Invincible Chronicles of Nick - By Sherrilyn Kenyon Page 0,18
if you snatch it out of my hands.”
He grudgingly gave it back.
Nick wrapped the chain around his forefinger. “What’s wrong with asking that, anyway?”
“It’s a stupid concern.”
Bull crap on that. It was the primary one he’d had for the last year.… Well, that and if he’d ever be able to afford a car. “What are you? Asexual or something?”
Pain laughed, then stopped abruptly as Death jerked his head in his companion’s direction.
“My libido is fine, Nick. However, it takes a distant second place to my need to kill people who annoy me.”
Normally, Nick would have mocked him for that, but he knew better. “Fine.” He returned the pendulum and stated his second-most-often-asked question. “Will I ever be rich?”
At first, nothing happened. But after a few seconds, it began to swing along the yes line. Something that made his blood rush. “Really rich?”
It swung even harder.
Oh yeah, he definitely rocked to this. “Like Rockerfeller rich?”
Grim snatched it away from him again. “Yes, kid, you’ll have money. Can we move on?”
“I suppose, but I’d really like to investigate the future of my not being broke a little more. I like that thought. A lot.”
Grim sighed heavily. “I swear I’m getting a migraine.”
“My mom suffers from those a lot, too.”
“Being around you, I imagine she does.”
Nick cupped the pendulum in his palm. “What else can this do?”
“Right now … nothing. Learn one technique, and I’ll teach you others. You can’t do geometry until you understand one plus one equals two. Besides, you two need to get acquainted with each other.”
Nick scowled. “What? Are we dating?”
Grim stared at him with a blank expression for several heartbeats. “And now that my blood pressure and patience have breached their safety valves, I’m going to take a break and leave you here to clean your mess.” He snapped his fingers. “Pain. Suffering. Come.”
Like two dutiful pets, they vanished right alongside him, leaving the mop to fall on the floor with a loud slap.
Dang … couldn’t they have finished first?
It’s what you get for running your stupid Cajun mouth, boy. His mom always said that 90 percent of intelligence was knowing when to shut up. One day, he’d learn to heed her wisdom.
Sighing, he went to the mop and picked it up to finish. But he’d barely gotten back on it when he heard someone knocking at the front door.
He turned to tell them the Triple B was closed, when he saw it was Caleb. Up until yesterday, he’d thought Caleb was just another overprivileged jackweed at his high school. Well, not entirely true—Caleb had never been mean to him, so he didn’t really qualify for jackweed status, but he had ignored Nick.
During the chaos of last night, Nick had learned that Caleb Malphas, captain of the football team and Mr. Popularity, was actually a high-level (he forgot the proper term ’cause it just wasn’t that important to him) demon who’d been sent to serve as Nick’s bodyguard.
How cool was that?
Nick held his hands up and gestured, letting Caleb know there was nothing he could do to let him in.
Caleb looked to his right and then to his left before he disintegrated on the sidewalk. He turned into a filmy red smoke that slid through the crack of the doors. It snaked across the ground like a weird mist and reassembled into Caleb in front of Nick.
He arched a brow at Nick. “You keep using that arm, boy, and everyone’s going to know you ain’t right.”
Nick handed him the mop and returned his arm to the sling. “I’m working on that.”
Always dressed impeccably in designer threads, Caleb had dark hair and intelligent eyes. He also possessed the kind of body and face that Nick would kill for. Muscled and Hollywood good-looking. While Nick wasn’t ugly, he was still gangly and awkward, like most guys his age. His body was growing so fast that he never seemed to know where his limbs were, so he was always banging into something or busting his knees. The worst part was that at school he constantly stepped on girl feet whenever he took a seat in the cafeteria.
Yeah … no wonder he couldn’t get a girlfriend.
“So how are you feeling this morning?” Nick asked.
“Like I got my ass kicked by a bunch of psycho demons. How ’bout you?”
“Slightly better than that. But only slightly. What brings you here?”
“I tried to call you and got no answer. After last night, it worried me. I was afraid something might have eaten you the few