by Devon Monk
“How?” Ryder asked into the weird silence.
“Hot with lemon usually,” Than said.
“Not your tea.” Ryder shifted, easing his stance so he wasn’t squared off quite so hard toward the vamps. “How are we going to find Ben with the bite and blood—which still isn’t happening, Delaney. What’s the plan?”
“Blood will not work,” Rossi said.
“I have a plan,” Myra said, because of course she did. “We need to sit down. All of us. Jame? Could you sit down?”
He lifted his head and gave her a steady look. “No.”
Okay, that was more like the old Jame. Fawn said something low and soothing, and after another moment, he returned to the couch.
And there went the rest of the tension in the room, whooshing away like someone had just opened the spill gates on a dam.
Jean got busy handing out tea and coffee, then placed herself with her back to the door toward the visitor’s entrance. Myra stood near Death, facing Jean. That left Ryder and me between the supernaturals, shoulder-to-shoulder, Ryder on the vamp side, and me on the wolf.
Death sipped his tea, his dark eyes glittering over the chipped rim of the mug. He was enjoying every minute of this.
Jerk.
“We know Ben isn’t in Ordinary,” Myra began. “Outside of Ordinary becomes more of a problem for us to pin him down.
“They could have just driven him somewhere, or might still be on the move. Since vamps don’t have to eat or sleep, we’re not going to get the kind of hits off of bank accounts and purchases that we might if we were tracking a human.
“We have a few options, but we need to be careful not to tip our hands.” She pulled the notebook out of her coat pocket and clicked a pen.
“If we are thinking of asking gods to enter this search, we might be able to bypass a lot of the standard kidnapping procedures and get some valuable information. I suggest we talk to a few gods, see if they would be willing to pick up their powers, leave Ordinary, and help us. If not, then we could contact the gods outside of Ordinary and see if they’ll lend a hand. Possibilities for gods who might still feel generous toward us are Crow, Thor, Athena, Heimdall.”
I winced a little at that last one. Heimdall was my ex-ex-ex-boyfriend. We hadn’t left on great terms, but since he’d been chosen by Heimdall’s god power and I’d made sure he could take on that power, maybe he didn’t hate everyone in Ordinary.
But Myra was right about one thing. The longer a god stayed away from Ordinary, the less they seemed willing to go out of their way to help us.
Until they wanted to vacation again. Then it was like we were all long-lost friends who were finally meeting up.
“A few people in town might be able to give us information without relying on gods,” Myra continued. “Jules is a witch and Yancey is a seer. We know Ben’s scent can’t be found, nor his blood, since neither the werewolves nor vampires had any luck tracking him.
“Tapping the possible information sources in town won’t take more than a few hours. Maybe half a day. But if we want to do this fast and hard, we summon a demon or hellhound and bargain for their tracking services.”
Death made a small humming sound in the back of his throat like that idea intrigued him.
“Demons?” Ryder said. “That’s in our arsenal along with dark magic?” He shot a look my way and I sort of shrugged. “Okay,” he said. “That’s in our arsenal. I vote fast and hard.”
“No demons,” Granny Wolfe said.
Rossi grunted and I couldn’t tell if it was an agreement or disagreement.
Death sighed, disappointed.
I was honestly a little impressed with Myra’s thinking-outside-the-box. Of course it might also land us in dying-outside-the-box, which was usually the outcome when one summoned anything from the down below to the up above.
“We’ll table demons for now.” I glanced at Rossi, then at Granny. “We could use dark magic and this bite to find Lavius. Take the precautions available to us, then kill Lavius. What are the chances we’ll find Ben if we kill Lavius first?”
“None.” That rang out like a funeral bell from Rossi.
Granny grunted. She didn’t want to agree, but I didn’t think she knew more about dark magic or Lavius than Rossi. I hadn’t expected Rossi to have some kind of book that could destroy the world, but if he said it was going to blow up in our face, I believed him.
“So our plan is first, find Ben,” Myra said. “Second, kill Lavius. It’s possible just finding Ben will put us in the right place and right time to take Lavius down. We will proceed quickly, and cautiously and stay in contact with information.”
I spoke. “I want your word, Travail and Granny, that you’ll give Myra, Jean, and I…”
Ryder cleared his throat.
“…and Ryder,” I added, “until midnight to gather information for finding Ben. You will guarantee me that you will not fight our decisions, argue our actions, or kill each other. We’ll find him. Without dark magic. Without demons. If we come up with nothing, we’ll make a new plan with dark magic and demons and anything else we need.”
“I will not stand in your way. Until midnight.” Rossi’s words carried the weight of a vow.
Granny sucked air through her teeth, then nodded once. “We want him back.”
“That happens only if we work together. All of us. Promise me that.”
“You have it,” Granny said.
“Yes,” Rossi agreed.
Myra took over. “I want to know how far outside of Ordinary you’ve searched. I don’t want to waste time going over ground you’ve covered. Appoint someone in your clan and pack to stay in direct contact with me.”
“Me,” Rossi said. No surprise. He was a control freak under all that peace-and-love stuff.
“And me,” Jame said.
That was a surprise.
“I don’t think—”
But Granny cut me off. “You are wounded.”
