by Chloe Neill
“You owe me a big one,” I said with a grin. “I accept Leo’s gift cards and Auto credits.”
He patted down his suit. “I don’t have either of those.” He reached into his pocket, pulled out an old-fashioned butterscotch candy, offered it. “I don’t know how long this has been in there, but you can have it.”
“I’m not even a little bit tempted.”
“Yeah, that’s probably a good call.” He grinned. “This is a borrowed suit.”
I narrowed my gaze at him. “Were you going to tell me that before or after I ate it?”
His smile was slow and lazy. “Probably after.” After a careful glance around, he dropped the candy into potted plant.
“Typical Riley.”
“I play to type. You gonna be in town long enough to get in a game night?”
I grinned. “I don’t know about my schedule, but I wouldn’t mind taking a little of your money.”
He winked. “Then it’s done. And it’ll irritate Connor, so that’s a bonus.”
I patted his arm. “Find your joy, Riley. Find your joy.”
* * *
• • •
“It was a beautiful party,” Seri said, strappy sandals dangling from a finger, a champagne flute in her other hand, as we rode the elevator back to the top of the Portman Grand.
I’d seen Marion up to her room an hour ago, after asking Theo to keep an eye on Seri, and was glad for the break. There’d been a lot of supernaturals crammed into the ballroom, a lot of magic swimming around, and the effect was dizzying. It was like a crowded party with too much perfume—except the perfumes were all deadly. And then there was Ruadan, who hadn’t confronted me again, but whom I’d stayed uncomfortably aware of.
But considering the excellent champagne, meeting a new friend in Theo, and catching up with my family, all in all it had been a pretty good party.
“Chicago cleans up well,” I agreed. “And nobody punched anyone.”
Seri snorted, then covered her mouth delicately. “I believe I may be a little too relaxed.”
“Jet lag and champagne,” I said as the elevator came to a smooth stop, “are a powerful combination.”
“Oui,” she said, and we stepped onto her floor. She hummed “La Vie en Rose” as we walked toward her door, then made a grand bow.
“Breakfast,” she said, unlocking the door with her thumbprint. “Marion would like to speak to us at dusk, before the session begins.”
Tomorrow was only a partial night of talks—a three-hour session to allow for opening statements and the beginning of discussions. Long enough to get people talking, but not so long that the frustrations they’d brought with them would boil over. They’d get to business in the second session, working with the host vampires and others from around the world to come up with a plan forward. Hopefully.
My parents were hosting an event at Cadogan House after the first session, another party intended to keep the atmosphere social and productive. And there’d almost certainly be great food and more champagne. I was going to have to pace myself.
“Sure,” I said. “I’ll be here at dusk.”
“Bonne nuit,” she said, and closed the door again.
I walked back to my room, sending Lulu another message as I traversed the wide hallway: DAY 1 COMPLETE. TIME TO TALK TOMORROW?
Her answer was nearly instantaneous: GIRL YES. COME TO LITTLE RED!!!
I promised I would, then fell into bed without another thought.
FIVE
When the sun set again, I dressed in a black suit, added heeled boots and my katana, and headed down to Marion’s room for breakfast.
Her suite was practically a palace. The living room was enormous and faced the river, with boxy leather couches that didn’t interrupt the view. One wall was a window over Chicago, the city’s lights piercing through the darkness like pinpricks. It looked magical. But darkness covered a lot of flaws. That is, I thought, one of the reasons why vampires tend to be overly focused on politics and strategy. It was easy to ignore the problems of the communities humans had built when we literally didn’t see them.
I was vetted by the guards who flanked the door, which Seri opened when they allowed me to knock.
“Good evening,” she said, looking perfect in a sheath dress with an angular neck and heeled boots. “Thanks for sending me the video. I haven’t yet watched it, but look forward to it.”
She gestured to the dining room table that stretched across another bank of windows in the adjoining room. The table was decked with platters of pastries and pitchers of blood, and the scent of bacon filled the air.
“Marion has assembled a feast for us,” she said.
“Looks like it.”
“Good evening, Elisa.” Marion moved closer from the bank of windows, and offered a hand. Her skin was dark, her hair cropped into short curls, her eyes piercingly intelligent. Tonight she wore a simply cut black suit with block heels, and pearls dotted her ears.
Magic followed as she moved, putting a cinnamon-sharp bite into the air. It tangled with the magic of apprehensive vampires, gave it a bright but comforting edge.
“Good evening, Marion.”
“You look very competent today.” From any other vampire, that might have been an insult. But Marion wasn’t one for sarcasm. She was a straightforward woman who appreciated critical thinking and a strong work ethic, and she was well-loved and respected by her vampires.
“Thank you. Any news from Paris?”
“The day passed peacefully, and I am grateful. Given the Masters who create the violence are here in the city of your birth, I hope we have not passed our problems on to you.”
“I hope so, too. But even if so, Chicago is skilled at handling ornery supernaturals.”
