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."

Chapter 42

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."

"But if the Conroys are angels, why do they need Daelissa?" I said. "It doesn't make sense."

Meghan stood, tucking her wand into a pouch. "There's a lot that still doesn't make sense. But all the evidence points toward my hypothesis. It's more vital than ever Shelton and Bella train you. Drawing in that much energy without the training to properly focus it is dangerous."