Seconds felt like hours as they ticked by. A clank of the sword being dropped on the table brought all our eyes toward Lex. He was staring at all the bosses, his eyes clear of hate, with a small sad smile on his face. “I can’t kill my father’s best friends, friends that would be willing to give their lives over an oath they made to him.” He looked at the rest of us around the table before settling his gaze on me. “I will not be helping my uncle, not because what he’s doing is wrong, but because it’s obvious I’ve been lied to all my life, having been denied the place that I belonged.”
My heart swelled for Lex, so happy he made the choice he did when Syris complained, “Are you saying I got on my knees for nothing?!”
Chapter 28
Averystompeduptoget his dad, chastising him for not reading the room before he spoke, but when Syris winked at me, I knew he did it on purpose. I guess I’m not the only one who had a hard time with the overly emotional stuff.
Lex then told us about what he heard the humans talking about. How this drug was meant to hook supes to become Vincent’s army against us. Then we told our dads about how every time we caught one of the dealers, they killed themselves after saying we would never stop him. Now that I knew thehimthey were talking about was Vincent and not some ominoushim, I wanted to run this city red with his blood.
Falcon voiced a concern. “I’m worried about the fact that humans were used. They have been looking for an advantage over us for years, if these two have that information...” He frowned, his sharp aristocratic face looking even more severe.
Lex agreed. “That’s what I was thinking, and we killed them on our way out, but the woman had a backup USB on her desk at home.” Lex found my eyes, and mirth twinkled. “We would’ve been home sooner, but we had to make a stop at her house and snag it.”
At that moment, Easton pulled a USB from his pocket and handed it over to Falcon. Falcon looked at the USB and then back at his dad, brows furrowed, but when his dad lifted a brow, Falcon snatched it up so fast you would’ve thought he was a vampire.
The room was so silent we could all hear the muffled buzz of a phone, and Lex stood and pulled one from his pocket, and his dark eyes reflected the light from his phone as he stared at the screen. His shoulders curved forward as his eyes narrowed before he exhaled, signaling us to gather. “Looks like he’s ready for war tomorrow. He wants me to meet him at the compound at 7:00 p.m. to escort a truck to a location he will text me tomorrow and then kill the heirs after.”
Dad spoke up, “He’s going to find out very soon that he doesn’t have the four of us anymore.”
Lex nodded. “True, but even still, he wouldn’t tell me about that. He didn’t tell me when he was going to go after you all. It was always expressed to me that it was going to be an all-out war between your side and ours.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I always thought he was working on some magical spell to render you guys obsolete, but I guess it was more about drugging your people and taking over that way.”
“The only thing we have at this point is the element of surprise, so why don’t we go to him?” My question was met with a lot of stares, but I didn’t back down.
“What? Are you old guys rusty? I mean you did get kidnapped.” I shrugged as Avery, and Ax laughed while Falcon and Cosmo smirked. Lex nodded at me, knowing what I was doing as they all complained.
“Old? Who the hell are you calling old, Missy?!”
“I have more battle experience than all of you combined!”
“Didn't you get kidnapped?”
“I’ll show you what your old man can do!”
I ignored Easton’s comment.“So, I guess that means we’re going...” I turned to Lex. “So how do we get in?”
He tipped his head up, taking my cue to continue before they changed their minds. “That will be the tricky part. Few more miles in from the entrance of the basin, there’s an invisible barrier around the compound.” He faced my dad. “We went out the back way since they tucked you guys in the back. But the only way to get past the barrier is if you have this tattoo.” He turned around and lifted his shirt. On the back right shoulder was a smoky circle and smoky letter D in the center.
He put his shirt down. “It’s spelled, and I can only bring a couple handfuls of people per tattoo, so there’s no way I can help bring an army over.”
I looked around the room, counting nine of us... that was a couple handfuls, right? “So, what if we didn’t bring an army? What if we only brought in two handfuls of elite soldiers for a sneak attack before the truck leaves?” I smirked around the room, letting them all know who I was talking about.
Lex licked his lips, leaning forward as he said, “I’m listening.”
After Lex explained the layout of their compound, we came up with a loose plan of how we would split up and take care of the four main points; disable the truck, confine or convince the demons inside to side with us, disable Kevin, then go for Vincent. We all had jobs for each part and who they should join up with once it was taken care of.
By the time we were done, it was already noon, and we didn’t have much more time before we needed to leave. “It’s going to be a rough night, kids, so why don’t you all take a power nap, get your bellies full, and meet us at 5:30 p.m. in the foyer.”
We all nodded at my dad as Syris got up and called out, “I got dibs on the bottle of Moët & Chandon!”
Manic chased after him. “Hey! I called that a few days ago. You can’t have it.”
Easton smiled at my dad as he put a hand on his shoulder, giving him a pat when he cooed, “I wonder what they are going to do when they learn I stole that bottle and drank it the second day we were here.”
Dad smirked. “You snooze, you lose.”
They chuckled as they walked together toward the office when Syris screamed, “Who drank it?!”
I turned around, looked at Lex standing next to Cosmo as they spoke about some details, and felt like the last puzzle piece was found and placed. We were whole. I smiled. We had to do one thing to make it official.
