“Even if you’re sleeping. That’s why we didn’t tell you. And why scare you when there’s nothing you can do about it anyway?”
For a full minute, he hyperventilated over the thought of being dragged into a hell realm and kept there like a pet. “Where is this … primal god?”
“At the moment, trapped in what’s called the Nether Realm, or more correctly Azmodea.”
The place Ambrose had told him not to go to. “How did he get trapped there?”
“Your father escaped him. And through his demons, Noir has been pursuing him ever since the moment he broke free. But for all of his other faults, Adarian is extremely crafty and has managed to avoid capture. Definitely not an easy thing to do.”
“So the war with the Malachai and Sephiroth—”
“Sephirii. Sephiroth is singular. Malachai is plural too.”
“So I would be correctly called a Malachoth?”
She snorted. “No. You’re always
the
Malachai, because unlike the Sephiroth, you are an amalgamation of evil. The sum of it all as it were, which is why your name always takes the plural form.”
Wonderful. He was the son of all evil. Just what a guy wanted to hear.
‘Hey, kid? You have pimples. Hair in uncomfortable places. Strange body odors you never had before. A body growing so fast it leaves you completely uncoordinated. You’re socially awkward.
‘And if that’s not enough fun for you, you’re going to morph into the evil Power Ranger and destroy the world.’
Nice.…
“You really know how to cheer a brother up, girl. Thanks. I always wanted to be called the sum of all evil. Makes me so proud I got up this morning.”
Kody shrugged. “Sorry.”
“So tell me more about he who can’t be mentioned by me.”
She sat down on the edge of his bed and he did his best not to let that take his mind to places that could only get him into some real normal boy trouble for once.
No female other than his mom had ever been near his bed before.
Down, boy.
This wasn’t the time to be thinking about
that.
Yeah, but you have a really hot woman on your mattress.…
And that just didn’t happen to him every day. Demon attacks, yes. Daily humiliation? Double check.
Hot babe on bed?
Never.
Unaware of the havoc she caused him, she toyed with the fringe on his blanket. “It’s really complicated, Nick.” She bit her lip, which really didn’t help the heat in his blood. “At one time, there were six gods who had dominion over the elements of the earth. Three who embodied the positive elements and three who were the negative. On the positive side—Verlyn, who was in charge of vegetation and fertility. He was an earth god and he fed everyone. Cam was the goddess of white and gold. The sun goddess. Her gift was love and light. Then there was Rezar. So beautiful that no one could even look at him without being filled with such lust it would cause them to spontaneously combust. He was the god of fire and passion. Those three were the divine guardians of humanity and the ones who created the Chthonians … beings taken from all sentient life forms on earth. The Chthonians were charged with making sure that none of the gods abused their power.”
“Kind of like a divine police force?”
Kody nodded. “And in all things, there is perfect balance. The gods of negativity are Braith who is essentially a war goddess. Though her color is gray, she is not ambivalent about her place in the dark order. She stands firmly with Noir and Azura against the light gods. She’s the goddess of metals, and was the one who taught mankind how to forge weapons out of the earth’s raw materials so that they could fight each other. Azura is the goddess of water. Seemingly harmless, she lures you in and then drowns you horribly. And lastly…”
“He whose name I cannot say or think.”
She nodded. “ Noir is all things dark and deadly. And the way the story goes, the gods of light, after Braith had taught mankind how to fight and they saw what the future would hold for man and the other sentient creatures, got together and created the Sephirii. They were to be the protectors of man and the consorts of the primal gods.”
Now that was an interesting word. Did she mean what he thought she meant? “Consorts?”
“Lovers.”
Yes, she did. Nick sputtered indignantly. “Ah now, that ain’t right. Why couldn’t I be one of
them
?” He’d much rather be a divine consort than the instrument of all evil. Definitely sounded like more fun.