After saying good-bye to my mother, I sat in my car for a moment outside their house, the orange clunker no doubt depressing the property values by the minute, debating my next steps. I could return to the Ops Room and its sense of hopelessness, or to Ethan's office, which also wasn't exactly brimming with hope at the moment.
I checked my phone and found no messages, which made my heart ache a bit. I wasn't expecting Ethan to suddenly blow through his anger and be thrilled that I'd joined a secret society, but a note would have been nice. Not that he didn't have other things on his mind. Like the House.
And perhaps the House was the key.
The RG was valuable. I knew it; I'd seen them in action. They'd helped me out of jams, and they'd given us a crucial bit of information about what the GP might try to do to the House, even if they hadn't correctly guessed how far the GP would go to screw us.
If I could use my RG connections to help save the House, wouldn't that solve all the problems? If I could help us keep the House that way, Ethan would see the RG was necessary and honorable - not a group that wanted to undermine him. If he saw that, he'd no longer think my joining was a betrayal of our relationship.
I closed my eyes and dropped my head back. Maybe, as Mallory once said, leprechauns would also poop rainbows on my pillow. We were talking about vampires here, and all of them stubborn . . . also like my grandfather.
But I had to try. I was useless to the RG, to the House, and to Ethan if I wasn't willing to try.
I started with Jonah.
He was immediately sarcastic. "Are you calling to tell me you've invited Ethan to our next RG meeting?"
"You're hilarious. Unfortunately, I have more bad news. McKetrick is alibied for the Navarre murder, so even if the biometrics weren't working, he wasn't there."
"At least we can tie off that thread," he said.
"That was our thought exactly. Any progress on getting help for Cadogan House?"
"Not yet. Our contact in the GP is skittish. And for good reason - if they find out she's been funneling information to the RG, she'll be the one facing down the aspen stake."
"That's not good enough, Jonah. This is my House on the line. Tell her . . . tell her I just want a meeting. Ask her if she'll do that."
"Merit, I can't."
But I wasn't taking no for an answer, and I'd been reading my Canon like a good little vampire.
"You said 'she.' There are only two female members of the GP, Jonah. The one from Norway - Danica - and the one from the UK - Lakshmi something. That means I have a fifty-fifty shot of guessing which member is the right one."
He muttered a curse; he hadn't meant for me to pick up on that. "It's not that simple."
"She's not helping us enough, Jonah. This is balls-to-the-wall time. Darius will either take Cadogan House away from us, or he'll start a war between fairies and vampires because his pride was hurt. Which one of those do you prefer as a precedent? The next time Scott does something Darius doesn't like, which way would you prefer Darius handle it? We cannot - as RG members or Rogues or whatever - let this stand. Darius cannot be allowed to break down what we've built just because we're doing it without him."
Jonah paused. "Her name is Lakshmi Rao. Let me talk to her."
"Thank you, Jonah. I'd do the same for you, you know."
"I know you would. And that's what scares me."
He hung up the phone.
I turned on the car and turned up the heat, still sitting outside my parents' house. It probably wouldn't be long before the neighbors were calling about the girl in the junky car "watching" the house, but I didn't want to go back inside while I waited for a response. Maybe my father and I had had a breakthrough; maybe he was simply feeling nostalgic. Either way, I knew when to quit.
The phone rang not even a minute later.
"Hello?"
"She's agreed to a meeting, but that's it."
"That's enough. Thank you."
"There's a Dirigible Donuts on State and Van Buren under the El. It's near the library."
"I know it," I assured him. It was near Harold Washington Library; it was also near the Dandridge Hotel, where the GP members were staying during their time in Chicago.
"Meet us there in one hour. And tell no one, Ethan or otherwise, about this. Consider this your first RG assignment - preventing the destruction of Cadogan House."
Instead of increasing the weight on my shoulders, which it should have done, it just made me feel more determined.
"I'll see you there," I assured him, and put on my seat belt. My baserunning might not have been pretty, but all that mattered was the final score.
* * *
It was late, and the Loop was relatively quiet. I parked on Van Buren, farther away than I'd have liked, then followed the El tracks back to State Street and the Dirigible Donuts location our reticent GP member had selected.
The chain's silver logo shone through the darkness: a gleaming blimp with "Donuts" in script across its side, the letters blinking in neon pink.
I opened the door and was hit by the scents of sugar and yeast. The restaurant was small and empty except for the tired-looking teen behind the counter and Jonah, who sat at a pink table in the corner, looking at his phone.
He looked up and nodded, then rose to meet me.
"She should be here any minute."
I nodded, my palms suddenly sweaty with nerves. This woman could make or break Cadogan House with a snap of her fingers - or perhaps the right words to Darius West.
Actually, by the look of her, she could make or break a lot of dreams.
Lakshmi Rao walked statuesquely through the front door. Like most other vampires (thanks to their selection process), she was gorgeous. Tall and lithe, with long, straight dark hair and caramel-colored skin. Her eyes were wide and hazel green, and she wore a printed designer wrap dress and stiletto heels beneath a long cashmere coat.
I'd seen her at the House, in formation with the rest of the GP members, but there she'd been one of many. Here she was a standout. She was obviously a vampire, and obviously a strong one. Even with no obvious vampiric features - fangs and silvered eyes hidden - she radiated magic in undulating waves. I had a natural immunity to glamour, but I felt it slip across the room and just touch the boy at the counter, who dreamily looked away and began counting aloud the donut holes in the bins behind him.
But most interesting? When Lakshmi caught sight of Jonah, she stared at him as if he were the first glass of water she'd seen after months in the desert.
His expression, on the other hand, was utterly businesslike.
So Ms. Rao, a member of the GP from Darius's home country, had feelings for Jonah, the guard captain slash member of the secret organization assigned to keep an eye on her. And he, by all appearances, wasn't feeling it.