“Not really,” Duff answered with a smile, wondering why she would ask such a question. After all, he’d just had something pretty amazing happen to him. How could he be tired at a time like this? As a matter of fact, since it seemed all the others had just been set free, he had to ask, “How can any of these guys sleep right now? I mean, damn, you just busted them out of those cages and they just sack out? Doesn’t seem right to me…”

“Duff,” Lyra said patiently, “Normal young vampires, which all of you are supposed to be, can’t help but sleep during daylight hours. Most vampires need to be at least five hundred fifty before they can even stay awake at sunrise. The only reason these three are awake is because they’ve got amulets to guard them from it.” Duff made a face, not quite believing what she was saying. “Sav, Steve, Michael, I’ll put them back on you in just a minute, but could you hand me your amulets, please?”

The three of them looked at each other skeptically, shrugged, then agreed to do as she asked. Michael slipped his off first and passed it to Steve. Almost instantly, he was dropping off into a sound sleep. Steve sighed, then did as she’d told him. Taking off the amulet, he passed both his and Michael’s to Sav and waited for the sleep to take him as well. Pulling his ring off, Sav handed all the medallions to Lyra and waited along with Steve. Minutes passed as the van drove on. Neither of them felt the slightest inclination towards sleep.

“What the hell happened to us last night, Lyra?” Sav asked in a whisper.

“I’ve got to try it,” Steve said when she didn’t answer. He stood up in the van, moving slowly towards where Lyra sat.

“What are you doing, Steve,” Lyra asked in a voice tinged with near panic as Steve reached for her window.

“You’ll see, baby,” Steve answered, putting one hand on her shoulder. “I hope this does what I think it will…” His other hand reached for the shaft of sunlight that was now streaming across Lyra’s lap. As his hand broke the plain of light, he closed his eyes and thought of praying that he wasn’t mistaken. His fingers brushed the cool pane of glass before he opened his eyes and stared at his hand. There, plain as day, were his perfect, unburned fingers wiggling in the sunlight. Lyra stared down at his hand, covering her mouth with her hand in shock.

“What the fuck?” Sav hissed, moving up to see just what Steve had done. A second later, his tentative hand reached out for the sunlight as well. He grabbed the dashboard, then looked at Lyra. “Okay, let me repeat that question. What the FUCK happened to us last night?”

“I don’t know,” she said, looking back and forth between their hands. “Guys, let Duff get up here. I want to try something, okay?” Reluctantly, Sav moved away from her and let Duff get between the seats. “Alright, Duff, let’s see if the same thing happened to all three of you last night. Put your hand up on the dashboard, into the sunlight…”

Without hesitation or fear, he stuck his hand on the same spot that Sav’s had been on a moment before. Once again, there was nothing but unharmed flesh. Not a burn or so much as a blister appeared on his hand.

“Thanks, sweeting,” Lyra whispered, motioning for him to sit back down so she could think. She rubbed her temples, trying hard to think. Leesha glanced over at her just as they pulled into Phil’s driveway and saw her staring at her hands in disbelief.

“What’s wrong?”

“Last night, the headache!” Lyra exclaimed. Massaging the sides of her head had jarred her memory. “And what happened that got rid of it!”

“Do ya mind explaining a little more clearly, hon?” Leesha asked, worried something was really wrong with her friend.

“Let’s get the van in the garage for the moment, then we’ll try to work this out,” Lyra said quickly, aware that all three men were now staring at her in varying degrees of worry. As soon as the van pulled into the garage, Lyra slumped down into her seat and stared at the ceiling. Steve slipped a ring back on Michael’s hand and the other onto Phil’s. Both men woke up, looking around to see what was going on.

“Um, Steve, mate?” Phil said quietly. “Why do I have this thing on? Don’t you and Sav still need them?”

“Apparently not,” Sav said, shaking his head as he tried to clear the confusion from it. “Somehow, we’ve managed to develop an immunity to the sun…”

“As though you’d lived as long as I have,” Lyra said thoughtfully. She grabbed a blanket wrapped package and slid out of the van, then said, “Follow me, okay, guys?”

The others piled out behind her, following into the house. As soon as they got into the living room, Lyra sat the package on the coffee table and unwrapped it., revealing the Pietra di Alimentazione from the vampire bar. “Um, Lyra,” Sav asked softly, “Why exactly did you take that?”

