My words were light, but Donovan must have realized there was more that I wasn't telling him. For a moment, I almost thought I saw a flicker of concern in his eyes, but his face hardened once more, smothering the soft emotion.
"Gin's right," Bria said. "Dekes has Callie. We should be focusing on how we're going to get her back, not wasting time pointing fingers at each other."
"We're not going to do anything," Donovan growled at her. "Callie's my fiancee. I'll get her back on my own terms. I don't need your help, and I especially don't want Gin's so-called help. You're a detective, Coolidge. You should man up and act like a real cop instead of just pretending to care about the law whenever it suits you."
Bria stiffened, and anger blazed in her blue eyes - more anger than I'd ever seen her show before, except maybe when she'd first realized that I was the Spider. Her hand tightened around the gun that she was still holding, and I got the distinct impression that my baby sister would love nothing more at that moment than to raise up the weapon, pull the trigger, and put a few bullets into Donovan's chest. Instead, she shoved her gun at Finn.
"Hold this," she growled.
Bria stalked around the couch and walked up until she was standing nose to chest with Donovan. The detective glared down at her, still spoiling for a fight.
"Callie might be your fiancee, but she's my friend," Bria spat out the words. "She's my best friend, and I love her like a sister. Now she's in the hands of a very bad man, and instead of asking us for our help to get her back, you're bitching at me about the f**king law. What the hell is wrong with you?"
For the first time since he'd stormed into the beach house, uncertainty filled Donovan's features, and some of the anger in his eyes dimmed.
"You're a cop," he said. "You should understand where I'm coming from."
Bria drew in a breath, trying to get her temper under control. "I do understand, and most of the time, I'd agree with you. But Randall Dekes doesn't play by the rules, and he couldn't care less about the law. So I say we forget the rules and do whatever we have to in order to rescue Callie before Dekes kills her."
Donovan shook his head. "You know, you might pretend to be a cop, but deep down, you're no better than Gin is, always thinking that murdering someone is the only way to solve a problem."
"No," Bria snarled. "My sister's better than I am because she doesn't pretend to be anything other than what she is, and she always does exactly what she says she will. She's better than you are too, even if you're too much of a dumbass to realize it."
Surprised, I looked at my sister. Most of the time, Bria said the same things to me that Donovan had just spouted to her. That I was knife-happy and preferred to kill people rather than actually find another, less violent way to deal with them. Part of me knew that was true, that I did prefer to assassinate first and ask questions later. That's how Fletcher had trained me, and that's what had helped me survive so many bad situations over the years. But this was the first time I'd ever heard my sister defend me and my tactics, and I didn't quite know what to make of it.
Donovan bristled and opened his mouth to argue with Bria some more, but Sophia let out a loud, earsplitting whistle. Startled, we all looked at the Goth dwarf, who pointed her finger at Jo-Jo.
"Listen," Sophia rasped.
"Enough," Jo-Jo said, a hint of steel ringing in her soft voice. "That's enough. Every second that we waste arguing is another one that Callie spends with Dekes. And none of us want that, now, do we?"
The dwarf's clear eyes moved from face to face, and one by one, we all shook our heads.
"I didn't think so," Jo-Jo said. "Now, instead of arguing with each other, we are all going to sit down and talk about how we can rescue that poor girl, calmly and rationally, with no more snotty comments or accusations. Is that understood?"
We all murmured our agreement, except for Donovan. The detective glared at us all in turn before his gaze cut back to Jo-Jo. He gave her the evil eye as well, but the dwarf stared right back at him, her perfectly sculpted eyebrows raised in a silent question. Finally, Donovan sighed and gave in.
"Yes, ma'am," he said.
Jo-Jo nodded her head, graciously accepting his reluctant acquiescence. "Good. Now let's get started."
We all grumbled a little more, but thanks to Jo-Jo's chastising we sat down and got to work. Finn fetched his briefcase from one of the bedrooms and spread out all the information that he'd dug up on Dekes. Then he flipped on his laptop and started looking for anything that he'd missed or anything else that might help us rescue Callie.
I also explained to Donovan about Vanessa and Victoria and how we were going to save the two women as well. I told the detective how Dekes had been using the two sisters, feeding on their blood and the elemental magic that it contained. My intent wasn't to scare him or to get him to worry even more about Callie but instead to make him realize exactly what kind of monster we were going up against - and that killing Dekes was the only option now.
Donovan's features twisted with disgust when I finished. "So Dekes married Vanessa just so he could feed off her Fire magic? That's despicable."
"Yes, it is."
The detective's gaze fell to my neck. "Is that what Dekes did to you last night? Did he try to feed on your elemental power too? You have Ice and Stone magic, right? That's what all the rumors claim, anyway, the ones I heard after you killed Mab."
Once again, I saw that flash of concern in his eyes, and I wondered if maybe Owen was right after all - if Donovan still cared about or wanted me in some small fashion. If he did, he had a hell of a way of showing it.
"Yes, Dekes fed on me too," I said in a quiet voice. "It was . . . unpleasant."
I didn't say anything else, and Donovan didn't ask me any more questions. He didn't want to know anyway - not really. It would only make him feel guiltier about not being there to stop Dekes and his men from taking Callie. But my words had one positive affect - Donovan didn't raise any more objections about my killing the vampire.
"So Dekes has your Ice and Stone magic now, along with Vanessa's Fire and Victoria's Air magic? Fuck," Finn said. "That's going to make it that much tougher for us to rescue the women and get out of the mansion, if not impossible."
The others murmured similar concerns, but I looked at Finn.
"Nothing's impossible. Remember Fletcher telling us that?"
Finn nodded.
"Besides, you know as well as I do that you don't need magic to kill someone. Don't you worry about Dekes. I'll take care of him."