Chapter 118 Nico
NICO
Later that afternoon, when the adrenaline had faded, I was sitting in my office when Donatello called.
“I assume you’ve seen the news,” he said before I could even say a word.
“First thing I saw this morning. I can’t believe they attacked the police. It’s madness.”
“Zealots tend to be quite corruptible. They have no sense of place, no understanding of repercussions. There’s a reason it was so easy for the Nazis to convince people to do terrible things.
Once one powerful person verbalizes their deepest darkest beliefs, they take that as acceptance to bring about the endgame they want.
It’s not a surprise to me. And the worst part is that rather than acting as a release valve for tension, this situation will escalate things. ”
I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose to stave off the massive headache forming behind my eyes.
“That’s basically what I told my people. People are gonna be emboldened by what happened in Virginia. It won’t be long before we see more of these attacks,” I said.
“That is my fear as well, my friend.”
“We have to find Viola. That’s the only way this ends.”
“You are correct. The best way to kill a snake is by cutting off the head. Things won’t completely die down, but without their figurehead to look toward, the extremists won’t be as foolhardy.”
“How’s that going, anyway? Finding Viola, I mean.”
Donatello hummed. “The shifter alliance I’ve formed is scouring the globe. So far, nothing.”
Donatello had banded together with over a dozen other shifters of influence from around the world.
Together, they had a fortune in the tens of billions.
More money than the royals ever had. Plus, they weren’t being hunted by every law-enforcement agency known to man.
They could move in the shadows and weren’t bound by diplomatic ties or international laws.
With the money they had, they could go into the dark places people, like the FBI and Interpol, couldn’t.
“We have increased our reach, though,” he went on.
“Sometime today, an anonymous website will go live and, with some prodding, will be mentioned on most media sources around the world. It will proclaim a fifty-million-dollar award for anyone pointing us in the direction of Viola Monroe. That alone should cut down on the number of dark holes she can hide in. Even if she has safehouses and allies, fifty million dollars is a lot of money. More than enough to get someone to flip on her.”
“Jesus Christ,” I muttered under my breath. “Fifty million? Can you guys afford that?”
Donatello chuckled. “My friend… For one, yes, of course, we can. For another? I would double or even triple it if it meant getting that smart-mouthed bitch off the streets.”
I blinked. Donatello had never used such foul language with me before. He was always so composed and well-bred. It showed exactly how upset he was with what was going on, that his control slipped for even a second.
“She’s the face of this war,” Donatello said. “The sooner she is taken in…. Or dealt with in another way… the sooner it’s all over. No one else in her organization carries as much weight or power as she does. End the Monroe line, and the royals fall apart.
“I’ll contact you again if anything important happens. I hope you’ll do the same for me?”
“Of course, of course, yes. Don? Can you give me an update on Abi? How is she doing?” If I told Maddy about this call, she’d want to know.
“Maddy’s little friend? Quite well so far.
She doesn’t come to the main house much.
She’s residing in one of the small cabins near the ocean.
My staff takes her three meals a day, and we stocked the pantry there, but it’s not as luxurious as the other rooms throughout the island.
I think she’s taking a hard look at herself.
I see her in the distance sometimes, either strolling the beach or simply staring off toward the ocean. Tell Maddy her friend is doing fine.”
“Thank you,” I said, relieved. “I’ll talk to you later.”
I shoved my phone into my pocket. I was happy that Donatello and his friends were working on the problem, but it made me feel even more worthless.
I was sitting here, under the impenetrable protection of a witch, completely safe while other packs were being attacked and killed.
The heavy weight of guilt filled me like a thick stone right in my chest, weighing me down.
I thought of Tiago and all the others. Some of them didn’t even have fences around their pack lands.
My God, if the same thing happened to them like in Virginia…
It would be a massacre. No amount of training could overcome sheer numbers.
Time was ticking. A bomb was about to explode and soon.
Before I could go further down that rabbit hole, Maddy walked in. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying.
“Hey? What’s wrong? What happened?” Panic seized my heart.
She waved me off and flopped into a leather chair. “Nothing happened. I was downstairs watching another news report about that pack. They updated the death toll. Apparently, five more shifters who were in critical condition at the hospital died. Two of them were children.”
