“They can’t intervene directly without risking an all-out supernatural war,” Ty said.With an impatient hand, he reached up to pull away the rubber band that held his heavy dark hair away from his face, then neatly bound it up again, as if it had been bothering him.“There are rules about these kinds of things.I’m allowed to work with you because I’m half mortal and have a stake on this plane, the same as you do, but any actual angelic intervention is completely off the table.’”
That was a nugget of information she hadn’t possessed previously, but, interesting as it might have been, it certainly didn’t change anything about their current situation.
“Great,” Delia said.She’d had a glass and a half of wine with dinner, but any “good feelings” buzzes were long gone by that point.“So it’s still just us.”
“Oh, but it gets worse,” Pru said.“Ty helped me get into the communication network the demons have been using to coordinate the operation.Vinea knows about your family.He knows about the wedding, the venue change, where everyone’s staying.Everything.”
The excellent osso bucco Delia had eaten for dinner turned over in her stomach.“I assume that’s not good.”
“That’s an understatement,” Ty replied.“Vinea is planning to use them as leverage if necessary.From what we’ve been able to find, the demons are just fine with turning this into a hostage situation.If we try to interfere, innocent people will die.”
Delia thought about her parents, her Aunt Vicky and Uncle Doug, Olivia and Alec and all of his family members who’d flown in for the wedding.They would be the worst kind of sitting ducks.
“We have to get them out of Las Vegas,” she said.
“And tell them what?”Pru asked, clearly frustrated.“That demons are planning to turn their family celebration into the opening ceremony for Hell on Earth?They’ll think we’ve lost our minds.”
Delia knew her friend was right, of course.There was no way to explain the situation to anyone outside the loop without sounding completely insane.And even if she and Pru and Ty could, by some miracle, convince everyone to leave, wouldn’t Vinea just find other hostages?Other innocent people to threaten?
“There’s something else,” Ty said, his tone even grimmer than before…if that was possible.“The ley line activation is awakening every psychically sensitive person in the city.People with even a spark of latent ability.”
“To do what, exactly?”Delia asked.She’d already sensed this happening, even if she wasn’t sure what it meant.“Or is this just a byproduct of all the wild energy that’s getting flung around?
Pru and Ty exchanged a weighted glance.“To create a network of human batteries, we think,” Pru said.
Well, that didn’t sound good.
Ty crossed his arms.“From what I’ve been able to tell, the network’s growing exponentially.By tomorrow night, there could be hundreds…maybe thousands…of people involuntarily connected to Vinea’s ritual.”
The sinking feeling had returned.“Including me,” Delia murmured.
“Including you,” Ty replied.“Your abilities have been expanding over the past couple of months anyway, but now you’re being pulled into the network.If we can’t stop the ritual, you’ll become part of it…whether you want to or not.”
The thought of being psychically enslaved, of having her newly acquired powers used to fuel the demons’ invasion, made her skin crawl.At the same time, though, she knew she couldn’t let herself be lost to worry and despair.
No, they had to do something to make sure none of that ever happened.
“Then we have to stop it,” she said simply.
“How?”Pru asked.Her voice shook a little, although Delia wasn’t sure that was because she was afraid or just so very damn tired.“How are the three of us supposed to go up against a lord of Hell and however many demons he’s brought with him?The math doesn’t exactly work in our favor.”
Delia was quiet for a moment.Although she still wasn’t entirely comfortable with using these strange new gifts of hers, she also realized this wasn’t the time to be squeamish.So she pulled in a breath, then reached out with her enhanced senses to test the supernatural energy flowing through the city.The network was vast and incredibly powerful.But it also felt incomplete.She could locate gaps in the pattern, places where the connections weren’t quite stable.
“What if we don’t try to fight the network directly?”she said, the words coming out slowly as she tried to work her way through to a solution.“What if we turn it against itself?”
Ty’s eyebrows lifted, but Delia thought she saw a light of interest flicker in his sky-colored eyes.“Explain.”
Easier said than done.But she knew she had to articulate what she’d sensed, put it out there so both Ty and Pru would understand what she was driving at.
“The ley line energy is building toward critical mass, right?”she said.“All that power focused on a single point.But what if, instead of trying to block it, we redirect it?Use the network’s own energy to overload the ritual?”
Ty rubbed his finger against his chin, expression thoughtful.“That could work.If we could coordinate the disruption across multiple nodes at the same time….”
“But that would require someone inside the network,” Pru put in, sounding dubious.“Someone who could access the control points from inside the ritual framework itself.”
“Someone like me,” Delia said.She thought she sounded very calm, very brave.
Maybe that glass and a half of wine was doing something for her after all.
