Yeah, but as a kid, he’d heard her crying enough times in the late-night hours that she couldn’t do better for him than their run-down rented duplex—that the only job she could find was stripping. “My baby deserves so much better than this.” Meanwhile her parents had lived in a nice home in Kenner and had money to burn. But they’d disowned her the minute she’d become pregnant with him. His mother had sacrificed everything to keep her son—her dignity and her future. And though she cried at night that she couldn’t give him the things she thought a boy should have, by day, she was the best mom anyone could have hoped for.

Since the minute he was born, it had been the two of them against the world.

“You’ve always taken care of me, Mom. It’s my turn to take care of you. I got a big house cause one day I’m going to give you enough grandkids to fill it full.”

Nick winced as he swore he heard her laughter on the wind right before she’d dashed into the house to inspect it. And as he stood there with his memories, rain began pouring down on him, soaking him to the bone.

All he could think about now was the night he’d found his mother dead in that chair in the library.…

Unrelenting pain and grief tore through him with talons made of steel. They shredded every part of him.

How could she be gone, and by such vicious means? Her throat had been ripped out and her body drained of blood. His mother had been a tiny, frail woman. Delicate.

Defenseless.

And she was all he’d ever had.

“I can give you vengeance.”

That had been Stryker’s promise to him. The Daimon lord had told him that if Nick gave him information against Acheron and the other Dark-Hunters and the Squires who served them, then Stryker would give him the power he needed to kill Ash.

That was all Nick wanted now.

Suddenly, he heard Ash’s voice in his head. “You know, Nick. I envy you your mother. She’s one hell of a lady. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her.”

He glared up at the dark clouds. “Why did you let her die, Ash?” he snarled under his breath. “God damn you!” But in his heart, he knew who was really to blame for all of this, and that hurt even more. If only he’d been a better son. A better friend. None of this would have happened.

He’d been the one who had signed on to this world where danger was an intrinsic part. Had he just told his mother the truth, then she wouldn’t have gone home that night with a Daimon. She would be safe now and happy.