“I’m not sure,” she answered, looking up at him. “But it might help me figure out just what’s going on here, so it’s a good thing I did. Leesha?” Leesha stepped forward and cocked her head inquisitively. “Put your hand on your side of the stone.” Without a word, Leesha did as she was told, then looked at Lyra again. “Okay, keep it there. Actually, I’m not sure if you’ll be able to move it once I put my hand on the other side.” Reaching out slowly, Lyra placed her hand on the other side of the stone, then said, “At least, you won’t be able to move until it’s done it’s thing.”

“And just what is it’s ‘thing’,” Michael asked curiously.

“It’s a power gauge,” Lyra replied, studying Leesha for any changes caused by the stone. It only took a second for Leesha to whip her hand off the stone as though burned. “That’s what I thought.”

“And just what did you think?” Phil said, a touch of anger in his voice.

Slumping back into the seat, Lyra paused a long moment, then said, “The coven was using this to determine who was the strongest vampire present, which is usually the oldest. Two vamps put their hands on it. Then the Pietra gauges which vampire is stronger. The weaker of the two will end up with the hot side of the stone, to the point they’ll be forced to draw away from it. The longer it takes, the more evenly matched two vampires are. Come here, Michael.” He moved to her side and asked, “You want me to try against you? Why bother?”

“No, you and Phil try it,” she said, staring at the stone. Michael put his hand in the place of Lyra’s.

“Phil?”

“Okay,” Phil sighed. He took Leesha’s place, then stared at Michael. “Now what?”

“Well, try to move away from it.” Both men tried to pull away, but something held them in place. “That’s what I thought. You can’t move away until it’s made its judgment.”

“So, now what?”

“We wait for a while and see just how closely matched you two are,” Lyra answered, watching their hands once more. The wait seemed to go on forever. One minute passed, then two. After nearly three minutes, Michael said, “Okay, it’s starting to get a little warm on this side.” A second later, he yanked his hand away, blowing on it. “That was hot, man!”

“Sorry, honey, but I need to know if this is going to work before I try what I need to do next,” she said, suddenly looking worried again.

“Which is?”

“Sav, Leesha, I need you two to try it.”

“Why?” Sav asked. “We both know Leesha is way more powerful than I am.”

“I don’t think that’s true anymore, sweeting,” Lyra said softly. “Just try it, please?” Both of them placed their hands on the stone. While she’d drawn away almost instantly from Lyra, Leesha lasted about fifteen seconds before whipping her hand away from the Pietra once again.

“You’re fucking joking,” Phil said in disbelief.

“Before last night, Leesha would have lasted a lot longer on that thing with me as well,” Lyra said, closing her eyes. Then she turned to where Duff and Steve stood. “If I’m right, it’ll take too long to try any of you three against each other.” She looked at Leesha and asked, “Would you mind trying it a couple of more times?”

“Damn it all, the things you get me into,” Leesha grumbled. But she stepped forward again and put her hand back on the stone. Steve stepped up and took Sav’s place. Once again, Leesha only lasted about fifteen seconds before pulling away and waving her hand through the air to cool it.

“One more try and I’ll let you off the hook,” Lyra murmured. Duff took Steve’s spot and Leesha returned her hand to the stone. She held onto it only about ten seconds longer than she had with Steve and Sav before moving away again.

Leaning back in her chair, Lyra steepled her fingers over her nose and closed her eyes, trying desperately to think. “There must have been some kind of power transfer last night,” she sighed. “I just don’t know if you took away from me or not. You could actually be stronger than I am now.”

“Let’s find out,” Duff volunteered. He moved to the far side of the stone and motioned for Lyra to put her hand in place.

“Are you sure you want to know?” Sav asked quietly from over her shoulder.

“I think we’d better find out,” Lyra sighed, placing her hand on her side of the Pietra. And there they sat for what seemed an eternity. Five minutes passed before Sav asked, “What if you’re absolutely evenly matched now?”

“I don’t know if that’s possible,” Lyra said quietly, though he could hear some concern in her voice. “There’s got to be some kind of chink in it, something that will give one of us an edge over the other.” As she spoke, Duff looked up and said, “It’s getting warm.” The stone released his hand just as it started to burn.

“Well, at least I didn’t give away everything in that little exchange last night,” Lyra whispered. Then she looked over at Michael and started to chuckle. “Michael, what are you doing, luv?”

They all turned to find Michael hopping up and down on one foot, twisting his long black hair in both hands. Then, suddenly, he did a back flip and turned to stare at them, saying, “What the fuck was that about?”

