Fallen Angel of Mine (21 page)

Beyond that memory, however, she
couldn't remember what had happened next. Had someone captured her?
Did the rogue have partners who'd knocked her out and kidnapped
her? Panic raced in a white-hot streak from her stomach and through
her lungs. Why couldn't she remember?

"Calm down," she told herself, forcing
her eyelids closed and slowing her breathing until her racing heart
relented to a steadier beat. When she opened her eyes again, she
looked around the room, noting its round dimensions, the statue,
and the onyx pedestals sitting before her. Recognition dawned in
her sluggish brain. This was the communionary. The pedestal where a
torch would usually be placed was empty, which meant whatever
ritual she'd been taking had already finished.

Had she taken the trials? Was she now a
full-fledged Templar?

Excitement consumed the
remaining panic. She'd been dying to take the Cho'kai though Father
had told she wasn't quite ready for it. Had he finally allowed her?
More importantly, had she passed? Perhaps being tied to a chair was
part of it. She glanced down at the straps. Nothing she could do
would break the diamond fiber. Something on the armrest near her
left hand caught her eye. She peered at the letters scratched into
the paint:
Dvnty crzy
bad
.

What did that mean? Beneath
her right hand were two words:
trust
justn
.

Someone must have been awfully bored to
go scratching stuff into the paint. Maybe the trials were easy.
Maybe all they consisted of was sitting in this stupid chair.
Speaking of which, what was she supposed to do now? Escape? Scream
for help? Bolts held the chair to the floor so she couldn't very
well move it. Maybe this was part of the test.

Using a trick she'd learned from her
brother, Michael, she relaxed her right hand and then contracted
the muscles as fast and as tight as she could, folding her fingers
and hand into a funnel shape before trying to pull it through the
loop in the strap. But the snug fit of the strap allowed no slack
to slip her hand through. As she relaxed her hands, she noticed
flecks of gray paint lodged beneath the fingernails of her left and
right forefingers. Had she been the one to scratch the paint on the
chair?

She stared once again at the letters
and back to her fingers. Who was—

The door to the room burst open and her
brother, Jack, came in, a huge smile on his face. "I heard the bell
and came as fast as I could. You've been in here for quite a while,
sis."

"Jack? Did I pass the trials? Am I a
full member now?"

Her father, Thomas, entered
the room. "You have passed
a
trial, yes. Now it's time to see if it was worth
it." He touched the straps on the chair and they dropped open.
"What's the last thing you remember, Daughter?"

"Busting that vampire at my high
school." She squinted, trying hard to see into the past, but it was
like peering through dense white fog. "After that, I came home."
Another minute of concentration revealed nothing else. "I guess
that's it."

He nodded. "Very good." Taking her by
the arm, he led her out of the room.

Elyssa glanced at the rack of torches
on the wall near the door. No absences gave her a clue as to which
ritual she'd taken. Somehow, the used torch always ended up back in
its spot on the rack after the ritual.

Thomas directed her down the hall. "We
need to put you on assignment, so I'm taking you out of the high
school operation for now."

Elyssa furrowed her brow as she thought
of her two best friends, Ash and Nyte, both of whom attended her
school. She wasn't supposed to form attachments. That was why she'd
chosen a Goth look for her undercover identity. Even though her
clothes, makeup, and attitude stood out, most people tended to
ignore her like they would any social outcast. But Ash and Nyte had
been her friends early on, never judging her by the clothes she
wore or the piercings and horrendous amounts of makeup. After a
while, she'd discovered she enjoyed her new style.

But part of being a Templar meant
following orders no matter her personal feelings. "I understand,
sir."

Thomas smiled—a rarity for him. "You
will be assisting in remote operations against rogue
vampires."

"Remote operations? Where,
Commander?"

"Possibly Europe. We'll talk about that
more at your briefing," Thomas said.

Europe? Yes!

A thrill fluttered through Elyssa's
stomach. Thoughts of chasing rogue supers through the streets of
Paris filled her mind. It was all she could do not to pump her arm
in celebration. Then again, counting her vampires before they
turned might not be a good idea. Western Europe was one thing. If
she ended up in eastern Europe—better not to think about
it.

No matter the assignment, she'd long
dreamed of going on a special operation. Of proving herself to her
father after all these years. Jack and Michael had been doing this
for ages and finally, it was her chance to shine. Which reminded
her of something.

"Jack, I thought you were off on
assignment yourself."

He smiled and nodded. "I was, but I'm
back for a short time now."

Elyssa's mother, Leia, waited outside
the chapel as they stepped into the cool night air. Worry etched
her eyes. She gave Thomas a fiery, violet glare, which would have
sent a lesser man running for the hills. She offered Elyssa a tight
smile. "How did it go?"

"Very well it would seem," Thomas
said.

"What exactly was I doing in there?"
Elyssa asked. "If I wasn't taking the final trials, I don't know
what else I could've been doing."

Thomas sighed. "I'm afraid you won't be
happy to learn the reason, but I'll tell you at your
briefing."

Elyssa's internal radar twitched with
curiosity while doubt spread a sickening glaze across her insides.
This couldn't be good at all. What had happened to her? She must
have failed miserably at something. The thrill of her upcoming
assignment lost some of its luster.

"When is the briefing?"

He led the way into the manor house and
turned straight into the war room. "Now is as good a time as
any."

Anxious energy burned in her lungs,
seeming to remove oxygen with each breath before she could soak it
in. She wanted to know the bad news but didn't want to hear it.
Didn't want to know how badly she'd failed. The anxiety must have
shown on her face because Thomas laid a hand on her
shoulder.

