“He’s right,” Mr. Head said as he pushed through the nosy onlookers. “Don’t move, Nick. Just lie still till they get here. Last thing we need’s a lawsuit.”

Double awesome. More hospital bills. At this rate, he was going to be indentured to the insurance company for the rest of his natural life.

Grinding his teeth, he met Kody’s worried gaze. He didn’t really have a heart condition, and they both knew it. His early childhood health problems had stemmed from his human body rejecting the demonic parts of his DNA. He was a freak of nature who should have never survived his father’s biological gifts.

“Guys, I really do feel fine.” He met Bubba’s gaze. “C’mon, Triple Threat. Let my Nicky go.”

“I’m not chancing it. Nor am I facing your mama without a thorough screening from a licensed doc. I happen to value and appreciate all my body parts being in their current locations.”

Nick groaned in agony as he regretted ever allowing Bubba to take his mom out on a date. They’d only gone out once, but since then, Bubba had assumed the role of Nick guardianship with a terrifying iron grip. “Then please don’t call her. Go get her and take her to the hospital to meet me. She’ll be too tore up to drive and I don’t want her out in this mess alone. She drives bad enough as it is.”

“Mark’s with her. I’ll have him drive her over while I follow the ambulance.”

Nick gaped at the mere suggestion. “Are you nuts? Have you seen the way that man drives? He’s worse than she is. I don’t know what loon approved his license, but dang! I swear he found it in the bottom of a cereal box. And he took lessons from Mario and Luigi.”

Snorting, Bubba pulled out his cell phone to call Mark and tell him what had happened.

Before Nick could continue his protests, the EMTs arrived. Kody stepped back so that they could check his vitals. With the exception of a fever, they confirmed that there was nothing wrong with him. But because of his heart condition, they insisted that he go in for more testing.

It was so frustrating.

And scary since there was always a chance that they might actually uncover something “abnormal” about him. Something that could land him locked in a lab somewhere for testing since he was about as abnormal as any X-Men could be.

Of course, it didn’t help any that he had a new hell-monkey best friend in that one of the zeitjägers decided to hitch a ride with them as they took Nick to the ambulance and closed the doors.

Why did that have to be his new psycho stalker? Couldn’t there by a supermodel somewhere, obsessed with gawky teenage boys with bad wardrobes and velcro-mother issues?

What did it want with him, anyway? And why couldn’t anyone else see it?

He stared at the hell-monkey.

The hell-monkey zeitjäger twisted the sickle in his hand and stared back.