Dearest Mother of Mine (Overworld Chronicles) (19 page)

"Oh, really?" She punched me in the shoulder with her free hand. "Maybe we should settle that right now."

The air above the center of the cinder blocks shimmered, flickered, and split into a portal right in the middle of a stack. The bricks bent around the portal as if suddenly rendered insubstantial, clearing a space for the portal. Cutsauce yipped at the portal, hopping around on his little legs. The portal flickered shut a few seconds later, and the bricks snapped back to their former shape. The hellhound whined, tilting his head.

"Calm down," Elyssa said, picking him up.

He licked her face.

"Attention whore," I said.

Our little contest forgotten for the moment, I walked to the formerly warped blocks and inspected them. They seemed no worse for the wear. It was as if the portal temporarily transmuted them from solid to something else. Bella joined us for a repeat of the experiment. I touched the warped cinder blocks. They felt solid as ever.

"How bizarre," Bella said, obviously as puzzled as the rest of us.

We repeated the experiment using the wooden melee dummy, chairs, and even a pool of water. In all cases, the portal merely warped the objects in its physical space, displacing anything there. Nobody volunteered to let Bella open a portal on top of them, but we felt confident it wouldn't kill anyone. Shelton wanted to test it on Cutsauce since the little hellhound kept following us everywhere, yipping excitedly whenever the portal opened. Bella gave him a horrified look.

"One thing I'm concerned about would be Gloom cracks," Elyssa said after we finished experimenting. "The silver circles around the Obsidian Arches and the smaller arches in the control rooms prevent Gloom cracks from spreading outside the magical circuit. There's no circle at the destination portal, so what's to prevent cracks from opening and spreading?"

"It might create a temporary invisible circle around the area it opens in," Shelton said. "I guess we'll have to experiment more."

At that point, though, it was late, and I wanted to go to bed. We opened the omniarch back to Stacey's residence, and saw Ryland, Stacey's lycan boyfriend, on the other side wearing a chef's apron and not much else. She let out a sensual growl and raced through the arch and into his burly arms.

Bella shut the portal in record time.

Chapter 17

The next day was Saturday, so we got up extra early to go to Elyssa's initiation ceremony for the Templars. Bella, Shelton, Elyssa and I used the omniarch, opening the portal in a room inside the Templar compound and leaving it open for our later return.

"Where has Nightliss been lately?" I asked as we walked outside to the large lawn behind the house where the ceremony was to take place.

"Meghan said she was going to practice and recover, but I haven't seen her for a few days," Bella said.

"Justin!" said a familiar voice. I turned in time to receive a hug from Katie. She squeezed me so tight I couldn't breathe for a minute.

"Hey, Katie," I wheezed as she released me. "Geez, you been working out?"

She squeezed Elyssa with a hug, eliciting an
oof
from my girlfriend.

Katie gave a sheepish grin. "Um, kind of, I guess."

I'd once had a huge crush on the pretty blonde. By the time she'd reciprocated the feelings, I'd already moved on and fallen in love with Elyssa. Unfortunately for Katie, that had been about the time hellhounds decided to chase me out of my childhood home, leading to her terrifying initiation into the Overworld.

"How's college?" I asked.

She shrugged. "It's okay, but it's so boring going to a nom school when you know about all the cool stuff at Arcane University and Science Academy."

I chuckled, though a sobering thought flattened my smile as I remembered the last time she'd seen action with us and mowed down a gang of armed vampires with an assault rifle. She'd saved our lives, but at the cost of emotional trauma.

Katie turned to my girlfriend. "I'm really happy for you, Elyssa." She held out a wrapped package. "It's not much, but I figured graduating to a full-fledged Templar means you deserve a gift."

Elyssa's eyes softened. "Thanks, Katie. It means a lot to me."

My stomach clenched.
Should I have bought her a gift, too?

Shelton's eyes caught mine. He smirked, probably knowing exactly what I was thinking.

