Caleb opened his door and got out to talk to him. "Hey, Virg."

Virgil eyebal ed them while they stayed in the car. There was an insidious air about him ... but that could just be the evil lawyer funk. "What exactly do you need me to do?" Caleb glanced at Nick before he answered. "You know the kid who tried to eat his cla.s.smate this morning at St.

Richard's?"

"Yeah?"

"We need you to shock him with a cattle prod and tel us what happens."

Keeping his lips closed, Virgil laughed-until he realized Caleb wasn't joking. He sobered instantly. "Why?"

"We think we have a cure for his zombie programming." Virgil's face went through a myriad of emotions.

Astonishment, puzzlement, and final y an expression that said he thought they were al short a few monkeys in their cage.

"You're out of your mind, aren't you?"

"No, seriously. The kid who programmed the game that turned him into a zombie is in the car." Caleb pointed at Madaug, who waved at Virgil.

Virgil frowned at Caleb. "It's a program that turned him? Not magick?"

"Nope, not magick."

"Too bad. There are a lot of people out there who would've kil ed for a potion. I could have made you rich." Caleb shrugged. "They'l have to find another way to make living zombies. In the meantime, we want to make sure that the ones we've turned back to human actual y had direct contact with the game. The only one the kid knows played it for sure is the one sitting in jail right now. We gotta make sure this works." He pa.s.sed the cattle prod to Virgil. "Warning, don't touch yourself with it. It's not low voltage like it's supposed to be. Bubba rigged it so that it actual y lets loose over a mil ion volts."

"Al right," Virgil said slowly. "Let me make sure I have this straight. ... The award-winning plan of intel igence that al ye brainiacs came up with is that I take an il egal, modified cattle prod into parish lockup, past the people armed with guns who are trained to kil , find a kid who's waiting to be arraigned for an attempted murder trial, and shock him until he turns normal again. Anything else?"

"Nope. That'l do it."

Virgil let out a slow breath as he eyed the cattle prod with a doubtful stare. "You seriously owe me."

"I know."

Without another word, Virgil headed for the front of the building.

Nick was dying to see this miracle up close and personal.

"Hey, Bubba? Can you unlock the door? I need a rest stop."

"Sure."

Nick slid out of the SUV and made his way to the building to scope things out. Inside it, there were cops everywhere. No duh. Right? But what stood out most was the metal detectors.

There was no way Virgil was going to get through al that without getting shot.

This ought to be entertaining.

Nick had just got into position when Virgil waltzed in like he owned the place. Several officers greeted him and acted as if they didn't see the cattle prod at al . In fact, Virgil fed it through the belt scanner before he walked through the upright one-al the while talking to the officers.

He was putting his shoes on when the cattle prod came out.

One of the officers picked it up and held it out to Virgil.

"Don't forget your umbrel a, Mr. Ward."

"Thanks, Cabal. I know it's not supposed to rain, but I believe in always being prepared."

"I hear you. Especial y here in N'awlins. You never know when a downpour's going to hit. As I always say, you don't like the weather? Wait a minute."

Laughing, Virgil took the cattle prod and headed for the hal way.

Nick was aghast as Virgil disappeared from his sight without anyone saying anything about his weapon.

You know, if I did that, they'd body slam me down and shoot me in the head for good measure.

Stunned by what he'd seen, Nick made his way back to the SUV where the others were waiting.

Bubba arched a brow at him. "That was quick." Nick buckled himself into his seat. "I mostly wanted to see if Virgil made it past security."

Caleb looked smug, but didn't say anything.

"And?" Mark asked.

"Don't ask me how, but he did. They didn't even see it. It was like the cattle prod was invisible or something." Bubba frowned. "How?"

Simi let out a peeved huff. "He's a vampire, demon, human people. Jeez, didn't any of you notice?" Mark scoffed, "Most lawyers are. Ain't never met one yet what wasn't a bloodsucker or a soulsucker. Of course, in my case, they're all money suckers." Caleb's phone started ringing. He picked it up and answered it. "Yeah?" He listened for a second, then said, "Wait. I'm putting you on speaker." He switched it on. "Now repeat what you just told me."

"What the hel 's in this cattle prod? I about launched the kid through the wal ."

Caleb snorted. "Not that part, Virgil. Move on."

"Okay, I shocked him and now's he's squal ing like a girl, wanting his mommy. He says he has no idea of how he got here. I asked him about biting the kid and he has no idea what I'm talking about. Best of al , he's no longer trying to eat my brains, which have to be missing for me to agree to this. So to answer your experiment, I think it works." Bubba looked skeptical. "Can we trust his report?"

"You do know I can hear you, right?" Virgil's tone was irritated.

"Yeah," Bubba drawled, "and I repeat, can we trust you?"

"Wel , since I don't have a dog in this fight, yeah. Why would I lie? Not that I'm not beyond those ethics. I ful y believe in whatever lie wil set me free. But in this case, I'm being honest. The kid's now clean. Listen for yourself. ... "

"I want to go home. Why am I here? I don't understand what happened. ... "

Caleb turned the speaker off. "Thanks, Virgil. I'l get the payment to you later." He paused, then looked at Mark and Bubba. "You guys need your cattle prod back?"

"Absolutely," Mark said. "We got some people to shock." Caleb nodded, then spoke into the phone. "If you don't mind, please bring it back to us."

Virgil appeared before he could hang up the phone.

