Midnight Marked (Chicagoland Vampires 12)

I nodded, pulled up the picture of Cyrius’s ouroboros I’d snapped before we left, passed it to Gabriel.

“The Circle controls the Hellriver,” Ethan said, “and Reed controls the Circle. Therefore, Reed controls Hellriver. It also appears Reed owned the vampire who killed your shifter.”

Gabriel’s expression tightened. But I wouldn’t say he looked especially surprised.

“Would you like to tell us why you don’t look at all shocked to learn this? And perhaps, while you’re at it, why don’t you tell us the truth about Caleb Franklin and why he left the Pack?” Ethan’s words were carefully strung and mildly threatening.

In silence, Gabriel finished his whiskey and poured another finger, but didn’t offer one to me or Ethan. He pivoted sideways in the chair, pulled out the chair beside it, and crossed his ankles over the empty seat. Free arm on the table, the other holding his glass.

I wasn’t sure if we were watching him prepare to tell us a story or give us a dressing-down. Either way, he was setting the scene for something.

“Caleb Franklin was my half brother,” Gabriel said.

That explained why Gabriel had nearly come to blows over a man who’d voluntarily abandoned the Pack. On the other hand, Gabriel was the oldest of the Keene siblings, who were named in reverse alphabetical order—Gabriel, Fallon, Eli, and so on. There was no “Caleb” in that list. Caleb’s relationship with the Keene family must have had its own complications.

“Which side?” Ethan asked.

“My father’s. He was unfaithful to my mother. Caleb Franklin was the result of it. My mother was a kind woman, but she drew the line at acknowledging my father’s infidelity. So Caleb Franklin was a member of the Pack, but considered a bastard.

“My mother was adamant, so I didn’t know him growing up. I learned about him later, met him later. He definitely had a chip on his shoulder. Hell, I’d have had one, too, under the circumstances. It certainly changed my perception of the old man.”

Gabriel finished his whiskey. “Caleb came to me about two years ago. He’d gotten an opportunity—that’s what he called it: an opportunity—to do some high-value, if questionable, work for a human. Not a big deal, he’d said. Just a contract. I said no. Humans didn’t know about us then, and I gauged it too risky. The little shit did it anyway, and that was, of course, just the beginning.

“About a year ago, he was making a run of contraband, invited Eli to come along. Eli had no idea what Caleb was running, and they both got caught. They both ended up doing time for it. I was pissed. I confronted Caleb, reminded him that I’d given him an order. I could tell he was scared, and I thought, in the moment, that he’d been scared of me.”

Gabriel put his glass on the table again, and silence fell over the room. And even with the door closed, I’d have sworn every movement in the bar outside had stopped, too, that all eyes were on the closed door and the magic that was beginning to rise within it.

“Caleb wasn’t scared of me. He was scared of the people he’d been working for.” Gabriel lifted his gaze to Ethan’s. “They called themselves the Circle.”

Ethan went very still, and this time it was vampire magic that lifted into the air.

“He’d been running contraband for them—drugs, weapons, and occasionally people, from Texas to Chicago.” Gabe traced a finger across the table like the route on an invisible map. “I gave Caleb two options: Leave the Circle and accept my punishment, or defect and lose all claim to the Pack.”

“Adam was your brother, too,” I said. “He betrayed you, and he wasn’t allowed to live.”

“Adam was responsible for the deaths of shifters; Caleb wasn’t. Maybe I should have taken him out. But he had a hard run of it. Was in a shitty position. Had no claim to a throne he probably had some right to, even if a small one. Maybe that would have been enough to keep him on the straight and narrow. Or maybe he was just a bad seed. I don’t know.”

“He made his own choices,” I said.

“We all do that,” Gabriel said.

“So Franklin defected,” Ethan said. “He picked the Circle. Why?”

“Because soldiers didn’t leave the Circle unless they go out in a body bag. Because the man who controls the Circle is merciless.”

Ethan’s eyes had gone silver and cold and hard as steel, just like the words that punched through the air.

“You knew Reed controlled the Circle. You knew, and despite all the shit we’ve gone through in the last few weeks, the work we put in to proving that connection, you didn’t lift a finger to help.”

Gabriel’s jaw stiffened, as did his bulky shoulders. Very slowly, he slid a glance to Ethan. “You’ll want to watch your tone in my place.”

Ethan was unmoved. “Fuck your place. Navarre is in financial shambles. Merit was stalked. My House was threatened. All because it took time for us to prove that connection.”

Gabriel linked his hands over the table, leaned his chest over it, toward Ethan. “You think you’re the only sup in this city allowed to take care of his own? You think your House is more important than any other family in this city? Then you’ve got it wrong. You got the information you needed. You didn’t need me to volunteer it.”

“You didn’t want the Circle’s eyes on you,” I put in.

Gabriel slid his gaze to me. “Like I said, I protect my own.”