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ATTEMPTING TO STRATEGIZE wasn’t easy when we had no idea how to defeat our foes. All of the alphas were squeezed into the Archives to pool their knowledge. Roderick and Stephanie sat at a table together off to one side, reading through stacks of ancient books. The other Archivists they’d been in contact with were also searching through their records. Spencer was the Master Archivist, yet he’d abandoned that position. If he knew his employees were actively searching for a way to destroy him, he would probably send his minions out to kill them all.
Pondering about the spectral allies Von Hades now had beneath his command, I looked at Jonah. “Was it just my imagination, or did none of the Dread Wraiths or their feline sidekicks use the veil to move around?” Spirits could hop short distances using the veil. They could maneuver around their enemies without them knowing about it. I hadn’t seen any of them using this tactic while fighting our shifters.
“I didn’t see any of them using the veil,” my bestie confirmed. “Why? Is that important?”
“I’m not sure,” I replied, yet something niggled at the back of my mind.
“We need to get them back to their dimension,” Connor said from his seat beside me.
“How?” Brandi asked. “None of our weapons can touch them. We can’t exactly force them to go back through the portal.”
“Besides,” Winston pointed out, “the portal became inactive the moment Morgwen’s reaper was torn from her. Von Hades is probably the only one who might be able to access it now.”
“If he figures out how, we’re going to be facing hordes of demons as well as the other creatures he has at his beck and call,” Jake said. “Hell is one of the dimensions the portal leads to.” He sometimes had snippets of visions and must have seen this in one of them.
“Can’t we just exorcise the demon from his host’s body?” Mayra proposed. “Then we can banish him back to hell.”
“That might have worked before he became fused with the mask and bound to the reaper,” Rudy said. “But he’s moved far beyond simple exorcism now.”
“Spencer was wary about the weapons that fire holy ammunition,” I remembered from our first battle with Morgwen and her minions. “He ordered Harrow and me not to shoot in his direction when Morgwen first stepped through the portal.”
“They’re different from our bullets that have been blessed by a priest,” Connor mused. “It’s possible they might be strong enough to hurt him, if not kill him.”
“Even finding a way to weaken him would be a start,” Quin said. Her mind was already going into overdrive as she factored this in.
“Where does he keep these weapons?” Jake asked.
“I think they’re kept in his armory in Rosethorn,” Jonah replied. “I saw a room full of weapons when I was snooping through his mansion,” he added sheepishly when we all looked at him. “A wall in the armory had a painting of a demon on it. The wall was warded and I couldn’t see what was behind the painting.”
“My money is on the warded wall,” Mirra said. “He always protects the things that are most important to him behind magical barriers.”
“So, we suspect we know where the weapons are, but the question is how we’re going to get our hands on them,” Jake summed up.
“I can break through the barrier,” I said. “But his mansion is going to be guarded.”
“We’ll have to wade through his hellhounds and gargoyles again,” Mirra said with a grimace. “He might also have Dread Wraiths and those horrible ghost animals Morgwen brought through the portal.”
We could say her name without drawing her attention to us now that she was dead. The witch no longer being in the picture was a huge weight off our shoulders. It was one less thing we had to worry about.
“Von Hades isn’t just going to let us walk into his house and steal from him again,” Xavier pointed out. “Not after you already stole something he valued from him.”
“He knew we’d go after the dragon heart and he set a trap for us,” Quin said. “He won’t be expecting us to return and go after his holy weapons.”
“Probably because he doesn’t think we’d be that stupid,” Jonah added. She cut a sharp look at him, but he was right and we all knew it. Returning to the demon’s lair was risky and it would be highly dangerous.
“Who will be going this time?” I asked. I knew it had already been decided that we would go.
Quin began listing the team she would take with her. “The Hunter Elite, Jake, Rudy, Mayra and Xavier.” Her father released the breath he’d been holding in hope that she would allow him to go with us.
“What about us?” Winston said, hurt that they’d been left out.
“And the ghosts, of course,” Quin added. “Where we go, you three go as well. That goes without saying.” Jonah and Brandi shared an excited look while Winston puffed his chest out proudly. Everyone knew how important it was for us to get our hands on the holy weapons. We needed an edge and this was the only one we could think of.
“When are we going to embark on this foolhardy mission?” Rudy asked sourly.
“During daylight hours,” Quin replied. “The wraiths, felines and his hellhounds will be weaker then.” The vampires he’d taken control of would be sleeping.
“Harrow’s druids will probably be patrolling the house as well,” Connor reminded us. “They’ve probably set traps everywhere.”
“Then it’s a good thing I can see their spells,” Jake drawled. He was an asset to us and we couldn’t do without his skills now that we knew some of what he was capable of.
“It’s decided,” Quin said and checked her watch. “It’ll be midday in Rosethorn in another couple of hours. There’s no point delaying the mission. The sooner we get in and out, the sooner we can take Von Hades down. I don’t want to give him a chance to figure out how to use the portal and invite his demonic minions to our dimension.”
While the holy weapons might be able to hurt Spencer, I had my doubts that they would kill him. I didn’t know a spell that would allow us to take the mask from him, but I did know one to separate him from his reaper. Deep down in my gut, I knew what I had to do. Connor turned to me when he sensed my sorrow rise. Pushing it back down, I smiled at him and squeezed his hand. He smiled back, but his eyes were shadowed. He knew I was hiding something from him, but he didn’t want to ask me what it was in front of so many people.
Roderick and Stephanie took a break from their research to make an early dinner. I avoided being alone with my mate so he couldn’t dig into why I was feeling so depressed and frightened. The ghosts seemed to sense it as well and darted puzzled looks at me. If they knew what I was planning, they would no doubt try to stop me. There was no other way that I could see to weaken the demonic demigod enough to put a stop to his plan for world domination. The worst part was that I didn’t know if my crazy plan was even going to work.
