Mercy Thompson 01-05 - THE MERCY THOMPSON COLLECTION

No more vampire demon thingy. Marsilia told me how to kill vampires.” I stopped speaking and let her think about that a minute. She was pretty bright, it didn’t take her long to come to the same conclusion I had.
    â€œMan, that’s pretty scary, going into a battle with the Mistress as your intel. Sure, I’ll tell you what you need to know.” She ran her eyes over me and was unimpressed. “She really thinks you can kill this thing?”
    I started to nod, then stopped. “I have no idea what Marsilia thinks.” Uncle Mike hadn’t thought me hunting the sorcerer was stupid. I wasn’t sure if I should trust the fae any further than I trusted the vampire. I shrugged finally and told her the truth. “I don’t really care. I’ll kill the sorcerer or die trying.”
    â€œWhat did she tell you?”
    â€œShe said I could kill a vampire with a wooden stake through the heart, holy water or sunlight.”
    She leaned a hip against the fridge and shook her head. “Look. The wooden stake thing works, but it’s better if it’s oak, ash, or yew. And if you kill them that way, you have to cut off their heads or burn the body to make sure they stay dead. Remember, a dead vampire is ashes. If there’s a body, it’ll come back—and it’ll come back angry with you. Cutting off their heads is pretty good, but difficult. They’re not likely to stand around and wait for the chainsaw. Sunlight’s good, too. But the stake and sunlight, they’re like kicking a guy in the balls, you know?”
    I shook my head, fascinated.
    â€œThey all know about it. They’re not going to put themselves at risk if they can help it. And if you screw it up all it does is piss ’em off more. Holy water’s mostly out. You’d need a whole swimming pool full of holy water to kill one.”
    â€œSo how would you kill a vampire permanently?”
    She pursed her lips. “Fire’s best. Stefan says they burn pretty well once they get started.”
    â€œStefan told you all of this?” I tried to imagine the conversation.
    She nodded. “Sure.” She gave me a considering look. “Look, I don’t know where he went, but I know he was keeping a sharp eye out on the local news and the papers. He had a map of the ’Cities and he marked where there was violence. Yesterday he was pretty excited about something he’d noticed about the pattern.”
    â€œDo you have the map?” I asked.
    â€œNo. He took it with him. And he didn’t show it to any of us.”
    I slid off the chair. “Thank you…”
    â€œRachel.”
    â€œThank you, Rachel.”
    She nodded her head and then opened the fridge again, dismissing me. I walked to the front door slowly, but no one else appeared, so I let myself out.
    Andre was waiting for me, sitting on the hood of his car. He jumped off and asked, “Did they know anything?”
    I shrugged. “They didn’t know where he was, but I found out how he decided where to look. Maybe it’ll help.”
    I looked at Andre and wondered if Marsilia had left out the part about decapitating the staked vampire on purpose. It didn’t take much thought for me to decide she had.
    â€œHow would you kill Littleton?” I asked him.
    â€œFire,” he said promptly. “That’s the easiest way. Staking works, but you have to decapitate them afterwards.”
    It didn’t mean anything. From my question he’d have known I’d asked Stefan’s people.
    â€œThat’s not what Marsilia told me.”
    He gave me a faint smile. “If you just staked him, she could capture him, make him hers. There aren’t a lot of vampires, Mercy, and it takes a long time to make them. If Daniel hadn’t belonged to Stefan for so long, he’d have died permanently. Marsilia doesn’t want to waste a vampire—especially not one who has all the powers of a demon at his touch. If he is hurt badly enough, there are ways of bringing him back under the control of a more powerful vampire, like Marsilia. He would make her position unassailable.”
    â€œSo you intend to capture him?”
    Andre shook his head. “I want the bastard dead. Permanently dead.”
    â€œWhy is that?”
    â€œI told you, Stefan and I, we have been friends for a very long time.” He turned his face into the light that illuminated the driveway. “We