Biting Cold (Chicagoland Vampires #6)(72)
Author: Chloe Neill

"A tool," I said. "And a handsome one."

"And only a temporary one," Malory assured.

"Malory, you want me to trust you," Ethan told her. "To alow you to use me as that tool. As a puppet on a string. You ask much of me. Much that no vampire gives wilingly."

"You give it wilingly to a vampire," she said. "Each time a new one is made. You communicate with them, don’t you? Cal and control them, in a fashion?"

Ethan looked sharply away.

"He can’t communicate with anyone anymore," I confessed, not that the vampires in the room would have been surprised.

"The spel seems to have knocked that out of him."

"I’m sorry," she quietly said. "I know that’s not good enough, but I’m sorry."

There was silence for a moment.

"I am glad I’m alive, Malory. I thank you for that. But you have put me and mine in danger, and those acts may ultimately prove unforgiveable." He looked over at me, love shining in his eyes. "And for al that, Merit stil seems to believe in you. I don’t trust you," he said after a moment, "but I trust Merit. And I have seen her fight. And if you do anything to hurt me, she wil come after you with al that she has."

"I understand," Malory said.

"Wonderful. But if I’m doing the nulifying, who battles Dominic?"

Courage, I reminded myself. "I wil."

Al eyes turned to me.

"No," Ethan said.

"Yes," I countered. "I’m the only one close to your level.

You can argue," I said, parroting back his words, "and I’m sure that argument wil be wel reasoned, but you know I’m right."

We looked at each other again, the risk of losing ourselves again between us. But this wasn’t the first time, nor would it be the last, that we were faced with choices like these.

Ethan nodded. "You wil fight him."

There was a colective heave of relief in the room.

"There is one more issue," Paige said. We al looked at her.

"I’m fairly confident this counts as black magic. If so, it seems unlikely the shifters or the Order wil alow her to do it."

That was a bit of a sticking point.

"There’s risk," Malory said. "Even if Gabriel said it was okay, I’d be nervous about backtracking. About getting worse instead of getting better. But for the first time, I’d have the chance to help someone else, not just myself."

"I’l be there," Catcher said. "I’l keep an eye on you."

The decision made, Luc uncapped his marker again and filed in the empty space in the middle of our plan. WICKING, he wrote.

"When he appears," Seth said, "you’l only have seconds to strip his magic. The summoning only cals him to appear – it won’t hold him forever."

"And if he’s summoned, he’l already have his guard up," Ethan said.

"Quite probably. You’l need to act fast."

Another reason for Ethan to work the mojo instead of Malory. Dominic would instantaneously react if Malory appeared at his side, but if Ethan was there, he might just be curious enough to wait a moment, just long enough for Ethan to get the job done.

"We’l set things up before he arrives," Paige said, "so you only need to touch him to trigger the magic."

Ethan nodded, but the worry was clear in his face.

"And when his magic is gone, he won’t be able to leave again.

He’l be stuck here, and in human form." Seth looked at me.

"That wil be your cue."

I nodded.

"Then we know the plan," Seth said. "I wil summon him.

Ethan and Malory wil neutralize him. Merit wil fight him."

His list left out an item: Merit will kill him. However unpleasant, that result seemed inevitable and would be required regardless of whether step number two worked. Dominic had to be eliminated, or even more people would die. And he had no right to play judge, jury, and executioner. Although I wasn’t looking forward to playing that role myself – playing a game that would end only with a death by my hand and sword – I didn’t think we had a lot of other options.

"It’s not a bad plan," Luc said. "I mean, in my opinion. Lots of parts."

"Lots of places for things to go wrong," Catcher agreed.

"Where can we do this?" Ethan asked.

"Halowed ground," Seth said. "It has to be."

Paige nodded. "If you’re messing with dark magic, you want to stick to halowed ground. The goal is to make this better – not worse."

"We’d need a church?" Ethan asked.

"Not necessarily," Paige said. "Any land that’s been blessed or purified would work."

"How do we locate suitable property?" Ethan asked.

"I can ask Gabriel," Jeff suggested.

"Gabriel?" Ethan asked.

"We have bonds with the land," he said. "If anyone would know it, he would."

"Gabe may not want us summoning Dominic on ground he’s decided is blessed," I pointed out.

"Yeah, but I don’t think you’l find a pastor in Chicago who’s crazy about it, either."

Jeff had a point.

Ethan nodded. "Shifters it is. Jeff, please make the cal and see if he has time to talk or survey or whatever else it wil take."

He looked at Seth and Paige. "Make sure we have what we need to make the magic work. If you need materials, have Helen order them, and get double sets of anything we might need."

"Eye of newt and toe of frog?" Malory asked.

" ‘Double double toil and trouble,’ " Ethan said, quoting Shakespeare’s Macbeth. "Just get it done. Let’s meet back here in an hour."

I murmured the rest of the witches’ song. " ‘Fire burn, and caldron bubble. Cool it with a baboon’s blood – ‘ "

Malory’s voice echoed through the phone. " ‘And then the charm is firm and good.’ "

An ominous chil ran through me. But it was too late to turn back now.

Chapter Twenty-two

THE FIRM AND GOOD CHARM

I spent the first bit of the hour in my room, oiling and cleaning my blade, ensuring it was as wel prepared as I could make it, and then in the training room, slinging and slicing the katana around to limber up my body and my mind.

Maybe the fight would come tonight. Maybe it would come tomorrow. Crises didn’t work on predictable timetables. If you had most of your pieces in place when the need arose, you were doing wel, by my account.

I tried to clear my mind of the importance of what I had to do, the battle I had to wage. Worrying about the impact of the outcome wasn’t going to do anything but make me more afraid.