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“Can we stop talking about Secret like she’s not here? I mean, unless you guys want me to leave you alone.”
They both turned disgusted looks in my direction.
I’ll take that as a no, then.
“Do you have a map?” The vampire finally came in and stood next to the desk. He must have sensed Keaty’s unease because he settled into a crouch so he wasn’t towering over the two of us. Keaty got up and located a spiral-bound map book of the city, thumping it down on the desk in front of Holden. “Go nuts.”
Without asking, Holden took one of Keaty’s fountain pens and started flipping through the pages. Every two or three pages he would stop and circle something, writing a name near the circle, then began flipping again. Keaty and I both watched him, neither of us saying anything as he went through the book grid by grid. Eventually he seemed to have circled at least fifty places on the map.
“We likely won’t need them all, but it gives us options. Most vampires like to stay within a certain area close to the council headquarters, but there are always outliers. Point being, we should be able to divide the city into its upper and lower parts and work our way around. How many do you think we’ll need?”
“A dozen, at least,” Keaty said quickly. “The more bodies we have out looking for these people the better our chances of finding them and shutting them down.”
“And if we find them?”
Holden’s question made me turn my attention back towards Keaty.
“I would prefer we deal with each individual using as much firepower as we can, but should you find them while we’re still separated, try to get them to talk, and regardless of whether they give up the others in their group or not, we have to kill them.”
“Wait, shouldn’t we at least try to—”
“To what?” Keaty gave me a sour look. “Talk them out of it? Take them down peacefully? Since when were you a cheerleader for passive resistance, hmm? No, I think we all know the only way this ends is with a trail of dead necromancers. Anyone willing to raise thousands of corpses to incapacitate a city isn’t going to yield to reason.”
“He’s right,” Holden agreed, handing the map book to me. “Besides, are you really going to choose now to decide you don’t want to get your hands dirty?”
I didn’t like the snide way he said it. Considering the last two people I’d killed had been instrumental in ruining my life, I hardly felt it was fair to compare the situations. Yet in another sense they were right. Spilling blood wasn’t something that bothered me in the past, so why did I care now? Was it because the necromancers were human?
Their humanity hadn’t stopped them from laying siege to a city.
“Fine.” I grabbed the book and got to my feet. “But I’m taking the south. If we need all the help we can get, there are a few people I have to find who aren’t on this list.”
Chapter Six
Holden, Nolan and Keaty formed one group, while Desmond, Genie and I rounded out the second. I’d barely gotten a chance to say hello to Nolan, a former protégé of mine, before we were all suiting up for another trip into the city. I had hoped my other trainee, Shane Hewitt, and his girlfriend, Siobhan, might have found their way to Keaty’s place, but no such luck. Nolan assured me during our brief exchange he’d spoken to Shane before the lines had gone down, and they’d both been safe in Brooklyn at that point.
I’d have preferred having them with me, especially since both Shane and Siobhan could handle themselves in a fight—one was an assassin for the vampire council, the other was a druid archer—but I settled for knowing they were protecting each other.
Keaty had an armory the likes of which a small nation’s military would be jealous of. I handed off my stolen M60 to their group since I had no use for it, and Nolan was big enough to handle it without getting knocked to the sidewalk. I still wasn’t thrilled about the idea of splitting up, even though Holden’s logic was reasonable.
The truth was, every time I let the vampire out of my sight, I was convinced it was the last time I’d ever see him. Not in the same way as when we’d been trapped underground by The Doctor, but now I feared I’d lose him from his own free will.
I played with the engagement ring on my finger, loving and hating the small weight it added to my hand. I knew, without a doubt, I’d done the right thing saying yes to Desmond’s proposal. I didn’t question my choice for a second. But knowing it might have cost me Holden, that was something I hadn’t come to terms with yet.
I wasn’t foolish enough to believe I could keep them both as my lovers forever. We were all getting hurt by our stupid arrangement, much the same way Lucas and Desmond had been ripped apart in their attempt to share me. Love, as it turned out, was not infinitely divisible.
But I had stupidly believed that no matter who I chose, I would get to keep the other man in my life still. Holden and I had always been close, and for a long time before the wolves entered my life he was one of my only friends. The idea of not having him around once this was over was too heartbreaking for me to consider.
During our short stay in Louisiana, he’d said he would love me forever, and the same was true for me. But I hadn’t thought he might have meant from afar.
I could already feel him distancing himself from me, and I wasn’t sure how to fix the rift I’d created, if it was possible at all. I wouldn’t call off my engagement to Desmond and pick Holden instead. I’d made my choice, and unlike my decision to marry Lucas—which had been made for largely political reasons—my marriage to Desmond was something I wanted. I wanted it so desperately my heart beat faster just thinking about it.
Until I thought of the look on Holden’s face when I’d told him.
There was no way I was getting through this without hurting people. But I hoped I could get through it without losing any of them forever.
Turning my attention back to the group of us in Keaty’s foyer, I saw the humans had outfitted themselves with bulletproof vests.
“Keaty, can you give one of those to Genie, please?” Though my sister was a werewolf, she was also young and unpracticed in combat. I didn’t like the idea of bringing her along at all, but her magic would come in handy, and at least I’d be there to protect her. An extra buffer would make me feel better though.
