i suppressed the desire to sock beck right in the noggin and instead, shoved him sideways. he didn't even see me coming and hit the ground with a satisfying thud. i turned and faced the ice-cold glare from a man who wanted to separate my head from my shoulders.

"you," he said in a hiss. "what's the meaning of this?"

"he's the one who captured him," said a deep voice from my right.

i glanced and caught sight of michael.

"not only that, but he and your daughter saved our lives," bella said, coming to stand next to michael's towering form, her face still pale.

"you've infected them all," thomas snarled.

"he hasn't infected anyone, father." elyssa stepped from the shadows behind the group of twenty or so templars who'd shown up with thomas.

"elyssa?" said one of the masked figures. the mask retracted to show a young guy who was the spitting image of her father.

she graced him with an embarrassed smile. "hey, jack. guess i'm back a little earlier than expected."

"where have you been? you were supposed to be in paris but nobody over there has seen a trace of you."

"wait a minute, you mean you didn't re-route me to colombia?"

"that would be my doing," michael said, staring jack down with a grim but satisfied smile.

jack looked genuinely shocked.

thomas borathen slid a slivery sword from its sheath and pointed the tip toward me. "how do you know this spawn isn't in league with vadaemos? that this isn't all some part of an elaborate scheme to destroy us from the inside?"

"stop looking for conspiracies when the truth is right in front of your eyes," i said. i turned to meghan and nodded.

she opened the door. adam went in and carted out the slumbering form of vadaemos. i pulled out my phone, which i'd thankfully had the presence of mind to retrieve, and clicked on the video i'd taken in the cave. the quality wasn't all that great, but elyssa and i had watched it and agreed it was definitely incriminating.

the templar commander stared at the screen, disbelief clearly written on his face. when vadaemos blurted the truth about daelissa being the divinity, thomas's eyes turned to stone but he continued to watch. i hadn't stopped recording even when all hell broke loose as evidenced by all the screaming and rumbling noises threatening to rupture the phone's inadequate speaker. the phone ran out of storage space somewhere around the time we were sprinting for pokito's backpack, though most of the action wasn't visible since i'd jammed the thing back into my pocket before running crowd-surfing the cherubs.

thomas's hand blurred so fast, i never saw it coming. he jerked me into the parking lot and made a hand signal. his templars formed a circle around the two of us. he walked to one of his men and pulled a sword from the scabbard on his back. tossed it at me. i caught it out of reflex. it was a long, thin blade, similar to a katana. i was decent with a sword thanks to years of fencing lessons, but i was nothing compared to elyssa, and had a feeling i'd be less than nothing compared to this man.

stacey and ryland appeared from the darkness in human form. curtis, pokito, bella, and the others grabbed their staffs and formed a line outside the circle of templars.

"let him go," bella shouted, her voice sounding thin and strained. "or we will free him ourselves."

"is he too cowardly to fight for himself?" thomas said. "i'll give him a warrior's death which is more than this spawn deserves."

elyssa rushed toward the circle but two templars grabbed her by either arm and held her fast.

"let him go!" she shouted. "he hasn't done anything wrong!"

my mind flashed back to the first time i'd met elyssa's parents. it had gone almost as well as this, except a sword fight hadn't been part of the deal.

"he's not evil," ryland said, his tone gruff but pleading. "dammit, thomas, take a step back and look at what you're doing. this kid is a hero. he apprehended the most wanted criminal in the overworld and you're ready to kill him."

"he's part of it, ryland," thomas said. "surely you've sniffed the truth, haven't you? or has he affected even your ability to find lies?"

i was about to add my own two cents to the subject when thomas attacked. i flailed with the sword, barely able to fend him off. he sliced the back of my sword hand and left a cut on my cheek. i knew he'd only meant to injure me, not kill me outright. he wanted to enjoy this. i could already tell i wasn't going to enjoy a bit of it.

before i could recover from his first attack, he kicked my legs from underneath me and slashed my leg. i rolled away, wincing at the pain. my wounds were already healing, but the loss of blood and energy would take its toll. on the other hand, he was pissing me off. if he triggered my inner demon and caused me to spawn, it would be bad for everyone.

again he attacked, his sword blurring so fast i couldn't be sure if i was blocking most of his attacks, or if my body was covered in cuts. something deep inside me growled and awoke in its cave.