Yeah, that’s what I was going to say.
“I will be there when he is found. I will be the first thing he sees. I will fight anyone who tells me otherwise.”
The weres squirmed. Jame was hurt. If any of them wanted to take Jame down, now while he was vulnerable would be the time. But behind his pain was a rage, a kind of crazed focus that would have him fighting long after his body, or the body of his challenger, was broken.
He was a man who had nothing to lose.
“Jame,” I said.
“No,” Granny said. “He will be with you.” Her lift of chin, her narrow gaze told me she expected me to take care of him, look after him.
Holy crap. Just what I needed, a wounded, heart-broken, claw-happy werewolf on my team.
“Yes,” I said without a second of hesitation. “He’ll be with me.”
A cold sweat washed over me. No pressure, right? I turned to Rossi. “Tell us everything you know about Lavius.”
Rossi unclasped his hands and sat back, crossing one leg over the other, ankle resting on knee. “If I were to tell you everything I know about Lavius, we would be in this room for years.”
Really? Work with me here, Travail.
Myra spoke up. “Narrow it down to the most pertinent details. Anything that would tell me who he has around him, where he might own property, what you think his next move might be. Why he’s chosen to bring this fight to Ordinary now.”
“He wants the book.”
“You’ve said that. Why now?”
“This is an old promise between us.”
“What promise?” Ryder asked.
“That of all the things on this earth, I will be the one to kill him.”
Silence spread out slowly as Death exhaled a long breath. It was as if Death had been waiting to hear those words for decades and more, as if he craved Lavius’s end.
“Why you?” Ryder asked.
“Because I vowed when he took what was mine, I would end him. Ben is mine. Delaney is mine…”
“…hey,”
I said.
“…Ordinary is mine.” His words were dark and heavy as a gallows’ drum beat.
Granny, who had been on her feet this entire time, finally sat back down on the couch beside Jame. Her anger was softened by something else. A hunger to see Rossi follow through with that promise. Two killers who spoke the language of vengeance.
“Can you?” I asked.
Rossi’s shoulder lifted in a casual shrug. “Yes.”
Okay, so it was good to know our vampire was just as much of a badass, maybe more, than the bastard who had crossed our boundaries, killed Sven, broken Jame and Ben’s link, kidnapped Ben and bit me.
Suddenly, things were looking up.
“How?” Ryder asked.
“Brutally.”
Jame growled and so did the other weres.
Look at that. Everybody on the same page like one big happy bloodthirsty family.
“He said he wants the book. Why challenge you for it now?”
Rossi’s eyes tightened just slightly. He had an answer to that. An answer he didn’t want to share with the class.
“Your father, perhaps?” Than offered.
“Rossi’s father?” I stared at Rossi. “You have a father? Alive? Alive-ish? Why didn’t I know that?”
“I was born once,” Rossi said with an offended lift at the end of his words—almost, for a moment, the Rossi I had always known. “My father is long, long gone to dust.”
“Ah,” Than said. “I see I have misspoken. I did not mean your father, Travail. I meant your father, Delaney.”
“My father is dead,” I said.
Than took another sip of tea and watched me. “Yes,” he agreed.
“What does he have to do with the insane murderer vampire who attacked, killed, and kidnapped?”
“And bit,” Jean added, like I needed reminding.
“Perhaps Rossi could tell us?” Than suggested.
Rossi frowned as if he were trying to do the math. “I thought it was because I’d slipped up. Let Sven into my clan, missed that Lavius had his hooks in him, perhaps even eyes through him.”
He was talking like no one else was in the room.
“But it isn’t that. No. It isn’t Ryder either.”
“Me?” Ryder protested. “What do I have to do with any of this?”
“Or if it is Ryder, it isn’t just Ryder. It isn’t just Sven. What else? What am I missing?”
Death placed his tea cup down on the coffee table nearest him and was watching Rossi, looking for that moment of knowledge to ignite.
“You could save us all some time and just tell him what you meant,” I said.
“It is not my place to affect such things. Even I have rules I must follow.” Death placed his hands gracefully on his thighs, just the fingertips resting as if he were a pianist, ready to present a concert.
“Make it your place.” Yes, it was an order. Yes, Than lifted an eyebrow before otherwise completely ignoring me.
“I’m sorry,” Ryder cut in. “What does this have to do with me? How do I connect in any way to an ancient vampire I’ve never met?”
“He has ties to the government,” Rossi said, still in the stare-down with Death.
“And?”
“What agency in the government do you think he would most want to keep an eye on?”
“I have no idea. The presidency?”
“The presidency is fleeting, capricious, and a victim to a much more specific machine of greed and power.”
“Enlighten me then,” Ryder said.
“If I were him, I would want to know where my enemies were at all times.”
“All right,” Ryder said.
“You think Lavius has people in the DoPP?” I asked.
“It was what I thought when Ryder first came back. But now? I don’t know.”
Ryder worked for the Department of Paranormal Protection as a freelance agent, charged with investigating if there were any paranormal creatures in Ordinary who needed to be contacted and offered whatever protection the secret government agency thought they could offer.
“Are you a part of the DoPP?” Ryder asked.
