Damn it! Another dead end. Between the nonexistent progress, the slow internet, and the cold coffee, my mood was quickly deteriorating. For three months, I'd been digging bone-deep in hopes of finding a lead on Nora Grey's disappearance. I knew the who and I could guess the why, but I couldn't find where she'd been taken. I had thought I would find information in this forum, but the minute I started asking questions, the whole site had disappeared, wiped off the face of cyberspace.

Stepping out of the dingy Internet cafe, I yawned and glanced at my watch. The silver Rolex had been a birthday gift from Mom. I'd had to leave her and home in order to keep the Black Hand away from her, and the watch had been the only reminder of her I could take with me. It was a bittersweet present. On one hand, she had given it to me because she trusted me to keep it safe. On the other, she told me it had been a gift from my father. Yeah, right.

I was Nephilim, half human, and half fallen angel. My father was a monster who thought nothing of seducing a young woman and then walking away without looking back, leaving her with the fallout. Mom had lied, but I got it. If I was her, I wouldn't want me to know about my real father. I had gifts - mind control, accelerated healing, and, oh yeah, immortality, but I'd only learned about them recently. Nora had literally taken me off the ledge and explained everything. I wasn't crazy, she'd explained. No, I was normal for what I was. I owed her my life and probably my sanity.

Oh Nora. I gazed up at the night sky, which was decorated with glittering stars. They looked distant and cold, only adding more weight to the hefty load in my chest. Where are you? A fine job I was doing, trying to save her. After nearly three months, I'd been slowly boiling over from frustration. Asking too few questions would get me nowhere, but asking too many would attract unwanted attraction.

I was out of leads. I was a wanted man, and there were no Nephilim friends in Coldwater that I could turn to - or anywhere, for that matter. Time was dragging on, and the longer Grey was missing, the better the chance that something had happened to her.

The wind picked up, musing my blonde hair and sending a few loose flyers tumbling through the air. One would have hit me in the face if I hadn't grabbed it with lightning - fast Nephilim reflexes. The second came to rest at my feet.

The flyer in my hand had an all-too-familiar photograph of a girl with unruly red hair and smokey grey eyes. She had bright red spots on her cheeks, and the camera had caught her mid-laugh. The bold, serious caption under the photo asked, Have you seen this girl? (Not enough) and was followed by a number to call.

I felt a pang in my chest. Beautiful, sweet Nora Grey. This wasn't fair. It wasn't her fault that she had been swept up into my world. She was innocent. If he hadn't strolled into her life like he owned it, she would be safe at home.

The second flyer was an ad for Delphic Amusement Park's newly renovated ride, a roller coaster called the Archangel.

There was nothing good about Delphic. After last summer, where Nora and I had almost been killed by a delusional fallen angel - then again, they were all delusional - I had avoided the place like the plague.

Underneath the bright lights and festive music was a very different world. A city of fallen angels lurked underground, plotting and biding their time.

But one thing gave me pause. Delphic was swarming with fallen angels, true, and that included the one person who could help me. I hated Patch Cipriano, there was no question about that. He was an arrogant, entitled bastard who thought that he had the right to mess with good, innocent people's lives. He also wanted Nora found almost as much as I did, and he had resources I didn't.

I could ask him for help, couldn't I? If Grey was involved, he would say yes.

A spark of insane hope began to glow in my chest. Am I really considering this?

Patch was fallen, no different from my pathetic excuse for a father. He cared about Grey though, or at least he said he did.

Taking a deep breath, I turned and began walking around the way I'd come, towards the coast and Delphic Beach. With every step, the weight in my chest began to loosen and lift, eaten away by the crazy what if that was beginning to take root in my head. I was headed straight into the lion's den, but I would do anything to have Grey back safe.

It was the least I could do.