Dread Nemesis of Mine (20 page)

"The White." Cold prickles ran up Elyssa's
back at the mention of it. "I think Daelissa can reach Martinez
because she had her mind wiped. At least, I hope so. Otherwise, it
means Daelissa can enter the dreams of any Templar."

Adam gave her a curious look. "Didn't you
take…" he didn't finish the thought.

"Yeah. I took the White." Elyssa's voice came
out rough with emotion despite her best efforts. She'd squandered
her childhood, devoted almost every moment of her life for the
Templars. But if she was a danger to their secrecy, she couldn't
stay. Even her father would be forced to agree to her
resignation.

They raced across the compound to the
assembly area. Nearly two hundred Templars stood in perfect rows as
a tall man with a long red robe walked along the large stage in the
front and spoke. Elyssa wondered where the rest of the legion
complement was, or if her quick assessment of the crowd’s size was
wrong.

"Who in blazes is that?" Adam said, pointing
at the man on the stage.

"Oh, goodness." Bella's eyes widened. "I
believe it's Artemis Coronus, the Seneschal to the Grand Master of
the Templar Synod."

And a Templar Knight.
Elyssa almost
stumbled with the realization as they jogged along the perimeter of
the assemblage looking for her father. Very few of the Knights
Templar remained, and almost no one in recent memory had been
granted the ultimate honor. Even the great Thomas Borathen had
never been offered the position, though he was known throughout the
Overworld for his military victories over the centuries. For one of
them to be here meant something serious was going on. For the
Seneschal to be here meant—well, she didn't know what it meant,
except major political forces were in motion.

Artemis held up a gloved fist. "The days of
pitchforks and persecution are over. While the Synod does not agree
with the actions of the rogue vampires known as Blood Rush, we
strongly advise against a military course of action."

"You've got to be kidding," Adam said. "Since
when would a Templar Knight back down from a fight?"

A deep chill gripped Elyssa's chest. The
Synod could command the local legion to stand down if they brought
it to a vote. They spoke for the Divinity. Supposedly, they were
the only ones who had personally spoken to her—and remembered it.
Elyssa didn't know the truth of the matter, but seeing how the
Divinity and Daelissa were one and the same, it didn't much matter
to her. If the Synod still trusted the Divinity, it probably meant
they'd work against the Templars.

"There's your father," Bella said, pointing
to Thomas. Fausta and Meghan stood nearby, engrossed in
conversation with the Commander Salazar while Thomas looked on as
Artemis continued to rail against the decision to attack.

"You two run ahead," Adam said, stopping and
panting. "I don't have supernatural endurance. I'm gonna puke if I
don't take a break." He gave Elyssa another look. "And let me know
when you talk to the other guy.

Underborn.
"I will."

Bella and Elyssa blurred around the
perimeter, reaching Christian within seconds.

The Templar commander looked at them
expectantly. "
Recruit
Borathen, you'd better have an
excellent reason for not being in formation right now."

"I told you she was getting proof," Fausta
said, and spun to Elyssa. "You got proof right?"

Elyssa put on her best poker face and held
out the tablet to Christian. "I don't know how much they told you,
but here it is in a nutshell: Daelissa has been invading Lieutenant
Martinez's dreams to spy on the Templars. It's possible she can do
that to any Templar, but I think she's more limited than that.
After examining the Lieutenant's records, I believe I have reached
an explanation. Daelissa can do it because Lieutenant Martinez took
the White."

Christian's jaw tightened. He folded his arms
and narrowed his eyes. "Fausta, maybe you'd better tell me again
exactly what you did. I know for a fact Healer Delgado is here at
assembly, and only she, Lieutenant Martinez, and I know about her
taking the White."

Fausta's face went white. "Uh, we…" She
cleared her throat, looked down and said in a rush, "Broke into the
officers' quarters where Meghan Andretti made sounds come out of
the walls and figured out that Lieutenant Martinez was having bad
dreams, and Elyssa read her diary, and then we—"

Commander Salazar held up a hand, his eyes
going cold with disbelief and anger. "Slow down and back up. You
forcibly and illegally entered the officers' quarters, and read
Lieutenant Martinez's confidential journal?"