A corner of her mouth lifted into a careful and conservative smile. “So it seems.” She gestured to the dining room. “Shall we break our fast?”
Odette and the rest of the vampires were already in the large dining room, sipping coffee at the table or putting plump fruit onto trays.
I took a croissant and poured myself some coffee, added cream and sugar, and took a seat beside Seri. When all the vampires had assembled their breakfasts, Marion tapped her water glass. The vampires turned their heads toward her in syncopation, like birds changing direction.
“Good evening,” she said, when she had their attention. Her voice was soft and smoky, like a torch singer from another era. “I wanted us to have an opportunity to commune before the event.”
She looked at us, then at the city silhouetted through the window, the blinking top of the Willis Tower, shining red for the occasion.
“Much trouble has been made to assemble us here. Cost. Time. Compromise. But we are an old people, and we are stubborn. We fear change, and we fear those different from us, even as we seek to live among them.
“But there is opportunity here.” She looked at me, nodded approvingly. “There is a chance to make a new way in Paris, in France, in Europe, in the world—to find the same peace that they’ve found in Chicago. There is a chance for cooperation—if we can move past our own self-interest, our own prejudices. So, let us take a moment of silence to prepare ourselves for negotiation and debate and finding the path forward.”
She nodded, and a hush fell across the room.
And in that quiet, hope rose.
* * *
• • •
The Sanford had been a theater with baroque style—vaulted ceilings, a golden dome, murals, and velvet drapes. It fell into disrepair, and was later saved by a very smart woman who realized that even if Chicago didn’t need another theater, there were never enough wedding venues. She stripped out the chairs and the middle balconies, cleaned up the paint and gilt, and turned the main floor into the city’s grandest ballroom.
Tonight, crystal chandeliers put a golden glow across th
e room, which was swagged with the banners of each vampire House participating in the talks. Tables had been politically arranged on the main floor, with a long, oval table in the middle, each seat marked with a placard. Behind it, another U of tables had been lifted by risers, so the delegates seated there had a clear view of the proceedings—or because those in the back row had complained their seats weren’t good enough.
The energy in the air was enough to ramp up my adrenaline. This was an important night. We’d gone through two security checks to get into the building, and the theater itself also had security. Guards stood at intervals along the wall—some who’d been brought by the delegates as security or escorts, and others who’d volunteered from Chicago’s Houses and the Pack.
Dearborn wasn’t here tonight, probably because there wasn’t a photo opportunity. Cameras weren’t allowed inside, and the mayor wouldn’t attend the talks, so he’d probably moved on to greener pastures.
I didn’t recognize many of the vampires or shifters, but found Connor on the opposite side of the room. He wore a black suit tonight that was perfectly cut to showcase his broad shoulders, narrow waist. Connor and I might not have had much in common, but I could admit he cut a powerful figure.
It was the first time I’d seen him looking so serious and focused. While his posture said he was relaxed—shoulders back, hands in his pockets—there was no mistaking the careful attention in his eyes as his gaze slowly slid across the room, back and forth, looking for threats.
He had grown up, and I was having trouble reconciling that with the cocky child who’d stolen my toy sword.
Connor’s gaze lifted, met mine, and held. And there was as much power in the look as there was in his physical presence. There was strength in his gaze, like it had its own mass, its own weight. It was intense to be stared at with eyes so blazingly blue.
I wasn’t used to a look from Connor having that much impact.
But before I could think too much about it, magic began to beat like a drum, like the warning of an army miles away. Except the pounding was in my chest—and it was growing louder.
The monster was reaching out again, and I understood immediately why it had awakened. Why it had stretched. This time, it wasn’t for the city, but for the blade.
For my mother’s katana.
She stood across the room in a dark suit, a white shirt beneath, her crimson scabbard belted to her waist.
I hadn’t even considered that my mother would bring the sword here tonight. But of course she would. She’d be acting as host, along with my father. And as Sentinel, on behalf of his House.
My heart began to hammer in my chest. Not in fear, but in anticipation. In dread.
Her sword held the Egregore, the creature Sorcha had cobbled together from alchemy and the cast-off emotions of Chicago’s citizens. When Sorcha manifested the creature into a dragon, my mother had the responsibility of bringing it down. Mallory had created the spell to bind the Egregore to my mother’s sword, to confine the magic again. But the spell worked better than anyone had intended; it bound me to my mother. . . . And that wasn’t the only thing.
I didn’t know the monster existed until I’d become a teenager, until I was old enough to feel magic, to recognize the urge that was coming from inside me. I’d feared I was crazy, until the first time I’d walked into the House’s armory.
I’d gone in with the other sups homeschooled at Cadogan to learn about weaponry, and the pounding had begun the second the armory door had been opened.
Her sword had spent most of the past twenty years hanging there, in part because of what it held, in part because she didn’t carry it anymore. Chicago had been mostly peaceful, at least as far as sups were concerned. She’d taken a hiatus as Sentinel while I was young, and vampires had agreed not to carry visible weapons in public.
