Hard Bitten (36 page)

She smiled sheepishly. “Would you want to buy them by any chance? They’re still good.”

“Sorry,” I kindly said. “I don’t need anything.”

Obviously disappointed, she sighed heavily and lumbered awkwardly away, the baby now beginning to squall.

“Good luck,” I called out, but she was already looking for someone else to tempt.

I didn’t always get to play the hero.

I walked around the tent and back into the flow of people, and I was nearly overdone again.

My stomach growled at the smells; there was only so much blocking that a vampire could do. I silently promised myself a deep-fried candy bar and a paper tray of bacon-wrapped Tater Tots if I made it through the night unscathed. Not a good nutritional combo, but I figured the odds were low anyway.

I walked to a sign that identified the tents’

locations, found the Town booth, and checked my watch. It was about ten minutes until eleven.

Ten minutes until showtime.

A hand suddenly gripped my arm. I jerked, expecting to see Celina. For better or worse, I got a different kind of surprise.

“Hello, there,” said the man at my side.

It was McKetrick, having traded in his fatigues for jeans and a snug black T-shirt. The better to blend in with the humans, I assumed. He smiled grandly at me. He might have been handsome, but the effect was still creepy.

I pulled back my arm. “If you’re smart, you’ll walk away right now and go about your business.”

“Merit, you are my business. You’re a vampire, and I’d be willing to bet you’re carrying a weapon here in this public place. It would be irresponsible of me to let you go on about your merry way, don’t you think?”

It would save me a lot of trouble, I thought, because there was no way I could explain why I needed him to leave me alone. He’d go ballistic if he knew I was here to entertain Celina. And speaking of, time was ticking down, and I needed to get to the Town tent.

“If you’re smart,” I told him, “you’ll be on your own merry way.”

He tilted his head. “You seem a little preoccupied. You aren’t planning to start trouble, are you? That would be most unfortunate.”

“I never start trouble,” I assured him. It just usually seemed to pop up in my vicinity. Case in point: “Since I was minding my own business before you grabbed me, you’re the one causing trouble.”

“If you minded your own business,”

McKetrick retorted, “you’d be home among your own kind.”

I was saved the trouble of responding to his prejudiced idiocy by the sound of an argument moving toward us. I looked up. A man and woman bickered as they walked, each clearly irritated by the other.

“Really, Bob? Really?” asked the woman.

“You think the best course of action is to spend an entire week’s salary on food tickets? That’s what you think? Because you want to eat gyros and fried cheesecake for the rest of the week?

Not that I should be surprised. It’s just the kind of harebrained thing you’d do.”

“Oh, yeah, Sharon. Lay it on. Lay it on thick.

Right here in public where everybody can see!”

The man, who was only a couple of feet from me, lifted his arms and moved in a circle. “Did anyone not hear my lovely wife berating me?

Anyone?”

The people around us chuckled nervously, not sure whether they should step in and put an end to the dramatics, or ignore them.

I had the same question—until the man made the full turn and I could see the red T-shirt beneath his thin jacket. MIDNIGHT HIGH

SCHOOL was written in faded white letters across the front. These were my RG helpers.

The guy winked at me, then stepped directly between me and McKetrick. “I mean, really, sir, is this the kind of behavior you’d expect from your wife? What happened to ‘for better or worse’ and all that?”

The woman stepped up and poked a finger into the guy’s chest. “Oh, just another thing for you to criticize me about, huh, Bob? I’m shocked.

Really shocked. I should have listened to my mother, you know!”

“Oh, yeah, Sharon. Bring your mother into this. Your poor, woebegone mother!”

A crowd began to gather around the couple, creating a thicker human barrier that put more space between McKetrick and me. Two security guards also ambled over, adding two more humans—and two more weapons—to the fray.

I got while the getting was good.

I found the Town booth and camped beside it, but fifteen minutes, and then half an hour, passed with no action. I cursed McKetrick, positive that he’d scared Celina away.

For the twentieth time, I stood on tiptoes to get a better look at the grounds, nearly falling over when a dark-haired woman nudged past me.