Elyssa decided Fausta wasn't doing a very
good job of explaining things. "I think you're overlooking the
importance of my discovery, sir."

Christian's stern eyes locked onto Elyssa.
"You expect me to believe Lieutenant Martinez is a mole?"

His angry look only hardened her resolve. "I
expect you to believe Daelissa can use Lieutenant Martinez to find
out our plans in advance. Daelissa is helping the vampires, and
Maximus probably knows we're coming."

"How would you know that?"

Elyssa took out the diary and turned to the
last page. She read an entry she'd discovered while waiting on Adam
to break into Healer Delgado's tablet. "
This dream was much
different than the others. At first, I was in the House. As usual
it was foggy and rainy through the sliding glass door in the back,
but outside the front door, the weather appeared beautiful and
sunny. I walked out the door, toward the sunshine, and suddenly
found myself reliving the briefing with Christian and the other
officers as we discussed Thomas Borathen's plans to come via arch
to La Casona. It felt like a lucid dream, except I couldn't control
myself. I practically relived every conversation I had with
Christian and the other officers from the day, but skipped
everything in between. Usually, I don't remember every little thing
about a dream, but this one I do. Maybe because it was almost an
exact repeat of my day? I don't know. I don't feel stressed, but
maybe this new war Thomas Borathen wants to start scares me more
than I want to admit.
"

Elyssa turned to the next page. "
Another
strange dream. I started in the house, and after walking out the
front door, found myself in the briefing with Christian, Thomas
Borathen, and the other officers. In fact, this dream was exactly
like the one from my previous entry—I relived briefings and several
conversations from the day. This is too strange to be coincidence.
It's almost like something is forcing me to relive this. Is it my
troubled conscience? I never wanted war with the vampires, but
after the ambush on our convoy, we don't have much choice. In my
dream, I kept looking at Ludovico's empty chair and feeling the
anger and pain. He shouldn't have died. How did the vampires know
to be there?
"

Elyssa looked up from the diary. "I think
Daelissa is somehow pushing her to dream about Templar briefings.
It would explain how the vampires knew about our arrival at La
Casona."

"They're dreams, recruit." Christian made an
exasperated noise. " Lieutenant Martinez is obviously under great
stress. Most officers, including myself, probably dream about
briefings." His eyes hardened to steel. "As for you and Fausta,
you'll both have nightmares once we determine the punishment for
your actions tonight."

I gave up trying to draw the sword, and
readied my fists for a fight. Gray emotionless eyes regarded me.
The golem tilted his—its—head ever so slightly to the right.

"Has this entity offended you?" it said.

"What's wrong with him?" Katie asked, staring
at the gray hue of the golem's skin. "Did Maximus do something to
the poor man?"

Words finally came to my tongue. "You're a
golem. A gray man."

It held its hands out, inspecting them as if
for the first time. "This entity—I—am gray. Is it wrong to be this
color?"

My adrenaline rush faded. Either this gray
man meant me no harm, or it was playing nice until I let my guard
down. I'd fought these things before and knew I could take them
one-on-one. Still, I wasn't about to turn my back on the thing.
Positioning myself behind one of the tables, I nodded a head at the
pile of bodies. "What did Maximus do to those people?"

The golem approached the pile and knelt,
taking a limp hand in his. "They are also gray."

Tearing my eyes off the golem, I soaked in
details I'd missed earlier. Some bodies in the pile wore gray
suits. Some were without clothing. Without exception, they were all
gray.

"Whoa, that's sick," Katie said, kneeling
next to one of the bodies. Part of the skull hung open, revealing
shiny metal inside.

I snatched Katie away from the golem. "Don't
go near him."

The gray man stood and faced me. "I cannot
harm you, Justin. You preserved my existence; therefore, I am bound
to your service."

"Bound to my service? Like a slave?"

"I am required to follow your
directives."

"What if I told you to jump off a cliff?"

The golem paused to regard me for a moment
with its gray eyes. "How tall is this cliff?"

