“But she also said Jonathan was falling apart,” McKenna said. “Like, literally rotting away.”
“True,” Elena said, “but that doesn’t mean he or the others like him can’t do a lot of damage before they hit their expiration date.”
Detective Hobb—a shifter cop I was pretty sure was banging Elena—spoke up next.
“So if we follow the logic here,” he said, shouldering his way to the center of the packed room, “let’s assume they’ve relocated these hybrids to the Bay—or they’ve created new ones at that location—and that they’re at least somewhat operational as an attack force. Now we’ve got a city that’s been isolated from the rest of the country, militarized by an invading fae army, stripped of most of its necessities, banned from traveling freely, and unable to communicate with the outside world—the only exception being Kallayna.”
“Exactly,” Jael said. “And we don’t know how often she can reliably transmit information. She’s already put herself at great personal risk.”
“Fair point.” Elena blew out a breath. “Okay, so if you’re Orendiel, and you’ve got an entire city on lockdown and an army to back you up, and you want to cause the most damage in the shortest amount of time, what’s your play?”
“Tell you what I’d do,” I said. “Assuming I was a grade-A psychopath, which I’m not.”
“Debatable,” Beaumont said.
I shot him a death glare, but I let him get away with that one, mostly because I still felt guilty about the scone-up-the-arse comment.Shit. The sooner he got his memories back, the sooner he’d remember that insults and veiled threats were how we showed affection around here, and the better off we’d all be.
“I’d strategically unleash the hybrids,” I went on. “Let them cause some ruckus at the local businesses, break into houses in the different supernatural neighborhoods, tear shit up, take a few people down in the process. Make the others believe they’re being attacked from within—shifters burning down law-abiding vamp houses, vamps draining fae kids, fae manipulating shifter women, demons preying on witches, that sort of fucked-up shit. Then I’d sit back and watch the whole place turn on each other. Once that happens, they’ll tear each other apart—we’ve never been totally at peace over there, anyway. Not even among ourownkinds, let alone across species. And they’ll have nowhere to go, no one coming in to help, because the ‘benevolent’ Knights of Darkwinter aren’t going to break up that fight for anything. It’s exactly what they want.”
“Madre María,” Elena said. “You’re absolutely right—Emilio and I talked about this very thing after he’d found out about Talia’s betrayal. Orendiel’s going to light that fire, throw some gasoline on it, and watch the whole city burn to ashes.”
“No,” Beaumont said. “He won’t let it burn to ashes. He’ll be sure the humans get involved first. Think of it—it’s the perfect scapegoat with a perfect message: Monsters have been living among you, and look what they’ve done to each other. They’ll be coming for you next.” He shoved a hand through his hair, losing some of the cool elegance he was known for. “He’ll use that as leverage to get them to turn over even more of their freedoms. It starts in the Bay, and it spreads outward, especially when Darkwinter are controlling the messaging and communications.”
“And that, my friends,” Lansky said, “is how you stage a coup.”
“We’re talking about mass exposure of the supernatural community,” Elena said, and a collective chill went around the room. “The Bay falls, then the neighboring cities, the state, the whole west coast…”
“This may already be happening in other places,” McKenna said. “Haley and Reva were telling us that Norah had heard from some of the other covens in America and even a few overseas that weird shit was going down. Witch murders, disappearances, things like that. Norah didn’t want to get involved—not even when they asked for her help directly.”
“Gray told us about that, too,” I said. “Haley and Sophie had apparently dug up some emails or something, and tried to confront Norah. She wanted nothing to do with it.”
“Because she’s in league with the hunters,” the older witch with the yellow eyes said. “She sold out her own kind, and as far as we know, she’s still on the loose.”
“That’s right,” Elena confirmed. “We’ve got an APB out on her, but other than one credit card charge, we haven’t heard a peep.”
“She’s the least of our problems,” I said. “My gut tells me her part in this is over, and now she’s on the run, trying to get ahead of the very nightmare she helped unleash. Right now I’m more concerned about Orendiel’s plans in the Bay and the bigger implications for the country.”
The room fell silent once again, hopelessness settling in like a death shroud.
“Let’s not,” Beaumont said, stepping out of the shadows to stand at the center of the room. “This is all very doom-and-gloom, and it’s serious—no doubt about that. But we’ve faced down greater odds before, haven’t we?” Then, he flashed a grin. “Well,allegedly. I don’t remember the specifics, on account of my—”
“The point, vampire,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Get to it.”
“The point, dear demon,” he continued, “is that we need a plan of attack, and we can’t afford to get sidetracked with fear and speculation. While we know that witches have been kidnapped or murdered in other locations, we also know that the Bay, in particular, is under total siege. We have no such confirmation from any other cities or countries, so I humbly propose that we focus on the Bay first. We can assess each new situation as we receive more information, but that one has to be paramount. It’s my belief that Blackmoon Bay is ground zero for this entire operation.”
“Agreed,” Elena said.
“Thank you,” Beaumont said. “Now, as I was saying. Yes, the situation is a powder keg over there. But the match has yet to be struck. And just like the warehouse siege, we have the element of surprise. They don’t know that Kallayna is a spy, nor that she is still in contact with her brother.”
“That is our hope, yes,” Jael said. “But even so, we cannot physically reach them. They’ve isolated the city completely—not just with the storm and route closures, but with magic. Anyone who attempts to enter without Darkwinter knowledge and express permission will be turned around before they even get close. There is literally no way to breach city limits—not on foot, not with cars, not with planes, not even with tanks. Such is the deceptive nature of their magic.”
“Fair point,” Beaumont said, “But…” His lips curved into another grin, his eyes glinting with a look I’d come to know well.
Hunger.
“I believe I speak for all of the predators in the room when I say this: If we can’t get to them, we’ll just have to lure them out to us.”
Eleven
