CHAPTER 3

Ready to battle, Nick stood up on the bleachers as two of Satan’s plague doctors came up to sniff at him while four more hung back, unseen and undetected, to float around his classmates like freaked-out Kabuki dancers. The one thing he’d learned over the last couple of years while dealing with preters was to be ready for anything.

But don’t start nothing with them until you had to.

Though to be honest, it was really hard to not shove them out of his personal space. Especially when they practically buried their wrapped, bloody beaks in his armpits.

Not to mention the other no-zone of his body they were headed for.

“Nick, don’t move.”

He saw Kody’s ethereal form on his right. What are these things? he projected his thoughts to her.

“Zeitjägers.”

I just love it, cher, when you say things like I ought to know what they are.

One of them rudely poked his shoulder.

He barely caught himself before he taught the hideous thing some manners.

“Just relax, Nick. I don’t think they’re here for you.”

Don’t think or don’t know?

Before Kody could answer, Ms. Pantall stood up to glare at him from the lowest bench. “Nick? Do you have a problem?”

He slid his gaze to the huge sickle that was still coated with the blood of the last victim the demons on each side of him had beheaded. That blood was also smeared all over the bandages and clothes wrapped around the two of them and dripping onto the bleachers.

Yeah, he had two very big, ugly problems.

Unfortunately, his teacher couldn’t see either of those problems or the sickles they carried. Probably a good thing she didn’t see the blood, for that matter.Nick tried to stay as still as possible. Maybe they were like bulls and only attacked things that moved. “No, ma’am. Just having some growing pains. Trying to stretch them out a bit.”

“Sit your butt down, Gautier, or you’ll be running drills during practice till you drop!”

Nick cringed at Coach Heffron’s sharp bellow. “Yes, sir.”

One of the demons pointed at Nick’s foul orange shirt and made a noise that sounded suspiciously like laughter before it stepped back and they moved away from him. Great. Even the seriously jacked-up horror movie rejects mocked his wardrobe.

Thanks, Mom. My future therapist will appreciate the business.

Torn between being relieved and offended, Nick sat down.

Kody’s astral projection moved to sit next to him. “You okay?”

He gave a subtle nod. Just a little offended. So … what’s a zeitjäger? And do they have anything to do with Caleb’s sudden onset of projectile vomiting?

“I doubt they have anything to do with Caleb’s sickness. My fear is that they might be here for you and they don’t know it yet.”

Meaning?

“They’re time sentinels, Nick. They guard it, monitor it, protect it, and punish those who abuse it.”

Another bad feeling went through him as she said that. “Is that why I haven’t heard anything from Ambrose?” Ambrose was his future self who had tricked and killed a demon to steal enough power that he could come back in time and try to save the life of his mother and change his destiny so that he didn’t destroy the world.