Myra made an approving sound. It wasn’t the question I’d expected Ryder to ask either, but it was a damn good one.
“No.” Rossi frowned. “What need do I have for spies? The vampires who search me out, find me. I’m not hiding. We come to an agreement about living in Ordinary. If they stay, they follow the rules or I kill them. I rule over the vampires here just as the Reed family rules over all the other supernatural creatures of the town.”
“Sweet,” Jean said. “I’ve always wanted to be royalty.”
“We aren’t royalty and we don’t rule anyone,” I said. “We guard. We police. We enforce the law, including for vampires. There is no ruling.”
“There could be,” Jean said. “Rossi said we could rule.”
“No.” I knew she was joking, trying to lighten the mood. But I wanted to crush that idea right now. There was no way our family would ever lord above the town. Uphold the law, yes. Control the lives of these people? Never.
“I’m not connected enough to the higher ups to know if Lavius has people in the agency or not,” Ryder said. “But I’ll ask around. See if there is anything anyone can tell me about where someone like Ben might be taken to.”
“Good,” I said. “Myra, you and I will check in with the witches and seers in town. Jean, you talk to the gods and see who will help us.”
“Got it, Chief,” they both said.
“We’re bringing Hatter and Shoe in to take on the bulk of the day-to-day policing in the town, and we’ll brief them on the basics of the situation so they’re not caught off guard. When are they arriving?”
“Tomorrow morning, bright and early,” Myra said. “We’re putting them up at the Winddrift cottage, I’ve cleared it with Hades.”
I was, as ever, impressed with Myra’s attention to detail and follow through. She was hands-down the most efficient of any of us.
“So,” she said. “we all know what we need to do. Check in every hour. Delaney, do you want to be the contact point for information dispersal?”
“No, you’re better at it. All information funnels through Myra. We’ll grid out this search and make sure we’re not double tracking over each other if we don’t have to. We want to cover as much ground as possible as quickly as possible once we know where to start looking.”
“Are demons still off the table for now?” Jean asked.
“No demons.” After a quick silence, I added, “Last resort, we’ll contact the underworld. But we’re not at the last resort yet, and we’re not going to let it get that far. Anything else?”
Ryder, of course, opened his mouth. “Why the full moon?”
“What?”
“Why do we have to wait until the full moon to kill Lavius? If we find him before then are we under a no-stabbing rule?”
“Lavius can’t be killed by a regular blade,” Rossi said.
“Cutting off the head works though, right?” I asked.
Rossi rolled his shoulders, looking like he was trying to loosen muscles gone too tight. “In theory.”
“That’s not comforting. Tell me in application.”
“He’s old, Delaney.”
“So you’ve said. You’re old too. Tell me you know how to kill him.”
“I know ways that will be the most effective. I am not convinced an average human has the strength of follow-through to do it.”
“Well, we aren’t average. Give us some ideas of how to slow him down.”
Both the vampires on the couch and behind it shifted slightly. Yeah, I could understand their discomfort. Who wanted the elder of their clan to offer up a paint-by-numbers vampire slaying guide to the local police in front of their racial enemies?
“Bullets won’t injure, but if you can hit him in a close cluster through the brain, that might slow him. Aim for the eyes. Same with blades of any kind—aim for the eyes. TASER won’t a
ffect him. Neither will holy water, garlic, tear gas. I might have a few weapons I could loan you that would be more useful. Delaney, come to my place, and we’ll see what I can pull together for your teams.”
That was the most generous, open, and honest offer I’d ever heard from Rossi. He’d never invited me to take a stroll through his secret weapons stash before.
It terrified me how dire things were for him to allow me to have access to any of his weapons.
“Is there anything else?” When no one answered, Myra stood. “Okay, I want to hear from each team every hour on the hour. You all have my number?”
Nods all around.
Then Rossi’s head lifted and his gaze locked on Death. “Oh. I see.” It was a soft exhale, a sudden realization.
And then the room filled with screaming.
Chapter 4
Everyone rushed to their feet, the vampires so quickly, I couldn’t track their movements; the wolves, except for Jame and Fawn, were barely a step behind them.
Ryder, Myra, Jean and I were already running out of the room into the smaller space, hands going for guns.
But half a step into that room, we all froze.
Before we humans even made it there, the vampires had surrounded the room, and the werewolves had surrounded the people in the room. Those people, the tourists, were ten children aged from six to sixteen, four sets of parents, and Mason. Everyone stood in the center of the room, huddled together as if they’d been frightened and pulled together for safety.
They weren’t staring at the vampires. They weren’t staring at the werewolves. They were staring at the spiral staircase to one side of the room. One kid, maybe about nine years old, was trembling and holding her hand out, pointing.
I looked at the stairs.
There was nothing there.
“Everything okay?” I asked in the tone that said I was listening, I would believe whatever they said, and hey, I was on their side.
“He was there.” The girl’s voice skated up too high. “The ghost. He was there. He pushed me.”
I checked Mason, who winced and nodded.
Well then. Ghost. The girl must have thought Harriet, the lighthouse keeper’s daughter was a man. Maybe she didn’t get a good look at her face.
