Biting Cold (Chicagoland Vampires 6)

"What's wrong?"

"Ethan and Malik just went in to talk to Darius, but someone is here. You need to come downstairs."

"Who is it?"

"I'm...not entirely sure."

Without waiting for me to agree, she turned and headed toward the stairs. I folowed her, and I was just panicked enough that the trip seemed to take twice as long as usual. Wasn't that always the way? Maybe it was anticipation that stretched out the seconds, much in the same way that a trip to some exotic destination seemed to take twice as long as the return voyage.

We took the stairs at a trot and found a protective net of vampires between the stairs and the front door. They split to make room for me, and I stepped between them, my eyes widening at the dark-haired figure at the door.

"See?" Margot whispered.

I nodded, my brain reeling as I tried to figure out what to do.

"Helo, Balerina," he said, and I whipped my sword from its sheath.

Chapter Sixteen

YOU TAKE THE GOOD, YOU TAKE THE BAD

He looked tired. Tal, handsome, and exhausted. And he'd traded in the Armani suit for a long black cassock, the dresslike garment worn by priests. He was a Tate, to be sure. But I didn't know whether he was Dominic or Seth, or what Seth was in any event, so I wasn't going to take chances.

"Can we talk?" he asked, gaze on me.

Lindsey and Juliet stepped beside me, swords bared.

"You have three seconds to turn around and leave this House or meet the business end of my steel," Lindsey said.

"Wait," I said, putting out a hand, my gaze tracing the lines of guilt carved into Tate's face. Guilt wasn't exactly Dominic's type of emotion.

"Identify yourself," I said.

"I'm Seth Tate," he said. "The former mayor. An angel, in your parlance."

The foyer went silent.

I was stunned and confused...and then a little more stunned.

If Dominic was essentialy a demon, how could Seth be an angel? They'd split apart from the same person - from Seth when he touched the Maleficium.

How were things getting even more confusing?

"You're a messenger?" I asked.

He visibly relaxed, perhaps relieved that someone had figured out the truth. "Yes, Merit. A messenger. That's why the fairies let me in."

It hadn't even occurred to me that he'd gotten past the fairies.

"We don't know that," Lindsey said. "This could be a ruse."

It could have been, but as we stood there, I came to realize an important difference between Seth and Dominic.

"I can tel them apart," I said. Everyone looked at me. "They smel different," I sheepishly added.

Seth smiled a little, but the vampires' reactions weren't encouraging.

"They smell different?" Lindsey asked. "You want us to trust him because he smels different?"

"Seth smels like lemon and sugar. He always has. When Dominic unfurled his wings, he smeled like sulfur. Sulfur and smoke." I looked at Seth. "Right?"

"It's the wings. They darkened, much like his aura. His soul."

"He could be making this up," Lindsey said, her sword stil tipped at Seth's neck, but I shook my head and puled my little secret weapon from my pocket - the worry wood.

I held it up for al to see. "This is worry wood. It works against old magic. The powerful stuff. Add it to my natural resistance to glamour, and there's not much chance he could put something over on me."

The crowd's murmurs were a little more supportive but stil not convinced. I had one more weapon in the arsenal. I looked at Lindsey. "You're the empath. What's he feeling right now?"

She shook her head. "He's a blank canvas to me. I have no idea."

That might have been true psychicaly, but not physicaly.

There was no doubting the grief and guilt etched into his face. He was stil handsome, but he looked like he'd aged a few years in the last few days.

"I swear on al the deep dish, red hots, and rib-eyes in Chicago that this isn't Dominic. And believe me, I would know better than anyone."

No need to get into the gory deets of what he'd put me through, but having been around both of them, I now had a pretty good sense I could pick them out.

Lindsey slowly lowered her sword again. "Okay, Sentinel.

You feel okay about this, I'm going to trust you. But one false move, and he gets it."

And now Lindsey was stealing lines from movies. Maybe she and Luc dating wasn't such a great idea.

I looked back at Seth and gave it to him frankly. "By 'it,' she means thirty-two inches of honed steel. And she's no slouch with a weapon. I'd believe her."

Seth nodded. "I'm here to talk. Not make trouble. There's been far enough of that."

I was fine with talking, but - given the curious and worried looks around us - it seemed we should do it somewhere else. I glanced at Lindsey. "We need a room. Any thoughts? I assume the bigwigs are in Ethan's office."

She frowned. "Training room? Balroom?"

I didn't like the training room idea. There were too few exits in the basement in the event I was wrong about Seth. I didn't think that was likely, but they didn't pay me fancy Sentinel wages to take those kinds of chances.

The balroom was on the second floor. Closer to our living quarters than I would have liked, but it was a big, mostly empty room, and it was right beside the stairs.

I glanced around, looking for Luc or Malik or Ethan or anyone actualy in charge of the House. But it was just us. Me and Lindsey and the other Novitiates in the foyer. I was the highest-ranking person in the room, and I was going to have to make the cal.

God wiling I'd make the right one.

"Balroom," I decided.

Lindsey nodded, then looked around the room. "Show's over, everyone. Get back to business."

But they didn't move, either too curious or too worried to simply turn around and walk away.

"Okay, let me try this another way," Lindsey said, her voice firmer now. "Get back to work before Darius feels the magic, comes out here, sees this one lounging around our foyer, and strokes out."

It stil took a moment - they seemed loath to leave Seth here with us or me here with him - but they finaly got moving and filed back down the hal and up the stairs.

Lindsey, Juliet, Seth, and I were left in the foyer.

Lindsey pointed at Seth. "You, folow me. Cause any trouble and you'l be wearing steel in very uncomfortable places."

"Duly noted," Seth said.

She looked at me and Juliet. "You heard him. Any funny business and you have his consent to skewer him like a kebab."

I wanted to laugh, but this didn't seem like the time. "I'l take the rear," I told her, then looked at Juliet. "Can you find Ethan?"