The little man pointed down a side road leading through a thick copse of trees and into a large clearing where a two-story abode stood, complete with an old-fashioned pump well in the front, and clotheslines drooping with laundry.

I parked next to what looked like a Toyota straight out of the dark ages and followed the little man toward the house. A young man, probably in his mid-twenties, a worried expression on his face, stepped onto the front porch and spoke to the old man in rapid Spanish. The old man chuckled and replied, then pointed to me.

At this point, the young man raced into the house and appeared a moment later with a long wooden staff, which left no question in my mind as to what he was. His eyes wide with fright, he spoke a word. A white glow lit the staff.

And then he pointed it at me.

Chapter 11

Elyssa

A dark figure blurred past Elyssa and sent two of her guards spinning away. Her training left no hesitation in her response. She delivered a roundhouse to the guard on her left, the blur of her leg just missing Jack as he ducked.

She checked her spin and drove the heel of her foot down on his head. Momentarily stunned, he reeled back on his butt. Elyssa had sparred with family members plenty of times. None of them ever held back, and if not for supernatural healing, she'd have plenty of bruises to show for it. Maybe even a few scars. But this wasn't sparring. This felt like a matter of life or death.

Sprinting down the long driveway, she risked a glance back. Whoever had initiated her escape hadn't stuck around and the guards were already on their feet and in full pursuit. She faced forward and saw the fence over a hundred yards away. While Elyssa was, without a doubt in her mind, one of the best at sparring, Jack had always been extremely quick on his feet, even before the Divinity had upgraded him from a mere mortal. And the remaining distance gave him plenty of time to catch up. She'd have to—

"Ungh!" was all she managed to say before crashing to the earth with a heavy weight on her chest. A huge silver wolf leered down at her, its tongue lolling in what might have been amusement, judging by the glimmer in his eyes. She looked between the massive forepaws at the belly of the beast and determined, within seconds, it was definitely a "he". The only lycan she knew of was Ryland. Whoever this person was, it wasn't him.

"Get off me!" She struggled against the creature's strength, but lacked the leverage to dislodge him.

Jack's face appeared behind the wolf's. "I see you've met Quinn." He slapped the wolf on the back. "Quinn, this is my little sister, Elyssa."

The great beast howled.

"Son of a bitch," Elyssa growled, trying to kick him in the goods.

He leapt back, tongue lolling. A crowd of Templars gripped Elyssa and snatched her off the ground. One of them punched her in the ribs the moment she was upright.

"Oof!" she said, unable to move her arms and protect herself.

"You kick me again, and I'll break your rib next time," said the aggressor in a youthful female voice.

Elyssa felt her eyebrow rise. "Tasha?" She was a recruit, one of few females who joined the Templar ranks.

The girl let the form-fitting mask flow off her face, revealing a tight bun of black hair and dark skin. "We're sick of this behavior, Elyssa, even if you are sick in the head thanks to friggin' spawn boy. But don't expect us to treat you nicely if you keep trying to punch your way free."

"I don't exactly see anyone offering to let me go peacefully."

The girl snorted. "And let you spy on us for the spawn?" She shook her head. "No freaking way."

"We should've knocked her out with sleepers," grumbled another Templar, his face still hidden behind the masked hood.

"Tell me about it," grumbled another. "Reminds me of the crazy sorcerer chick who set Polinski's hair on fire."

Several of them chuckled as they dragged Elyssa along.

"Ha, ha, laugh it up," said Polinski, his identity betrayed by his short stature and high-pitched northeastern accent.

The huge silver wolf trotted beside Jack who remained outside the tight circle of Templars.

"Doesn't it strike you all as incredibly wrong to do this to me?" Elyssa said. "Polinski, Tasha, you know me. You both trained with me for the past year. How can you believe I would ever betray the Templars?"

Tasha looked uncertain. "If anyone besides Commander Borathen accused you, I'd tell them to go to hell."

Polinski retracted his hood by pressing a finger to the neck seam and tilted his head, revealing a round face and brown eyes set beneath a large brow. "I agree with Tasha. Your dad wouldn't jerk us around. Besides, you're his daughter. He'd never do this to anyone, much less a family member, unless he knew what he was doing."

"What if I told you I've been investigating Thunder Rock? What if I told you the entire event was a setup designed to set the Templars against the spawn? If you let them do this to me, all the evidence in my head will be lost."

