fear squeezed my stomach while my heart floated on air. i might actually have a solid lead on the mystery of thunder rock! i needed to prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, only one spawn was responsible for the massacre. maybe, just maybe, thomas borathen would see the truth and let me date his daughter in peace.

and maybe goats will poop gold.

alejandro nudged me on the shoulder. "can you help me with the templar?"

i jerked from my thoughts and nodded. "we need to talk about this later," i said to bella as alejandro took the backpack and equipment belt off the unconscious form and piled them to the side. it amazed me the templar had been able to run so fast with all that added weight. alejandro gripped the slumbering form beneath the armpits and i gripped the feet. my body ached ferociously with each step as we carried it inside, setting the body atop a cot in a room near the back of the house.

"i will get the healer for her," lina said.

"her?" i looked closer at the figure and realized the form beneath all that bulky equipment was undeniably feminine even though a thick vest hid the curve of her breasts beneath the tight black material. bella had managed to stop the bleeding, but the bullet wounds hadn't healed as they should have. she'd temporarily reduced my own pain, though my skin still throbbed angrily where the bullets had bitten into my flesh.

just thinking about my own wounds turned my legs to jelly as the full weight of the insanity i'd been through climbed on my shoulders like a sumo wrestler. i dropped into a chair across from the cot and stifled a groan.

"i don't understand," i said to alejandro. "even though i'm tired, i'm not to the point where my wounds wouldn't heal."

he pointed out a bloody rip in my shirt i hadn't even realized was there. beneath it lay crusted blood, but no wound. "it looks like you have healed except for the bullet holes."

that worried me.

lina returned a moment later with a pitcher of water and some towels. "bella is gathering the city council to tell them what happened, and the doctor, devon, is on his way." she looked at the bullet wounds on the templar and gagged. "this is horrible." she grabbed a pair of scissors and tried to cut the material around the wounds, but the scissors balked each time she pressed down.

"let me try," i said. i poked the tip of the scissors at the fabric. the black material hardened the instant the metal touched it. i jabbed at it. once again, the uniform became rock hard at the point of impact. the armor seemed to work fine now. it had failed miserably against the bullets. "i guess we'll just have to take it off."

lina tugged on the hood but it didn't budge. it looked different from the ones i'd seen elyssa wear before. this one had no eye slits or any point of vulnerability where flesh showed through. the black hood and mask molded over the facial features, all without compressing it tight like pantyhose. lina finally found a tiny irregularity on the seam where the hood met the collar of the shirt. she touched it but nothing happened. a flash of inspiration lit the tiny light bulb in my head. i took the templar's gloved hand and pressed it to the button. the seam popped loose around the front and the hood split in half across the bridge of the nose, retracting into the nape of the uniform.

black hair spilled from beneath, now freed from its confines, and splayed out across the fair skin of the female's face.

my legs collapsed underneath me, and i crashed into the chair i'd been sitting on, catapulting the pitcher of water and causing it to splash everywhere. lina sputtered as water streamed down her face. but i couldn't take my eyes off the templar, off her face.

chapter 21

"are you okay?" lina said as she cleared a curtain of soaked hair from her face. "what's wrong?"

"elyssa," i said, my voice a low whisper. a playback of the night's near-death experiences flooded my chest with horror. i could have killed elyssa. kicked her into the jet engines and never known it was her. another thought pummeled my stomach and the pain in my heart squeezed tighter until it ached like someone had shoved a silver dagger inside me. had she been trying to kill me?

not once had she called my name or identified herself. her insane actions screamed her intentions. if her father had followed through on his threats, then elyssa and i were strangers. i was just another perp she wanted to bring to justice.

my body shook and a voice penetrated the haze of discombobulation muting my senses.

"what's wrong, justin? answer me!" lina's face appeared inches from mine.

"the templar. her name is elyssa. she's my girlfriend."

lina growled a stream of something that sounded suspiciously like cursing in spanish and glared at the unconscious form on the cot. "if this is your girlfriend, she has serious mental problems. that chica tried to kill you!"

no, i realized, she hadn't been trying to kill either of us. elyssa wasn't someone who gave up-ever. i tried to puzzle things out, if only to push aside the painful emotions throwing ninja stars into my heart. what in the world was she doing all the way down in colombia, for starters? and how much of her memory was gone? dozens of questions boiled in my head. the instant the healer arrived, he absolutely had to wake her so i could find out what in the world was going on.

i checked her pulse by pressing two fingers against the creamy skin of her neck. her heart beat strong. a sharp needle of ivory protruded beneath her red lips. i pushed up a corner of her mouth to reveal fangs. she must be starving.

