"Maximus didn't care who we caught. He wanted a spawn so he could increase the potency of his blood. He's obsessed with it."

"Obviously. Did the person who hired him say why they wanted me?" This struck me as odd considering my dad was the one with the death mark. Why would anyone want me?

"I have no idea."

The brick wall to our right exploded in a shower of red dust and fragments. Felicia shrieked. I stumbled back, barely catching myself against the wall before I fell down. Yellow eyes glowed in the dust and moved toward us as a rumbling growl gave me a pretty good idea what owned those eyes. A massive hellhound, black as night and scary as hell, emerged from the dust and stared straight at me. The thing was big as a mule and looked like something out of a dog catcher's worst nightmare. I couldn't run. I couldn't hide. The damned thing would just tear straight through the walls of the nearby buildings. When it growled, its black muzzle quivered and thick saliva drooled from black razor-sharp teeth. I thought a regular dog's breath stank. The humid rankness coming from this creature's mouth rivaled a rotten omelet stuffed with raw sewage.

"Leave him alone," Felicia said, jumping in front of me and holding her hands out to the sides as if flailing her arms would make her skinny little self look threatening.

"Don't get in its way," I said. "You won't even slow it down."

"I can deal," she said, a bit of snark entering her voice.

The clouds had further obscured the sun, but her skin was already turning pink.

"Why do you want me?" I asked the hellhound. "Tell me who sent you."

It didn't seem to understand a word I said, or else it was ignoring me. I was so sick of being chased. So damned tired of not knowing what was going on. And the worst part was they kept attacking the people I cared about!

The hellhound advanced. Felicia ran at it. Ebony canines snapped. She punched the hound right in the nose. It yelped. Growled. Lunged at her. She punched its nose again and it backed off, hackles bristling, massive head low, muscles coiled. A deep rumble in its throat vibrated the air.

"I used to be a dog-sitter," she said, not looking back at me. "Some of them were nasty aggressive and this was the best way to deal with them."

"Great. I guess you're the dog whisperer, vampire edition."

The hound lunged. She jumped back, but the sunlight slowed her reflexes. The creature batted her aside with a huge paw. She smacked against the iron door with a loud clang, knocking her senseless. The hound went for the kill, its savage teeth primed to rend Felicia to bits.

"No!" I screamed. Agony slammed twin spikes into my forehead. My skin seemed to swell. The beast inside me raged. "Don't harm her!" I shouted. Or I tried to shout those words. Instead, my voice came out deep and guttural and in a language I didn't recognize. Or did I?

The hound froze in place. Turned to me, its eyes full of understanding. Or maybe it was just hungry. It cocked its head to the side like a confused puppy and whined. I didn't have a clue what to do next. I tried to remember what I'd said and how I'd said it, but whatever brain cells I'd just used were back on vacation.

Then the massive hound perked up its ears and looked toward the hole it had smashed through the brick wall. It gave me another curious glance before vanishing into the rubble.

I ran to Felicia...well, sort of. I actually limped to her and eased myself to my knees by bracing an arm against the brick wall. She moaned. Her right arm was bent at a grotesque angle and the right side of her face was purple. A trickle of blackish blood dripped from her nose. I had no idea if she was going to die or heal. The sun managed to poke a ray through the cloud and touched her face. The skin pinked, turning to red within seconds.

Weak as I was, I knew I had to drag her into the hole left by the hound and get her out of the sun. Dragging my own body was hard enough, but I had to do this. I slid my arms under hers and pushed my feet against the pavement. We inched toward the hole. Her skin where the sun hit it was going from red to purple. I pulled off my shirt and covered her face. But I couldn't do anything about her bare legs or hands. I hoped the damage wasn't permanent.

Inch by bloody inch I dragged her into the shadows. Cold sweat drenched every pore and my breath came in shallow ragged pants. But she was in. She was safe. I heard shouts from outside and panic swelled like acid in my throat. Was Elyssa okay? I didn't know if any of my friends had been hurt and I couldn't move to check.

"Oh my god!" Stacey said from somewhere outside.

Rapid footsteps echoed off the alley walls and then the outlines of several people stood in the hole where the wall had once stood.

"I'm here," I croaked, barely able to form a syllable.

"Justin!" Elyssa was there, hands pressed to my face, lips kissing me. "What happened to him?" She pressed me to her soft chest. "Justin, talk to me. Are you okay?"

"I'll die a happy man if you keep my head right here," I said in a hoarse whisper. "This is heaven."

She laughed. "Playing injured just to get some TLC?"

"Not exactly playing, no."

"What's wrong with you? Why aren't you healing?"

"Long story," I said with a groan, trying to get up but discovering every muscle in my body hated me for what I'd just put it through and was taking a siesta. "A lot happened while we were apart."

"He saved my life," Stacey said.

"What? You'd better tell me what's going on," Elyssa said, steel in her voice. I forced a smile. "I will. Promise."

"What happened?" Smith said as he knelt next to Felicia.

"Is she okay?" I asked, forcing each word out like a lead weight. I was so tired. I just wanted sleep.

"Let's get them inside," Shelton said. "We should be safe for now."

"What about her?" Elyssa asked, the steel in her voice razor sharp.

I tried to look around to see who she was talking about, but I was fading fast and could hardly turn my neck.

"She might as well come too," Shelton said. "It's best we sort this friggin' mess before figuring out what to do next."

"And you're qualified to make this decision because?"

"Because it's my damned hideout and I want to know what in blazes is going on here."

