"It just can't be easy. Any plans before we break out the book of shadows?"

"Countering their powers over time already gives us an advantage, but they're still strong enough to take any human, and they have powers over electricity that I don't completely understand. I can help a little with that, but they might also bring other projects with them."

"How many do you expect them to have around?"

"Last I heard there was only one other, but he's supposed to be a trump card. No clue on how far they've gotten on that. And they might have made more since."

"Any clues on what... components this trump card is made of? And a trump card to what? Us?"

"To the forces of Good. Including you. They were trying to resurrect some kind of ancient evil, and we were earlier attempts."

"Why invent resurrect-" Pause. "okay, they are evil in the most literal sense of the word."

Beatrix pats her on the back.

"Is hybrid creation a typical... step, during resurrection attempts? That you know of?"

"It's not resurrection the way you're probably thinking. They need a host body, and regular humans can't handle it. They tried. Trouble is, they don't want to risk using a demon. He was a warlock who killed demons, and putting him in a demon's body might not bring him back with his powers."

"Do you think there is a way to sabotage that? And what is special about the warlock's powers?"

"I know less about his powers than I do about his body count. He was a serial killer with at least thirty-seven victims, all killed in ways that the locals couldn't explain. We only know it was him because he made some enemies among the witches. As for stopping them, either kill the host, kill them, or hope there's some other steps to the ritual that we can prevent."

"No exorcism option that you know of?"

"Not that I know of."

"Maybe we should focus on what we can do, instead of speculating. Uh, how much time do we have to prepare?"

"I don't know for sure. I know that they've found what they think is the perfect host. There's supposed to be a mythical weapon that can kill it, so if we just find that, we might be able to put a stop to this."

"Is it weird that I am glad we have the option to stick a magic pointy thing in this bad guy?"

"Anything else you might know about that weapon?"

He tells her what he knows: its rumored location (the French countryside, where it was believed to have been used to kill him the first time), its makeup (mostly iron, and some magic), and the restrictions on its use (it can only be wielded by a witch).

Could a non-witch transport it? How complicated it would be to go to France to retrieve the thing?

The rumors don't have much to say about transport, and the difficulty of obtaining it comes mostly from its mythical status. Presumably it exists, as Theo's former masters took it seriously, but he doesn't have any obvious leads.

Worth doing a non-zero amount of research, but any further investment will be conditional on what low-hanging fruit they find.

"We can look into options for sealing or banishing him in case we're too late."

"Yes, we can. Do you know why they are focusing on this one guy?"

"The host, or the parasite? I don't know more about this monster than I've told you, and as for the sucker who's going to get possessed, I know even less. He'll have to be part demon too, though, like the rest of us."