Dylan (Bowen Boys, #3)(50)



“Did Reed have his cell phone on him when he left the office?” No one knew for sure. He was forever leaving it behind when he left work. Picking up a phone, she asked for his number and dialed it while calling for Sebastian or Marc to help her. She had a feeling that they might be able to find him this way.

Marc went to his office to work with the equipment he had there. “When you call it, I’ll be able to pinpoint where he is to within a few hundred feet. If he’s turned off his phone, then it will be considerably more than that.”

She knew that but wanted to try anyway. It rang a total of eight times before going to voicemail. She let the mailbox cut her off before hanging up, then called Marc back. He was laughing, he was so excited.

“You want a job working for me, you can have it. We know where he is. He’s at the Hotel Monaco in the Penn Quarter. I’m not sure what floor or even room number, but that’s where Reed’s phone is coming from.”

She hung up and looked at the people in the room. Marc was coming back, but she doubted she’d have any problems with him. These people, however, were going to be hard to convince.

“I know where he is.” Relief settled over the room, and she looked at Dylan. “I can get him out of the room now before the vampire wakes, but we have to be ready for him to be able to defend himself, too.”

“What is it you have to do?” Dylan smiled at her. “You know what has to be done, so simply tell us, and we’ll stand where you need us.”

Before anyone could say anything, Khan spoke. “She’s right. And so is Dylan. If she’s sure she can get him out, I think we should do what she says. Unless someone else has a better plan than the one she’s going to tell us, then we’re ready to help.”

“You’re not going to like this, but it’s all I have.” She pulled up the hotel on the computer and looked at the rooms. “He’s more than likely going to be holding Reed in the same room with him. If that’s the case, then he’s going to be tied to something, more than likely a chair. Is there any reason why he won’t be able to shift if we need him to heal or something?”

“If there are cuffs or even plastic ties at his wrists and legs and they’re too tight, then they will sever his hands and feet off if he shifts because his cat is much bigger than his human. Then there’s the added problem that if he’s tied to something heavy and the bonds don’t break, then he’s going to be tethered to it.” She nodded at Khan, then looked at Dylan.

“If I asked you to stay here, would you?” He smiled, and she had her answer. “Yeah, I thought so. But when we go in, you’ll do as I say when I say it? All of you?”

She had some hesitations, but George said that if any of them disagreed, he’d have to kick their ass. She believed him, and apparently so did the others. She had their promise before she launched into the plan.

“We’re going to have to go in and pull Reed out. If what you say about being put to sleep by the vampire is true, then he won’t be able to wake until he’s far enough away from his spell or the vamp is dead. I want to make sure that the Mann’s are really dead before I kill him. I don’t know if he has them stashed somewhere, and I don’t want to find them months later.”

Everyone agreed, but Sebastian posed a question. “Then what do we do? There are as many ways to kill a vampire as there are snowflakes. How do we know which one will work?”

Jack agreed with him. It was hard to know what would work and what was Hollywood hype. She laid her gun on the table and then her knife, and had a feeling that they’d be useless, and told them so. They were both your run-of-the-mill Glock and knife. She wondered aloud what to take with them.

“Once he wakes, he’s going to go after me with everything he has. Do I fill these with silver and hope they work on him like they did on the wolves? I doubt a cross would do me much good, other than something to pray to if he starts to look like he might win.” Picking up the gun, she rolled her wrist, testing the weight as she continued. “We can’t take it all, but we need something. I’m for less is better normally, but in this situation I’m thinking I might have enough time to try two, maybe three things before he rips my head off.”

“You’ll have me and the gun.” Dylan took the gun from her. “My cat and yours as well. That gives you four. What else?”

She looked around the room and thought of all the shit she’d seen in the movies when she’d been able to catch one. What had done the most damage and had taken out the most vampires? She looked at the crossed swords over the mantel.

“Those real?” Walker looked at them, then at her, grinning. “If I could take off his head, I’m pretty sure that’d stop him for a while, if not forever.”

She and Dylan went to the hotel on his bike. He’d gone to the garage with her, and when he skirted around the bike to the truck, she asked him if they could go on it. She rode on the back of it wrapped around his body and felt the air rush around them. The others were coming in the cars.

Caitlynne went in first and talked with the manager. Dylan and she stood nearby. The manager said that there was no one in the hotel by the name of Lucius. They had no last name, so, starting at the top, they were going to go door to door and ask everyone to leave. Monica had said to use the story of an electrical problem because it would cause less panic. Yeah, Jack thought, telling them that a big vampire was about to be killed by a bunch of werepanthers would be hard to swallow. As soon as they got off the elevator, the scent of blood burned her nostrils, and she looked at Dylan.

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