Hard Bitten (Chicagoland Vampires 4)

But they weren't alone. Who was perched on the edge of Tate's desk?

Celina Desaulniers.

I closed my eyes, ruing my na?vete. Why would Celina have confessed to horrible acts in front of humans? Because she had a relationship with the mayor that ensured she'd get off scot-free.

This must have been part of her big plan.

Seduce the mayor, make friends with a drug distributor, and create a drug intended to remind vampires of their predatory roots. When the shit hit the fan, she could take credit for giving vamps the time of their lives, and invite humans to join the party. And she could do it all with impunity.

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that she'd glamoured Tate into doing it. He was a politician, sure, but he had seemed to genuinely care about the city. Had Celina created the entire ruse and wooed him with polling data?

I really, really hated her.

Irritation pushing aside my fear, I moved back to a nearby patio, crossed it as surreptitiously as possible, and tried the door. My luck held - it was unlocked. I padded quietly down the hallway to the room where I'd seen them, then pushed my way inside.

They all glanced at the door.

Paulie was the first to move. He backed up a few feet, moving closer to the corner of the room - and farther from the angry vampire.

I stepped inside and shut the door behind me.

"This looks like a cozy meeting."

Tate smiled lazily. "These young vampires have no manners these days. Didn't even wait for an invitation, did you?"

The faux cheer worried me - and made me wonder if he was still under the influence of Celina's glamour. I flipped the thumb guard on my sword, unsheathed it, and moved closer. No point in pretending we were here for fun.

I pointed the katana at Celina. "You set us up."

Celina picked at a fingernail. "I did the right thing, as the GP has made clear to you time and time again. Why are you even here?" She rolled her shoulders, as if irritated.

I squinted at her in the mood lighting. "Lift your head, Celina, and look at me."

Remarkably, she did as she was told. I could finally see her eyes - which were wide, her irises almost completely silver. She wasn't running the show - she'd been drugged.

I'd had it wrong. Again.

I looked up at Tate. "You're controlling her with V?"

"Only partially. I assumed you'd come calling when you figured out the connection between Mr. Cermak and me. When the police report was accessed, I received an alert. In the meantime, I thought we might amp up the drama a bit. I understand Ms. Desaulniers was quite a warrior; I decided to test V's effects on a woman already known to be skilled. Does it make her a better fighter? A worse one? As a former researcher,you must appreciate my approach."

"You're crazy."

Tate frowned. "Not even a little, unfortunately."

Celina hopped off the corner of the desk and walked along its length, trailing a fingertip across the desktop. I kept my sword trained on her, and one eye on Tate.

"You said you were only partially controlling her with V. How else are you controlling her?"

He just sat there and smiled at me - and in that moment I felt the telltale prickle of magic in the air. But not the mildly irritating stuff Mallory and Catcher threw off. This was heavier - oilier, almost, in the way it suffused the room.

I swallowed back a burst of fear, but solved another bit of the puzzle. "You added the magical binder to the V."

"Very good. I wondered if you and yours would discover that. Call it a signature, of sorts."

"What are you?" I asked, although I knew part of the answer: he wasn't human. I don't know why I had never been able to feel it before, but now I knew it was true. The leaden magic he was throwing off was nothing like Mallory's or Catcher's.

Frowning, he sat forward and linked his hands on the desktop. "At the risk of sounding incredibly egotistical, I am the best thing that's happened to this city in a long time."

Was there no end to this guy's ego? "Really? By creating chaos? By drugging vampires and putting humans at risk?" I pointed at Celina. "By releasing a felon?"

Tate sat back again and rolled his eyes. "Don't be melodramatic. And you'll recall Celina took the fall for the drugs. Very tidy how that wrapped up. The least I could do was reward her a bit - here in the privacy of my own home, anyway."

I guess he'd been in on the plan to fake Celina into a meeting at Street Fest - and to make a confession. She confessed because she knew Tate would let her off the hook; the confession served Tate by "solving" the V problem. I glanced over at her. She seemed to be completely unaware Tate was talking about her. She'd stopped moving at the side of Tate's desk and begun drumming her fingers nervously across the top. It looked like the V was beginning to kick in, to give her that irritating buzz.

"Frankly, Merit, I'm surprised you don't appreciate the tremendous boon that V offers to vampires."

"It makes you feel like a vampire," Celina intoned.

"She has a point," Tate said, drawing my gaze back to him. "V lowers inhibitions. You may think me callous, but I believed V would help weed out the less agreeable portion of the vampire population. Those willing to use V deserve to be incarcerated."

"So now you're entrapping vampires."

"It's not entrapment. It's good urban planning.

It's self-selection for population control. I understand you aren't susceptible to glamour.

Doesn't that make you different? Better? You don't have the same weaknesses. You're stronger, with better control."

I swung the katana in Celina's direction.

"Make your point, Tate."

"Do you know what kind of team we could make? You are the poster girl for good vampires.

You save humans, even when the GP would seek to bring you down, to punish you for your deeds.

They love you for it. You help keep the city in balance. And that's what we need, if there's any hope for vampires and humans to survive together."

"There is no way in hell that I'd work with you. You think you're going to walk away from this? After setting up vampires and contributing to the deaths - to the endangerment - of humans?"

His stare went cold. "Don't be na?ve."

"No," I said. "Don't justify your evildoing with some bogus, trite 'this is just the way the world works' lip service. This is not the way the world works, and my grandfather is proof of it.

You're egotistical and completely crazy."

Celina's finger drumming increased in pace, but whatever magical control Tate had on her was effective. She wouldn't act without his permission. "Can I kill her now, please?"