28. Twenty-Eight
TWENTY-EIGHT
“We know what he’s doing,” Papa announced when he and Baron finally arrived. They were barely in their seats when the server arrived with our food. Once she was gone, we got down to business.
“He’s going after Marinette’s line to strengthen himself,” Baron said before Papa could pick up where he’d left off.
I said nothing as I dug into my sandwich.
“Yes, we know,” Brigitte said dryly. Her eye roll was the stuff of legends. Only a woman who had been married to a man for a very long time — how long had they been married? — could manage an eye roll like that. “We figured it out. What we need from you is the location.”
“We know it.” Papa puffed himself out. “He’s going to take out Eva and Sebastian Landry.”
“How do we know?” Knox asked. He was methodically plowing through his food, but intent on the conversation. I was only eating because it was in front of me, but he seemed to be on a mission.
“We went to a seer we know,” Baron replied. “She’s infallible.”
“If you’re talking about that woman in the 6th Ward, you’d better hope that all you got from her was information,” Brigitte warned.
“Oh, my love, I didn’t know you cared.” Baron mock clutched at his heart.
Brigitte narrowed her eyes. “Keep pushing me and see what happens.” The threat felt very real.
Papa cleared his throat to beat back the tension. “Eva is a descendant of Marinette. She’s a witch — part of the coven that tried to summon the Axeman the other night — and she will give Brett a power boost. We cannot let that happen.”
“Yes,” I drawled. “Making sure that Brett doesn’t get the power boost is more important than saving lives.”
Papa blinked, then shrugged. “I believe that’s what I said.” He took a bite of his food before continuing with his mouth full. “Brett is going to be more powerful than a human but not so powerful that you can’t take him out.”
It took me several seconds to realize he was talking to me. “I have to take him out?”
“Yes.”
“But … .” I fell into silence as I tried to figure out why that was necessary.
To my surprise, Knox took issue with the claim. “Why does she have to be the one to kill him?” he demanded. “Why can’t I do it? Or you? Why can’t you do it? Marinette was your problem, you should clean up the mess.”
“They didn’t clean up the mess the first time,” Charlie interjected. She’d been largely quiet for most of the conversation. “You had Poet come in and do it for you. She didn’t know what she was getting into either.”
“My granddaughter is thriving in her new circumstances,” Baron argued. “That’s neither here nor there.”
“Except that’s not entirely true, is it?” Brigitte challenged. She gave Baron a testy look — they were going to get into it later — and focused on Charlie. “Poet had to take out Marinette. We cannot harm our own. We needed help, and she fit the bill. It had to be.”
Something she said gave me pause. “Wait. If you can’t hurt your own, is that the reason you can’t do anything to Brett?”
Brigitte’s pause told me I was on the right track.
“He has been enhancing his power with each kill,” Brigitte replied. “The Axeman was of the same line. Brett is at his most powerful. That makes him almost a loa, and it’s enough of a reality that we can’t hurt him.” She looked apologetic. “It must be you.”
“What about me?” Charlie interjected, earning a dark look from Jack. “Can’t I do it?”
“You already have some loa in you,” Erzulie replied. “You contain a little of everything. If you add more loa abilities, that could tip your powers in a direction you won’t like. You’re better as you are, fully balanced.”
Charlie didn’t look happy, but she didn’t argue. She flicked her eyes to me. “Does that mean Freya will be part loa?”
I was starting to wonder that myself.
“We don’t believe so,” Erzulie replied.
“You don’t believe so?” I screeched.
“The vampire in you should be enough to keep the magic at bay. It will dissipate into the ether.”
“How sure are you about this?” Lex, his face stony, demanded.
“Fairly certain,” Erzulie replied.
Lex growled. “That’s not certain enough.”
“Definitely not,” Knox agreed.
“What other solution do you suggest?” Brigitte asked in her most reasonable voice. “We’re open to suggestions. It has to be a powerful being that can’t absorb the magic. It can’t be Charlie because she’s already loaded. Freya is strong enough to fight off the magic. At least we hope she is.”
My stomach constricted, and I forgot about my dinner. They were “fairly” certain I would be fine. Was I okay with those odds? Before I could make the decision, Lex had his phone out.
“Who are you calling?” I asked, confused.
“Backup,” he replied.
“I don’t think a congregation of gator shifters can help us.”
“Not shifters,” he replied, putting the phone to his ear. “If it’s the vampire that keeps out the magic, then I’m getting another vampire.”
That’s when it hit me. I reached out to take the phone from Lex, but he was too fast. He left his dinner behind — a true sign of his love — and moved away from the table. A muscle worked in his jaw as he stared me down. I knew the moment the individual on the other end of the line picked up.
