CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“So, what exactly did you tell Eddie to make him into your informant?” I asked Leo.
“I did the only thing a man can do when threats won’t work—I made him an offer.”
“What kind of offer?”
“Whatever he was being offered to keep his sources’ secret, I doubled it. You’d be surprised to find out just how quickly a low life’s allegiances change when the amount of money they’re being paid to keep said allegiances comes into question.”
“So, you’re saying you bribed him?”
“No, I’m saying I hired him. Eddie now works for me. I’d have been able to make a little money out of the arrangement if you hadn’t burned his stash down, but there’s no use crying over spilled milk, is there?”
“You’re telling me you would have allowed him to keep dealing that stuff?”
Leo shrugged. “If only to round up more users and make them see the error of their ways.”
I sighed deeply as I followed Leo down the hall and into the lounge, where Aiden, Liam, and Raph, were already waiting. It was clear he wasn’t going to give me any specifics, like, how much did he pay Eddie, how much was he getting paid before, and how Leo had enough money to pay for it all. But that wasn’t important right now—the important thing was, the gang was all here, and Leo had a plan.
“Any reason why we’ve all been summoned?” Raphael asked.
“Well, we found something the other night that’s going to help us put down the person responsible for creating and distributing the energy drug,” Leo said.
“How’d you managed that?” Liam asked.
“I was able to convince a dealer to turn on their source, then I followed the source and got him to give me the name of his supplier, as well as the usual drop-off point. I also got him to set up a meeting with the supplier to deliver more product. That meeting is happening tonight, in about an hour, only there won’t be a drug dealer waiting to receive the product, it’ll be us.”
“Us and what army?”
“Funny you should use that word. Didn’t I liken this to a war before we came down here?”
“You did,” I said, “I still don’t exactly understand what you mean either.”
“Okay, let me explain. When I was attacked the other night, three things became clear to me. Number one, I learned that we were dealing with a very ferocious enemy who doesn’t want their operation interfered with. The second thing I learned is that there are a lot of these fuckers in the mix. The third, and most important thing, however, is this; the vast majority of the people I encountered were vampires, except for one spell caster. At first I thought it was a mage, but considering we know Elroy is behind this, I now know that the spell caster is a warlock.”
“How does that last fact help us?” Raphael asked. “Warlocks are psychic dark spots. I cannot influence him with my powers.”
“Warlocks also use magic that doesn’t adhere to arcane laws,” Vikram said, “If he uses his powers against me, or any one of us, I’m not sure I can adequately counter his spells.”
“Have none of you read the art of war?” Leo asked.
“Know your enemy,” Vikram said.
“So, you have read it.”
“I have, and while I appreciate that we at least now know things about our enemy, I have to remind you that warlocks are notoriously tricky to deal with.”
“Not if you’re a demon,” Aiden said.
“What?” Vikram asked.
“Funny thing about warlocks, too,” Leo said, “Their magic isn’t too different to ours. Want to know why?”
“Why?”
“Because warlocks get their power from the same place we do.”
“That’s impossible. How… I’ve never read about that before.”
“And that’s where your weakness lies, Vikram. You rely so much on what you can learn from books. There are some secrets that haven’t ever been written in books, and some secrets that have been written, and then put to the torch.”
“So, you’re saying warlocks have been erasing any and all knowledge about themselves from history books?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. There isn’t a ton I can do about Elroy throwing magic at someone, but I understand how his magic works, I’d be harder to hurt with it, and that should give us an advantage. It’s the rest of the information I’ve gathered that’s going to be useful.”
“How so?” I asked, “You just said he has an bunch of vampires working for him… they nearly killed you the last time they got hold of you.”
“That’s only because I didn’t know I’d be going up against so many and because I was alone. Now that I know they’re there, I can be better prepared.”
Leo produced an amulet from out of his shirt with an amber pendant the size of a coin hanging off it. As he showed it around, the pendant seemed to catch the light in a way that made it almost sparkle, but it was as if the orange light was emanating from within, and not from the surface of the pendant itself.
