"Yes, Justin?" She wiped her red nose with a tissue.

"I think—hope—I know someone who can cure her."

She shook her head. "It's not possible, Justin. We've tried to find a cure in the past, but it just doesn't exist. The vampling curse is the blackest part of the vampire curse, dark and ancient magic far beyond arcane knowledge."

"If Daelissa can inoculate Templars against it, maybe she can heal the virus."

"After what you've uncovered about her, why would she help?" Meghan shook her head. "She's mad."

"No, not her. There's another."

Meghan's eyes widened. "The dark angel?"

"Nightliss."

The Arcane considered this information for a moment. "She helped you defeat Vadaemos. She's very powerful."

"I think she can cure Felicia, but I need time to find her."

Meghan's eyes narrowed. "Why would Nightliss leave you? If she's so powerful, why isn't she here helping right now? Do you know how many lives we could have saved?"

"I get the feeling there's a lot more going on than just me," I said. "It took everything she had the last time she helped. For all I know, she's recovering."

A sigh escaped her lips. "Well, whatever her reasons, I hope they're good ones. All I can give you is more time." Meghan looked at Felicia and shook her head. "But it won't be much. Days at most." She gripped her wand and seemed to steel herself with a deep breath. "I'd better do it now."

I walked over to Adam and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We might have a chance at beating this." I took Felicia's hand in mine and offered her a hopeful smile. "I'm going to find Nightliss. Just hang in there, okay?"

"You really think there's a chance?" Felicia asked, hope rising in her pained voice.

I squeezed her hand. "There's always hope."

Meghan waved me and Adam away, kneeling behind Felicia, and putting the petite vampire's head in her lap. Murmuring in a low voice, she stroked the wand through the air over Felicia's body while the rest of us stood and watched. A gentle white glow settled around Adam's sister, and her convulsing body went limp and relaxed, eyes closing as if in the bliss of relief from pain.

By the time she'd finished, Custodians had appeared, wearing large silver tanks on their backs like something out of an old sci-fi movie.

"What are those for?" I asked Michael.

"Quicksilver."

"I can't believe they have that much of it," Elyssa said as she came to stand next to us.

"This is probably all of it," Michael said. "Nobody knows how to make it anymore, or where to find the ingredients."

I remembered the stuff. Underborn had used it after Brad Nichols and his infected group of vampires had tried to kill me at my school. "Is there any other way to prevent the spread of infection?" I asked.

"Fire works, to a degree." Michael shrugged. "But quicksilver is far more effective."

A great idea occurred to me. "What if we injected Felicia with it? Would it cure the virus?"

He raised an eyebrow. "It'd kill her. Back in the day, before we used non-lethal methods, Templars used to dip their arrows in quicksilver to take out vamplings and vampires alike." Michael grunted. "Dhampyrs have some protection thanks to their human side, but it wouldn't be pretty."

A Custodian administered a shimmering squirt of quicksilver on a puddle of blood. The mercurial substance flashed through the dark liquid, following the streams and tendrils wherever it had leaked, leaving behind bright crimson.

I looked at the sticky red mess on my hands and clothes. "What about the blood on us?"

Elyssa motioned to a nearby Custodian and took a small spray bottle from him. "Hold out your hands. This is a diluted potion, but it'll still sting."

She sprayed a tiny amount into each of my palms. Silvery lightning burned its way across my skin, jumping the patches clean of blood, reaching every little splotch. Clenching my teeth, I watched it devour the dark infection along my arms, leaving behind red, irritated skin and clean blood. Hands balled into fists, I endured the brief pain as it seared across my face and neck.

"Wow, that hurt."

Elyssa gave me a sympathetic look. "You look like death incarnate."

"I feel like poop."

Each of the others used the potion to clean their skin. Michael, stoic as usual, didn't so much as flinch as the diluted solution disinfected his few patches of exposed skin and his uniform.

Meghan motioned to Adam. "I used a sleeping beauty spell on Felicia. It will slow the infection, but not stop it."

The tall Arcane knelt and picked up his sister, cradling her limp form to his chest.

"Let's move out," Fausta said after giving the Custodians a heads-up about the mess I'd left downstairs. She gave Felicia's limp form a concerned look and put a hand on Adam's arm. "You realize, if she turns vampling, we'll have to put her down, right?"

