head on EJ’s hips. The grindylow crawled around his shoulders and neck and snuffled in close. Brute blew out a breath and closed his eyes. He really was in protect mode. I had no idea what the wolf thought about the baby witches he was protecting, but I figured an angel-blessed wolf wasn’t the worst creature to have as a guardian. EJ curled his chubby fists in the white fir and held on in his sleep. Angie Baby snored softly, her breath puffing into the white fur. “You keep them safe,” I whispered. “No matter what.”
The wolf didn’t answer but his ears twitched to show me he had heard.
I turned and found myself nose-to-chest with Big Evan. I looked up. “Umm. Hi?”
Evan grinned at me through his thick red beard. “It’s dark. Vampire time. Edmund wants to talk to you,” Evan said.
Molly, half-hidden behind his bulk, grabbed my sleeve and tugged me away from the doorway. “We want to talk to you first. About my death magics.”
“No.”
“No what?” Molly asked her eyes narrowing. People didn’t tell the volatile redhead she couldn’t do stuff.
“You can’t use them to drain the vampires,” I said, hearing the stubborn tone in my voice. “You can’t guarantee you can stop draining, and you might take some of our people.” I thumbed to the bedroom doorway. I didn’t bring up Beast’s assertion that she could act as familiar for Molly. I didn’t know what would happen if we got busy and took our attention off Molly. She could kill everyone around her. I wasn’t risking her or the kids. Or my clan. “Or some of your people. Like your kids.”
Molly’s eyes flared brighter. “We have to—”
“And why are you letting them sleep with a werewolf?” I accused, deflecting her. “Are you nutso?” Yeah. Accuse her of being a bad mother. Get her mind off her death—
Molly punched me. Hard.
“Ow.”
“Yeah. Right,” she said. “Short, postdelivery mama hurts the big bad vampire hunter. You listen to me,” she practically hissed, stalking close, her face only inches from mine. She reeked of power and fury and I barely stopped myself from backing away.
Over her head, Big Evan was slowly shaking his head no. Whatever Molly had planned, he wasn’t in agreement with it. But he wanted me to be one to tell her no. Great. Make my life easy, why don’t you.
“I could kill the Flayer of Mithrans with my death magic, but yes, it’s hard to stop. However, I could drain them all a little bit, and then Bruiser could take out the leader. Between an Onorio’s magics and mine, we could take them all down.”
Evan continued to shake his head. Stopping instantly when Molly looked around. Coward.
I asked, “What do you do with the excess undeath/unlife energy when you pull their magics to yourself?”
“What?”
“You have to put the energy somewhere. Where does it go? Where did it go when you drained the vamps in the Regal?”
“I—I—What do you mean where did it go?” Molly demanded. And then her eyes cleared. “Son of a witch,” she swore. Her hands tightened; her eyes went wide and unfocused. She spun around as if looking for the missing magics.
Speaking slowly, I said, “Molly?” She whirled back to me, eyes wild. “That was a direct, face-to-face confrontation.” I continued. “Shimon has his own Onorio who nearly killed Bruiser. If they took out Bruiser, they could try—” I stopped. Bruiser had been wallowing in misery and guilt and that was not normal at all. Was my honeybunch spelled? I held on to that thought and returned to the discussion at hand. “If Bruiser was out of the picture, the Onorio could turn her attention to draining Edmund. And Ed might have had his brain rewired by the Flayer when he was being possessed and flayed. Our options are limited.”
“Okay. Options. Right,” Moll said, her eyes still too wide. “I’m listening.”
And she was. Sorta. “Edmund could challenge SOD Number Two to Sangre Duello. Or I could challenge him to the kind of fight I had with Titus and fight him outside of time. Shimon was a witch before he was turned, so magic would be allowed. But that might kill me before I killed him, because if he has timewalking magic, and I think he has some, he might be way better than I am. Or . . . we could just kill him in his sleep. Assuming he sleeps by day. Assuming we could find him. Or maybe the arcenciels can be convinced