Page 20 of The Elementalist (Four Elements #1)

I nodded. That, I could believe. “Perhaps they were the ones who made the decision to kill her?”

“I can’t answer that. But I do think you need to put Piper and Derek out of this town’s misery. My misery, too.”

“Oh?” I sent a cocky half smile in her direction. “Why would a succubus need plain ol’ me to deal with her vampire problem?”

She poked me. “You’re far from ‘plain old.’ And I’m not equipped to deal with vampires.

I can outrun them. I’m more or less as fast as they are.

..” My empty coffee cup appeared to teleport from the dashboard in front of me to her hand.

Only the breeze across my face gave away that she’d grabbed it.

.. yeah, that was an awesome display of speed.

“But, everything I might do to them—magically speaking, if you want to call it that—they’ll recover from.

So, I’m stuck using the same kinds of weapons anyone else would. Wooden stakes, fire—”

“Wooden bullets might work, too.”

Crystal blinked. “Say again?”

“Wooden bullets, and they’re not as crazy as you might think.”

“Wouldn’t they... I dunno... shatter or something?”

“Depends. I did a little looking on the internet. You get a hard enough type of wood and make a big enough bullet, say a 12 gauge shotgun slug, they can be fired. Range is crap, and they don’t have too much stopping power on a normal human… but supposedly they could kill vampires.”

She shrugged. “Wood is wood, I guess. As long as it penetrates the heart. Yet another example of the natural world foiling the unnatural. Who would think something as simple as wood could take down something as vile as a vampire?”

I shrugged. “I don’t write the rules, but makes a kind of sense to me.”

“Of course it would to you. You’re like, nature personified.”

“Maybe, maybe not. But if something were to stop the beating of an undead heart, exposure to something once deeply connected to the earth mother should do the trick.”

“But the wood is dead, too.”

“But it was once connected to the earth itself, and undoubtedly infused with light energy.”

“So, would a thorn from a rose bush kill a vamp, then?”

“Doubtful, but it would do serious harm. No, I’m sensing trees are essential. Their sheer size and deep roots go far in retaining the earth energy to put one of those suckers down.”

She giggled at ‘suckers,’ then added, “You’re forgetting that normal people can’t simply run around town with a shotgun without being arrested.

Or make wooden bullets for that matter. Stakes might still be the best option…

but you are far better equipped to deal with them.

And no, I didn’t know that about you at all when I hired you. ”

Again, I rubbed my chin in thought. “You do bring up a good point in that those two should probably be dealt with in a fairly permanent manner. Can’t help but feel a bit strange about it though. It’s never been in me to just kill someone like that.”

“For one thing, they’re not ‘someones.’ They’re ‘somethings.’ Vampires are already dead. You wouldn’t be killing anything, just making an already-dead corpse stop walking around. For another thing, they want to kill you and won’t stop until they do.”

“And… if I do anything other than put them down, I’ll spend the rest of my life looking over my damn shoulder for the next ambush.”

“That too.” She held up a finger, wide-eyed. “Just remember they’re killers, Max. How many innocent lives have they taken besides Dana’s and Luke’s? How many more innocent lives will they take in the future?”

“Fine.” I squeezed both hands on the steering wheel, gripping it tight to bleed off angst at what felt like making myself into the judge, jury, and executioner.

The girl did have a good point though. Piper and Derek had already died, were dangerous killers, and did want my ass on a morgue slab on the sooner side of later.

“What kind of fallout do you think will happen if I get rid of these two?”

She pursed her lips in thought. “That would mostly depend on which family they’re working for, assuming one is pulling their strings.

If they did attack Dana at random, there won’t be any repercussions at all short of whatever vampire friends they may have wanting to settle the score.

But, it isn’t as though the others would magically know what happened to Derek and Piper—not to mention, those two don’t seem the type to make friends. ”

I chuckled. “No shit. Are all vampires as psycho as they are?”

Crystal glanced over at me with an apologetic expression.

“I don’t know. Father started sending me to school in Ironside when I was a junior.

When I turned eighteen, they kicked me out and I had to live there, too.

For whatever reason, the vampires don’t go to Ironside too often.

As a younger girl, I occasionally saw one in the house, but kept my distance.

They didn’t pay much attention to me either, likely because Fey blood is toxic to them. ”

“That’s handy. How toxic are we talking here? Drop dead from a drop or ‘sketchy Mexican restaurant’ toxic?”

She furrowed her eyebrows at me for a second, then evidently decided to ignore my stupid joke. “If one were to bite me, their fangs would most likely disintegrate before they could pull them out.”

“Ouch. So your blood is basically like acid to them.”

“So I have been told. I’ve not seen proof of it.” She pointed at me. “And don’t get any funny ideas about… about making succubus hand grenades.”

I raised my hands as if in surrender. “Not even going there. You might not be innocent, but you look it. Wouldn’t dream of doing anything that would get you hurt, least of all using you or your blood as a weapon.”

“Aww.” She batted her eyelashes at me. “You are so cute.”

“Right… so, how do we do this?”

She gestured at the ignition. “Why not find them and simply light them on fire.”

“That sounds too simple.”

“Lighting things on fire is a simple way to solve problems. Sometimes, the barbarian approach is the best.”

Merely thinking about the way Derek grinned when confessing that he’d murdered Dana set off a wave of anger inside me, which I’m sure came from the elemental power I’d been given.

Perhaps I’d become a ‘creature’ as well, diametrically opposed to vampires.

Nature was full of powerful opposing forces: light and dark, life and death, efficiency and government.

The part of my psyche that recoiled at the idea of walking up and simply ending someone had been chewing on the facts of this case.

Yeah, those two hadn’t been human in a long time.

They sure as hell smelled like dead bodies.

They’d murdered Dana and her husband as casually as an out-of-town hiker tossing an apple core into the forest. They’d surely murder again. And again.

So, yeah. I had to put a stop to that. Suppose that’s what Michael meant when he told me the universe gave me this power for a reason. And, I even had an idea of where to look.

That old boarding house. I’d lay fair odds I’d find them there.

“Got an idea where to look.”

“The old boarding house?” she asked.

“You know about it?”

“I’ve had my suspicions. Let’s go.”

I nearly told her to stay here or go home, but I saw the resolve in her eye. It was, after all, her half sister and brother-in-law who’d been murdered. Plus, I suspected she could take care of herself, when push came to shove. “Do you want to follow me or move your car somewhere?”

“It’s okay. I can get back to it if I have to.”

I glanced over at her. “Uber?”

She giggled. “Not quite. Horns aren’t my only extra body parts.” She made a wing-flapping gesture. “But, I’d rather you gave me a ride back.”

“Sure.” I started the engine. “Givin’ a pretty girl a ride is the least I can do.”

And, wait. Did she just imply she could... fly?

She did. My God, she did.