Dread Nemesis of Mine (46 page)

I gripped his shoulder. "Don't give up just
yet. I might have a lead."

He spun, the barest flicker of hope in his
eyes. "What is it?"

My phone buzzed with Underborn's text. "No
time to explain but I have an option. A deal. Wait here, I'll be
right back." I looked at Meghan. "Where are Felicia and
Nightliss?"

"At The Ranch. I had them relocated.

"Meet me there. Make sure Nightliss is awake
and ready to go."

Meghan gave me a curt nod. "I'll be ready."
She handed me a vial. "Just hold this against the sire's skin and
it'll draw blood."

"I'm going with you, Justin," Adam said.

I shook my head. "Can't. If anyone but Elyssa
is with me, deal's off. Understand?"

He looked like he had plenty more to say, but
backed off. Nodded. "I'll be waiting with Meghan." The look of hope
in his eyes made me hurt inside.

I looked at the text on my phone. Set my GPS
to give me walking directions. Grabbed Elyssa's hand. "Let's
go."

We blurred out the back door. The time on my
GPS dropped from a one-hour walk to four minutes at the speed we
were going. I was going to need every second.

The address was an abandoned building once
owned by a power utility. A train rumbled past on tracks less than
a hundred feet away. A row of houses lined the curving road on the
other side while a chain-link fence with numerous holes provided a
weak defense to the red brick structure.

We sped inside. Underborn stood in the
middle. Alone.

"The relics, please," he said, holding out a
hand.

"Felicia's sire first," I growled.

Underborn paused. "Phissilinth informs me you
have come alone." He smiled and my blood went cold. "It's
heartening to see you adhering to the terms of our agreement." He
motioned with his fingers and a masked man shoved a hooded figure
from behind a column.

I pulled out the ring and noticed a dim ember
burning inside the gem. As I stepped closer, it brightened until
the entire gem glowed.

"She's drugged," Underborn said. "And she
won't offer any resistance."

"How did you know we needed Felicia's sire?"
I said. "Did Michael tell you?"

He smiled. "No. Naturally, he is not my only
resource."

"Then—"

His hand went up in a halting gesture. "I
will say nothing more on the matter. I suggest you give me the
relics, and return with your prize."

I pulled the map and key from my pockets. The
pleasure on his face at seeing the map made me want to punch it
right off his stupid head. My leg throbbed as the anger simmered in
my blood. An icy stab of fear at having an episode right now drove
the anger back into its cave.

Underborn took the relics, and motioned with
his head toward me. His helper guided the wobbling form to me. I
pulled Meghan's vial from my pocket and pressed it to a bare patch
on the captive's arm. Blood welled inside, filling it. I handed it
to Elyssa.

"Get back to The Ranch. I'll be right behind
you, but don't wait up."

"No need to walk," Underborn said, walking
through the door and outside. He pulled a dark green tarp off a
humped shape to reveal a red Mini Cooper beneath. "I thought it
only polite to provide transportation since—" he check his watch,
"—time is ticking." He tossed me the keys. "I recommend, however,
you not use it as a daily driver since the previous owner might
report it stolen come morning."

A slew of nasty replies popped into my head.
"You realize by taking away the relics you're making things a lot
harder on me. They would have tipped the balance in our favor."

"Indeed." He rolled his shoulders in a shrug.
"You should go. Tick, tock. Tick, tock."

Elyssa climbed into the driver seat. I shoved
the captive into the back, took shotgun.

As we sped to The Ranch, my mind spun in an
endless circle of reasoning. Why was Underborn doing this? Did he
want the relics for his own personal power? Why had he even
"helped" me before—if marking my father for death to put me through
an elaborate test was considered helping. He seemed to give with
one hand and take with the other. He wasn't working for the other
side, or I felt quite certain I would be dead or in captivity. He
definitely wasn't working for our side either—whatever side that
was.

I still couldn't figure it out myself. But I
knew I had a decision to make. A very important one.

"You did the right thing," Elyssa said, eyes
never leaving the road as she screeched around corners like a
banshee, the scenery blurring past. "You've always tried to do the
right thing." She made a hard turn and skidded onto the long
driveway to Big Creek Ranch. Screeched to a stop in front of the
house and turned off the car. Her eyes met mine. "And I love you
for it."

