Infamous (19 page)

“You could even be possessed,” Asmodeus said with a hopeful note in his voice.

Thorn cast an evil glare at him and he literally retreated two steps.

“Well, he could,” Asmodeus murmured.

Nick gave Thorn a droll stare. “Have no fear about the drinking and drugs, waking up in my own urine and vomit, or freaking out from a psychotic episode doesn’t appeal to me in the least. Have no plans to do either, and I still don’t know
what
you are.”

Thorn’s features hardened. “Forget Ambrose,
I’m
the person
you
don’t want to become. If you want some free advice, and I know everyone does,” he said sarcastically, “stop caring about anyone but yourself. So long as you care more for someone else than you do yourself, you’re screwed. You’ll never stand tall and you’ll always have a weakness that will stop you dead in your tracks and bring you to your knees.” He leaned forward until their noses almost touched. “Always put yourself first, kid. With all the regrets I have, and believe me, I have many, that’s my biggest one. The dumbest mistakes of your life will all come from the choices you make, trying to protect what you love.”

“Wow. Thank you, Mr. Sunshine,” Nick said with feigned enthusiasm. That was the complete opposite advice of his mother, who believed you couldn’t live happily unless you cared about someone. To her, that was the point of life. Making connections. Valuing someone else above yourself.
Without that, Nicky, we’re just meat sacks waiting to be free of the misery of our lives. You’ll never know true happiness until you find that small handful of people you’d die to protect.

Nick clapped Thorn on the back. “I’m so glad you came out with your sunny disposition and thoughts to cheer me up, ’cause I just didn’t feel crappy enough today. Thank you, Mr. Sun Meister, Meister Sun.”

Thorn rolled his eyes. “Don’t listen to me. Fine. Whatever. I didn’t listen either, and you see what lush and lovely housing it got me.” He gestured toward the sinister hole they were in. “Talk about sunshine … we don’t get, well, any here. And it never fails to amaze me how you can explain everything to someone, right down to the smallest detail. You show them
exactly
what not to do in order to be happy or successful, and still they don’t do it. They don’t listen. They come up with more excuses than a felon in prison. Fascinating … Disgusting, but fascinating. You can lead a demon to water, but you can’t force it to bathe.”

Sighing, Thorn glanced around the room, then back to Nick. “And right now, we have to get you out of here before someone else, who is not a good friend of yours or mine, senses you.” He cut a pointed stare to Asmodeus. “And no one is going to tell anyone or anything on the other side of that magic wall that you were here, either. Not unless they want to see the truly ugly side of my temper.”

Asmodeus gulped audibly.

Nick was about to speak when something slammed against the door. Hard. And from the deep sound of it, it was large.

And most likely, ugly.

“And look, lucky us, they’re here.” Thorn said something else in a growl that might have been a curse, but the language he used was so strange that Nick couldn’t be sure.

In the flash of a nanosecond, Thorn was covered in scaly armor that had spikes protruding from his shoulders and elbows. He glanced at Nick. “You’ve no real powers, do you?”

“Oh
contraire, mon frère
. I’m able to annoy all adults in ten syllables or less. Sometimes, I don’t even have to speak at all. I just walk into the room and it rankles them.”

“I can see that,” Thorn said drily.

Nick tensed as armor appeared on his body, too. “What’s this?”

“In the event they get past me and Asmodeus, who is going to fight with me or find himself disemboweled at my feet, let’s hope that keeps them from dragging you off to somewhere you don’t want to go.”

Before Nick could ask him to elaborate, the door burst open.

Thorn let fly a ball of fire into the chest of a tall, black blob. Asmodeus moved to stand in front of Nick and behind Thorn.

Asmodeus flashed a grin at Nick over his shoulder. “Let’s hope they don’t make it through the big guy, huh?”

“Where’s Adarian?” the blob hissed.

With both of his hands on fire, literally, Thorn stood at the ready, but he didn’t launch his fire at the beast. “You missed him.”

“I smell him. He’s here.”

Thorn’s hands flared brighter. “Do you see him anywhere? Now get out before I decide to answer this attack with one of my own.”

“I smell him,” it insisted. It sniffed the air like a bloodhound. Then it froze and turned its black eyes to Nick. “It’s you!” As he started to rush forward, he burst into flames.

Shrieking, it hit the ground and became a dark stain at Thorn’s feet.

