Hard Bitten (Chicagoland Vampires 4)

That assignment given, Ethan looked at me.

"When the sun sets, talk to your grandfather.

Ask him to track down what they can about the Jackson incident - the vampires involved, Houses, whatever - and any new information they've gotten about the raves. This may not actually be one, but at the moment it's the best lead we've got. And one way or the other," he added, looking between us, "let's close these things down, shall we?"

"Liege," I agreed with a nod. I'd definitely visit my grandfather, but my circle of friends had grown a little wider over the last few months. I'd recently been asked to join the Red Guard, a kind of vampire watchdog group that kept an eye on Master vamps and the GP. I'd declined the invitation, but I'd made use of the resource, calling on the RG for backup during the attack on the House. This might be the time to make that call again. . . .

"And this McKetrick fellow?" Malik asked.

"He'll wait," Ethan said, determination in his eyes. "He'll wait until hell freezes over, because we're not leaving Chicago."

I'd visit my grandfather when the sun set. But first, I had a couple more hours of darkness and many hours of daylight to get through.

All the bedrooms in the House, which accommodated about ninety of Cadogan's threehundred-odd vampires, looked like small dorm rooms. A bed. A bureau. A nightstand. Small closet, small bathroom. They weren't exactly fancy, but they gave us a respite from vampire drama. Given the messes we tended to get into, drama free was definitely a good thing.

My second-floor room - just like the rest of the House - still smelled like construction. New paint. Varnish. Drywall. Plastic. It smelled good somehow, like a new beginning. A fresh start.

The storm broke overhead just as I shut my door, rain beginning to pelt the shuttered window in my room. I peeled off my suit and toed off Mary Jane heels, then headed to my small bathroom, where I scrubbed my face. The makeup washed off easily. The memories, on the other hand, weren't going anywhere.

Those were the tough things to ignore - the sounds, the expressions, the sensation of Ethan and his body. I'd tried to lock the memories away, to keep my mind clear of them in order to get my work done. But they were still there.

They stung a little less now, but you couldn't unring the bell. For better or worse, I'd probably always have those memories with me.

When I'd dressed again in a tank top and shorts, I glanced back at the clock. I had two hours to kill until dawn, which meant I had an hour to kill until my weekly date with my other favorite blond vampire.

My first task - taking care of basic vampiric necessities. I walked down the hallway to the second-floor kitchen, smiling at a couple of vaguely familiar-looking vampires as I passed them. Each of the House's aboveground floors had a kitchen, a very handy thing since vampiric emergencies didn't respect cafeteria hours. I opened the fridge and plucked out two drink boxes of type A blood (prepared by the lamely named Blood4You, our delivery service), then headed back to my room. Most vamps were fortunate enough to retain a pretty good hold on their bloodlust, me included. But just because I wasn't ripping at the seams of the boxes didn't mean I didn't need the blood. Most of the time, bloodlust in vamps was kind of like thirst in humans; if you waited to drink until you were truly thirsty, it was probably already too late.

While waiting for her highness's arrival, I poked a straw into one of the drink boxes and pored through the stack of books that was beginning to crawl its way up my bedroom wall.

It was my TBR - my To Be Read stack. The usual subjects were there. Chick lit. Action. A Pulitzer Prize winner. A romance novel about a pirate and a damsel in a low-cut blouse. (What? Even a vampire enjoys a little bodice ripping now and again.)

Even though I'd spent the final hours of more than a few evenings in my vampire dorm room, my TBR stack hadn't gotten any shorter. With each book I finished, I found a replacement in the House's library. And I'd occasionally wake at dusk to find a pile of books outside my door, presumably left by the House librarian, another Novitiate vampire. His selections were usually related to politics: stories about the ancient conflicts between vampires and shape-shifters; biographies of the one hundred most vampirefriendly politicians in Western history; time lines of vampiric events in history. Unfortunately, no matter how serious the topic, the names were usually just silly.

Get to the Point: Vampire Contributions in Western Architecture.

Fangs and Balances: Vampire Politicians in History.

To Drink or Not to Drink: A Vampire Dialectic.

Blood Sausage, Blood Stew, Blood Orange:

Food for All Seasons.

And the awfully named Plasmatlas, which contained maps of important vampire locales.

Maybe the managing editor of the vampire press was the same guy who wrote the chapter titles for the Canon of the North American Houses, my vampire guidebook. Both were equally punny - and just as ridiculous.

The names aside, let's be honest - with Ethan running around the House, there were definitely advantages to reading in my room. Was it Master avoidance? Absolutely. But when faced with the temptation of something you couldn't have, why not find something more productive to do?

Put another way, why order dessert if you couldn't take a bite?

So there I was - in a tank and boxers - crosslegged on my bed with To Drink or Not to Drink in hand, the rain pummeling the roof above me. I sighed, leaned back against the pillows, and sank into the words, hoping that I might find something moderately edutaining. Or infotaining.

Whatever.

An hour later, Lindsey knocked, and I dog-eared the book (a bad habit, I know, but I never had a bookmark handy).

The book had actually been informative, discussing the earliest recorded instances of a condition the author called hemoanhedonia - the inability to take pleasure from drinking blood.

Vamps with the condition tended to demonize those who drank. Add that to the fact that being a "practicing" vampire was dangerous in its own right - humans didn't usually take kindly to being treated like sippy cups - and vampires began drinking together privately, away from the criticism. Abracadabra, raves are born.

With that historical nugget in mind, I put the book on the nightstand and opened the door.

Lindsey, fellow guard and my best friend in the House (assuming Ethan didn't count, and I don't think he did), stood in the hallway with a blond ponytail, killer figure, and silly smile on her face. She wore jeans and a black T-shirt with CADOGAN printed in white block letters across the front. Her feet were bare, her toenails painted gleaming gold.

"Hi, blondie."

"Merit. I like those duds." She cast an appraising glance at my ILLINOIS IS FOR LOVERS! tank top and shamrock-patterned Cubs shorts.