"Uh, sure," I said.
"You never think, do you?" Elyssa said. "You just plunge straight on without a thought, as if everything is going to somehow work out."
I gave a rueful chuckle. "You've made that observation about me before."
She squinted, as if trying to see me through different eyes. Her effort seemed to fail. "What now?"
"Now," said a strange high-pitched voice from ahead, "it is time to see an end to this merry adventure."
All heads turned to face the voice. A tall thin man with unruly black hair and bright commanding eyes strode across the room. Next to him stood a shaggy four-legged beast with a feline face, and tall pointed ears. A long thin tongue lolled from its mouth. The creature looked odd, no doubt, but the strangest thing about it was the luminescent glow emanating from its body. It wasn't a bright light, but it was certainly enough to illuminate a twenty-foot radius around the creature.
"Vadaemos?" I said, moving my curious gaze back to the thin man.
"You have found him." His imperious voice bore a combination of several accents, none of which I could pick out. If anything he sounded slightly British with a twist of Russian.
I clenched my fists and squared my shoulders. "You're under arrest."
He replied with a high-pitched, hysterical giggle. I couldn't believe this was the super-dangerous fugitive I'd heard about. When Vadaemos regained his breath, he looked me up and down. "You are a strange one."
"I'm strange?" I returned his once-over. "You're the one living beneath a cursed city with a glowing chia pet."
"Was that thing behind us all that time?" Beck said, pointing at the animal.
Vadaemos nodded. "Yes, he did an admirable job herding you where I wanted, but I couldn't have you mapping out safe routes, now could I?"
"The leyworm was your doing too?" Elyssa said, tone defiant, chin jutting out like an angry child's.
"More or less. I don't control those wondrous beings, to be sure. But Yolo was quite capable of diverting him onto your path." He gave the shaggy creature an affectionate pat on the head. Its eyes narrowed in appreciation and a soft braying noise wheezed from its throat.
"What in the hell is that thing?" Beck asked.
"A mutant. An outcast like me. But a wonder nonetheless." Vadaemos strode closer, obviously unafraid of us, drawing to within a few feet. He wore expensive-looking slacks and a dark red, button-up shirt. The worn, yellow flip-flops on his feet bore a marked contrast to the rest of his clothes. I wondered if they indicated eccentricity or hinted at an intellect so cunning I could never hope to understand why he'd chosen such footwear over a comfortable pair of Crocs.
Beck flashed toward him. Before he could get to within a foot of the fugitive, he bounced off an invisible barrier, his nose making a sickening crack with the impact. Groaning, the Templar reeled backward, arms windmilling to keep his balance while blood poured down his face.
Vadaemos laughed. "Not the brightest of the bunch."
I couldn't blame Beck a bit. I'd been ready to do the same thing before he beat me to the punch. Even though his nose healed quickly, blood crusted his face and neck. He looked like a vampling.
Inspiration hit me all at once. I pulled out my smartphone and powered it on, inwardly cursing how slowly it took to get to the home screen.
"What do you plan to do with us?" Bella asked, leaning against her staff. Her olive-toned skin still looked sickly pale from her earlier exertions.
"I thought we could sit down for tea and crumpets," the demon spawn said, clapping his hands together with feigned delight.
"Tea and crumpets?" Beck said, using the shirt he wore over his Nightingale armor to wipe away crusted blood.
Vadaemos shook his head with exaggerated sadness. "Oh you poor boy. You really are quite daft, aren't you?"
My phone finally reached the home screen. I tapped the camera app and, holding the phone unobtrusively by my side said, "So tell me, Vadaemos, why did you ambush all those Templars at Thunder Rock? Why did you kill your own people along with them? Are you a complete psychopath?"
His eyes lit with blue flames. His fists clenched as the skin on his body rippled and undulated. Tiny black horns pierced the skin on his forehead, curving up as they lengthened. "You accuse me of murder?" he roared, his voice now considerably lower in pitch and a hell of a lot scarier.
Coils of striated muscle wormed beneath his skin, stretching and snaking around the bone, thickening and pulling tight until his thin arms grew brawny. I was mesmerized by it in the same way my eyes would be drawn to a tub of squirming snakes. Vadaemos was spawning right before our eyes and I knew what that meant. He'd lose all control and crush us into meaty bits. Yolo, however, didn't seem too concerned about his bestest buddy in the world turning a literal shade of Smurf blue and growing horns. A long tail tore through the seat of Vadaemos's slacks and uncurled, lashing back and forth like that of an angry cat's. It was blue and prehensile, but looked almost reptilian with a little pointy fork at the tip.
