Page 64 of Dark Reckoning
I looked at her. “And? We've already apologized for that. I don't grovel and I don't give a fuck if you like us, but you will stop disrespecting us,” I snapped.
“I agree,” Kakashi added. “This is counter-productive and means nothing. Tell us more about this locator spell.”
The whole mood of the Council changed once Kakashi put his foot down, and I was grateful that he had because I was seriously very close to putting my hands on people. “Basically, it requires the favor from the Goddess of Fortune.”
Kakashi's eyes widened and others gasped. “Your book contains such a spell?” he asked as he leaned forward, clearly intrigued.
Both Adrian and I nodded. “Yeah. In order to perform the spell, we'll need a link to El-Kazir, so my best guess is one of those things he's been making.”
“We have that,” Aldéric said.
“You have one... of those things, I mean?” Adrian asked.
“We have six here left, we started with twenty. Two were made from vampires, one from a griezel and one from a human and two from shifters,” Maryanne said.
“You killed the others?” Adrian asked.
Xirsi nodded. “We had to discover how they could die. Not all can be killed the same way. Depends on what they once were.”
“Decapitation and magical fire worked for all,” Aldéric stated.
“But it was extremely difficult to cut off their heads. Regular weapons didn't work. They had to be enchanted,” Rene added.
“Magical fire?” I asked to get clarification.
“Fire conjured by dark mages. Regular fire or flame throwers didn't work. Had no effect,” Aldéric.
Well, that was good news. I guess everyone was doing their part last night, no one was sitting idle. Fire was my bread and butter, and I expected my power to be even stronger now that I was. “What about ripping out their hearts?” I asked, thinking about the griezel Damon's people had killed.
“It worked for the ones that had been turned recently, but not one more than twenty hours old,” Aldéric said. “The older ones could still survive without their hearts.”
“Jesus Christ!” Adrian gasped and gripped his chest as the look of horror plastered across his beautiful face.
“Are you okay, baby?” I asked.
“I... I'm just terrified of these things,” he said.
I kissed his temple. It was all I could do to comfort him at the moment.
“Oh, it gets worse. They even possess some of their old abilities. The wolf shifter turned and when he did...” Rene paused to shiver in revulsion. “It looked like a demon... a dead, rotting hell beast.”
“So, if we have to face them, we go for kill shots by removing their heads,” I said.
Kakashi nodded. “As Aldéric stated, that and our fire are the best ways.”
“Can we use the same spell I used to kill all of those mages?” I asked.
“That spell was impressive. I have one that is similar, but it isn't what is going to take out those monsters. In order for that to happen, we'd have to destroy the root of their power source. Their lifeline. Those spells can't take out Dark Gods,” Kakashi said. “If you try it, it will backfire and kill you.”
“Fuck. I guess it's good that I didn't try that shit,” I said, thinking about the consequences of a spell going haywire.
“And why you need training,” Xirsi said. “Amateurs like yourselves would make that kind of mistake.”
“As you've pointed out ad nauseum, you broken record, dead-horse-beating motherfucker,” I snapped.
Aldéric burst into laughter and when we all looked at him, he waved his hand as if asking us to disregard him. I did, returning my attention to Xirsi.
“Before this goes off the rails, I'm glad that you didn't either,” Kakashi said. His level-headedness always seemed to get things back on track.
