Sherrilyn Kenyon - Illusion

Selena burst out laughing then sobered. “Wait a minute … you’re really not lying. You believe everything you just said to me.”

“It’s the truth … at least it is where I come from.”

She reached out and cupped his cheek before she pulled him against her and held him close. Nick wasn’t sure why she was sexually harassing him, but he didn’t fight her hug. Instead, he held his breath, praying she believed him.

After several really long, uncomfortable minutes, she let him go. Stroking his cheek in a motherly fashion, she nodded. “All right. We need to find out about your home and see about returning you to it.”

Really? That was it? He’d expected a little more fanfare or argument. “You believe me?”

She shrugged. “Honestly? I’m not sure. But you’re either one heck of a stalker to know all those names of my family members or … Tell you what, let me drop my stuff off with my friend who has a stand in the Square that’s right beside mine. Walk with me and—”

Nick interrupted her as everything fell into place for him. “You’re Madame Selene, aren’t you? I’ve seen your stand a million times as I walked past it in the Square, but I never realized you were Tabitha’s sister Selena.” Partly because he never really looked at any of the psychics there.

As far back as he could remember, his mother had always been adamantly opposed to them as fakes and frauds, and since he’d learned what he really was, he’d been too afraid to go near them in case they weren’t all charlatans. With the paranormal price on his head, it paid to be cautious. Last thing he needed was a psychic trying to collect his bounty like everyone else.

Or worse, his Malachai powers.

But this one … her elaborate stand was hard to miss, even from a distance. “You’re the psychic who has the card table right outside the Visitor’s Center next to that artist woman who has all those pastels of landmarks … Sunshine Artworks.”

She appeared impressed. “Who’s your mama, boy?”

“Cherise Gautier.” He smacked himself on the forehead as he remembered she was different now. “In my time. Here, she’s Cherise Burdette née Gautier.”

Gaping, Selena laughed. “Triple Threat Burdette? The huge football player’s wife?”

Triple Threat … yeah, that definitely described the man Nick knew so well. Much more apropos than the Triple B Bubba used in his realm. “You know Bubba?”

“I know Cherise and Michael both. Cherise and I used to work at the Café Pontalba together when we were in college. It’s how they met. Michael was in town for a game. But I haven’t talked to her in years.”

“Yeah, well, I talked to her this morning, and if she hears one word of this, she’ll have me committed.”

Selena laughed. “Boy, any sane person would have you committed. You’re so lucky I’m nuts and that I accept the impossible as everyday fact.” She looped her arm through his and pulled him in the direction of the streetcar.

As they walked, there was something about her that confused him even more than waking up in this bizarre place. “Why are you exactly the same when no one else is?”

“I wouldn’t say no one . Tabitha doesn’t sound like she’s all that different. Tiyana, either. My theory would be that some of us are just too dang stubborn to be anyone else. Our personalities are so strong or intense that no matter where you put us, we’d still be us. Or you could say that the universe wills it so. Does it really matter?”

“Does to me, especially right now.”

“Why?”

“’Cause some of the changes of the people I know don’t make any kind of sense, especially given what you just said. Trust me, no one has a stronger personality than they do.” He stopped short of mentioning that Caleb and Simi were demons in his world or that Acheron was an immortal … something with a great deal of power. How could they be those things in his world and be typical humans here, while Selena and possibly Tabitha were the same in both places?

Just didn’t make sense to him at all.

Selena patted his arm. “Well, don’t worry about it. We’re going to fix your situation and find out what’s really happening.”

He caught the underlying note in her voice that sent a shiver down his spine. “What do you mean?”

“Well, if you’re here and this isn’t where you’re supposed to be, and yet there was another Nick living here before you arrived, it begs the question of where that other Nick went, doesn’t it?”

Ah, dang. He hadn’t even thought of that. His newly spawned ulcer burned at the mere thought. “Are you telling me there’s some dude in my skin at home?”

“That would be my assumption.”

Great. Just flippin’ great. That was all he needed. Someone else screwing up his screwed-up life. Like he didn’t do that enough on his own. But worse … the other Nick, if he was from this world, wouldn’t know he was part demon, nor would he have the skills to fight those who wanted to enslave him.

Or kill him.

And that was just his mother and girlfriend. Never mind all the real threats to his life.

“You’ve got to get me back there. That Nick … he could mess up everything. Bad bad.”

He could unlock Nick’s Malachai powers and unravel the entire universe.

His gut knotting even harder, he allowed Selena to escort him to her red Mustang, then drive him back to the Quarter. But instead of going to her stand like she’d said, she veered off to the corner of Royal and St. Ann’s, where Erzulie’s Authentic Voodoo was located.

Nick frowned at the pink building that was impossible to miss in both worlds. “Your aunt still owns this?”

Selena parked the car. “Sort of. Tabby and Tia are technically the owners now. They’re making payments to her for it.”

“What about Pandora’s Box?”

She turned off the car and unbuckled her belt. “That hasn’t been part of our family since our aunt was murdered in her store ten years ago.”

Nick let out a sympathetic sigh. “Sorry.”

“Thanks.” She got out.

Before joining her, Nick took a moment to absorb what she’d said and lay it down with what Ambrose had told him about Nick’s future. None of it made sense. Why would some things here be so altered while others weren’t?

Totally twisted.

For now, though, he’d go with it. Not like he had any other choice.

He got out of the car and waited on the curb while Selena locked the doors. As they walked around the corner and neared the shop entrance, a weird sense of déjà vu hit him. Hard.

One of the last things they’d done before he’d been sucked out of his realm was to come here and buy the items Caleb needed for the binding spell they’d used on Nick’s powers.

The minute Nick had entered that store, all heck had broken out into the longest night of his life. Now, it seemed like a lifetime ago.

How could so much happen in such a short span of time? But then that was life.

The hits just keep on coming.…

Selena led the way into the neat pink and purple store that was identical to the one from his world. Right down to the green shutters and dark shelving that held Voodoo dolls, spells, oils, perfumes, soaps, wangas, and all manner of things.

“Hey, Tab!” Selena shouted so loud, it made Nick jump. She frowned at his reaction. “You ought to see a doc about that nervous disorder, buddy. Reflexes like that, you must have been a cat in a former life. Congrats on evolving.”

He didn’t respond as he eyed the large Voodoo altar on his left that had been set up for the goddess Erzulie the store had been named for. Last night, Selena’s aunt had threatened his body parts if he touched it or any of the offerings that lined it and the floor around it.