Sherrilyn Kenyon - Infamous

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.”