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