Other members of my extended family were also there, including Felicia Nosti and her nom boyfriend, Larry. I was happy to see them still together after a few months, since she wasn't usually one to stay committed to anything or anyone. After her and Adam's parents had died, she'd gone off the deep end, doing drugs, and abusing her body in all sorts of other ways, culminating in her becoming a vampire and doing dirty work for Maximus. He'd nearly killed her, allowing her to be infected by vamplings, but Nightliss had cured the curse somehow by purging Felicia with the blood of the vampire who had turned her.

I spoke with her for a while, moving on to other friends, Ash and Nyte, former schoolmates from Edenfield High School.

"Justin!" Ash shook my hand with bone-crushing force.

I winced. "Easy, dude. You're gonna break somebody's hand if you're not careful."

Ash smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. I got excited when I saw you."

Nyte snorted. "Life has been an adjustment ever since the Maximus ordeal."

The rogue vampire had used my blood to make a potion that turned noms into vampires. Ash and Nyte had taken the potion and joined the blood-sucking crowd. But when I altered a spell intended to kill all the vampires in Maximus's Atlanta compound, the alteration removed the vampirism from the vampires present, instead. Even though my intervention had taken the fangs and desire for blood from my two friends, they'd retained supernatural strength and crystal-blue eyes—a side effect of my blood having been used in the vampire potion.

"I'll bet," I said.

Nyte grinned. "So we decided to join the Templars."

Ash nodded. "Mr. Borathen—"

"
Commander
," Nyte said with a sigh. "He isn't the dad of your best friend anymore; he's your leader."

"I know," Ash said, grinning at Elyssa. He and Nyte had been her besties before I'd stumbled into their lives.

I spotted Elyssa's father walking from the house and flinched in surprise at the woman walking by his side.

"Nightliss?" I said.

Elyssa's forehead furrowed at the sight. Ash and Nyte both went silent with awe, their mouths dropping open in unison.

"Dude, that's the angel?" Nyte said. "She is so hot."

"Is she single?" Ash asked.

"I'll be right back," I said, and made my way through the crowd, Elyssa following close behind.

Thomas Borathen, leader of the Atlanta Templars and father of my girlfriend, regarded me with his cool blue eyes. "Mr. Slade," he said in a professional tone.

"Hello, sir," I said, giving Nightliss a quizzical look. She smiled.

"Hello, Dad," Elyssa said, and went in for a hug.

In the past, her father had spurned such things, but after his son Jack's death, things had changed. He embraced her in a firm, albeit brief hug, and stepped back. "I'm proud of you, Elyssa."

"Thanks, Dad" she said, unable to repress a beautiful smile.

He checked the time. "Cadet, you should be joining the others for the march. I'm calling this to order."

She offered him a smart salute, kissed me on the cheek, and went inside the compound to join the procession.

"What's going on, Nightliss?" I asked.

She took my hands. "I've found a new calling, Justin. I hope you'll be pleased."

I looked to Thomas, but his stony expression gave nothing away. "Are you going to become a Templar, too?"

She smiled. "Not exactly."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "What's going on?"

Katie wandered up to our group, grinning brightly. "Did you tell him?" she said to Nightliss.

"Not yet."

Katie looped her arm through mine. "You're gonna be so surprised," she said, and led me to the front row where most of my friends sat.

I cast a glance back at Nightliss, confused and a little worried. She hadn't been at full strength since Ivy had healed her from Daelissa's curse. I hoped she wasn't about to do something she wasn't ready for.

We took our seats and waited for the procession. Katie released my arm. I couldn't help but notice her glancing down the row at Ash. He looked at her, and quickly turned away, his face red.

"Are you two still seeing each other?" I asked.

She shook her head. "No. After they went vampire, I just couldn't look at him the same. I mean, I'm glad you took away the vampire part, but I guess we never reconnected, you know?"

I nodded. "Looks like he still has feelings for you."

A sad smile clouded her face. "Yeah. I just don't feel like I'm ready for another relationship. They all end badly."

I didn't even want to remind her of Brad Nichols. He'd been a recruit of Maximus's, but since Maximus hadn't been mature enough to properly turn a nom into a vampire, he'd infected Brad with the vampling curse, turning him into a member of the blood-sucking walking dead. He'd promptly massacred half a dozen corrupted high school officials who were trying to blackmail me. The incident remained a dark stain in my memories, but Katie had lost her virginity to the guy, so I couldn't imagine how brutal his death had been for her.

