Biting Cold (Chicagoland Vampires 6)

Paige must have been the scarlet witch. "You burned her house down because she tried to stop you?"

"Justice does not veer for cowards."

"And kiling people doesn't make you brave. It just makes you a kiler."

"I can see that you're regretting your decision to stand in for the corrupt cops. You'l have a little while yet to regret that decision, won't you?"

He pointed at the line of sunlight, which had shifted a few more degrees. Soon my bit of shadow would shrink to nothing, and I would be completely exposed to sunlight.

"I'l admit," he said, surveying the room, "this is my first time using this particular mechanism. A single slice with a sword wouldn't quite have the same effect on you, would it? You'd too easily survive that."

For the first time, I actualy regretted having fast healing powers. But I wasn't going to let Tate get the emotional upper hand.

"You've already lost once today," I said. "We stopped you.

They'l find me, and you'l lose again."

But with each second that passed, it seemed more and more unlikely that they'd find me in time. The press conference had taken place in the early evening. An entire night had come and gone, and the sun had risen again. No one had found me yet.

And now the sun was up, and neither Jonah nor Ethan could look for me.

Soon I'd be out of time.

Tate puled something from his pocket, then held it up. It was shiny and reflected the light, and I looked away again, blinking back the glare.

"You stil have my Cadogan medal," I said. "That's not news."

"It is, actualy." I heard the clink of the chain and assumed he'd tucked it away again. No point in waving it in my face if I wasn't going to look.

"I find it interestingly symbolic. A girl, a graduate student, changed into a vampire one night against her wil. Reborn into a vampire House right here in Chicago. She fashions herself a savior of lost souls and decides to battle me for supremacy. She loses, and here she dies."

"So you won't be needing that anymore."

"Au contraire," he said. "It is a prize. A remembrance."

He meant when the sun finished its journey, I'd be gone.

Reduced to ash, but he'd stil have a trophy of having beaten me.

(Either he didn't notice I was wearing a replacement medal, or he wasn't going to let a bit of inconvenient fact get in the way of the victory he was already imagining.)

I knew I couldn't hear Ethan anymore, but I stil imagined his voice in my head, giving me a speech similar to the one I'd given him on the field in Nebraska. Reminding me I was a Cadogan vampire, that I was stronger than Tate believed, that I would survive until he found me.

And he would find me. He would. I only had to hang on until he arrived. I only had to survive.

Move! I told myself. I shifted a centimeter to the right, and I forced myself to keep talking. I might as wel use the time alone with Tate for a good purpose.

"There are two of you now."

"In a fashion," he enigmaticaly said.

I frowned at him. "I saw you. You touched the Maleficium and you split in half."

He clucked his tongue. "I am not split in half, Balerina. I am whole. My name is Dominic."

He was one of the three Dark Ones the librarian had identified - Uriel, Azrael, and Dominic. "You destroyed Carthage?"

He laughed heartily. "I did not. That was not my particular handiwork. It belonged to my brothers in arms. But at least you better appreciate what we're about."

"Destruction and revenge?"

"Only if deserved," he said, clearly having no qualms about appointing himself the man to decide what someone did or didn't deserve.

"The world is a cruel place," he said. "Often unfair." Dominic moved to the window and looked outside, then back at me.

"I'l be back in a moment," he said. "Don't move."

He strode from the room. For a moment, I hoped he might have seen someone outside - a rescuer intent on saving me. But the world remained quiet.

I shuddered with exhaustion, the edge of my arm grazing a band of sunlight. Pain shot through me, and I puled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. If things got worse, I could stand up, squeezing myself into the tiny sliver of space. But then I'd be out of room, without even my jacket to protect me.

That he'd taken away my jacket just to bare my arms and expose me to even more sunlight was disgustingly thorough. I guessed I should have been thankful he hadn't stripped me naked and left me entirely vulnerable, not that the clothes would help much when my bit of shade was gone.

And it was disappearing fast.

Please, someone, find me, I thought.

Merit?

My name echoed in my head. I thought a panicky response.

Ethan?

It's Morgan. I'm with Ethan. He's here. He asked me to talk to you. Do you know where you are?

I closed my eyes in relief. I'd al but forgotten about my connection with Morgan Greer. Thank God someone had remembered.

I looked around the room, the images blurry, my head swimming with exhaustion. I don't know. I'm in a room; there's a lot of sunlight. I'm trying to stay in the shade. But there's not much left.

Can you see anything? Does anything look familiar?

I squeezed my eyes closed to clear my vision, then opened them again. I squinted against the sunlight and caught a glance of red outside the window. My retinas burned viciously.

Red, I told him, closing my eyes again and weeping in relief.

There's red outside.

For a moment, there was only silence. Panic stabbed through me. Morgan? Are you there? Don't leave me. Please don't leave me.

I'm here, Merit. Jeff and Catcher and Ethan are here.

We're talking about where you might be. Can you tell me what kind of red you can see? Bright red? Dark red?

I swalowed thickly and made myself look again. Dark red.

Orange-red.

Anything else?

Tears slipped from my eyes. I don't know. I'm so tired.

I know you are. But you must concentrate. What else is around you?

I can't see anything else.

That's okay, Merit. Use your other senses. What do you smell? What do you hear?

I closed my eyes and loosened the barriers against the sights and smels of the room. I heard the scuffle and coos of pigeons roosting in the ceiling above me and felt the damp breeze in the air.

I think we're near the lake, I told Morgan.

That's good, Merit. What else?

He meant it wasn't enough to know I was near the lake. Lake Michigan was enormous, and they might never find me.

No, I told myself. Focus. If you want to live through this, focus!

I tried again, letting my senses explore the world around me.