The pressure on my nose and mouth abruptly vanished. I sucked in a long breath of air, gasping and panting for precious oxygen as my brain screamed and pounded with pain.

When my eyesight cleared I looked into clear blue eyes and the concerned face of my mother.

Chapter 40

"Mom?" I said, rubbing my eyes and looking again to be sure I was really seeing her and not some hallucination brought on by brain damage from oxygen deprivation.

She nodded, tears clouding her eyes, and pressed her hand to my face. "I'm so sorry, Justin. So sorry." She sobbed harder. Tears dripped onto my face.

I sat up. My head hated me for it, throbbing with pain, but I let it wash right through me. "What—how—why?" I had no idea what to ask first. The last time I'd seen her she told me that Dad and I were no longer part of her family. That she never wanted to see us again.

She shifted into a kneeling position, wiping away the tears, and pulling a tissue from a pocket in the pants she wore. "I wish I could answer those questions, Justin. But I can't." She leaned forward and gripped me in a tight hug, kissing my cheeks and holding me for so long, I wasn't sure she'd let go.

Without thinking, I returned the hug and felt tears burning in my eyes.

She does love me. She really does.

"I can't stay, darling," Mom said after a long moment. "I'm risking too much by coming here, but I couldn't stand by. I just couldn't." She planted another kiss on my forehead. "Just know that no matter what you hear or find out, I love you with all my heart, and I'm proud—so proud—you're my son."

"Please don't go, Mom," I said my voice sounding like a little kid. "Dad's going to marry Kassallandra, and Ivy is brainwashed, and—and I don't know what to do. I don't know how to stop it all. Everything is crazy and the world doesn't make any sense!"

A smile shined through her tears, and she laughed. "Honey, if I knew the answers any better than you, I wouldn't hesitate to fix everything for my little boy." She caressed my cheek. "Everything I've had to do has been so hard. To see the way you looked at me that day—" she choked up. Turned her head away. "I'm afraid it won't get any easier from here, and I don't want you relying on me." She put a finger on my chest. "You have all the power you need right here, son. No matter what anyone else tells you, I believe you can do anything once you put your mind to it."

"Considering all the school I've missed, I'll probably have a really bad report card, though."

Another laugh escaped her lips, and she shook her head. "You and that sense of humor." She sighed. Kissed me on the cheek. "Good bye. For now."

Light flashed, blinding me for a moment, and before I could say another word, she was gone. I looked around the dim cavern. At the flickering lights. Maximus's body lay feet away. Aside from that, I was alone.

Stumbling forward, I found Maximus's pistol lying on the floor and picked it up. The magazine was empty. I wasn't sure what lay upstairs. For all I knew the armed men outside had stormed the place. For all I knew, dead vampires littered the ground.

A cough echoed in the cavern. A groan. Maximus rolled over onto his knees and pushed himself up. He saw me and his eyes went wide. Without pause, he sprang at me with, well, natural speed. Tripped, and fell flat on his face. When he looked up at me again, I saw brown irises glaring at me.

"What the hell?" he said, climbing to his feet and touching his face, his teeth with his hands. "What's wrong with me?" He charged at me again. I grabbed him by the arm like a little child and dragged him after me.

"Just shut up," I said, feeling a giddy delight. It had worked. Holy crap, I'd done it!

I pulled the screaming, cursing, sputtering non-vampire up the spiral stairs after me toward the booming music from the sound system upstairs. When I stepped into the main sleeping chamber, I saw unconscious bodies lying all over the place. I saw James lying in a puddle of drool and leaned down to touch him. He was warm, and a pulse beat in his neck.

The vampires around the dancing game were all out, too. The music shifted from some kind of rap music to a song I remembered from a movie I'd seen during an eighties movie marathon. As the words, Every time you go, away. You take a piece of me with you, rang out in the otherwise quiet hall, Elyssa, tired, hair mussed, and with a very concerned look on her face, appeared at the doorway. Blood crusted her ear, and she had an automatic rifle in her hand.

The song seemed oddly appropriate, because a missing piece slid back into my heart at the sight of her.

Maximus squirmed in my grip. "Let me go you mother—"

I popped him on the side of the head and let his unconscious form fall hard on the floor.

Elyssa's eyes grew wide. She dropped the rifle. Raced for me, slamming me against one of the dividers, and kissing me until I gasped for breath.

