to do everything we can to back up our Master. Even if it means leaving.”
“It’s understandable,” Brody said. “Since Jadis is in a holding pattern, it might not be as detrimental if you go now rather than later.”
Briony bowed her head to him.
“Though, perhaps we should make the first move,” Brody thought out loud.
Everyone turned to him.
“She’s trying to build her power base,” Brody said. “Maybe we shouldn’t let her.”
“That means attacking. Without the vampires, we have maybe fifty able bodies on our side, and last we knew Jadis had about the same.” Uma lifted a piece of paper to check her information. “We have more shifters, she has more witches, but we might be able to even the playing field a bit.”
“How?” Brody asked.
Witches had a natural advantage over shifters; they had long range capabilities while shifters were built for close range, hand to hand combat. Anything to overcome that advantage could be a game changer.
Uma turned to me. “The witches and I have been working on a spell that would cause an area to become an energy null for a period of time.”
I raised an eyebrow. “A what?”
She smiled. “A space where magic would be useless.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Really?”
She nodded. “It’d basically work as a ground wire. Any energy cast would go directly into the ground, making it useless to them.”
“What about alchemy?” I asked, thinking of the guys’ shields. They worked on clockwork and herbs.
Uma grinned. “They would work. The trick would be setting up the spell without getting caught and bringing them into it.”
“Like a trap,” Brody surmised.
Uma nodded. “And from what I understand from Mr. Huntington, he has developed the weapons for our side.”
Brody shifted on his feet. “The demonstration is ready in the basement when we are done here.”
“This is where I will leave you,” Briony announced.
“Thank you for your help,” I said.
Briony nodded, her stony expression easing slightly. “You’re very welcome, I only wish we could stay until the end.”
With that Briony moved swiftly and silently out of the library.
Brody cleared his throat. “Let’s get on with the demonstration, then.”
The two of us followed Brody through the house and down to the basement where my guys and a group of shifters were all waiting in their gym clothes.
Surprised, I moved to Isaac’s side. “What have you guys been doing?”
Isaac smirked and tilted his head towards Miles. “Miles is finally ready to show us what he’s been working on.”
“Hmm.”
Miles fiddled with a long bronze rod with several vials embedded along the middle of the shaft. One end was tapered into a blade.
“Miles. Show us what the staff can do,” Brody said.
Miles stopped fiddling and moved away from the others towards a dummy. “First, the blade is made of bronze.” He simply swung the end, slicing into the plastic of the dummy. “They are sharp enough to do some damage on their own, but it’s when you press a vial button in the middle that you get to the interesting part.” Miles swung again. This time, the dummy burst into flames.
Surprised, I stood there while the dummy began to melt. One of the shifters used an extinguisher to put out the flames. The stench of burnt rubber and smoke filled the room.
“What does it use?” Uma moved to Miles and took the staff from him, examining it closely.
“One of Lucy’s spark potions, water, and magnesium,” Miles answered.
“So, it’ll burn hotter when you try to put it out,” Zeke muttered, his face dark.
“That seems a bit overkill,” I said as I joined Uma and Miles.
Miles met my gaze. “They’re shifters and witches. It’ll take a lot of power to make a dent.”
A part of me still didn’t like it, but he wasn’t wrong.
“That’s exactly what it’ll take.” Brody joined us. “That’ll work for the humans, but what about long range?”
Miles turned to Brody. “Hold the button and you’ll shoot a stream of flame a good thirty feet. It’s the vial you choose that will make the difference.” He pointed to the next vials. “Blue for ice. Purple is a one-shot electrical hit.”
“Only one?” Brody asked as he examined the staff.
Miles nodded. “It takes a lot to manage even one. Any more weight and the staff will become unbalanced.”
“Good.” Brody turned to Miles. “Any other type of weapons?”
Miles nodded. “We could use the same design for blades, swords … arrows would be difficult.”
“What about bullets?” Brody asked.
Miles shook his head. “The vials would either smash on firing or not smash at all.”
“We have the runed bullets