Absently, I watched her dark ponytail bob as she walked, but it wasn’t until she was nearly gone that I felt the tingle of magic in the air. I hadn’t recognized her—and wouldn’t have, but for the power that lingered behind her. My heart began to thud with anticipation.

Before she could escape, I grabbed her wrist.

C
elina slowly turned to face me. She wore a one-piece, royal blue jumper with ankle boots, her hair in a ponytail. Her eyes widened in apparent shock.

Okay, now I was confused. Why did she look surprised to see me?

Her arm still in my hand, she moved a step closer. “If you’re smart, child, you’ll let go of my hand while you still have yours to use.”

“I was told you wanted to meet me,” I informed her. “By a mutual friend.”

Almost instantaneously, her expression changed. Her eyes narrowed, her nostrils flared, and her magic rose in an angry, peppery cloud.

The humans still moved past with fair food and plastic cups of beer in hand, completely oblivious to the magical reactor who was throwing off enough power to light the Loop.

“That little shit,” she muttered, followed by a few choice curses.

I assumed she meant Paulie, but if she hadn’t been expecting me . . .

“Who did you think you were meeting?”

Her expression went haughty. “As you are well aware, and as the GP has reminded you, my life is none of your concern.”

“Chicago is my concern. Cadogan House is my concern.”

She scoffed. “You’re a vampire in a fourth-rate House. And sleeping with its Master isn’t exactly a coup.”

I resisted the urge to do the nail raking and hair pulling I’d complained about only a few days ago. Instead, I gave back the same pretentious look she gave me. It wasn’t that I was naïve about Celina or her power—or the damage she could do to me. But I was tired of being afraid.

And if the GP was going to act like she wasn’t a threat, then I was, too.

“My life is none of your concern, either,” I countered. “And I don’t care how well you’ve managed to convince the GP you’re a good citizen and have nothing to do with the havoc in this city right now. I know it’s bullshit, and I am not afraid of you. Not anymore. I’m also not afraid of the GP, so I’m going to give you one chance to answer this question.” I pressed my nails into the flesh of her arm. “Did you put V on the streets?”

Celina looked around, seemed to realize that the people around us were beginning to stare.

And of all the reactions I might have imagined, the one she handed back wasn’t even on the list.

“Maybe I did,” she said, loud enough for all to hear. “Maybe I helped put V on the streets. So what?”

My mouth opened in shock. Celina had just announced to a few thousand humans that she’d helped put V on the street. It was a coup for me, but there was no way she’d make that kind of announcement if she didn’t think she had an out.

What was her game?

The humans around us stopped, now staring full out. A couple of them popped out phones and were taping the scene.

“What’s your connection to Paulie Cermak? I know you talked to him at Navarre House.”

She barked out a laugh. “Paulie Cermak is a little worm. He’s got a warehouse in Greektown that houses the V, and he’s been handling the distribution from there. That’s why there wasn’t any V in his house.” She gave me an appraising gaze. “What’s more interesting is how you learned about it. Morgan told you, no?” She looked me up and down. “Did you offer yourself for a little information?”

In addition to feeling disgusted by the suggestion, I felt a little sympathy for Morgan.

Celina’s craziness didn’t excuse the fact that Morgan wasn’t reliable, but it sure did explain why he wasn’t trustworthy. If he’d learned to be a Master by following in Celina’s footsteps, there’d probably been no hope for him.

“And the raves?”

“The raves were the linchpin,” she said. “The key to the entire system. They were means to get V—and humans—into the hands of vampires.”

Celina looked around, realized she had a captive audience of humans who’d recognized who she was—and the fact that she was supposed to be locked away in England, not standing in the middle of Street Fest confessing to crimes against the citizens of Chicago.

If I’d been in her position, I would have balked. I’d have lowered my head and ducked through the crowd, seeking escape. But Celina wasn’t your average vampire. With nothing close to regret or fear in her eyes—and while I stared at her, shocked at her audacity—she began to address the crowd.

“For too long, I bought into the notion that humans and vampires could simply coexist. That being vampire meant tamping down certain urges, working in communion with humans, leading humans.”

