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“We can’t—” Oliver began.

“You must. No excuses,” Ez commanded as she slapped her hands on his desk.

Her short stature towered over Oliver in his well-worn office chair. Oliver had worked in the business for over fifty years. He had dealt with a lot of personalities and always stood his ground. With Esmerelda Honeydew, however, she was the only one who could slap his desk and command his attention.

She glared at him. “If you care for your staff and yourselves, you’ll close before sunset,” she continued.

“We’ll close before sunset,” he said.

Ez pulled back from the desk. “Kiddo, you put the protection spell on their house. I’m going to head back to my place and make some calls. Maybe I can convince the vampiric conclave to intervene.”

“Vampiric conclave?” Oliver asked. “You mean there’s more of them?”

“It’s comprised of the heads of the different vampire factions. Most of the vampires swear an allegiance to one of the different courts. It’s how they keep themselves in line without one vampireovertaking the rest. They tend to look down on lone wolfs, regardless of rank, and squash them to keep the rest in order. They may offer a sit-down with the Savinos and tell them to back off,” Ez said.

“You could tell them any further action against us could escalate the situation, and neither side would want that,” Alice offered.

“Good point,” Ez said.

“You mean, a sit-down like in the mob movies?” Oliver asked. “Why don’t you have a sit-down yourselves?”

“I’d highly advise against it. You don’t know what could happen,” Ez said.

“Oliver’s right,” Hugo said.

“Out of the question,” Ez responded.

“We’ve been playing catch up, while they’re maneuvering around in the shadows. If we go on the offensive, it could catch them off guard,” Hugo said.

“We’ll know their exact demands,” Alice added. “Then we can figure out our next steps.”

“You’ll be going in alone,” Ez said.

“Not if that vampiric conclave knows about it,” Hugo said.

“If anything happens to me, then it would be considered an act of war,” Alice added.

“Besides, we’ll be armed,” Hugo said. “I’ll have the stake and Alice has her magick.”

Alice glanced at Hugo. “I should face them alone. If you bring a stake, then it could escalate. If it escalates and goes sideways?—”

Hugo faced Alice, his eyebrows arched. “I can’t let you confront them alone. We do it together or neither of us do it. I’ll be armed. You’ll be armed. We’ll be fine. Trust me.”

Alice lowered her eyes for a moment. She nodded her head. “Okay. We do it together.”

Ez was silent. She rubbed her forehead, careful not to smear any of her blue eyeshadow and drawn on eyebrows. Her silence spread to the rest of the small office space. Everyone else stared at each other,unsure of what to do or say next.

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this again,” Ez said. “Oliver does have a good point. The sit-down might be our next best action.”

Oliver turned to Carol. “See, I’m good for more than one idea.”

“Stop it.” Carol tapped him on the arm. “You’ve had at least two before this. One was marrying me.”

Oliver winked at her.

Alice stood upright, pulling back on her witch’s hat. “Then it’s settled. We’ll contact them to get a sit-down in the next few days. Ez, you’ll contact the conclave and let them know. In the meantime, I’ll put the protection on your house,” Alice said.

“How are we going to contact them without knocking on the front door?” Hugo asked.