I drove Kendra home and waited in her living room while she worked at her kitchen counter to create a potion we could use on Linda Hull. If anything was ever going to kill me, leaving Hailey at the hospital had almost been enough to do the job. But I had important things to take care of and she had her brother and Ransom with her.
Maybe the idea of going to the council had merit. This newfangled way of petitioning the council for permission to turn an heir was lengthy. They took too long to weigh their decision and by then, it was possible Luke would be in such a state that we couldn’t prevent the damage done by doctors when they went in for the bullet. Or worse. He could be dead.
There was a time when vampires could make a decision without facing the big walk into the sun. I didn’t want an outright war with the council, but come on. There had to be a way around waiting six to eight weeks for an answer.
The council was old school, had clung to the ancient ways in some respects, but then started making new rules, punishments, ways to exert their absolute power. I was the new breed of our kind. Democratic. Maybe taking them on wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Maybe if someone challenged them—someone with the sort of backing I could get—they would open their minds to other ways of governing.
It was time to move our kind into the current century. But if I won, would that make me the leader of all vampires? That was a lot of responsibility. A lot of time. I wasn’t sure I wanted all of that. I liked being a leader, but the head wore a lot of crowns.
Kendra tapped my shoulder, and I looked up, startled. “What?”
She towered over me, and it would’ve been intimidating if she’d wanted it to be, but she smiled. “It’s done.”
“Wow. That was fast.” She was an impressive little witch.
Her cocked brow said she doubted. “Not at all. It’s almost dawn.”
I looked outside. There were streaks of amber across the horizon, low in the sky. I hadn’t realized how much time had passed while I sat in her living room mulling over the council.
“We’d better hurry.” She handed me the crystal bottle and nodded to the door.
“It’s okay, Kendra. I’m a lot older than Hailey. As long as I’m out of direct sunlight, I’m fine. I don’t fall asleep like Hailey does.” She had an adorable penchant for not being able to stay awake for even a minute after sunrise.
Even though this felt like a solemn moment, considering the night we’d had thus far, Kendra snorted and mimicked Hailey falling asleep like a narcoleptic. I chuckled, thankful for the ease of all the tension. I got the impression that in a crisis, Kendra was one of the people who helped others get through. Someone I was glad to have around.
We didn’t hurry across the street. We had the potion and plenty of time. I couldn’t do much with the answers until tonight, but I had to know now. I had to give Hailey something because she would be back soon and she would need the answers only Linda could give.
Linda looked up when I flicked on the overhead light. She’d been left for me, strapped to a chair in my basement, her eyes covered in case she was a necromancer, like her sister, who was still out cold in the next room. I couldn’t take a chance of her seeing me and exerting her control. I needed answers, and I needed them now.
Kendra stepped back out into the hallway. “I’m going to check on the sister, maybe give her another dose to conk her out.”
“Thanks,” I muttered. I moved closer and pulled up a chair so I was facing the venomous woman. “I have a potion. You can either drink it, or I can inject it.” I didn’t want to have to exert my power over her, but I would. My physical strength, necromancer or not, along with my age would be extremely difficult for her to overcome.
She opened her mouth, eyes still covered, so I could pour the potion down her throat. I obliged, she drank, and her head bobbed forward a couple of times as if she was drunk. But then she jerked upright, perfectly straight.
“You can take her blindfold off. Not only is she bound by the truth, but she’s powerless. I bound her magic with the potion.” Kendra had returned to the doorway. I looked over my shoulder and cocked an eyebrow.
She shrugged. “I don’t care one way or the other, but I just thought you might like to face the woman who tried to kill Luke, who would’ve killed Hailey.” Her voice was hard, angry, like steel, and her anger was a sentiment I could appreciate. Kendra was a formidable enemy. I’d have to work hard to keep in her good graces.
And she was right. I damn sure wanted to look at Linda. I reached to remove the blindfold. “Who the hell are you?”
“My name is Helen Hull of the family Hull of Cambridge, Massachusetts. My family are necromancers.” That much was obvious, thanks to her sister’s show of power.
“I don’t care about your family.” I did, but I wanted to talk about why she’d nearly succeeded in trying to murder Luke. “Who are you?”
She smiled like she was proud. “I’m the Director of Education and Schools in Philadelphia and…” She paused, shook her head as if she was moving the hair out of her eyes, but there was none, so maybe it was for effect. Or she might’ve been trying to fight off the potion, which didn’t work. “I am the kingpin of Philadelphia. I don’t have the necromancy magic of my family, but I am the mastermind of organized crime in this city. And I’m immune to your compulsion, Vampire,” she spat out the last word like it made her physically ill. Her disgust was almost as visible as what was running through my veins.
“I used my charm, of which you can already see is immeasurable”—her conceit made my stomach roll—“and is part of the small bit of family magic I was blessed with, to build an intricate network of criminals to do my bidding.”
“Why did you attack Luke?” I snarled.
She sniffed. “I didn’t mean to shoot him. I wanted his sister. She’s the one who is disrupting my operations all over the city. Sending my workers to jail.”
As I’d thought. She was the one after Hailey. I didn’t care about the details. Not even a little bit. I glanced at Kendra. “How long is this potion going to last?”
“About twenty-four hours.”
Twenty-four hours to get her to the police station and before someone who could take her confession. “We should go now.”
I dressed in my sunshade clothes which made me look like I was heading out in a snowstorm on a mostly spring day, but there was nothing else I could do. We put Linda in the car and Kendra drove while I guarded Linda Hull, Philadelphia criminal kingpin, in the back seat.
When we arrived at the station closest to my place, I compelled an officer to interrogate her. I fed him specific questions and then went on my way. She was still being questioned when we left.
It wasn’t much. But all I had to offer Hailey in terms of justice for Luke.