I stood, limping, and watched the car race away. "Son of a bitch! He's getting away again!" I tried to run, but my ankle was having none of it. I felt my face turning red hot. Felt my fists clench tight enough to crack my knuckles. Maybe if I manifested I could catch him. Maybe if—

The ground ahead of the car exploded upward in a rain of earth and rock. Gigantor bellowed loud enough to vibrate the air. Before Kassus could stop the speeding vehicle, the leyworm swallowed it whole. I heard the horn honk twice before the creature submerged into the ground and vanished.

"Oh, no," I said. "Please, no." My voice sounded weak. My knees gave way, and I dropped to the ground. Kassus was gone. Mom was going to die.

Chapter 40

I heard Elyssa speaking with someone. "Dispatch Custodians to these coordinates," she said. "Major cleanup." I heard her snap a picture. Felt her arms embrace me. "I'm so sorry, Justin. I'm so, so sorry."

I found the strength to look up from the ground and saw tears in her eyes. "Me too," I said. "Me too."

"I sent Shelton a picture so we can go home."

"Home to what?" I mumbled as my heart constricted with pain.

The portal opened a few minutes later. Shelton saw us and shook his head. "Why do I get the feeling there's a long story behind you two being in Australia?"

I couldn't muster a response. Defeat overwhelmed my will to do anything but mope as I rose to my feet and stepped through the portal and back into the mansion with Elyssa.

My phone rang. It was Cinder. I didn't feel like talking to him or anyone else for that matter. It rang until it went to voicemail. The portal winked out behind us.

"Are you okay?" Shelton said. "What happened to him, Elyssa?"

"We lost Kassus again," she said. "A leyworm ate him."

"Holy crab cakes in a public toilet," Shelton said. "Oh, man, I'm sorry."

"Mom's going to die," I said, and would have dropped to the floor if Elyssa hadn't held me up.

Another phone rang. Shelton pulled his out. "Yeah?" he answered. His eyes flashed wide. "Be right there." He gripped my arm. "Get back inside the omniarch circle," he said, indicating the silver ring on the floor.

I didn't have the will to resist.

"What's going on?" Elyssa asked.

Shelton grunted. An image of the El Dorado cave flickered into existence within the omniarch. I sighed, sucked in a breath, and walked forward.

It's over. I need to tell Mom goodbye.

Tears welled in my eyes at the thought. I reached deep down inside for the strength I knew was there. We'd done everything superhumanly possible to save her. After all was said and done, we'd lost the fight. I would miss Mom with all my heart. Hot moisture dripped down my cheeks as we walked deeper into the cavern. She'd put me through hell these past few months. She'd done the unforgiveable and abandoned her own child. But she'd done it to atone for letting her daughter be taken from her. Her actions had wounded me deeply, placing everyone I loved in mortal danger. Through it all, I knew she'd loved me. Maybe I was stupid for thinking so, but she'd made a choice no mother should have to make.

Despite everything, I knew one thing for certain.

I forgive you, Mom.

I could only hope she was still alive for me to tell her that.

I felt Elyssa's hands stiffen on me. "Oh my god," she said.

Looking up, I felt my own eyes grow wide. A crushed car sat before the two giant leyworms. The portal in the cave roof was gone, and Gigantor was back, coiled around the nursery next to Lulu.

Without thought, I raced to the car. I saw a black-robed form inside, pinned between the roof and the driver seat. On the passenger side, I saw a cupid wriggling. Kassus's eyes blinked open. He tried to move and couldn't. The bent door held his arm and leg from one side while the car roof pressed his body to the seat. Kassus screamed like a little girl.

"Let me out of here! Let me out!"

I leaned in, feeling an evil grin peel my teeth from my lips as I saw blood seeping from a wound in the man's head. I found one of Meghan's blood vials in the utility pack at my waist. Pressed it to Kassus's head and watched as the glass filled with crimson liquid. Elyssa wrenched the other door open, and took the cooing cupid back into the nursery as the leyworms, heads resting on the cave floor, watched.

"How does it feel to be trapped, Kassus?" I said in a low whisper. "How does it feel knowing nobody's going to set you free, that you're going to die in here?"

"C'mon, Slade, please. You've got to let me out. I-I can't stand tight spaces." A tear trickled from the corner of his eyes.

"I don't think so," I said, knowing full well I wouldn't let him die like this no matter how much I hated the bastard. "Enjoy your stay, you piece of crap."

"Let me out!" he screamed over and over until his raw voice faded into a whimper.

Elyssa and I were already running back through the portal. I closed it, reopened it in the Templar garage. Stepped through and ran for the container. Two Templar guards watched as I blurred toward the tractor trailer. I pressed the button on the vial and trailed blood down my finger, swiped it across the door seam. The doors swung open.