“Son of a bitch,” I hissed, pounding my fist into my desk. I beckoned her over.
Maddy shook her head. “Not now. I swear to God, if you hug me, I’ll probably break into tiny pieces. I hate this, Nico. It’s worse than it’s ever been. I really thought that once we exposed her, Viola would fall apart. I truly believed it would all be over.”
“I know. It’s not what we thought would happen.”
Crying wouldn’t solve anything. I knew that, but what else could we do? Again, I felt like my hands were tied.
“What’s the next move?” Maddy asked. “Are we gonna sit here safe and sound until the world falls down around us? I mean, it’s like your dad said.
Eventually, we’ll need to resupply. We’ve got tons of food, but it won’t last forever.
And Sinthy is acting pretty nonchalantly, but I’m not sure her power is never-ending.
She’s been getting tired a lot more lately.
Eventually, the wards she put on the pack lands might go down.
Or worse, she’d be forced to keep them up for years and end up draining herself.
We promised Isme we’d take care of her. Using her as a tool isn’t right. ”
There was a truth to Maddy’s rant. Sinthy was strong-willed as all hell.
She also hated the royals even more than Maddy, and I did.
Sinthy would never tell us if she was being pulled too thin.
I didn’t want to push it because Maddy was right.
The problem was that I was starting to formulate a plan.
One that would, most definitely, require Sinthy to push herself to the breaking point.
“You’re right, Maddy, but we need her to help us with one more big plan. Perhaps the biggest ever.”
Her brow furrowed. “You mean bigger than making a fantasy army five times a day for multiple packs and putting up an impenetrable force field around three-hundred-square acres? Do tell.”
A grim expression crossed my face. “I want Sinthy to help us get some of the other packs here?”
Her eyes widened. “You mean teleport them all onto our lands? I thought you said that wasn’t possible.”
“I know what I said. Things are different now. What we saw on the news this morning. The way those terrorists murdered shifters like they were nothing. I can’t sit by and do nothing.
Not when we have Sinthy. What if Tiago’s pack was attacked next?
If he and his entire clan are exterminated, could you live with yourself?
Hell, could Sinthy if we all knew we could have helped and didn’t? ”
“But the wards, Nico. It’s our only protection.”
I grimaced. “I know. Let’s talk to her and see what we can figure out. Maybe things aren’t as dire as we think.”
Maddy looked well past tired, but I could see she understood what was at stake. She nodded. “Okay, sure. Last I saw her, she was in the backyard. She enjoys being outside. She’s almost like a shifter that way.”
Maddy and I went downstairs and out to the back porch. Sure enough, Sinthy was right at the edge of the woods, scraping something off one of the pine trees. As we got closer, she scraped whatever she’d gotten into a small glass jar.
“Hey, guys,” she said.
“What are you doing?” I asked, curious.
“Oh, this?” She held up the glass jar. “You’ve got some great fungi on a few of these pine trees.
Its scientific name is Cromartie Quercuum.
Humans generally call it Fusiform Rust. In Wiccan circles, it’s known as Heart Skin.
Deadly to the trees but really good for attack potions.
You know, like poison. If you slip it to people and you do the right spells over the potion, their hearts will literally explode in their chests. Like pop, you know?”
She swelled her cheeks out and then made a bursting sound like a balloon being stuck with a pin. Maddy and I stared at her in shock and horror.
Sinthy rolled her eyes at us. “Ugh, no imagination. It’s also used with other stuff to cure things like heartburn, arrhythmia, and heart attacks—anything to do with the heart, but man, the bursting chest thing? That’s where the real excitement is.”
I waved my hands for her to stop. “Okay, good, got it. Evil tree fungus. Ten-four, good buddy. Can we talk to you about something else?”
She shrugged. “Sure, what’s up?”
Dark circles ringed her eyes, and I realized we were right when we thought she might have been stretched thin. It made this next part more difficult.
“Sinthy, hypothetically speaking, what would happen if you had to leave the pack lands. Say for… I don’t know, a day or two?”
She frowned. “Well… it wouldn’t be great. If I left right now, at this moment, the wards would crash within an hour. You guys would be defenseless.”
I nodded thoughtfully. “Is there a way to, maybe, keep them up longer?”