Dark Debt (Chicagoland Vampires 11)

Why? Because it featured headlines such as “The Best Bang for your Blood Buck,” “Weeding Out Problematic Initiates,” and “Décor 101: Sprucing Up Your House.”

“I’m going to need to flip through this for both edutainment and infotational purposes.”

“He who reads Today’s House also pays today’s House’s bills.”

“Don’t push your luck.”

“I already did,” he said, refolding the letter and putting it back in the pile. “I called Nicole.”

It took me a moment to adjust to the segue; he’d clearly been eager to get that off his chest. “And how is her royal highness?”

“Acting very royal, which doesn’t really do credit to her democratic leanings.”

I put the magazine back on the pile. “Did she know about Balthasar?”

“He visited Atlanta,” Ethan said. “I don’t have the sense he was there very long, but long enough at least to meet her, to reconnect, to convince her of his identity.”

“When?”

Ethan’s eyes fairly glowed at the question. “You don’t miss the details, Sentinel. Two months ago. Before the Testing. Before she came to Chicago.”

“And she never mentioned it. You think they’re working together on something? That that’s why he’s here?”

He put his hands on his hips, frowned. “Our conversation was brief, but I didn’t have that sense. She sounded, I suppose, starstruck. In my experience, Balthasar enjoys more of a challenge than that.”

“So the next few weeks should be really quiet around here.”

Ethan chuckled, kissed my forehead. “As before, after. Let’s worry about that tomorrow, Sentinel, and get this night behind us.”

I had no objection to that.

*   *   *

I pulled on pajamas, dried my hair, and brushed my fangs like a good little vampire. I checked my phone, found Jonah had left a voice mail I didn’t especially want to listen to.

And being a good little vampire, I sat down on the bed, lifted the phone to my ear.

“Merit,” the message said, “it’s Jonah. We need to talk. You can’t just ignore me. We’re partners. Call me, and we’ll talk about the monitoring. I’m sorry if you took it personally, but it’s not personal. It isn’t. It’s just caution. We all want to believe the best in those who lead us. But every empire has fallen, Merit. Every empire will fall.”

The message cut off.

I liked Jonah. Respected him, and what he stood for. He was my partner, after all. A partner I’d agreed to serve with, and a man who’d helped me and the House countless times.

Frankly, I didn’t disagree that every empire would fall eventually. Hadn’t we just seen that happen to the GP? And I could admit my sensitivity to Balthasar’s glamour was concerning. Hell, it concerned me. But I’d adjusted. Jonah’s insistence that I’d be blind to what might happen, that I’d miss the signs of Ethan’s becoming utterly dictatorial—or that I’d purposely ignore them—that I’d let all vampires suffer because I loved a man, was just wrong. And coming from someone I thought I’d known, and certainly had respected, it hurt. A lot.

I tossed the phone onto the nightstand, but it spilled over the end and landed on the floor at Ethan’s feet.

He’d emerged from the bathroom in dark boxer briefs that hugged his thighs. He picked up the phone, placed it on the nightstand. “Everything all right?”

“Just an irritating message.”

“From Jonah?”

I looked up at him suspiciously.

“I saw your phone when he called you. And when you didn’t answer.” He cocked his head. “You aren’t speaking to him?”

“Not at the moment.”