She began to turn in a circle, offering her sermon to the crowd. “I was wrong. Vampires should be vampires. Truly, completely vampires.

We are the next evolution of humans. V reminds us who we are. And you, too—all of you—could have our strength. Our powers. Our immortality!”

“You killed humans!” shouted one of the humans. “You deserve to die.”

Celina’s smile faltered. She’d changed positions in a second attempt to ingratiate herself with humans, and it still hadn’t worked. She opened her mouth to counter the assertion, but the next words weren’t hers.

Four uniformed CPD officers stepped around her. Three pointed weapons; the fourth grabbed her wrists and cuffed them behind her back.

“Celina Desaulniers,” he said, “you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say could be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be appointed to you. Do you understand the rights I’ve read to you?”

Celina struggled once, and she was strong enough that the man who’d cuffed and restrained her had to fight to keep her on the ground. But after a moment she stopped, her expression going pleasantly blank.

That wasn’t a good sign.

“She’ll try to glamour you,” I warned. “Stay focused, and fight through it. She can’t make you do anything; she’ll just try to lower your inhibitions. You might want to have the Ombudsman meet you at the station. He’s got staff who can help you.”

Three of the cops ignored me, but the fourth nodded with appreciation. It couldn’t have been easy to get a lecture from a skinny vamp with a ponytail.

“There’s no need to glamour them,” Celina said, her blue-eyed gaze on me. “I’ll be out before you can warn your lover that you found me here. Oh, and enjoy your conversation with Darius. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to find out about this.”

She went willingly. After a moment, the crowd completely dissipated, leaving no evidence of Celina’s recapture or the proselytizing speech she’d just given.

That gave me a minute to focus on the bigger question: What the hell had just happened?

I stood there for a moment, still trying to wrap my mind around Celina’s confession and arrest.

Long story short: I had to be missing something. The entire thing was way too easy and felt like a giant setup. Celina clearly didn’t know she was going to meet me, but she’d nevertheless confessed to the entire crowd that she’d been helping Paulie distribute drugs and arrange the raves. And then she tried to convince them to join the vampire bandwagon.

How did that make sense?

It simply didn’t. While I wasn’t unhappy Celina was off the streets and back in the hands of the CPD, I couldn’t figure out her angle. She had to have one. There was no way a woman as egotistical as Celina makes a confession without thinking she’ll get something out of it. Maybe that was it. Did she think she could get out of it?

Did she think she was immune from trouble because she had GP protection? Unfortunately, that possibility wasn’t entirely unrealistic.

I didn’t know what game she was playing, but I knew this wasn’t the end of the story. Vampire drama rarely wrapped up so easily.

I sighed and pulled out my phone, preparing to give Ethan a quick update before I searched for a cab. I’m not sure what made me glance up or over, but there he was—right in front of me.

Paulie sat at a small, plastic café table inside a beer tent. Two empty plastic cups sat on the table in front of him, and a third, half-full cup was in his hand. He lifted it to me, a toast to my participation in whatever con he was running.

At least to Paulie, this had been a game. He’d set up Celina, but why? To get her out of the way? So he could lose the vampire middleman—the woman bringing unwanted drama to the entire operation—and gain access to her share of the profits?

I shifted my body weight forward to launch myself toward him. But before I could move, I was stopped by the same thing that had kept McKetrick from me—humans.

This time, a family moved in front of me.

Mother and a double stroller of sleeping children in the lead; father with a sleeping infant on his hip pulling a red wagon that held a third sleeping toddler. The entire family was tethered together with ribbon. It was a wagon train of family.

By the time they’d moved their caravan out of the way and I looked up again, Paulie was gone.

I
wasn’t entirely sure how to break the news to Ethan. How did you tell your boss that for no apparent reason, your enemy had confessed her evildoings and gone willingly into the arms of the Chicago Police Department?

Turned out, I didn’t need to. After picking through the protesters to get into the House, I found half the House’s vampires in the front sitting room, eyes glued to a flat-screen television that hung above the fireplace.