Looking from one person to another, Lyra spotted a huge grin making it’s way across Steve’s face. Suddenly he was letting out a belly laugh while Lyra just shook her head. Michael, Duff, Phil and Leesha turned to face Lyra, just as comprehension dawned on Sav and he said, “You’ve got to be joking, matey.”

“Try it and see if you can,” Steve smiled. Then he got serious. “You’d better use Phil though, cuz I don’t think Michael would take it very well.”

“Lyra?” Sav asked quietly.

“Just do it.”

The next thing Phil knew, his nose itched like buggery and he couldn’t stop it no matter how much he scratched. Everyone in the room watched him, though only Lyra, Steve and Sav knew what they were watching. “Okay, Sav, that’s enough,” Lyra said with a sigh. But still poor Phil continued to scratch. Getting frustrated with their immature behavior while they played with a new power, Lyra threw her hands down onto the arms of the chair and said harshly, “I said, make him stop!”

And stop Phil did. As a matter of fact, he didn’t move at all. He was stuck mid scratch, frozen in place. Sav and Steve watched him and waited for him to put his hands back down now that Steve, who’d taken over tormenting Phil, had stopped. Lyra’s eyes popped open as she realized what had happened. Walking up to Phil, Steve reached out and pushed him, trying to wake him up. Instead, Phil toppled over, now lying in the exact position he’d been standing. Steve jumped back just as Leesha rushed to his side, yelling, “What the fuck did you do to him?”

“I don’t know,” Lyra whispered. She closed her eyes, willing Phil to reanimate. When she heard Leesha grab his now limp body to keep him from falling, Lyra looked and saw Phil reach for the coffee table to stop himself.

“Why am I on the floor?” Phil asked, looking around at each person in turn.

“Lyra did it!” Steve said, pointing a childish finger in her direction.

“Did…what exactly?”

“Froze you, mate,” Sav said, shaking his head.

“Froze…me? HUH?”

“Okay, I can understand that they got my powers,” Lyra said almost to herself. “But where the hell did that one come from?”

“Could you have gotten our powers?” Sav asked as he moved back to her side.

“Possibly, but when did one of you turn into one of the girls from Charmed?” she answered in frustration.

“Maybe that’s his,” Sav replied quietly with a pointed look at Duff.

“No way, he couldn’t have gotten his power this quickly,” Lyra said with a shake of her head.

“A lot of things are a little off after your surge last night, sweetie,” Sav said, resting his hand on her shoulder. “Try seeing just how far you can read into someone’s mind now.” Lyra stared at Steve for a long second before saying, “Okay, well, that was odd.”

“What?” Steve asked curiously.

“Let’s just say I just learned more about you than you really ever wanted me to,” she answered, looking back at Sav. “How the hell do you deal with being able to see that far into people’s thoughts?”

“I don’t try to, most times,” he said with a weak smile. “Now, while you were doing that, I was trying to freeze something, but I can’t. I think, when, well, with what happened last night…you shared your powers with us and we shared ours back with you. Most likely, you’re extremely strong now, so be careful. And you’re telepathy is much stronger. Plus, Duff’s little enhancement let’s you freeze people. I think you gave us your ability to control actions and the benefits of your much longer life.”

“But HOW?” she asked insistently.

“Let’s wait til we can get back to England and we’ll ask Si. She was back to working on some of her vampire artifacts, so maybe she can find something.” He turned and looked at the others, only to find Steve frozen in place. Spinning around, he faced Duff and asked, “Did you do that?”

“Yeah, sorry,” Duff answered with a sheepish grin. His eyes squinted as he concentrated, then Steve went right on with the sentence he’d started before he’d been immobilized. Aside from a snicker or two, there was no indication that anything had happened.

“Don’t do it again!” Sav admonished, turning back to Lyra.

“Yeah, man, no problem,” Duff smiled. Then he looked back at Lyra again and said, “You know, honey, you look really familiar. Guess this is just the first chance I’ve really had to notice it, what with everything going on and all.”

“Probably sometime back in the mid 80’s, I spent a lot of time on the Strip in L.A.,” Lyra said, not really thinking about what they were talking about. Her mind was on getting this many vampires back to England with as few problems as possible.

“’86?” Duff asked with narrowed eyes.

“Yeah, easy feeding grounds,” she answered absently. “Take a little here, a little there, whisper a spell to blunt the bonding. Easy.”