By the look on Thorn’s face and the way he immediately went into warrior death match stance with both hands throbbing fire, it was obvious he wasn’t the one who’d caused the demon’s spontaneous combustion.

Out of the burning remains of the demon rose a glistening, translucent shadow. It grew larger and turned denser until it formed the shape of a man. Muscular and fierce, he had dark brown dreadlocks. His locks were shorter than Wren’s, and much more attractive—probably because, unlike Wren, he wasn’t completely antisocial. He actually styled his locks. And his goatee was every bit as perfect. He had sharp, angular features, most of which were covered by a pair of opaque black aviator sunglasses. Dressed all in black, he was even more frightening than the demon he’d killed.

But the oddest part about his appearance was what flashed through Nick’s mind when he looked at the newcomer. He saw him on a black horse in greenish-silver armor that flickered like a living creature. The man held a blood-soaked banner as he gleefully spread out his arm and sent misery to everyone, everywhere he rode.

What the.…

“Bane,” Thorn said in greeting, relaxing only a tiny degree. And as he did so, the fire on his hands turned down to a low, simmering flame. “To what do I owe the honor?”

Bane wiped his biker boots on the smoldering remains of the demon he’d killed. “I smelled a Fringe Guard and wondered what he was doing here, since this is not their domain.” He turned his head in Nick’s direction and quirked a sinister smile. “Now, I understand completely. So this is the baby Malachai Grim’s been teaching. Interesting…”

Nick looked to Thorn to see if this was friend or foe. From Thorn’s reaction-

He could tell absolutely nothing.

Until the fire on his hands finally went out. He gestured from Bane to Nick. “Nick, meet Bane.”

Interesting name. “Bane?” Nick asked. “What? Did your parents not like you?”

Bane let out an evil laugh. “Not really. But that’s all right. It meant that I didn’t have to worry about mourning them after I killed them.”

There technically wasn’t anything threatening in that, and yet …

Bane was not someone you wanted to meet late at night. Especially not when you were alone.

And unarmed.

Take that back, Nick wouldn’t want to meet him in a full suit of Kevlar wrapped in C-4 with a grenade launcher over his shoulder. Even with all that protection on your body, Bane would still be terrifying.

Asmodeus vanished from in front of him, only to reappear by Nick’s side so that he could whisper in his ear. “Bane is a good friend of Grim’s.”

Nick hesitated as his earlier vision of Bane and this latest tidbit came together and forced a realization on him that he didn’t want to have.

No. It wasn’t possible.

Was it?

Nick cleared his throat. “For the record, you’re not…”

A slow, taunting smile curved the right side of Bane’s mouth. “One of the Four Riders of the Apocalypse? Yes, Nick, I am.”

Stunned to the core of his being, Nick could barely accept that. Strange, right? He could handle his boss being an ancient Greek general. Acheron being an eleven-thousand-year-old whatever, and all the rest of the paranormal crap he stewed in.

But this …

It seemed truly impossible
. After all you’ve been through, you’re really going to doubt
this
?

Yeah, he’d seen that episode of
X-Files
a few times too many, and while he wanted to deny Bane’s words all day long and into the next millennia, he couldn’t.

Scarily enough, it all made sense.

Nick raked a curious frown over Bane. From the tip of his biker boots to the top of his dreads. Aside from the obvious Faith No More wardrobe rip-off … “You look so … normal. Man, would my priest be disappointed.” Father Jeffrey expected the Riders in flowing robes like they had been depicted in some of the Tarot decks Nick had seen the psychics using outside the Cathedral in Jackson Square.

Bane wasn’t amused. “I now understand Grim’s need to pull the heart out of you. And here I just thought it was Grim. Nope. You really are that annoying.”

Nick arched a brow. “And this explains what Grim meant when he said anytime he got together with his friends, it didn’t go so well for humanity. You guys are … bad for crops.”

Bane took it in stride and returned with a counter. “The same could be said for
you
and
your
friends.”

Maybe.

Well, then again, whenever Bubba and Mark got together, it did tend to go nuclear. As much as he hated admitting it, Pestilence had a point.

Thorn returned to wearing his posh navy suit. “So Bane, why are
you
here?”

“Same reason everyone will be converging on you soon, and it’s not for your gory hospitality. The Malachai is back in Azmodea. People tend to notice.”

