"Boredom ... what is this foreign word you speak of, General? I fear I know nothing of it."
Nick laughed. It always amused him when Ash and Kyrian acted like kids.
At least until Ash's phone went off. Excusing himself, he went to answer it in private.
Kyrian crossed his arms over his chest. "So why are you in here?"
"I was curious," he admitted. "I know you've told me about your sisters. And since I don't have any siblings, I was just trying to imagine what you must have been like as a kid with them. It screws with my head."
Sadness haunted Kyrian's eyes as he looked up at the huge statue. "It's sad we don't appreciate our childhoods until it's too late. At least those of us who had good ones."
"What do you mean?"
Kyrian sighed. "Just that I took mine for granted. Didn't realize how lucky I was until the day I left home and saw the homes other children grew up in."
"Your friend Julian?"
He nodded. "Yeah. He opened my eyes to a lot I'd never seen before."
Nick would have liked to have met Kyrian's mentor. The more he heard about the ancient Greek general Julian of Macedon, the more he respected him.
"Speaking of ... you ready to train tonight?"
"Sure. I can always use another butt-whipping. Stone didn't stuff me in a locker today or slam my head into a fountain. I was beginning to feel neglected."
Kyrian laughed. "Boy, you are all kinds of wrong."
"I know. I blame it all on my mom. She hugged me so tight when I was little, it deprived me of oxygen. Gave me brain damage."
When Ash returned, he had the same grimace on his face that Bubba wore whenever someone told him zombies weren't real.
Or that Oprah was being preempted for another program.
Yeah, those were bad days for everyone.
"What's going on?" Kyrian asked.
"Squire's Council. There were a couple of deaths last night."
"Couple?"
He nodded slowly.
Nick didn't like the sound of that any more than Kyrian did. "By the look on your face, I'm assuming they didn't choke on a bad plate of red beans and rice."
"Of course not."
Nick wrinkled his nose. "Do I want to know?"
"Given your reaction the last time one was killed, probably not. But at least we're not in my car now so I don't have to worry about you clawing up my upholstery again."
"You're never going to let me live that down, are you?"
"You all but stained my seat." He passed a dry stare to Kyrian. "Wonder if we neuter him if it would calm him down any?"
Kyrian laughed. "Might, however his mother would neuter us afterward. Don't know about you, but I would miss those body parts."
"I could definitely live without them," Ash mumbled in a barely audible tone. "Unfortunately, the beast I have to endure couldn't, and she'd make me miserable." He growled in the back of his throat. "Anyway, it was bad." He spoke those last four words much louder and in staccato. "They're thinking Daimons got to them."
Nick went bug-eyed at the thought. "Okay ... I don't care for this thought of Daimons eating Squires." Even if he was a Malachai. It just seemed like bad form.
"Don't worry. We won't let them eat you. Alive anyway."
Nick snorted at Kyrian's dry tone. "Thanks, boss," he said sarcastically. "Now I'm glad I didn't save you any of Rosa's cookies. You're not worthy!"
Kyrian clapped him on the back. "That's okay. You'll have earned them before the night's over."
"How you figure?"
"It was payday today. Artemis dropped my money in the pool. You get to dive for it."
Nick bristled indignantly. He hated that the ancient Greek goddess Artemis couldn't get with the times and pay her Dark-Hunters in cash or electronically. No, she still thought it was the Dark Ages, and once a month plopped a buttload of gold bars and gems on them. Saddest part was that, for a goddess renowned for her unerring archery skills, she had no aim. She always dumped it somewhere extremely inconvenient--then again, she might be doing it on purpose. That made the most sense.
He glared at Kyrian. "Are you..." He paused as he realized what that look on Kyrian's face meant. "No, not there again. Anywhere, but there."
"Oh yeah ... it landed at the bottom of my pool in the backyard. Have fun digging it all out. Make sure you don't miss any diamonds this time." And with that Kyrian walked off with an evil laugh echoing behind him.
"I hate you!" Nick called after his departing back. "And I quit!"
