“Wow. The last time I saw an arsenal like that, I was in my ex-husband’s secret stash room. His were all guns, though.”
“We have a few of those too.” Charlie pushed a button inside the closet, and the center panels opened, revealing a second layer of firearms and rifles. “These aren’t ordinary guns, however. They’re specifically designed to deal with certain types of supernaturals. Most take very specific ammo. Bullets made of wood, silver, or salt. Or some combo. We have a rifle that shoots a net, one that shoots sulfur flares meant to draw out certain kinds of demons, another that… Well, you get the idea.”
“Loud and clear.” Donna whistled and stood up. “Holy Mother, that’s a lot of hardware.” She walked over for a better look.
“Here,” Charlie said. “Let’s go back to the swords so you can pick something out.” She pressed the same button, closing the panels and bringing the bladed weapons front and center again.
Donna didn’t know where to start. “Are they all iron-edged?”
“No. Just the ones in this right panel. There are also these smaller iron-laced weapons on the side wall. Some throwing stars, a couple daggers, things like that. But your coat already has some small blades in it.”
“I remember that.”
“Oh, that reminds me. We do have a shotgun that takes iron-pellet ammo. That can be very useful, but again, I’m thinking most of your fighting this time will be done in close quarters. Not the best place to use a shotgun.”
Donna remembered a certain grandmother with a shotgun who’d nearly taken off her and Neo’s heads. “I’m going to skip that for this raid.”
She reached for a medium-size sword with a red leather handle. That was the only fancy thing about it. Otherwise, it looked pretty utilitarian, as swords went. The blade wasn’t even that shiny. “How about this one?”
“Up to you. Swing it a few times. See how it feels in your hand.”
Donna stepped back so that Charlie was safe and hefted the blade with a firm grip. “Feels all right.”
“You’ve only been holding it for thirty seconds. Give it a few practice blows.”
Donna swung the sword in a wide figure eight, then, recalling her days on the high school drill team, spun the sword around in her hand and gave it a few fancy twirls.
Charlie’s eyes widened. “I thought you didn’t have any sword skills.”
“I don’t. But I had three years on the Fighting Bulldogs drill team in high school.”
Charlie laughed. “I think you’re going to do just fine.”
“How do I carry this thing?”
“There’s a sheath for it. Straps across your body. We’ll get it adjusted for your—”
Donna’s cell rang. She glanced over at her desk where it was sitting. “I’d better grab that. It’s Neo.”
“I’ll take the sword.”
Donna handed the weapon off, then answered her phone. “Hey.”
“What’s up, mama? Actually, I already know the answer to that. Temo gave me the 411. Are you all right?”
“I’m dealing.”
“I can’t believe the fae took Rico. What are you going to do?”
Donna hesitated. “I’m not sure talking about this over the phone is the smartest thing to do.”
“Oh, right. I’ll come up.”
Donna’s brow crinkled. “Up?”
“I was gonna play like I was home, but look, whatever, I’m downstairs with Temo.”
Donna rolled her lips in to keep from laughing. “You are, are you?”
“I’m letting him work, don’t worry. But yeah, I’m coming up. Bye.”
“Bye.” But Neo had already hung up. Donna motioned toward the kitchen. “I’m going to meet Neo in the kitchen. Did you know she’s downstairs? You must.”
Charlie pursed her lips. “I’m going to plead the Fifth in the name of love.”
Donna snorted as she walked out. “I’m all right with that.”
Neo was already in the kitchen when Donna got there. She whipped her braids over her shoulder and gave Donna a big hug. “You sure are getting put through it lately. I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks, but things are mostly managed. Do you know everything that’s going on?”
“You mean how much has my man told me? Just that you got home from the party to find a video showing Rico held captive by the fae. And maybe that the fae have drugged you.”