I saw the small form of my mother in a kneeling position on the floor, her arms and head secured in what looked like a medieval torture device, a black cloth over her eyes. I opened them with Kassus's blood, and tore off the blindfold. She sagged into my arms, her blonde hair spilling across her face.

"Mom," I said. "Please be alive. Please!"

Elyssa pressed her ear to Mom's mouth. She looked up at me, eyes heavy with regret, and shook her head.

I gingerly laid Mom's head on my lap, smoothed hair from her face.

Ivy looks so much like her.

Tears burned my eyes. Ivy wasn't going to lose her mom. We weren't going to lose her. I drew in a deep breath, feeling for the one thing I knew could save her. Flicking open my incubus senses, I saw the dim halo of light fading to a dull orange around Mom's still form. I latched onto it with my tendrils, reached down deep inside me and did what I had done so long ago for someone else I loved. I pushed essence through my tendrils and into her.

My efforts hit a wall. Black spots danced before my eyes. Was I tired, or was something in Mom blocking me? I redoubled my efforts. Still nothing. Thinking back to the feeling I'd had when energizing the carpet, I focused on my heart.

I love you, Mom.

I felt a flicker of heat. Essence pulsed along my tendrils.

Everything went black.

Unfamiliar faces flashed through my mind. Words, shouts, all incomprehensible, assaulted me. Emotions, thoughts, odors, all too fleeting to be anything but impressions washed over me in a confusing wave.

I hovered above a sea of bodies in a land of twilight. Humans in primitive leather armor surged toward an oncoming army. The front lines crashed together. Bodies flew through the air. My vision focused on the enemy charge. Fangs flashed, blood sprayed, and the human line melted under the onslaught of vampires and a variety of horrors I'd never seen.

Someone shouted words in a language I didn't recognize. Clouds in the gray sky opened and brilliant white light rained down on the vampires, splashing like molten liquid. I heard their screams even above the din of battle.

More images flickered past. People dying. Vampires leaping twenty feet through the air, pouncing their prey and killing them with vicious precision. Leviathan leyworms charging a line of Seraphim. The scenes ran faster until they were nothing but a blur. And then, a brilliant flash of light followed by absolute darkness.

I sucked in a breath.

I was back in the trailer, Mom cradled in my lap. Her eyes flashed open, revealing black orbs. She gasped, and her hands locked around my throat. I felt energy flood from me in a torrent. Felt my muscles go limp. Watched as brilliant light burst from my mouth. Before I could say or think anything else, consciousness winked into oblivion.

"Justin," said a calm, female voice. I felt a hand smooth my hair back. "It's Mom, sweetie. I'm here, and everything will be okay."

"Mommy," I said, snuggling into warm folds of fabric.

Mom?

I jerked awake. A curtain of blond hair hung above me. I saw Mom looking down at me, blue eyes smiling back.

"You're alive," I said, pushing up from the hard floor of the trailer. I hugged her as tears filled my vision. "I can't believe it."

"I'm sorry," she said, rocking back and forth in our embrace. "What I've put you through—" her voice broke.

"I forgive you," I said. "I was angry for a long time. But I have to believe you did it for a reason."

"I don't deserve your forgiveness," she said in a soft voice. "Your father and I put you and Ivy through too much. No matter the reason, no one should do that to their children."

Questions rose to my lips, but I pushed them away. The time for answers would come, but now was not the time or the place. Pushing myself to wobbly knees, I pulled Mom up. Elyssa stood nearby, her own eyes welling with tears. She smiled. Nodded. Everything was good.

For now.

Chapter 41

"Here's to the master of disaster!" Shelton said, raising a champagne glass in toast. "May he one day calm the hell down so we can lead ordinary lives."

"Hear, hear!" went up shouts around the long table in the mansion's dining hall.

I grinned, gripped Elyssa's hand, and fought down a wave of hopeless optimism. Friends and family crowded around the table. The Borathens had come, even Michael, who sat to his father's right. Nightliss and Katie grinned from across the table. Felicia and her boyfriend Larry sat next to Meghan and Adam. Stacey giggled as Ryland bit into a giant turkey leg while Cutsauce ran around the table yipping and begging for scraps.

Bruce's nephew, Darren, sat near Shelton. Apparently, Bruce had sent a picture of the Russian prison cell to Shelton. According to Shelton, rescuing the young man had been pretty simple, aside from finding him in the middle of using the toilet and the awkward situation of running through the portal before he had a chance to use toilet paper. I was happy I hadn't had to witness the scene and glad Shelton had held up his bargain with the surly Overworld Transportation Authority employee.