"But it wasn't," Ella whispered. "Was it?"

No, technically it wasn'ta"because the little voice belonged to someone who truly believed I couldn't do my job if my loyalties were divided.

And right now, I hated Tink down to my bones.

I stared at the ugly plaid blanket on my bed, trying to keep from losing it. "I don't know."

Ella let out a soft breath. "And until you do, you're safer without me."

I had no answer to that, but in a small way, just the sound of Ella's voice eased the tension making my shoulders ache.

I'd never be safe without her.

The knife-spirit stirred in my head and a buzzing started at the base of my skull. I squeezed my eyes shut tight, but the buzzing only got louder. Feeling a burst of anger building up in my chest, I said, "I wish things were different, that I didn't have to do this job."

"Sometimes I do, too," Ella said. "But with you doing this job, I can sleep through the night, knowing I'm safe from monsters."

"There's that, I guess."

"Yeah." Ella chuckled, a husky sound that beat back some of Tink's annoyed buzzing. "Good night, Matt. Stay safe."

"'Night, Ella," I said, then jabbed the "end call" icon hard with my thumb. "What do you have to say for yourself, Tink?"

That I'm quite weary of that nickname, she said, with a trace of snark I found much too human. But the girl is righta"you have too many concerns to manage without adding entanglements.

"You're one to talk," I growled. "I can't get more entangled with anything than I am with you. So tell the trutha"were you the *little voice' telling Ella to leave me?"

She didn't answer, and that was answer enough. I was so sick of being controlled. I knew Tink was Good, because she and the others helped us fight, but sometimes I wondered if she was good. Things always seemed to go her way, whether I liked it or not. Did she care, even a little, about Matt-the-guy? Or was she happy enough controlling Matt-the-Monster-Killing-Machine? I couldn't answer that question, and it scared me, to know I was at the mercy of something that might not allow me to be completely human.

"Next time I manage to find a girl who likes me, which might be never because of you, butt out," I told Tink. "Don't worry about the job. I'm up for it, so stop underestimating me."

As you wish, she said, all cold and commanding. Now, sleep.

Like always, I started feeling drowsy the moment Tink ordered me to rest. Grumbling because she was just doing it to stall our conversation, I crawled under the covers. I fell asleep quickly, but after all the drama, I was primed for a nightmare.

I run through the dark, panicking. Mamie screams in the distance, but I can't see. Sounds echo along the rock walls of the tunnel. I run and run, never able to close the gap.

"Where are you!" I shout.

No answer; just screams of pain. Someone is torturing my sister. I have to find her!

Footsteps pound behind me and a creaky, sinister laugh rings out. I don't have to turn around to know the shadow man is chasing me. An oozing darkness that never knew the light. A figure with a human shape, but is something else entirely.

"You'll never find her," it whispers, stretching tendrils of shadow to catch my arms. "She's mine."

Mamie's screams are cut shorta "Matt! Wake up!"

I twisted around so fast, I fell out of bed. "Ow."

"Sorry," Will said. "But you told me to wake you up if you were having a nightmare."

"It's okay." Getting to my feet took some effort. I was wrapped up in my sheets like a mummy. "I'm good. Go back to sleep."

Will settled back down, but I didn't. I couldn't. The dark man didn't come very often. When he did, it usually meant trouble. The dream was another warning.

Chapter Three.

I yawned my way across the Carleton University campus, following Parker at a trot. Despite the fact that I was taller than everyone except Will, Parker was one dude I just couldn't keep up with, unless we were running. He walked faster than any guy I knew. Maybe because he always knew where he was going, or liked to make good time. Either way, it was annoying.

We'd come to Canada to meet with a couple of scholars who specialized in anthropology of the occult. There had been some strange deaths and disappearances in the area, particularly among native peoples, and someone knew someone who knew someone who knew about our team. They called Colonel Black to ask Pentagram Strike Force to check it out.

"The anthropology building is on the corner," Parker called over his shoulder. "The professors should be waiting for us."

I turned to Johnson, who was huffing and puffing next to me. "Think we should just slow down and meet him there in an hour?"

Johnson grinned. "Sounds tempting."

"I can hear you, you know," Parker said. "The building is right there, so quit bellyaching."

