Biting Bad: A Chicagoland Vampires Novel (16 page)

“True,” Luc said, then glanced at Jeff. “Anything like that pop up on Robin Pope?”

“Not so far. Her background is bland. Nothing suspicious. Nothing even interesting.”

“Could it have been wiped?” Jonah asked.

“Sure,” Jeff said. “But there’s also nothing so glorious it looks fake. She just seems dull.”

“General awareness of the riots is undoubtedly helping recruitment,” Luc said. “Media reports are all over the twenty-four-hour news stations, the Web.”

“We’re actually hoping we have an ace there,” Ethan said. “Merit’s family is friendly with the Breckenridges, including Nicholas, the reporter. She called him and asked that he consider preparing a feature about how the riots are impacting the Houses, the neighborhoods. The darker side of hatred, as it were.”

He glanced at Scott. “I’ve offered him access to the House, but you can grant whatever access you’d like—or none, if you prefer—for your people. I know the spotlight isn’t comfortable for all.”

Scott nodded. “I’ll think it over.”

“While we’re taking roll call,” Luc said, “has anyone heard from Morgan?”

“He finally called,” Scott said. “Said he wasn’t able to offer room in the House. According to him, Will, the guard captain, is new and not equipped to handle an influx of vampires, and they’re still reeling from the recent deaths.”

Unappreciative silence followed that explanation.

“Each Master must make his own way,” Ethan said.

“That’s generous,” Scott said. “I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for the first few months of his term, and when Darius tightened the reigns. But he is Master of his House, and he’s not exactly doing it proud.”

Morgan was an odd duck. He’d gotten control of Navarre House under unusual circumstances, and he hadn’t exactly made the most of it, at least not with respect to the other Houses. He seemed to be well intentioned, but he was emotionally immature. I’d hoped he could grow into his position, but he hadn’t gotten there yet. Unfortunately, each time Navarre House huddled farther into its shell, he damaged his relationship with the rest of us. Some night, that was going to bite him in the ass.

“Harold Monmonth also called,” Scott said. “He ‘forbade’ me from staying at Cadogan House. Said the GP would consider it a violation of our charter if we live in sin with blacklisted vampires who’d so recently defied the GP and all it stood for. He gave me a lengthy speech about loyalty and punishment.”

Ethan blinked. “And how did you respond?”

“I reminded him Darius West was head of the GP, and Darius was the only individual who had the authority to forbid Grey House from doing anything. I told him I haven’t heard from Darius, although personally I suspect that does not bode well.”

“Monmonth or not, you may take heat for your decision,” Ethan said.

“My decision was keeping my vampires safe from the rising sun. Any member of the GP who doesn’t understand that is an idiot, and not worthy of the position.”

I couldn’t help but smile at that comment.

“Is this when we talk about taxation without representation?” asked one of the Grey House guards, a woman with cocoa skin and a gorgeous pouf of dark hair. She was tall and trim, so the jersey nearly overwhelmed her lean figure. But paired with short nails painted yellow and a bright pair of yellow Converse sneakers—both of which matched the yellow in the Grey House jersey, she pulled it off.

If it was appropriate to judge a person based on her footwear—and it obviously was—I decided I liked her immediately.

The other Grey House guards chuckled, but Scott looked less than amused by the comment. I guess it was still too soon for jokes about defecting from the GP.

“Back to the riots,” Jonah said in a serious tone, apparently taking his cue from Scott. “Two riots, two nights in a row. It’s not unreasonable to surmise they’ll hit another location tomorrow night.”

“And not necessarily a House,” Luc said. “They hit a Blood4You distributor the first time. That means they like businesses with connections to vampires, and they have enough information to ferret out places that aren’t commonly known to humans. We’ve put together a potential list of targets.”

Luc switched the image on-screen, and the bulleted list popped up. Navarre and Cadogan Houses made the list, as did Benson’s, Red, and Temple Bar, the official bars of Grey House, Navarre, and Cadogan, respectively.

The harbor lighthouse in Lake Michigan, which served as the Red Guard’s headquarters, did not make the list. Probably because Jonah and I were the only two vampires in the room who knew its purpose.

“Anybody know if Robin Pope has connections to any of those places?” Jonah asked, glancing around the room, but no one offered an answer.

