Inferno by Sherrilyn Kenyon Read Free Book Online Page A

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    “How’s it been at school?” Dr. Burdette asked as she went to lean against the counter not far from Nick. “Did they make that girl do her public apology yet?”
    Nick flinched at the question. Dina Quattlebaum had been Brynna’s best friend since they started school together. They’d always been close and inseparable until Dina got her feelings hurt over something ridiculous, and had conjured a demon that had wreaked havoc on the entire school. Dina had maliciously ruined several students’ reputations, including Brynna’s. But worse than even that, Dina had accused Nick of attacking her—something that had landed Nick in jail and then caused her father to go Babe Ruth on him … which was what Dr. Burdette had referred to earlier when she talked about patching him up. The man had almost killed him.
    Luckily, the truth had come out before any real harm had been done, but the fallout was still a nasty thing they were all having to deal with at school. As the old saying went, lies traveled much faster than the truth and the truth never caught up with a lie. He was finding that out in a wicked way.
    “She gave her apology first thing this morning, and then they took her to jail for all the stuff she did.”
    Dr. Burdette shook her head. “That’s a darn shame. I hate to see someone so young ruin their life for something as stupid as jealousy.”
    “Yes, ma’am. Me, too.” Nick paid for the RAM. But as he reached to take it, something painful stabbed him right between his eyes.
    He sucked his breath in sharply.
    Bubba frowned. “You okay?”
    Nick nodded, then shook his head. “Got a weird feeling all of a sudden.”
    Dr. Burdette stepped around the counter to look at him. “What kind of feeling?”
    “Dizzy and … I don’t know. Just weird.”
    She cupped his chin in her hand and angled his head down so she could study his features while she pressed the back of her other hand against his forehead. “When was the last time you ate something?”
    “Lunch.”
    “And a bag of chips about an hour ago,” Caleb added. “Nick doesn’t ever miss a meal or a snack.”
    Without responding to Caleb’s dry tone, she pulled a penlight out of her pocket. “Come on to the back and let me take a better look at you.”
    “Ma, he’s fine.”
    She cast Bubba an evil glare. “Michael, I have noticed that none of them fancy MIT doctorates you hold are in medicine. So if you don’t mind … I don’t tell you how to fix computers and do quantum physics or explain string theory, and you don’t tell me how the body works and what I need to be looking at when a former patient goes pale for no apparent reason.”
    “Yes, ma’am,” Bubba said, standing down.
    Nick started for the back, then stumbled.
    Bubba caught him and all but carried him to a chair. “Hey, boy? You all right?”
    Nodding, Nick tried to get his bearings, but everything spun with a vicious frenzy. It was like time had slipped out of sync or something. Everything moved slow and fast at the same time. He heard the voices of the ether whispering all around him. Some were threatening and some were shrill. Together, they made a cacophony so confusing that it only made his dizziness worse.
    All of a sudden, through the spinning haze, he smelled something absolutely foul. It was so bad, he choked and coughed. Hard.
    But it brought everything into sharp focus. Bubba, Caleb, Dr. Burdette, and Mark were huddled around him.
    Mark pulled his hand back from Nick’s face. “See! Duck urine isn’t just zombie cover, it doubles as smelling salts.”
    Nick coughed even harder, then cleared his throat. “That’s the nastiest crap on the planet, Mark. Please don’t ever do that again. I’d rather you shock me … or shoot me, even.”
    “Yeah,” Mark said with a twisted laugh, “but it worked, didn’t it?”
    Nick screwed his face up in distaste while Dr. Burdette tilted his head back and passed the light over his eyes.
    “You’re a