Overworld Chronicles Books 1-2: Sweet Blood of Mine & Dark Light of Mine (79 page)

His statement jarred a memory loose. "Ryland tested Felicia, one of Maximus's people. She told me that he'd personally turned her. But Ryland's test pointed to a vampire over two-hundred years old."

"Interesting." Underborn folded his arms. "I must test the blood of these female recruiters of his and see if the same blood master turned them as well. Such information will certainly narrow things down." He peered through the crowd a moment before turning back to me. "In the meantime, I suggest you think about ways to personally take care of Maximus."

"I'm done with your games. You take care of him."

"No doubt you wish to find your mother."

I feigned surprise. "Your powers of deduction are legendary."

He returned a tight smile. "You'll never reach her, you know. Not without my help."

"This is the part where you tell me to go after Maximus in exchange for that information, right?" I slashed the air with my hand. "Forget it. I'll figure it out on my own."

"You can be a rather obstinate young man." Underborn shrugged. "Have it your way, but know my information could greatly shorten your search. All you need do is take care of Maximus and his mysterious benefactor."

"You put a hit on my father just to 'test' me," I said making air quotes, "and then forced me to do more dirty work for you."

"I am the archer, and you are my arrow, Mr. Slade. I see nothing wrong with a little inducement."

I ground my teeth. "Has anybody told you you're insane?"

"Not to my face, no." He smiled. "Mr. Slade, you've helped immeasurably. By aiding me, you are helping yourself. Removing Maximus from this complicated equation will help you even further and possibly expose his accomplice. Do I need to write this down for you, or can you reason out the ramifications yourself? "

I bit back a smart response and replaced it with another. "In case you've forgotten, I'm brand-spanking new to this while you've been doing it for who knows how long. So don't patronize me and don't expect any favors, either. What I do, I do for those I care about, which is a hell of a lot more than you can say about you. "

"My reasons are my own, Mr. Slade. In any case, I suggest you keep a low profile for the time being. There will be many questions over the next few days and, considering the corruption in this despicable little community, a political catharsis shortly behind. You will not want to be caught up in this scandal."

Nightliss meowed as if to remind me of the recorder. I pulled it out and showed it to Underborn. "Good thing I recorded everything that happened in the locker room."

Surprised flickered on his face and vanished almost before it could register. "Interesting foresight, Mr. Slade. I'm surprised they didn't search you." He gave me a meaningful look. "I assume nothing we've discussed is on this recorder."

I tucked it away and recommenced walking well behind the other students as the long line trundled across the school campus and across the nearby highway. "You think I'm dumb enough to record us and then show you the recorder?"

"In that case, might I suggest you make several copies?"

"I already planned on it." Actually, I hadn't, but I wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of knowing a cat had thought things out better than I had.

Elyssa poked a finger into a hole on the front of my shirt next to my neck. She grabbed my arm and looked at my back. "Oh my god, Justin! Were you shot?"

I'd almost forgotten about my wound in the panicked minutes following Skinner's attempt on her life. "I guess so. Did it heal?"

She inspected my skin, pressing a hand to my back and chest. "Looks like the bullet made a clean exit." Her eyes softened. "You took a bullet for me."

"Did I earn brownie points?"

"Uh, that's off the brownie points scale, even if you can heal fast." She quirked an eyebrow. "I'll have to get creative with my rewards."

Heat flushed up my neck as my imagination ran wild. I quickly reigned in my erotic thoughts because I wasn't finished grilling Underborn just yet. "What's quicksilver?" I asked him. The only quicksilver I knew of was mercury. If killing vamplings was that easy, I'd carry the stuff everywhere with me.

He stepped around a car parked at the curb, his eyes on the disorderly line of students ahead. "Think of it as a deadly supernatural poison."

"So a dart of the stuff could kill me or Elyssa?"

He shook his head. "No, such a small amount would severely sicken a vampire or dhampyr. For you, it would do far less damage. At least a pint is required to kill a full-grown subject."

