“How so?”
The man held his hand up and a bal of light appeared in his palm where it danced and flickered in the darkness. His face grim, he closed his hand and the light vanished. “You have no idea how important you are. How many powers and creatures wil be fighting over you. But trust me, kid, the only one who real y cares about you, besides your mother, is me.” Nick wasn’t so sure about that. “And you are?”
“Your uncle Ambrose.”
Yeah, right. “I don’t have an uncle.”
“Of course you do, Nick. You’re even named after me.” He shook his head. He was named after his father and grandfather—at least that’s what he’d always been told. “My mom never mentioned you.”
“Because I’m from your father’s side and she doesn’t real y know about me. But that doesn’t matter. My goal is to keep you from making some real y bad mistakes.”
“Such as what? Talking to you?”
Ambrose laughed. “The world is not what you see, kid.
There’s a veil over everything and it’s blinding you the way it blinds most people.” He brushed the hair back from Nick’s eyes, and the moment he did, a jolt went through him. “That is perspicacity. The ability to see what’s hidden. My gift to you even though you’ve already had a taste of it. Now it’s more honed and reliable. I don’t want anyone fooling you again.” Nick staggered back as he saw Ambrose not as a man, but as …
Something else.
His skin was mottled black and red. His eyes bright yel ow.
Ambrose wasn’t human and that terrified him.
“What are you?”
“Your friend. Always. I’m the only being you’l ever be able to trust.”
Bul crap. The only person he could ful y trust was himself.
Words were easy and actions often lethal. Nick wasn’t dumb enough to think for one minute that this guy was on the level.
“Dude, I don’t know you and I’m not about to trust you.”
“You know me much better than you think. Look inside yourself and you’l know I’m tel ing you the truth.” Nick looked and what he saw there made his blood run cold. He refused to believe it.
Unable to stand it, he started to run, but couldn’t. It was like an unseen power held him prisoner.
“I know you don’t trust me. I don’t blame you. But you wil learn to listen in time. I’ve unlocked your powers early this time around—for your protection.”
Ambrose was whacked. There was no other explanation.
“What powers? Are you high?” Nick asked him.
A wicked smile curled his lips, showing him a set of fangs.
“No. But you must keep what I’m going to teach you quiet. Let no one, especial y not Acheron, know.”
“How do you know about Acheron?”
“Oh … it’s not time for you to understand that yet. But my tampering isn’t without problems. Those mortents who attacked you a moment ago are just a few such byproducts.
Don’t worry though. You’l have the ability to battle them and you’l grow stronger every time they attack you. I haven’t left you defenseless in this.”
“Look,” Nick interrupted him. “I don’t know what you’ve been sniffing …” He tried to move past, but Ambrose stopped him.
“I’m on your side, Nick. You don’t have many friends, and even fewer you can trust.”
“Like Nekoda?” He didn’t know why her name popped into his head. But it did. Along with an image of her smiling face.
Bonus round was the look of shock on Ambrose’s face.
“Nekoda?”
Yeah, he wasn’t as smart as he thought, and that gave Nick a new confidence that Ambrose might stil be lying. “You don’t know her?”
Ambrose tilted his head as if he was trying to listen to the cosmos. “How can you know someone I don’t?”
“Probably easy since I don’t know you at al .” He shook his head. “Something’s not right. … This isn’t possible.” He vanished into nothing.
Nick looked around, turning in a smal circle. There was no sign of anything.
I’ve lost my mind.
Perhaps, but his arm was stil working and he felt no pain.
Then as easy as it’d come over him, the power vaporized. It flooded out of him and left every part of his body aching. The pain of his shoulder drove him to his knees. Wave after wave of agony cascaded over him until it dul ed his vision.
One minute he was standing. The next, the street rose up to knock him down. And the last thing he heard was a deep female voice.
“You belong to us, Nick Gautier. And you will learn your place or we will see you dead. . . .”
CHAPTER 11
The raven left Nick and flew up to the sky, then vanished as it was summoned away from New Orleans. When it reappeared, it wasn’t in the Quarter where it preferred to feed.
It was miles away, flying over a razor-wire fence.
And because he was summoned here so often, the bird was as familiar with Angola prison as any of the inmates.