Hard Bitten cv-4

by Хлоя Нейл

  A minute or two later, I crossed the street.

  “Evacuation in progress,” I told Jonah, then crouched down in front of Sarah. “How are you feeling?”

  She nodded. “I’m okay. Just really, really embarrassed.” She pressed a hand to her stomach. Whatever haze had silenced her passed, and she began to sob in earnest.

  Jonah and I exchanged an uncomfortable glance.

  “Sarah,” I softly said. “Can you tell us what happened? How did you end up there?”

  “I heard vamps were having this party.” She rubbed a hand beneath her nose. “I thought, oh, vampires, that could be fun, you know? At first it was okay. But then—I don’t know. The tension in the room got kind of high, and then I started to feel really weird, and I sat down on the floor. I could see them out of the corners of my eyes.

  They’d move around and take a look at me, like they were trying to see if I was ready.”

  “Ready?” I asked.

  “Ready to give blood?” She shuddered and sighed. “And then you came along.” She shook her head. “I’m just really embarrassed. I shouldn’t have been there. I shouldn’t have gone.” She looked up at me. “I really want to go home. Do you think you could find me a cab?”

  “On it,” Jonah said, stepping back to the road to scan for passing cabs. It was late, but we were still within a couple of blocks of Michigan, so it wasn’t completely unlikely that we’d find one.

  As he moved away, I looked down at Sarah again. “Sarah, how did you find out about the party?”

  She blushed and looked away.

  “It would really help us if you could tell me. It might help us put a stop to these parties.”

  She sighed, then nodded. “My girlfriend and I were out at a bar—one of those vampire bars?

  We met a guy there.”

  “Do you know which vampire bar?”

  “Temple?”

  My stomach sank. That was the Cadogan bar.

  “Go on.”

  “So, I went outside to get some fresh air—there were a lot of people in there—and there was a guy outside. He said a party was happening and we’d have a good time. My friend, Brit, didn’t want to go, but I wanted to, you know, see what it was about.”

  So Sarah had gotten info about the rave at Temple Bar, and Jonah had found the phone at Benson’s. That meant the folks who frequented the bars also knew about the raves. Ethan was going to be pissed about that one.

  “The guy you talked to—what did he look like?”

  “Oh, um, he was kinda short. Older. Dark hair.

  Kind of grizzled-looking? And there was a girl with him. I remember because she had on this, like, gigantic hat, so I couldn’t see her face. Oh, but when I was walking back inside, he called her name. It was kind of old-fashioned, like Mary or Martha. . . .” Sarah squeezed her eyes closed as she tried to remember.

  My heart thudded in anticipation. “Was it Marie?”

  Her eyes popped open again. “Yeah! It was Marie. How did you know?”

  “Lucky guess,” I said. I may not have known a particularly short man, but I knew a vamp with a predilection for causing trouble. And once upon a time, she had been known as Marie.

  Before I could ask a follow-up question, Sarah grimaced.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Just a headache. There was something weird in their air, I think.”

  Excellent segue to my next question. “Did you take anything while you were there? Maybe a drink someone handed you?”

  She shook her head. “You’re asking about drugs, but I don’t do drugs. And I know not to drink anything I didn’t pour myself. But I did see this. Another girl—a human—handed it to me.”

  She pulled a small paper envelope, the kind that might hold a gift tag, from her pocket. It was white, and there was a V inscribed on the front. I stuffed it into my pocket for later. And then I asked a question that made me hate myself a little bit, but it had to be asked. The stakes were too high.

  I had to know if she posed a risk to Cadogan.

  “Sarah, are you thinking about going to the police?”

  Her eyes widened. “Oh, God, no. I shouldn’t have gone to the party, and if my parents found out, if my boyfriend found out, they would freak.

  Besides,” she shyly added, “if I called the cops, you’d get in trouble, too, right? You’re a vampire, too, but you helped me.”

  I nodded, relief in my chest. “I am a vampire,” I confirmed. “My name’s Merit.”

