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Caleb scowled at him “What is your problem, boy? You know my dad is your dad’s best friend and has been since forever Caleb Fingerhing He couldn’t stop Yeah, this was all insane He ht “Okay, joke’s over, everyone Ha Ha You got me”

“What joke?” Ash, Caleb, and Stone asked while the women looked at him as if he was the one as nuts

Unable to deal with it anymore, Nick rose to his feet and curled his lip “You know, for a joke to work it actually needs to be funny, guys … and this is not even a little” Angry at them, he stormed off to the bathroo had to get hihtmare and back home

But the moment Nick looked into the bathroom ly blue tuxedo that he’d never wear, his hair was blond, and his eyes were an average gray color

Worse? He was a lot closer to the sink than he’d been in a really long ti but that!

His heart pounding, he checked his legs to make sure they were intact

They were

And yet he was only five foot eight If that rowth spurt last suh as he closed his eyes and tried to summon his powers

That only made him panic more as harsh reality cracked him in the stones No, no, no, non! his mind shouted It couldn’t be

But it was All of his poere gone Every last one of the or clairvoyance or anything

I’aped at the unfamiliar face he saw in the mirror that wasn’t his He pinched himself and shook his head It was him Somehow he’d morphed into a short blond dude

Unable to accept it, he tried everything he could to wake up But nothing worked He continued to exist here in this freakworld

It’s not a dream

Somehow this was real He was real, and he was here, wherever here was

Madaug walked in and sneered at hier skinny and nerdy, he was the six feet four Nick should have been, and ripped “What you looking at, Burdette? Cruising for a date?”

“Burdette?” Nick repeated, looking around for Bubba

Madaug shoved hinize your own na, boy, how dumb are you?” He went over to a urinal

Stunned, confused, and terrified, Nick stumbled out to the pronize Reaching for so, that he was being punk’d, he pulled his wallet out and checked his license

It was the “new” blond him in the photo, but what hit him like a kick in the crotch was the name

Nicholas Michael Burdette instead of Nicholas Ambrosius Gautier

“What the Hades has happened?”

And er had any power and his preternatural allies were now all woefully nor to be late for school”

Groaning in fear of what he ht find this time, Nick opened his eyes to see the navy blue curtains his ht him last year when they moved into their condo on Bourbon Street Relief flooded hihtht until he realized that the asn’t the sale , it indoith a divider between thenities and horrors? Really?

His heart haaze around a roohtened to the point he feared he’d be ill

“Nick?” His htly before she pushed open the door to smile at hiet another tardy”

Even ht of her in an expensive dark blue business suit with her blond hair cut short to frame her beautiful face That definitely wasn’t her waitress unifor, she moved to stand by the bed and placed her hand to his forehead “Are you all right? You look pale”

Stunned, he couldn’t speak as he stared at a stranger in hisThey need to speak to you Said it can’t wait”

His eyes widened at the sound of that familiar deep, thick Tennessee Southern drawl Bubba? What the heck was Bubba doing in his house at seven thirty in the h when Nick had come home from the prom and found him here But that he’d attributed to a date

No, wait That wasn’t right Someone had told him at the prom that Bubba was his father now Caleb?

For some reason, he couldn’t remember

And why in the world would someone in London call his mom?

Maybe London’s a name?

No Not possible This was bad bad His ht there, Michael” She squeezed Nick’s cheek “You don’t have a fever Did you stay up too late?”

Honestly? He feared soe How hard had that deet his ain to show “Bubba” in a black Arner brand because they were the ones his immortal boss, Kyrian, favored and Nick had had a seizure the first tione to pick one up and had seen the cost of it

Who wore that stuff and why?

Huge as ever, Bubba had abandoned his beard for smooth cheeks and wore a short, stylish cut Yeah, this definitely wasn’t the burly redneck who hunted zombies in the bayou with his lunatic best friend One as paranoid as all get out, and armed to a level that the ATF had him on their watch list

As if he hadn’t morphed into some creepy businessman, Bubba ca her expensive earring, she cupped her hand over the mouthpiece and whispered to Bubba “I think our Boo is sick See what you think” She stepped out of the rooantic form by the bed and brushed the hair back froht, buddy?” Now there was a loving tone Bubba had never used with hi a Charonte demon try to eat hiaze to the huge football cha on Bubba’s hand The diamonds on the front formed a pattern reminiscent of a fleur-de-lis They were framed by the words “Forty” on one side and “Niners” on the other The name “Burdette” was on the “Forty” side and “Super Bowl XXIV 55-10” on the “Niners” side Gasping, he fingered the ring as he reone pro after college, but had decided to stay home with his wife and son instead “This looks so real”

Bubba snorted “It is real, you know that” He duplicated Nick’s scowl “What’s going on with you, Squirt? You have a test you’re trying to avoid?”

“No I … uh … yeah, no, I’, Bubba stood up and pulled the covers off Nick “Co cold” He left the room

Still disoriented and confused, Nick rolled out of bed This was so screwed up Raking his hand through his hair, he gaped at the photo on his desk of a sweaty Bubba in a 49ers unifor 49ers jersey with BURDETTE on the back At least Nick thought it was hier he kept seeing in the mirror It was a picture from a newspaper where the 49ers had won the Super Bowl, January 28, 1990