“Ally?” Duff said quietly, suddenly studying her face closely.

All attention at the mention of that name, she said, “Yeah, that’s the name I used back then.”

“Seems I remember spending a couple of weeks with you back around there, then,” Duff said with a sudden smile. “Yeah, cuz you kinda stormed in and time got all funny. At the time, I thought it was just too many drugs…”

Lyra nodded as the memory came back to her. “No, not the drugs, sweetie,” she sighed. “I think I left you a little anemic…”

“Well, hey, a good time was had by all then, huh?”

“Except by Izzy, if I’m remembering rightly,” she said quietly, her eyes blurring as she tried to remember what happened. “The lead singer?”

“No, THAT was Axl,” Duff smiled. “Didn’t you nearly put him through a wall the night you were getting ready to leave?”

“He should have learned to take ‘not interested’ as an answer then,” Lyra smirked.

“Oh, he learned some quick manners after that,” Duff chuckled. “Never hit on an unwilling woman again, that’s for sure. He was even better to Erin after that.”

“You decked Axl Rose?” Steve said in amazement.

“Just once, after he’d been drinking,” Lyra said dismissively. “I mean, most of that time, he was actually a lot nicer than people gave him credit for. But he was sure he could hit on Duff’s girl of the moment and take her away. Unfortunately, for that brief moment, Duff was spending time with me, so that didn’t work out for Axl at all…”

“So you two have some history?” Sav asked with eyes narrowed to slits.

“NO!” Both of them laughed as they answered simultaneously. Lyra reached out for Sav, who pulled away just for a second before allowing her to touch him. She got very serious. “Sav, how much do you actually remember about the mid 80’s? Like, say, the women you had in 1988? Duff was a rock star on the rise, taking advantage of the perks along the way. Including women. As for me, was there a more perfect place in the 1980’s for a vampire to hide out? Lisel and I used to cruise the Strip. People were passing out, OD’ing, whatever. Nobody noticed being a little light headed the next day there. They just chalked it up to too much party and went on with their lives. Even if a vampire goofed and killed someone, which happened on occasion, it got written up to drugs and lost in a sea of paperwork. You wouldn‘t believe just how many of us there were there! A regular vampire convention.” She pulled Sav down into her arms. “You understand? No love affair whatsoever. Just two people using each other to mutual benefit, right, Duff?”

“Hey, man, I wasn’t interested in anything else at the time,” Duff smiled.

“Actually, if I’m remembering correctly,” she said thoughtfully as she looked at Leesha, “Didn’t you have a thing with Nikki Sixx for while? And Lisel hooked up with, God, who was that drummer in Guns?” She turned back to Duff.

“Steven?”

“Yeah, that’s him,” she answered.

But Leesha put her hands up, saying, “I’m way out of this one, Lyra.”

Sav looked back and forth between Duff and Lyra, trying to resist the urge to probe into both of their minds. Lyra finally sighed and said, “Do it, if you really need to. I don’t have anything to hide.”

“No.” Sav shook his head and said, “No, I don’t need to. Besides, we’ve got much bigger things to do than this. Like how the hell are we going to get this many vampires out of the country? Especially since most of them don’t even know how to fly yet…”

“I’ve got an idea on that, with everything that’s just happened,” Steve said quietly from the far side of the room. “Us having these new powers, it could come in handy…” He walked back across the room as he explained his plans. At first, Lyra was skeptical. But slowly, as the idea got fully fleshed out by the entire group, she was convinced it was the best way to deal with their problems.

“Well, I’ll get on the phone calls,” Lyra said, eager to get this mess behind her.

“I’ll see what I can do about getting us there,” Leesha said quietly as she and Phil got to their feet.

“And I’ll make sure we can feed everybody before we get moving,” Steve replied, motioning for Michael to come with him. “There’s a couple of butchers around here that I know will help us out.”

“Everybody meet back here around 3 o’clock so we can see just where we’re at,” Lyra called after them. She looked around and found Phil’s computer stashed off unnoticed in a corner. Booting it up, she looked for Sav and saw him sitting in a corner watching Duff. As soon as she got his attention, she nodded her head for him to join her at the computer.

“Leave him be, luv,” Lyra said softly. “Let him get used to what happened to him.”

“Yeah, I’m just wondering if he’s going to want to get back with ‘Ally’, that’s all,” Sav sighed.

