And continue he did. The dark masters had found a way to circumvent Hermes’ spell that had cast them from this world. And the way back in was through possession.
“Okay, that part I know,” I said, “but where does your mother fit into all of this?”
“She was one of the greatest of her kind.”
“Dark masters?”
“Yes,” said Maximus. “I watched her kill many and destroy many lives. I watched her torture and maim and wreak havoc. I watched her drink blood from the very old and the very young.”
“Was she a vampire then?”
“There were no vampires then.”
“Okay, now that’s just sick.”
“That was Mother.”
“No wonder you have issues.”
He smiled sadly, and continued, “She was unusually powerful. Unusually proficient in the darker arts. She didn’t have to go this route, you know. She could have done goodness in the world.”
“Maybe your mother was a good, old-fashioned psychopath.”
“I suspect so.”
“Lucky me,” I said.
“Quite the opposite, Sam. Lucky her.”
“What does that mean?”
“I suspect she is benefiting by being a part of your life, Sam.”
“I don’t understand.”
“She is with you constantly, seeing through your eyes, experiencing life through you.”
“Yeah, so? She’s a parasite.”
“You are her first host, Sam.”
“Do you have any idea how creepy that sounds?”
“I imagine, but hear me out. She has been waiting for the right person for many centuries.”
“And I’m the right person?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I’ll explain that in a moment.”
“How about if you explain it now?”
“Very well, Sam. You are particularly attractive to her because of your bloodline.”
“What about my bloodline?” I had a very bad feeling about this.
He held up his hand. “No, Sam. You are not my distant relative, but you are a distant relative to someone else.”
“Oh, God. Please don’t say Dracula.”
“Not Dracula, Sam.”
“Then who—” Then it hit me. “Hermes.”
“Yes, Sam. The greatest alchemist who’d ever lived had a child.”
I thought back to the time in the cavern. Hanner had said my sister would do just as well. They were prepared to kill me and infect her with the same demon who lived in me, his mother. And my sister would have come from the same bloodline, of course.
“Now that you know, Sam, perhaps you can understand why your own powers seem to be growing so quickly. Combine your lineage with my mother’s power...and you have the potential to be unstoppable.”
“I don’t want to be unstoppable. I just want to be me.”
“I know, Sam.”
“So, what do I do?” I asked. “Remove her?”
“You could.”
I ran my fingers through my hair. “Then what would stop her from going after my sister? Or my daughter?”
“Good points, Sam.”
“What does she want with me, anyway?”
“Only an offspring of Hermes can unseal the doorway between worlds.”
“Okay, now I know I’m on the set of The Vampire Diaries.” I looked around. “Where’s Damon? Hell, I’ll even take Stefan.”
“This is not a film set, Sam. I’m sorry.”
I sat back, exhaled. “Let me guess: if she can possess me completely, she could potentially return all the banned dark masters?”
“Yes, Sam.”
“Well, fuck.” I stood and paced along the carpeted area before the reading chairs. Maximus sat back, fingers steepled under his chin, watching me. “I almost...” and I couldn’t believe I was about to say this, “I almost think I shouldn’t release her. That I should keep her caged in me. That I should keep fighting her.”
He said nothing, watching me carefully.
I continued pacing. “I am doing a good job of fighting her. But...but she’s gaining ground. I can feel her inching closer to the surface.”
“You can fight her, Sam.”
“Fight her how?”
“You won’t believe me if I say it.”
I stopped in front of him. “Try me.”
“You fight her with love.”
Chapter Forty
“She’s laughing,” I said.
“I imagine she is. My mother rarely, if ever, used words like love.”
“She’s calling you worthless, a disappointment. Should I stop?”
Maximus shook his bowed head. I couldn’t see his expression, but from what I could tell, this was nothing he hadn’t heard before. “Better to let it out, Sam, than to keep her vitriol bottled up inside you.”
“She says you’re an embarrassment. She’s telling me that you are my enemy, to not listen to you, to fight you. To kill you.”
“Nice chatting with you, too, Ma,” he said.
The demon inside—his mother—was filling my thoughts with her anger, her rage. They bubbled up from down deep. I sensed I could have stopped them. Demanded that she back off. I sensed she would have to listen, too. That she had to listen. But I spoke her words anyway.
“She wants to make a deal with me. If I give her a few minutes a day, or a week, she will back off, leave me alone.”
“I caution you against it—”
“She tells me I will have peace again, if I give her a chance to make an occasional appearance.”
“Sam, please...”
“She tells me that it won’t hurt, and that she won’t hurt any of my loved ones.”
“Sam...”
“She’s telling me that she and I, together, could start something new, something great. We could stand up to you, and to the world, and create our own destiny.”
“Sam, I beg you...”
“Well, don’t worry. I told her to go fuck herself and crawl back under the rock she came from.”
The Librarian, who was leaning forward on his elbows and staring at me with enough intensity to power a Prius, exhaled audibly. “Thank you, Sam.”
“I’m not sure what’s going on, or how she intends to use me, or what she intends to do with me once she has me, but one thing I do know: she’s pure evil.”
“That’s my ma.”