Thorn welcomed that news as much as Nick did. “We’ve got to shield him.”

Bane snorted. “Good luck with that.”

Thorn crossed his arms over his chest. “No, not luck, Bane.
We’re
going to shield him.”

Bane shook his head in denial. “That’s not
my
agenda.”

“Is today, buddy,” Thorn said with a wry grin, “unless you’re tired of breathing. I do know a few people who’d be willing to replace you on the cosmic food chain.”

Bane let out a long suffering sigh. “I don’t understand you. Why are you fighting for the worms?”

Thorn shrugged. “Because some of us believe in doing the right thing even when we shouldn’t. And you’re going to do the right thing where Nick is concerned because I have your number, and I’m not afraid to dial it.”

Bane’s eyes glowed a wicked, fluorescent green. “I hate you, Thorn.”

“Feeling’s mutual, Bane. Now, man the perimeter and shield the Malachai.”

Grumbling, Bane stepped over the still smoldering remains of the demon. “You owe me, Leucious.”

“Pestilence, Pestilence, Pestilence … I’ve already paid you back. You’re walking out my door. And in one piece, no less. Will my mercy ever have limitations?”

Flipping him off over his shoulder, Bane left them.

Thorn sobered the minute he was gone, and turned to face Nick. “You want to know what I am, Nick? I’m a creature like you. Conceived for only one purpose—to be a tool for evil.”

Yeah, okay … No news to him there. Thorn didn’t exactly hide that fact. Rather he embraced his role with both arms and a mighty hug. “Isn’t that what you are?”

Thorn laughed. “I can see why you’d think that. But no. I am my own man. No one tells me who I am or how to behave. Who to kill and when. Or how. I define myself. Not my birthright or supposed written destiny. Definitely not my biological donors. I, alone, control me.”

Strange as it was, Nick took comfort in those words. “So I don’t have to become the Malachai?”

“No. That’s not what I’m saying. You
are
the Malachai. Just as you’re part human. Nothing will ever change that. But, you don’t have to let that birthright consume or define you. It’s hard to fight against your nature. Like an addiction, only this one is genetic and hardwired into your DNA. That impulse to harm rides you with spurs. Eats you alive. But you can’t let it win. You have to remember that the evil part serves you as much as the good part does. There’s a time for peace and a time for war, and sometimes you have to embrace them both. Most of all, you have to control them.”

“Can you teach me?”

Thorn shook his head. “Only
you
can walk in your shoes, my friend. And I’m certainly not the voice in your head you want to listen to. I literally have destroyed everything I ever loved, either on purpose or by total accident. Believe me when I say that second chances are even more rare than finding true love. If you ever get one, don’t squander it, kid.”

Those words haunted him. “You know about Ambrose?”

Thorn’s eyes glowed the same bright green that Bane’s had done. “Have you ever heard the term ‘Metaverse’?”

“Yeah, contrary to my mother’s most highly held belief, I really do things other than play video games and text my friends. I know about alternate universes.”

Thorn inclined his head to him. There was a note of respect in his eyes. “Then you know that simultaneously, every outcome of everyone’s life is constantly in motion. One in each of the universes. Nicks
infinitas
. And yet, here we are in this life.”

Yeah, but one thing he’d never been able to figure out … “How do we know that
this
is the right existence? How do I know one of the other universes isn’t the one I should be living in?”

Thorn gave a low laugh. “How do we, indeed? That is
the
question. Who’s to say if this is the right life or not? And while I have an answer, you don’t need it, other than for me to mention that this is the only version of
you
and Ambrose that
you
know. In order to save
you,
Ambrose has bent the fabric that none of us are allowed to touch. He has breached this existence and is trying to gain access to the outcome that was achieved in an alternate universe and by another Nick, and make it happen here. The problem with that is—”

“You can’t have the same outcome in two different dimensions.”

“Exactly. Each one
must
play out as a different dance. In quantum mechanics, it’s termed the uncertainty Principle, which says that the more you know about the position of one matter, the less you can control, determine, or know about the momentum of the other. When Ambrose came back and began interfering with the timeline of this universe, he created a buckle or bridge between the planes of existence. Things are now coming into this universe that weren’t here before. Things he can neither control, nor see the potential problems it’ll cause you both down the road. You see what I’m saying?”