“About to hurl.”
Madaug jumped back. “Dude, I’m sorry. You contagious? ’Cause if you are, I want it! I have a test next period and I’m not prepared.”
Yeah, right. Madaug was always prepared for tests. Even for the ones they wouldn’t have until the end of the year. Kid was sick that way.
“Trust me, you don’t want any part of this one.”
“Yeah, you do look kind of green and disoriented. I take it that means you’re going to miss band practice after school?”
Nick nodded. “Thanks for reminding me. Can you tell the others?”
“Sure, but Marlon’s going to kill you. He’s been looking forward to it. He has a massive crush on Duff.”
“Sorry. What’s his problem anyway?”
“What? Duff? I don’t know. Distemper. Maybe parvo.”
Nick scowled. “Isn’t that a dog disease?”
“Yes, but I think our resident teen were-panther has it, too. At least he acts like it most days.”
That he did. He took brooding teen male to a whole new level. The entire three years he’d been in school with them, Nick had never heard him say a single word to anyone. “Is he really mute or did he sell his voice to a wizard?”
Madaug laughed. “Neither. The correct term is selective mutism. His is an extreme case of it. Most likely caused by his … you are giving me that look.”
Nick held his hands up. “Dude, it’s a look of awe.”
“Sure it is. And before my social anxiety kicks in, I’m heading back. Hope you get to feeling better. You need me to sacrifice a goat or anything for you?”
Nick feigned a round of really fake laughter at something neither of them found particularly amusing since Madaug was the one Nick had turned into a goat with his powers when Nick had rescued him from the Zombie Hunter demons. “Uh, no. No goats. No more game programming ever, partner.”
“Yeah, lesson learned.” He bro-hugged him, then headed back to class.
Nick shook his head. That boy was going to end up as a leading doctor somewhere.
Or as an evil villain mastermind, leading a horde of henchmen.
Thank goodness he was on their side for the moment.
Suddenly, a huge, dark shadow fell over Nick. He started to scramble away out of reflex until he looked up and realized it was the mountainous muscled mass also known as Big Bubba Burdette.
“Sheez, Bubba! You scared the crap out of me.”
“Boy, you need to lay off the caffeine. You got the reflexes there of a scared Chihuahua.”
Yeah, well, given the fact that all manner of deadly things tended to pop out of the shadows intending to eat him or enslave him, it was little wonder. But he couldn’t tell that to Bubba.
“How you feeling?” Bubba put his hand on Nick’s forehead.
“Pretty awful.”
“You look pale.” Bubba grabbed his backpack. “C’mon, I already signed you out.”
“Thank you, by the way. I really appreciate it.” Nick scowled as he caught a whiff of aftershave and realized that Bubba’s scraggly beard wasn’t so scraggly. He’d trimmed it down to one of those shadowy things that Kody and Brynna giggled about on actors. “Did you shave?”
“Shut up.”
And now that Nick was paying attention, he realized that Bubba wasn’t wearing his usual uniform of bad horror movie T-shirt and ratted-up flannel shirt over it. Instead, he had on a nice button-down and new jeans. The only thing that remained of “old” Bubba was the heavy, steel-toed work boots. “Gah! Bubba! That’s my mama, you know?”
He arched one jet eyebrow at Nick as he gave him a scathing glare that backed him down a notch. While Nick might be the Malachai, Bubba had been a semipro linebacker and was the size of a brick house with the muscle mass of a world-champion weightlifter who could put him through a wall with a single sneeze. Not to mention, he was a raw, bad-ass survivalist who went zombie hunting for fun in gator and demon-infested swamps. “Don’t you even, boy. I asked you before I started going out with her and you said it was all right.”
“I know what I said, but…” Nick shivered. “Can’t I be grossed out?”
Bubba snorted. “Grow up, snot-nose.”
Nick was trying, but it was hard. While he wanted his mom to be happy, he didn’t want to think of her actually dating someone, especially not his best friend and mentor. And the fact that Bubba let his mom call him Michael really screwed with Nick’s head.
Only Bubba’s mama got away with that.
And Cherise Gautier.
As they left the school building and Nick headed home, Bubba stopped him. “I told Cherise I’d take you back to the shop with me so that I could keep an eye on you ’til she gets off work.”
“Oh my God, Bubba! I’m about to turn seventeen. Really?”
Bubba’s blue eyes darkened with tragedy.