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his age, his mother had been out on her own with a baby. Kyrian had been a veteran Greek soldier, fighting against Roman occupation. And who knew what all Grim had been in to at his age.
    For all of his mom’s acting like he was mentally defective and couldn’t tie his own shoes, he’d been taking care of her most of his life. Helping pay bills. Doing chores. Watching out for her. Helping Menyara with her car.
    Over the last year, he’d been shot and had battled preternatural enemies from every corner. The only people who didn’t treat him like a five-year-old were Kyrian and Acheron.
    And Grim.
    If you want respect from others, you have to give it. His mother’s words came back to haunt him. Sobering, he gave a curt nod to Grim. “All right. You have my undivided attention.”
    “That’ll last three seconds,” Grim said under his breath. “Honestly, if I didn’t know better, I’d swear you’re not the Malachai. It mystifies me that something as worthless as you could have any power whatsoever. You were born white trash and that’s all you’ll ever be.” He raked Nick with a scathing sneer. “You’re nothing.”
    Rage darkened Nick’s gaze. Blood rushed through his veins so fast that his entire body heated up to the level of molten lava. “I ain’t nothing , boy. You about to find out just what I can do.”
    Grim laughed. “That’s it. I finally do have your attention, and you’ve just learned the first lesson of influence. You use your divination and clairvoyance to strike the nerves of the person you’re trying to manipulate. Even someone with a will as strong as yours can be influenced. Not with your mind, rather with your mouth or actions. I can’t control you, but I can set you off and manipulate you to have the emotional or physical response I want you to. That is one power no one is immune to.”
    Nick scowled as he tried to understand all the nuances of Grim’s lesson. “You didn’t mean what you said?”
    “Oh, I meant it. But I used your triggers to get the response I wanted. However, what I did wasn’t subtle. It’s the subtle you have to master, and that is what will make you truly dangerous. The best influence is always the one that goes undetected. The one that your target thinks was their idea.”
    “It sounds impossible.”
    “You would think, but it’s not. People are very simple, and you’ll be amazed at how easy they are to sway, no matter who they are or where they come from.”
    And Nick didn’t like how easy it’d been for Grim to rile him. Kyrian, Menyara and his mom were right. He was way too hotheaded for his own good. “Is there any way to detect it when someone is trying to use it on me?”
    Grim nodded.
    “Then teach me, Great Master. For I don’t want to be nobody’s bitch.”
    A dark light shined inside Grim’s spooky eyes. “Aw, Nicky-baby, therein is the problem. Sooner or later, we’re all somebody’s bitch. And there’s a power heading for you right now that is going to test every part of you. One you’re not going to see coming until it pins you to the wall and guts you. Oh happy day for me, eh?”

CHAPTER 2
    Nick grimaced as Stone Blakemore drove his over-developed muscular shoulder into Nick’s in the hallway of his high school. Pain exploded down his arm, making him want to pummel the beast with his two-hundred-pound backpack until Stone begged him for mercy.
    “Watch where you’re going, trailer park!” Stone snapped as he shoved at Nick and kept walking toward his locker. Stone’s pack of ubiquitous idiots followed in his wake, laughing about it. Yeah, okay, ’cause running into a guy in the hallway was such a hoot. Oh to have the intellect of a Cro-Mag so that something as innocuous as picking belly lint could be amusing.…
    Nick turned to answer that insult with one of his own, but that thought fled as Nekoda appeared in front of him from out of the crowd. Dressed in a tight cream sweater and jeans with her brown hair pulled into