CHAPTER 4
Nick could feel the breath of his son on the back of his neck as his powers weakened and left him feeling drained and helpless. For the first time in his life, he understood his father’s animosity toward him. It was an involuntary survival instinct built in to their Malachai DNA that wanted to destroy anything that threatened them.
It was innate and primal. Terrifying. The fact that his father had gone down protecting him and his mother said a lot for Adarian.
That alone allowed him to finally forgive his father for the sins that had created Nick. Allowed him to let go of the hatred and anger he’d borne for the creature who’d sired him. For the first time ever, he understood his father’s mind set.
And what made his mother such an incredible gift. Even after all the horrors his father had put her through, she’d still been able to find the good in both of them. Rather than hate Nick for the violence of his conception, she’d found a way to see past the horror of it. Never once had she held his father’s acts against him.
You are my most precious baby boy, Nicky-Boo. There’s never anything you could do to make me not love you, through and through. For you are, and will always be, my baby angel.
It was why the thought of her future murder crippled him now and would one day destroy him. She truly saw no evil in this world.
For he was a Malachai born of equal part Mavromino and equal part Kalosum. Like the firstborn, Monakribos, Nick alone shared that unique birthright.
So how then, could he have a son born of such hatred that he could feel it crawling over his skin like a living creature? This amount of venom came straight from the Source. He sensed it as if it were a part of him.
All Malachai were conceived in violence to do violence and to die violently.
Yet Nick knew that he’d never, ever be able to harm another person that way. It just wasn’t in him to act the way his father had.
Never. He knew himself better than that.
Laughter echoed in the aether, in and out and all around as he pushed himself to his feet. Something else sizzled.
He turned a circle in the darkness, seeking some hint of the malevolent child he could feel and not see. Why were they playing this cruel game of hide-and-seek?
Suddenly, he was surrounded. The very shadows emerged into the light to attack.
These were the kinds of demons he knew well.
With his Malachai powers, he summoned his sword and went after them. He felt the familiar surge of rage, but quickly pushed it down.Don’t give in. He knew better than to let his anger rule him. In spite of what Caleb and Xev thought, he was paying attention during his lessons.
He heard his instructors and friends.
Most days anyway.
He spun and caught the first demon behind him with a vicious blow that caused it to shrink back into the darkness. Another came forward to attack. Nick barely countered in time to keep it from slashing his arm. But he severed its hand. It shrieked and withdrew.
“Nick!”
That was Virgil’s voice.
Nick’s sight dimmed. Everything shook and spiraled. What he heck? He wasn’t sure what happened. Not until he began to fall through the aether again.
What was this feeling? It was as if he had no grounding anywhere. Something was pulling him against his will. He had no control.
Not until he found himself back on the floor of Takeshi’s home with Simi, Takeshi and Nashira standing over him like a group of worried parents.
Blinking, he stared up at them. “Having that moment where I feel like my mom was calling me for dinner and I was on the last level of a videogame and didn’t hear her ’cause the big boss was almost dead and there was no pause on the game.”
Takeshi rolled his eyes. “Feeling like that parent who wants to beat my kid, but can’t because I don’t want to go to jail and ruin my credit scores.”
Nick scowled. “Bruh, that makes no sense.”
“Neither does what you just said. Now you know how we feel.”
Snorting, he took Takeshi’s hand and let him pull him to his feet. “What happened?”
