Sherrilyn Kenyon - Infamous

Life or death?

Slavery or freedom?

Kody came awake in the softest bed she’d ever been in. Panic tore her apart as she remembered what had happened. She’d gone after Nick to protect him and had been stabbed by his father.

The last thing she remembered was Nick in his demon’s form. The form that kept him from feeling anything for anyone. Yet the fierce Ambrosius Malachai had been crying as he held her and begged her not to die.

Noir …

He’d offered Nick a bargain for her life.

“Oh Nick,” she whispered. Please tell me you didn’t.

Glancing around the room, she frowned. She lay on an old-fashioned Rice bed. The hand-carved testers rose almost the whole way to the ornate ceiling that formed a dome over her. The lower part of the tray was painted sky blue with clouds. In the high arch overhead, someone had painted it to look like an ancient temple. Her heavy down cover was a deep, rich navy laced with gold and burgundy threads.

She sat up, then immediately wished she hadn’t as a wave of nausea and pain hit her. It was only then she saw that she was wearing a white flannel nightgown. Warm and toasty, granted, but …

This was starting to freak her out. Who had removed her clothes? What had happened to her?

Where was she? She knew she wasn’t dead. Somehow she’d returned to the human realm. But how?

Looking inside her gown, she saw the jagged scar where she’d been stabbed. All right, their fight in the Fringe Realm hadn’t been a dream.…

And now she was starting to get angry. Who had dared to touch her while she’d been unconscious?

What had happened to Nick? And most important, where was Nick now?

“So you’re back among the living.”

She lifted her head out of her gown to find Caleb standing in the doorway. He had his dark hair brushed back from his face, which only emphasized how handsome a man he was.

If he just didn’t have that little demon infestation problem …

“I’m at your house?” she asked.

“You don’t have to sound so offended. I do have people clean it, you know?”

“Sorry.” She sighed wearily. “You have no idea how confusing it is to wake up in a strange place with no idea how you got there.”

Caleb laughed. “Sure I do. Happens to me frequently.”

She rolled her eyes at his frightening lifestyle. “Yes, but I woke up in this bed alone.”

He sucked his breath in sharply. “Low blow, Kode.”

Maybe, but … “Are you going to tell me how I got here and who undressed me?”

He held his hands up in surrender. “That be your boy, not me. You want to bitch-slap somebody, I’ll fetch Nick. He’s the one who brought you here.”

That concerned her even more. “Did he say anything to you about what happened?”

“Only that you two were attacked, and you went down. He needed someplace safe to put you until you could heal. We both decided taking you to his place would be a huge mistake. His mom would ground him until retirement if he did that, not to mention, she’d want to know how you got stabbed, and why you both weren’t in the hospital.

True. On all accounts.

And none of this was allaying her fears. She should be dead. How had he saved her?

Not one of the possibilities appealed to her. They all ended with Nick doing himself harm.

“Where is he now?”

Caleb checked his watch. “As of an hour ago, Sanctuary. He and his mom should be heading over to school in a few, for parent-teacher conferences.” He dropped his arm and narrowed his gaze at her. “You’re making me nervous with the intensity of your interrogation. What do you know that I don’t?”

“Noir offered him a bargain. We need to know if he took it.”

Caleb went white as a sheet before he started cursing under his breath. “He seemed like normal Nick to me when I saw him. But now you have me worried, too. That boy finds more trouble…”

She wouldn’t argue that. Much like Bubba and Mark, you couldn’t leave Nick alone for five minutes that he wasn’t getting into something he shouldn’t. Or that something wasn’t trying to eat him. Either way, watching his back was a full-time job.

She let out a long breath. “How long have I been out?”

“Almost four days.”

She cringed in reaction. Four days? Really? “Are you serious?”

“Why would I joke about that?”

“I don’t know. You’re a daeva. Some of you can be really twisted.”

“I’ll remind you of that the next time you need someone to save your sorry butt.”

She ignored his threat. He’d come when she called. He was terribly dependable that way. “So what all have I missed?”

“Main thing. School was canceled today, and no,” he added quickly, “I didn’t set anything on fire to cause it. It’s that stupid Web site that we’re still trying to locate. The owner has people going at each other like animals. There were eight fights before yesterday’s homeroom alone. So Head has called meetings between faculty, students, and parents in an effort to allay parental fears and to find the party responsible … which makes me really glad I’m not Goth or Emo.”

Weird segue that she definitely didn’t take with him. “Why?”

He made a sound of disgust. “Who do you think they’re targeting? Head is convinced it has to be ‘one of those weirdo, depressed kids,’ ’cause you know, they’re all cutters and social rejects.”

Of course they were. “He doesn’t have a clue about his students, does he?”

“Nope. Even if you bought him one, I doubt he’d understand it. But given his attitude, I’d love to introduce him to Acheron and watch his head explode.”

She gave a short laugh. Yeah, Ash would definitely throw his preconceived stereotype out the window.

“Give me a couple of minutes to get dressed. Then we need to go find Nick.”

Nick sighed in frustration as they sat outside the office, waiting for the secretary to make a copy of his transcript for his mother’s records. He was thinking the woman must have taken the long way to the copy machine, including a scenic route through Europe.

He had way too much to do to be stuck here.…

But at least Kyrian was coming to pick him up. After he’d been attacked, neither Kyrian nor his mom would let him near a door to the outside after dark.

Impatient to leave, he stood up and started pacing the small walk area in the center of the waiting room. He wanted to rant over the secretary being part snail, but he knew his mom wouldn’t tolerate it.

Everyone deserves your respect, Nick. Especially those who are doing work for you and making your life easier. God bless them for it.

Yeah, she didn’t have a sense of humor when anyone showed impatience with a worker.

“Oh hey, that’s Nick! Nick!”

He turned to see Jill in the hallway with her brother and two older people who seemed vaguely familiar to him. Since they looked too old to be Jill and Joey’s parents, he assumed they must be the tuition donors.

Jill came rushing over to hug him.

Awkward. Why did some girls do that? He didn’t like to be touched much anyway. Unless it was Kody.

This … this was intrusive.

Help me.

She squeezed his arm as she made him walk toward the door. “Nick, you have to meet our sponsors.” She smiled at them. “This is the Nick I was telling you about who has the same last name you do.”

“Ah.” The man held his hand out to Nick. He seemed decent enough. His graying hair appeared to have been brown in his youth. Dressed in a nice brown sweater and khakis, he oozed an aura of Garden District or Kenner old money. As did his accent and diction. “It’s a pleasure to meet another Gautier. I know Jill thinks the world of you. It’s Nick this and Nick that, all the time.”