for once, i didn't resist. i let the demonic force crawl from the hole i usually stuffed it in and let it free. pure instinct overcame me. it didn't make me any better with the sword, but my eyes seemed more focused. my ears seemed to hear a little better. and the blur of thomas's swings dropped from hyper-speed into real time. i ducked, weaved, and rolled away from his strikes. even with my new focus, he nicked me a couple of times. but i was making him work for it. judging from the way he bared his teeth, it made him hate me even more.

an ear-splitting yowl broke through my concentration. thomas's gaze flicked toward the source. monstrous cats-moggies-stalked from the shadows behind stacey as she morphed into a black panther. ryland melted into wolf form. the templars holding the circle tight pulled their blades and tensed. things were about to get real.

thomas backed off to assess the fluid situation, his back toward the hotel. i was glad for the respite, brief as it might be. i glanced at the room where vadaemos was held and noticed the door was shut again. meghan and adam must have shoved the cot with the prisoner back inside. a flash of blonde hair appeared in the window and i thought it might be meghan-but no-she stood outside with adam, staff out and guarding the door while my friends encroached on thomas's people.

baying erupted from above, from the roof of the motel. i looked up and into glowing eyes, yellow against a pitch-black canvas dotted with stars. black teeth glistened and dark tongues lolled. hellhounds.

things were about to get even realer.

chapter 34

six of the huge hounds, bristling and reeking of sulfur, stood atop the motel. they pounced, plowing into the nearest people who happened to be meghan and adam. thankfully, one of them threw up a barrier and sent the first creature reeling. a flash of silver caught my eye and i dodged back in time to avoid thomas's blade.

"are you crazy?" i shouted above the barking, howling, screaming, and yowling. "we're under attack!"

"i see multiple enemies, boy, and you're one of them. these hellhounds are no doubt more of your minions come to fight." thomas feinted. spun. delivered a kick to my stomach. it propelled me into the backs of the templars on the other side of the circle. they were focused on threats outside the circle, not in and i sent them sprawling.

elyssa wrestled free from her captors with a back flip and a double-kneed kick to their groins. she jerked me to my feet, pulling her own sword free and jumping between me and her father.

"what are you doing?" thomas said in the commanding voice of someone who thrived under battlefield pressure.

"this," she said, and held out my phone. "watch."

stacey and ryland, working with meghan and adam, corralled the hellhounds with the help of the moggies. the giant mutant cats hissed and clawed at the hounds while meghan and adam pushed a magical barrier against the enemy flanks. it was only a matter of time before they'd contain the hellhounds.

thomas snatched the phone from elyssa and glared at it. even with the fray in the background, i could, if only barely, make out the audio.

"this is elyssa borathen. i am of sound mind. you may think i'm crazy, but i'm not. elyssa, hopefully you've found this. the story i'm about to tell you may seem insane, but it's true. your father wiped your mind not because you did anything wrong, but because he couldn't control you. because he couldn't stop you from falling in love."

thomas stared for a moment longer before his eyes looked up and met elyssa's. i saw the cocksure pride wilt away until another emotion was plain in his features. shame.

the blinds in the window of vadaemos's room vanished, revealing a woman. lustrous blonde hair shimmered above icy blue eyes and a beautiful fair face. it had to be daelissa. holy crap, what in the world was she doing here?

a deep roar overwhelmed the sounds of battle and even the hellhounds paused, ears pricked toward this new sound. the brick front of the motel room housing vadaemos exploded, sending dust and people flying away as a massive demonic form charged from within. he'd manifested, all the way this time. blue skin stretched tight across thick, corded muscles. a scaled tail, thick as my arm, whipped behind him. blue flames flickered in the pitch black of his eyes, and dark horns nearly three feet long spiraled up from his forehead. his demonic form added to his already generous height, reaching seven or eight feet tall. black-clawed feet tore at the pavement. cruelly barbed fists clenched, knuckles cracking like fireworks. vadaemos reared back his head and roared into the night sky.

the hellhounds broke free of their containment and formed up around their master. he charged. meghan lay in a heap of rubble. adam stood woozily. i flashed toward them, scooping up meghan and knocking adam aside as vadaemos's clawed hand swiped where they'd been. a moggy leapt atop the blue demon, clawing and biting, its bulky form causing the spawn to stagger under the weight. vadaemos's tail whipped up, curled around the moggy's neck, and squeezed tight. the huge cat went limp. a sick wet pop sounded and the moggy's head separated from its shoulders.