Luc tapped a spot on the screen near the Houses. “If these rioters were really aiming for maximum impact, Cadogan House would be the target. It’s in a neighborhood they haven’t hit before, and we’re all here together.”

“Maximum impact and damage,” Jonah agreed. “You hit one place, and two Houses.”

“Yeah, but that assumes these guys are doing anything by the book,” Lindsey said. “They clearly aren’t. If they really wanted to hit vampires and for maximum publicity, you hit Cadogan House first. We’re more infamous.”

“Which suggests Robin Pope is on the riot steering committee. She’s picking the locations—not because they’ll make the biggest bang, but because she’s got personal vendettas.” I glanced at Luc. “You might want to poll the House, make sure she doesn’t know anyone here.”

“And we’ll keep looking into her background,” Jeff said.

“Just in case,” Ethan said, “we’ve doubled the number of guards outside. They’re humans, but they have guns. At dusk, let’s discuss how we can work together to increase our guard presence while we have the bodies to do so. Chuck, could you also apprise the CPD of the possibility the House may be a target?”

“Of course,” he said.

“I thought the CPD wasn’t exactly on our side right now?” asked one of the Grey House guards.

“They aren’t,” Grandpa confirmed. “But they are on the side of humans, and there are plenty in Hyde Park. In particular, there are wealthy humans who own sizable homes and contribute to the mayor’s election campaign. That will probably spark some considerable interest on the part of the CPD.”

“That’s a good segue,” Scott said, stepping forward again. “We’re looking for temporary housing, but that’s going to take some time. While we’re here, we’ve got a good opportunity to work together. As I see it, our agenda is to find the source of the riots and cut it off. We can look into the rioters, the employees, whatever. I’m less interested in how we get there than the fact that we get there. We’ve lost our House. That will not stand. And we will find a way—and now—to stop it.”

He looked at Ethan and nodded.

“Well put,” Ethan said. “With that, I think we’re done.”

—

While the senior staff discussed the details of our inadvertent partnership, I said good-bye to the Ombuddies.

“Thank you for coming, although I hope you didn’t come this way for such a short meeting?”

“Actually, we didn’t,” Catcher said. “As soon as I got back to the house, we discovered some ongoing hysteria on the police scanners about a chimera on Fifty-seventh Street.”

“A chimera? Like the mythical monster?”

“Exactly like that,” my grandfather said.

“And what did you find?”

“Cocker spaniel wearing many awkward Halloween costumes,” my grandfather said with obvious amusement. “The owner’s children had been playing dress up, and it escaped the yard in full regalia.”

“Including one of those costumes,” Jeff said, hands in action, “that looks like a saddle and has a little cowboy on top.”

“And one of the chimera heads was born,” Catcher said.

“Hey, better than the real thing,” I said. “What do you even do with a chimera?”

“What
wouldn’t
you do with a chimera?” Jeff asked. “They’re like the Swiss Army knife of animals.”

“Party in the front, business in the back,” Catcher agreed.

That earned a snort and laugh from me. “Any animal that can be compared to a mullet is a good animal in my book.”

“We should get going,” Grandpa said. “Marjorie has phone duty while we’re gone, and she gets irritable if we leave her alone too long.”

“But she’s the admin,” I pointed out. “It’s her job to answer the phones.”

“She does not quite see it that way,” my grandfather said with a smile. “But there aren’t enough hours left in the night to have that discussion.” He patted my shoulder. “I wouldn’t wish violence on anyone, but I’m glad you and your House were out of harm’s way tonight.”

“Me, too,” I agreed, glancing around the room at the Grey House guards, who still looked shell-shocked. “But we’re not out of the woods. Not yet. If Grey House can be hit, Cadogan House can, too.”

And this time, there’d be twice as many vampires in the crosshairs.

—

The Ombuddies headed south again. My good-byes complete, I walked over to the whiteboard and looked it over. Two riots, lots of injuries, an entire House of vampires UnHoused, and untold property damage. And all because Robin Pope held grudges.

“So, you’re Merit.”

I glanced back. The Grey House vampire with the yellow Converses stood behind me, arms crossed over her chest.

“I am. I didn’t get your name.”

