Invision - Sherrilyn Kenyon Page 0,49

his child to. Any more than Caleb understood the nightmare that had been Xev’s existence. It was why Xev still lashed out and trusted no one. Why he had a hard time accepting kindness of any sort. While Lil had saved Caleb, it was nothing compared to what Myone had done for Xev.

Xev swallowed hard as Jaden finally stepped away from him.

“You’ll be fine to return.”

Lowering his shirt, he cut a suspicious grimace toward Jaden. “Can I trust your word, this time?”

“He’s not lying to you, Xev, and you know I won’t leave you behind. Not for anything. They come for you, they deal with me.”

His gaze softened as he reached out and pulled Nick to his chest so that he could hold him. He clutched his fist in Nick’s hair so hard, his hand trembled. It was weird and awkward, but Nick tolerated it by reminding himself that Xev didn’t see him as a boy-toy.

He saw him as his child. His great-grandson. His last link to Myone and to the son he’d been forced to give up in order to keep that child safe from being treated the way he had. Rather than watch his child be raised in the same environment he’d known, he’d returned to the shadows to live alone and watch from a distance as the woman he loved more than his life took another husband who believed Xev’s child to be his.

So long as she’d lived and their son had been protected and safe, Xev had been leashed and content.

But the moment she was gone and their son enslaved …

He’d been an insane, suicidal monster ever since. Not caring who he harmed or what happened to the world or himself.

Until now.

Everything had changed the moment he’d learned what Menyara had done and that Nick’s mom was his granddaughter. Since then, Xev had become a worse Velcro Nick-don’t-skin-your-knees monster than his mother was most days. He was lucky Xev hadn’t bubble-wrapped the bathroom to make sure Nick didn’t injure himself whenever he went in to brush his teeth.

Xev had even modulated the water pressure and temperature to barely more than a lukewarm drip, because you just never knew …

Sighing, Nick patted him on the back. “You good? ’Cause, no offense, you’re freaking me out, Gramps.”

Laughing, Xev kissed him on the head before he let go.

Nick ran his hand through his hair to settle it back into place. “We really need to get you your own pet or teddy bear or something.”

“No, we just need to make sure you don’t get hurt.”

Nick nodded, then turned around to face Jaden. “So what exactly’s involved in doing this? We sacrifice a Lego? Bathe under the light of a full moon? Eat nachos? Yank on Acheron’s coat and run before he catches us?”

Jaden wore that same pained expression his teachers often had whenever they saw him in their room on the first day of class and realized he was there to stay and not dropping off books for a friend, especially his English teacher.

Like they were nursing an ulcer.

He glanced at Kody. “Is he always like this?”

“Yes.”

“Poor you.”

Kody screwed her face up. “You know … a lot of people say that to me.”

“Yeah, it’s beginning to give me a complex.”

Laughing, she kissed Nick’s cheek. “Don’t listen to them. I think you’re wonderful. Just the way you are.”

“I really appreciate that, Kode. And I love and adore you. But the mere fact that you go out with me and continue to do so brings your entire ability to reason and judge into question.”

Laughing, she wrapped her arm around his waist and buried her face against his shoulder blade. Nick sucked his breath in sharply, savoring the warmth of her body pressed against his back. She had no idea what that embrace did to him. What it meant to his sanity.

Then again, she was his anchor. Maybe she did know and that was why whenever he needed her most, she was here to keep him grounded. For all the preternatural abilities and magic he normally wielded, they paled in comparison to the sorcery of her touch. She alone could tame the Malachai inside him and bend it to her will.

He was completely helpless where she was concerned. And he couldn’t imagine a world where that would ever change.

Sobering, she peeked up at Jaden. “Don’t let him get harmed. Nick better come back whole and healthy or else you’re going to meet the Bathymaas side of me.”

Jaden’s eyes widened. “You’re threatening me?”

“I’m promising