Disembodied laughter rang out. The light above him shattered.

Cursing, Nick jumped back as glass rained down on him.

He saw the shadow of a little girl by the side of the house. "Help me find my mommy. Please." She walked through a door that was ajar, into the small alcove that led to the interior garden.

"Wait!" Nick closed the distance between them, wanting to help her. He reached out to pull her to a stop. His hand passed right through her body. What the?

All of a sudden, she turned around and his gut shrank. Her face was scarred, her large eyes were nothing more than an eerie shadow.

Baring a set of fangs, she attacked.

CHAPTER 10

Nick staggered back as the "little" girl grew to over six feet tall. Towering over him, she grabbed him by the shirt with hands made of talons and laughed in his face. "You should have done what your friends wanted you to, Gautier, and helped them rob and kill that couple. You made a big mistake by being nice. So long as you let your goodness weaken you, we can feed on you." She moved to bite his neck.

He kicked her back and sprinted for the street.

Just as he reached it, three more creatures appeared to block his way. They looked like men, but cold lightning danced in the sockets where their eyes should be. The courtyard's temperature instantly dropped twenty degrees to leave him shivering. Worse, these newcomers smelled like something that came out of the back end of the mules that pulled the carriages through the Quarter.

Dang, didn't they ever bathe?

The lead one tsked at him, flashing a set of sharp, jagged fangs. "Did you really think you could get away from us?" Yeah, he did....

Nick stepped back and looked for a way to get past them. They completely shielded him from the street. There was no way to reach it without coming into contact with them. And behind him was the closed-off courtyard.

Crap ...

"What do you want?" Nick asked, trying to think of a third option.

The girl grabbed him from behind. "We want to kill you." She sank her teeth into his neck.

Hissing, Nick slammed his good arm into her midsection. She released him enough that he was able to twist out of her arms and scramble away from her.

The other three came at him.

Where's an ax wien I need one?

Better yet, a rocket launcher.

The raven swooped down to land on his injured shoulder. The moment its talons touched him, something like electricity went through his body. It was so intense and painful that it sucked his breath out. For thirty seconds, everything seemed to stop. The wind, his attackers, the bird.

His heart.

When the world returned to normal, it came back with a rush that slammed into him so hard, he gasped. His senses sharper than they'd ever been before, he realized his arm was no longer injured.

Fight. The voice in his head sounded demonic.

From somewhere deep inside him, Nick felt a power rise up and radiate through his entire body. The bird launched itself back to the balcony to watch as the things attacked him.

Even though he knew they were moving at an inhumanly fast speed, he saw them as if they were in slow motion. It was like he was possessed by something else.

The first one struck.

Nick dodged the blow and returned it with one of his own. The creature staggered back. He spun to catch the next one with a head butt.

The third one screamed out in rage as he ran for Nick's back. Nick flipped him over and slung him to the street before he slammed his fist into his chest.

The female kicked him into the wall.

Nick turned around and blocked the punch she sent to his throat. Like something out of a movie, she punched him repeatedly and he countered every blow.

When did I leam kung fu?

And his mom said all those Jackie Chan movies were a waste. Apparently, he'd learned by osmosis— 'cause there was no way he knew this otherwise.

He felt like he could take on the world.

Someone toss me some nunchucks.

Kicking her back, he caught another of the creatures and slammed him into the first. Within a matter of seconds, they were on the ground and he was standing over them without even breathing hard in a perfect sotobiraki jigo hontai dachi stance.

Take that, Chuck Norn's!

The bird cawed as if in approval before it flew off into the night.

Nick straightened up. His shoulder didn't hurt at all. More than that, he had total control of it, which was something his doctor and physical therapist had said would take months to have again.

What is going on? He would think this a dream, but for the fact he knew he was awake.

The creatures evaporated into a fine mist that scattered into the shadows while the temperature returned to normal.

All of a sudden, there was a man in front of him. One who bore a striking resemblance to his father except this one had a strange double bow-and-arrow mark on his face. Dressed in black, he had on a long leather coat that fell to his ankles. With hair the same color as Nick's, only longer, he stood six feet four and had a well-trimmed goatee. And whereas Nick's eyes were blue, his were as black as his clothes.

Nick braced himself to fight. "Who are you?"

"Relax, Nicky. I'm just a friend who's here to help you."

"How so?"

The man held his hand up and a ball of light appeared in his palm where it danced and flickered in the darkness. His face grim, he closed his hand and the light vanished. "You have no idea how important you are. How many powers and creatures will be fighting over you. But trust me, kid, the only one who really cares about you, besides your mother, is me."

Nick wasn't so sure about that. "And you are?"

"Your uncle Ambrose."

Yeah, right. "I don't have an uncle."

"Of course you do, Nick. You're even named after me."

He shook his head. He was named after his father and grandfather—at least that's what he'd always been told. "My mom never mentioned you."

"Because I'm from your father's side and she doesn't really know about me. But that doesn't matter. My goal is to keep you from making some really bad mistakes."

"Such as what? Talking to you?"

Ambrose laughed. "The world is not what you see, kid. There's a veil over everything and it's blinding you the way it blinds most people." He brushed the hair back from Nick's eyes, and the moment he did, a jolt went through him. "That is perspicacity. The ability to see what's hidden. My gift to you even though you've already had a taste of it. Now it's more honed and reliable. I don't want anyone fooling you again."