“Aubrey,” she said. “I’m a friend of Jonah’s. We all are, the guards. We’re a very close-knit team.” She looked me over, and her expression wasn’t exactly friendly. More like analytical.

“I wanted to get a sense of you,” she said, meeting my gaze again. “He had a thing for you, you know.”

I had no idea how to respond to that, so I didn’t.

Jonah had had a thing for me, at least briefly. He’d confessed as much when Ethan was gone, but I’d been too in love, and still mourning, to even entertain an offer.

She stepped beside me and turned toward the board, looking it over. “It was when Ethan was dead?”

“Yes,” I said. I was mortified by the conversation, but if she was going to look at the board, so would I.

We stood there for a couple of minutes in silence, standing beside each other, staring at the board and trying to ferret out what was there . . . and what wasn’t.

“Why these riots?” she asked.

“Exactly my question,” I said, hoping we’d moved on. “It seems like a waste of resources and capital—and hatred—to hit little targets.”

“I couldn’t agree more. Something bigger’s at issue here. Something we aren’t seeing.”

“But what?”

“I don’t know.” She shook her head, hair bouncing as she did it. I was instantly struck jealous by the volume of it. It was star-worthy hair.

“I don’t know, either.” I glanced over at her. “I love your hair . . . and Ethan. Jonah told me what he felt, and I was honest with him. I think he’s a great guard and a fantastic vampire, but I’m not going to apologize for being in a relationship with someone else.”

She pursed her lips. “Not much for subtlety, are you?”

“No. Much like you, apparently.”

“Aubrey?”

At the sound of Jonah’s voice, we both glanced back. He watched us for a moment, as if puzzling out our interaction. “You ready to go? I want to touch base for a few minutes before sunrise about the accommodations.”

“Of course,” she said, and when he turned away, she looked at me again. “You’ll do. And I like your hair, too.”

When she walked away to join him, I smiled a little.

—

When dawn closed in, Ethan and I headed upstairs for bed. I had to remind myself to stop at the second-floor landing, that we were heading for my old room, not the more lush accommodations I’d become used to.

On the door, as on the doors of all Novitiates’ rooms, was a small corkboard. A placard bearing my name had been pinned to it, as had a photo from a magazine: two waifish young starlets stretched across a velvet chaise in front of a deep navy background. Lindsey had replaced the girls’ heads with small, unevenly cut pictures of us.

With Ethan behind me, I unlocked the door and opened it. The room smelled faintly of dust and the rose-scented perfume I liked to wear in colder months. Since the bottle was upstairs, the fragrance must have lingered on my clothes.

There wasn’t much to the room, especially compared to the splendor of the Master’s apartments. It was a small rectangle of space. A twin bed sat in one corner, and there was a bureau on the opposite wall that still stored all the personal effects and clothes I hadn’t yet taken to Ethan’s apartments. Two doors led to a closet and small bathroom.

“Home sweet home?” he asked.

“Something like that.” He walked inside, and I closed the door behind him. For a moment, I was struck at how truly different my life had become since I’d been made a vampire. In those early nights, I’d been convinced Ethan was my enemy, the vampire who’d taken away my human life without so much as a second thought. I’d actually been grateful my room was on the second floor, one floor removed from his, so I wouldn’t have to face him any more than necessary.

And now we were lovers. Confidants. Partners. I’d come to admit that he’d saved my life, not taken it away, and he’d accepted that I wasn’t one to blindly follow orders. Our romance had not been simple, and it hadn’t been easy. It still wasn’t easy, as there was always some kind of supernatural drama interfering with our lives.

But perhaps that was the point? That plans, however well-intentioned, were ultimately irrelevant? That we had to learn to adapt, and the best-case scenario was finding a partner who was willing to adapt alongside us?

If I hadn’t adapted, we might still be enemies. I might still be refusing his advice and counsel, and he might have picked a House consort to fulfill his needs. My Red Guard membership would be less about helping the Houses than spying on Ethan. We’d have been enemies, engaged in a private war against each other.

Instead, over the course of the last year, we’d joined forces. We fought together against factions that sought to tear apart the House. And even in this tiny, cold, and sparse room, I was home, because he was with me.

Ethan looked at me curiously. “Are you all right? You’re making the room buzz.”