“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 affect 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.