"do you have any blood packs?"

lina curled a lip in disgust. "no, but bella probably does." she stood and regarded elyssa's slumbering form for a moment. "i saw what you went through to get into the jet, justin. what kind of girlfriend tries to kill you?"

"she's not in her right mind."

"si, she is loco!"

"no, it's just-ugh, it's really complicated to explain."

"i can listen," she said, kneeling in front of me and taking my hand in hers. "i want to understand."

i forced a grin and pushed a wet lock of hair dangling in her face behind an ear. "would you mind getting some blood from bella? then i'll tell you whatever you want to know."

she leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek. "i will be right back, guapo."

once she left, i knelt beside elyssa and kissed her gently on the lips. god, how i'd missed those perfect lips. i peeled back an eyelid and looked at the sparkling violet iris beneath. she didn't so much as flinch. whatever bella had done to knock her out was pretty strong, apparently. i found another tiny button to release the top part of the uniform. after putting a blanket atop her for modesty, i used her gloved hand to press the button. the gloves and shirt melted away into the lower part of the uniform. thankfully, she had a sports bra on beneath that looked painfully tight. the last button released the pants and strange, five-toed shoes she wore, all vanishing into a thin belt of material which remained around her waist. a pair of purple boy shorts, which, coincidentally, matched her bra, were revealed.

without the dark uniform in the way, crusted blood stood out in stark contrast to her fair skin. bullet wounds pockmarked both legs, leaving swollen welts on her skin, one in the hamstring, the other on the side of her thigh. another bullet had impacted her lower back while yet another had lodged in the shoulder of the same arm she'd used to hold onto my leg. i didn't know how in the world she'd managed to cling to me so long. the burn in my own wounds was a constant throb, at this point, and each minute increased the pain factor. franco must have known templars might try to break up his organization. these bullets could be laced with silver or something even nastier to stop supernaturals.

"my word," said an older gentleman as he stood in the doorway. he was caucasian and pronounced "word" like it started with a "v". "let me have a look." he pulled a chair next to elyssa, not even taking the time to wipe the water i'd spilled earlier off the seat. "cursed bullets."

"yeah, damned things."

he pushed a pair of thin spectacles up the bridge of his nose. "i meant that quite literally. these bullets were enchanted-or cursed as i like to call harmful enchantments-and made specifically to penetrate protective charms and kill supernaturals who are vulnerable to silver."

"can you heal her?"

he reached into a quaint doctor satchel and pulled out a thin rod. "i will need to remove the bullets and give her something to thin the amount of silver in her bloodstream." he noticed the blood on my leg. "were you hit?"

i nodded.

"let me know if the pain becomes too much. in the meantime, we should get these out of her first." he looked me up and down, apparently taking stock of my condition. "can you assist, or will you faint?"

"just tell me what you want me to do."

he offered me a pair of latex gloves and put a pair on himself, then checked the skin around elyssa's shoulder wound. silvery-blue lines veined her skin around the puckered wound. "silver poisoning for sure," he said and reached into his bag for what looked like a set of stainless steel clamps. "hold these against the skin like so." he pressed them flat to either side of the wound and opened them. the skin splayed wide to reveal the gristly hole beneath.

i suppressed a gag and held the clamp against her skin while he inserted the thin rod carefully into the gap, muttering words in what sounded like latin. the rod shimmered, seeming to turn almost liquid, but held its form and the healer eased it out. at the tip was a flattened silver slug clinging like a drop of mercury to the end. he pulled a metal container from his duffel bag, muttered a word, and the bullet slug dropped inside with a clink.

"continue to hold that open," he said and inserted a tube made of some sort of flexible metallic-looking material. a few words later, a thin stream of watery blood dripped from one end and into a transparent container.

"is it sucking out the silver?" i asked, captivated by the strange device.

"it can be attuned to draw various substances from the blood. in this case, it is indeed targeting the silver in the blood."