"Are you teenagers getting in or not?" The bus driver asked as he chewed on a cigarette bud. "I haven't got all day."

"Wait," Jack commanded him and then turned back to me. "Ailith, the sun is setting. Time is running out. Do you want to wait around for a repeat of last night?"

With every passing second, the twilight was fading, and the darkness was encroaching on us. I badly wanted to get on that bus, but there was an aching inside my chest. It was as though I could deny it no longer. We weren't evacuating. We were being kidnapped.

"Ailith," Holly pleaded with me. "We're running out of time. Whatever questions you have, why can't you wait and ask Jack later?"

"I want to see the badge you showed that soldier when he let us in," I said and planted my feet in the ground. "Let me see it, or I'm turning around. I'm going to the refugee camp with the rest of the people outside. That is if there are any of those innocent people left after you guys opened fire on them."

"Ailith, they threw rocks at us. If the guards didn't shoot, your brains would be on the pavement by now," Holly hissed and grabbed my arm. I ripped it out of her grasp and backed away. Holly was strong, but in my anger, I was stronger.

"Show me the badge," I snapped.

Jack sighed, reached into his pocket, and withdrew the badge. It was so small, smaller than even a credit card. I snatched it out of his hand and looked down on it. It was a plain black and white card that had been laminated and contained a hologram. Jack's unsmiling face looked back at me from a stamp size photo in the bottom left corner.

Joseph Faherty

Assistant Chief of Cyber Command

Security Clearance: Level Black

Shadow Guard Base 5

Headquarters: New Arca, Nivaria

"What the hell is that?" Holly asked, looking over my shoulder. "Is that like a branch of the CIA?"

"I have no idea," I replied and reached over and snatched the cell phone out of Jack's hand. "Back in South Beach, a woman told me they intercepted a call talking about the boy I saw in my dreams. That was you, wasn't it, Joseph? Who did you call?"

"I'm Jack; Joseph is just my code name. You know who I called Ailith. You were snooping around on my phone last night, weren't you?"

"It said unknown sender," I said. "So why don't you tell me? Who sent you after us?"

Jack sighed, but for once, he didn't look panicked. He seemed remarkably cool now, like none of this was especially interesting to him.

Was it all an act up until now? Why would he do it?

"I didn't lie to you guys. I used to work for Sylvirua during my summers in high school. Around my senior year, I was approached by a bigger fish. It was a man named Renat Rykirov. He convinced me to join a mercenary military force instead. That's how I ended up in Nivaria with Shadow Guard."

"Who is the green-eyed boy in my dreams?" I lowered my voice as I remembered the deference and fear the mysterious woman spoke with when uttering that name. "The one they call Jadueriel?"

Jack's eyes finally widened as I spoke that name. He suddenly looked nervous, for real this time.

"Jadueriel and the raven-haired boy are two different things, but they reside in the same person. He's looking for a life form that is living inside you."

"What's he going to do when he finds me?"

"He's going to kill you," Jack said bluntly. His eyes held mine without blinking. "The military that I'm part of, my leader General Rykirov, we're trying to keep you away from him. Your only chance of survival is to come with us."

"I'm not afraid to die," I told Jack with a smirk. "I think I already died once when I was six. What difference does it make if the world wants me dead again?"

"Stop joking like that," Holly admonished. "People will care if you die."

"Especially whoever sent Jack Fayer to us," I muttered. "I saw the text on your phone last night, Jack. Why are they interested in me?"

"Beats me," Jack replied with a shrug. He took a step away from us and stretched out lazily. He wasn't even trying to conceal his well-muscled back. Oh yeah, that bad posture was gone too. I saw him remove his glasses and place them in his pocket. Who was this man? "Why do you think I would know any of that, Ailith? If anything, you should know better than any of us why they're interested in you."

"What does he mean, Ailith?" Holly asked, wrinkling her nose distastefully. This entire conversation was flying over her head. She just wanted to get on that bus. As the light faded from the horizon, the light of the bus seemed awfully inviting to me as well. I also wanted to pretend as though Jack's secret alter-ego Joseph wasn't threatening. I wanted to go on pretending that we were just three kids running away from vampires.

But that wasn't true, was it?

I knew it deep inside ever since my heart-beat changed with the coming of the Blight Rain.

I was more than Ailith Ying . . . so much more.

Yet, at the same time, I desperately wanted to hang on, if not to myself, then to Holly. I didn't want to leave this behind. Somehow, I knew I would have to if I faced the truth.

I took a step back and shook my head at Holly. I furrowed my brows as though I was as confused as she was. Even though secretly, I had an inkling that I knew what Jack was talking about. It all started with those damned cells in my heart.

No, let us have one more second together . . .before . . .before what?

What was I afraid of?

"It's getting dark," Jack interrupted. "Let's get moving before we have to entertain our vampire guests again."

Holly wrapped her arm around me and led me onto the bus. The bus driver spat the remains of this cigarette bud onto the floor. I saw the tiny embers light up in that ant-sized pile of ash. Light, fire, these were the only things left to protect us from the darkness — from the end of times.

As I sat back in my neon plastic bus seat, Holly reached out and wrapped her fingers around mine. I barely felt the warm touch of her peach-colored fingers. My eyes were still fixated on the darkness outside. A memory appeared before my still-open eyes, a creature under the waters — slithering away from me like a vile serpent. It came from within me. It was made of my flesh, and it emerged from my soul. Its scaled sides touched the inner parts of my thigh as it escaped from me. The vision filled me with unspeakable dread. What was this?

"No, stop!" I snapped. And then — just like that — I was back inside the bus.

"What?" The driver asked as he thought I had yelled at him. "Sorry, hold on, that was an old speed bump back there."

I glanced at Jack and Holly, who were both nonchalantly trying to pretend I didn't just have a psychotic outburst. Jack was right. There was something wrong with me. As much as there was some sickness plaguing this planet, there was something far darker lurking within my soul.

As we came to the airport terminal, we got off the bus. The three of us wandered through the empty hallways to reach the runway. One of the Flight Information Display Screens was now showing flickers of the evening news. In between blurs of static, I saw a headline. The headquarters of the small American medical company Morendi had been bombed. Their CEO, Anita Yasmine, had passed away before she could be rushed to the hospital. In her will, she had left her entire fortune to her Pomeranian. Unfortunately, the dog was killed in the blast too, and now the billions will go to a charity for Blight victims.

"Sylvirua is gone too," Jack told me as he tugged me away from the television. "It was bigger news a while ago when Walter Epison's skeletal reminds was found in a vat of acid waste. He had been missing for weeks."

I stared unblinkingly at the screen. Anna Yasmin, Charles Liang, Walter Epison, these weren't a string of unrelated incidents. This was a coordinated attack.

Jadueriel had something to do with this. He's saving someone for last; the eerie thought slipped into my mind as I stared at the screen. Someone important to me.