Midnight Marked (Chicagoland Vampires 12)

I wanted to argue but decided the fastest way to figure out what was up with Mallory was to actually go upstairs and ask her. Still, I felt a low sense of dread. I didn’t know anything I’d done to piss her off, which raised other issues—did it have something to do with the shifters? My grandfather? Dark magic?

I hustled up the stairs, glanced around the foyer, saw no one but the supplicants in the foyer and a vampire at the desk.

The assault came from behind me. She popped out of the woodwork like a pixie, began slapping at me with fluttering, butterfly hands.

“Ow! What the hell, Mallory?” For a petite woman with plenty of magic at her disposal, she slapped pretty hard.

“Biggest thing to happen in either of our damn lives and you didn’t even tell me!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Gabriel’s prophecy,” she said in a fierce, growling whisper.

I stopped, stared at her.

There weren’t many who knew about it, and I hadn’t told anyone other than Ethan, for obvious reasons, and Lindsey, and because she’d mostly guessed it.

“How did you—”

She crossed her arms. “Gabriel’s angry at Ethan. I guess he let it slip to Jeff, and Jeff told me.”

Supernaturals could not keep secrets to save their lives. “Does my grandfather know?”

“No. Jeff didn’t even mean to tell me, and he swore me to secrecy.”

I rubbed my temples, which were beginning to ache from the weight of too much drama. Or Mallory’s psychic funk.

“Let’s go for a walk outside,” I said.

But Mallory just kept staring at me, and her eyes began to fill. “You didn’t tell me.”

Crap, I thought, and took her arm much more gently than she’d have taken mine.

ked at Catcher. “I bet she and Mallory would get along really well.”

“Merit, Sentinel of Cadogan House and magical matchmaker.” Ethan smiled, probably grateful for the levity.

“I got Paige and the Librarian together,” I pointed out.

Catcher pulled out his phone “Technically, Mallory got them together. Let’s get this photographed for Jeff.”

I nodded, pulled out my own phone.

“I’d like to meet at dusk,” Ethan said, walking to one of the walls and staring at it, hands on his hips.

Catcher nodded. “Jeff mentioned it. You might try not irritating Adrien Reed in the meantime,” he said, angling his phone to get a shot.

“Been holding that one in for a few hours?” I asked.

“I have.”

“It’s good advice,” I said. “You should convince Ethan to take it.”

“You might make the same suggestion to Reed,” Ethan grumbled. “I suspect it won’t be long before we hear from him again.”

“Then we’ll have to double our efforts,” Catcher said.

“We may need to do more than that.”