“How do you know that?”
“It’s what I would do.”
“To save Ben we have to use the book. If we use the book, Lavius will what? Zap it to him and use it on us?”
“Yes.”
“What’s our counter move?”
“Kill Lavius.”
“I’m all in on that plan, but we’d have to find him first.”
“Ben said he’s in Portland. A mansion.”
“He also said he’s locked away and powerful. I am not going to authorize a full scale attack with nothing but planted information to go on.”
“I’m not asking for your permission to kill him, Delaney. It’s time you remove yourself from this fight, and let me put you somewhere safe, where Lavius can’t use you against me.”
Oh, hell no.
“If you think locking me up is even a slight possibility, you have lost your mind, Travail. I’m the law here.”
“You are compromised. In more than one way.” His eyes drifted to the bite on my neck, then the demon over my shoulder. And maddeningly, to Ryder.
“Look, if you want to be the guy with your finger on the trigger, I’m all for that. This is your old history crawling all over my town and hurting my people. I know I’m no vampire slayer, but I have skin in this game, you understand?
“He killed Sven. He killed the vamp hunters who rolled through town. He beat the crap out of Ben and Jame, and attacked me. He ran my sister over with a car.
“Ran her over.”
I paused to take a breath and lower my tone. I was furious, I could feel it boiling up, hot and thick before cooling under that weird soulless wind that raged through me.
But it wasn’t just anger that was fueling my protest.
I had taken the responsibility to protect this town like so many Reeds before me. My father had died doing so. I wasn’t about to walk any other path than the one I chose, no matter what damage I’d taken along the way.
“This is my town. My people. My fight. We do this together, or I will use the authority that is rightly invested in me to tell everyone, every single creature, exactly what I expect them to do in this situation. Do you understand me?”
For a moment, more than a heartbeat, more than three, I thought I’d finally pushed Rossi past his fondness for me and my family.
Because for a moment, standing there in front of me wasn’t the easy-going live-and-let-live guy I’d known all my life.
I was staring down the badass granddaddy vampire who could break me, literally, in half with his bare hands.
When he didn’t say anything, I filled the silence. “We counter his moves. We out-think him, we out-plan him, we do this smart, and we do it together as a united front, me, you, the Wolfes, the gods, and demons and anyone and anythingelse we need to call on to hit hard and fast. I want this one and done. We draw Lavius to the battlefield of our choice. And we end him.”
Rossi looked past me to Granny Wolfe, and they seemed to have some kind of silent conversation I did not understand.
Ryder shifted behind me. I wondered if he would stand with Rossi, or if he was going to try to drag me out of the room. I hadn’t seen his rule-following compulsion under full power and wasn’t sure where it would land in this situation.
I wasn’t breaking any rule that I was aware of, but I was pretty sure I was forging new ones.
“Delaney’s right,” Ryder said. “We do this together and we wipe him out. Locking her away won’t keep her safe. He’s already marked her. He’ll know where she is.”
I was glad he’d taken my side, but not thrilled with his casual assessment of how compromised I really was.
“What’s the smart move?” I asked.
