Page 62 of Hextreme Measures

“I cannot help unless you tell me what’s going on,” he said. “Is it Angelique? Has she turned?”

“Not yet, but we only have a few hours left there.” Ofelia’s lower lip quivered, but she forced herself to calm down. She couldn’t save Sully or Angelique if she didn’t get it together. “Zach is gone.”

Pascal blinked. He didn’t have to. He’d trained himself throughout the centuries so people wouldn’t be too suspicious of him. Now it was second nature. “Are you telling me Sully is dead?”

“No. Well, I guess maybe he’s dead. I don’t think so, though.”

“You need to tell me the whole story.” Pascal was adamant. “Do it now.”

It was his commanding tone that had Ofelia snapping back to reality. Taking a page out of Sully’s book, how he handled situations like this when emotions got out of hand, she told Pascal everything. Her voice cracked a few times, but otherwise she held it together. When she was finished, she raised her expectant eyes to him. “We have to find him.”

“We’ll find him.” Pascal offered up a kind smile as he sat on his throne. His expression told Ofelia he was already working things out. “How much do you think Biff knows?”

Ofelia shrugged. “Enough that he’s a big, fat, lying liar.”

“Yes, that goes without saying. There’s no chance he’s not aware of the family lore.” The vampire tapped his long fingers on the arm of the chair. “We need the book.”

“Oh, right.” Ofelia jumped to her feet. “It’s in the truck. I’ll be right back.” She darted out before Pascal could tell her it wasn’t a race.

He watched her go, his stomach twisting.

He had loved Ofelia from the first moment he saw her, when she was a child sneaking books into the storeroom of Krewe, where she would proceed to read them on a garish purple beanbag. She’d been inquisitive from a young age, and even though Pascal knew she hadn’t been able to identify him as a vampire until she was a little older, she’d been curious.

He’d fought the raging waters of Hurricane Katrina to get Ofelia and Oscar to safety.

When she was a teenager, she would come to his store and complain about her parents.

When Oscar was cycling, he’d let her hang around the store for hours. Then, at night, he would hunt down Oscar and try to get him back on track. Sometimes that worked, and sometimes it didn’t. No matter what, he always made sure Ofelia was safe during those incidents.

When she’d started dating Sully, he wasn’t sure the shifter was good enough for her. He’d known Sully through his work with the police department. As a creature of the night, he’d been taught to disdain law enforcement. Despite that, Sully had a good reputation. So did his boss. More than that, he clearly loved Ofelia with his whole heart.

Pascal knew the most important thing was that Sully was not only willing to die for Ofelia but also kill for her. He never believed in soulmates before watching Ofelia and Sully fall deeply in love. Now he knew that it was true, that they were the real deal.

He would not let a banshee, no matter how different, ruin their love story.

He accepted the book when Ofelia handed it to him, then ordered her to sit down and calm herself.

“You can’t get through that whole book,” Ofelia complained. “We don’t have time.”

Pascal shushed her and started scanning pages. Vampires could do everything faster than humans, including reading. Luckily, because of his age, he was fluent in multiple languages, including Creole.

“It says here that the original author approached the wailing woman and asked to be turned,” he said after a few minutes. “She thought it would be a great way to escape her lot in life.”

“You can say she was a slave,” Ofelia said dryly. “It’s not a dirty word. She was a slave, and she wanted a way out. Nobody blames her for that.”

“Yes, but she could have killed herself if it came to it, and she didn’t want to take that way out,” Pascal noted. “She wanted power. She and the banshee struck an agreement, and then the banshee turned her. It wasn’t a surprise to either of them that this woman — I can’t read her name — wasn’t lost to the screams but somehow managed to control them.”

“I can’t read the name either,” Ofelia said. “Do you think that’s important?”

Pascal shrugged. “Probably not, but information is power in situations like this.”

“Yeah.” Ofelia scratched her cheek. “Power.” She shifted on her chair. “Am I going to have enough power to take out all of those banshees?”

“First, we don’t know that they’re working together.”

Ofelia offered up an exaggerated eye roll.

He smirked. She was coming back to herself. That was a good thing. She needed to break down so she could put herself back together and come back stronger than ever.