Dread Nemesis of Mine (36 page)

We raced to an ancient stone building not far
from the cabin. I took out the key. Put it in the old rusted lock.
Pulled the door open.

Instead of the inside of the tiny building,
the broken ruins of something massive greeted us. Elyssa poked her
head through and gasped. She jerked back, as if afraid it might get
cut off.

"That's the Coliseum. In Rome, Italy."

"We've got a way to take the troops back to
Atlanta," I said. "Holy crap, can you believe it?"

Elyssa squeezed me in a happy hug. "Underborn
lied. This
is
the key." She pulled away as a concerned look
spread across her features. "But that would mean—"

"He's manipulating us," I said. "Do you
really think he'd let you take something so valuable for
nothing?"

She sighed and shook her head. "That weasel.
I think I know how he's pulling our strings."

I raised an eyebrow. "Enlighten me, because
I, for one, don't have a clue."

"What's the quickest way to make someone do
something?"

"Uh, take over their brain? Show them your
sexy legs?"

She punched me on the shoulder. "Oh, hush.
No, the best way is to tell them they can't do it."

"You mean like your parents telling you not
to date me?"

Elyssa snorted. "You could say that."

I made a sad face.

"Hey now, remember we started dating way
before my parents told me not to." She pecked me on the lips.
"Their disapproval has nothing to do with me wanting you. So get
that look off your face before I have to do something evil."

"What you're saying is Underborn used reverse
psychology on you, telling you that you couldn't have the key, he'd
never give it up, and then allowed you to steal it so you'd use the
key?" I wrinkled my brow and quirked an eyebrow to leave no doubt
how confused I was. "Why not just give the stupid thing to you and
then tell you what he wanted you to do?"

"Because then I would question everything
about the situation."

"Maybe he was just pissed you actually stole
the real key and didn't want to admit you got the better of him." I
shrugged. "Men don't like it when a girl beats them at
something."

"Oh, I know that all too well." Elyssa
sighed. "Maybe I'm just over thinking things. Besides, how I got
the key doesn't matter right now. What does matter is figuring out
how to use it."

"That should be easy enough," I said, and
closed the door. Twisting the knob again, I opened it to…the inside
of a toolshed. I closed the door again and reopened it. Same
thing.

"Isn't that just the inside of this shed?"
Elyssa asked.

I glanced at the garden shears on the wall
and sighed. "I imagined the door leading to Atlanta."

"Maybe the key doesn't recognize proper
names." She looked at the map. "This thing didn't do anything when
I asked for a map of Bogota."

"Show me Atlanta," I said to the map.

Nothing.

"Show me my hometown."

A moment later, the map displayed Decatur,
Georgia.

"Show me the city I'm imagining," I said,
squeezing my eyes tight and thinking of the Atlanta skyline on a
clear spring day.

This time, it drew downtown Atlanta.

"So it figures it out by what you're
thinking?" Elyssa said.

"Yeah, brainwaves or something weird like
that."

"Oh, I have an idea," Elyssa said. "Map, this
city is Atlanta."

We fooled around with the map for several
more minutes and figured out that it could show us just about any
place we could imagine in detail. I had to pull up images on my
arcphone and focus on them if I wanted the map to display that
location. Once we told the map a city or location name, it
remembered it.

"Show me the door locations in Atlanta," I
said.

The map drew a single circle on the east
side. When I told it to zoom in, it redrew the area in greater
detail, including rows of small rectangles.

"I know that place," Elyssa said.

"What is it? A parking lot?"

She shook her head. "No. A graveyard. It's
where we just buried my brother."

I felt surprise light my face. "What kind of
bizarre coincidence is that?"

"I don't know if I believe in coincidence
anymore after all we've been through." Elyssa touched the map, as
if to confirm it was real. "When I was in the Goths, we used to go
to that graveyard and scare each other with ghost stories. We were
so stupid. I never once thought I'd be burying my brother there.
Never thought I'd lose Jack."

I squeezed her shoulder in what I hoped was a
reassuring manner. "I'm sorry."

