Page 94 of Smolder (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 29)

“Didn’t you say that Mommie Darkest turned him into a vampire? Why would she do that if she wanted him dead?” I asked.

“She thought she would be able to control him and create a living weapon that all vampires and shapeshifters would fear.”

“What went wrong?” I asked.

“He was too alien from the rest of us, even from her.”

“She couldn’t control him,” Damian said.

“She could not.”

“Can we kill him by blowing him up?” Edward asked.

“And can we blow him up without turning him into pure spirit like what happened to the Mother of All Darkness when she got assassinated? It was so much harder to kill her once she could jump into and out of the vampires and shapeshifters connected to her,” I said.

“He never had the ability to leave his body,” Jake said.

“That is good to know,” I said, “but wait, if he can’t take over Jean-Claude’s body, then how was he going to possess his power as king?”

“By plugging himself into the vampire marks I have with you, through the marks you share with others, to the blood oaths I have given to every master vampire in America. He does not need to possess my body, only hook himself into my mystical connections like a... what is the term for someone who steals power that they do not pay for?”

“You mean like someone piggybacking onto your internet service, or cable, or whatever?” I asked.

“Oui.”

“But that’s done in secret, you don’t want people to find out you’re stealing from them. Tonight was the magical equivalent of a frontal assault,” I said.

“Deimos has never been subtle,” Jake said.

“Then he won’t be patient either,” I said, “so now answer the question. How do we kill him?”

“Deimos’s brother was killed by a large boulder crushing his head, so a bomb should work, but I do not know what will happen to the Greek fire inside him,” Jake said.

“If we accept that Deimos can spit Greek fire, then the chemical or whatever he uses internally to create it have to be separate until the moment he uses it, or he would injure himself,” Richard said.

I nodded. “True, if we accept that fire breathing of any kind is possible, then the substances the animal uses to create the heat or ignition of the fire would have to be kept very carefully separate in the body until it’s time to use it, or they’ll burn themselves.”

“If the substances have to come together in a specific order and timing, then blowing him up shouldn’t activate the Greek fire,” Richard said.

“But if it’s not just about a specific order and timing, then blowing him up could spread Greek fire over a large area.” I looked atEdward. “Do you have any ballpark on how much of an area could be affected?”

“I’d need to know more than just height for Deimos to make even an educated guess, plus what kind of building he will be in when it happens, there are just too many variables.”

“What if he’s out in the open?” Richard asked.

“The outside range on a LAW is seven hundred twenty feet; if Greek fire adds to the potential of the explosion, then any of us close to ground zero are dead, or wish we were.”

“And if the Greek fire dies when he blows up, instead of adding to it?” I asked.

“Then we should be fine.”

“Could the Greek fire set off a wildfire in a wooded area?” Richard asked.

“It burned through wooden ships,” Jake said.

“Damn,” Richard said.

“Why?” I asked.

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