"You can't quit. I own your sorry ass, and your mom won't let you quit until you pay off the hospital debt you owe me."
Nick mocked his words while Acheron laughed at him. He grimaced at the ancient being. "Don't you need a cute, tacky-shirt-wearing, indentured servant?"
"Like a hole in my head.... No."
"You both suck."
"Yeah. It's what the fangs are for." Acheron ran his tongue down one of them to emphasize his point.
Sighing irritably, Nick shook his head. "Fine. Just don't let me get eaten like those other Squires. Remember, you can't kill me 'til I'm twenty-four. That's our bargain."
Acheron shoved at him. "You're so weird."
"And yet you like me. What's that say about you?"
"That I don't get out much."
As Nick headed for the door, Ash stopped him. "You want me to lend a hand with the pool?"
"Nah, I got it. Go save the world. But if you want to zap me some swim trunks, I'm sure Kyrian's neighbors would be eternally grateful. Otherwise I'm going commando."
No sooner had he spoken than a pair appeared on his head.
Groaning in agony, Nick pulled them off. "I see now where Artemis gets her aim. You two train together much?"
Acheron muttered something in Atlantean as he walked away. That wasn't unusual.
What made Nick pause was the fact that this time, he understood the words as well as if they'd been spoken in English or Cajun.
Kid, don't even say Artie right now. Last thing I want to do is deal with her tonight. Don't stir that redheaded dragon. She might hear you and come calling.
At least one of his Malachai powers was working the way it was supposed to. But that actually scared him. He wasn't used to it. They normally backfired. Misfired. Went sideways or flat-out did nothing.
And as he looked back at the statue, for the first time he saw Kyrian's sisters not in their pale marble forms, but as they'd looked in his lifetime. Phaedra, who was younger by only a single year. She'd sang with the voice of an angel. Althea, the baby of the family, who had been Kyrian's favorite sister. The one he'd doted on incessantly and coddled to the point that his parents had complained that he'd spoiled her rotten. While his whole family had been devastated by his death, she had taken it the hardest of his sisters. So much so, that she'd shaved her blond hair that had been a match for Kyrian's and had refused to speak.
And Diana. The sister he'd been the most like and as a result, they'd fought constantly. About everything under the heavens. Both stubborn and unyielding. Ironically, she'd ended up married to one of his best friends, who was very similar in temperament and form to Kyrian--as if she'd missed her brother so much that she'd gone looking for someone who reminded her of him.
Not only could Nick see them, he felt Kyrian's love for them. Their love for Kyrian. It was so incredibly strong that it traversed the aether and spanned the centuries to form a protective cloak for his boss even two thousand years later.
No wonder Kyrian had taken so much care to protect and carry this one memento of them with him throughout time.
Kyrian was right, he'd been blessed by the gods. His family had done their best to protect their son and keep him safe. Even when he insisted that he fight as a soldier, his father had surrounded him with a personal guard of the best soldiers he could find, and sent him to train under Julian of Macedon--the most skilled and respected commander of the Greek city-states of that time. Alkis of Thrace had spared no expense to p
rotect his only son. He would have done anything for Kyrian.
And when Kyrian had married a prostitute against his wishes, Alkis had tried his best to make his unreasonable son see the truth of her.
Kyrian had refused. In love with the facade she presented to him, and deluded by her lies, he'd listened to no one about his Theone. Nothing could make him let her go, not even when his father had disinherited him as a last resort.
Theone had been his life and he'd abandoned his troops when he'd heard she was in danger. Riding day and night, he'd gone to her side to rescue her, only to have her drug him and turn him over to his enemies for torture and execution.
His family had done everything they could to try and save him. Alkis had offered to surrender all of Thrace to Roman control. Kyrian's sister Althea had offered herself up as a slave to his mortal enemy, Valerius Magnus the Elder.
That was true love. Unconditional love. After all the bitter words Kyrian had spoken to his father, King Alkis had still done his best to save him and spare him from Theone's treachery.
