Page 102 of Livewire Witch

“Why else would you have come tonight, if you weren’t aware that we were going to take action during the ball?” he asks.

My throat is tight. “Wh-what exactly are you going to do?”

“We’re going to show this city who the truly powerful creatures are. When better than tonight? When all the elites are gathered together. All the rest of our society will be able to witness their lack of action when true threats attack the city.”

None of this is news, exactly. We suspected that they would choose tonight to do something, but I think we’d all been expecting the vampires to attack the people in this building, rather than those outside of it.

Too bad Fabian’s contact among the Archarcans didn’t want to listen when he explained the threat to them.

In the pocket of my jeans, my cell buzzes with a text. Then another. And another.

“Ah, it seems like things have kicked off already,” Simpson says with a leering grin.

My eyes dart up to meet his gaze, and he nods toward my pocket.

“Check your phone.” His eyes are alight with excitement and my stomach churns with dread at what I’m going to see.

A group text from Rook. Complete with video.

I don’t look at Simpson as I click on it. Nor as I watch the thirty-second clip of dead things crawling out of the sewer and stumbling around one of the main streets of the city.

My head spins. I have so many questions. Too many. They’re racing through my mind, bouncing off the walls without me being able to grasp any one of them to give voice to them.

The vampires... have created zombies?

How are they controlling them?

Are they the results of the cursed blood? Is this the fate Fabian would have been left to if we hadn’t been able to lift the curse, or is it something else entirely?

Ugh, I can feel a headache coming on.

I tap my phone, calling Rook and letting it ring and ring until I get his silent voicemail. I try again and again, with the sameresult. Then I try to call Zeph, Roscoe, Hanna, each of them in turn.

Their cells ring out with each call. No one is answering me.

I shake my head, panic crawling up my throat, making it hard to breathe. I don’t understand any of this. Despite knowing that they were planning something, I can’t wrap my head around why they would choose to release dead things into the city to see what carnage ensues.

“Why?” I rasp through my too tight throat.

Maybe I’m thinking too much like a witch. The only vampire I’ve had any close contact with is Dante, and he seems to have his more animalistic instincts pushed way, way down inside him.

“It was simple enough, really. It’s taken a lo-ot of work to drain as many people as we’ve needed to get the power boost for tonight,” Simpson explains. “A crazy number of bodies, you know? We’d been spelling them to disappear after an hour or so and then we just dumped them underground.”

Of course, the bodies we saw at the dock all faded down to nothing but bone. Dante said that he could sense a spell on them, but he wasn’t able to work out what it was.

“Then we found a demon with power that allows him to animate objects,” Simpson continues. “Mostly, he deals in making furniture dance around. Useless shit like that. But it turns out, once he was given a power boost, he could do it with just about anything. Those things he’s made are damn scary.”

“Well, where is it?” We’re interrupted by a muttered voice from the hallway outside, breaking the quiet. “Damn vampires, always on their own terms and in their own time. Don’t they realize who is in that room? The power, the sheer power under a single roof.”

Felix Hawkshead stumbles into the room, looking worse for wear. His eyes are unfocused and although he’s dressed up in a suit, he looks disheveled, like he can barely keep himself upright.

“You,” he spits as soon as he spots me. “Is it my lucky day and I finally get you alone, witch?” The words come out thick and slurred, like he can’t quite wrangle his tongue around them.

I fist my hands at my sides. A glance at Simpson shows him smiling at Felix with a feral intensity, like a snake about to strike.

Felix doesn’t notice. I’m not sure he even realizes we aren’t the only two people in the room.

Although, I have no idea what he’s doing here. Is he working with the vamps? With Simpson?

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