Meghan and Adam rushed outside. Elyssa gave
Meghan the vial and the healer rushed inside. I grabbed the captive
vampire out of the back and hauled her through the door. Nightliss
was awake, though bleary-eyed and offered me a gentle smile.

"Are we in time?" I asked, looking at the
slumbering form of Felicia on the bed where she lay with only a
towel preserving her modesty. Blackened veins claimed her arms and
legs, and had snaked up her neck, reaching into her chin. She
looked dead.

"We will see," Nightliss said.

I pulled the hood off the vampire. Dark hair
spilled across her face. I pushed the hair back to reveal the face
of a woman I didn't recognize.

"Please, I need to be alone with her,"
Nightliss said.

I nodded, and left the drugged vampire lying
on the floor. Adam, his face a mix of hope and fear, leaned over
and kissed his sister on the forehead before following us out.

As we left the bedroom and headed downstairs,
the constant tension gripping my body finally let go. My body ached
with the release, and I faltered, almost tumbling down the stairs
before Elyssa caught me. A sick feeling churned in my stomach. I
rushed into a bathroom and emptied my stomach into the sink,
heaving and straining until I collapsed to my knees in
exhaustion.

Elyssa knelt, her face inches from mine, eyes
full of concern. "Are you okay, babe?"

I gave a weak nod. "Wow, you really must love
me," I said, trying not to breathe in her direction.

She smiled. "Whatever gave you that idea,
silly?"

"I just puked my guts out, and you're not
even complaining about my breath."

A laugh burst from her. "You've smelled far
worse, believe me."

"You didn't like my vampling perfume?"

"It was wonderfully aromatic." She combed my
hair with her fingers.

A pleasant chill rose on my scalp where she
touched me. I curled up and rested my head on her knees, right
there on the bathroom floor. "I'm the happiest man in the world
right now," I said. "My sexy ninja girl."

I jerked awake with a start. Sat up, and
looked at the couch. At the blazing fire in the fireplace.

"Welcome back, sleepyhead," Elyssa said.

I turned and saw her sitting behind me, a
pillow on her lap, a book in her hand. "How long?"

"Oh, an hour or so," she said, looking at a
clock on the wall. "I had to carry you in here." She set the book
aside and touched my cheek. "Are you feeling better?"

I nodded. "I don't feel like barfing, if
that's what you mean."

"Meghan checked on you. Said it was magic
poisoning."

The healer walked around the corner, a
steaming mug of something in her hand. "I thought I heard you." She
set her cup down on the coffee table and took a seat in a divan
across from the couch, a serious look in her eyes. "Justin, we have
to talk."

"Do you know how many times I hear that in a
day?" I asked, sitting up straight and rotating my legs off the
couch. "When I'm not fighting vampires, someone is giving me bad
news." I ran a hand through my hair and sighed. "What's the crisis
now?"

She almost smiled, but something like concern
tugged the corners of her lips back down into a neutral expression.
"It's about the magic poisoning. Can you tell me exactly what
happened in the crypt?"

I shrugged. "Sure." I told her all about the
encounter with Conroy and Ivy, including how I'd managed to change
the spell, altering it to remove the magic intended to make a
person a vampire. Try as I might, I couldn't recall how I'd known
it, only that the demon side of me knew the lingo.

And then I reached the part about Mom. I
hadn't told anyone yet, not even Elyssa. Just thinking about it
choked me up with sadness and happiness at the same time. But as I
told them, the tears evaporated. I felt…happy. It was strange to
feel that way when talking about my dysfunctional family.

"After she told me that, she just
poof
! Vanished into thin air," I said, recounting the last
bit of the saga.

Elyssa gasped, a beautiful smile on her lips.
"Justin, she was trying to protect you. I couldn't believe a mother
would abandon her child like your mom did."

I grinned. "Just when I was ready to give Mom
and Dad the 'World's Worst Parents' award." The thought of my dad
robbed some of my joy. Either he didn't know about Mom's plans, or
didn't care. Far as I knew, he still planned to marry Kassallandra.
Damn it, if I'd only had a little more time with Mom. There was so
much to tell her and so many questions to ask.

