"are you okay, justin? can you talk?"

i gave her a thumbs-up, my throat too raw and tight to force words through. she peppered my face with kisses while nightliss stood at my other side and smiled. she looked so cute and innocent. but the raw power she'd shown was amazing. frightening. vadaemos had wilted like a delicate flower before her wrath.

"they're all dead or fled," a deep, male voice told elyssa. "i still don't know how vadaemos got free."

i took a step, holding my hands out for balance as dizziness swept over me. michael gripped my arm to steady me.

"daelissa," i said in a hoarse whisper. "she was in his room." i sucked in another breath, desperate for air. my supernatural healing wasn't its normal self after the trauma i'd been through. but it needed to hurry up because i had a lot to say and ask.

michael grunted. "pokito told me about her." he spared a glance at nightliss and for once, i thought i detected a hint of fear in his eyes.

"casualties?" elyssa asked.

michael's grim face turned grimmer as he knelt to secure vadaemos's body with diamond fiber straps and sleepers. "it's bad." he looked away. i followed his gaze where templars were lining up bodies.

elyssa drew in a sharp breath. "no. oh god no. no!" she ran and sank to her knees next to a body with a shock of black hair. she moaned, pressing the body to her chest as tears cascaded down her face. i made my way over fast as i could and recognized the fallen templar. her brother, jack.

"elyssa," i said, my voice still hoarse. "i'm so sorry." i knelt behind her and hugged her tight. her tears soaked my torn shirt and her sobs wracked us both. she hugged the body of her brother, forcing me out of the loop. but it was okay. i understood. and there was nothing i could do to make it better.

another scream of agony sounded in the night. i saw stacey bent over a form beneath a hellhound. i staggered to her. she was bruised, battered, and obviously weak from the fight. the huge hellhound corpse resisted her attempts to move it. i put my back into it and shoved, rolling it off the unmoving body of ryland. tears welled in my eyes. and then i noticed two more familiar bodies face down on the ground near the hotel. my knees collapsed.

oh god no. not meghan. not adam. not ryland. i couldn't speak. i couldn't move from the sheer weight of guilt and grief pressing down on my shoulders as the agony of loss tore into my stomach and blinded me with hot tears.

chapter 35

ryland groaned.

it was a faint groan, but a groan nonetheless. stacey's cries of anguish turned to delight.

"you're alive, you bloody fool. oh thank god you're alive!"

i looked up and saw meghan tending to the wounded, adam at her side. the two bodies i'd seen still lay where they were, a blonde female and a male with dark hair. in my grief, i'd jumped to conclusions. or perhaps my oxygen-starved brain was hallucinating. my heart grew strong at the sight of my friends, but worry quickly replaced it. i motioned meghan to me and pointed at ryland.

"are you okay, justin?" she asked as she jogged over.

i nodded and croaked, "ryland."

she glanced down. "i'll make sure he's okay."

adam clapped me on the shoulder and tried to smile, but his face was grim. "we lost a lot of people, justin." his fists tightened around his wand. "i hope vadaemos burns for this."

i nodded again and jabbed my thumb over my shoulder. he knelt to help meghan with ryland. scanning the area, i found bella sitting on the sidewalk curb in front of the hotel. alejandro wrapped his arm around her as she shook with sobs. when i got closer, i realized why. pokito, eyes closed, lay on the ground not far away. part of his throat was gone.

curtis had a bite wound on his arm, but otherwise seemed okay. "meghan told me she slowed the infection and can cure it," he said, scratching his arm and examining the yellowish skin around the wound. "told me she had some kind of vaccine left over from something you did."

she probably still had the serum she'd made from my blood to help stacey, i figured. hell, if it worked, i'd offer up more of my blood so long as it didn't hurt so darned much the second time around.

bella gripped my hand and squeezed. i knelt and kissed her on the cheek. hugged her and wished i could tell her everything would be all right. but one, i could hardly speak, and two, i had no idea if this was the end or the beginning of something even worse. judging from the look i'd seen in daelissa's eyes, this little battle was just a skirmish. true war with the minions she controlled would be immeasurably worse.

i looked across the warzone. smashed cars lay everywhere, on their sides, their roofs. the one vadaemos had knocked me into was hardly recognizable as anything except a mess of wires, fluids, and metal. two templars laid the last of the bodies in neat rows. this hotel was remote, but if the clerk had called the police, they'd swarm it in no time.

a black cadillac screeched into the parking lot right in front of the clerk's office. two men in dark clothes rushed inside. i tensed, thinking another battle was about to start, but a hand on my shoulder pulled my attention to its owner.

thomas borathen's blue eyes looked into mine. for the first time, i detected no malice, only determination. "don't worry about them," he said. "they're a templar special task force assigned to interdict emergencies and prevent the public from finding out about the overworld."