“That’s pretty much it. And they have. As you probably also know, Temo’s putting together a team, and at dawn, we’re raiding the fae stronghold to get Rico back. The New Jersey pack is assisting us, but I still don’t know how many wolves they’re sending.”
Neo got a determined look in her eye. “I’m going with you.”
“But we’re going at dawn.”
“If you can go, so can I. You must have some kind of intense sunscreen, right?”
“Not exactly. I have some witches working on a way to make me temporarily immune. But I’m not subjecting anyone else to that risk. Plus, I really don’t want you to get hurt. So thank you. I love you for offering. But no.”
“You can’t tell me what to do.” Neo grinned. “There has to be a way I can help.”
“Not unless you can come up with some high-tech thing that kills fae that I don’t know about.”
Neo’s mouth opened. “Yes, girl, that’s it.”
“What is?”
“Temo!” Neo shouted toward the stairs.
“Yes?” he shouted back.
“You have an SUV that’s sunproof?”
“For you, baby, anything.”
Neo grinned. “I’m going with you. But I promise to stay in the car.”
“So just for moral support, then?”
“Ha, no. This is the perfect time to test out a little project I’ve been working on. The Skynet 2020.” She wiggled her brows. “I just need to run home and get it.”
“What kind of a project is this exactly?”
“A weaponized drone with the capability to hunt down fae and blast them with iron filings.” Her grin widened. “Technically, weaponized drones aren’t legal for civilian use, but we’re vampires, and this is war, so…” She shrugged.
“A thing like that had to be incredibly expensive to make.” Donna knew Neo was too young a vampire to be independently wealthy from years of smart investing. “Should I even ask where you got the money?”
“Okay, also technically, I’m building it for a stupid-rich vampire client as part of his home defense, but this will be the perfect time to test it out.” She nudged Donna with her elbow. “What do you say?”
Having a drone in the air would be a real advantage. Especially against an enemy that could fly. If the drone got damaged or destroyed, Neo would be on the hook for that, though.
Thankfully, the governor’s accounts ran deep. “I say you’re on the team.”
Chapter Fourteen
Temo came upstairs a few moments later. Neo grinned at him. “Hey, baby, I’m on the team. I’m going to stay in the car, though, out of the sun, and fly my killer drone.”
Baby. Donna tried not to get silly, but it was so cute. She wanted to hug them both.
“Cool.” His smile faded slightly as he looked at Donna. “Boss, bad news. Ishalan can’t get the antidote. He said he tried every possible source he has, but no one’s talking, and he doesn’t know what drugs they used. He feels bad. I could tell.”
That brought Donna down to earth. She took a deep breath. “That’s about what I expected.”
Dr. Fox walked in, looking around. “Do you know where Jerabeth is?”
“She went to talk to some of her associates about working on another project I need done before the raid,” Donna said.
He shook his head. “She probably told me she was leaving. I get a little single-minded when I’m in the midst of a project like this.”
“Anything new?”
He frowned. “Nothing worth getting excited about. All the same, could you spare a moment to come to the sa
lon with me? There is something I’d like to show you.”
“Sure.” She looked at Neo. “Back in a bit.”
“Don’t worry about me. I have to run home to get the drone. I’ll be back as soon as I can so I’m ready to go.”
“Okay, see you then.” Donna followed Dr. Fox back to the salon.
He shut the door, then directed her to the area he’d turned into his workspace. “Watch this.”
He took a few drops of blood from a vial and put them in a glass dish. Next, he brought over a small light bar. He turned it on, directed the light over the sample for several long seconds, then turned it off. He set the light aside to open another vial of clear liquid. He sprinkled a few drops of the liquid onto the blood.
He put the vial away and looked at her expectantly. “See?”
Nothing had changed, so Donna was stumped as to what she was expected to learn from the demonstration. “I promise I paid close attention, but I didn’t see anything. It looked like nothing happened.”
