Illusion: Chronicles of Nick Read Online Free PDF

weren’t?
    Totally twisted.
    For now, though, he’d go with it. Not like he had any other choice.
    He got out of the car and waited on the curb while Selena locked the doors. As they walked around the corner and neared the shop entrance, a weird sense of déjà vu hit him. Hard.
    One of the last things they’d done before he’d been sucked out of his realm was to come here and buy the items Caleb needed for the binding spell they’d used on Nick’s powers.
    The minute Nick had entered that store, all heck had broken out into the longest night of his life. Now, it seemed like a lifetime ago.
    How could so much happen in such a short span of time? But then that was life.
    The hits just keep on coming.…
    Selena led the way into the neat pink and purple store that was identical to the one from his world. Right down to the green shutters and dark shelving that held Voodoo dolls, spells, oils, perfumes, soaps, wangas, and all manner of things.
    “Hey, Tab!” Selena shouted so loud, it made Nick jump. She frowned at his reaction. “You ought to see a doc about that nervous disorder, buddy. Reflexes like that, you must have been a cat in a former life. Congrats on evolving.”
    He didn’t respond as he eyed the large Voodoo altar on his left that had been set up for the goddess Erzulie the store had been named for. Last night, Selena’s aunt had threatened his body parts if he touched it or any of the offerings that lined it and the floor around it.
    Tabitha most likely wouldn’t give a warning shot. She’d just geld him.
    And speak of the devil, she came out of the back room. Only she was much more sedate. Gone was the Queen of the Damned-and-Emo and in her place was a woman in a muted blue sweater and jeans.
    She brushed a hand through her dark auburn hair. “Tabby isn’t here. She and Tia ran off to the rock shop for some new shipment they”—she made air quotes with her fingers—“had to see.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s another box of rocks. Really. What is it with you whackadoodles?”
    “You must be Amanda,” Nick said without thinking.
    She narrowed a suspicious gaze on him. “Yeah. And you are…?”
    “Friend of the whackadoodles,” Selena answered before he could speak. “Ignore the kid in front of the altar.”
    “Not a problem. I’ve got plenty of work to do in back. I’m teaching myself to make a Voodoo doll of Tabby I can stab with pins.”
    Selena scoffed at her. “That won’t work.”
    “Won’t stop me from trying. I obviously adore futility, as I’ve struggled to talk sanity into the lot of you for almost thirty years now.” Amanda returned to the back room. “Don’t touch anything and get cursed while I’m not out front to stop you.”
    Strangely amused by Tabitha’s twin, Nick met Selena’s perturbed grimace. “What now?”
    She didn’t answer as she began pulling things off the shelves and placing them in a small wicker basket that she’d picked up from the stack of them by the register.
    “Are you making a potion?”
    Selena held a wrapped package up to smell it before she added it to her stash. “No, I’m out of soap and perfume at home. My aunt makes sure that only the best ingredients go into hers and they’re all natural.”
    Ah …
    Nick glanced to the door and windows, and remembered Mark and Bubba fighting demons and a Hel Hound from the night before. Gah, it was so strange to be here where no one knew his real life. Knew what he’d been through.
    Maybe I am crazy . Maybe this was his real life and the other a delusion. Kind of like The Wizard of Oz. Maybe the demon Caleb was just a manifestation of the boy he’d grown up with and Nick’s subconscious had demonized him for eating a slice of Nick’s pizza or something.
    Could happen.
    Certainly made a lot more sense than Nick had jumped realities for no reason while he slept.
    What is reality, anyway? Really? Was it what he knew or what he thought he knew?
    Man, a guy could seriously lose his mind