a breathless tone.
Baffled by his comment, Kyrian stared at him. “What?”
Nick gestured toward his cars. “Dude, that’s a Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, and Bentley. And I’m not talking the cheap models. Those are the top of the top of the top of the line, fully loaded. I swear, that’s real gold trim in the Bugatti. There’s more money in metal in here than my brain can even tabulate. Oh my God! I shouldn’t even be breathing the same air.”
Kyrian laughed at his awed tone. “It’s all right, Nick. I need you to clean them.”
“Are you out of your ever-loving mind? What if I scratch them?”
“You won’t.”
“Nah, I might. Those aren’t cars, Kyrian. Those are works of art. I’m talking serious modes of transportation.”
“I know, and I drive them all the time.”
“No, no, no, no, no. I can’t touch something so fine. I can’t.”
Kyrian cuffed him on the shoulder. “Yes, you can. They don’t bite, and they need to be washed.”
Nick let out a sound of appreciation. “I ought to be paying you for this.”
Kyrian snorted. “Then I’ll dock your pay.” He held his hand out to help Nick stand. “C’mon.”
Nick allowed him to pull him to his feet, but he was still intimidated by the cars around him. He’d never even thought to see one in real life, never mind touch it. These were sweet. “How much money you make, anyway?”
“Obviously a lot.”
“Dude, make me a Dark-Hunter.”
Something cold and painful flickered through Kyrian’s eyes. “Don’t even joke about that, Nick. You don’t ever want to become what I am. It all looks great from the outside, but two thousand years gets hard. All my family is long gone, and while I have my Dark-Hunter brethren and Acheron, it’s not the same. I’d give everything I have and then some if I could just see my parents one more time. Tell my dad that I’m sorry for things I said to him. Never, ever leave your mother after a fight. Whatever you do, don’t let the last words you say to her be hurtful.”
“You fought with your father?”
He nodded. “Acheron has a saying, and it’s so true. There are some things sorry can’t fix. Life is all about regrets. Don’t let those regrets be that you’ve hurt someone who really loves you. Keep those to a minimum. It’s bad enough when you have to carry them through a single lifetime. When you have to carry them through thousands, it’s brutal.”
He’d never thought of it that way. Still, he’d give anything to have an eternal life with this kind of wealth. Heck, he’d settle for having it for ten minutes.
“Don’t worry about getting to all the cars tonight. You can do the Lamborghini and then save the others for tomorrow. Just make sure you get the rest of the list done.”
“Will do.”
Kyrian inclined his head to him before he went back inside.
Nick walked down the three steps to get a closer look at the Bugatti. Yeah … that was a car. “I would hug you, but I don’t want to get my skin oils on your paint.”
But as Nick stared into the tinted window, he didn’t see the inside of the car. He saw something that looked more like a movie playing on it. Mesmerized, he stepped closer so that he could see it more clearly.
It was a battle in Kyrian’s house. He saw his boss with a woman who looked a lot like an older version of Tabitha Devereaux, only she had dark auburn hair and was dressed in a nightgown. There were fanged blond Daimons attacking them on the stairs. Kyrian was trying to keep them away from the woman who stood behind him on the landing with a sword.
There was another Dark-Hunter there. One he didn’t recognize. He wasn’t even sure how he knew it was a Dark-Hunter, and yet …
The stranger was beheaded by the Daimons.
He flinched at the horror and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the scene had changed.
This time, he saw something far worse.…
He was the kid on the street who was lying dead while a hooded man absorbed some kind of energy that was spewing out his chest like a laser light show. But it was Nick’s eyes that haunted him most. They were solid black, like something out of a horror movie, and in his open hand, resting against his palm, was the diamond necklace that Nekoda always wore.…
Your destiny is shaped by choice, never by chance. Beware