“Then you are neighbors,” Kody volunteered. “Nick lives upstairs.”
Before Nick could say anything, a little blond girl around the age of ten came running out of the building. “Nate! I’m starving! I’m going to wither up and die if I don’t eat soon. Did you get food?”
“Oh my God! Yes! I wasn’t gone but a minute. Hold your horses.” He handed one of the bags to her.
Without a word to them, she grabbed it and ran back inside.
Nathan sighed heavily. “My little sister, Elise. She occasionally gets off the chain and blows free. So if you see her running amok, please let one of us know and we’ll round her up. She doesn’t mean any harm. She just has yet to realize not everyone in the world isn’t her best friend. Anyway, I guess I’ll see you two at school tomorrow. Goodnight.”
Kody waited until Nathan had vanished. “You still think he’s not normal?”
“Nah. That seemed pretty standard stuff. Guess I was overreacting to the way he looked at you.”
“You? Overreact? Noooo…”
He rolled his eyes at her sarcasm. “All right. That did not require the mocking tone.” Grinning, he kissed her again. “Miss you already.”
“You, too. Are you sure you’re all right?”
“I will be.”
“Call if you need me.”
Nick gave her one last parting kiss before he reluctantly allowed her to teleport home.
He headed inside the building to find Xev and Zavid waiting for him in their animal forms. “All right, Mr. Fuzzy. You know the drill … no defiling my bedsheets.” He took a moment to pet Zavid’s head. “And it really is good to have you back. Now let’s go see what my mom brought us to eat. I’ll share anything except the Bananas Foster.”
Everything went well until Nick opened the door and his mother saw his latest houseguest.
“What’s that?”
“You know Mr. Fuzzy.”
“Not talking about the cat, Nick. Who’s his friend?”
“Oh … you meant Spot?”
She glared at him. “Nick…”
“Just for a day or two? Please, Ma? He’s Caleb’s. I told him you wouldn’t mind. Besides, I wanted a little company while I recuperated, and I knew you’d object to me bringing Kody home and putting her in my bedroom, even if it was innocent.”
“Now you’re just being sassy.”
“That I am, but I come by it honestly. Learned it straight from my mama.”
She harrumphed as she snuggled deeper under her pink blanket while she watched TV. “You need me to fix you anything?”
“Nah, I’m good. You keep watching your program. I’m just going to head to my room.” He paused next to her. “Did you pass a good time tonight with Bubba?”
A blush crept over her cheeks. “I did.”
“That better not mean it was too good, Maman.”
She laughed at him. “Stop!”
He stooped to kiss her cheek.
At least that was the plan until she waylaid him to check for a fever.
Nick forced himself to endure her fever check. “Told you I was better.”
“Just wanted to make sure.”
“Satisfied?”
She kissed his cheek. “I am. Now go on with you.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
But she didn’t quite release him to his own recognizance. Rather, she caught his hand as he started away and kept him by her side a little longer. “Thank you, by the way.”
“For what?”
“Michael told me what you said about us going out. You’re a good boy, Nicky. Much better than I deserve.”
Nick took a moment to savor the image of her on the couch, knowing she wouldn’t always be there. “That’s not true, but I love you, Mom.”
“Love you, too, Boo.”
Without another word, Nick left her and went to his room where Zavid and Xev were waiting in their human bodies. That wasn’t the shocking part.
No, what floored him was that Zavid was fastened onto Xev’s neck.
Gasping, Nick quickly entered the room and locked the door so that his mother didn’t accidentally stumble onto this and stroke out. “What the devil?”
Zavid pulled away and shrank to the farthest corner of the room as if he expected Nick to beat him.
Xev wiped at the blood on his neck. “Remember when we told you that getting him out and restoring him wouldn’t be that easy?”
“Yeah…”
“Now you know the price of returning him to this realm.”
“And you’re good with this?”
Xev fastened the collar of his shirt and rose with that regal grace that always reminded Nick of the way Acheron moved. Fluid and trained. “Would it matter?”
“I don’t understand.”
“Do you know what a ?arru-Dara really is, Nick?”
“Blood king.”
Xev clenched his teeth before he spoke in a low, emotionless tone. “Blood slave. My blood isn’t just used to seal in Noir and Azura. I was also damned to be used as a food source for a lot of different things.”