“For bait?” Kirsten countered. “I won’t allow it. The poor kid has been through enough.”
“We need fighters!” Dashiell argued. “And he’s certainly motivated, from what you’ve told me.”
“His magic is basically useless for the near future, and I will not have you dangling him in front of the Luparii.” Kirsten crossed her arms. “He’s a witch, in my city, so he falls under my protection.”
Dashiell grumbled a little, but he finally had to concede that Owen was Kirsten’s responsibility, not his.
It took a while to bring Dashiell—and to some extent, the others—up to speed on the events of the day, from Owen’s story to Noah’s attack to Aldric’s attempt to kidnap me at Sunken City. I knew we were short on time, so I went through the story as quickly as I could. When I got to the part about Aldric taking me instead of killing me, Dashiell frowned. “Why would he need a null so badly?”
“He must believe Scarlett can stop the Wild Hunt,” Will said thoughtfully.
“It’s not just that,” I said, feeling suddenly nervous. Jesse squeezed my hand under the table, and I nodded at him and turned to face the others. “It’s because I’m pregnant.”
The whole room seemed to go still. You know that expression “You could hear a pin drop”? I swear, if I’d had any bobby pins in my hair at that moment, I would have yanked one out and tossed it on the table in front of me.
“That’s not possible,” Kirsten said, at the same moment Beatrice began, “Scarlett, honey, I think you’ve made a mistake.”
“No mistake,” I told her. “Jameson is the father. Two nulls?”
I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen Dashiell quite so shocked. He’s usually stone-faced about everything, even in my radius, but his whole face had gone slack. I admit, there was a tiny part of me that was finding this awesome.
“This . . . this is what your trip was about?” he said in a slightly dazed voice.
“Yes. I went to see Maven, the cardinal vampire in Colorado. I hoped she might know more about nulls because of her age, and I was right. She told me that the baby would grow up to be a powerful witch. Powerful enough to boost something called ley lines, which will boost all of magic.”
Everyone glanced at Kirsten, who held out her empty hands. “Ley lines are where witch magic is strongest,” she confirmed, “but only one line even touches the LA area, and it’s not very strong.”
Both Dashiell and Will started asking follow-up questions, but I said, “Look, guys, we can talk about what this might mean if we all live through the night. Bottom line?” I put a hand on my stomach. “This is my baby. Not a bargaining chip, not a hostage, and definitely not a threat to any of you. I’d like to make sure we’re all very clear on that.”
My voice was mild, but I stared at them until, one by one, they all nodded. Even Dashiell, although of course he was last, just to be a dick. Only then did my shoulders relax, and I realized how tense I had been. “Meanwhile, the Wild Hunt is coming. What do we do?”
“I’ve evacuated nine of my pack members,” Will began. “Leaving thirteen who will fight.”
“There are a few dozen vampires whom I would trust to go into a battle,” Dashiell said. They both glanced at Kirsten, who looked uncertain.
“We don’t have many witches with combat experience,” she explained. “Few of them are powerful enough, and those who are, mostly fear that power. I’ve sent nearly two hundred witches away, with their families. Of the ones who are left, I could count on maybe forty. They’re all on standby, but I’m not sure what to do with them.”
That was nowhere near all the Old World members in Los Angeles, and I wondered about the rest. Did we just not trust them, or were they an actual threat? I knew there were plenty of backstabbing vampires who would be happy to see Dashiell lose power.
Still, that was nearly a hundred people, all told, and the Luparii had between nineteen and twenty-one, depending on whether or not Killian’s and Sabine’s sleeping bags had been among those I’d counted at Sunken City.
“I sort of have a plan,” I told them.
“How much of a plan?” Jesse asked beside me.
I flashed him a grin and said under my breath, “Twelve percent.” To the others, I said, “But we need to know where they’re going to be. I need help with that.”
“Do you have a map of the city?” Will asked Dashiell.
Beatrice got up and retrieved a map of the greater-LA area. Trust vampires to still have paper maps. Will took it and handed it to Kirsten. “Where is this ley line?”
She shot him an appreciative look and pulled a pen out of her purse. She drew a curving line from the Simi Valley southeast through Canoga Park and Burbank, curving around and south all the way to Long Beach, not too far from Sunken City. Even from the other side of the table, the line looked familiar, and I got up and went over for a closer look. “It follows the river,” I declared, pointing at the blue line whose course was almost identical to the pen line. “I saw it on a map this afternoon at the River Center.”
“I’d never paid much attention, but I suppose that makes sense,” Kirsten said thoughtfully. “Ley lines often follow natural landmarks, and that river’s been there in some form or another since the Tongva.” The Tongva were the Native American people who had occupied the LA Basin before the first Spanish settlers. “Staying near the ley line would likely boost the Hunt’s strength.”
“It’s not just that.” Jesse leaned forward to trace his finger along the line. “They can use the riverbed itself to get around the city.”
He was right.
“That’s good to know and all, but ‘they’ll be somewhere along the river’ isn’t enough for us to go on,” Will pointed out.
“No, it isn’t,” I agreed. “Unless we could predict exactly where they’re going to turn up and be waiting for them.”
Every head in the room turned to look at me. “How fast can you guys assemble your people?” I asked.
Chapter 42
I started laying out my plan—or my 12 percent of a plan—and the others spent another fifteen minutes poking holes in it. The biggest question was whether or not I would be able to stop the Wild Hunt magic. We would have to bet everything—everyone—on the theory that I could.
“How sure are you?” Kirsten asked, looking worried.
I chewed on my lip for a moment. “Mostly sure?”
The other three Old World leaders exchanged looks. “That’s not overwhelming me with confidence,” Dashiell said.
“Okay, let me show you something. Please just humor me for a second. Bea and Dashiell, can you come stand by me?” They raised their eyebrows, but pushed their chairs back and came toward me. I looked at the wall, where Shadow was curled up next to the door so she could ambush intruders. “Shadow, can you come here?”
The bargest stood and trotted over to me. I asked her to sit next to my chair, and then I stood up and went to the other side of the room, positioning her between myself and the others. I brought Beatrice and Dashiell with me so they wouldn’t turn into dead vampires again. “Be very still,” I advised Will and Kirsten. “Will, fight your instincts.”
Before anyone could react, I pulled in my radius. Almost immediately, Shadow stood up and ran straight for Will, her teeth bared. He followed my advice and held still, while she stood three feet away from him, the hair on the back of her neck bristling straight up. Her whole body was tensed, waiting for the command to rip out his throat.
Carefully, I extended my radius until it encompassed Shadow—but not Will.
The bargest calmed down. She did a little dance in place, whined, and then retreated to stand next to me. “But I’m still a werewolf,” Will said, confused.
I released my radius back to its usual area, and we all went back to our seats. Jesse, who had watched the whole demonstration with disinterested calm, grinned at me. “The bargest magic is Wild Hunt magic, and it works on two levels,” I explained. “There are the permanent physical effects, which give her strength and speed and the impenetrable skin, but there’s also the . . . mmm . . . nonphysical component of the magic that lets her heal quickly and forces her to want to hunt and kill werewolves.” I gestured to Will. “The physical stuff is permanent; I can’t undo it. But the nonphysical stuff is affected by me.” I shrugged. “‘Spectral warriors,’ to me, implies nonphysical. Definitely not permanent. So . . . I’m mostly sure I can stop the Wild Hunt.”