"I am your light in the dark," she said, her voice sounding in my mind without her lips moving. "Your dark light. And I will be there for you when the time comes."

Elyssa bent down and kissed me, her lips soft and soothing to my feverish sweaty skin.

I tried to speak but she shook her head gently and held my hand. "I will be with you until the end, my love." Her lips brushed my ear. "Four, three, one, one. Remember."

Warmth filled my body as I gazed into the eyes of an angel. My angel. I looked at my true love until the light faded from my eyes and the pain and weight of life unburdened my body as it lifted away.

Chapter 10

Elyssa

Elyssa woke with a start. She hadn't even realized sleep had taken her. Sweat drenched the tank top and Soffe shorts she'd lain down in. Her pillow was soaked as well. She touched her face and felt the salty damp residue of tears. She couldn't have been asleep for long, she reasoned, because the tears hadn't dried. Or had she been crying in her sleep?

What had awoken her?

The ache of loss formed a hollow spot in her midsection, the feeling that nothing she put there could fill it up. Only Justin could. Only the touch of his hands on her face and his lips against hers could fill this gaping maw. How had this happened? How had she fallen for a guy after growing up without a worry or thinking twice about what another person thought of her?

It had happened so suddenly, so unexpectedly she'd just let it happen, thinking nothing would come of it as usual. Father would scare him off or she'd drive him away by showing him just how little she needed anyone to take care of her. This couldn't be happening. Not to her.

God, it hurt so bad. She punched her pillow. Punched it again. Picked it up and threw it against the wall where it hit with a muted thud. Elyssa got out of bed and paced the room wanting to smash the simple wooden furniture to pieces and scream and rage until the agony in her heart went away and left her alone. How could she do this? How could she let another person take a part of her soul with her wherever he went?

"Justin," she said, and fresh tears leaked from her eyes.

She growled and punched the wooden-paneled wall, cracking it down the center. She punched it again and again until her fists were raw and bleeding.

"Go away. Go away!" She said it over and over as if it would dissipate her feelings. As if she had the power to command love into oblivion.

An image of brilliant light flashed into her mind and she stopped mid-punch. Her fists healed, the skin sealing up and pushing out the splinters in her knuckles. Elyssa barely noticed. The dream was coming back to her. The one that had woken her. The one that made her cry in her sleep. Justin was dying, or dead in the dream. She'd floated to him on a brilliant cloud of light and held his hand until he left her.

Panic welled in her throat and she choked back a scream. No, it hadn't happened. Had it? It was just a dream. But it had felt so real. His skin, the touch of his lips still lingered on hers and she could smell him and the overpowering Axe deodorant he used. She really needed to get him to switch to Old Spice.

Deep breaths didn't make her panic go away. If anything, more images came into her mind. An old crone, toothless and cackling at her. Telling her four-three-one-one was the magic number. Then she'd vanished, replaced by glowing light. It felt as though something had possessed her then, the way dreams usually operated. Except it had seemed frighteningly real.

The bedroom door cracked open and Leia poked in her head. Elyssa hardly ever called her mother anymore. In fact, she'd been trained to call her parents by their first names for years now. Family ties would earn her no leeway in training or any other aspect of Templar business. If anything, having a commander who was also your father made things worse. Ryland's training, from the way he told it, was a cakewalk compared to the things she'd had to endure. But it didn't anger her or make her love her parents any less. If anything, it increased her respect for their standards.

"What's going on in here?" Leia asked, stepping inside, the black soft-soled boots she wore making little sound. The silver ends of two short swords protruded diagonally from sheaths across her back, and the tight black Templar night camouflage she wore pressed tight against her curves.

"Nothing." Elyssa turned her back to her mother and stared out the window.

The door clicked shut. "I can't believe you're being so unreasonable about that—that thing. What part of your lessons don't you remember? Maybe we should send you back to your history teacher and have him fill in the blanks again."

"I remember everything, Mother. But I'm smart enough to realize not every individual is a clone of every other of their kind." She turned to face her. "How many dhampyrs have we arrested or put down over the years? I haven't even been on active duty that long and I can list three of them."

"That's different and you know it."

"Different? Tell me how."

"A tiny minority broke the law. Some are serving time at Lazaro while the others resisted and paid with their lives."

"And what makes them different from spawn? I don't remember ever apprehending a spawn. The last time one of them broke Covenant, they turned themselves in."