“Atticus?” Lex said, almost sounding relieved. “It’s Lex. We need you to stop the Axeman killer and make sure Freya doesn’t die.” He listened a moment, then smiled. “Great. Thanks. I’ll text you a location.”
When Lex lowered his phone, he didn’t look apologetic.
“I don’t want him with us,” I hissed.
“I know,” Lex said. “He’s your dad. You can’t lose another family member, but neither can he. We need him.” He turned to Brigitte for confirmation.
She considered it for a moment, then nodded. “Honestly, I wish I had thought of it. That’s the exact move we need to make. Freya’s magic will be necessary. Her father’s inability to absorb magic is the key. It was a smart move.”
Lex exhaled heavily and turned to me. “I know you’re angry,” he started.
“I’m going to kill you,” I shot back.
“At least you’ll be alive to try.”
We glared at one another, years of friendship and annoyance roiling. “I’m going to make you pay,” I said, resigned. This had to happen.
Lex grinned. “I’m looking forward to the attempt.”
EVA AND SEBASTIAN LANDRY LIVED IN Marigny.
We knew Brett wouldn’t attack until dark, so we waited down the street in a van that Jack had secured.
The loas weren’t with us — something I was grateful for — but they’d promised they would be there when the fight commenced.
That left Lex, Charlie, Jack, Knox, and me in the van.
Oh, and my dad, who seemed pleased as punch to be part of the adventure.
“What’s going on here?” Dad asked as he pointed at the bench I was sharing in the back of the van — it boasted a tactical setup and looked nothing like a regular van inside.
“What do you mean?” I asked, now self-conscious. Was something going on that I hadn’t picked up on?
“Between them.” Dad waggled his finger between Knox and Lex, who were on either side of me.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I complained, meaning it. He was scattered sometimes, and apparently this was one of those instances.
“You have two suitors,” Dad replied. “Your mother will be very happy about that. I can’t wait to tell her. She’ll want to celebrate. With sex,” he added, as if I was slow and didn’t understand.
And yet again, I wanted to dig a hole and throw myself in and die. “I don’t have two suitors,” I hissed. “Lex is my friend. We’ve been friends for years. You know that.”
“You spend an inordinate amount of time together,” Dad argued.
“That’s what friends do.” I was spitting mad. Before I could launch myself across the aisle and strangle my father, Lex reached out to stop me.
“Mr. Holmes, you don’t believe for a second that Freya and I are romantically involved,” he said in a calm voice. “You have, however, picked up on the fact that Cullen over there has the hots for Freya.”
“I do not,” Knox sputtered.
Lex didn’t even look at him. “I will make sure Freya is safe and that she’s with someone who deserves her. But that’s not me.” He sent me a rueful smile. “She’s my best friend, but down the line, we will want different things.”
“Yes, he wants a wife who stays home and pops out six kids,” I muttered.
Lex nodded amiably. “That is what I want, eventually. Right now, I don’t want to be tied down. Later I will want the same sort of family I grew up in. Does that sound like a life that would make Freya happy?”
Dad’s lips curved down. “No, but it might make her mother happy.”
“It doesn’t matter what makes Mrs. Holmes happy,” Lex argued. “Freya and I are friends. We will always be friends. We’re almost like brother and sister in a way. I’m assuming that, because I’ve never had a sister and don’t know how those relationships go.”
“You’ve always been a good friend to her,” Dad agreed.
“Even when her mother and I were too tied up in our own grief, you were always there for her. You’ve been her rock.
I can trust you.” He cast a sidelong look toward Knox, who was doing his best impression of a rock. “I don’t know if I can trust him.”
“I’m going to figure that out,” Lex promised him. “I think we can.” He glanced at Knox and shrugged. “We have time. They’re both stubborn and are going to keep fighting their attraction to one another for Goddess knows how long. But I’ll figure it out.”
Dad pursed his lips but ultimately nodded. “If Lex gives you the okay, you have my permission to court my daughter.”
Where was that hole? I kept needing a hole, but there was never one handy. “You did not just say court,” I hissed. “What is wrong with you?”
Dad shrugged. “That’s what it was called in my day.”
“Wow. Just wow.” This was unbelievable. “I can’t believe you called him here,” I complained to Lex.
“I’m not sorry, Freya,” Lex replied. “They couldn’t guarantee your safety because you’re only half-vampire. If you think I’m going to put you at risk when the obvious solution is calling your father, you don’t know me at all.”
“I can take care of myself,” I insisted.
My father responded.