"But the vamplings—"

"It has a far different effect on them due to the infection in their bloodstream. For some reason, quicksilver has a violent reaction to the vampling virus, making it highly effective at eradicating the infection."

We reached the four-lane road bordering the high school and crossed, heading for a large church parking lot across the road. "Where do I get this stuff?" I had a feeling Maximus wasn't through making vamplings. Sick dread coiled in my stomach as I thought about the potential damage the vampling virus could do if unleashed on an unsuspecting population.

"It's extremely hard to find anywhere. Ancient alchemists were said to have the knowledge to manufacture it, but now all we have are rare geological deposits and the few Templar repositories which still have meager stocks." He raised an eyebrow. "As a matter of fact, there were known deposits of this substance located at Thunder Rock."

Nyte, Ash, and Katie appeared from the throng of students as we reached the church parking lot across the road from the school. Ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars roared past and screeched onto the school grounds while others lined up across the highway to barricade the closest intersections from traffic.

"What happened?" Nyte asked, peering across the road.

I looked at him and shrugged. "Don't know."

Katie's knowing green eyes met mine. I returned a look which hopefully got the message across for her to zip it.

As I turned back around to face Underborn so I could grill him on a few more items of interest, my gaze locked onto a face that trapped the breath in my throat. I couldn't move. I couldn't think. Standing across the parking lot from us, my mom looked at me for several long seconds before turning and walking away.

Chapter 35

I didn't dare take my eyes off her for fear I'd lose sight of her blonde hair in the crowd of students.

"I'll be right back," I said and pushed my way through the dense throng.

"Where are you going?" Elyssa said.

"Wait here," I said my eyes locked on the figure with golden hair.

I cleared the huddled masses and broke free. Across the large parking lot, my mom stood next to her car. Not caring if people saw me or not, I ran faster until the soft treads of my tennis shoes sounded like the staccato rhythm of a crazed drummer against the asphalt. She leaned against her car and watched me approach, making no move to leave.

Fifteen feet or so from her, I slowed. Her blue eyes gazed at me as cold and emotionless as the stony look on her face. She pulled a white wand from her jacket pocket and made a circular motion with it. I took two steps more and bounced off an invisible barrier.

"Close enough," she said, her voice tight with anger.

"Mom? What's wrong?" I probed the invisible barrier but found no edges to it. "Why are you blocking me?"

"I want you to deliver a message to David."

"To Dad? Your husband?" I pounded my fists ineffectually at the solidified air. It flexed and bent, absorbing anything I could throw at it. I gave up and returned her glare. "Who are you? You're not Mom."

She ignored my jibe and continued. "Tell David to stop coming after us. Our marriage is over and I never want to see him again."

Her words sank like a dagger into my midsection. I cried out at the pain and felt tears simmering behind my eyes. "What?" I pressed against the barrier. "Mom, what are you talking about?"

"From now on, my family consists of me, my daughter, and my parents. You, him, and your demon blood are to stay away from us. If I hear of either of you trying to find us, I'll formally request Templar intervention. Do I make myself clear?"

I leaned against the barrier for support and felt the hot sting of tears as they broke through the dam and ran down my face. "What's wrong with you, Mom? Why are you doing this?" Someone had to be controlling her, or else this was an illusion. This was not the woman who'd raised me. "Who the hell are you?" I shouted and pounded against the invisible wall. I stumbled forward, almost face-planting on the asphalt when the barrier abruptly dissipated.

She walked to me and her expression seemed softer, less angry. "I
am
your mother." She pressed a hand to my forehead and whispered something in a language I didn't understand. A tingle gathered at her fingertips and worked its way down my head and through my body. Her voice lowered to a whisper. "I'm sorry, Justin but it has to be this way. Give David my message, please." She kissed my forehead. "I have no choice." Fear blossomed in her eyes. "No choice." With that mysterious statement, she turned her back on me.

"What were you trying to warn me about when you called me? You said, 'whatever you do, don't,' and I lost the connection."

She answered without turning around. "The same thing I just told you. Whatever you do, don't try to find us, Justin." She wiped something off her face. Slid into her car and left.