He pointed at a brick building that managed to look both institutional and modern, with square brick walls and funky shaped windowsastill a good tenth of a mile away.

I cursed under my breath. "Your idea of *right there' and mine are kind of different, sir."

"I'm beginning to think Murphy is the lucky one, staying behind to brief the Mounties about last night," Johnson said, wiping his forehead.

"No doubt," Will answered.

We climbed a set of stairs up to the front doors and Parker didn't wait for us before plowing inside, practically leaving a vapor trail in his wake. We took our time following him. The hallway was dim after being out in the sunshine, and the building smelled like old books and dust. Will sneezed as soon as he cleared the threshold.

"Allergies are for wusses, Sneezer," I said.

Will stopped walking to give me the finger and I laughed.

"Move along, you two," Johnson said. "We have a schedule to follow, and the captain looks like he's ready to throttle someone for being slow. I'd prefer that not be me."

We trooped down the hall under Parker's exasperated glare, our boots echoing on the hard floor. A few girls gave us strange looks as they came out of a classroom and Will stood up straighter, smiling that cocky grin of his. I didn't have the heart to tell him they were staring because we'd worn our battle dress uniformsa"camoa"and were probably wondering why the U.S. Army was invading a Canadian college. Then both girls smiled back at him and one of them looked Will up and down like he was a slab of prime steak, lowering her eyelashes as we passed by.

"How do you manage to pick up girls everywhere we go?" I muttered.

"I don't share my super-power secrets."

"Well, at least I don't sneeze like a wuss all the time."

"Asshat."

"Bastard."

"Hurry up, you two!" Parker called. He pulled open a heavy door. "This is it."

The professors were meeting us in a conference room, but it looked more like a rich man's library than any conference room I'd ever seen. A long polished wooden table with heavy chairs took up most of the space. Tall bookcases filled with heavy tomes bordered three of the walls and dark curtains covered the windows.

"Pity I didn't bring my smoking jacket," Will said in a perfect imitation of one of his parents' snootier friends. "I didn't realize we were meeting at the club."

Johnson rumbled a quiet laugh, but squelched it when the eggheads arrived: two men in glasses, khakis and button-down shirts, and a woman wearing a striped top and an ankle-length skirt. They introduced themselves as Dr. This, That and The Other. I tried to catch names, but my attention span went haywire when I got a better look at the hippy-woman. There was something familiar about her, sending my heart thumping wildly in my chest.

It couldn't be the same woman, it couldn't. But then she faced me dead on, focusing a pair of strange, jade-green eyes on mine.

I drew a breath through my teeth. "You."

Will looked at the woman, then back at me, wearing a faintly alarmed expression. "*You' what?"

Darkness crowded my vision and I could smell dust and sulfur. Hissing and the scrabble of hard feet on a stone floor meshed with long dark hair, white teeth, golden skin and impossibly green eyes.

A goddess in a shimmering dress who turned out to be so much more.

"The scorpion," I whispered. "She looks just likealike the human version of the scorpion I fought in Afghanistan last March."

The woman blinked slowly, looking me over like she was measuring me for a coffin, and my hackles went up.

"What?" I snapped, my hand drifting to brush the handle of my knife, sheathed in my thigh pocket.

Conversation stopped and all the adults stared me down. Captain Parker gave me a *cut the crap' look. "Mr. Archer, is there some kind of problem?"

I knew he was trying to rein me in, but my manners had taken a flying leap. I pointed at the woman. "Who the hell is she?"

"Oh, here we go," Will muttered, taking sizable step away from me.

One of the men hurried to answer. "Her name is Dr. Iris Longtree. She's part of the anthropology department with us. She's our expert on modern witchcraft."

"Not surprising," I said. "Is that only an area of study, Dr. Longtree, or do you practice dark arts on the side?"

"Dude," Will whispered. "Give it a rest."

"I don't know what this is abouta" Dr. Longtree gave me a confused look. "I mean you no harm."

I shook my head, too sucked in by bad memories to do anything but tense up. "Oh, yeah? I've heard that one before, lady, and I don't buy it for a second."

