Free Inferno by Sherrilyn Kenyon Page A

jumped in front of the car.”
    “It was on the curb, Nick,” Ash said drily. “Along with a number of screaming pedestrians, running for their lives.”
    “That’s your story. I’m sticking to mine.… And there ought to be a law about homicidal trash cans, and fines for the people who put them on the street. They’re really dangerous.… Just saying.”
    Kyrian shook his head. “And you wonder why I haven’t volunteered to teach him how to drive?”
    “I know why you haven’t volunteered. I, on the other hand, need a psych eval for being so stupid.”
    “No comment, for I have never been quite so stupid as to intentionally insult you .” Kyrian pegged Nick with a grimace. “So, kid, did you get—”
    “Right here, boss.” Knowing what Kyrian wanted without his finishing the sentence, Nick pulled the RAM out of his pocket. “I’m going to install it first thing. I also texted Kell about your boots and he said that his Squire mailed them back yesterday, but it’ll be a week on your sword. He’s waiting for a shipment of the titanium he uses to smelt the blades. So then, I checked with Liza to see what she had in inventory. She said that she has a smaller short sword if you want to try it while you wait for your replacement. If you’re interested, I can pick that up before you head out tonight, and I asked Kell to make four more swords as backups so that you won’t have to wait in the future should your primary and secondary get busted.”
    Kyrian inclined his head to Acheron. “Worth every penny of his salary.”
    “Yeah, I’m thinking about cloning him. We could make a killing selling Nick PAs.”
    Kyrian laughed, then gave a nod to Nick. “I shall leave you to your duties and go work out until the sun goes down. If you’d like to join me in a bit, I can show you more sword-fighting techniques.”
    And with that, he quit the room.
    Acheron returned to their previous discussion. “So, is there any demon you wanted to know about in particular?”
    Don’t do it.
    But before his common sense could prevail over his stupidity, he blurted out the one thing he wanted to know most. “Ever heard of a Malachai?”
    Acheron’s jaw went slack, thus confirming he had more than a working knowledge of Nick’s species. “Where did you hear that term?”
    Yeah, okay, it was a touchy subject for Acheron, too.
    “The demon at my school mentioned one. You know anything about them?”
    “More than I want to.”
    “Meaning?”
    Ash did what he did best—he diverted a personal question into a generic one. “A Malachai is one of the oldest demons in existence. There’s only one left, so it’s not likely you’ll ever come across him.”
    If only he was that lucky.
    Now to test exactly how much knowledge Ash had of Nick and his father. “Do you know where he is?”
    Acheron shook his head. “No one does. He escaped from his master centuries ago and has been in hiding ever since.”
    Nick had to give his father credit. He might be a first-rate jerk, but he knew how to shield himself.
    “Do you know how he came into being?”
    Ash frowned. “You seem to be a little more than just passingly curious.”
    “I am. I want to know why the demon was talking about him. Is there something really special about a Malachai?”
    “Yeah, if you want to seriously mangle people or end the world as we know it, he’s the one to summon. He was the first of the demonic destroyers and his breed fathered many of the subsequent and best-known evil demons. Luckily, none of the children possess the powers of their fathers. Rather, they’re all watered-down versions of the Malachai.”
    “Really?” That wasn’t what Nick had been told.
    Ash nodded. “The only exception is the original Malachai bloodline. The firstborn alone can father a child even more powerful than he is.”
    All right, that explained Nick’s powers and why they were so dangerous.
    “Do you know why?” Nick asked.
    “Not really. But I suspect it has to do