Midnight Moon (Vampire for Hire #13)(16)

Besides the gross memories, her mother was full of so many... wonderful and fantastic memories. In fact, just a few months ago, her mother had had the most amazing conversation with Dracula. Freakin' Dracula! And Tammy loved the memories of her mother flying as the giant dragon, Talos. 

Cool stuff was always happening to her mom, and now tonight was the biggest whammy of them all.

Tammy was like 99% certain her mom had had a conversation with God.

But that wasn't even the half of it.

The memories of heaven that Tammy had relived in her mother's mind were like nothing she had ever seen before. Like nothing anyone had ever seen before. It was a heaven that most people were destined for, even those who went to hell and had their hell experience. Yes, Tammy had also relived her mother's conversation with the devil himself, and knew that hell wasn't really real. Not the way people thought of it. Oh, sure it was as real as people allowed it to be-the same with the devil, who had been created out of the ether to fulfill a role. He was literally thought turned into creation by mass expectation. Tammy was pretty sure she understood this.

She folded her hands behind her head and smiled.

The devil and God all within three months.

Wow, Mom!

Tammy had reviewed all the conversations her mom had had with the Librarian-or the Alchemist, as her mom sometimes referred to Archibald Maximus, the cute guy who oversaw the secret occult reading room at Cal State Fullerton, and who also help run a school for Light Warriors, of which Tammy may or may not be one of. She didn't think she was, but there was always that possibility. The school took in kids her age, but mostly younger than her-and trained them to fight the dark masters who sought to re-enter the world. Creepy stuff, all of it. She had yet to meet Maximus, and had yet to probe his mind. She suspected many secrets to the universe would await if she did so. He was, after all, a human who had found immortality. He didn't have to drink all that nasty blood or host a dark master through some nefarious dark magicks that involved tainted blood, like her mom and Kingsley and Dracula and Fang had to go through. Like Allison, the Alchemist's blood was clean. Unlike Allison, he was immortal.

Tammy idly wondered if Allison had any new fun memories. Her last batch of them had been crazy as hell, and involved the world's creepiest hunting lodge in Oregon. So, so creepy. But Tammy loved the memory, and loved watching how Allison and her triad of witches had overcome something very wicked indeed.

But heaven?

Holy sweet mama-it had been so beautiful! It had also been a lot to take in, even for her mother who had witnessed it firsthand. Her mother, who had been crying through it all, all while being led by the hand of God himself, a short man who just might also be a homeless man, too. Tammy wasn't sure, although her mother did have a vague memory of meeting the man at a Denny's years ago.

She met God... twice!!

Tammy was almost developing a newfound respect for her mother. Almost. Her mother was, of course, still her mother, and thus a dork. Like a royal dork. Her mother's fashion was at least two years out of date. And her make-up was almost always a little off. Too much foundation here. Too much mascara there. Tammy knew her mother wore the make-up so that when her picture was randomly taken at any number of places-or security cameras the world over-her mother would, you know, actually show up in the picture, and not look like the invisible woman with animated high-cut mom jeans and sneakers that no one, but no one, wore anymore.

Such a dork.

But Tammy felt sorry for her mother, too.

She thought about her mother's conversation with God, and knew all over again that the heaven her mother had been shown was not meant for her-or any vampire, or werewolf, or Lichtenstein monster. While the dark masters who shared their bodies, and thus robbed them of heaven, fled back to wherever the hell they hid from the devil, the original host-her mom, for instance-would be reabsorbed back into the Source of all Life.



       
         
       
        

Back into God.

There was no heaven for Mom, and that made Tammy feel terrible. But didn't God say something about heaven being here, on earth, for her mother? He had. He had told her to look for the good here, to see the good here, and she would catch a glimpse of heaven, every day. In effect, as long as her mother lived, earth was her heaven. And if mankind ever reached the stars, the stars would be her heaven, too. She wouldn't have to be reabsorbed back into God, whatever the hell that meant.

Tammy was not surprised to find the tears on her cheeks ad she lay there in the dark, thinking of her mother dying, and becoming one once again with God; of her mother never, ever seeing that beautiful place called heaven.