Biting Cold (Chicagoland Vampires 6)

Or in this case, to prove a point.

"This city is corrupt!" Tate yeled out, thrusting the sword into the air with his free hand, the fervor of a zealot in his voice. "It must be cleansed, and mine is the sword that wil see it purified."

It was time to bring him down a peg. I took another step forward. "You know, Tate, if I had a quarter for every time a politician promised to clean up this city, I'd be a milionaire by now."

I heard an appreciative chuckle in the crowd, as Jonah stepped slowly toward Tate from behind as I moved closer in front.

"Justice wil be done," Tate said, then threw the cop to the ground and raised his sword to strike.

Neither Jonah nor I wasted any time. Jonah struck Tate from the back, and I launched toward him, katana in the air, from the front. I aimed for his sword and managed to knock him off target. Our swords clanged together with body-shaking force, and I hit the ground in a rol before popping up again.

"Run!" I told the cop, and he squirmed away.

Tate roared out his displeasure, turning to swipe at Jonah, which sent his wings flying in my direction. I jumped back, but the tip of a claw grazed my stomach, sending a sharp spike of pain across my bely.

I cursed but hopped to my feet again. Jonah and Tate began sparring, Jonah's thin, sleek katana an odd foil against Tate's massive sword - like a samurai fighting a medieval knight.

They battled in a circle, Jonah moving spritely up and down the stairs as Tate moved after him.

The cop who'd given me my sword back was moving toward the released cop, who stil lay motionless on the ground.

It was my turn to tap in. "Tate!"

He stopped and glanced back at me, eyes narrowed like a predator. Or a crazed angel.

I crooked a finger at him, then loosened my knees and positioned my sword. "Come and get me."

Tate took a step forward, but it wasn't to get to me. Instead, he launched toward the cop who'd given me my sword back and lofted his sword in the air.

There was no way I was going to reach him in time. I said the only thing that occurred to me...and did the very thing Ethan had forbidden me to do.

"Tate!"

He looked at me, ferocity in his eyes.

"Let him go," I said. "Take me instead."

I'd hoped to throw Tate off his mark or at least gain a little time. But he didn't pause to think.

"Very well," he said. Before I could move away, Tate lunged forward and grabbed my wrist.

My skin flamed beneath his touch, and everything went black.

Chapter Fourteen

YOU LIGHT UP MY LIFE

I woke to searing pain and blinding light. My leather jacket was gone, and sunlight poured over my bare arms. I puled them back into the shadow that covered the rest of my body.

Tears sprang to my eyes as blisters lifted down my arms, but the pain was the least of my worries. My mind fuzzy, I squinted against the glare and looked around.

I was in a square concrete room with a window on one wal.

The window was uncovered, and sunlight spiled across the room. I was tucked into the only shaded corner, a little bal of vampire...and my phone had been in my missing jacket.

"Handy, isn't it?"

I also shouldn't have been awake at this hour. Slowly and groggily, I looked toward the sound of Tate's voice. He stood in an open doorway that was twenty feet of sun-drenched concrete away from me.

The doorway led directly outside. Even if I managed to cross the room, there was nowhere to go.

Tate had imprisoned me with sunlight. He'd even left me my sword, because what could I possibly do with it? I had no room to wield it, unless I hoped to spare myself the pain of death by sunshine.

"You're a sadist," I said.

"Hardly. I'm a realist," he said. "The world could be better than it is. I intend to prove that."

My mind was dul and slow. "Where are we?"

"That's not important," he said. "The more important question is why we're here."

"Because you're a vindictive son of a bitch?"

Tate laughed and walked into the room. He wore dark pants and a T-shirt. His wings had disappeared, but his T-shirt was mottled with blood. I guessed Jonah had gotten in a few shots.

He chuckled and moved closer. It was disturbing to watch him move. So handsome...and so deadly. I looked him over, scanning his face and body for any detail that would help me differentiate between the two of them. But I saw nothing.

"I prefer messenger of justice, thank you."

I guessed the librarian had been right. "Prefer it al you want.

Playing judge, jury, and executioner doesn't make you just. It makes you arrogant."

"I'm not the arrogant one, Sentinel of Cadogan House."

"You're a falen angel, aren't you? A Dark One? That's arrogance by definition. You thought you knew better than everyone else."

"I know right from wrong."

"Is this right? Punishing me because I tried to help save four police officers? Putting me in this room, where I'l burn to ashes in a couple of hours?"

"Those men were corrupt," he said. "Their souls were corrupt."

"Those men have families. They have wives and children."

"They hurt others. They deserved punishing," he insisted.

"That's not your cal to make."

He stiled, and it was almost scarier than arguing with him, like I was staring back at a furious man suddenly frozen in marble.

"Those who say we cannot tel right from wrong have no courage. They have no wil to make the decisions that must be made. Justice should be meted out by those who have the wilpower to act, the stomach for punishment. No one forced those men to their actions. They chose their own paths. They should bear the burden of the consequences."

"They would have. That's why they'd been imprisoned."

"And they were released. The human justice system has no backbone."

"You don't get to make that decision. Isn't that what got you in trouble milennia ago?"

My hands began to shake with exhaustion, my body rebeling against the fact that I was awake. I squeezed them into fists and forced myself to concentrate.

"You are weak creatures with no stomach for justice."

"What you cal justice, we cal war. Destruction. Havoc." I swalowed down a scream of pain. Ethan was probably frantic, but Jonah would have seen me disappear. They'd have to work to find me, but they would. God wiling, they would.

"Why did you bring me here?" I asked.

"To make an example of you."

"For what?"

"You stopped me from completing my work, just as the scarlet witch tried to do. You asked for this, remember?"