Unfortunately, the Romans had no intention of letting him go. He'd been too good a commander for that. They knew if he were to ever go free again, he'd defeat them and destroy their empire. As the ancient historians had written, when Kyrian of Thrace led his army to war, Rome fell like leaves during a bitter frost.
And on the day his father had received word of Kyrian's execution, the proud King Alkis of Thrace had killed himself over it.
Nick blinked back tears as he choked on grief. He could feel the anguish and guilt that Kyrian lived with every day for what he'd done. By seeking his own happiness and believing the lies of one treacherous woman, he'd ruined his entire family and destroyed his nation.
One moment of blind selfishness ...
No wonder he didn't talk about it. No wonder Kyrian didn't trust anyone. How could he?
But that was the trick in life. Deciphering who had your best interests at heart. Who was in it for you and who was in it for themselves. More often than not, you didn't find out until you were like Kyrian and left hanging to die.
Nick reached up and touched Althea's hand. For the merest instant, he could have sworn that she gripped his fingers.
Yeah, that was freaky.
"Don't worry," he whispered to them. "I won't let anything happen to your brother. I've got his back for you."
But who has yours?
Nick jumped at the disembodied voice that whispered in his ear.
What the heck?
Using his powers, he scanned the room with his demonic eyes.
There was nothing here. No sound in the aether. No scent ...
Yet that had definitely been a feminine voice speaking English.
"Crap." The one thing Nick had learned these last couple of years ...
A disembodied voice whispering in his ear was a harbinger of bad things a'coming. And it definitely didn't help that both War and Death had declared open warfare on him already. The Grim Reaper had told him to buckle up.
Obviously, it was on.
CHAPTER 2
"Whoa, Gautier! You're jumpier than normal, which given the fact that you could double as a hyperactive squirrel most days, says a lot."
Nick grimaced as Brynna Addams and LaShonda Thibideaux stopped beside him at his locker. "Thought you were Caleb sneaking up on me to do something foul ... like wedgie me before class," he lied, hoping Brynna would accept his excuse. Not that Caleb needed to sneak up on him to give him a wedgie.
Evil demonkyn snot could do that with his Jedi mind tricks from across the room. And had been known to do so in his crankier moods.
One day, Nick was going to fully master his and return that favor.
Then run like heck into another dimension where hopefully Caleb would never find him.
"Ah. That explains it." Adorably cute as she stepped up to reach for her lock, Brynna was an average girl-next-door who dressed in understated khaki pants and conservative button-downs, while LaShonda was her flamboyant best friend with a flair for stylish J-pop trends. Today, Shon had gone in for that whole sexy Japanese Lolita schoolgirl uniform that reminded Nick of something out of a fantasy manga--right down to the frilly white cuffs and bright frou-frou red bow tie, and a blazer that was two sizes too small, which seriously emphasized a part of her ample anatomy he wasn't looking at because he didn't want to get Jack-slapped for sexual harassment.
Not that it was the only reason.... Also, because he wasn't a lech.
However, he would be a most happy and well-behaved boy if his woman would borrow some of LaShonda's outfits from time to time.
Yeah, Kody would look incredible in that.
And as usual, Shon had gone all-out with the theme. She even had her sisterlocks pulled back with a matching navy headband, and white knee-high socks and stacked Mary Jane shoes.
Nick cringed the second that thought went through his head and was highly mortified that he knew what those black shiny shoes were called. But then Kody was slowly "civilizing" him on such things. Any day now, he'd be eating off plates and drinking out of glasses like a real person.
Though to be honest, he was coming to his education under duress. He still didn't really understand why women needed more than two pairs of shoes--those you wore and the pair your mom forced on your feet for church and special occasions because your regular shoes were holey and not holy.
Blushing, he stepped out of the way so that Brynna could open her locker door to grab her books. "Did you get all of the English reading done last night?"
"No!" Brynna let out a sound of supreme annoyance. "It was too much. Did you? And if you say yes, I will hurt you."
"I cheated and just had Kyrian tell me about it. Great thing about working for an ancient Greek boss. He knows The Iliad like the back of his hand, and actually enjoys lecturing me on it. I think he personally knew Achilles."
