"You are cute and fluffy, but never forget, kid, that I'm a carnivore from a time and place where we had to kill and skin our food in order to eat it."

Nick's eyes widened as he tried to imagine Ash dressed like a Goth caveman in a studded black loincloth chasing down saber-tooth tigers and killing them with a spear.... Did they have saber-tooth tigers eleven thousand years ago?

Did people have loincloths or did they hunt naked?

Dang, his teachers were right. Some of that trivial crap could come in handy.

But that wasn't the point of this conversation. Nor the point of what Ash was telling him. "You just like to scare people, don't you?"

"As much as you like to annoy them and for the same exact reason."

It kept people from getting too close. Nick did it so that others wouldn't mock him or so that when they did, it didn't hurt as much.

What was Ash trying to protect himself from? It was definitely something to think about.

Ash pulled up to the curb in front of Nick's house, which looked all the more dilapidated after he'd been in Kyrian's neighborhood.

To Ash's credit, he didn't react to the ramshackle house in anyway.

Nick gave a low whistle as he saw a couple of people on the street stop and stare at the car. "Man, my neighbors must be freaking out. First I get picked up by a Lexus and now I'm being dropped off in a Porsche. It's a wonder they're not calling New Orleans' finest to report suspicious activity."

Ash scoffed as he turned the car off. "I think the LEOs have more important things to worry about tonight than the cars coming to your house."

Nick frowned at the word he didn't understand. "LEOs?"

"Law enforcement officers."

"Ah ... cool anagram."

"Acronym," Ash corrected. But this time when he spoke his accent was extremely thick with the first part of the word coming from deep and low in his throat—like a growl. It was a really cool sound.

"Wait... Say that word again."

"Acronym." And poof, Ash now sounded like anyone else on the street.

"That's so awesome that you can toss out your accent. How do you do that?"

"Lots of practice. Now if you don't mind, I need to dump you out so I can get down to my business."

"Which is?"

"Wrangling people ... which right now is you. Get out, Nick."

Nick opened the door and rolled out of the car. Ash grabbed his backpack and followed him up the short, crumbling walkway that was overgrown with grass and littered with pebbles.

Not to mention a few cockroaches that scattered out of his way. Some of them ran up under the plant Bubba had sent to him.

Trying not to think about the roaches, Nick barely made it into the door of his house before his mom threw it open and grabbed him into a tight hug. "Arm! Arm! Arm!" he said quickly as she hurt him.

She released him immediately. "I'm so sorry, Boo. I was just so scared and then to see you ... I could beat your butt blue, boy. Don't you ever worry me like that again. You hear me!"

Nick rubbed his hand over his injured arm, which was still stinging from her hug. "You know, I hear they have medication for those kind of vicious mood swings, Ma. Maybe you should consider taking some?"

She scoffed at him. "Don't you dare get lippy with me after what you've put me through today. You're lucky you're not grounded over this stunt. If you'd been any place other than work, you would be." She turned back toward the door to close it and froze as she saw Acheron on the porch. Her face went white as she took in the size of him.

"It's okay, Mom. He's a friend of Mr. Hunter's who brought me home."

Acheron held up Nick's backpack for her to see. "I was just carrying this in for him, Mrs. Gautier. Sorry I startled you."

His mom smiled as she caught herself gawking. "It's okay. I just..."

Ash smiled. "Yeah, I know. It's a hazard of the height and clothes. I tend to freak out a lot of people."

Not to mention that lethal aura that sizzled in the air around him. But Nick was beginning to get used to that.

"Do you work for Mr. Hunter too?" his mom asked.

Ash set his backpack down by the door. "No, ma'am. We're just old friends."

She smiled. "You don't look old enough to have old friends."

Nick snorted at her making the same assumption he had. "Trust me, Mom, he's a lot older than he looks."

"Well, thank you for bringing my baby home. I appreciate it."

"No problem." Acheron turned toward Nick. "Keep your nose clean, kid. I'll see you around."

"Thanks, Ash."

He inclined his head before he left.

His mom locked the door and moved Nick's backpack away from the threshold so that they wouldn't trip over it. "He's a bit peculiar, isn't he?"

"You don't know the half of it."

"So how did your first day with Mr. Hunter go?"

"It was all right." Aside from the zombies, Rosa's lunacy, and

Acheron, but no need to completely terrify her. Only one of them needed to freak out at a time.

"Good. Now I better get ready for work." She headed for her room.

Nick pulled her to a stop. "I don't think so."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I want you to quit tonight."

Sighing, she twisted her arm out of his hold. "Stop with the nonsense, Nick. You know I can't quit. We need the money."

"No, Ma, really. Mr. Hunter's going to pay me four thousand a month to work for him."

Her jaw went slack as her eyes narrowed in anger. "Doing what?"

"Running errands, like he said."

"Oh no, no, no. I'm not having any of that. No one pays that kind of money for running legal errands. I want you to quit first thing tomorrow."

"No, Mom. It's all legal. I promise."

Still she refused to believe him. "Not for that kind of money it's not. What kind of fool do you take me for? I wasn't born yesterday. I—"

"Mom, listen. Please. He really is loaded like you've never seen before. Ash told me that Kyrian thinks I'm underpaid. The guy has no concept of how much money he's paying me. Really."

