Dark Debt (Chicagoland Vampires 11)

(MALLO)CAKE OR DEATH

After the session, I went back to the Ops Room, searched (unsuccessfully) for anything I could find about Balthasar’s room until Luc accused me of looking tired, which I was, and sent me upstairs.

There were two hours until dawn, and I wasn’t exactly looking forward to sitting in our apartments and obsessing about Balthasar or the Circle, or my strategic failure today. I hated screwing up. My grandfather’s and Ethan’s support notwithstanding, I still felt that that was exactly what I’d done.

I was too tired to exercise, and didn’t look forward to my cheek aching from more running, so I’d decided to lose myself in a book that had nothing to do with vampires, mobsters, or magic. I was rounding the banister to head from first floor to third when I spied Mallory heading toward me.

“Hey,” she said, “do you have your apotrope?”

It took me a moment to catch up with the question. “My who what?”

“Your apotrope. Your good luck charm. The raven bracelet I gave you,” she finally said, with obvious exasperation.

“Oh, sure.” She’d given it to me to help ward off bad juju when Ethan and I provided security at a shifter Pack convocation. “Why?”

She gestured from her head to toes with a finger. “Because I am mother-loving exhausted—the ward is killing me. It’s all day, all night. Catcher gave me a boost”—she winged up her eyebrows suggestively—“which helped, but I’m still pretty pooped. The long and short of it is, we can’t keep him physically and psychically out of the House at the same time. That’s more power than we’ve got. But if I use the bracelet, as a focus, I can at least keep him out of your head.”

“Okay,” I said, realizing she was offering me precisely what I’d needed—a distraction. Or some distracting magic to watch, anyway. And besides, she and I still had chits to chat about. “It’s in the apartments. Wanna come upstairs?”

“Is it okay if I make magic there?” She held up a hand. “And ignore that I just set you up for a comment about Ethan’s sexual prowess.”

“You tell me about Catcher’s sexual prowess all the time,” I said as we began to climb the stairs.

“That’s different.”

“Because?”

She grinned. “Because I like talking about it.”

We reached the apartments and walked inside.

“Damn,” she said. “I really didn’t get a good look at this place earlier.”

“You hadn’t been in here before?”

“I had not.” She walked to the bathroom, peeked in, sat on the edge of the mattress, bobbed to check the weight, poked into the closet. “Holy balls. Darth Sullivan has a lot of suits.”

“Yeah,” I said, moving into the bedroom. “He does.”

“You got pretty nice digs here, Mer. Much better than that closet he called a dorm room.”

“Sleep with the Master, get the best digs.”

“I guess. Good for you. For both of you.” She yawned, covering her mouth with the back of her hand. “Sorry. I’m nearly gone. Bracelet?”

I walked to the cabinet in the closet, pulled out the bracelet. It was antique gold link, with a small raven-shaped charm.

Mallory moved to the desk, pulled the Louis XVI chair into the middle of the room. She put the bracelet on the padded seat, arranged it just so.

“You think he’ll care if the fabric gets singed?”

I just looked at her.

“You’re right. It’s Darth Sullivan. Better bring me a towel.”

Because she was tired and doing me a favor—protecting me from a crazy person—I did, handing over a fluffy bath towel Ethan probably also wouldn’t want singed. But scorch marks could be hidden with careful folding.

Mallory arranged the towel, put the bracelet on top of it. “Come stand behind me,” she said, and I did, well back and out of the way. I’d already seen one of her fireballs today. I didn’t need a repeat performance—or my own singeing.