She shook her head as if she could shake off
the memory. "Whatever. What's done is done."

"Try the key again?"

Elyssa nodded. Took it and opened the door.
Hard-packed earth waited on the other side.

"You've got to be kidding me," I said, kicked
at the dirt.

Some of it crumbled, spilling onto the
ground, revealing a thick maze of roots and a worm or three.

I looked at the map again. "Show me a street
view of the door." When that command failed, I tried again. "Show
me the view of the door from ground level."

The parchment cleared and redrew the
graveyard from a first-person perspective. By the time it was done,
I realized what the problem was. The door was fifty feet or more
underground. I had the map redraw the scene from different
angles.

"There's an old crypt or something beneath
the cemetery," Elyssa said. She traced a finger up a ramp. "Looks
like it was buried."

I groaned. "Didn't you say the map could be
used to make new connections for the key?"

"According to Underborn, yes."

We fiddled with the map, trying to get it to
connect a door in an abandoned warehouse near Elyssa's house, aka
the Templar compound known as Big Creek Ranch, or The Ranch for
short. The map ignored our pleas. We tried different doors, all to
no avail, and finally gave up. I searched the interwebz on my phone
for more information about the map, but came up with zilch. Either
Underborn had lied about the name, or it was so old, it had already
passed from legend, to myth, to oblivion.

"The only person who might tell us how to
work this thing is the last person I want to know about the map," I
said. "And I don't plan on giving Underborn the key. That leaves
one option."

"We dig?" Elyssa said.

I nodded. "We dig."

"Justin, may I help?" Cinder said from behind
us.

I almost jumped out of my skin. "Geez, dude,
do you have to sneak up on me all the time?"

"My apologies," the golem said. "I had no
intention of a stealthy approach, Justin."

"Can you use a shovel?" Elyssa asked.

Cinder's eyes went distant. "If you show me
how, I am certain it is within my grasp."

Elyssa closed the shed door and reopened it
without the key. She went in, grabbed a couple of shovels, an axe,
and a few other items, then stepped back out. Shoved the key in the
lock and reopened it to the wall of dirt.

"It's easy," she said, demonstrating. "Just
shove the tip in hard, wiggle it around, and then pull out a
load."

"That's what she said." I said with a wide
grin.

She threw a clod of dirt at me.

Cinder took to the task without another
word.

"I'll go tell Thomas," Elyssa said. "Why
don't you round up the gang?"

Within twenty minutes I returned to the shed
with Bella and Katie in tow. Adam and Meghan promised they'd be
over soon. A crowd of Templars stood near the shed watching Cinder
work. The door was a little wider than a normal one but didn't
offer much room for more than one person. As Cinder worked his way
forward, Templars formed a chain, using wheelbarrows and buckets to
move dirt.

"This is amazing," Bella said, looking at the
map. "This isn't the first magic key or map I've heard of, but one
that can transport you from one side of the planet to the other is
simply unheard of."

"You couldn't figure out how to make it open
to another door?" Katie asked.

"No. Maybe it requires some magic words or
sacrificing small animals, for all I know."

"Does Nightliss know?" Bella asked, her eyes
wandering toward the cabin.

"She's still unconscious," I said.

Meghan and Adam appeared around the corner of
the cabin. The blonde Arcane waved me over, so I excused myself and
jogged to them.

"Nightliss is awake," Meghan said. "She's
asking for you."

I sped back inside. The petite angel still
looked sickly, her cheeks gaunt, eyes hollow.

"Feeling better?" I asked as I sat on the
side of the bed, thinking she looked worse than ever.

She smiled. "A little."

"Have you ever heard of the Key or Map of
Juranthemon?" I asked, before giving her a chance to get out
another word. I pulled them out and showed her how the map
worked.

She gazed with wonder at the map. "This is
amazing."

"That's what Bella said."

"I have never seen these before." She
inspected the key. "And you say it can create portals between
doors?"