"No one is that loaded, Nick, that they'd just throw forty-eight thousand dollars a year at a kid for running errands. Think about it."

A day ago, he'd have been right there with her. But after today... for some reason he believed in Kyrian and his intentions. "Yeah, he is. Trust me. I saw the house and you ain't never seen nothing like it. So you can quit dancing. I'll be making enough working part time that you won't have to do anything but stay home." Just like they'd always dreamed of.

His mom hesitated. "I don't know."

"Please, Mom. Trust me."

Her features softened as she cupped his cheek in her hand. "Tell you what. You work for him for a couple of weeks and after you get your first paycheck then we'll see, okay?"

Nick curled his lip as he realized her tactic. She was shutting him down and not really listening to a word he said. "Why don't you believe me?"

"I think you misunderstood him."

"I didn't."

She brushed his hair back from his face. "We'll see, Nick. We'll see."

God, he hated that tone she used. It was so condescending and what she was actually saying is that he didn't know what he was talking about. He wasn't stupid.

Whatever. He was too disgusted to keep arguing when it was obviously futile.

She went to go dress. "I left you some eggs and cheese on the stove in case you're hungry."

Nick cringed at her words. He should have thought to bring her some of Rosa's gumbo. She wouldn't have forgotten about him.

Next time ...

"I'm full if you want some more. Kyrian's housekeeper fed me about an hour ago." "Was it good?" she called from her room. "Yeah."

She poked her head out of the door. "Better than my cooking?"

He started to say yes, which was the truth, but self- preservation kicked in. He'd made the mistake of saying Menyara made better biscuits once and his mom hadn't taken it well. "No. No one's gumbo can touch yours."

She winked at him before she closed the door.

Nick let out a relieved breath that he'd sailed past that land mine without getting his butt kicked over it. It wasn't often he passed those tests. I'm getting better at dealing w'th women.

Today his mom. Tomorrow an actual girlfriend....

Like Kody.

Maybe I should call her? Since he hadn't seen her at school, he still had her Nintendo in his pocket.

You knowyou dont have her number.

Oh yeah. That was a problem. One he'd fix first thing tomorrow when he went to school. And this time, he wouldn't wuss out. He'd actually ask her to go have beignets with him.

Nick headed to the counter and picked up his worn-out copy of Hammer's Slammers, then headed to his room to read. He was just skipping ahead to where he left off last night when his mom pushed back the blanket.

"I'm heading out. You need anything before I go?"

"I'm good."

"Okay. Mennie said she'd come by later and check on you. I'll be home a little after dawn."

Nick set his book down as he thought about her taking the streetcars to and from work while more zombies could be out on the street. His mom would barely be a snack for them. "Would you mind if I went in to work with you tonight?"

"You need to rest."

"Yeah, but with all this weird sh—" He caught himself before he said something she'd ground him over."—stuff going on, I'd feel better if you weren't by yourself."

A slow smile spread across her beautiful face. "You going to be my protector?"

"That's my job, isn't it?"

"All right. Grab a jacket and I'll tell Mennie."

Nick did as she ordered. She didn't often let him go to the club on school nights, but he'd meant what he said. He didn't like his mom out by herself. New Orleans could be dangerous on its best nights and since she was all he had ...

He'd guard her with every breath in his body.

By the time he had his jacket on over his bad arm and had reached the porch, Mennie was outside with her.

"Why don't you borrow my car, chere?"

His mom hesitated. "You know I don't like being responsible for other people's property. Besides, it's hard and expensive to park it in the Quarter. Bourbon Street's already blocked off."

"Then park it on Royal. Please, Cherise. I'd feel better if you two weren't roaming the streets in the wee hours of the night by yourselves. Think of poor Nicky."

His mom looked at him before she nodded.

Menyara handed her the keys, then kissed Nick on the cheek. "You watch over your mom."

"Always."

His mom smiled at her. "I'll leave the keys on the counter so that you can get them in the morning." "Sounds good."

His mom turned and led him down the steps to where Menyara's dark blue Taurus waited next to their beat-up red Yugo that needed repairs they couldn't afford at present. Nick got in first. It was weird to be in Mennie's car without her. Normally they only rode in it whenever there was a hurricane coming and they needed to evacuate when their own car was broken down.

Or Nick needed stitches.

Not wanting to think about that, he buckled himself in while his mom started the car.

She ruffled his hair. "You know, since I have the car, you could stay home."

"Nope. You still have to walk from Royal to Bourbon."

She shook her head. "Myfierce little bulldog."

"I'm bigger than you."

"I'm meaner."

She always said that, but it wasn't true. His mom was the kindest person he'd ever met. It was one of the reasons why he was so protective of her. In many ways, she was still a doe-eyed innocent who only saw the good in people.

Impossible to believe, but she even defended his dad and there really was nothing good to be said about that man. He was like the devil himself.

Closing his eyes, he listened to the zydeco playing low on the car radio. That and Elvis were his mom's favorite kinds of music. Zydeco, she said, because it spoke to her Cajun roots. Elvis because it reminded her of being a little girl and playing with her cousins and sister. Apparently they used to get together and try to out-Elvis each other. And that thought made him grimace as the Mojo Nixon song "Elvis Is Everywhere" started echoing in his head—it'd take him days to get that to stop torturing him.