"I thought you were dead," she said, tears brimming, and in between her kisses, said, "I tried so hard to get everyone out, but none of the vampires would listen. And then the noms with guns locked the place down, and all hell broke loose. Shelton and the others took out the noms guarding the perimeter, and secured them. Then I came back for you, but this bright light blinded me, and all the vampires just dropped dead." She took a breath and glanced at Maximus. "But if Maximus is alive, then—"

"I changed it, Elyssa. The spell—I made it so it wouldn't kill the vampires, just take away the bit that makes them vampires in the first place." A sudden terrible though occurred to me and I looked at her eyes. They burned with their usual violet intensity. "Do you still have fangs?"

She extended her fangs, and touched one. "I guess the spell didn't affect dhampyrs."

I breathed a huge sigh of relief, having completely overlooked that major detail. Even so, the terrible image of losing Elyssa washed over me. The cure to that awful thought was another kiss.

"Haven't we done this all before, love?" said a sultry voice from the doorway.

I turned to see Stacey, a wicked smile lighting her face. "It feels like it, doesn't it?" I shook my head, feeling like everything had come full circle. But I knew we were a long way from the end of all this. I thought of Mom, and my heart nearly burst with the desire to tell everyone. Now wasn't the time. "Ash and Nyte?" I asked Elyssa.

"They tried to run, but the other vampires pinned them down." Her gaze flicked about the large room. "I barely got out to warn the others." She saw something and raced toward the speakers near the huge television. Knelt beside a limp form.

A groan sounded nearby, and one of the vampires—former vampires—sat up, a dazed expression on her face, and looked at me. She sprang to her feet and promptly face-planted against a divider when her legs betrayed her. "Wha—what's going on?"

Seeing her reminded me of the task I'd come here to complete. I ran to Elyssa. Ash and Nyte were slowly coming to, confused expressions on their faces. "Elyssa, can I have the ring?"

She gasped. "In all the excitement, I completely forgot!" Pulled the ring off her finger and tossed it to me.

"What's the problem, darling?" Stacey asked as I ran back for the door to the crypt.

"Uh, keep an eye on these people," I said. "I'll be right back." I flitted down the stairs and back to the corpse of Simon Barclay. My stomach tried to turn inside out at the gruesome scene. Half his head was obliterated, and I didn't even want to think about the bits and pieces lying around. I took out the ring. Held it over him. It didn't so much as flicker.

"No," I said, horror swelling in my chest. "Who else could it be?" I took out one of the diamond-fiber vials Meghan had given me and held it beneath the dripping wound. I heaved. Felt bile climbing up my throat. I'd seen so much horror, it surprised me I still felt this repulsed by a gaping head wound. Then again, maybe that was something I should be happy about.

The vial sealed itself automatically after filling, and I tucked it in my pocket. Wiped excess blood off my hand onto a clean part of Barclay's suit.

Racing back upstairs, my mind hunted for answers. If Barclay wasn't Felicia's sire, who was? I found Maximus's unconscious body lying where I'd left him. Held the ring over him. Nothing. This couldn't be right. I staggered upright, looking about the room, feeling disoriented and clueless. As far as I knew, there weren't any other vampires in Maximus's rebellion who were capable of siring vampires.

Black-suited Templars appeared along with a team of Custodians. Within an hour they had all of the former vampires lined up in the middle of the room. The human security force was taken elsewhere, probably to find out how much they knew about the Overworld.

Ash and Nyte looked unharmed, though their eyes were back to a normal hue, and their fangs, like everyone else's were gone.

Nyte dropped into a chair and propped his chin on his hands, face glum. "Man, this sucks."

"Tell me about it," Ash said, and slumped on a couch.

Someone grunted.

Ash jumped up in surprise as a man burst from his hiding place beneath the sofa cushions and raced for the exit. Nyte bounced to his feet, grabbed the man by the arm, and flung him skidding thirty feet down the center of the room. His eyes went wide as he regarded his hand.

"What the—" He punched a hole in a divider.

Ash tested his strength on another divider. They both hooted with joy.

I looked at the former vampires, a terrible realization hitting me. The spell must have only temporarily taken away their powers.

Bella stopped what she was doing and approached the two of them. "Come here, young man."

Ash gave her an uneasy look, but did as she asked. "You're not going to take it away are you?"

She ran her wand up and down. Her forehead scrunched in confusion. "How odd." She motioned for Meghan to join her. "Can you scan him and tell me what you see?"

The other Arcane twirled her wand. Ash winced as a globule of blood squeezed from a pore. The blood whirled rapidly, separating into plasma and other fluids. Meghan directed her wand at the plasma and made a swishing motion. A gentle blue glow surrounded the plasma. "The serum," she said in a wondering voice. "It used Justin's blood. The spell must have removed the vampirism, but left some incubus enhancements."