"Yeah, unless she can change her appearance, Daelissa is the only blonde angel I know of," I said, "and I can't imagine her being helpful to anyone. Back up for a minute—you're saying Nightliss has been spotted all over the world by the Templars?"

Katie gave a nod. "Mostly Templars. There were reports from normal sources too, like random people with cameras or posting to social websites. Ireland, Paris, and Johannesburg, I remember for sure."

"And you're sure Nightliss is the person in these reports?"

"The descriptions are so similar it'd have to be a big coincidence. Plus, some reports mention dark, smoky wings."

"Yeah, that about nails it," I said. The angel didn't have wings per se, but when she was using her magic, smoky apparitions in the shape of wings appeared, spreading from her back.

"Your angel has been a busy little bee," Elyssa said. "Didn't she give you some way to contact her?"

Katie arched her eyebrows. "Yeah, like a phone number? Email address?"

"No." I sighed. "Not even a friend request. She wanted me to choose a side. Her side. Then she could give me a gift, which I assume meant I could contact her whenever."

"And you didn't decide?" Elyssa said, brow wrinkled. "After all the times she's helped us?"

I pushed away from the table and paced. "I know, I know. Seems like a big mistake in hindsight." My gaze found Elyssa. "But what if I choose wrong? What if Nightliss isn't what she seems to be?"

"Seems like a slam dunk," Katie said. "At least from what you've told me."

I dropped back into my seat. "Yeah. Maybe it is." I definitely regretted my indecisiveness now. Time was against me and Felicia. To make matters worse, Maximus was still free and probably up to his old games. Every minute I sat here was another minute my nemesis could fortify his position and another heartbeat closer Felicia and I were to un-death. I'd been inside his Atlanta compound while saving my father. While it wasn't built like a fort, there were only few ways inside. Risking open war with him might expose the Overworld. The Templar Custodians had barely kept things under control in Bogota. In Atlanta, it would be almost impossible.

If noms discovered the existence of the supernatural in their midst, all hell would break loose. At this stage of the game, however, it might not matter, especially if Daelissa managed to restore the Grand Nexus and allow her people back into our world. Their reemergence would give a whole new meaning to hell on Earth.

"Why didn't Nightliss help us with Maximus?" Katie said. "All the stuff she's done, and she didn't lift a finger to help. You could have died."

I had to admit, it worried me a little bit. Nightliss had proven herself powerful and capable. But she'd also told me she wasn't fully recovered from the destruction of the Grand Nexus centuries ago. She might be overextending herself. Sitting here was no longer an option. I had to find her. I had to stop Maximus.

My calf throbbed, sending a jolt of pain up my body.

I struggle against the tight bonds. Dash leans toward me, his eyes wild and crazy. He throws back his head and laughs. Skin flakes from his cheeks, his nose, his mouth, leaving raw muscle and bone. Blood streams from his eyes and ears, trailing down his throat. Still, he continues his hysterical laughter as I look up, helpless.

Fury burns through me. Blinding pain jabs into my skull. I will kill them. Kill them all. The table beneath me groans. Bends. Snaps in two. I am free. Free!

"Justin!"

My face stung. Rubbing my cheek, I looked at Elyssa. She and Katie's expressions were filled with uncertainty—maybe even fear. "What—where?"

"You were shaking. Yelling." Katie looked down.

I looked at the table. I'd gripped it so tight, the metal had bent. "Uh." Words failed me. "I guess I'm stressed out more than I thought."

"That would be putting it mildly," Katie said.

Elyssa touched my hand. "We need to talk with Meghan."

"Can't it wait?"

Her eyes went hard. "You promised."

I jerked my hand out from beneath hers. "Fine. Let's go."

"If it is acceptable to you, Justin, I will remain here." The gray man had hardly spoken a word since taking a seat in the corner of the room.

I nodded. "Sure."

"Perhaps I will attempt being bored as you suggested earlier. It sounds interesting."

"It's not all that interesting," I said. "Why don't you practice being happy instead? We could all use a little more happiness right now."

He tilted his head. "I will consider it, Justin."

We left him in his corner, and walked to the infirmary where we found a team of healers treating Templars wounded from the day before. Meghan saw us and approached.

"Any luck finding Nightliss?" she asked.

"Not yet." I sighed. "Can we speak somewhere private?"

