Shiloh held up her hand. “Not done, children. They used a lot of resources prepping Ivy, so I doubt your subject is dead, just in case they find a use for her. The Everhart coven says that magic is in the brands, so a human will do if Walter can’t be obtained.”
EJ said, “We had figured the original branding iron was necessary.”
“Yup,” Cousin Shiloh said.
Angie said. “So what good is a circle for a bunch of vamps?”
“A demon-powered circle,” Shiloh said, her feet dropping off the table and swinging like a child’s in excitement, her voice manic. “Our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to kill five vampires, all while we try and not get possessed by demons or parts of demons,andnot get killed. This is gonna rock!” She bounded from EJ’s kitchen table.
The three of them rose warily from the floor where they had landed at her entrance.
“Hey,” she said. “Look at us. Three redheads!” She twirled afinger to include them all except Villetti. “Oh. And that witch hunter y’all are so interested in, Gertrude Lothringen?” She buffed her nails. “I know stuff.” She leaned forward as if to tell a big secret. “Alex thinks she drank enough fanghead blood to be Onorio or something similar, since she’s still alive,andhe may soon have access to pics to ID her. Alex heard through the grapevine there’s security vid of her stealing some serious mojo amulets and armament from a marine base and he’s trying to obtain it. Gertrude hasn’t changed since the war, according to his sources, and word is, her face is clear as day. Ha-ha. Get it? I’m a vamp and I haven’t seen daylight in decades.” When no one laughed, she said, “Gimme some love, y’all. I’m adorable.” When they still didn’t laugh, she said, “Tough crowd. Anyway, she used a credit card with that name at a hotel near the base, and Alex has been tracking it. Bonus points! That card was just accessed to check into an apartment next door on the top floor.Shecame tous! Am I good, or what?”
Shiloh snapped down her fangs. They were gold-plated, and she tapped one with a talon. “Okay if I rip off her head? Never mind. I’m gonna ask the queen. Hey, cute dog. George, right? Got any more apples?”
EJ said, “Ojos. Pull up registry and camera security system for the vamp lair next door.”
Ojosreplied, “Registry for the last thirty days is now on my upper screen. The power source for the security cameras in the lair is no longer functional. I have no access to the system.”
They were gathered in the guards’ quarters, the infamous and charismatic Shiloh Everhart Stone—now in casual wear—stretched and curled on her side like a cat, on the low coffeetable. She was too close to the guards for their comfort. They had moved back to the walls and positioned themselves to see her in the mirrors as well as in person. Each guard had weapons ready to bring to bear in a heartbeat.
EJ had pulled up three of Le Vampire Sauvage’s personal challenges and put them on the wall screens. She had magic but she didn’t use it in battle. She used speed. Speed like nothing he had ever seen before. She would be unmoving, in plain sight, and instantly be elsewhere ripping out the throats of a dozen vamps before anyone saw her move.
Walter circled the table, watching her watch him, a cat smile on her lips that rose nowhere near her eyes. He smiled back, mimicking her, as he circled around her again, steps languid. The room quieted, all the little sounds vanishing, the faint coughs, the shush of fabric, the shift of a body. It was now the silence of warriors watching one predator circle another.
EJ had rested enough to open Theta. He too watched, leaning against a wall.
Walter leaned in and lifted Shiloh’s hand. Kissed the backs of her knuckles, a courtly and superficially romantic gesture. His lips on her hand, he slammed a punch blade down, through her shirt, into the tabletop, pinning the fabric and a tiny sliver of her flesh.
EJ learned something. Shiloh was easily distracted. Good to know.
Walter waved Grizz over. “Hold the knife in place. Position a stake at her belly. If she moves, or if her scent spikes to smell like peaches, stake her.”
“Peaches?” Grizz asked. “Okay.” She covered his hand and, when he slid his hand away, pressed onto the punch blade. With her free hand, Grizz yanked up Shiloh’s shirt and pressed a wood stake into her belly hard enough to dent her flesh, butnot enough to draw blood or to activate paralysis of the delicate nerves.
“Kinky,” Shiloh said. Grizz ignored the comment.
“Stay put,” Walter warned.
Shiloh laughed, that not-quite-sane, raspy noise that could have been made by the cat she posed as. When her laughter passed, she pulled on the stabbed arm and fabric and pouted. “I liked this shirt.”
“That shirt looks like something from the 1960s, created by an artist on LSD,” Walter said. Leaning over the less-than-sane vampire-witch, he said, “I think you know where the vamps are lairing. I think you’ve scouted the location. What’s the address?”
“Iamgood. But—Uhn uhn uuuhhhhn.” She sang the syllables, one finger up and moving side to side in a child’snogesture.
“Shiloh,” Walter growled.
“Let’s say I know everything. If so, then, my knowledge, my plan. Let’s say I don’t know anything. Either way, I’ll follow the timeline insisted upon by the queen’s security guys. Number one on that list is to disable ol’ Gertrude. Then, and only then, do I give you anything I might, or might not, know. Gertrude first.”
“We’ll consider your requests.” Walter looked at EJ. “Evan Junior?”
“When I joined The Firm, I acquired the floor plan of every building within two blocks by accessing the county codes departments, and I have acquired some security schematics. I have the means to acquire the same information of any building in the county,” EJ informed their new partners. “Since Karson was chased from his clan home,Ojoshas been narrowing the likely location of his backup lair. We’ll find the address of any supposed lair, without your information.” A slight smile played over his features. “Plus, we have the elixir. And whileeveryone was sleeping the afternoon away, I broke it down. The elixir is a single-batch, liquid potion working, bottled into small ingestible quantities. The original batch was composed of twenty-four distinct units, each with the exact same musical signature. There are thirteen units left. I’m currently tracking all the remaining vials. Once I pinpoint them, we should have a good idea of the location of the new lair, the place they retreated to once we closed down the Marrazzo Clan Home.”
Walter laughed softly. “Does the queen know how spectacular her godchildren are?”
Shiloh narrowed her eyes. “The queen won’t like this. It’s her banner on the roof.”
“But she made no official announcement that she has taken Chattanooga as territory,” Walter countered. He asked EJ, “Can you replicate the elixir?”
