I opened my mouth, then closed it.
EJ said, “Walter might know, but it’s possible that thegeason him didn’t let him offer that information. It might even have kept him from remembering it. Ange. Take a deep breath, relax, and close your eyes.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Got it.” I rested my weight heavily on Villetti. His arms tightened around me, warm, comforting.
“Good,” EJ said after I took and released three slow, steady breaths. “Do you think Ivyanna is dead?” EJ asked.
“Yeee…” I whispered, drawing out the vowel. “Maybe?” I shook my head. “I got nothing. I—” Between one word and the next, I fell asleep.
Chapter Twenty-One
EJ
Angie fell asleep. Instantly.
EJ checked on Walter and realized that the vampire was staring at him. Conscious. Focused. While staked. Twice. Under Angie’s null cloak.
Which meant the fanghead had been fully conscious the entire damn time, unable to talk, unable to explain, unable to do anything except lie there and listen and, by the look in his eyes, rage.
EJ knelt at Walter’s side and asked, “Your eyeballs work. Left is no. Are you still hearing the summons?”
Walter looked left.No.
“Do you know why one stake wasn’t enough to keep you in paralysis?”
Walter looked left.
“Do you understand that the brand on your cheek is ageasand a layered working?”
Walter stared at him. Pissed.
EJ grinned. “So you understand that it’s a freaking miracle that you are not currently possessed by a demon.”
Walter glared. His eyes dropped down toward his belly and the stakes.
Grizz knelt beside EJ. Pulled back the slide on a weapon with a distinctiveschnick-click. Placed the barrel at Walter’s temple. “Silver-copper RIPs, in a wartime 1911,” she said casually, “willblow your brain apart. As a vamp, youwillsurvive. Sorta. For a while.”
Walter’s glare could have heated iron. Grizz grinned at him, showing teeth in the bloodsucker way. “Yeah, you’re fast. All vamps are fast. Bullets are faster.”
RIPs were Radically Invasive Projectiles. They created seven separate wound channels with a three-to-four-inch spread pattern and a ten-inch penetration. Instantly lethal to humans. Silver-copper composition meant they would kill vamps, slowly and painfully.
Walter looked right. Right again. And right again. Three yeses. He understood the repercussions of misbehaving.
EJ tossed the null cloak away to lie in a pile on the floor. He wrapped his fist around the stakes and said, “On three.”
Grizz pressed the weapon harder into Walter’s temple.
“One. Two. Three.” EJ ripped out the stakes.
Walter grunted out a breath. He didn’t attack. He didn’t move except to inhale, saying, “They did not know about Villetti’s containment vessel or how their drone attack failed so spectacularly. They did not know about the staff. I agree with the children that Leviathan was released for the sole purpose of being divided and hosted by multiple beings at the same time, and that they planned to have me possessed and participate in their other goals. There are always multiple goals.
“Also, I’ve asked before and not received a reply. Could they have access to military storage? If so, our enemies will have containment vessels to fill. We need to know what kind.”
EJ tapped his unicom and placed a call to Alex.
The security team and Villetti began going over videos at speed. He shut them out, putting their riddle together with Walter’s question about military access.
Grizz concentrated on Walter, her weapon still pressed to the vamp’s temple.