Meghan wore a faint smile on her lips, or
maybe it was a joyless smile, because it turned back into a frown.
"Justin, when I was examining you closely while you were
asleep—"

"You didn't anal probe me with a staff did
you?" I said with a wink, trying to lighten her mood.

Again, she gave me a brief, but fleeting
smile. "While spawn are capable of using magic, they're usually
less powerful than human Arcanes. This is true of other
supernatural species who are capable of magic. Why, exactly, that
is, I don't know." She rolled her wand between her fingers, looking
down at it. "What you and your sister Ivy were doing required a
great deal of magic. Channeling that much energy would burn out all
but the most powerful Arcanes."

I sat back, confusion pressing in on me.
"Well, my mom is supposedly a pretty strong Arcane."

"The Conroys are probably the most powerful
Arcanes alive," Meghan said, seeming to agree. "I'm sure they could
have channeled this spell. In terms of raw brute force, Shelton
might even manage it."

"Shelton?" I glanced at Elyssa. "Is he really
that powerful?"

Meghan nodded. "He has, shall we say,
potential to be great. But his rogue tendencies and lack of
attention to fine control are his undoing." She waved a hand in the
air. "But that's not what I want to talk about. The thing is, when
I measured your
well
—the non-physical place in your body
where you store magical energy—I discovered you haven't even yet
tapped its full potential."

"And this is separate from where I store all
my evil incubus power, right?"

She nodded. "Completely separate, as far as I
know, although it is a matter of some debate in high circles. Think
of it like lungs. You can draw in only so much air. By training
your lungs, you can increase their capacity and efficiency." She
stopped fiddling with her wand and looked me in the eye. "What I'm
getting at, is as you pull in more magic, you'll continue to get
these sick spells until your body becomes used to it. But even
without reaching the full limit of your well, you've already far
exceeded how much energy
I
can draw in all at once."

I arched an eyebrow. "I can suck in more
magic than you?"

"It's difficult to quantify the depth of a
well. I can only sense its depth, like dropping a stone down a
shaft and listening for it to hit bottom."

"So how long is my shaft?"

Elyssa gave me an amused grin.

"Get your mind out of the gutter," I told
her.

Meghan cleared her throat. "Perhaps I should
skip to the point. From what I can sense of your current ability,
your well is at least three times larger than the most powerful
Arcanes I have ever treated."

Shock at the revelation drew both eyebrows up
my forehead. Pleasure at hearing my own potential curled my lips
into a smile. "So, I'm a badass?"

"Justin, the only person I've treated who has
that much ability is in the room with Felicia."

I looked around. "Who, Adam?"

Meghan groaned. "No, I'm talking about
Nightliss."

I was on my feet before I knew what was
happening. "Huh? I have as much power as Nightliss? But that's
impossible. She's a freaking angel!"

"Nightliss still has far more power than you,
but that's only because you haven't yet found the depth of your
ability." She motioned for me to sit down. "What I'm about to tell
you next may come as even more of a shock."

I dropped onto the couch, hands in my lap. If
I'd had a seatbelt, I would have put it on. "Oh, god," I said.
"What is it?"

She looked from me to Elyssa, and chewed on
her lip, as though trying to figure out how to say something.
Finally, she said, "I'm almost ninety-nine percent positive your
mother is not an Arcane."

I laughed. "Of course she is. She freed me
from Conroy's spell, and poofed herself out of there."

"Yes, and there's a very good reason why she
could do such things. Your mother is like Daelissa and Nightliss.
She's an angel."

I reeled back like she'd just hit me.
"Impossible. That would mean the Conroys are angels too. It would
mean me and Ivy are—" I couldn't finish the statement.

"You're both part spawn, part angel," Elyssa
said, wonder in her voice.

Meghan nodded. "It's impossible to measure
the division of your magical heritage, Justin, but considering how
developed your spawn side is, and how powerful your magical side
is, you've inherited a great deal from both sides of the family.
Ivy is obviously extremely powerful considering her age and the
ability needed to pull off the spell. Adam measured the shockwave
from the anti-vampire spell and told me it went out in about a
one-mile radius. If she'd performed it above ground, it's possible
it would have extended much farther."