  She smiled a little. “Merit. I like that. It kind of describes you. Like you were always meant to be good, you know?”

  This time, I was the one sniffing back a sudden errant tear.

  The clack of a car door opening pulled my gaze to the street. Jonah stood beside a black and white cab, door open. “Let’s get you home.”

  Sarah nodded. She still wobbled on her feet, but we made it the dozen or so feet to the cab. At the door, she turned back and smiled at me.

  “Will you be okay?” I asked.

  She nodded. “I will. Thank you.”

  “You don’t have to thank me. I’m sorry about what happened. I’m sorry they made you feel uncomfortable.”

  “It’s forgotten. But I won’t forget this,” she said, “not what you did tonight.”

  When the door closed, we watched the cab pull away.

  Jonah glanced back at me, and then at the eastern sky. “Dawn will be here soon,” he said.

  “We should get home.” He gestured down the street. “I actually parked pretty close. You want a ride back to your car?”

  “That would be great,” I agreed, the adrenaline giving way to exhaustion.

  We walked in silence a few blocks, then stopped at a hybrid sedan.

  “Thinking about the environment?”

  He smiled ruefully. “If the climate goes bad, we’re going to be here for it. Might as well plan ahead.”

  When he unlocked the doors and we climbed inside, I gave him directions to my own parking spot, then closed my eyes and dropped my head back to the seat.

  I was out in seconds.

  CHAPTER NINE

  BE IT EVER SO HUMBLE . . . UNLESS YOU’RE IMMORTAL AND UNDERSTAND COMPOUND INTEREST

  I shuddered awake, blinking in the glow of unfamiliar lights. I was curled into a ball atop a giant sleigh bed that smelled like woodsy cologne and cinnamon. I sat up and took in unfamiliar surroundings. A massive bed, topped by a pile of taupe bedclothes. An equally large flat-screen television at the end on a facing bureau. And leaning against the bureau, arms crossed over his chest, was Jonah. He was dressed more casually today in a V-neck T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers.

  “Good evening, Sentinel.”

  “Where are we?”

  “Grey House. My room.”

  “Grey—,” I began to repeat, but the night began to replay. I fell asleep in his car, and he must have brought me here. No, not just brought me—carried me—into Grey House while I was out.

  “I wasn’t comfortable dropping you off at your car. You were completely out, and your being here was easier to explain than my showing up with you at Cadogan House. Dawn was moving in; I had to make a call.”

  That made sense, although I wasn’t thrilled that I’d been carried around like a hapless girl in one of my favorite bodice rippers.

  “Thanks. Did anyone else see me come in?” If so, since I’d spent the night in Jonah’s room, I could imagine well enough myself what they’d been thinking. I felt the rising blush on my cheeks.

  “Nope. Everyone else was bunked in by then.”

  I swung my feet over the bed and buried my toes in expensive, thickly piled carpet. “Where did you sleep?”

  He hitched a thumb over his shoulder. “Sitting room. I’m a gentleman, and there’s nothing about seducing an unconscious vampire that appeals to me.” He shrugged. “Besides, the sun was nearly up. We were out. I could have slept right beside you, and no one would have been the wiser.

  We’d both have been angel
s.”

  I was on enough of a boy hiatus to agree, but appreciated that he’d given me space. It was a gentlemanly thing to do, and not something I’d take for granted.

  “Thank you.”

  He shrugged. “I borrowed your phone. Sent a message to Ethan to let him know you were okay. I thought you’d probably have checked in when you returned, and a call from me would have been really suspicious.”

  I nodded my agreement. Of course, just because he hadn’t outed himself to Ethan didn’t mean there weren’t going to be questions. Ethan was still going to wonder where I’d spent the day.

  I glanced into the sitting room where he’d slept. A plush couch and love seat were poised near another enormous flat-screen television mounted to the wall. The rest of the room was equally nice. Luxe carpet, rich colors, crown molding, and wainscoting. An arcade video game stood against one wall, and a framed Ryne Sandberg jersey hung on the other.

