Home > Intensity (Nick Chronicles #8)(5)

Intensity (Nick Chronicles #8)(5)
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

Nashira smiled. “I was an oracle long before I met Takeshi.”

Okay, he’d go with that. But it still left him with one burning question.

“So you really were a zeitjäger?”

The fact that Nick knew about that part of his past didn’t appear to surprise Takeshi. “An exceptionally long time ago I wore that garb and played that role. Yes.”

That wasn’t exactly how Nick had been told those time-sentinel things worked. Rather his understanding had been you were born as one of them and had to do it forever. Like being a Malachai. There was no choice.

No escape.

Which begged one majorly important question. “So how did you get out?”

“Made a pact with Zev Kotori.”

Takeshi said that as if Nick should know exactly who and what he was talking about, but again he had no clue. Maybe he should have been playing closer attention to all those Grim lessons, after all, and not ignoring the ancient being who hated him. There had been a reason why his father had sent Grim to tutor him—other than as another form of creative abuse. “Who?”

“The god of Time who was in charge of us back in the day.”

Ah … but it still told Nick nothing as he’d never heard the name before. It wasn’t exactly something they referenced in his manga or fighting games. And God forbid they ever covered something useful in school. “From the bitterness in that tone, I take it that he screwed you over somehow.”

“No. His sister, Tiva did. She’s the Untime to his Time. And unlike her brother, she can’t stand to see anyone happy.”

“As a chaos goddess, she’s the one who cursed me into a book.” Nashira’s eyes glistened from unshed tears. “It was her way of keeping me away from my husband. For no reason other than she was a jealous harpy.”

Man, that sucked. Nick couldn’t imagine anything worse than to be banned from Kody.

Well, maybe being locked in Caleb’s laundry room with three week old dirty football jockstraps.

In August.

Yeah, his eyes watered just thinking about it. However, he’d veered off topic again.

Not that it mattered as Takeshi was quick to bring them back to it. “You, as a Malachai, never released Nashira before this. In any known timeline or universe. Yet now she’s here.” He sighed. “I knew when she showed up out of the blue that you’d changed something about the past, probably major, but didn’t really want to investigate. I was too grateful to have her back, whatever the cause. Now that you’re here, I have no choice, but to face the fact that you’ve veered off the highway. So back to what I said … what have you done, boy?”

Nick shrugged with a nonchalance he didn’t feel. “Stopped a couple of apocalypses. Fought a butt-load of demons. And managed to stay alive, much to my daily and eternal surprise.”

Takeshi laughed.

And when he did so, Nick scowled as his powers kicked in with some unexpected disclosures. “Itzal Tsuneo.” The name was out before Nick could control his involuntary verbal diarrhea.

It had a most chilling effect on his host. Takeshi manifested a dagger and had it to his throat so fast that Nick had barely blinked. “I will not be enslaved to you, Malachai!” He growled those words between clenched teeth.

His eyes turned an unholy red.

Nick held his hands up in surrender. “Wasn’t trying to. Seriously.” He needed to be more careful in the future. Of all beings, he knew the difference between common names and those used to summon, bind and control demons.

Itzal Tsuneo was the one that could be used to summon and control Takeshi. Worse? It could be used to enslave him the same way Nick’s father had once enslaved Caleb and Grim.

“I would never do that to anyone. Dude, really. Not into using people or demons.”

Nashira placed her hand over Takeshi’s and pulled the blade from Nick’s throat. “He’s telling the truth, Neo. Ambrose is not his father or any of the others. It’s why he freed me when he didn’t have to.” She leaned forward to whisper loudly in his ear. “Kill him, husband, and you know what horror will grow to power in his stead.”

“You are ever my wisdom, Shira.” He dissolved the dagger, yet continued to glare at Nick.

Nick glanced over to Simi. She didn’t appear to be the least bit concerned by Takeshi’s violent outburst. So much for her protecting him.

Or she knew Takeshi really meant that he wasn’t going to kill him.

Hoping for that, he let out a nervous breath. “Okay then. At least now we know your parents didn’t really name you Bob.”

Which was the English equivalent to Takeshi, not so much in meaning as just in the routineness of it.

Takeshi finally laughed. “You’re not as stupid as you look.”

“Nah, thankfully, right? And what can I say? I’m addicted to manga.” Nick winked at him. “And since you’re not gutting me, I’m here to understand what was broken and how. Most of all, I want to repair it.”

No sooner did he finish speaking than the room around them lit up with transparent and elaborate charts and lists that hovered in mid air. It was a spectacular display like something in a science fiction movie, only much better done. And a lot brighter and more intricate.

“What is this?” Nick breathed in awe of it.

“The time line of your life.”

Nick’s jaw dropped yet again. It was like looking out onto a foreign galaxy. Or the inside of a computer. Some spots were brighter than others. Some were white. Some blue. Some red and others orange. All were punctuated by writing he couldn’t read— which was never supposed to happen to him. As the Malachai, he should understand all languages and writing. “What do the different colors signify?”

“The orange ones are your pith points.” Those were the virtually unchangeable events. Things that were for the most part set in stone, and that could only be moved with the most catastrophic consequences and Herculean efforts. “Blue are the ones that will forever change your core personality.” Takeshi cut him a sarcastic grimace. “Believe me, you don’t want to tamper with those … Red are the ones that define your character.” Takeshi grinned. “Some of those, you might want to consider changing.”

“Thanks.”

He didn’t comment on Nick’s interjection. “White is your original path. Yellow are breaks where you’ve veered from what your timeline once was.”

Crap. There was a lot of yellow and yet while it veered away a bit, it always looped right back to its original course. Like a snapped rubber band. Kind of weird, really. ’Cause from what Nick could see, he hadn’t really changed anything. It was what Ambrose had said. For everything he tried, it went right back to where it’d started.

Nothing ever really changed.

The lines stayed basically where they’d been. Time didn’t want to be changed. It fought back with a vengeance.

Nick stepped closer to the lights. “How can you see all this?”

Simi tsked at him. “He a zeitjäger, silly demon-boy! They can always see time maps. It why the Simi brung’d you here! They’s much better for this than them Greek godlings.”

It was impressive. He’d give her that. Scary, but impressive.

Nick held his hand up to touch the timeline. His hand passed painlessly through the twinkling lights the same way it would go through some laser light show. The moment he made contact, though, bright green sparks lit up from his hand, across his chart.

Takeshi sucked his breath in sharply.

“What? What’d I screw up now?” That was the typical answer whenever things went haywire around him.

His features pale, Takeshi shook his head. “All that green …”

“Yeah? What about it?”

Nashira turned as white as her hair. “Is that what I think it is?”

Takeshi swallowed hard. “Yes.” He met Nick’s gaze and the feral fear that was deep in his eyes made Nick step back from him. “The green is where someone’s trying to throw your life out of alignment.”

That didn’t sound good at all. In fact, it was making his ulcer bleed—not that he had an ulcer, but at this rate, one might be developing.

   
Most Popular
» Nothing But Trouble (Malibu University #1)
» Kill Switch (Devil's Night #3)
» Hold Me Today (Put A Ring On It #1)
» Spinning Silver
» Birthday Girl
» A Nordic King (Royal Romance #3)
» The Wild Heir (Royal Romance #2)
» The Swedish Prince (Royal Romance #1)
» Nothing Personal (Karina Halle)
» My Life in Shambles
» The Warrior Queen (The Hundredth Queen #4)
» The Rogue Queen (The Hundredth Queen #3)
fantasy.readsbookonline.com Copyright 2016 - 2024