"Don't worry yourself too much,
Daughter. There are some things beyond even our
control."

She nodded and tried to relax the taut
muscles in her forehead.

Leia and Jack took seats at the large
table in the center of the room. Elyssa sat next to
Jack.

"Is Michael here too?" she asked,
wondering why this looked like a family affair.

"He is. Perhaps he'll join us soon."
Thomas pulled a red file from a cabinet. He took a seat. "Now,
about what happened—"

"I'd rather not know," Elyssa said, as
dread constricted her throat. "I must have screwed up something
awful."

"It's in your best interest to know,"
Thomas said, arching a stern eyebrow. "I expect you to sit quietly
and listen. You are a Templar, not some unruly child."

Her fists clenched under the table as
the desire to fire a volley of retort nearly overwhelmed her. "Very
well, Commander."

He nodded curtly as though he'd
expected no other response. "While you were on assignment, the
spawn sent an agent, one of their own, to subvert you. Using his
ability to manipulate emotions, this spawn very nearly had you
working with him. Thankfully, you realized how impaired your
judgment had become and came to me for help. We determined the only
way to cleanse this taint was for you to take the
White."

Elyssa felt her jaw sag open and sucked
a hard breath into her lungs. Humiliation and rage fought for first
place in a war of emotions as her skin flushed with heat and her
eyes went to the floor. She couldn't even look at her family. How
had she let a spawn get close enough to her to influence her? Her
training and senses had never failed her and yet, she'd somehow let
a demon spawn so deep into her life she'd nearly started working
for them?

Unbelievable.
Unacceptable!

She jolted to her feet and backed away
from the table. "H—how? Why are you allowing me to stay in the
Templars?" She nearly tripped on the chair as it toppled behind
her. "I'm unfit for duty if I couldn't sense a spawn."

Jack stood and gave her a sideways hug.
"It wasn't your fault, sis. They used a spawn who was just coming
of age, so he got under your skin before his abilities developed
enough for you to detect them."

It didn't make her feel much
better, but at least it explained
how
it had happened.

Thomas nodded. "This is your chance to
redeem yourself, recruit. Now that your mind is cleared of
subversion, you can learn from your mistakes."

"Was I really that far gone?" she
asked, trying to imagine herself as a brainwashed spy.

"I'm afraid so." He stroked the stubble
on his chin and flipped open the red folder. "You will report to
another commander for this operation. The location will be revealed
after you've landed. Until then, here's a redacted dossier on our
targets. Their identities will be revealed during your classified
briefings onsite."

She nodded, forcing back the tide of
painful humiliation as it tried to erode her pride and ego. She'd
never thought of herself as overly prideful or boastful, but
knowing what she'd done hurt. Time to earn back her stripes and
clean the tarnish off what little reputation she'd managed to build
over the past few years.

"Go pack, recruit. You're shipping out
in one hour."

Elyssa gave her father a nod before
turning and leaving. As she left the room and entered the hallway,
she stopped and planted her back against the wall, sucking in deep
breaths and fighting back the tears threatening to overwhelm her.
So much for passing the Cho'kai. So much for proving herself to her
father. She was a failure.

"Don't give me that look, Leia," Thomas
said from inside the room. "This will all work out."

"Oh really?" Leia replied, her tone
laced with frost. "Or maybe you've scarred her for
life."

"I did what I had to do."

"As what? A Templar, or a
father?"

"Both."

"Where are you sending her?"

"Europe. That should keep her far
enough away."

"First you tell her she took the White
because a demon spawn subverted her and now you're exiling her in
the space of a day." Leia made a disgusted noise. "You shouldn't do
that to anyone, much less your own daughter."

"Please don't argue," Jack said, a
desperate note in his voice. "You saw what she was like. Now she's
back to being herself again." He sighed. "I'm going to find
Michael. He needs to be a part of her recovery too."

Elyssa hurried away and trotted
upstairs to her room before Jack came around the corner and caught
her eavesdropping. When she closed the door and locked it, her
hands trembled and tears trickled down her cheeks. She sniffled.
Cursed herself for being so weak, and took deep breaths. Why was
she so emotional all of a sudden? Failure happened to everyone.
Even Jack had nearly blown an entire operation himself and that was
under their father's supervision.

She paced the room, thinking hard and
trying to remember where things had gone wrong. But all she found
was a huge foggy gap. She glanced at the date and time on her phone
and realized that she'd lost over two months of memories. Wiping
away more tears, she forced herself to pack. The information in the
red folder told her virtually nothing and the usual climate
advisory was missing, so she had no idea what to expect for weather
or what civilian clothes to pack. Templar camo adapted to various
temperatures and situations, so at least she only had to pack
several sets of the uniform.

It was likely she would be in uniform
most of the time. Time off to enjoy the sights wasn't an option—not
if she was to make up for the horrendous lapses in judgment leading
her to this sad, sad state of affairs.

Besides, her father had probably left
out the information on purpose. If she didn't know better, she'd
suspect him of taking joy in bossing people around and sending them
to mystery locations. Since there was no telling how long she'd be
there, she tossed a variety of civvies into her bag. She'd buy
anything else she needed onsite.

A hot shower not only made her feel
cleaner on the outside, but also seemed to wash away some of the
accumulated emotions toying with her relentlessly. Perhaps her
overly emotional state was a side effect of taking the White
because it sure as heck wasn't due to hormones. The Blessing
relieved most females of certain womanly "curses".

After cleaning, she tossed on some
jeans and a T-shirt, took one last look at the humble room she'd
known all her life, and then carried her suitcase downstairs where
Jack was waiting.