Dark Debt (Chicagoland Vampires 11)

They looked duly unimpressed by the explanation and that the Master of Cadogan House was visiting. But that was the point of having cops at the security desk. No fangirling, and no famous vampires sneaking into Navarre House without permission.

“One moment,” the middle guy said, then confabbed with his colleagues, checked clipboards, surveyed lists. After a moment, he rolled his chair back to the middle position, pulled two Navarre House lanyards and security badges from a drawer, and pushed them and a clipboard across the counter. “Sign in.”

Ethan looked up at him, opened his mouth to give what I guessed would be a dressing-down. I knew what he thought, because my thoughts were the same—that this was a power play by a Master who wanted to remind us he was in charge within his halls.

If Navarre’s situation was as bad as we suspected, that hardly seemed to matter.

“I’ll sign us in,” I said, and scribbled our names on the clipboard, plucked up the lanyards, and handed one to Ethan.

“Someone will be out in a moment,” the guard said, then picked up a handset and dialed up a number, whispered into the receiver.

By the time he put the phone down again, footsteps were clipping on marble toward us. Nadia, Navarre’s Second and Morgan’s paramour, emerged from a hallway.

She was gorgeous in an exotically European way, with generous features and golden brown hair. She wore slim-cut black pants, a flowy black top, and laser-cut high-heeled booties. And tonight she looked thinner, her cheekbones sharper, dark circles beneath her eyes, and a deep sadness still set there. Her sister, Katya, had been one of the murdered Navarre vampires. It appeared she was still in mourning.

“Nadia,” Ethan said. “It’s lovely to see you again, although I’m sorry the circumstances are what they are.”

Nadia nodded but didn’t say a word. She gestured us to follow her up the staircase that flowed to the first floor. The stairs were also marble, the handrails gleaming brass. And as beautiful as the House was, she was the only Navarre vampire we’d seen enjoying it. Maybe the others were locked in their rooms, lest the Circle should come calling.

We rounded a corner and walked down a hallway with marble floors and white walls covered in black strokes and slashes. Not graffiti, but woodcut prints blown up and reproduced on the wall. They were images of Navarre House through history, I realized, from an elaborate French chateau to the Gold Coast graystone. Had the Circle funded the artwork?

“In here,” Nadia said, pausing by an open door. Ethan nodded at her, and I followed him inside. It was a large room dominated by a glass conference table with leather and chrome chairs. There were separate seating areas on both sides of the enormous room, and a wall of mirrors along one end.

I wasn’t an expert on home décor, but living with Joshua Merit had taught me enough to know the furniture in this single room was probably worth tens of thousands of dollars.

I can no longer walk into a room in Navarre without assessing its cost, Ethan confessed.

Me, too. I suppose Morgan could always hold a tag sale if things got too bad.

Why would he sell tags?

I just shook my head.

Juliet stood in a corner near the door in full Cadogan black, a yellow katana scabbard belted at her waist. She nodded when we walked in, and Ethan did the same.

Morgan, Malik, and a woman I didn’t recognize sat at the opposite end of the conference table, a laptop in front of each of them. Malik wore Cadogan black; Morgan wore a fitted blue-gray T-shirt and jeans.

The woman had a thick bob of wavy blond hair that hit two inches above her shoulders and framed vividly blue eyes. Her skin was pale, her generous lips perfectly shaded with crimson. She’d paired a pale blue sweater with a capelet together with an ochre pencil skirt and deadly looking stilettos. She was effortlessly beautiful, the type of woman others seemed to hate, or at least envy. And she didn’t look as though she’d much care either way.

I didn’t know her, but Ethan seemed to, and he stiffened at the sight of her.

She and Malik stood; Morgan kept his seat at the head of the table.

“Ethan Sullivan and Merit,” Morgan said. “This is my new Second, Irina. I don’t know if you heard Nadia requested a different position after Katya’s death.”

“We hadn’t heard,” Ethan said. That was an important fact not to have made its way to Cadogan House, but Navarre was insular. Considering that it had also hidden its evidently thorough connection to the Circle, I shouldn’t have been surprised.

From the tightness around Morgan’s eyes, I wondered what else we hadn’t heard about Nadia. Were she and Morgan on the outs, too? There certainly hadn’t been any noticeable heat between them—or even acknowledgment—when she’d dropped us off. She hadn’t even entered the room.

“Nice to see you again, Irina,” Ethan said. “I’m sure you’ll flourish in your new role.”

Irina nodded regally, clearly certain she’d flourish.

“We’ve reviewed most of the basic debt and asset information,” Morgan said. “Tried to give Malik a sense of the big picture.”

Ethan nodded. “Are Will and Zane still in custody?”

“They are. The lawyers think a deal would be in their best interest, and in the House’s. I don’t know how much leniency they’ll get, circumstances being what they are.”