Drink Deep (Chicagoland Vampires 5)

I offered a sound of agreement and walked to the door so I could change clothes. "Frank's stil here," I pointed out.

"There's probably a good chance this guard thing won't work out for either of us."

It said a lot that she didn't disagree with me.

Once clothed in a black sports bra and yoga pants, I gathered together with Lindsey, Juliet, and Keley in the sparring room.

We stood barefoot at the edges of the mats, waiting for our cal to arms - or whatever Frank had in store. He stood in the middle of the room - in the middle of the mats - stil in a suit and fancy shoes.

Lindsey quietly clucked her tongue. "Luc is not going to be thril ed Frankfurter's wearing shoes on his tatami mats."

"No," I whispered in agreement. "That is not going to go over wel . Not that he can do anything about it."

Malik and Luc stood together on the other side of the room, irritated magic seeping from their corner. The balcony that ringed the room was fil ing with House vampires, their expressions ranging from curious to concerned. They clearly didn't trust Frank any more than we did.

When the balcony was ful , Frank loudly cleared his throat and stared daggers at the vampires until everyone was seated. Then he lowered his gaze to the four of us.

"I have determined it is in the best intn te did.

Stunned silence descended over the room, at least until the whispering started. The Novitiates' quiet comments echoed my own: This wasn't the time to take the House guards out of commission for a test. And even if we failed, who was going to replace us?

This had al the markings of an attempt to charge us as incompetent - or make me look worse than Frank already imagined I was.

Luc was the first to speak aloud. "You want to give them a test? That's ridiculous. They need to be outside defending the House, not dealing with bureaucratic nonsense."

"Fortunately," Frank said, "I did not ask for, nor do I require, your opinion. As the GP has repeatedly attempted to dril into this House, this House and its operation is your primary - and only - concern. The complications of human existence are not."

"As you and the GP are wel aware," Luc spat back, "the city is fal ing apart, one piece of real estate at a time, and you don't think we need to be worried about that? You don't think we need to be out there on the streets dealing with it?"

"Luc," Malik said, putting a hand on Luc's arm. "Not now."

His words suggested Luc show respect for Frank, but his own emotions were clearly roiling. It was evident in the furrow of his brow, the tenseness in his posture and the vibration of tense magic from his corner.

The conflict Malik faced was obvious - to stand up for your guards and your second in command, or to obey the council responsible for your House's existence and the protection of your vampires.

Sometimes, you had to lose the battle to win the campaign.

"Mr. Cabot," Malik said into the tense silence. "Continue."

Frank nodded pompously, but the rest of the vampires took Malik at his word, and immediately quieted. "As I was saying, you wil be tested and evaluated in various forms of physical fitness and endurance. If you refuse to participate, you wil be stripped of your position in the House. If you fail, you wil be stripped of your position in the House."

The room went deathly silent, al of us shocked. He looked up and looked right at me.

"You're al rated Very Strong Phys. Let's see if those classifications hold true." Frank looked down at his watch.

"You wil begin . . ."

"This can't be for real - " Keley pleaded, but she was silenced by a withering glance from the narc.

"You wil begin," Frank said again, "now."

Testing a vampire's strength and endurance was tricky, especial y if the vampires were guards of one of the nation's oldest vampire Houses. We were obviously strong, fast, and flexible. We'd been trained in combat, both with and without swords, and we'd run our fair share of miles.

We'd done thousands upon thousands of sit-ups and squats, push-ups, and chin-ups. The four of us probably could have exercised into infinity. But Frank wasn't interested in infinity.

Frank was interested in what we could do right now on half rations of blood, measured by a testing regimen probably created in the 1950s. Our strength was tested by throwing giant iron bal s and weights across the Cadogan grounds. One smashed window notwithstanding - they w e r e really hard to aim - we managed to surpanath wasass his arbitrary milestones.

Our flexibility and speed were tested with jump ropes that we were expected to use with ever-faster repetitions. We bel y-crawled across the backyard, flipped gigantic truck tires he'd hauled in for the task, and ran back-and-forth sprints until our legs felt like dead weight. He ordered us into the pool, freezing in the November chil , and made us swim laps until our skin was milky white and our teeth chattered from the cold.

We climbed out of the pool with soaked clothes and hair, steam rising from our bodies, and hatred of Frank growing in our hearts.

Frank carried around a clipboard and made notes as we worked through his dril s, his gaze disdainful, as if we were failing in every respect to meet whatever mental criteria he'd established.

Not that that was surprising. He couldn't have honestly thought this was a good time to test the only remaining three-and-a-half guards in Cadogan House. The House was peaceful only because we'd paid Claudia's minions to protect us, and it was a waste of time trying to prove a point he was never going to accept. Whether we passed or we failed . . . we stil failed.

But while the workout was exhausting, it was stil just a workout. Painful, sure. Tiring, yes. But just as in a normal workout, you reached a point where you zoned into the rhythm. We were vampires, and strong ones, and that meant something. We were strong, fast and flexible, whatever Frank's criticisms.

And we weren't the only ones who thought so. Word of the test spread through the House. Slowly but surely, a trickle of Cadogan vampires began to spil into the yard.

They formed a protective circle around us as we worked, occasional y handing over blood boxes and bottles of water like marathon volunteers.

We were bel y-crawling across the grass for the second time when Margot and Katherine popped through the edge of the crowd.

"We have something for you," Margot said, glancing around sneakily to locate Frank.

Lindsey, her hair stil wet and stringy from the pool and her face streaked with dirt and sweat, looked up from the ground. "He's taking a cal from Darius," she said, "so if it's against any of his numerous rules, get to it."