Blade sat there, looking like death warmed over. “Don’t start,” I heard him say, though his mouth never moved.
“I didn’t say a word,” I replied with a snicker. Slowly, everyone filtered in. There were no races for the room since this wasn’t actually church. We were simply resuming the meeting we’d started before all the commotion with Billy.
“How’s Billy this morning?” I asked Angel as he came in.
“He’s okay. Sleeping,” he replied.
“Before we get started, Jasmine had a baby girl. Mom, Dad, and baby are all fine,” Venom announced. The brothers all cheered. “Okay, let’s get this wrapped up,” he continued as he leaned on the table and motioned with his head to the papers still on the table.
“We need to discuss Facet’s plan for that. Then we’ll put it to the vote and go from there. Sound good?” Venom scanned the faces of the brothers at the table and seemed satisfied.
“So, as you’ll read, I found out from my research that a cacodaemon can only be killed when they are in human form. The problem is, although their abilities are slightly limited when they’re walking around as a mere mortal, it’s rumored that they have incredible strength. I believe Sabre is the only one that will be strong enough to capture it. I also found another script that annotated that they can also be sedated when in human form—which is also the only way they can be killed.” Facet was tapping away on his laptop keys as he spoke.
“What if this information Facet found isn’t reliable or accurate?” Ghost asked.
Facet glanced up over the screen of his laptop to reply to Ghost. “I believe it is. After some research, I found out there are several chat rooms on the dark web for this exact subject. The person I got the information from is an expert on things like this.”
“Have any of them had success defeating one?” Though I was a little surprised there was that kind of info out there, it made sense. There were a lot of things in the world that people didn’t understand. There was also a lot they had no inkling existed. That was all the perfect kind of information for the shadowy corners of the dark web.
“Not exactly,” Facet reluctantly admitted.
“Not exactly? What the hell does that mean?” Voodoo asked.
“Well, it’s not an exact science. They didn’t have all the firsthand knowledge we have, nor did they have access to someone with your connections in voodoo or Sabre’s demigod status. From what they said, Sabre may be vital to our success. I think if we can tranquilize him with Carfentanil and you can find a way to put an enchantment or something on the chains we use to secure it, we can then use a modified version of your banishment ritual.” Facet stared at Voodoo with a hopeful grin.
“Jesus,” Voodoo muttered.
“Where the fuck are we going to get Carfentanil? That’s goddamn elephant tranquilizer, and it’s a fentanyl analog.” Squirrel cast a disbelieving stare at Facet.
“Yeah, I know, but don’t worry—I have my sources,” Facet announced with a shrug.
“We’re all gonna die,” Squirrel muttered as he palmed his face.
“Technically, that’s not true. Sabre can’t die, and I’m not completely sure Ghost can either,” Facet replied.
There was a lot of grumbling after that.
“We don’t have to do this,” Venom began. “However, if we don’t try, then one of our brothers is going to be at risk. This thing is simply toying with us all right now. Do we want to see what it does when it goes balls out?”
The bitching ceased, and everyone glanced from Venom to me.
“If you don’t want to do this, I understand. A lot of you have families now. If you decide it’s too much of a risk, I’ll take Soleil and we’ll leave,” I offered. They had become family to me. I’d never do anything to intentionally jeopardize them or their families.
“Hell no!” Angel, who’d been pretty quiet until that moment, chimed in. “We don’t turn our backs on brothers—ever.”
“I agree,” Blade quietly added.
“We still have to lure him to a secluded place,” Hawk pointed out. “We can’t risk having a bunch of witnesses.”
“Like I said, wherever we do this, I think we should set Chains up with a sniper rifle armed with the tranquilizers. Once we have him sedated, we get him transferred to the slaughterhouse. We can do the rest of it there,” Facet suggested.
“I’ve never banished a demon, so I don’t know if my usual ritual will work. I’ll need to consult my grandmother, if that’s okay.” Voodoo rubbed his jaw thoughtfully.
“Anyone have an issue with that?” Venom asked. Everyone shook their heads.
“Is that even a real question? We’re talking about Madame Laveaux. I doubt there’s much we wouldn’t trust her with.” Blade shrugged, then went back to cleaning out his nails with the tip of one of his signature knives.
“Then I’ll give her a call once we’ve wrapped this up,” Voodoo confirmed.