"are they mind-wiping the clerk?" my words emerged a little clearer and my throat felt marginally better.

"only helping him forget the incident and determining if the police are on the way. it would be of no small concern if the mortal authorities gained wind of our existence."

i glanced down the row of rooms and saw a frightened face peeking through the blinds where the prostitute was staying. "they may have to go room-by-room."

he nodded. "they leave nothing to chance." he looked at elyssa where she and michael sat next to the body of their brother. a third figure joined them. her tear-stained eyes met mine and i recognized their mother, leia.

thomas's eyes looked troubled. but this man was hardened by the centuries. he'd probably seen more horrors than most people combined. i felt sure he was grieving in his own way. he and leia exchanged a long look and i had the feeling there would be hell to pay between these two at some point in the near future, and fortunately, not by me.

"i'm sorry about your son," i said, my heart filled with sadness more for elyssa than anyone else.

"the fault is my own." he let that simple statement hang in the air a moment before motioning me to walk with him. "my daughter loves you. and she was right. i wanted to control her. i wanted to control jack and michael, and everyone else around me. i wanted everyone to see the evil i imagined was there." he stopped and looked me up and down. "do not mistake my realization for total absolution. i still feel the anger and betrayal i've harbored ever since that fateful day at thunder rock. my feelings won't change overnight." he ran a hand through his dark hair, eyes taking in the destruction. "you might be a mule in a horse harness. or you might be of genuine character. i am not yet willing to concede the latter. but if i'm to prevent another catastrophe like this from happening again, it appears i have no choice but to accept you." his eyes hardened. "for now."

i could tell it took every fiber of his being for him to say those words. bad enough he couldn't keep his daughter safe from boys. even worse, the one she loved was demon spawn. i almost felt sorry for him. almost. fighting against my own dislike for this man, i held out a hand and kept my face neutral despite the anger i still felt. thomas borathen had a lot to atone for, but now wasn't the time to ask for reparations. the other man's face stiffened. but he took my hand. shook it. walked away to be with his mourning family.

an unmarked van pulled into the parking lot and backed up to vadaemos's unconscious form where michael had left him trussed with unbreakable straps. two templars hopped out, wrapped him in a cocoon of diamond fiber, tossed him in the back of the vehicle, and drove off. fast, quick, and professional. service with a smile. i slumped to the ground, sitting cross-legged and watching as more people showed up and set themselves to cleaning up the incredible mess. i assumed these people were affiliated with the templars, though they didn't look quite as menacing or well-trained in combat. then again, meghan was an arcane healer with the templars and i hadn't seen her wielding a sword in the battle.

because she used a staff, dummy.

a light hand rested on my shoulder. "you are okay, justin?"

i looked up into nightliss's almond-shaped eyes. she smiled.

"i'm better." i stood and looked her over. she seemed different somehow. less innocent than the first few times i'd met her. of course it could have had to do with knowing she was an angel of darkness and incredibly powerful.

"i am not allowed to interfere. but daelissa did. i could not let it stand."

"i thought kassallandra drove you off."

"she reminded me of the old rules. but the rules are changed."

"your english is a lot better."

a smile lit her face, making her seem much younger, like a girl just going to college. "my mind is healing. the damage from the nexus almost killed me. it has taken a long time to remember who i am and my purpose." she looked down, almost shyly. "and i took some english classes."

an angel taking english classes? i almost laughed. but my mind focused on something else. "your purpose? what is it? do you know about foreseeance forty-three eleven?"

she took my hand and led me away from the busy parking lot where a small army of people were cleaning up by towing cars and sweeping the littered parking lot clean. others were recovering human bodies in a tall black van, and dumping hellhounds and moggies in another. we sat on the open stairwell at the end of the building.

"my purpose is to help you if you choose to accept it."

this brought the dream, vision, or whatever it was back to the forefront of my thoughts. "was it really you and daelissa in the hallway in my house? or was it a dream?"