Totally Pavlovian.
Primal. The Malachai blood inside him reacted to evil the way a hungry baby embraced candy. It salivated and drooled, wanting him to tear them apart and feast on it.
His breathing turned ragged.
Virgil, who stood almost eye level with him, paused. “You okay, buddy?”
Nick felt his lip involuntarily curl. It actually wanted him to go for Virgil’s neck—which would be really stupid as Virgil wouldn’t take that lying down. He’d fight and make it hurt.
Eyes widening ever so much, Virgil stepped back. “I’ll take that as a no.”
And just as Nick was about to go for his throat, he felt an unexpected peace rise up within him. One so sudden and overwhelming that it made him gasp and stopped him dead in his tracks.
Thinking it was Kody, he turned to find his mother rushing toward them. Before he could so much as blink, she latched on to him in a fierce bear hug that was so powerful, it felt like some gigantic beast had wrapped itself around him and not the tiny waif of a woman who barely reached the middle of his chest and weighed less than his right thigh.
A slight exaggeration on her weight. But really, his mom couldn’t be more than a buck even after an all day bender at the Café Du Monde.
“My baby Boo! You okay?” The tears in her voice wrecked him.
“Fine, Ma.” He squeezed her back gently so that he didn’t hurt her.
She nodded. “Okay. I’m going to beat some sense into thesebracque crotte,mon petit garçon. Anyone goes to jail for murder today, it’ll be me and they’ll have you over my dead body.”
Nowhiseyes widened at her choice of words. While calling them a crazy turd wasn’t technically profanity, it was so unusual for his mother to insult anyone that it shocked him.
Ruffling his hair, she kissed his cheek and turned toward Virgil. “Point me toward someone, anyone, so that I can kick their stupid butts and get my baby home. No one messes with my boy!”
Like him, Virgil towered over the much tinier Cherise Gautier. And even the vampire lawyer, Virgil Ward, stepped back in fear from her fury. “Yes, ma’am. Right this way.”
As he led her away, Bubba stepped forward with a laughing grin. “That’s right, fear the mighty Chihuahua. Whoo, boy, your mama has been riled up since the moment they came by for you. And I am sure that officer is in therapy right now and will remain there for the rest of his life. I had no idea your mama knew that kind of language. Thank God, I’m not the one what ruffled her feathers. Remind me toneverrattle her cage unless I make sure she’s padlocked in it.”
Nick snorted. “I’d be offended if it wasn’t the truth. Love the woman, but her temper’s like a head injury. It’s hilarious only so long as it’s happening to someone else.”
“Yeah, that be about right.” Bubba winked at him, then sobered. “How you holding up?”
“Ça c’est bon, n’est pas?Just a little baffled by this.” Nick cringed as a cop came a little too close and eyed him like some Friday night hoodlum.
Bubba glanced around. “So where’s the rest of your crew? Not like you to run solo.”
“Caleb’s on his way. Said he’d be here any minute. What about you? Who’s babysitting Mark?”
Laughing again, Bubba scratched at his dark hair. He was one of the few people Nick looked up to. Both figuratively and literally. But not by much. He probably had an inch on him in height. Muscle-wise, Bubba was a monster beast. As a former football player, he had the kind of body Nick would kill for. And unlike Acheron, Caleb and Kyrian, he wasn’t lean. He was Terminator muscle. The kind that made even tough guys gulp and stand down.
Which was one of the reasons why Nick was agreeable for Bubba to date his mother. So long as the two of them were together, Nick knew no one would hurt his mom. Bubba was a fierce attack beast who’d tear them to shreds if they so much as grimaced in her general direction.
And Cherise Gautier had no fear of him whatsoever. Bubba was always respectful of her and was as easily cowed by the barking Chihuahua as Nick was.
He liked that quality in a man. It made him feel better about being scared of his mother.
“Mark’s actually out on a date of his own.”
Nick gaped at the last thing he expected to hear. Not that he should be surprised. Mark was a far cry from a mutant life form. It wasn’t so much that Mark couldn’t get a date as much as Mark disdained the hassle of dating. And his last relationship had ended so badly, the man had PTSD from it.
And burn scars.
“Really?”
Bubba held his hand up to swear by his statement. “Believe me, I’m as shocked as you are. I think he has a head injury from our last taping.”
