Page 33 of Wayward Daughter

“And it got away from them because it was the towns and villages paying the witchfinder not the church, so they couldn’t just stop paying them and tell them to take up farming,” Solomon said. “Anyone else hit jackpot?”

“Yes, and it’s not good,” Caleb said. “Henry isn’t stupid. He was listening when I said all of this was unnatural and something big was happening. He didn’t send William and his team to help. William knows, but the priests under him don’t. They have located the witch and demons who escaped, but they aren’t going to do anything about it.

“William and Henry want them to gather more supernaturals to their cause. William is going to tell us where they are, but not join us. They want a huge supernatural fight that takes us out and the humans can’t ignore it. Henry is going to come forward as the leader of a secret church order that has been protecting everyone, even though they never knew it, and William is going to be billed as the lone survivor. It’s not just us they are willing to take out. William is willing to let his team die too.”

“No offense, but your coworkers are shitty. If we know where they went, we can handle it before they grow in numbers. You get rid of demons with chanting. We trap them with salt and a sigil and then make things really shitty until they leave. There’s nothing saying we can’t question them about the Yellow King once they are trapped,” I shrugged.

“Sounds fun,” Caleb said.

My priest nemesis had gotten a little more like my Flame friends since his hex was lifted and it was making him loads more attractive. Why couldn’t he make my vagina close up shop and dry up like he used to with that sparkling personality.

“Are you insane? It sounds dangerous,” Solomon said.

“Pretty sure Pan thinks it’s fun too. Don’t you, good boy?” Caleb said.

Pan got happy tail and started howling. He loved hunting, and he had a bit of a praise kink.

“Since Pan in incapable of using his words at the moment, he lives for this kind of thing. Do the emails say if any shifters or vampires have joined them again?”

“William and his team are just observing. They are having their food delivered and only leaving to recruit. They’ve hit up a few nests and some loner shifters, but avoided other witches and demons.”

“I can see that. Shifters stay in packs unless they’ve been exiled and some people like to shit on the vampires because they need blood. Witches tend to not like blood magic users because it makes them look bad and the decent demons don’t like the ones who don’t follow the rules. They are approaching people they think they can convert who aren’t going to kill them on sight.”

“We need to get to them before they can recruit anyone with supernatural hearing and smell. They can’t detect me when I’m using shadows, but they will sense the rest of you before you could get close. The witch will have the place warded, but with me there, it won’t work long enough for you to spray paint the sigils.”

“So, I’m calling the shots on this job,” I announced. “Plan A is trap and question the demons and Plan B is always unleashing Pan and letting him eat people. We’ll be doing both.”

Something was probably going to go wrong because it usually did, but my best friend was a Hellhound, so even when things went ass up, it generally worked out in my favor.

Iwas off kilter. I never looked forwards to going into the field and I dreaded it now. It wasn’t the danger. Exorcisms were brutal and if it wasn’t a possession, someone ended up dead. I never felt satisfaction or justified in those deaths, even though it had been drilled into me they were all killers and agents of Satan.

I believed Logan. We had been wrong about so much. Our own bishop was plotting to have us killed, and they’d lied to us about our history. We’d probably killed innocent people who hadn’t done anything. Logically, I knew everyone where we were going needed to be dealt with and we had a Hellhound on our side, but I just lost the taste for it. I’d prefer staying back with the diary and translating, but they’d need all hands on deck and we did need to question those demons if we could.

Logan showed us the sigils and had us practice drawing them. I didn’t have any experience with petty vandalism like Saul did, but I was pretty sure I could handle it. Logan had gone over the plan and it was a good one. Even Caleb agreed. When Caleb agreed with something, it was generally a good idea, though I could see the merits of the plan.

She refused to let us wear our frocks. The problem was that Rainer didn’t have anything that fit Saul. His clothes barely fit Caleb. We had to make a pit stop at the rectory to get clothes and it was Saul who had a great idea.

“If William and his men are watching that house, we need to get them away since they know Logan.”

Ugh. I wasn’t a violent man, but I was a little jealous Logan had gotten to hit him. I knew it was wrong, but I just really didn’t like him. He was a terrible person, and he was plotting my death.

“Do you have a plan?” I asked.

“There are a couple blocks in a few neighborhoods where you don’t want to show up and do dumb shit. You could send them there. If you don’t want them to get their ass kicked, you could always have them go through the Business District. It’s lunch time. Traffic is going to suck less that morning and quitting time traffic, but it’s still going to suck.”

“We should go the traffic route,” I said. “We can’t let them know we’re onto them.”

“Just call them. I can get your clothes if you tell me where your rooms are. The three of you aren’t used to lying. Your faces might give you away.”

Pan being able to waltz right into the rectory was unsettling. As was the fact that vampires weren’t warded off by crosses and relics and one had inserted himself as Pope. It was unsettling, but it was also very useful. I hadn’t forgotten the bishop was trying to kill us. Maybe it said something about me as a person, but the only reason I wasn’t onboard with them getting jumped was because we couldn’t tip them off we knew.

I watched as Pan dissolved into the shadows. Caleb got out his phone. I didn’t know how he was going to do this without getting innocent people killed, but then Rainer came in drying his hands on the dish towel.

“Delilah texted me. There’s a new vampire causing problems. Since y’all aren’t familiar with New Orleans, you don’t know the best routes to get to the Ninth Ward to avoid traffic. The other vampires have tried talking to him, but he doesn’t want to hear it. They contacted the Flame to take care of him. We could send your friends.”

“Not our friends,” I said.

“Why don’t the vampires handle it?” Saul asked.