Sherrilyn Kenyon - Infamous

“You think I don’t know that little punk? I’ve seen him around the school. He’s been in classes with my daughter for years. And I hope they lock him up for the rest of his life.”

Nick was finally able to move his head enough so that he could see who it was.

Mr. Quattlebaum. Dina’s father. His head swam from pain, but he tried to focus. He needed to think through this. Dina was one of Brynna’s tight friends. He barely knew her. Quiet and shy, she seldom spoke to anyone. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d seen her.

Sirens rang out, drawing closer. Don’t pass out.… Nick kept that thought foremost in his mind. He didn’t want to go back to the Nether Realm. Not right now.

Kyrian left him to open the gate for the ambulance and police.

Nick tried to return Rosa’s rosary. It’d been her First Communion present from her father, who had died of a heart attack not long after he’d given it to her. She counted it among her most precious possessions.

“No, m’ijo . You keep it for now so that God will watch over you. You can return it later.”

As the EMTs started working on him, Nick heard the sound of laughter. Low and coming from the ether. At first, he thought he was crazy.

Until the police handcuffed Dina’s father. The moment they hauled him toward the front of the house, Nick saw a demon shimmer out of Mr. Quattlebaum’s body.

It was a demon he knew.

Where had he seen it? He had to remember, but the pain made it impossible. As he struggled to stay conscious, the ether voices screamed louder.

He saw his classmates as they read the lies and awful truths that had been posted about each other online. For weeks now, Brynna and the other girls had been harassed and accused of all kinds of vice. Fights had broken out constantly, even after the school meetings.

Trexian …

That was the demon he’d seen.

The EMT put an oxygen mask over his face. Nick tried to call out to Caleb or Kody with his thoughts to let them know what he suspected and what had happened. But before he could, the EMTs knocked him out.

Grim sighed as he watched Nick being placed inside an ambulance. Disgusted, he set his crystal ball aside to meet Bane’s dark gaze.

“He’s slipped out of your clutches again, huh?” Bane asked drily.

“Of course he did. I’ve never seen anything like it. He’s worse than a cat.”

Bane glanced to the crystal ball. “He’s not out of danger yet. Could still get a nasty infection in the hospital. Maybe some kind of flesh-eating virus?”

“Don’t tease me, Bane. I wish.” He couldn’t kill Nick. Stupid bargain.

All he could do was continue to hammer Nick’s self-esteem and wear him down until he killed himself. But Nick was stronger than he looked. It was why they couldn’t allow him to mature. Adarian was hard enough to deal with.

Ambrosius …

He would be the most dangerous Malachai ever born.

And Bane was right. Sooner or later, Grim would find the right person to influence. And then Nick would be nothing more than a bad memory.

A slow smile spread across his face as a new plan formed. And he knew just the entity to finish Nick off.

“I know that look. What are you going to do?” Bane asked.

“I’m going to give us the heart of a Malachai.”

Nick opened his eyes, expecting to find himself in the Nether Realm again.

Instead, he was inside a temple with a golden roof that had forest scenes of deer and other animals on it. Sunlight poured in through the white columns.

Am I dead?

“No, you’re not dead.” The heavily accented voice was thick with an accent he knew extremely well. Greek.

Nick turned his head to see a vision in a long white dress that left her right shoulder bare. Her vivid red hair fell all the way down her back in thick, fat curls. Her skin was flawless as a goddess’s should be.

“Artemis? What am I doing here?”

“We made a bargain, did we not?”

“We did.”

“Well then, I can’t have you being fought over by Thorn and Noir, can I?”

He supposed not. “Why am I so sluggish?”

“It’s the drugs they’re giving you. They affect you even in this realm.”

Who knew? Nick tried to sit up, but it was useless.

“Just relax. Rest until you awaken in the human realm.”

Nick nodded and closed his eyes. He saw himself again, summoning Artemis to heal Kody. At the time, he hadn’t been sure it would work. But in addition to being goddess of the hunt, Artemis was also a healer, and a protector of children and women. At least that was what Kyrian had told him.

As a precaution should one of the Daimons or something else try to eat him while Kyrian couldn’t help, he’d given Nick his ring that held Artemis’s symbol. And then Kyrian had told Nick how to use the ring to summon the goddess.

In the beginning of their relationship, Nick had thought Kyrian crazy. But over the last year, he’d learned crazy wasn’t what it used to be. And instead of selling Kyrian’s ring, he’d kept it just in case.

Nick had been willing to give Artemis his soul. Instead, she had only taken some of his blood. But she’d sworn him to absolute secrecy. He couldn’t tell anyone that he’d seen her.

“Why did you agree to help Kody?” he asked.

Artemis shrugged. “She’s a warrior. A huntress of her own. I have a soft knot for such women.”

Nick started to correct her mixed-up idiom, then caught himself. It was never wise to correct a god. “I still don’t understand.”

“It’s not for you to understand. Now rest. Soon you will have a battle to fight and you will need all of your strength.”

He tried to ask her what battle, but he was too weak to even do that. Against his will, he went back to sleep.

When Nick finally came to, he found himself in the ER again. At this point, they should just keep a room reserved for him—or a frequent patient card or something. What the heck? Name the hall after him since he was now on a first-name basis with half the staff.

Kyrian and his mother were there, along with Acheron and Kody.

His mother glared at him. “You are trying to put me in an early grave, aren’t you?”

“Really not.”

“You’re lucky, Nick” Kyrian said. “You have a broken arm, but the rest of it is superficial.”

“Thank the gods you have a hard head,” Acheron added. “I honestly didn’t think you’d make it given what I saw. That man was definitely after your life.”

Even so, Nick felt bad for the man. While he didn’t appreciate the beating, he well understood the man’s motivation. “What about Mr. Quattlebaum?”

Kyrian sighed. “He was arrested for battery.”

“He’s lucky I didn’t get ahold of him,” his mother growled.

“Yeah,” Kyrian agreed. “Come to find out, he’s been stalking you for the last few days, waiting until he could get you alone and attack.”

So Nick hadn’t been imagining that. Someone was watching him. Here Nick had been looking for something paranormal when it’d been a human …

Nick froze as his memory drifted to what he’d seen just before he’d passed out. Quattlebaum hadn’t been alone. He turned his head to meet Kody’s gaze. There’s a Trexian on the loose, he projected his thoughts to her.

She widened her eyes. Are you sure?

He nodded. I think it might be behind all of this.

Trexians were very similar to Ash’s Atlantean goddesses. They thrived on causing turmoil.

It all made sense.

And the only one who could find a Trexian was one of its victims. The earlier the victim, the easier to track it. And Nick had a pretty good idea who the first victim had been.