My long-lost relative fixed me with his glowing eyes and spoke. "I was fooled. Tricked!" A growl sounded deep in his throat. Razor sharp teeth protruded beneath dark blue lips. "That cursed Daelissa did it to me. Promised to cure all my problems at once and then used me as her scapegoat."
I noticed with some relief as his transformation stopped somewhere between fully manifested demon and human—a bizarre but badass combination. "Who's Daelissa?" I asked, desperate for a solid lead.
But Vadaemos was too preoccupied with proclaiming his innocence. I recorded him, hoping against hope the video quality from this phone was decent enough for anyone viewing it to make a solid ID.
"When Orionas and I left House Slade and Assad, we wanted nothing more than to be happy and live in peace. But our families hunted us relentlessly. We fled, but the other great houses wouldn't take us in or offer protection." He braced one of his large blue hands atop Yolo, as if his half-spawned demon form needed emotional support. "I told Orionas to go back to House Assad. I told her we had no choice and it was the only way to protect her from harm." A crystalline tear sizzled from his eye, caught in the blue flames burning against the blackness of his orbs.
"What happened?" I asked, softening my voice with false sympathy.
Vadaemos wasn't listening to me. His eyes were looking into the past at a tragedy only he could see.
Elyssa cast a questioning glance over her shoulder at me and noticed the phone. Her gaze turned immediately to understanding. She turned back to the distraught spawn and asked, "Where is Orionas?"
For another long moment, it appeared he wouldn't answer. But then he looked up abruptly as if realizing he still had guests he intended to kill. "She went back to her family, or so I believed at the time. But my family would no longer have me back. They said I was out of control."
"You were stealing souls," I said, remembering what Meghan Andretti had told me about her father. How he was tricked by a rogue demon spawn into trading his life essence for a cure to his sister's cancer.
"I took what was mine by right," Vadaemos spat, clenching his fist tight. Sharp black spines unfolded along each knuckle. "They made deals with me. Bargains."
I suddenly knew for sure this half-insane spawn was the one responsible for Meghan's father. He had to be. The timeline fit and it was patently obvious he was the kind of person who'd do it and suffer no remorse. "What about the bargain you made with the Andrettis?" I said, unable to remember her father's name. "After having one of your minions give her cancer?"
The flames in his eyes leapt higher at the accusation. Then a sharp-toothed smile carved his blue lips. "Perhaps I tweaked the conditions to suit my needs. But I am Daemos. I am above mere mortals."
"You are crazy," Fausta said, lips curled back in disgust.
"You killed all those Templars," I added. "Killed them with creatures from the demon plane. Left their soulless husks to wither at Thunder Rock."
"And killed your own people," Elyssa said. "Ambushed them like a coward!"
"That was not me!" Vadaemos's roar echoed off the walls. He tilted his head back and loosed a howl filled with anguish and rage. His foot slammed hard against the stone floor, crushing what was left of one flip-flop. His head snapped down. Eyes focused on me. "I was told House Assad hunted down my beloved Orionas and killed her like an animal. I was told they burned her to ash so I could never look upon her beauty again." His fists crackled with tension and more tears sizzled. "I planned my revenge against House Assad. Vile murderers." His voice trailed off in a harsh hiss as he paced away from Yolo. Stopped and faced us. "Daelissa told me this. Claimed she would aid in my revenge. Instead, she drew the Templars and the others to Thunder Rock after me. She activated the Amber Arch. The gateway into the Void. She unleashed the vilest demon spawn from that place and laughed as those creatures destroyed my persecutors. Had I not been near the way station, I would have died. As it was, I barely escaped to this place before the husks reached me."
I wanted to ask him more about Thunder Rock, about the strange room of arches I'd found. Was that the way station he spoke of? And the husks—what were they? Maybe they were demon spawn like the crawlers.
But I couldn't interrupt him. Vadaemos's story transfixed us all. Nobody said a word as he told the tale of slaughter and how Daelissa made sure to mark those she didn't want killed so they could report back to their people about how they had been betrayed. House Slade believed the Templars and House Assad to be responsible. House Assad accused the Templars and House Slade. Thomas Borathen blamed all spawn, no matter which house they belonged to, and his word mattered among the Templars. How Vadaemos knew so much about Daelissa's plans or the aftermath of the massacre, he didn't say.
My curiosity and impatience overwhelmed my desire to listen to his monologue, and I asked the most important question. "Who is Daelissa?"