This time, Nick was the one who jumped as Bubba got out to return the cattle prod to the back of the SUV.

Virgil eyed Nick closely as he studied him through the truck window. "Don't I know you?"

Nick shook his head as a strange chil went over his body that made his skin crawl. Virgil definitely wasn't what he seemed. "I don't think so."

Caleb cleared his throat.

Virgil glanced over at him and something strange pa.s.sed between them. When he turned his attention back to Nick, his look was guarded and cold. "Nice to meet you, Nick."

"How do you know my name?"

Virgil didn't answer. "I better get back. I have night court in an hour and don't want to miss it. My first case is a doozie: Some guy beat up another on Bourbon with a hot dog before he tried to kil his victim by drowning him in a puddle." He literal y vanished.

Bubba turned around in the seat to stare at Caleb.

"Interesting friend you got there."

"You have no idea."

Mark scratched at his ear. "We need to let Tabitha and crew know how to fight them."

Madaug fished his phone out and pressed the auto dial for his brother. "I'm on it."

Bubba pul ed out of the parking s.p.a.ce and headed back to the store. "Al right, we have half the equation. We know we can turn them human again. But the question is, how are so many getting their hands on the game?"

Mark shook his head. "Someone else has to be disseminating it."

Nick scowled at the unfamiliar word. "Dis-a what?"

"Disseminating," Mark repeated. "It means distributing it."

"Then why didn't you say that?"

Mark looked at Bubba. "Remind me to get him a word-of-the-day calendar." Then he pinned Nick with a shaming stare over the back of the seat. "You need to up your vocabulary, boy. You can't walk around letting people think you're stupid.

Expand your horizons. Besides, it's fun to cal people names they have to look up to realize they've been insulted." Bubba laughed. "Yeah, that's a twofer there. You get away with it and then they're twice as mad when they realize how bad you real y insulted them. Especial y if they mistake it for a compliment when you say it and thank you for it."

"And," Caleb jumped in, "those insults keep you from getting grounded by your mom."

You know, they al had very valid points.

"And best of al , it'l help you with your SATs," Madaug said as he hung up the phone- he would think of that. He looked at Mark. "Eric and the zoo crew are heading to the store for supplies. Do y'al have enough stun guns for them?" Bubba bristled as if Madaug had insulted him. "Does a bear defecate rural y? What kind of question is that for someone who owns the biggest gun store in town? Of course I got plenty. I got enough Tasers to light up New York City and Boston just for giggles."

Good, 'cause Nick had a feeling they might be needing them.

Ambrose grabbed the bookcase and slammed it to the ground, spil ing the ancient books he'd careful y col ected for centuries across the floor of his stygian office. It probably destroyed a few of them, but at this point, he real y didn't care.

Rage burned through him with the power of a thousand suns so raw and potent that he could taste it.

"Why can't I stop it?" he snarled. Why, with al the powers he'd mastered, al the elements he control ed, couldn't he prevent a mere fourteen-year-old boy from being an idiot? No matter what he did, certain events kept unfolding.

And he wanted blood.

He felt a calm, soothing hand on his cheek, covering his bow-and-arrow mark that she'd given him during a time so long ago he should have no memory of it. Yet it was forever carved deep in his mind. More beautiful than any other, Artemis, G.o.ddess of the hunt, put al women to shame. Her long red hair flowed to her tiny waist, which was accentuated by the white Grecian gown she wore. "Shhh ... You shouldn't work yourself up to such a frizzy."

His anger tripled. "The word is frenzy," he corrected.

Because of the differences between the English he spoke and her native ancient Greek, she constantly screwed up sayings and col oquialisms.

"What are you doing here, Artemis?" he demanded.

"I'm trying to calm you down, love. You shouldn't do this to yourself. It pains me to see you suffer like this." And that dark power inside him wanted to strike out at her and make her beg for his mercy. It was an al -demanding power that was getting harder and harder to fight.

Soon there would be no way back from it. It would consume him and he would become his father. A mindless kil ing machine that lacked al compa.s.sion and humanity. A machine that wanted to end everything.

Kil everyone.

Ambrose stared at the wal , where he saw himself as a boy.

Nick Gautier had no idea how the random smal decisions he was making right now would turn him into the beast Ambrose had become.

I have to save myself.

More than that, he had to save the ones he loved. Before it was too late.

But how?

G.o.d, how could I have been so stupid, even at four teen? It was so hard to look back and see the faces of his friends and loved ones, especial y since he knew what would become of them if he didn't alter history. It cut so deep that it alone was almost enough to make him insane.

How do I stop it?

Ambrose turned to Artemis. He hated her. She, like Acheron, had played a major role in turning him into the Malachai.

No, Nick, you did that to yourself.

But it was so much easier to blame them. They had made it so easy for him to make the wrong decisions. Decisions he was now trying to unmake before he lost the ability to care.

Sighing in frustration, he met Artemis's gaze. The gaze of the woman who'd brought him back from the dead and unleashed his powers. Powers he was now trying to unlock earlier in his life. Had he possessed some of them as a kid, he could have saved the ones who were most important to him.

He could have saved his mom. ...

Nick flinched as he forced that memory away and turned his thoughts to something he'd said to himself earlier. "Who is Nekoda?"

Artemis gave him a blank stare. "Never heard of him."

"Her, Artie. It's a girl."

One of her perfect brows shot up as jealousy darkened her green eyes. "What kind of girl?"

"I don't know. Nick knows her."