“Congratulations, Dax. You’re a father,” Faith said proudly.

“Let’s get this child somewhere safe,” Dax said.

“I believe the safest place for her is here. In the middle of all of us. There’s no telling if Apep can track her. At least until we move against him once and for all. Which will be very soon,” Jackson said.

“How soon? I want her safe,” Dax said, holding the baby tighter.

“I’m hoping tomorrow at dusk. As soon as the sun goes down,” Jackson said. “We could use however many Night Angels you can spare.”

“I’ll put a call out, but on such short notice I don’t know how many you’ll be able to get,” Dax said.

“We’ll take what we can get. Mena’s been telling us how many strong the Templars are and it sounds like they aren’t more than three hundred. The human necromancers are much less than that. But I’m not as worried about them as I am about Apep. He’s the great unknown. All we can do is hope he is still weakened by the birth,” Jackson said.

“Noah and Gideon, the Ancient Body Demon medic will be here shortly,” Kane said. “Gideon is bringing more medics with him. He and his medics will be able to handle any injuries that come our way. At least for the Bodywalkers. They have human bodies and Demons can heal humans. Whether they can heal the other Nightwalkers remains to be seen. So far healing across races has proven difficult for them.”

“We’ll take whatever we can get. Felix, you’ve been in contact with the Doyen via phone, what does he say?”

Felix had been leaning indolently against a column on the porch but perked up when he was addressed.

“The Doyen can’t possibly mobilize any reasonable force on such short notice,” he said, his smile sly. “But if the Templar Kamen were to transport them, we could provide six more Wraiths.”

“Kamen needs to conserve his magic. The Mind Demon Kane can help you, provided they are not too far away.”

“That depends, is Nevada too far away for you to travel?” Felix asked.

“No. I can do that,” Kane said. “But I can only transport one at a time. If we had a stronger Mind Demon here they could transport more people more efficiently.”

“You’ll do fine,” Jackson assured him. “How many can you get?”

“I’d say four…maybe five. It’ll wear me out. I’ll be shot for the day,” Kane warned.

“Will you be rested for tomorrow night?” Jackson asked.

“I should be.”

“Good. Because I think I’m going to need that little teleport ability you have. I’ll talk to you about it later.”

“Kamen, how long will it take you to cast the locating spell?” Jackson asked.

“Not long at all. The trick is getting a hundred fighters to the staging area as fast as possible. There’s no telling how far away Apep is from us. I can only take two at a time in the streak and I don’t have the strength to do that fifty times. No one does.”

“I can cast the streak spell too,” Docia said, bringing her Bodywalker Tameri’s abilities to the fore. “If Kane could contact more Mind Demons we could use them to teleport us all there in waves.”

“That’s too slow. We will be in threat of discovery every moment. And it’s hard to say where exactly we’ll be able to gather that will keep us concealed until the last minute. No…a mass teleportation spell is needed,” Kamen said.

“A spell of that magnitude could drain the caster to the point of barely being able to survive,” Docia said worriedly.

“It is a chance I am willing to take.”

“It would count you out for the duration of the battle. We are going to need you on the front lines, Kamen. Your skill with offensive spells far exceeds mine,” Docia said. “No. It makes more sense that I cast the mass teleportation spell.”

“Docia, no!” Ram said.

“Ram, it has to be done.”

“Not by you.”

“Yes, by me! You are going to need Kamen in the battle if you are to have any hope of destroying Apep. Kamen, tell them what you told me earlier.”

Kamen had everyone’s attention. “I think I found a way to banish Apep from this plane of existence.”

“What?” a chorus of cries went up.

“I found it in an ancient scroll. It’s not actually about banishing Apep, but about moving energy from one plane of existence to another. It’s a very complex spell, but if we can get Apep into the circle that I will draw out to act as a portal, I think I can push him through it. But that requires holding him in place for as long as it will take me to cast the spell. So far I have timed myself at three minutes.”

“That’s not too long,” Kane said.

“It’s a long time to hold a god,” Kamen said. “I am researching a binding spell, but there’s no telling if it would be strong enough. How are we to know what will work against a god until we try it in the thick of battle?”

“There’s no need for that. I can bind him,” Grey said. “I think. As you say, there is no way of knowing for certain.”

“All we can do is have a plan and execute it. That means practicing it. I have a few ideas but as you said, it’s hard to know what will work against a god until we’re actually in the thick of the battle,” Jackson said. “I’ll need Grey and the Phoenixes and Viève.”

“Me? What can I do?” Viève asked.

“That deathtouch of yours is bound to at least weaken a god. He is in a mortal body after all.”

“But that means I’ll have to get close enough to touch him!” she said, panic rushing over her.

“That’s what I need Kane and Grey for. Trust me, Viève, we won’t leave you hanging out there.”

“Why use the half-breed?” Felix asked snidely. “Has she ever even used her deathtouch before? How do we know it’ll even work? Why not use me?”

“He’s right. I’ve never used my deathtouch before. And it’s not like I can practice on just anyone!” Viève cried.

“Viève, we will be able to test it. That night. The first chance you are able to, I want you to use your deathtouch against an enemy. If it works then we’ll use you, if it doesn’t then…we’ll use Felix.” It was clear they didn’t want to depend on Felix. Viève couldn’t blame them. Felix just shrugged.