Page 120 of How to Entice a Fiend

“FUCK,” Mads hisses before tossing the current thing he’s working on into the sink.

“What was that?” I ask.

“Open the door!” Finn shouts.

“Coming,” I say as I hurry over and swing it open.

Finn looks quite anxious about something as he comes in with the others following him. “Soooo, funny story. You know how you wanted us to figure out who was on our side with the councilbeforecalling for a council meeting… guess what? A council meeting was just called. Theyinsistthe VRC be present. We tried to hold them back. We told them about the attack, how we couldn’t be there right now… it’s obvious Abel is going to be there.”

“Fuck, fuck, no,” Mads says as he scrambles around. “I need to do this again, and it needs time to cool, and what if it’s still not right?”

“You don’t have the powder ready?” Finn asks.

“I have enough ready for one use. I wanted to make more, but it takes so long and so many resources. I have that and the antidote, but I wanted to make sure you all had more stuff. If Abel is calling this, you know he’s going to be prepared. He’s going to have a lot of people there. What if there are people outside too? I made a couple of bombs for you too, but like… will you even have a chance to use them if innocent council members are mixed in?”

Marcus doesn’t look concerned at all. “Well, if Abel is going to have a lot of people there, it sounds like it’s best to implement our plan now. He’d expect it even less if he’s the one who had them call the meeting. And I’m sure this meeting is to figure out who is on his side and who isn’t. The longer we wait, the more people will die. We have our plan. You tell us how to distribute the powder. We will inject the antidote intoeverycouncil member to be positive that we don’t miss anyone and… go from there.”

“Go from there?” Mads asks. “That sounds like a horrible idea.”

“This should at least weaken Abel. I understand it won’t kill him, but it’ll weaken him, right?” Finn asks, sounding quite hopeful.

Mads nods, but it’s apparent he’s not on board. “Hopefully, but… just don’t go. He’ll call another one, and then we’ll be more prepared.”

“But that’s just it,” Alexei says. “He’s doing this so we’re not prepared. He wants to get at us while we’re already down, but we won’t let him. And like Marcus said, the more we wait, the more death there will be.”

Mads looks panicked and turns back to his work. “I don’t… what if we just run? Leave it to someone else? Why do we have to be the ones to do this? There are other people.”

I reach out toward Mads, not wanting to disrupt what he’s doing but positive that he needs to be calmed down. “Mads.”

He hesitates before turning to me. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize. The rest of us have been doing shit like this for hundreds of years. I mean, maybe not the baby human over there, but the rest of us have.”

“Baby… human. Excuse me?” Finn asks with a raised brow.

Ignoring him, I continue, “Even if we can’t kill him, we can knock down a significant number of his followers. Okay?”

Mads slowly nods. “Okay… Right… yes. You’re right. I’m sorry. Okay, so antidoteshaveto be administered before this is released. This shit is the most lethal dose I could possibly make, do you understand? Donotlet this canister get damaged before you have taken the antidote or you will die. If a vampire even touches it, it could kill them.”

“I’ll do it,” Finn offers.

“No, I will handle it. Finn, you will stay out of the room. We have no idea what this could do to you,” Marcus says.

“So I’m supposed to just stand outside while you guys do everything?” Finn asks anxiously, obviously not pleased by this.

“Finn, if you are staying outside of the building, you will be in charge of multiple Soup 2.0s,” Mads says, and I think this might be the only thing that would get Finn to agree. “This versionmightkill the vampires. But in case it doesn’t, you can apprehend them while they’re down. Understood?”

Finn looks even less reassured. “Umm… I guess, but dear god, it sounds terrifying.”

“Find a good spot for it. The radius isn’t huge because I don’t want to kill innocents. You saw the radius with Grady? These are about the same. I believe they’d be best spread out. Theyjust need friction to go off, so shoot them with a bullet and they should detonate.”

“This… is terrifying,” Finn mutters.

Mads turns to face everyone. “Any questions?”

“How long does the antidote last and how long is the powder lethal?” Claude asks.

“The antidote… I don’t know… five minutes, maybe? I haven’t done enough testing on it since it’s a bit… risky. The powder becomes inert and safe to breathe or touch within a minute or less. This canister they got me was perfect. It needs to be placed somewhere central, and once it’s set off, it will be lethal for a short period until it becomes too exposed to oxygen.”

---