The strength to hold his head high no matter what cruelty the world hurled at him. The very things Stone and his ilk lacked.
His enemies weren’t the pathetic buttwipes who mocked and hated him for things he couldn’t help.
His enemies were the ones who told him lies under the guise of being his friends. The ones who wanted him to be like them. To ruin his life and throw away everything he’d worked so hard to become.
He heard the book whispering to him. …
“Arrasee-terra. Gitana mortelay dohn. Erra me tihani vassau. Pur mi.” Let me see truth. Never let flattery or hatred blind me. This is my life and I will live it wisely. For me.
Not for them.
Nick threw his head back as an electric wave ripped through him. It was like a heated wire that connected every cel of his body. For one brief instant, he heard the breath of the cosmos.
“Kil him!” the mortent leader screamed.
Nick felt his arm heal instantly as he threw their sword at them. Pul ing out his own, he made it bigger, then turned and broke the lock on the cage door.
Stone ran out, screaming, leaving the others behind.
“You flippin’ coward.” Nick kicked back the first demon to reach him as he kept them from Tabitha, Erik, Madaug, and his mother.
Ian was crying again as he tried to get his mom to wake up and see him.
Nick drove back the demons, but it didn’t last long. Worse, they used Tabitha, Eric, and Madaug to attack him because they knew he wouldn’t hurt them. Not while they were being used.
I need some way to shock them. . . .
“Where’s a cattle prod when I need one?” There wasn’t even an outlet here. Was it too much to ask for a lightning strike? Yeah, okay, so the sky was clear, but stil …
He cut across the blob demon and spun to fight the woman.
Al of a sudden, he felt his hand heat up as an image of Ambrose and Caleb conjuring fire went through his mind.
If they could conjure fire, could he conjure electricity?
What the heck? Might as wel try. Worst thing that could happen is he’d fail and be kil ed by his friends.
Which was looking like the most favored outcome anyway.
Please let this work.
“Karatei!” He threw his hand out and what appeared to be a bolt of lightning shot from his fingertips to Madaug.
And it turned him into a goat.
Ah, crap.
Madaug ran at him and head-butted him backwards into a demon. Nick shoved the demon away and regained his balance. He glared at the goat as it eyed him. “Dude, I’m trying to help you.”
But the goat didn’t care; he ran at him again.
Trying to avoid a goat butt to his groin, Nick was completely surrounded while Ian kept crying for his mom to wake up. “I wish I could wake up from this nightmare.” Growling, he tried again to blast Madaug with his powers.
The goat squealed and shook.
Oh, please don’t die.
It’d kil Nick to know he’d done that to him.
The goat shuddered, then final y dissolved.
Nick’s stomach hit the floor. Ah, crap. But no sooner had he stepped toward the goat’s remains than it snapped up and Madaug returned to being a teenager.
Relief tore through him that he hadn’t kil ed him. But it was short-lived as the zombies kept coming.
And Madaug was stil one of them.
Worse, undead zombies were fil ing the room, while Tabitha and Eric tried to rip his arm off.
Nick twisted away from them. I’m so dead. . . .
He grabbed Ian’s hand and pul ed him behind his back before Ian’s mom took a chunk out of the poor little guy. “Don’t cry, kid. I’l protect you.”
But who’s going to protect me?
Now would be a good time for these supposed powers I have to kick in and help. Real y … what were they waiting for?
He’d engrave an invitation, but by the time he finished it, he’d be zombie bits. His heart pounded as he realized how hopeless it was. They were growing in number and he was tiring at the same rate. Every time he swung with the sword, it took more out of him, and while they’d stumble back, he wasn’t kil ing any of them. Honestly, he wasn’t even slowing them down.
He was surrounded and they were hungry for what few brain cel s he had left. But you know what? He wasn’t about to give in or give up. If he was going to go out, it would be the way he’d come into this world.
Fighting for every single breath.
No one gets the better of me.
Ever.
Growling out loud, he fought the demons and zombies back with everything he had.
The wal s around him shook and rumbled. Ian hid behind him, knotting his tiny hands in the tail end of Nick’s shirt, as he tried to make it to a window or door so that at least the little guy would survive the night. But he was getting tired. His stamina was lagging.
A crash sounded to his right.
His stomach hit the ground as cold dread fil ed him.
Expecting it to be more zombies, Nick backed away.