Brows high, he faced her, putting his hands in the pockets of his lab coat. “That’s exactly right. Nothing happened. What makes that interesting are the details. That was your blood. Under UV light. And then sprinkled with holy water.”
She had a feeling where this was going. Her fingers itched to touch her crucifix. “And?”
“Let me back up. I first tried the UV light thinking I could turn your blood to ash, then do an analysis of what was left behind to give me further insight into what chemicals the fae used. When nothing happened, I tried the holy water.”
She swallowed as nonchalantly as possible. “I don’t know what all this means.” Except she was pretty sure she did.
He peered over the rims of his glasses with an almost palpable excitement. “Governor, I need to run some more tests, but I believe you may be able to daywalk.”
She wavered for a moment. “You’re my doctor, which means there’s a confidentiality agreement, right?”
“I’d never breathe a word of this. And not just because of that, but because I understand how dangerous revealing such information could be for you. Of course, it’s just a theory right now, but with some further testing…”
She nodded slowly. “That won’t be required. I already know that I can daywalk.”
His mouth came open. “You do?”
“I found out by accident.”
“Do you have any idea why?”
She hesitated. “Complete confidentiality?”
“To my grave.”
She pulled the crucifix from underneath her T-shirt. “This is why.”
“I don’t know how you’re even wearing that. Is there something special about it?”
“My sister, the nun, got me this crucifix during her trip to the Vatican. It was blessed by the pope himself. My sister said she had it blessed to protect me from vampires. I was wearing it when I was bitten and turned. When I wear it, I’m UV immune.”
His eyes narrowed. “Your sister had it blessed to protect you from vampires? That’s not an ordinary request.”
“She’s not an ordinary sister.”
“Well, as interesting as that all is, I feel confident in telling you that wearing it has nothing to do with your immunity.”
“How do you figure that?”
“The blood in that dish was not protected by the crucifix when I tried to turn it to ash. I don’t believe that actually wearing the crucifix makes any difference. Seems more likely the important part was that you were wearing it when you were turned.”
“So you think I could go out without it? Because I couldn’t right after I was turned. I tried.”
“You might be able to now.” He smiled. “I’d want to do more testing first, obviously. I don’t think the raid is any time for you to go without.”
She nodded. “Neither do I. But that’s really interesting. Maybe we can do that testing after the raid.”
Compassion filled his eyes. “About that. Please be careful on the raid, Governor. I like you very much. I don’t want to see anything bad happen to you. You’re kind and compassionate and tough. You’re exactly the person who needs to be in this job. For a long time.”
“Thank you. I’ll do my best not to get hurt.”
“Good. I’m not leaving until you get back, just in case I’m needed. Although I hope that’s not the case.” A timer started beeping. He reached over and shut it off.
“I appreciate that. I’ll let you get back to work.” She returned to the office to see Charlie. Donna could almost hear time slipping away as the hour to leave for Central Park drew closer. “Hey, we need to fit a sheath for the sword, right?”
“We do.” Charlie got up from her desk. The armory doors were still open. “I got it out already. It’s actually called a scabbard.” She picked it up with the sword already inside. “This is it. There’s a buckle on the strap, so all we need to do is figure out where it’s comfortable on you and then adjust it. You want to be able to draw it easily.”
Donna took her cardigan off. “It’ll go over the coat, I assume.”
“Yes. You should put that on first.”
“Be right back.” Donna went to her bedroom, grabbed her new leather coat, and slipped it on as she returned to the office. She was still amazed at how well it fit and the magic that had made that possible. “All set.”
“Okay, put this over your left shoulder like a crossbody bag. You’re right-handed, so you want to be able to draw the sword easily with that hand, and that puts the sword’s hilt just above your left shoulder.”
Donna put the strap over her arm and head and adjusted it across her body so the sword lay flat on her back. “Like this?”
“Yes. Now let’s tighten it.” Charlie cinched up the buckle. “How’s that?”
“Feels snug.”
“Draw the sword, and let’s make sure the scabbard stays in place.”