"Because their house made them do it."

"You can't accept it, can you? Whatever harm spawn did to Thomas is no reason to hate the entire race. Especially not Justin. He's not even full spawn."

"Don't be foolish, girl."

Elyssa bristled, fists clenched and eyes narrowed.

"That's right. You're being a stupid girl, Elyssa. Thomas and I have talked and decided you're of no use to us in a normal school any longer. You're to be reassigned to boarding school with others of your kind."

"You're sending me to Westbury?" It was the only supernatural school close enough to be a candidate.

She nodded. "We wanted you to adapt to a normal human way of life so you'd blend in better should we need you to go undercover once you achieved the Cho'kai. Instead, you let yourself be fooled by spawn and seem so brainwashed we see no way you'll be able to take the trials this year."

Elyssa felt her bottom lip drop in disbelief. "You know I'm ready. Give me the trials right now and I'll prove it to you."

"Oh, you have plenty to prove, girl." Leia shook her head. "You could have been the youngest to pass the Cho'kai and the first female in decades to move up to full guardian status."

"Gee, I don't know who's more disappointed. Me or Commander Borathen. All he cares about is that he trained me. I'm not his daughter, I'm an achievement. Just like Jack and Michael before me." Elyssa jerked open her closet doors so hard, the hinges squealed. She grabbed her night camo, stripped, and slid it on. The clingy material felt cool against her clammy skin. She had to get out of there. Had to find Justin.

"What do you think you're doing? We made it very clear you're suspended from duty until we decide what to do with you."

"You can take your duty and shove it."

"That's no way to speak to your mother! You will show me respect."

"Well you're not showing respect for choices I've made or even my opinion, so I don't see how you deserve any respect from me." She sucked in an angry breath to fight back the salty tidal wave threatening to break past her eyes. "If you think you trained me so well, then give me the damned right to choose who my friends are and who I love. Otherwise it's meaningless. All of it!" The last part came out as a shout. Elyssa panted as anger and grief pressed hard against her emotional barriers, the ones she'd spent years building up only to find them torn down the moment she went all gaga for a boy.

Leia stared with wide accusing eyes, her mouth set in a deep scowl. "It's our fault," she said in a restrained voice. "We take the full blame for failing you, child. But we'll set things aright. Don't worry." She sighed. "In the meantime, you're grounded to your quarters. If you try to escape, we'll put you in the brig. Don't think we won't."

A bitter laugh escaped Elyssa's mouth. "Why should I doubt you? I've already spent more time in there than most of the real criminals."

"Don't force me to—" Leia's voice cut off abruptly as Elyssa blurred to her, feinted with a low kick, spun, and caught her with a hard chop to the throat to keep her from yelling out an alarm.

Elyssa whipped her torso the other way, sending a vicious elbow to Leia's temple. The other woman collapsed, unconscious for at least…Elyssa checked the tiny watch she wore and calculated she had one or two minutes before her mother's supernatural healing kicked in and woke her up. Not much time, but enough to get a head start. She grabbed a small knapsack from underneath her bed where she'd put it after filling it with fresh clothes and toiletries.

The bedroom windows were spelled and warded against use, so she'd have to make her way downstairs and through the front door since using any other door at this time of night would trip an alarm ward and have the entire compound of Templars on her back. She slipped the uniform's hood over her head. It wasn't unusual for Templars to wear them like this indoors, but there weren't many females on site and that might make things tricky. Breasts were hard to hide.

The downstairs hallway was empty. Most agents were out on duty, patrolling the streets or going on raids, away from the prying eyes of the noms—a term many used to refer to normal humans. Some agents would come back for a couple hours of sleep and then go to day jobs, blending in with the noms and keeping ears open for signs of unusual activity. Her mother ran a hair salon of all things. The absurdity of that woman styling hair made Elyssa shake her head at times, though she ran the place almost as strictly as she did her squad of Templar agents.

The house's large foyer was also empty, though Elyssa thought she heard a noise from the kitchen. The manor house served meals to the agents, but the time for eating was long past. She crept past the large entryway into the kitchen and looked inside. Nobody. She removed her knapsack and eased open the walk-in freezer. Wax-coated cardboard boxes lined the shelves along one wall. She opened the nearest and stuffed an empty compartment of the knapsack with enough blood packs to last her for a while. There were other Templar posts around the city supplying blood, but after her escape, they'd all be on the lookout for her.