  This place could have been featured on vampire Cribs.

  “This is a pretty sweet place.”

  “New House, new digs. Well, relatively new House, anyway. Only eight years old, which isn’t much when immortality is the context.” He walked to a mini-fridge built into a cabinet on the far wall and opened it, revealing tidy rows of longneck bottles. He plucked one out and walked my way.

  “I don’t think hair of the dog is going to do it for me today.”

  “It’s not beer.” When he held it out, I looked it over. It was blood. Traditional beer bottle, but definitely not the traditional brew. It was another Blood4You product—the unfortunately named LongBeer. They really could use Mallory’s marketing expertise.

  “You looked like you could use it.”

  I nodded my agreement and twisted off the cap, my fingers shaking with the sudden hunger.

  The blood was cold and had a peppery zing to it, like it had been doctored with a dash or two of Tabasco.

  As blood went, it was delicious. But, more important, it satiated the need. I finished the bottle in seconds flat, then lowered it again, chest heaving.

  “Guess you needed that?”

  I nodded, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. “Sorry. Sometimes the hunger takes me.”

  Jonah reached out and took the bottle from my hand. “It can do that. And you had a big night last night.”

  “Not as big as it might have been, but big enough. I got hungry at the party, and I was lucky not to flip out like everyone else there.”

  He dropped the bottle into a bin beside the refrigerator. “Speaking of, you certainly got the vamps fired up.”

  “It wasn’t me,” I assured him. “A female vamp bumped me, and I ended up with two vamps in my face trying to take me out.”

  Jonah frowned. “There did seem to be a lot of aggression in the air.”

  “And did you notice their eyes?” I asked.

  “Totally silver, barely any pupil. They were seriously vamped out.”

  “There was also a lot of magic in the room.

  You put those two things together and you get vamps itching for a fight.”

  I shook my head. “This couldn’t just be volume—all the vampires in a room together.

  The Houses couldn’t exist if just being near other vampires made them predatory enough to fight for no reason. Maybe it’s a mob-mentality thing?

  One vamp sanctions violence and the rest of them fall into line?”

  Jonah shook his head. “I’ve got another theory. What if the magic wasn’t just leaked by the vamps—what if it was directing them?”

  “You’re suggesting someone was using magic against us? Fueling the aggression?”

  He nodded. “Making the vamps super predatorial.”

  “Okay,” I allowed, “say it is magic. But who does that implicate? Sorcerers? They usually try to stay away from vamp drama, and there are only, like, three in the Chicago area. I know two of them, and making vamps play gladiator isn’t exactly on their to-do list.” Granted, I’d never met Mallory’s tutor, but I had a pretty good idea how he was spending his time—training her.

  “Okay, so probably not sorcerers. How did you find Sarah?” Jonah asked.

  “She was sitting on the floor, looked completely spaced-out. No visible bite marks, so something else had to be going on. Is it possible to glamour someone into illness? I mean, to make them physically weaker just from the glamour?”

  He frowned, considering it. “I’ve never seen it.

  But that’s not to say it’s not possible. Did you learn anything from her? How she found out about the party?”

  I passed along the information she’d given me about Temple Bar and the man she’d seen outside. “She also gave me this,” I said, digging the envelope from my pocket. I pulled it out, then opened the flap and emptied the envelope’s contents into my hand.

  Two white pills fell into my palm.

  “Well,” he said, “that might explain why she was so out of it.”

  I held one tablet up to the light. The same curvy V was pressed into its surface.

  “She said she didn’t take anything.”

  “She was also embarrassed about what happened.”

  “True,” I agreed. “Tate said Mr. Jackson had been arrested for drug possession. So maybe vamps are drugging humans to make them, what, more susceptible to glamour?”

  “Given the crowd you saw last night, would that seem farfetched to you?”

  Unfortunately, it didn’t. Of course, we also didn’t have any evidence of it. Sarah could have been glamoured—not that vamps manipulating humans was a big improvement over drugging them.