"I know," Adam said, voice rough. "So kindly shut up and get the hell out of my way."

Fausta raised her hands and stepped aside. "Put her someplace secure. I won't risk her infecting anyone else."

After negotiating bodies, blood, and a small army of Custodians as they cleaned up the aftermath of the bloodbath, we emerged outside into the breaking dawn. We were taken into private tents, provided fresh clothes, and given one more burning spray of quicksilver to be sure before they cleared us to leave.

Fausta came out of a tent near mine. She offered me one of her rare smiles and handed me a key. "Christian promoted me to Lieutenant."

"Congrats!" I said, unsure if I should try to hug her, or if that would lead to a swift disembowelment.

"I am the youngest female to ever hold this rank." She sighed. "Everyone had thought Elyssa would be the first. And then you came along."

My heart sank. "Just when I think you're not a bitch, you go and say something like that."

Fausta shrugged. "I don't avoid the truth."

"Yeah, but you could have some tact." I held up the key. "So why did you give me this?"

"It goes to my new quarters—a private cabin at the compound. But I can wait before moving in." She laid a hand on my shoulder. "There's more to you than meets the eye. When I first met you, I thought you were soft and weak, not to mention an untrustworthy demon spawn."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't you just say all that with flowers?"

Her hand dropped and she gave me a genuine smile. Her resemblance to Elyssa was uncanny, despite her larger nose. "Enjoy the cabin. Just wash the sheets before you leave."

I groaned. "Don't take this the wrong way, Fausta, but you have beauty lurking behind your bitch shield. Maybe even deep down, you have a good heart." I leaned close and whispered, "But don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

A laugh burst from her mouth. She clamped both hands over her face, trapping her mirth, and regaining her composure. "I would appreciate it if you kept that a secret." She walked away.

Elyssa emerged from her tent a moment later and smiled. We climbed inside a slider. I showed her the key and grinned. "I scored us a private cabin."

She leaned her head against my shoulder, closed her eyes, and sighed. "I love you."

I squeezed her tight against me and tried to pretend everything was all right. Worry tangled my nerves. My calf throbbed where the vampling had bitten it. I was infected. Meghan had as much told me my blood was no defense or cure for the virus, and since I was half-human, it would ravage me every bit as much as it had Felicia.

Guilt pressed against my chest. I should have told the others. But I hadn't. I couldn't. There was only one person I could trust with this for now. And what would I tell her? How could I explain to the love of my life that unless I could find Nightliss and she could cure me, our future together would be cut short? If Nightliss couldn't cleanse the infection, I had at least one more duty to fulfill.

I would kill Maximus.

Chapter 27

The truth hurts. Especially when you have to tell someone you love your future as a member of the walking dead is only days or hours away. But I wouldn't let pain prevent me from telling the woman I loved. After all we'd been through, I owed her that.

Elyssa's eyes widened as though I'd just stabbed her in the heart when I gave her the lowdown. "Let me see right this instant, Justin."

I pulled up my pants leg to reveal two blackened puncture wounds surrounded by pale flesh. I usually healed within minutes, depending on the severity of the wound. Not this time. A shudder ran up my back at the realization of how deadly serious this situation was. Time was ticking. Every beat of my heart carried infection further into my body.

Tears ran down Elyssa's cheeks as she knelt to examine the wound. Her face tightened with anger. "Why didn't you tell Meghan?" She stood, arms akimbo, lips trembling. "We have to tell her this instant!"

"There's no cure," I said, reaching a hand to caress her cheek.

She slapped my hand away. "How—how could this happen?" Her hand wiped away the tears. "I'm not going to just let you die. Meghan can put you to sleep like Felicia. I'll find Nightliss myself."

"And if my fallen angel can't heal me, what then?" I gripped her shoulders. "I'm not going into suspended animation. If Nightliss can't heal me, I want to be awake and fighting until the end." An inhuman growl vibrated deep in my chest as sudden anger surged. "Maximus is mine to kill."

Elyssa's eyes widened. She backed away a step. "Is that what you really want? To kill him? Even if it kills you?"

I pictured Maximus's leering face leaning over me as I lay strapped and helpless, his blood slave for eternity. He'd kidnapped my father. Infected Felicia. Killed scores of Templars. He was an egomaniac, born and bred for destruction by Daelissa herself. A cancerous tumor on the Earth. He had to die.