“How did you get that?” Liam asked, seeming to instantly recognize it.
“You know what this is?” Leo asked.
“A sun gem…”
“That’s right,” Leo said, “And do you know what it does?”
“It kills vampires.”
“It doesn’t kill vampires,” Vikram said, correcting, “That’s just a myth. It does, however, paralyze them in some cases, and make them flee the scene in others.”
“You’re both half right.”
“Wait, so this is like a vampire nuke?” I asked.
“In a way,” Leo said, “The sun gem activates only once, it’s a very rare and powerful kind of magic. When it activates, it triggers a supernaturally charged pulse of bright sunlight to shine from inside.”
“And it hurts vampires?”
“Some it paralyzes, some flee from it, others are hurt by its magic, and others turn to ash.”
Turn to ash. Briefly I remembered that night in the parking lot at the mall, when the vampires had come for me in the night. Dante had done something to one of them, I remembered seeing a white light appear, and then the vampire turned to ash. But I hadn’t seen Dante holding one of those sun gems. He had just… clicked his fingers and made it happen.
“Okay,” Liam said, grinning, “So, that’s how we get rid of whatever vampires we find.”
“Not exactly,” Leo said, “Like I said, this is a one shot kind of thing. Once the magic inside the gem is spent, it can’t be used again until the following night. It gets its powers from the sun, which means we have to use it at just the right moment to get the most out of it.”
“Where’d you get it?” Vik asked, “Sun gems are rare.”
“What does it matter where I got it from?”
“Because, it just does.”
“And I say it doesn’t. We can sit here and argue all you want, but it’ll be a one sided conversation, I promise you.”
Silence filled the room. “For the record, I don’t like this plan,” I said.
“What’s not to like?” Leo asked, smiling smugly.
“Resting the entirety of a plan on a single one-shot gadget? Sounds like a hail Mary pass to me.”
“It’s only a hail Mary pass if you don’t think you have what it takes to pull it off. Between the six of us, I know we have what it takes. All you need to do is have a little faith.”
“Right, but once we get the vampires,” Liam said, “I mean, assuming we do… what are we supposed to do next? The sun gem won’t have an effect on Elroy.”
“That’s where Raphael comes in.”
“Me?” Raph asked.
“Yes. You and your psychic magic will come in handy here.”
“I told you before, warlocks are psychic dark spots. My powers won’t work on him.”
“They don’t need to work on him—you and Liam need to work together to make your powers work on the stunned vampires.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Once the vampires have fled or been turned to ash, the only ones remaining are going to be weak enough that the right kind of magic can manipulate them into doing what we want.”
“You mean mind-control them?”
“That’s exactly what he means,” Liam said, “And I’ve heard of this being done before. Psychic and a necromancer combining their magic to turn even powerful vampire lords into puppets.”
“I’ve read about this too,” Vik said, “But I’ve only ever heard of this being done to a single vampire at a time, you’re taking about manipulating an entire room of stunned vampires… this… this is a herculean feat.”
“What do you say, boys?” Leo asked, “Feeling like Hercules?”
Liam and Raph exchanged confident nods. “We are,” Raph said.
“Good. Now, Aiden and I are going to take us all to the drop location. Once we’re there, we’re going to spread out. Lilith is going to make herself look like Eddie and pretend to be our buyer.”
“I’m going to what?”
Leo looked at me, grinning. “What’s the matter? Never thought about shape shifting into a man before?”
“I happen to like the female form.”
“So do I, but we have to make sacrifices here tonight. Can you do it?”
I sighed, “I think I can do it.”
“Perfect, then let’s get this circus act on the road—we have less than an hour to scout the drop zone and get into position.”
Vik nodded, looked at Aiden, and gave him a hand. Raph offered his hand to Aiden also. I took one of Leo’s hands, and Liam took the other.
“You know where to go?” Leo asked Aiden.
Aiden nodded. “I do.”
“Okay, then let’s get the hell out of here. We have a warlock to catch.”