"We'll take a recorded statement if you want," Jack said. "But I don't see how anything you think you know will be any more insightful than our father's records. He was there. And he's been doing this for centuries, sis. You're only eighteen, for god's sake."

"So that's what the spawn woman was doing with you," Polinski said.

Elyssa nodded. "Exactly! Kassallandra was—"

"She was using some kind of spawn trick to make you think you knew about Thunder Rock. Then, once you convinced us it was a setup, we'd lower our guard and the spawn would wipe us out."

"Say what you want about spawn, that Kassallandra chick is smoking hot," said one of the masked men.

"Shut your mouth, Andrews," said the gravelly voice of Sergeant Oren as he appeared, silent as a ghost next to the group. Elyssa had heard his voice too many times to mistake it for anyone else's. "And the rest of you shut it too. You're not to communicate with the prisoner. Understood?"

"Sir, yes sir!" the group shouted in unison.

Tasha gave Elyssa one last look of uncertainty before touching the neck seam of her outfit. The black material flowed up her neck, over her head and face, shutting Elyssa out like a door slamming.

Ten minutes later, they reached the manor.

"You want to give a statement?" Jack asked.

"Will you promise to take it seriously?"

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Sure."

"Okay, lead the way."

"Leading the way" consisted of the guards taking her inside the manor, fastening her to a diamond-fiber chair, and standing guard.

Jack produced a digital recorder and clicked it on. After naming himself, Elyssa, and the witnesses in the room, he asked her what she knew.

Elyssa explained the best she could. Two major spawn families, House Slade and House Assad, had formed a joint operation to capture Vadaemos Slade and his consort, Orionas Assad. Thomas Borathen had discovered Vadaemos was hiding out at Thunder Rock and, unaware of the spawns' operation, executed his own bag and tag operation. Instead, everyone except for him was killed in an ambush. He'd assumed the spawn set him up, not knowing both House Assad and Slade had lost all but one person as well. And those survivors returned to their own houses and claimed the other side had betrayed them.

She kept it simple, leaving out the apocalyptic scenarios depicted by Foreseeance 4311 and the survival of Kevin Sorenson, aka Underborn. Her father might divert resources to capturing the notorious assassin instead of tracking Vadaemos, should he believe her, though she doubted he would.

Instead, she boiled it down to the essentials, saying Vadaemos wanted spawn and the Templars off his back for good and sowing distrust among an already fragile trust had worked better than he could have dreamed.

Though Jack listened patiently and even asked a few clarifying questions, it looked obvious to Elyssa he was only going through the motions for his deranged sister.

"It's certainly quite an interesting theory," Jack said as he shut off the recorder and gave the data card to a nearby Templar so the information could be transferred to their secure network. "But if all sides were ambushed, then why were the attackers demon spawn?"

"As I said, the demon spawn involved in the attack weren't Daemos. They were crawlers, rippers, and chargers, which, if I recall correctly, are creatures native to the demon plane."

Jack leaned back in his chair. "I think it far more likely none of the Daemos were actually harmed. In fact, I'd be willing to bet a select few Daemos unleashed the creatures and watched the slaughter from the protection of a circle while Templars had their souls devoured." He sighed and leaned forward. "Sis, you're going off the word of one Daemas. She could be feeding you a story. I imagine it's hard for you not to believe her after the neat little brainwashing job Justin Slade did on you."

Elyssa wanted to scream. And then she wanted to beat the crap out of her brother. Again. But none of it would do a bit of good and her window of escape was dwindling to a tiny sliver. In all likelihood, it was already too late to prevent the mind wipe from occurring.

A sharp rap sounded on the door an instant before it opened. Jack's eyes widened. Elyssa turned and saw who had entered and felt surprise light up her own face.

"Michael?" she said.

He was even brawnier than the last time she'd seen him, his tall hulking frame dominating the room.

"I'd like a word with my sister," he said, his deep voice almost a growl.

"Michael, we weren't expecting you," Jack said, walking to his brother and giving him a hug—one which Michael didn't return. "I thought you were still—"

"Alone." Michael crossed his arms and glared at the other Templars.

They wasted no time clearing out until Jack was the only one left.

Jack nodded. "Well, we're alone."

Michael's violet eyes blazed momentarily. "Perhaps you don't understand the definition of 'alone', brother. I want to have a word or two with my sister without anyone, including you, present."