Biting Bad (Chicagoland Vampires 8)

"That's a good segue," Scott said, stepping forward again. "We're looking for temporary housing, but that's going to take some time. While we're here, we've got a good opportunity to work together. As I see it, our agenda is to find the source of the riots and cut it off. We can look into the rioters, the employees, whatever. I'm less interested in how we get there than the fact that we get there. We've lost our House. That will not stand. And we will find a way - and now - to stop it."

He looked at Ethan and nodded.

"Well put," Ethan said. "With that, I think we're done."

-

While the senior staff discussed the details of our inadvertent partnership, I said good-bye to the Ombuddies.

"Thank you for coming, although I hope you didn't come this way for such a short meeting?"

"Actually, we didn't," Catcher said. "As soon as I got back to the house, we discovered some ongoing hysteria on the police scanners about a chimera on Fifty-seventh Street."

"A chimera? Like the mythical monster?"

"Exactly like that," my grandfather said.

"And what did you find?"

"Cocker spaniel wearing many awkward Halloween costumes," my grandfather said with obvious amusement. "The owner's children had been playing dress up, and it escaped the yard in full regalia."

"Including one of those costumes," Jeff said, hands in action, "that looks like a saddle and has a little cowboy on top."

"And one of the chimera heads was born," Catcher said.

"Hey, better than the real thing," I said. "What do you even do with a chimera?"

"What wouldn't you do with a chimera?" Jeff asked. "They're like the Swiss Army knife of animals."

"Party in the front, business in the back," Catcher agreed.

That earned a snort and laugh from me. "Any animal that can be compared to a mullet is a good animal in my book."

"We should get going," Grandpa said. "Marjorie has phone duty while we're gone, and she gets irritable if we leave her alone too long."

"But she's the admin," I pointed out. "It's her job to answer the phones."

"She does not quite see it that way," my grandfather said with a smile. "But there aren't enough hours left in the night to have that discussion." He patted my shoulder. "I wouldn't wish violence on anyone, but I'm glad you and your House were out of harm's way tonight."

"Me, too," I agreed, glancing around the room at the Grey House guards, who still looked shell-shocked. "But we're not out of the woods. Not yet. If Grey House can be hit, Cadogan House can, too."

And this time, there'd be twice as many vampires in the crosshairs.

-

The Ombuddies headed south again. My good-byes complete, I walked over to the whiteboard and looked it over. Two riots, lots of injuries, an entire House of vampires UnHoused, and untold property damage. And all because Robin Pope held grudges.

"So, you're Merit."

I glanced back. The Grey House vampire with the yellow Converses stood behind me, arms crossed over her chest.

"I am. I didn't get your name."

"Aubrey," she said. "I'm a friend of Jonah's. We all are, the guards. We're a very close-knit team." She looked me over, and her expression wasn't exactly friendly. More like analytical.

"I wanted to get a sense of you," she said, meeting my gaze again. "He had a thing for you, you know."

I had no idea how to respond to that, so I didn't.

Jonah had had a thing for me, at least briefly. He'd confessed as much when Ethan was gone, but I'd been too in love, and still mourning, to even entertain an offer.

She stepped beside me and turned toward the board, looking it over. "It was when Ethan was dead?"

"Yes," I said. I was mortified by the conversation, but if she was going to look at the board, so would I.

We stood there for a couple of minutes in silence, standing beside each other, staring at the board and trying to ferret out what was there . . . and what wasn't.

"Why these riots?" she asked.

"Exactly my question," I said, hoping we'd moved on. "It seems like a waste of resources and capital - and hatred - to hit little targets."

"I couldn't agree more. Something bigger's at issue here. Something we aren't seeing."

"But what?"

"I don't know." She shook her head, hair bouncing as she did it. I was instantly struck jealous by the volume of it. It was star-worthy hair.

"I don't know, either." I glanced over at her. "I love your hair . . . and Ethan. Jonah told me what he felt, and I was honest with him. I think he's a great guard and a fantastic vampire, but I'm not going to apologize for being in a relationship with someone else."

She pursed her lips. "Not much for subtlety, are you?"

"No. Much like you, apparently."

"Aubrey?"

At the sound of Jonah's voice, we both glanced back. He watched us for a moment, as if puzzling out our interaction. "You ready to go? I want to touch base for a few minutes before sunrise about the accommodations."

"Of course," she said, and when he turned away, she looked at me again. "You'll do. And I like your hair, too."

When she walked away to join him, I smiled a little.

-

When dawn closed in, Ethan and I headed upstairs for bed. I had to remind myself to stop at the second-floor landing, that we were heading for my old room, not the more lush accommodations I'd become used to.

On the door, as on the doors of all Novitiates' rooms, was a small corkboard. A placard bearing my name had been pinned to it, as had a photo from a magazine: two waifish young starlets stretched across a velvet chaise in front of a deep navy background. Lindsey had replaced the girls' heads with small, unevenly cut pictures of us.

With Ethan behind me, I unlocked the door and opened it. The room smelled faintly of dust and the rose-scented perfume I liked to wear in colder months. Since the bottle was upstairs, the fragrance must have lingered on my clothes.

There wasn't much to the room, especially compared to the splendor of the Master's apartments. It was a small rectangle of space. A twin bed sat in one corner, and there was a bureau on the opposite wall that still stored all the personal effects and clothes I hadn't yet taken to Ethan's apartments. Two doors led to a closet and small bathroom.

"Home sweet home?" he asked.

"Something like that." He walked inside, and I closed the door behind him. For a moment, I was struck at how truly different my life had become since I'd been made a vampire. In those early nights, I'd been convinced Ethan was my enemy, the vampire who'd taken away my human life without so much as a second thought. I'd actually been grateful my room was on the second floor, one floor removed from his, so I wouldn't have to face him any more than necessary.