  Whatever the case, it was worth looking into. I put the pills back into the envelope, then tucked it into my pocket again. “I’ll take them to the Ombud’s office,” I told him. “Maybe they can find out more.”

  The debriefing done, Jonah let me freshen up in his small bathroom. I rubbed at mascara smears and hitched up my ponytail again.

  When I came out, he was pulling a buzzing phone from his pocket. He glanced up at me.

  “I’m going to take this. I’ll be right back. Make yourself at home. There’s more blood if you need it.”

  I nodded at him. “Thanks.”

  He stepped outside and closed the door behind him, leaving me alone in the cool comfort of his suite.

  I rounded the corner, moving into the sitting room and toward a group of framed papers on the wall. They were diplomas for four doctorates: three from state schools in Illinois (history, anthropology, and geography) and one from Northwestern (German literature and critical thought). Each diploma bore a variation of his name—John, Jonah, Jonathan, Jack—and their dates were spread in time across the twentieth century.

  I guess graduate school was possible for a vampire.

  The door opened. “Sorry,” he said behind me.

  “It was Noah. He is now aware you spent the night at his condo last night.”

  “Good call,” I said, assuming Ethan didn’t quiz me on the finer points of Noah’s home—or any other details about Noah other than the little I already knew.

  I pointed at the degrees. “You’re quite the student.”

  “Is ‘student’ a euphemism for ‘geek’?”

  “It’s a euphemism for ‘man with four PhDs.’ How did you manage all this?”

  “While hiding the fact that I’m fanged, you mean?”

  I nodded, and he grinned and walked toward me. “Very carefully.”

  “Lot of night classes?”

  “Exclusively. All of these were before online classes were an option.” He smiled secretly as he looked over the certificates. “In earlier days, grad school was still a place for eccentrics. It was easy to play the lone genius—the one who only took evening classes, slept during the day, et cetera.”

  “Did you TA any?” Being a TA, a teaching assistant, seemed like it would have been harder.

  “I did not. I got lucky with some fellowship money, and I liked researching, so they kept me away from the classroom
s. Otherwise, it would have been hard to arrange.” He tilted his head at me. “Did you do time in grad school?”

  “Before I was changed, yeah.”

  He must have heard the regret in my voice.

  “I’m guessing there’s a story there?”

  “I was in grad school at U of C before I was made a vampire. English lit. Three chapters into my dissertation.” Before I could stop myself, the entire story was out. “I was walking across campus one night, and I was attacked.” I looked over at him. “One of the Rogues Celina hired.”

  He put two and two together. “You were one of the park victims. The one who was bitten on campus?”

  I nodded. “Ethan and Malik happened to be there. They jumped out, scared the attacker away, and Ethan took me home and began the Change.”

  “God, that was lucky for you.”

  “It was,” I agreed.

  “So Ethan saved your life.”

  “He did. And made me a Cadogan vampire and House Sentinel.” I frowned. “He also pulled me out of school. He didn’t think I could go back as a vamp.” That was right before the North American Vampire Registry outed my Initiate class in the paper, so he’d probably been right.

  “He had a point,” Jonah said. “School as a closeted vampire wasn’t an easy task. It was a little easier, I think, as an older vamp who knew the rules, knew how to play the game. For an Initiate still learning the ropes?” He shrugged. “It would have been difficult.”

  “Said the man with four doctorates.”

  “Fair point. But you seem to have adjusted to being a vampire, even if the transition wasn’t exactly by choice.”

  “It wasn’t easy,” I admitted. “I had my moments of irritating whininess. But I eventually reached the point where I had to accept who I was and deal with it—or leave the House and pretend to be a human again.” I shrugged. “I opted for the House.”

  Jonah wet his lips, then looked at me askew. “I should give credit where credit is due. You did well last night.”

  “That would be more flattering if there wasn’t so much surprise in your voice.”

  “My expectations were low.”

  “Yes, I’m aware of that.” I thought of the first time we’d met, of the disdain in his voice. “And why is that exactly? Why the anti-Sentinel sentiment?”