Z’s eyes widen as he gazes from me to his stepfather and back again. “You’re controlling him right now?”
“I am.”
“Can he hear us?”
I nod. “I’m pretty sure he should know what’s happening. He just can’t control his body at the moment.”
“Good.” Zeph nods, rubbing the back of his neck with a shaking hand. “Then he deserves to taste his own medicine.” His voice is barely more than a hoarse whisper as he adds, “Make him hurt himself.”
A surge of anger goes through me and I have to get a firm grasp of my calm and my control and cling on tight.
“We’ve learned a lot about vampires recently, reading all the old tomes with the legends of our kind,” I tell the sack of shit in front of me, before turning my attention to Zeph. “And one thing that comes up over and over is how difficult it is for a vampire to truly die. But luckily, I came across one bit of text that was hidden deep down in the most boring book I’ve ever had the misfortune of reading. One that you found underneath Victor’s bed.”
He stares at me, clutching the back of his neck as my words sink in. “You found something? All those fucking books and you actually found an answer?”
It was sheer luck I had happened upon it while we were coming up with the plan to break Silver out from her cell. But it was laid out all the same. Fate, finally granting us their favor.
“Beheading is certainly an option. We knew that one already,” I reply. “But I was thinking that’d be a messy affair. First though, let’s see what happens when a vampire falls from a three story building.”
Zeph’s eyes widen. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.” I turn my attention to the pathetic vamp in front of me. “Step out of the window.”
His face doesn’t change as he follows my instructions exactly. I briefly wonder if this is going to fuck up my relationship with Zeph, considering his past with a vampire using mind control over him. But ridding the world of his particular vamp has got to be worth it.
We both stand there, slightly shell-shocked as his stepfather just... steps out of the window and falls over sixty feet. He doesn’t make a sound, apart from the thump and crack as he hits the hard ground.
“What is it then? The way to kill a vampire that’s not via beheading?” Zeph asks.
“Lightning.” I grin. “Not in the asshole, though. Directly into the heart should do it.”
Zeph’s face breaks into a malicious grin, and he chuckles under his breath. It seems fortuitous that the answer to the question we’ve been searching for is one that he can administer. He can be the one to end his tormenter and seek his own justice.
It seems only right.
Together we head down the dilapidated staircase to the frozen, broken vamp lying in a heap on the ground. Zeph then takes a steadying breath, and he bares his teeth at the vamp.
The vampire’s hair stands on end, a warning of sorts right before a bolt of pure lightning forks from the sky and hits him square in the chest.
“How’s that for controlling my magic, asshole?” Zeph spits at him as I let my compulsion drop and the vamp’s head falls back.
Stone-cold dead.
33
