“I wil obey you … master.” That title stuck deep in his craw.
Adarian smiled. “Good boy. And remember, my son must be evil to the marrow of his bones. You have to turn him. No matter what it takes. Do you hear me?”
“What if the only way I can turn him is to kil the mother?” Adarian seized his throat again. “You touch one hair on her head … you al ow anyone else to, and I wil make you pay in ways you can’t imagine in your wildest nightmares. Cherise is mine and no one else is to ever lay a hand on her.” That was the one order Caleb couldn’t understand. Again, he would attribute it to love, but there was no way the Malachai could love anything except himself and his quest for power.
Bowing low, he backed away from Adarian.
Caleb had to force himself not to sneer as he retook his raven form and flew through the wal . But once he was out of sight, he used his talons to flip off the demon lord.
Protect the boy, my arse.
What irony, real y. The fate of the entire world, of humanity and demonkyn, was in the hands of a fourteen–year-old boy who had no idea of the untapped powers he’d been born with.
A fourteen-year-old boy whose biggest fear was getting grounded by a mother who wouldn’t even be a decent snack for Caleb and his kith. What a waste of power.
And I’m the schmuck who has to protect him.
Not just from the demons, but also from the werewolves like Stone, and others who had a natural inclination to pick on Nick because they could sense that he wasn’t quite human.
Caleb let out a tired breath. Would his indignities never cease?
CHAPTER 12
Hel o? Mr. Human Boy Person? Can you hear the Simi? Or are you dead? Hel o?”
Nick came awake to someone poking a hole in his upper arm with her fingertip. “Ow! Would you stop poking on me?” He opened his eyes to find one of the prettiest girls he’d ever seen leaning over him.
Dang . . .
Teach me to be rude before I find out who’s assaulting me.
’ Cause this girl was f-i-n-e and he was more than wil ing to be her victim any time she wanted to invade his personal space, even if it was with nothing more than her fingertip.
Her long black hair hung in pigtails and was streaked with bloodred. She had on a studded leather choker that matched the black leather corset she wore. Probably around the age of seventeen or eighteen, she had a pair of red eyes (must be some of those weird contacts) that were ringed with black eyeliner. Her lips were also bright red, like her fingernails. And her features were absolutely perfect. Dressed in a real y short black and red skirt, she had purple leggings and a pair of bright red Doc Martens that were accented with a skul -and-rose motif.
She cocked her head in a gesture that reminded him of a bird as she eyed him with consternation. “Why you sleeping on the ground out here, Mr. Boy Human? The Simi don’t think this is a safe thing to do. Comfortable either. Someone might think you dead and steal something or they could kil you.
Maybe not if they think you dead already, but then again, people do weird things al the time—like kil ing dead people even though they’re dead. Is that overkil or is that just dumb?
Never mind. So you should probably get up soon and not sleep here. Did you lose your bed? Or are you one of them special people who don’t have a bed but sleep outside instead? Some of them can be real nice. Some even offer the Simi drinks, but akri says I can’t have any ’cause it’l give me indigestion. Not like rubber does, but worse. So says akri.” She had a strange singsongy voice that was endearing and adorable.
But it made understanding her a little difficult, especial y with the headache he had.
“What?” Nick asked.
She let out a long-suffering sigh. “You one of them humans can’t fol ow Simi speak. That’s okay. This why the Simi don’t bother talking to most humans ’cause, no offense, you al weird. Some of you even stupid. Real stupid. Like stump stupid. It’s the lack of hornays, I say. See, only real y smart creatures have hornays … except for them moo moo cows
—they not bright. But akri says there’s always an exception to every rule. So they would be the exception to the hornay one.
But they taste real y good so the Simi wil forgive them for bringing down her bel curve of superior intel ect over al the other nonhorned subspecies.”
She narrowed her eyes on his head. “Hmmm, I bet you’d be real y cute with hornays. Not that you’re not cute right now, but you’re a bit young. You’re only what? Four in human years? Oh wait, that’s wrong, isn’t it? You ninety?” Was she serious? “Fourteen.”
“Oh.” She put the tip of her finger to her lips as she considered something. “I wouldn’t have guessed that. Stil , you’re young. So can the Simi help you find a place to sleep that’s not dangerous? My akri can help if we need him to. He always does.”