"I don't know." I shrugged. "Like a thousand
feet tall."

"Would there be obstructions such as rocks or
other debris at the bottom, or would there be deep water?"

"Jagged rocks."

Again, the gray man seemed to ponder the
question. "The probability that such a jump would end this
entity's—my—existence would likely result in declining such an
order."

I couldn't help it. I burst into
laughter.

"Are you expressing merriment or pain?" it
asked.

I stifled another bout of laughter and took
a deep breath. "I was laughing."

"You are amused at the proposition of my
demise from a long fall?"

"No, no, no. It's
how
you refused
that made me laugh." This thing was just too bizarre to destroy. It
might be lying, but for now, I could put it to use. If we ran into
any vampires, I might need a helping hand. "What happened to the
other golems?"

"Such information is not inside me. I recall
our group approaching this place and entering, but nothing more.
Another entity—person—stood over me after an indeterminate period
of blackout. It said, 'This one might work.' Another person replied
with, 'It had better. It's the last one.'"

Judging from the pile of ten or more bodies,
I guessed Maximus might have been trying to reprogram the golems
for his own uses. Something odd occurred to me about the pile of
inanimate bodies. Golems usually broke down into gray sludge when
they died. Whether that was a normal thing or something their
creator built in, I didn't know. These gray men had somehow
remained whole, maybe because of Maximus's tampering.

Katie knelt again and looked inside the
panel on one of the golem's heads. "Ooh, look at this."

I squatted beside her. A light flickered
like a candle in a gentle breeze from within the cavity. I peered
inside the door. The compartment was rounded and about the size of
a tennis ball. A tiny globe of wavering light hovered within,
equidistant from the sides. Tiny threads of energy sparked against
the metallic surface inside.

"So that's what makes them tick," I said. "I
guess it explains why they die if their heads are cut off."

"I have a light within me?" said a voice
inches from my ear.

I jerked upright and backed away.

The gray man tilted his head at me. "I
apologize if I startled you."

Taking a deep breath, I shook my head.
"Guess it'll take some getting used to, having you around." I
gestured at the spark. "If your comrade is any indication, yeah,
you have one inside you too."

"And this is life?" he said.

Try as I might to think of this golem as an
"it", I couldn't stop thinking of the thing as a "he" even though I
doubted his creator had bestowed him anything between the legs.
"Artificial life," I said. "Not real."

"So, I am not really alive."

"Uh, Justin, we don't have time for
existential discussions." Katie pushed herself up and grabbed my
hand. "We've got to meet Felicia and get out of here."

A flash of panic raced through me as I
realized we'd been dawdling. "Crap, how long has it been?"

"We're going to be overdue if we don't
hurry."

"How far?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, but pretty far.
Like a couple hundred yards maybe."

I sighed. "Might be faster if you hitched a
piggy-back ride."

Katie smiled and hopped on my proffered
back. "Thought you'd never ask."

"Come with us and watch our backs," I told
the golem, hoping it wasn't a mistake trusting the thing.

"I assume that is an idiom since I will have
difficulty seeing your back through the person perched upon it."
The golem's tone never wavered from a calm monotone.

"Uh, yeah." I resisted a face-palm. "It
means protect us."

"I will."

We ran.

Not more than twenty feet later, we ran into
trouble. Literally. Racing up the spiral staircase, I slammed into
Amanda and sent her sprawling. She sprang to her feet in an
instant, eyes wide, fangs extended at the sight of me.

"How the hell?" She bent her fingers like
claws. Looked at Katie and smiled. "Oh. The little morsel helped
you. I guess she fell prey to your incubus charms."

Katie slid off my back. I held my hands in
what I hoped was a good fighting position. Self-defense remained
one of those things I should probably have learned at some point,
but the bad guys hadn't given me much breathing room.

Amanda grinned. "I'm going to make short
work of you." She flashed forward.

I dodged back, but not before her sharp
fingernails raked my hide, leaving bloody trails along my arm. I
growled and lunged. Her body swayed left. She grabbed my arm.
Twisted it, and used my momentum to drive me into the stone wall.
Fireworks burst into my eyes.