Her eyebrow quirked. "Sure." She led us outside the squat adobe building and took us behind it. Turned to face me. "What's on your mind?"

"Show her," Elyssa said, voice tight.

"What's wrong?" Katie asked. "Justin?"

I pulled up my pants leg.

Meghan's eyes went wide. "Oh no."

Katie gasped. "Justin. Please don't tell me that's—"

"It's a vampling bite." The punctures were as black as the day before. The skin around them looked slightly bruised.

"Do you want me to suspend you?" Meghan asked, kneeling to run her wand over my skin. "The rate of infection seems much slower than usual, so you might have more than a few days before—before the end."

I glared at Elyssa. "See? No cure. Waste of time."

Her jaw went tight. "It is not a waste of time. Now we know your infection isn't spreading fast. We have time to find Nightliss."

I wanted to feel reassured, I really did. Instead, the clock in my head just ticked louder.

Nightliss, damn it, where are you?

I wanted nothing more than to see her. To know help had arrived. A wave of dizziness washed over me. It took everything I had not to stagger as my balance teetered on the brink. I didn't want to give Elyssa any excuse to make me take the Sleeping Beauty option from Meghan. I might have days or a week, but the truth was obvious now. This infection was as relentless as the vamplings.

And it wouldn't stop until I was dead.

Chapter 28

Katie shrieked when we walked into the cabin.

The gray man still sat where I'd left him, a frightening leer plastered on his face. The god-awful expression vanished as his lips resumed their normal flat state. "I have been practicing being happy, Justin," he said in his calm voice. "It is not easy."

"You call that being happy?" Katie said, a hand pressed to her heart. "Smiling like that?"

He nodded. "From what I understand, smiling is an important part of being happy. But smiling is very difficult."

"It is when you're not happy," I said, frowning. "How do you know all this stuff? Do you have a bunch of information programmed into you?"

He tilted his head. "I am not programmed like a computer. My spark contains a great deal of data, although I do not know its origination. Some of this data is already organized into information, linking it to what I have seen in the world. Other parts are quite raw and scattered, and I must research them."

"Such as how to be happy?"

He nodded. "Emotions are very hard to understand. From what I have gathered, one must experience such things to understand them."

"Get a girlfriend. You'll figure out a lot of emotions really quick."

"Hey now," Elyssa said, punching me on the arm.

The gray man looked from me to Elyssa. "Finding someone who wishes to be with me in that sense would be very difficult, Justin. I believe many here would rather see me burned to ash and forgotten."

"Like little gray cinders on the wind," Katie said. "How sad."

The golem studied Katie for a moment. "I have decided my name."

I cocked my head. "Really? Is it George?"

"How about Dexter?" Katie said. "I love that name."

"No. It is Cinder."

"Huh?" I said, failing to see why he'd choose such a name.

"After Katie mentioned the word, I looked it up. It describes me rather accurately. I am gray. I am not a full being in any sense of the word, but an ashen representation of a human. I am but gray dust molded into form."

I stared at him dumbfounded for a moment. "That was almost poetic. But isn't a cinder hot ash?"

"I do have a spark inside me. While it is not hot, I believe the name will suffice."

I stood up and walked across the room to him, held out a hand. He stared at it for a moment before standing and extending his own.

I gripped his hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you, Cinder."

He looked at me. I caught the twitch in his eyes, almost too slight for anyone without supernatural senses to have seen. "Thank you, Justin."

"Congratulations, Cinder!" Katie said, clapping her hands.

Elyssa stared at us like we were crazy. "Yay. The golem has a name. Now, instead of wasting time, let's do something to find Nightliss."

"I believe I have pertinent information regarding this entity," Cinder said, flicking his fingers across the arctablet Katie had used earlier.

A picture of the dark angel hovered above the table. Rustic buildings, roofs laden with snow lay behind her as she stared somewhere off into the distance while swirling snow surrounded her. She wore only a simple black dress despite the sub-zero temperatures. The shadowy outline of wings hung from her back, and her black hair billowed. Beneath the image was a caption: Crazy beautiful girl with wings. Not Photoshopped!

"Where was this?" I asked leaning forward for a better view.

"In Breckenridge, Colorado," Cinder said. "When I discovered the image, it triggered memories in my spark, uncovering a series of directives we were given regarding this entity."