I nodded. "Yeah." I told her about the first
time I'd seen it used by Phissilinth, one of Underborn's henchmen.
"Well, that stinks. I was hoping you could tell me how to connect
another door."

She handed me the key, an uncertain look on
her face. "Justin, my people have made many wondrous things. The
arches are one of our greatest achievements. If this map and key
can do what you say they can, this is magic on another scale
altogether."

My mouth dropped open at this new
information. "You're saying this is even more powerful than what
angels can do?"

"Unless I've forgotten something, the map and
key are not something my people created." She shrugged. "The
Obsidian Arches require a great deal of magical power to operate.
From the way you describe it, this key requires none of that."

"I'll bet the Arcanes who charge a bundle to
travel via arch would be ticked if something like this were
available for general use," I said.

"Indeed." A wracking cough hit her, shaking
her frail form until she lay back against the pillows, exhausted.
"It appears my recovery will take longer than I thought." A weak
smile glimmered on her face.

"Why did you want to see me?" I asked.

"Remember when you told me how others have
seen me around the world, but sometimes they saw a blonde
angel?"

I nodded. "Was it Daelissa causing
trouble?"

"No." She took my hand in her weak grip. "I
was in those places too, Justin. I caught a glimpse of this other
angel, and it was definitely not Daelissa."

"Wait, are you saying there's another crazy
blonde angel running around? Are you even sure this other woman is
one of your people?" I thought back to the clump of blonde hair
Cinder had found, and wondered if it belonged to Daelissa after
all.

"I can usually sense when one of my people is
nearby," Nightliss said. "Twice I went to help someone only to
sense another presence. When I arrived, I discovered this other
angel had already helped them." She sighed. "I only know about this
sense from being close to Daelissa a few times. This other person
felt…different. Not as pure or strong, perhaps." She paused, mouth
partway open as if searching for a better way to say it. "Perhaps
the sensation is different with other angels. I do not know for
sure."

I realized how close I was leaning in to hear
her every word, and straightened. "So she's probably good we
hope?"

"I think so."

"Man, I just wish you were feeling better!" I
squeezed her hands. "We need your help so much right now." A tingle
grew in the back of my mind. My essence extended, and the view
filled with floating motes of magical energy. I suddenly knew with
great certainty I could heal her. Somehow, it had to be
possible.

Nightliss's eyes grew wide. "Are you
channeling magic?" she said.

"I can help you," I said.

"Justin, attempting to heal me could be very
dangerous if you don't know what you're doing."

"I can do it. I
know
it."

"No." She pushed weakly at my hands. "Stop
it. You will hurt yourself."

My leg went ice cold. The vampling wound
throbbed. My pulse hammered against my temples and the sense of
magic slipped from my grasp. I felt my back thud against the floor.
Rolling in pain, clutching at my wound, I squeezed my eyes tight
and wished for the agony to go away.

Maximus and Dash flash into my view. Dad,
shackled in a crypt, weak, and starving while a filthy girl
whimpers nearby. I slam against the barred door, unable to open it.
I'm weak. Tired. The scraping, moaning sounds of vamplings as they
shamble toward me pull my attention away from Dad. I see a still
figure lying on the floor, blood puddling beneath her. It's Elyssa!
A scream of grief roars from my throat, deepening to a guttural
throb, a demonic howl of anguish. I will kill them all!

"Justin!"

I jerked. Sucked in a deep breath.
Nightliss's face appeared above me over the side of the bed.

"You must fight it," she said.

Something wet hit my cheek. It was a tear
from Nightliss's eye. "I will find a way to cure you. I promise I
will. You're too important."

I sat up and looked at her, hopelessness and
fear tearing me up inside. "I'm not going to make it much longer,"
I said. Pulling up my pants leg revealed the truth. Blackened veins
pulsed around the wound. The curse was spreading.

Time was running out.

I tucked Nightliss back into bed. Kissed her
on the cheek. "Thanks for all you've done."

She nodded, her eyelids drooping as she tried
to speak. Sleep claimed her before she could say another word.