It amazed him that she made it sound like he was the one in the wrong given what she'd put him through. But she was right about one thing. It wasn't his business. Nick was a grown...what ever the hell he was.
Still, this was beyond the pale. She'd now aligned herself to one of the beings who wanted him dead.
Great. Just great. He saw this train wreck coming and unfortunately, his foot was caught in the rails.
"You are such a piece of work," he snarled. Stepping past her, he used his powers to sling open her bedroom doors. They made a resounding crash as they hit the walls.
The moment he entered her room, he froze.
As expected, Nick was naked on her bed. However, he was in the throes of some kind of fever. Completely unconscious, his entire body glistened with sweat. But what concerned Ash most was that Nick whispered in a language Ash didn't know. As a god, there wasn't supposed to be a language he couldn't speak or comprehend.
He had no idea what Nick was saying. Was it gibberish? And yet it sounded too precise and formed to be random. The hairs on the back of his neck stood tall.
Ash glared at Artemis. "What have you done to him?"
Artemis shrugged as she moved to stand a few feet from the white ivory bed that was shrouded by sheer gold drapes. "Nothing. He's been cooling down for over a day now."
"Burning up, Artie. The words are 'burning up.'" Why couldn't she ever get her colloquialisms straight?
"Oh, what ever." That lackadaisical attitude made him want to choke her. Nick could have died and her only care would be how to dump his body without the other gods seeing her.
Trying not to think about that, Ash lifted Nick's eyelid to see that his eyes were demon red. His skin burned like the fires of hell. Nick's fangs were longer than normal. Serrated.
What was going on? Was he mutating into something else?
Most of all, who or what had control of him?
"How long has he been like this?" He made a sound of disgust before she could answer. What a stupid question. Time had no meaning to Artemis. "Did he say anything before he fell ill?"
"No."
Aggravated, Ash used his powers to delve into what had happened between them. All he saw was them having sex and then Nick falling back in pain.
He hadn't moved since. But as Ash delved deeper, he went from this Nick to other Nick incarnations. And there he saw...
"Oh, shit."
Artemis jumped. "What?"
Ash ignored her as he jolted Nick with a vicious god bolt straight to his heart.
Nick came out of his coma swinging. Especially once he saw it was Ash who'd hit him. He moved to grab Ash, but Ash spun away, out of his reach. Nick let out a furious grunt. "What the hell are you doing here, asshole?"
Ash put a little more distance between them. Not out of fear of Nick hurting him, but out of fear he might hurt Nick. "I would ask the same thing about you." He glanced to Artemis. "I would have thought you knew better."
Nick lunged at him.
Ash shielded his body so that Nick couldn't come near him--again for Nick's protection. The Cajun had a way and a mouth on him that eroded all of Acheron's patience and motivated him to violence faster than Artemis stalking him.
"Do you remember what happens when a demon masquerades as someone?" Ash asked.
Oblivious to the fact he was completely naked, Nick sneered at him. "What kind of stupid question is that? Of course I do."
The victim being duplicated was left comatose...
Or dead.
Ash narrowed his gaze on Nick. "What was the last day you remember?"