“Don’t!” she commanded. “Listen, he’s had a traumatic night, whether he knows it yet or not. You had years to adjust to the idea of becoming a vampire. He didn’t even know they existed until last night when two kidnapped him. In less than twenty four hours, he’s found out we’re very real and that he’s now one of us. Has he even realized just who you guys are yet?”

“I’m not sure,” Sav answered slowly. Then Sav grimaced and said, “That could be another shocker, couldn’t it?”

“Yeah, so be gentle about it when you break it to him,” Lyra said as she focused on the computer screen. “Remember, he thinks you are all dead…”

“Okay, I will,” Sav whispered with a wink. He had no intention of trying to freak Duff out, but maybe it would back him off Lyra if Duff realized just who Sav was.

“Hey man, what’s up with this place?” Duff asked in a friendly voice. “I mean, it’s kinda swank for a vampire hideout. Don’t vampires usually dig graveyards or something like that?”

“This was Phil’s house before he became a vamp,” Sav explained.

“Wow! He must’ve had some serious money then!” Duff whistled. “And what’s with all the guitars…?”

“All of us have this kind of money. Well, most of us, at least,” Sav said quietly with a smile. “Money along the lines of what you’ve got. Rock star money.”

“What?” Duff turned to face him with questions in his eyes. “You guys were rock stars, too?” Duff found him studying Sav’s face more closely. “Okay, that blond guy named Steve, he looks real familiar. So do you and the short blond. Phil, I think they called him?”

“Okay, the taller blond guy is Steve Clark,” Sav said, waiting for comprehension to dawn on Duff. It didn’t take long, which made Sav rethink his opinion on Duff. For all his “California” speak, Duff was a lot smarter than Sav had thought originally.

“NO FUCKING WAY!” Letting out a laugh, Duff said, “I KNEW I recognized him from somewhere. We partied together back in the late eighties, not long before Clark died. Def Leppard, right, man?” Then he stared at Sav for a minute. “You were the bass player, um, Savage, right? Rick Savage?”

“In the flesh,” Sav said with a slight bow.

“And Phil, let’s see,” Duff thought for a moment. “Phil Collins? No, Collen, right?”

“Oh, God, do NOT let him hear you call him Phil Collins, okay?” Sav chuckled.

“Yeah,” Duff said absently. “You know, they made a really big deal about how cursed you guys were. First, Clark od’d, then one of the guitarist disappeared. Then there was the accident onstage that killed another guitarist. Rick Allen had that heart attack and, then…whoa, holy shit, your car accident! Then Elliott disappeared from that Paris hospital…they said the curse had claimed the last member of the band after that…”

“And no one ever knew that all of it had been staged,” Sav smiled.

“So none of you guys actually died?” Duff asked in amazement.

Sav just shook his head, saying, “At least not when everyone think we did. We did have a bit of a problem not long ago, but we try to avoid talking about it. A group of people tried to take Vivian’s daughter and they killed him in the process.” Sav shook his head, not wanting to think about his lost friend. Changing the subject, he said, “Eventually, you’ll go down as another disappearance, matey. You and that whole van load of celebrities out there. Anybody who’s gonna be hot on your trail?”

“One of my daughters might,” Duff said thoughtfully. “The oldest one cut herself off from me when her mom and I got divorced. But her sister still at least stayed in touch.”

“Best thing to do, if you don’t want any problems,” Sav said after a moment, “Is transfer about half of what you’ve got money wise to a Swiss account like the rest of us. Split the rest between the girls, so they’ll have a little less reason to look for you.” He held up his hand as Duff started to speak. “I’m not saying that the money will take your place with both girls. But if you provide for them, it’ll make it easier to say good bye to them. And you’ll know they’ve got enough to get by on.”

“Yeah, that’s a decent idea.” Duff looked around. “Any other phones here?”

“In the office, I think he’s got an extra line,” Sav answered, pointing the way. “Calling your accountant?”

“Nope,” Duff grinned. “Between Guns n’ Roses and Velvet Revolver, I managed to get something of an education in accounting. I handle all of that shit myself now. Less question now, huh?”

“Bloody right!” Impressed, Sav clapped Duff on the shoulder, then led him into the office. They spent several hours there, taking care of getting Duff’s ‘death’ in order. Meanwhile, the others took care of things. Like just how they planned on returning to the safety of the coven house in England. At three o’clock, their respective tasks completed, the vampires met back at the house for a well deserved rest before a long night to come.