"Ash and Nyte have been training with Templar initiates," Katie said. "I think they're really serious about using the abilities you gave them. Maybe if Ash applies himself and proves himself to me, we can try again." She sighed, her hand brushing against mine. "Elyssa is so lucky to have you, Justin. We all are."

I tugged on my collar, feeling a bit embarrassed by the sudden praise. "You're all lucky to still be alive," I said. "I think I've nearly gotten you killed on two or three occasions."

Her laugh echoed across the crowd right when everyone stopped talking. She clamped a hand over her mouth, looking mortified.

A trumpet blared, and a drum punctuated the air with a precise military beat. A rank of Templars in shining armor, red crosses atop white shields emblazoned on their chest plates appeared from the direction of the old stone church to the side of the house. They wore no helmets, and I recognized one of the people in the line as Christian Salazar, the commander of Templars in Colombia. Templars bearing flags with the same symbols marched behind the commanders, followed by drummers and trumpeters.

The commanders stopped before Thomas Borathen. The drums and trumpets sounded a final cadence and stopped playing, leaving a sudden silence hanging in the air.

Christian saluted Thomas, and said in a loud clear voice, "My legion is at your command, sir knight." He gave a short bow and backed into line. Each commander followed suit. I counted thirteen in all, and wondered how many had gone over to the dark side of Bara Nagal and the Synod.

After Thomas accepted each of their offerings, he shouted a command. The drums rapped a complex series of beats, and the trumpets blared a somewhat familiar melody. I heard a gasp of awe and followed other's gazes to see an army of Templars marching from the church. Ranks upon ranks appeared, marching to the military cadence in perfect unison. I had never seen so many Templars in one place, and wondered if each commander had brought every unit under his command, or if this was just a sample of the entire army.

For nearly half an hour, the drums rat-a-tatted as the Templars filled the pasture where horses normally grazed. With a final beat, the drums ceased, their final strikes punctuating the air.

A sense of awe and anticipation hung heavy in the air as Thomas Borathen walked up the stairs of a tall gray podium. An Arcane Templar made a motion with his wand, probably casting a voice amplification spell, and stepped aside as the Templar leader stood atop the platform. It seemed this was something much larger than an initiation ceremony.

"It has been a trying last several months for the order of the Knights Templar," Thomas said, his voice sounding almost as if he were right beside me. "The revelation of the Divinity's origin fractured our order. Former brothers in arms are now enemies."

"And sisters in arms," Katie whispered, obviously trying to keep things equal opportunity.

"Because of this rift, we have lost the ability to protect our initiates against certain curses, and to grant them enhancements they need in the war against chaos. We have lost the solidarity that makes Templars a barrier against evil. This threatens law and order."

Murmurs of agreement sounded in the crowd.

"The Synod, for all practical purposes, has fallen into chaos and ruin." He paused, looking around as if to emphasize the point. "Those of us who have remained united for the cause say, no more!" Thomas pounded a fist into his palm.

At this, a great cheer went up from the assembly, and the ranks of Templars sounded a single solid roar echoing in the chill air.

After the noise faded, Thomas continued. "Today we bring not only new initiates into the fold, but we also gain a new weapon in the battle against chaos."

The air became absolutely still as everyone waited with bated breath to hear the next words.

"I give you Nightliss, Seraphim, and the Clarion of the Knights Templar!" he shouted.

The crowd roared as Nightliss ascended the podium, looking fragile, petite, and cute—certainly not what one would expect of the new Divinity, although they'd obviously opted for a new, less pretentious title.

I sat open-mouthed as Katie beamed at me, gripping my arm and cheering.

The angel moved to the podium while Thomas stepped back. "I am honored to accept the responsibilities granted me by the Templar order," she said in her peculiar accent. She smiled, looking toward me for a moment. She seemed to steel herself, fists clenched, eyes closed. Ethereal ultraviolet wings fanned from her back, bathing her body in a halo of dark light. She opened her eyes to reveal glowing orbs, opened her hands and held them high. "The Templars will be a mighty force," she cried out in a voice that sounded like several voices speaking at once. "Order will be restored!"