Donna took a few steps back, then reached back and pulled the blade out. “That worked pretty well, but I’m a little worried about putting it back. Can I wear it on my hip instead?”
“If you’d feel more comfortable with that, sure. All that matters when wearing a sword is your ability to access it easily.” She undid the buckle, dropped the strap around Donna’s waist, did a few more modifications, then stepped back. “Try it again.”
The strap sat low on Donna’s hips, out of the way of her arms and just under the hem of the coat. She grabbed the hilt and pulled. She liked the soft metallic hiss that sang out as it came free. Then she grabbed the top of the scabbard and easily guided the sword home again. “Much better. That’s how I’m wearing it.”
“Good thing we tested that out. We can run a second strap through the scabbard and around your thigh if you’d like.”
“That might not be a bad idea. If I have to run, I don’t want the sword swinging all over the place.”
Charlie made the adjustment with another strap from the armory, then stepped away and put her hands on her hips. “How’s that feel?”
“Perfect.”
“Then you’re all set for the raid.”
Sweat dripped down Donna’s back and trickled between her cleavage, soaking her T-shirt. Apparently, even though she’d fed, the drug-induced hot flashes weren’t going away. “Except for the toxins still in my system.” She started unzipping the coat. “I’m about three seconds away from taking everything off. These hot flashes might actually be getting worse. Didn’t the Amazons go into battle naked? I might try that.”
Charlie moved in to help unbuckle the scabbard. “Governor, it’s snowing out and in the low twenties. Not sure naked is the right move. Although the distraction factor would be epic.”
“The weather sounds like perfection right now.” As soon as Charlie took the sword off, Donna shucked the coat. She pulled her wet T-shirt away from her body and flapped it to get some air flow. “I can’t fight like this. The moment I exert any energy, my temperature shoots up, and I feel like I’m being cooked alive.” She sighed.
“I guess that’s what the fae intended. I swear I’m going to end as many of them as I can.” She waved the bottom of her T-shirt back and forth a little faster. “If I don’t melt before the raid begins. I’m going to stand on the balcony and take advantage of the natural air-conditioning. Just in case you need me.”
“Don’t freeze to death.”
“Unlikely.” Donna almost ran to the sliding doors in her bedroom. She wrenched them open and stepped out into the cold, closing her eyes as she inhaled the crisp air. For a moment, it didn’t seem like even that was going to work, but at last, she cooled off enough to feel like she was going to make it.
Opening her eyes, she went to the railing. The snow wasn’t heavy, but it was drifting down in big, fat flakes that were accumulating. She wasn’t sure if that would help or hurt their chances during the raid. Maybe the fae secretly hated snow or cold, though that was unlikely since they’d put their headquarters in a state that got plenty of the white stuff.
She held her hand out, catching a few of the flakes. They lasted only a second on her warm skin. She took one more deep breath, then went back inside.
“Governor?”
“In here, Charlie.”
Her admin came in. “Jerabeth is back. With company.”
“You mean Reggie Ferris?”
“I mean all of the Ferrises. Will, Regina, Harper, and Daisy. They’re in the living room. They want to join the raid.”
Donna glanced down at her sweat-damp T-shirt, leggings, and boot-slippers. “Why do people always show up when I look like I just got done cleaning the house? Let me change, and I’ll be right out.”
Charlie nodded. “I can make small talk like nobody’s business.”
“Thank you.” Donna wished she had time to shower, but that would be rude. She undressed, gave herself a quick cleanup with a washcloth, and went with dark jeans, a dark patterned blouse, and fresh deodorant. After slipping her feet into a pair of flats, she stuck some earrings on, too, just to jazz things up.
Finally, she walked out to greet her guests. “Welcome to the governor’s penthouse.”
Jerabeth grinned broadly. “Governor, please meet the Ferrises. When I told them what was going on, they all immediately wanted to help.”
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