I tried to move, tried to follow her. But whatever she'd done to me had locked my muscles in place, and all I could do was follow her car with my eyes until it vanished from sight. Elyssa appeared before me moments later, eyes wide with alarm. She patted my face and spoke to me, but it was several minutes before my muscles responded to commands and I could speak past the suffocating pain lodged in my chest.

"What happened, Justin? Who was that?"

I sucked in a breath to overcome the agony burning in my heart and scanned the area. Before I could ask which way the car had gone I felt a sudden release of pressure in my head and a vivid memory burst through my mind's eye.

Riding in a car down a long winding driveway toward a mansion on a hill. Children laughing at a birthday party. Chocolate cake. Mom, standing in the corner of the room, alone with another person I can't see. Talking. Arguing. Her shoulders tense and then slump. She turns toward me and I catch a glimpse of the other person's face. A man's face. He smiles. But the smile has no kindness to it. It's the smile of a person who enjoys pulling the wings off flies or torturing animals for sport. A terrible feeling nearly overwhelms me as I stare into that very familiar face. If he had his way, I would be that tortured animal.

"Justin?" Elyssa's face snapped into view.

I yanked my head back, wobbling on my feet as I played the memory back a few times, trying desperately to remember the man's face. Why did he look so familiar? "Where did she go?" I asked.

"Where did who go?" She looked around, her forehead creased. "Who were you talking with?"

"My mom." The words caught like steel barbs in my throat and it was all I could do to keep back the furious tears threatening to break free. I was so angry I could hardly think straight. I wanted to destroy something. Take the Conroys and break them, one over each knee. I didn't even know what they looked like, for god's sake. My only memory of my grandfather was the horrible recollection of him coming and taking away my baby sister.

Elyssa's eyes lit with excitement. "She came to see you? What did she say?" The joy in her eyes flickered out when she saw the sorrow branded on my face. Her mouth dropped open a fraction and understanding drowned the joy on her face. "Oh, Justin, I'm sorry. I thought—"

"She told me to deliver a message to my dad. She doesn't want either of us in her life anymore and she'll call on the Templars if we try to find her."

Disbelief washed across her face. "Are you kidding me?"

I shook my head and squeezed my eyes shut for a moment. "At first I thought it wasn't her. That it must be a trick. But then she touched my head and somehow I knew it was Mom. No one was controlling her." Had she released the strange memory? Or had her mere presence triggered it? "Right after she left, I had another memory return."

She inhaled a sharp breath. "Tell me."

I explained it, though it seemed hard to express the details in words. "I saw the man's face so clearly the first time, but it's harder now."

Elyssa snapped her fingers in my face, startling me. "Eye color?"

"Gray."

"Hair?"

"Silver. Slicked back."

"Glasses?"

"Yeah, he had on round spectacles." As if those few ingredients were enough, the man's face came back in vivid clarity and I ground my teeth at the sight. I knew where I'd seen his face before. "Remember the gray men I told you about? The golems?"

She nodded.

"They look exactly like him."

Elyssa rocked back on her heels, her eyes thoughtful. "This means something, Justin."

"Mr. Gray is an asshole?"

"Your mother helped you." She grasped my hand. "She helped you! This exact memory returning now is not coincidence."

I ran my other hand through my hair and growled. "She just told me to get the hell out of her life."

"Maybe she didn't mean it. Maybe she can't say what she wants." Elyssa touched my forehead as if she could touch the memory itself. "She gave you a gift to hunt down your enemies. Mr. Gray might know how to save your sister."

I took her other hand in mine and squeezed as the hope dangling by its fingertips from the cliff of doom in my heart reached up another hand and took a firmer hold. "Maybe you're right." I swallowed a lump in my throat. "I hope you're right."

"What are you going to do?"

"Tell Dad and figure it out from there, I guess." I looked back at the milling mass of students. "I just don't understand why she's doing this. The day before she left she told me she'd love me even if I hated her. It's almost like she knew she'd be doing something terrible. Like she'd planned all this a long time ago."