She snorted. "He's not that old."
"No, but Ash is."
She laughed.
"Actually..." Tightening her grip on her books, Shon looked around before she leaned in to whisper, "I heard a rumor from my mom that Kyrian slept with the granddaughter of an Amazon queen who fought at Troy."
Nick snorted in denial. "No way!"
Shon held her right hand up to testify to its truth. "That's what they claim."
"Who's they?" Brynna asked.
"Other Greek Dark-Hunters." Shon flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Zoe being one of them. And she's old enough to know ... and was an Amazon princess."
Nick considered that. Shon would know. Like Brynna, she came from one of the older Squire families that had been protecting the identities and existence of Dark-Hunters for generations, and providing services and cover for them. Even better, Shon's father was the New Orleans' Council lead historian and archive keeper, and had been for years. So when it came to the history of the Dark-Hunters--what they'd done and who they knew, he was the authority for the region.
"I'd ask Kyrian about it, but he gets cranky when I get too personal with inquiries.... Wonder if Ash knows."
"Probably." Brynna pulled her books out of her locker and shoved them in her tote. "He knows everything."
Not quite. He had no idea Nick was a Malachai. Or that Kody was his niece. For all the powers Acheron commanded, there were a surprising number of things that could be kept hidden from the ancient Atlantean.
But Nick didn't correct her. He was quickly learning that most everyone and everything had a weakness of some sort. Nature tended to build in an off-switch.
Every Titanic met its iceberg.
That's what Kyrian had told him the point of The Iliad was. Balance and moderation. Regression to the mean.
Every Hector met his Achilles. Every Achilles met his Paris. Every Priam had an Agamemnon and every Agamemnon had a Clytemnestra.
Sooner or later, everyone paid for the wrongs they did to others. And when karma came home to roost, she brought nasty, irritable friends with spears.
It
was making the hardest choices at the hardest times, and learning to stand by them and bear out the consequences.
Speaking of ...
He turned as he felt the powerful presence of a preter who never failed to put a dopey grin on his face. The minute he saw Kody's bright green eyes and tight red tee, he realized he should have worn looser pants. Thankfully, he had on a really baggie Hawaiian shirt.
"Ca viens, ma bebelle cher."
Her gorgeous smile only made his condition worse. "One day, I have got to learn Cajun." She scowled at him. "For all I know, you could be insulting me with that deep smooth drawl of yours."
Nick dropped his backpack as casually as he could from his shoulders and pulled it around to the front as an added layer of protection--just in case. "Non, cher. I would never do that to ma belle."
Brynna laughed. "I don't know, girl, long as I've been here, I still haven't gotten the hang of it."
Shon tsked at her. "Y'all break my native heart!"
Nick broke out into his thickest Cajun drawl. "They just don't know, cher ... they just don't know. What we gonna do with the likes of them?"
"I vote we feed 'em to some gators later." Shon winked at him.
Brynna scowled at Kody. "You ever feel like you need subtitles when he does that?"
"No. Unless he's actually speaking Cajun, I can understand it, even when it's thick and fast. But Bubba and Mark ... I definitely need subtitles when they get excited and start babbling. I've no idea what language they're speaking."
"That be middle Tennessee good ole boy," Nick teased. "Their accents aren't that thick."
"For you," Kody teased. "But you have to remember that English isn't my native tongue, anyway."
Brynna's eyes widened. "It's not?"
Kody went pale as she realized that she'd slipped up in front of Brynna and Shon. "Um, no. I was born in Greece, and my mother's Egyptian."
"Really?" Brynna gaped as she passed a glance to Nick. "We were just talking about Greece. So did you learn Greek or Arabic first?"
Nick arched a brow as he waited to hear this.... While the language of modern Egypt was Arabic, Kody's mother was an ancient goddess. So she'd grown up speaking hieratic and demotic Egyptian--languages long dead and forgotten. Even her Greek predated Kyrian's native Koine Greek dialect that was very different from the modern-day spoken language of Greece.
"Greek," she said quickly.