House Rules (Chicagoland Vampires 7)

Jonah stood slightly apart from them. He and Scott both wore blue-and-yellow Grey House jerseys, which Scott had selected, in lieu of medals, to identify his House's vampires. A blond man I didn't know, but assumed was the Navarre House guard captain, stood with the group.

Ethan nodded, barely sparing Jonah a glance. "Our condolences for your loss."

Jonah looked at me curiously, and I found I couldn't make eye contact. My stomach felt suddenly raw. I was fighting with my boyfriend about my new partner - and my new partner was standing in front of us.

"What happened?" Ethan asked.

Morgan moved to the side, revealing the covered bodies of their fallen colleagues beside the stairs, a pool of blood beside them. They'd placed a blanket atop the bodies, giving them decency the killer hadn't bothered to show.

"Two of my vampires have been murdered," Morgan said. "The first is Katya. She's the sister of my Second."

My lips parted. Morgan's Second was a woman named Nadia, who was beautiful in an effortless, European way. I didn't know Katya, but I'd met Nadia briefly before.

"I'm so sorry," I said.

Morgan nodded. "The second is Zoey, a member of our administrative staff. They were friends."

"What happened?" Ethan asked.

"We found them at dusk. Will, our guard captain, found them." Morgan gestured toward the curly-haired blond beside him.

"May we?" Ethan asked, motioning toward the bodies.

Will nodded grimly, then took a knee and drew back the blanket. I didn't recognize the vampires, but then, I hadn't had much interaction with Navarre House other than Morgan and, once upon a time, Celina.

Katya was curvier than Nadia, with long, dark hair and angelic features. She wore what looked like sleepwear - a short satin nightgown of pale pink, and fuzzy white slippers. Zoey also wore pajamas - a tank and cotton pants. Her skin was dark and her hair was darker, cropped close to her head in tight curls.

Like he'd done with Oliver and Eve, the killer had separated the girls' heads from their bodies with the same long cut, and they were holding hands, their fingers stained with blood.

"Thank you," Ethan said, and Will covered them again. But covering the women didn't prevent the visage of their deaths from searing into my mind. Perhaps I was becoming desensitized, as it was less the blood and violence that affected me than the slippers on Katya's feet. They were soft and young and somehow pitiable, and made their deaths that much more offensive.

"Had they behaved unusually last night? Or perhaps disappeared for any time?" Ethan asked Will.

"They were hanging out together," Will said. "They spent the evening with friends at Red" - that was the official Navarre House bar - "and then returned here. They shared a room. No one noticed anything amiss until they were found this morning."

"What about the room?" I quietly asked, and eyes turned to me. "I mean, they're in pajamas. Either they were taken from the room, or they left it to come out here for some reason."

Will nodded just a bit, as if appreciating the logic. "Their beds had been slept in, and the door was slightly ajar. The House kitchen is on this floor. We think they might have come downstairs for something to eat or drink."

"And the killer was waiting," Ethan finished.

Will nodded.

"Do you know how long they'd been dead when you found them?" Ethan asked.

Will cleared his throat, obviously uncomfortable. "The bodies were still warm. So not long."

"What about security cameras?" I asked.

"We have closed circuit, but it's not recorded," Morgan said, voice flat with grief. "And we don't have full-time external security staff. We don't need it," he added. But he didn't have to justify his decisions to me. Besides, it wasn't like our external security was working out so well right now.

"So it seems likely this happened just after dusk," Ethan said. "What type of security do you have on the doors? Who could get in?"

"Our security is biometric," Will said. "The system was on, and we've confirmed that it's functioning properly and has been. No breaches were registered."

"Can you track individual vampires?" Ethan asked.

"No. Our system doesn't record information; it operates like a door lock. If you match the data stored in the receiver, the door unlocks."

"That was Celina's preference," Morgan said. "She didn't want the vampires to feel they were living in a police state."

Or, I silently thought, she didn't want anyone tracking the comings and goings of her lovers and secret allies.

"What does the security system actually scan?" I asked. "Fingerprints? Retinal scan?"

"It's keyed for Navarre vampires," Morgan said.

His tone was matter-of-fact, but his implication was significant. Huge, actually. Because we'd found aspen slivers on the ground at the apartment building, we assumed McKetrick had been the killer. But McKetrick was human, as his daylight press conference with the mayor amply demonstrated. He wasn't a vampire, and certainly not a Navarre vampire.

Four vampires were dead, and the killer was a vampire . . . which meant we were looking at a vampire serial killer.

Ethan and I exchanged a worried glance. Thank God, even when he was angry, we could work together. That endeared him to me as much as anything else had.

"No one from Navarre House would do this," Morgan said, as if guessing our thoughts.

"Respectfully," Scott said, "if your security's working, only a Navarre vampire could have done this."

Morgan opened his mouth to respond, but he was interrupted by a commotion near the door.

Nadia, Morgan's Second and Katya's sister, ran into the room. Her cheeks were pink from cold, and she wore jeans, boots, and a long baggy sweater beneath the coat she hadn't taken time to button.

"Katya!" she screamed, her voice choked with tears, running toward her sister's body. But Morgan reached out and grabbed her before she reached Katya, wrapping his arms tightly around her and whispering softly in what I thought was Russian.

Since when did Morgan speak Russian?

Nadia screamed to be loosed. "She is my sister! Let me go!"

Morgan maintained his hold, and as her rage transmuted into grief, she turned her body into Morgan as he kissed her temple, trying to comfort her through her gut-wrenching sobs.

It seemed Morgan and his Second were closer than I would have guessed.

"I'm going to take her upstairs," Morgan said, and we nodded as he escorted Nadia toward the staircase.