"Matt!" Johnson barked, his dark eyes boring into mine. His stern expression matched the one he often gave me before tossing me to the mats during close-combat training. "Enough ofawhatever this is. They're here by invitation. Don't you be disrespecting them."

Dr. Longtree raised a hand, giving the officers and professors a little smile. "It's no matter. A lot of people think my area of study is bizarre." She took her seat at the table and didn't spare me another glance.

I gripped the handle of my knife, not sure what I planned to do with it. The knife-spirit chose that moment to give me a love tapa"zinging me between the eyes with a snap that made my eyes water. That was Tink's way of telling me to buckle up the crazy for a while, and she only did it when she really meant business.

Stand down, she commanded. You're my ears and I need you to listen to the conversation, not dwell on something in the past.

Easy for her to say. She didn't have nightmares about the men lost during that mission. Still, something was wrong in this room, and maybe listening would gain more than threatening a woman I'd just met.

Rubbing my forehead, I said, "Sorry, Dr. Longtree. I mistook you for someone else."

Dr. Longtree's tone was frosty when she said, "Must be someone you don't like very much."

Feeling stupid, I said, "It's a long story. I'll justabe over there."

I took a seat in a cushy wingback chair in the corner, letting the more rational people congregate around the big table. Will sat in the chair next to mine.

"What was that all about?" he asked.

"I don't know," I said. "It's justaremember when I kind of lost it at school last winter and blacked out in the hall?"

He chuckled. "Yeah, you were fighting imaginary monsters and punched a guy by accident."

I winced. Not my finest hour by any stretch. "It was kind of like that. I saw Dr. Longtree and flashed back to the cave. I could practically smell it."

The funny thing was, now that I took a good, hard look, the professor didn't resemble the woman in the cave nearly as much as my brain had made me believe. Her skin was darker, and her features were less even, not as perfect. More embarrassing, her eyes weren't even greena"they were brown. Why did my mind always do this? Out of nowhere, it perceived some threat and sent me into freak-mode.

Then again, it was hard not to be on edge when I constantly worried about what was lurking around the next corner. And those dreams about Mamie trapped in the dark were enough to make anyone bat-crap crazy. No guy wanted to hear his sister scream like that; not if he could kill whatever was hurting her.

By now, the adults had gotten past my outburst and were animatedly discussing Iroquois religious beliefs, since some of the kidnapping victims were leaders from their confederacy. Dr. Thisa"whose last name was really Barnesa"was saying something about a peacemaker and a darkness that wanted to destroy the world.

"It's said he was a boy, this peacemaker," Dr. Barnes said, laying his big hands on the table. "He will unite the people under an elm tree and they will be humbled before him. Once they have gathered, the boy will defeat the deceiver serpents and blind them by the light."

Will cut his eyes my direction. "Did I really just hear that?"

I massaged my temples. "Yeah."

"You know what they're thinkinga""

He didn't have time to finish his thought before every head turned toward me. Johnson's eyes had gone wide. I hadn't even done anything this time, and he was staring at me with his jaw slack, like he already knew I was the boy, and that one day he'd be humbled before me under some random tree.

Dr. Longtree cleared her throat. "What we're studying at present is how many ancient religions or cultures had similar prophecies. About the end-game, and how a defender of some sort would battle evil. Some of the more pessimistic religions believe it won't succeed and the people of the earth will wander in darkness. Some even long for the dark to be victorious." When everyone stared at her instead of me, she quickly added, "Um, well, most religions believe the oppositea"that light defeats dark. Good over evil. All thatastuff."

"I didn't think PhD's were allowed to use the word *stuff'' forastuff," Will whispered, and I tried to cover up a laugh by coughing. Not too subtle.

Dr. Longtree glared at us. "Perhaps the stories are symbolic, but the Iroquois we've interviewed believe something is happening. Three tribal leaders have disappeared, and we keep hearing wild tales about shadows walking the night from various sources. There was no sign of a struggle in any of the kidnappings. Not one clue. Care to explain why this might be?"

Captain Parker sighed. "We can't. Not without more evidence. Do you have any concrete information? Sightings, perhaps?"

Dr. Barnes straightened his glasses and said, "Well, sort of. One of our people disappeared recently as well."

Parker and Johnson exchanged looks. Parker leaned forward, "Who?"