Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon

jingled as she angled the cake for him to see her beautiful handwriting. “It’s your favorite, cher . We’re so glad you’re home.”
    Nick blushed as his gaze went from her to the rest of the dancers who worked with his mom who’d come over for his party. Even John and Greg, two of the bouncers from the club, were here.
    They were clapping and smiling at him, making him extremely uncomfortable with the attention as they congratulated him on being a hero.
    Funny, he felt more like a fraud.
    Menyara put the cake down on the counter for him. “C’mon, cher, and blow out the candles before they ruin your beautiful cake.”
    He always loved the lilt of Menyara’s Creole accent whenever she spoke. A voodoo priestess and midwife, Aunt Mennie, as he cal ed her, was also his godmother and his mother’s best friend.
    She’d been the one who’d brought him into this world and who’d taken his mom in after her parents had tossed her out.
    When he’d been too young to go to the club with his mom, Mennie had been the one who kept him. For that alone, he’d do anything in the world for her.
    “Thanks, everyone,” he muttered as he went to the cake and blew out the candles.
    His mom stood behind him with her hand on his uninjured shoulder. “We’re al so proud of you, baby.”
    “That’s right.” Greg, a huge bear of a man with long brown hair and pockmarked skin, stepped forward to hand him a box. “We took up a col ection for you at the club. Hope you like it.”
    Their kindness touched him. It felt more like a birthday than a return home from the hospital.
    Ripping the box open, he found a Street Fighter video game and a T-shirt that said: nick gautier. superhero of the day.
    Nick didn’t have the heart to tel them that he didn’t have a gaming system here. Any more than he could tel them that he hadn’t been a hero. He’d only been trying to make something right that he’d let go terribly wrong.
    “Thanks, everyone. I real y appreciate it.” Tiffany stepped around Greg and pul ed an envelope out of the box. “You forgot this.”
    Nick handed the box to his mom before he took the envelope, but since his left arm was stil in a sling, he couldn’t open it.
    “Here, child.” Menyara took it and opened it for him.
    He gaped as he saw five twenty-dol ar bil s in her hand.
    “What’s that for?”
    Tiffany smiled. “Your col ege fund. We know it’s not much, but it’l cover most of the days of work you missed while you were in the hospital.”
    He looked at his mom, who was smiling in gratitude. But he didn’t feel grateful. He felt weird about it, especial y knowing how hard al of them worked for it. “I can’t take this.” John snorted. “Take it. Don’t make me have to whup your butt and put you back in the hospital, snotwad. Just be grateful for it and don’t ever spend it on drugs or cheap women ’cause I know what I’d have done with it at your age and we’re al raising you to be better than that.”
    Nick didn’t know what to say. “Thanks, guys. I real y appreciate it.”
    Then someone turned up the music to play Aerosmith’s
    “Walk This Way” and the party started even though it was hard to move in their smal condo. Then again, the dancers were used to being up on the thin catwalk in the club so they did what they did best and made his face so red with their dance moves that he was sure it glowed neon.
    Nick took the money to his jar they kept under the kitchen sink and dropped the twenties inside while his mom and Menyara cut the cake and handed out slices to everyone.
    “You okay, child?”
    He nodded as Menyara handed him his cake and a plastic fork. “Just tired.”
    There was something in her gaze that made him wonder if she could read his mind. It was eerie.

    “Your mom told me that you’l be working for a man named Kyrian Hunter. Is that so?”
    “Yeah. I gotta pay him back for the hospital bil s.”
    “Then I want you to watch yourself, Nicholas. This man,