Nick staggered back as he saw Ambrose not as a man, but as ...

Something else.

His skin was mottled black and red. His eyes bright yellow. Ambrose wasn't human and that terrified him.

"What are you?"

"Your friend. Always. I'm the only being you'll ever be able to trust."

Bullcrap. The only person he could fully trust was himself. Words were easy and actions often lethal. Nick wasn't dumb enough to think for one minute that this guy was on the level. "Dude, I don't know you and I'm not about to trust you."

"You know me much better than you think. Look inside yourself and you'll know I'm telling you the truth."

Nick looked and what he saw there made his blood run cold. He refused to believe it.

Unable to stand it, he started to run, but couldn't. It was like an unseen power held him prisoner.

"I know you don't trust me. I don't blame you. But you will learn to listen in time. I've unlocked your powers early this time around—for your protection."

Ambrose was whacked. There was no other explanation.

"What powers? Are you high?" Nick asked him.

A wicked smile curled his lips, showing him a set of fangs. "No. But you must keep what I'm going to teach you quiet. Let no one, especially not Acheron, know."

"How do you know about Acheron?"

"Oh ... it's not time for you to understand that yet. But my tampering isn't without problems. Those mortents who attacked you a moment ago are just a few such byproducts. Don't worry though. You'll have the ability to battle them and you'll grow stronger every time they attack you. I haven't left you defenseless in this."

"Look," Nick interrupted him. "I don't know what you've been sniffing ..." He tried to move past, but Ambrose stopped him.

"I'm on your side, Nick. You don't have many friends, and even fewer you can trust."

"Like Nekoda?" He didn't know why her name popped into his head. But it did. Along with an image of her smiling face.

Bonus round was the look of shock on Ambrose's face. "Nekoda?"

Yeah, he wasn't as smart as he thought, and that gave Nick a new confidence that Ambrose might still be lying. "You don't know her?"

Ambrose tilted his head as if he was trying to listen to the cosmos. "How can you know someone I don't?"

"Probably easy since I don't know you at all."

He shook his head. "Something's not right.... This isn't possible." He vanished into nothing.

Nick looked around, turning in a small circle. There was no sign of anything.

IVe lost my mind.

Perhaps, but his arm was still working and he felt no pain.

Then as easy as it'd come over him, the power vaporized. It flooded out of him and left every part of his body aching. The pain of his shoulder drove him to his knees. Wave after wave of agony cascaded over him until it dulled his vision.

One minute he was standing. The next, the street rose up to knock him down. And the last thing he heard was a deep female voice.

'You belong to us, Nick Gautier. And you w'll learn your place or we wll see you dead...."

CHAPTER 11

The raven left Nick and flew up to the sky, then vanished as it was summoned away from New Orleans. When it reappeared, it wasn't in the Quarter where it preferred to feed. It was miles away, flying over a razor-wire fence.

And because he was summoned here so often, the bird was as familiar with Angola prison as any of the inmates.

Buzzing past the guards' tower, he headed to the Reception Center—the building where the death-row inmates were housed. He slowed as he approached the correct window.

/ really dont want to do this.

But he had no choice. When he was summoned, he had to obey. Those were the rules and any hesitation would only end badly for him.

One minute he was perched on the sill, the next a hand appeared out of nowhere to grab his throat and haul him inside.

Caleb manifested into human form as he stared at one of the most powerful demons ever spawned. Absolute pure evil, Adarian Malachai was incapable of any kindness or mercy.

Without a word, he drove Caleb headfirst into a wall. Then he pulled Caleb up and held him by the hair of his head. "What do you think you're doing?" he snarled in Caleb's left ear.

Caleb grimaced as he tasted the blood that was seeping from his nose. He knew better than to fight. It would only make Adarian more cruel and worsen his beating. "Training Nick like you ordered."

He tightened his grip in Caleb's hair. "With mortents? Are you out of your mind? He could have been killed! Why didn't you stop them from attacking him?"

Those words stunned him on more levels than he could count. Why would Adarian care if some snotnose bought the farm? "I didn't know he'd run into them, but since they showed up, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity for him to start learning to fight. I was there the whole time, watching. He was never in any real danger. Besides, if he dies, you live. What's the crime in that?"

"You're so stupid." He released him.

Caleb turned and shoved him back as he took his true form. He knew he shouldn't, but it wasn't in him to not fight back. At the end of the day, he was a demon and he never swallowed crap from others without vomiting venom back up. "Stand down, Malachai. You're not as powerful as you think."

Adarian laughed. "And I own you. So don't even try to intimidate me. I've picked my teeth from the bones of demons stronger and older than you."

That was probably true. But it didn't change the fact that Caleb would give anything to have the power to destroy Adarian. Howdid I become enslaved to this ... There was no word foul enough to describe him.

Unfortunately, Caleb knew exactly what had led him here and he hated that as much as he hated Adarian. "I've done exactly what you've asked. I've watched over your sniveling spawn for these last few years while not interfering with anything he's done."

"You should have befriended him before now."

Caleb was stunned by those words. "You told me not to."

Adarian seized him by the throat. His eyes glowed a deep, deadly red. "And now I'm telling you to guard him with your life. There's a new power here. One I can't discern, but it's following him and I want you to keep him safe. So help me, if anything happens to my son, I will come for you, and when I'm through, you'll wish you could crawl back to the slime hole where I found you."