Biting Cold (Chicagoland Vampires 6)

"This isn't about giving you up. I can't - I'm not in control of myself, Merit."

"Then it's about not trusting me enough to help you when you're in a bad situation."

"It's about keeping you safe until this problem is resolved. I didn't save your life so that I could tear it down again, Merit. I wil not put me or you in the position of hurting you again. God wiling we can find a way to separate Malory and me before our immortality has passed us by."

There were times I secretly enjoyed Ethan's alpha-male posturing. But this wasn't one of them. My anger began to rise, spurred by his irritating stubbornness and blind desire to control every situation.

"You're resolving this problem by pushing me away. You're a four-hundred-year-old vampire and avoidance is the best solution you've got?"

"Until you're at the mercy of someone else's thoughts and whims, I'm not looking to you for advice."

That bulet was aimed right at me, but I kept up my guard.

"Ah," I said, nodding. "So you're going to take shots at me until I walk away? You know, we've been down this road before. It ended with your apologizing."

"This is different."

It wasn't. Not realy. But if he believed it, what could I do?

He thought he was protecting me; how was I supposed to convince him his instincts were wrong?

Tears threatening to spil over my lashes, I strode to the office door. I would not cry in front of him.

"We weren't done here," he caled out.

I risked a glance back, and I could see the panic flaring in his eyes. Maybe the consequences of his ridiculous position were finaly occurring to him. Good. Maybe he'd come to his senses.

But I wasn't going to waste time arguing with someone who needed to be convinced I was an asset.

"According to you," I said, "we are done here."

Rarely had slamming a door felt so good.

Chapter Twelve

HIS LIBRARY? WELL STOCKED

It was a good thing we weren't telepathicaly connected, because he wouldn't have enjoyed hearing my thoughts on the way back down to the Ops Room.

I decided my best option was to help the team with the investigation of Paulie Cermak's death, but with my mind absorbed by Ethan's stubbornness, I was pretty useless. Hoping to identify a specific motive for Paulie's death, I'd printed off as much information on Paulie Cermak as I could find on the Web.

The stack of papers sat on the table in front of me, but I hadn't so much as glanced at them in half an hour.

Al my brain cels were busy being furious at Ethan and wondering whether I could keep him from imploding our almost relationship. He was afraid he'd hurt me. It couldn't have been easy to feel trapped in someone else's neuroses, but that wasn't Ethan - the man who'd taken a stake for me.

But what was I supposed to do? What was the right thing to do? Respect his wishes and keep my distance? Play the sexy minx and use seduction to get him to change his mind? Or just ignore him until we got Malory's mind meld squared away?

Getting her squared away was definitely the first thing on my revised agenda.

"Merit!"

I jolted to attention and found Lindsey, who was back from guard duty and sat across from me at the conference table, staring at me with amusement.

"What?"

"Your phone is ringing."

For the first time, I heard the phone ring from the pocket of my jacket, which I'd slung over the back of my chair. I managed to grab the phone just before it stopped ringing.

"Helo?"

"Too busy to answer the phone?"

It was Catcher. "Sorry. I didn't hear it ring. What's up?"

"I talked to Malory. She used a conjuration spel."

"Which does what?"

"It conjures. Brings something into the space that hadn't been there before. The spel was also in the Maleficium, just like the familiar spel. She copied it before they took the book away so she'd remember the steps."

"Same magical theory as last time?" I wondered. "Use a bit of dark magic to upset the line between good and dark magic, and invoke the rest of the dark magic out of the Maleficium."

"That seems to be what she was trying to do. And that explains the second Tate. She conjured him into existence."

But had she? "I don't understand. If she was conjuring something, shouldn't something new have popped into the room?

I mean, instead of Tate splitting in two?"

"That's possible, I guess, but it's hard to say. Tate touched the Maleficium. That's like being shot at point-blank range by magic. It could have affected the outcome of the spel."

"Okay," I said. "Thanks for the information."

"Sure," he said, and the line went dead.

I put the phone away, and when Luc roled his office chair closer to the table for a report, I relayed what Catcher had said.

But while I took Catcher's point about Tate having touched the Maleficium, the magical math stil didn't make sense to me.

"He said conjuration is supposed to bring forth something new," I said, my gaze shifting between Lindsey and Luc. "Not duplicate something that already existed."

"The intricacies of conjuration aren't my specialty," Luc said.

"There is, however, a library at your disposal. You should take ful advantage."

I nodded. "Good idea. When Paige gets back, I'l stick her in the library and tag team with her. I'm hoping there's a logical explanation."

"As logical as a man asexualy reproducing before your eyes."

"Precisely."

"And that's enough for me," Luc said, wheeling back to his desk.

As soon as he was gone, Lindsey leaned forward. "Where were you before the phone rang?"

My cheeks warmed. "I was just thinking."

"You were not just thinking," she whispered, frowning. "Do you want to talk? We can go outside."

There wasn't much point in trying to fool Lindsey. She was an empathic vampire and could read others' emotions.

"Not right now. Maybe later."

Lindsey straightened up again. "In that case, Sentinel, get back to work. We've got double trouble on the loose."

And double trouble in the House, even if no one knew it yet.

A few minutes - and no substantive work - later, the door opened and Margot walked in with an assistant and a roling cart of fragrant food.

"What's this?" Luc asked, walking toward Margot.

"Your very thoughtful Sentinel ordered in dinner," Margot said. "She asked for a home-cooked meal, but I cheated a little bit."

Luc put a hand on my shoulder. "I knew you were worth keeping around."