"I'm kind of curious too, TP," Smith said. "This is quite the crew you have here."

"It ain't my crew, Geronimo. It's his."

"Justin's?"

"You think I'd piece together a group of misfits like this?"

"Just get us inside, Shelton," Elyssa said in an exasperated voice. "He needs attention."

"Maybe I should get Meghan," Ryland said.

"Who?" Shelton said.

"Meghan Andretti?" I heard Dad ask.

Ryland replied. "You know her?"

"I know of her. Alice mentioned her before. Said she's a very gifted healer."

"She is."

"Then get her, please!" Elyssa said. "Just do it now!"

"I will," Ryland said.

Someone picked me up. I smelled Elyssa all around me and knew she was cradling me in her arms like a baby. I felt really embarrassed but used the opportunity to press against her soft curves anyway.

She laughed softly. "We never finished where we left off."

"I know," I said, dredging a little extra strength from somewhere. "Darned hellhounds and assassins don't want us to deflower each other." A warm tear splashed on my arm. "Don't cry, babe, it'll be okay." I took a deep breath. "Who's the blonde woman?"

"Someone who cares about your future, Justin," said a strangely accented female voice from nearby.

Elyssa's body tensed. "Will you just leave him alone?"

"He'll be fine. He is Daemos."

Whatever that meant. "Just when I think I have answers, it gets more mysterious," I said, and then I must have passed out.

Darkness gripped my ankles and pulled me from my bed. I clawed at the floor, my fingernails breaking against the polyurethane coating on the hardwoods, leaving a streak of crimson blood. I turned on my back to see the shadow hands gripping and pulling me. Dragging me toward the light.

Wrong way, Justin! A voice echoed in my head or from somewhere around me. I couldn't tell.

"They're dragging me!" I grappled for the doorframe, getting both hands on it as my feet went around the corner of my bedroom doorway, my stomach still resting on the jamb. It took every ounce of strength just to hold on. And then the shadows wrenched my body out the door. Still, I hung on. I looked toward my feet, toward the blinding light at the end of the corridor. A dark shadow stood there, cane in one hand, a tall top hat filling in the space above his head and below the entryway.

I looked in the opposite direction and saw absolute pitch black. In the black stood a white feminine outline.

I am your light in the dark, said a voice from my memory, your dark light. Or had that been a dream too? Wasn't this a dream? It felt terrifyingly real.

After doing some quick calculations in my head, I decided the light in the dark seemed a little better than the dark in the light even if neither made sense to me. I strained with all my might, pulling away from the light and straining for the dark. The shadowy hands slipped from my ankles little by little and suddenly I was free. I catapulted toward the light, my body floating free, weightless as if in space.

And then the hallway burst apart around me, splintering into shards, and I was on my knees in front of Meghan's mother. Life had left her eyes but a groaning whisper emerged. I held my ear to her mouth. Listened hard. But her dying words made no sense.

Images flashed in my mind and I saw the bloody scrap of paper. A number on it. An angel with Elyssa's face whispering a number in my ear. Meghan's mother saying the number with her last breath. That number, what did it mean? Why was it so important? I had to find out what it was.

Someone had to know what forty-three eleven meant.

Chapter 20.

A beautiful woman with silky blonde hair gazed down at me. I wanted to touch it, feel it between my fingers. "Are you the angel?" I asked weakly.

"What the hell are you doing near him?" Elyssa shouted.

The woman moved from view and glass shattered.

"That was an antique lamp, dammit!" Shelton shouted.

"Are you okay, Justin?" Meghan's face appeared above me.

"What are you doing here?"

"Ryland brought me back. You strained yourself. Almost killed your fool self trying to help that...that vampire girl."

"Is she okay?"

"She's fine. A little sunburned, but her bone breaks and bruises are healing quickly now that she has blood."

"Blood? Whose blood?"

Meghan smiled. "Elyssa gave her a blood pack."

"You're friendlier now than you were before." I tried to sit up, but my abs felt like they were on fire.

"I'm coming to grips with you," she said. She looked at something across the room and her face hardened. "But not with her."

I turned my head to look, but the pillow blocked my view. "Who?"

"Your aunt."

"My aunt? Who? How?"

"Maybe your father should explain. In any case, I gave you more painkiller brew. Your blood count is rising, though more slowly than it would if you'd get some sleep."

"But I just woke up."

"Whatever state you were in just now, it wasn't sleeping."

Fragments of the dream flickered through my mind. The numbers. I had to find out what they were. "Can you prop me up?" I asked.

"Not a good idea."

"Please. I need to speak to everyone."

She sighed. Reached for me and hesitated a moment before visibly steeling herself. Then she pulled me upright and adjusted the cot I was on so it locked into place. Shelton's hideout was a madhouse and he looked like a patient. His hair was frazzled and his eyes were wide and frenzied. Elyssa glared at the blonde woman from across the room where Ryland and Stacey held my girlfriend in place. A smashed lamp lay in the middle of the floor. Smith sat on a couch, his sister Felicia leaning against his shoulder, her face weary and pale, but not as bruised as I remembered it.

Another man lay on the ground, a pillow under his head, and I couldn't tell if he was alive or dead.

The blonde woman looked at me, her hazel eyes full of urgency. I looked past everyone and saw Dad back inside the metallic circle in the other room. He sat on the edge of the bed and smiled at me. I smiled back.

"You know how to throw a party," I said to Shelton.

He gave me an incredulous look, eyes full of panic. He probably didn't know what to do with this crowd any more than I did.