Sherrilyn Kenyon - Infamous

“I hope so, Cher. I do.”

Kody started to explain what had happened during the fight, then thought better of it. Since she hadn’t been there for the beating, she couldn’t very well tell any human how she knew so many details about it since she hadn’t arrived until about an hour after it’d taken place.

So she settled for the most obvious explanation to soothe his mother. “It looks like a mugging.”

Cherise’s legs buckled. Caleb moved like lightning to catch her and keep her from hitting the floor. He swung her up in his arms, then carried her to an empty chair so that he could set her down for Menyara’s care.

Menyara sat beside her and took her hand. “It’ll be all right, ma petite. He a strong boy. It’ll take more than a beating to take him away from us. I promise you.”

“I pray you’re right, Mennie,” she sobbed. “Nick’s all I have in this world. If I ever lost him, you’d have to dig two graves. I can’t live without my baby. I can’t.” She broke off into gut wrenching sobs that brought tears to Kody’s eyes.

Trying to catch her breath before she gave into her own fears where Nick was concerned, Kody looked up to see a shadow of fierce pain inside Caleb’s eyes. Something about Cherise’s reaction haunted the demon.

But what? If Caleb had ever possessed a mother, he never spoke of her. Was it possible that he might have been married in the past? Had a family?

Demons mated, too, and some species of them were even more monogamous than humans professed to be.

Caleb’s daeva species was one of the ones most notorious for their loyalty to family ties.

I really don’t know anything more about him than he knows about me. For the first time, her blinders were torn off and she realized that even though the three of them spent so much of their lives together … that as much as they interacted with each other- her, Nick and Caleb- were really nothing more than intimate strangers …

How sad for us that this is what we’re relegated to.

But then how many people lived like that? How many people either were or felt like they were strangers in their own home? Or that no one in their family really knew or understood them?

In so many ways, we are all nothing more than orbiting satellites that occasionally collide with each other whenever our paths overlap . People formed social bonds to keep from feeling so isolated. But in the end, the only constant in any life was its own soul. And even that was transitory.

Souls could be, and were far too often, bought and sold like used shoes in a consignment shop.

And yet when two of those souls slammed into each other hard enough, they could form a single unit so strong that nothing and no one could tear it apart. Those unions were rare and she’d been around long enough to know that for a fact.

But she’d also seen those unbreakable bonds. Like the one Cherise shared with her son. There was no force in existence that could shatter their love and break it apart.

It was a love bond Nekoda had only felt with her brothers and one other person.

Don’t go there.

The pain of their loss was still too great for her to bear. And her nerves were already shot from what had happened to Nick. While their love wasn’t that strong yet, she could feel it growing every day and doubling with every new discovery she made where Nick was concerned.

He was so much more than what he knew. For the first time in centuries, she had hope.

And she owed that to a creature she should hate with every fiber of her being.

Life was so strange. Seldom did it make sense. As her brother would say, ‘ life isn’t a puzzle to be solved. It’s an adventure to be savored. Let every challenge be a new mountain to climb, not an obstacle to get in your way and stop you. Yeah, it’ll be hard, but once you reach the summit of it, you’ll be able to see the world for what it really is. And at the top, it never seems to have been as difficult a feat to climb there as you first made it out to be. Most of all, you’ll know that you beat that mountain, and that you rule it. It does not rule you.’

I miss you, my brother. Even after all these years.

Life had no guarantees, except one. You will never succeed until you try one more time.

Even though her people didn’t believe Nick could be saved, she did. Tonight proved it.

Please be all right, Nicky.

Over the next hour as they waited for an update about Nick’s condition, the room began to fill with people eager to check on him. Wren. Aimee. Dev and his brothers. Jasyn. Mama and Papa Peltier. Talon. Acheron. Kyrian. Rosa and her son Miguel. Brynna and her father. But the one that caught them all off guard was when Bubba and Mark came in with Bubba’s mother.

Without a single hesitation, Dr. Burdette made her way straight to the counter to speak to the staff on duty. “Hey, sweetie,” she said to the triage nurse stationed there. “I’m Dr. Bobbi Jean Burdette from Perry County, Tennessee. And I’m a pediatric surgeon out of Vanderbilt and St. Jude’s. A friend of my son’s was brought in about an hour ago and I wanted to see if there was anything I can do for him.”

“His name?”

“Nicholas Gautier.”

The nurse turned her attention to her computer monitor as she searched for information on Nick.

One of the ER doctors approached Bubba’s mother slowly, as if he couldn’t believe what he saw. “I’m sorry, ma’am. Did I overhear you say that you were Dr. Bobbi Jean Burdette?” The Dr. Bobbie Jean Burdette who performs surgery at both Vandy and St. Judes, and who is a former Executive Board member for the World Health Organization?”

She smiled what had to be the warmest smile Kody had ever seen. “Why, sugar, when you say it like that, I almost sound impressive. That is indeed me. Believe me, no one else in their right mind would take on that much work if they didn’t have to. But that being said, honey, it is some of the most rewarding work you can ever imagine. Ain’t nothing prettier than the smile on a mama’s face when you hand her, her baby and tell her that baby’s going to live when she thought she was going to have pick out funeral clothes for him. Mmm mmm mmm, thank the good Lord that He chose me to have a few abilities to help out some of those in need. I am truly grateful for my many blessings, and for being able to help as many people as I can, as best as I can.”

He held his hand out to her. “It is such an honor to meet you, Doctor. You are a living legend. The things you’ve done for and with the WHO … Wow.” He turned toward the triage nurse who was now paying serious attention to Bubba’s mama. “Stacey? This woman, right here, has gone into some of the most war torn and worst natural disaster areas of the world to do volunteer work to save children’s lives. She’s been one of the first responders to set up clinics everywhere you can think of, including here in our own backyard.” He smiled at Dr. Burdette. I just can’t believe you’re here. In front of me. In New Orleans.”

“Aw now, honey, bless your heart for your kind words. But don’t be blowing sunshine at me and making me out to be more than what I am. You just might blind me and I need my eyes to see clearly. In the end, I ain’t nothing more or less than anybody else here on this earth. You ever want to know my flaws, and believe me, they are many, sit down with my bridge partners and they’ll spend hours enlightening you.” She shook his hand, then clasped it between both of hers. “And it’s a wonderful pleasure to meet you, too…” She glanced down at his name tag. “Dr. Ferguson. And I’d love to chat with you, I really would, but I’m trying to find out information about a patient who was admitted here a little while ago.”