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I felt Alex strain behind me to hold her in place. Then he let out a sigh and she dropped to
the floor.
 We need to find out what he knows, I said, stepping between them.  He wasn t the
mastermind behind all of this, and he may know who is. We ve all been jerked around big time.
This had all been a set up by someone far away. It made so much more sense than the
Estaben I knew trying something like this, even with the prompting of the witch Marcella.
I turned toward Estaben. I put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back against the
chair. His eyes flashed over me and seemed to focus for a second, then glazed over again.
 Estaben, look at me. I shook him slightly.
His eyes passed over me again, stopped and cleared.  Tal, is that really you? His voice
was strained, and weak, holding none of the confidence that it had moments ago.
 Yes Estaben it s really me. I need you to take a deep breath and try to remember what s
going on.
 This is bullshit, Blanca snarled, but made no move to get past Geri.  He s trying to fool
us or something. I knew most wers could literally smell the truth when dealing with other wers
and most humans, but that ability didn t extend to their dealing with vampires. It probably
frustrated her that she couldn t tell if he was lying or not.
Estaben s eyes unfocused slightly.  It seems like a dream. The last thing I really
remember was stalking this handsome young man in a club down in Houston. He led me down a
dark hall. I remember following him into the men s room, and then I woke up here. Estaben,
was telling the truth as far as I could tell, or at least the truth as he perceived it.
 Estaben, what do you remember about the vampires that are gathered outside of this
house? I hoped that he might know something, even if it was something that he buried inside of
his subconscious.
 Are they the ones I dreamed about? It was like they were worshipping me, and there was
this witch that called the wolves to come to us. He seemed to drift away again.
I turned to face the rest of those who gathered at the front of the desk.  Suggestions? He s
really out of it. This also means that he wasn t the one behind the whole plot to change the town
into creatures of the night. The big question now is who was behind it? What do they really
want? And what do we do with the two hundred plus vampires waiting outside the front door?
Blanca sat on the edge of the desk, trying to regain her composure. Conflicting emotions
played across her face. She wanted to tear Estaben apart, but was beginning to believe his story.
 I ve only got about fifty rats here. We re willing to try, but I don t think we can take out that
many vampires without help. We can kill this one here without any trouble.
I shook my head.  No, I d prefer that he stay alive for now. We may need him to help us
track down whoever used him as a puppet. This was going to take a lot of explaining to JP as
well.
 But that still leaves all the vampires at the door. We can t very well go out and stake
them all, Julio added from Blanca s side.
 What about fire? Alex said hopefully.  Can you call enough mage fire to take them all
out? We also have the flame throwers.
 I d worry about setting the landscape around here ablaze too. In case you haven t
noticed, we are in the middle of a drought right now and enough mage fire to kill two hundred
vampires is bound to take out at least this house and most of the acreage around us. We d be
putting ourselves in as much risk as the vampires we re trying to kill. The funeral pyres were
risky enough. This could cause the vampires to run about and set the entire area ablaze. The
flame throwers are for close combat only.
Alex s wide brow wrinkled in thought.  What if we called a storm at the same time as
you called the fire? You could take out the vamps and then we could douse the fire before it
spreads.
I appreciated him trying to think of ways to help, but I really didn t see it working.  Alex,
if all you guys had access to your magic before sunrise it might work, but you don t have it, and
a storm big enough to take out the fire would be more than Beth and Charles could call by
themselves.
 But there s where you are wrong. I don t need magic to call a storm. Storm calling is a
family trait. So I can use my psi skills to call the storm. The rest of the guys can help by feeding
me more psi energy. With Charles new strength, we can get a storm here in no time and be
ready when you are. He sounded hopeful. He needed to be of help in this and felt out of place
without his magic. Through our link, I knew he thought they could do it.
I glanced down at the coyote at my feet.  Geri, do you think they can do it?
 Yes. Charles and Beth will need to start it magically, but then Alex and the others can
augment it. She replied with a yip.
I thought about it for a moment as the silence permeated the room. It might work, and
right now, that was all we could hope for, short of a miracle. I didn t want to have to resort to
hand-to-hand combat.
 Okay. Alex and Charles, you go get Beth and the others. Blanca, show them somewhere
that they can work without disturbance; it d probably help them to have at least one window they
can watch the sky from. Then, arm your people with as much wood as you can find. You can use
table legs, wooden pool cues, even chop sticks, whatever they can force through the chest of a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]