Dark Debt (Chicagoland Vampires 11)

“Yeah,” Catcher agreed. “There was barely a record of the photograph—Jeff found it buried in an online alumni forum. Wouldn’t surprise me if Reed tried to scrub the records. In order to hide the connection.”

“Let’s not get carried away,” I said. “I’m sure Reed took a lot of pictures with a lot of people.”

“This wasn’t just a throwaway,” Catcher said. “They were buddies, frat brothers. O’Malley was in Reed’s first wedding. Pre-Sorcha. First wife’s name was Frederica. No pictures that we could find—also likely scrubbed—but there’s a line item in the society pages. Reed and Maguire are friends,” Catcher concluded. “Which makes me wonder if Reed is also part of the Circle.”

“Jesus,” Ethan said. “All the money. All the connections. Why would he risk that?”

“Maybe that’s the wrong order of things,” I said. “Maybe he got the money, the connections, because of it. But if we’re right, why the attempt on King at Reed’s house?”

“Maybe Reed wanted a bird’s-eye view of King’s downfall,” Catcher said. “Wanted to watch a competitor suffer.”

omach twisted again, and I pulled back. “I have a question about Balthasar, actually.”

“Ah.”

“You said you believed it was Persephone’s family who assaulted Balthasar. Held him.”

“That’s correct.”

“How do you know?”

His jaw worked for a moment, his expression still unusually cautious. “I told them.”

I blinked. “You told them?”

“What he’d done and where to find him.” One hand on his hips, he ran the other through his hair. “I couldn’t save her, couldn’t kill my maker to avenge her. But I could let them know the truth and give them an opportunity to avenge her death, and prevent any others.”

Ethan walked a few steps away, giving himself space, looked back at me. “It is not something I’m proud of. It was cowardly to ask a human to do work I should have done. But there had been so much death . . .” He looked away.

So Balthasar had killed Persephone, and Ethan had told her family about it. They’d hunted him down and planned to kill him, and one of them decided he’d be more useful scientifically. But still, through all that, Balthasar didn’t remember her name? Had he not thought about the timing? About the fact that he’d been attacked just after Ethan left? Surely he could have put that together. And if he had, why hadn’t he mentioned it?

“What’s on your mind, Sentinel?”

“Puzzle pieces that don’t fit well,” I said. “He didn’t know about Persephone.”

“What do you mean?”

“He didn’t mention her when he was here. And when he attacked me, he didn’t recognize her name.”

“He could have forgotten, repressed it,” Ethan said, but he didn’t look convinced by that. “He called me. Knows all the history.”

“True. But his appearance, right now, was oddly coincidental. And he’s here, at least in some part, because the Circle is paying for it. Just at the moment when the Circle is making a concerted bid for control of the city’s vamps.”

“You’re suggesting he’s an imposter.” Ethan’s tone went hot. “I’d know if he wasn’t who he says he is. It wouldn’t be possible for someone to pretend that well.”

But we lived in a world of fairies, gnomes, harpies, shifters; that’s what bothered me. Since when was anything impossible, magically or otherwise?

Before he could say anything else, my phone rang. I pulled back, found Catcher’s number, answered it. “Merit.”

“We’ve got something new on Jude Maguire, starting with the fact that Jude Maguire isn’t his real name. Jeff did an image-surf—”

“Hey, Mer,” said Jeff’s voice in the background.

“Hey, Jeff. Image-surf?” I prompted.

“And we found a photograph, think we found Maguire’s previous identity. His name was Thomas O’Malley.”

“Does that matter?”