Vampire Sunrise

The Witchy Plan

It took a few hours and a good lunch, but eventually, the coven leaders relaxed. I explained my adventures looking for Charley last night and included how the vampire tormented the father and son in the alley and what I did to the vampire. I spoke about the underground sauna and the Tulane Medical storm and how awful last night was on the people of New Orleans from my perspective.

"I know we need to help protect everyone on the streets, but we need to make a statement. Vampires need to know this is our city. The people need to feel safe," Katie said in a political tone.

Nelda chimed in, "In all my years, I've never seen vampires act like this. If last night was any indicator of what's about to come, then we need to be prepared for a much more violent night and more bloodshed."

"The hospitals are already at maximum capacity, and it wasn't just random people getting hurt last night. We helped the paramedic that brought Charley in, and he told us a vampire targeted his EMT partner. We need to kill Dominus or run him and his vampires out of the city; that's the only way to end this," I said.

"No one knows where his layer is. I'm not even sure anyone knows what he looks like," Katie answered.

"But what if we could find him?" Nelda said.

"How in the name of the goddess can we find him?" Katie looked put off at Nelda's comment.

"We know vampires will be roaming the streets tonight, don't we?" Nelda looked around at the other witches like a Sunday school teacher trying to get them to remember a passage. "Surely, you four haven't forgotten your first year of casting lessons, have you?"

The witches looked more confused than me, and I had no idea what she was talking about.

"Think about it, we have no idea where he is, and we have no idea where the vampires go during the light, but what if we could "track" them." She stopped talking and waited for them to respond.

Beth spoke up first, "For the love of the goddess, you all call yourself witches? I've been caught five times by what she's talking about. Did none of you sneak out when you were a teenager?"

"Chastity dust?" Katie questioned.

"Yes, If I remember correctly, you were caught several times by it, weren't you, Katie?" Nelda said.

Katie replied, "How in the world is that going to help us? Magical footprints all over the streets of New Orleans will only confuse us."

"You're half right, Katie. If we set the traps now, it would be a disaster, but not after midnight. After midnight if anything steps into the dust, we would have about seven hours to follow the tracks. Worst case, we could find out where some of them sleep, and best case, we find Dominus and his layer."

Nelda grinned and shook her head at the girls. "And yes, Katie, some of the tracks will lead us in a circle, but think about how many come from below ground; we may be able to find their main travel routes."

"How does this chastity dust work? And why is it called chastity dust?" I asked.

Katie answered, "It's silly, actually. It's been used for generations to track wondering teenagers like that one over there against the wall." Beth cocked her head and gave a fake smile.

"We spell an area with magical sand, and whoever steps into it becomes trackable. Their footprints leave behind magical residue witches can see and follow. Chastity dust is invisible to humans and young witches. It becomes useless for tracking after a witch becomes of age and comes into her full powers because then she can see it like the rest of us."

I finally got it.

"Ok, we hopefully have a way to track some of the vampires' paths home. How are we going to help protect humans that get caught out after night falls?" I asked.

"Can we ward an area or something?" Beth asked.

"We could, but how would people know about the place we ward? It's already after lunch, and we can't go around posting signs on power poles," Katie replied.

"I have a way to get the word out. After we work out the details, I'll have Eddie Baker go live with the story; he'll be after this story faster than Beth's boyfriend running barefoot from Katie at 2:00 am," I said. Beth's face turned red.

It felt great to laugh together, especially after the rocky start I had with five points. I was scared of what could happen to the witches and my friends tonight. I knew Dominus had to die, and ultimately this city needed to become safe regardless of our risk.

"I bet we could use my old apartment building as a safe house. I have a friend that lives there, and I'm very close to the manager." I chuffed, thinking about Allen and his door rattling thumps. "I'll set everything up with Eddie and have him broadcast outside the Blood Bank Apartments on Decatur Street."

Katie said, "We can't coat the whole city in chastity dust, so I think we should set our traps somewhere close to Alice's blood bank. We also need to be fairly close to each other for safety in case this all goes sideways. Alice, you've been down in the vampire tunnels; where would be a few good places to lay the spell traps?"

"I know tunnels run under the French Quarter Mansion Hotel, Café Du Songe, and The Customs House. So anywhere near those three places should work. I also think we should put a trap on Jackson Square."

"Ok, it will take us a few hours to get everything ready for the spells. We'll go back to our covens while you take care of the blood bank and Eddie. At midnight we'll need some help from your demons if possible. Usually, it would only take one witch to cast the spell, but since we need the chastity dust spells to be larger, it will take more witches to get the size we want. We will use the demons to guard the casters. Three caster groups should be enough, so three demons if you can spare them. The witches will converge at the blood bank just before sunset," Katie said.

I replied, "I have just the three demons for the job."

"After the traps are set, the witches will come back to the blood bank and stay until sunrise to keep a watch over any New Orleanian that needs protection. I will leave the vampire hunting to you, Alice, but remember the footprints only last seven hours," Katie said.

"That won't work; only witches can see the footprints from the chastity dust. Someone will have to go with her," Nelda said.

"I should be ok, Nelda; I can see magic," I said.

"That's impossible; how can you see magic," Nelda questioned me.

"I'm just weird that way." I shrugged. The old witch huffed and shook her head.

We finished making our plans, and the witches started to talk about who they were bringing and coordinating tasks. Katie was to gather the main component for the chastity dust spell, called magical sand, but from what I understood, it was nothing like the stuff I walked on at the beach and much more like tiny magic glass beads that broke when stepped on.

The covens would be on their highest alerts with every magical working cast to reinforcing their compound barriers. Three from each coven were coming out for tonight's affair, so fifteen witches. I would imagine that if five witchy vampires could cause a storm, fifteen could do just about anything.

This was the first real stand against the vampires by the witches of New Orleans. They were preparing for an all-out war. Witches were usually conservative and strategic when dealing with vampires, but tonight they were stepping away from surgical precision and meeting resistance with force.

I spoke to Angel telepathically, letting her know it was time to go so she could say her goodbyes to Sam. I walked over and hugged Beth and Katie, then shook Nelda's hand again.

"See you all before sunset at the Decatur Blood Bank Apartments. Good luck," I said. Angel and I walked out of the coven house.

We did the standard gateprocedure then moved into our rhythm until arriving at Jackson Square. I wantedto walk the rest of the way to the blood bank.