“I said banishing. Not containing.”
Villetti turned from Angie to Walter. The cop’s face was hard, prepared to kill Angie and bind the demon until a containment vessel could be brought in. “Not possible.”
“For her it is. Angelina banished the demon in her stairway. She is banishing the one Evan Junior placed into temporarystasis.And,” he said, emphasizing the word, “she is here under the queen’s standard.”
“Show me.”
Walter removed a small pack. He shook open the standard of the Dark Queen of the Mithrans and the Naturaleza, the two lifestyles of the fanghead community.
Villetti hesitated, his eyes taking in everything, his body language saying he wasn’t prepared to deal with politics in the midst of battle. He safetied his weapon and directed it at the floor, trigger finger on the slide. “I assumed she had a containment vessel.”
“It is a very long story.” Before the cop could ask, Walter added, “And it is not my tale to tell.”
On the floor, Angie was shaking. Near collapse. The gems in her tiara glowed, as if fighting a raging migraine. But EJ knew the levels of power his sister could draw on.
“You were with Section Seven during the war,” Villetti accused Walter. “You people had a weapon the rest of us didn’t?”
“You are mistaken,” Walter said, folding the standard and replacing it in the pack. “Only Evan Everhart-Trueblood Junior was with Section Seven. Not I.”
Villetti’s cold eyes focused on Walter’s branded cheek. He holstered his weapon, though he didn’t secure it with hisfingerprint, as according to regs. Villetti understood that politics had taken over the crime scene, but that didn’t mean he was unprepared for violence. “You happen to be wrong about her ability to banish a demon, Walter? I’ll shoot all of us to contain it.”
Angie took a deep, desperate breath. Tears had begun to run down her face. Her left hand looked three weeks dead.
The desperation in Villetti’s face softened.
“I would expect nothing less, Detective,” Walter said.
His eyes on Angie, Villetti stepped to the outer door, where his comms would work, and touched his ear-patch, going live. “Attention. Villetti here. The emissaries of the Dark Queen of the Vampires are on premises. Scene is being secured. Stand down.”
Walter tilted his head to show he accepted the change in status and circumstances. They angled their bodies to better watch Angie, though both had kept her in line of sight during the exchange. If he’d had breath, EJ would have laughed. Pissing contests were fun. As soon as he had the thought, he inhaled, coughed, and began hyperventilating.
He didn’t really need the air he was sucking in like a bellows, but the human body doesn’t know how long it can go without breathing, and his lungs were hyperventilating on instinct.
The stench of brimstone and charred bones wafted as Angie’s staff sucked the last of the demon into itself. Somehow. By some power he hadn’t known existed.
Villetti grunted softly and knocked back his head in a gesture from his youth in Italy, the sound and gesture of skepticism. “What do you think happened here?”
Walter raised his brows as if surprised the detective would ask. “I believe I don’t have enough evidence to make asupposition. Reading evidence because it suits one’s narrative or one’s expectations is the act of a fool. What doyouthink happened?”
Villetti gave a stiff, cop-professional smile. “Are you asking me if I’m a fool, Walter?”
EJ didn’t have enough control of his breathing to laugh, sucking down oxygen he had been unable to access while thestasisworking was active.
Walter said, “There have been times, in my very long life, when I wish I had been a fool, Detective. It would have been easier than the truth.”
Villetti’s mouth tightened.
Angelina made a pained sound, a muffled scream, as if her throat shredded.
EJ’s hand fell to the floor.Ah hell, he thought.
Angie dropped, as graceful as if she were giving a royal court curtsy.
Villetti bolted from his place in the kitchen, catching her head before it hit the bloody floor, and gestured Walter over. “We’ll lift her on three. Carry her to the sofa in the next room.”
Walter didn’t need the help, but he didn’t remind Villetti of his vamp strength. He simply positioned his hands beneath Angie’s shoulders and knees and lifted her from the floor.
Villetti said, “Oh. Right. What about the staff?”