I’d moved toward the katana, and I’d felt the pull down to my bones.
That was the first time I realized that I wasn’t crazy, that the monster was something other. I didn’t know then or now exactly what it was—some fragment of the Egregore, or some new thing created by the binding magic—only that it yearned to be free from me, to be united with the magic in the sword.
And because I wouldn’t let that happen, it was furious. That’s why my anger often awakened the monster. Because it understood the feeling.
I’d made my mother and Lulu’s tell me the story of the dragon over and over again, trying to ferret out some detail that would confirm whether I was right. I hadn’t found that detail, and I still didn’t know for sure. And I couldn’t tell either one of them—couldn’t bring myself to confess that Mallory’s magic had hurt me and made me hurt others.
No one else, I promised. I was responsible for its behavior, and I would damn well be responsible.
Pushing through the mental haze of magic, I moved through the room to the double doors on the other end, slipped into the women’s lounge. There were two walls of mirrored counters and stools, and no women in sight.
I moved to the closest mirror. My irises had shifted from green to silver, as happened to all vampires when their emotions were high. But along the edge, like the corona of an eclipsed star, was a thin line of gleaming crimson growing wider with each heartbeat. If I didn’t take control, the red would bleed farther until my eyes gleamed like rubies. And there’d be no hiding that.
I was jet-lagged and tired, and the monster had sensed the weakness. So I made myself focus. Made myself bear down against it. I closed my eyes, slowed my breathing again, and counted to a hundred, and then again, until I could feel it recede.
When I opened my eyes, they were green again.
They were going to stay that way.
* * *
• • •
After the usual introductions and well-wishing, the first session of talks began with the airing of grievances, like an obscene vampire Festivus.
The European Masters were allotted four minutes apiece to introduce themselves and their House, and identify their singular goal for the discussions. Some spoke of peace. But most, being old and powerful vampires, spoke of power and recognition. They wanted to be part of the new order, whatever that might be.
“We were excluded from the Greenwich Presidium,” the Master of the only Sicilian House said through his translator. “We demand a voice in the new regime.”
The demand set off murmurs and whispers and a few outright rebuttals.
“Your House is the newest!” said one of the German delegates. “The Houses with longer tenures should have more power.”
“Delegates.”
My father pushed power into the word, and although it took a moment for the sound to spiral into silence, it was the only word he’d needed to speak.
“I would remind you that we are here to explore peace. We are here to speak our respective truths and listen to the truths of our neighbors. Respect is elemental, crucial, and mandatory.” He turned his intense emerald gaze on every vampire in the audience. “If we do not start from that common thread, there can be little hope of progress.”
There were more mumbles in the crowd, and his eyes went hard and cold. My father was a loving and patient man. But he did not tolerate idiocy.
“To those of who you believe progress is less important than your own self-interest, let me remind you what happened to the Greenwich Presidium. Self-interest does not serve the long-term interests of any House. Either you work together, as we have done in Chicago, or you fall together. And if you fall together, you will lose allies. You will lose coffers. You will lose reputation. . . . And you will lose lives.”
He let those words echo through the room, and when silence settled again, he nodded.
My father had power and respect, and those words were likely enough for every vampire in the room.
But they weren’t enough for the intruders.
I heard them be
fore I saw them, the whistle that cut through the air. And then they swarmed into the ballroom, an army on the attack.
Fairies.
No longer in tunics, but black fatigues. Their hair, long and dark and severe, pulled back over sharp cheekbones and wide eyes.
As vampires rose to object and guards stepped forward with katanas drawn, they made a river of black around the edges of the room, a barrier between the vampires and the rest of the world.
My first thought was for the guards—vampire and human—who’d been engaged to protect the floor below. They’d been prepared for violence, could have combatted it. I hoped they’d succumbed only to magic and hadn’t lost their lives to the supernatural ego.
With the vampires contained, this particular supernatural ego stepped inside. Her hair was down, waving locks that spilled across her shoulders. Her dress was white and gauzy, carefully embroidered with thread that glinted gold in the chandelier light. And in her eyes was fury that flamed as brightly as her hair, her magic sending the scent of salt spray and fresh grass into the air.
Ruadan stepped into the room behind her, also in his finery. Not a soldier, but a king. Or as close as he seemed likely to get with Claudia in power.
Some of the delegates looked afraid or confused. Others looked amused, as if this were part of some elaborate entertainment prepared for their benefit.
Chicago’s Masters rose from their seats. They knew better.
My parents both looked back at me; the instinct to protect their child. I nodded, tapped the handle of my sword to signal I was fine, and was glad they couldn’t hear the pounding of my heart. My fear didn’t matter.
Neither looked entirely convinced I was safe—but, then again, none of us were at the moment—so they gave their attention back to the threat.
My father shifted his gaze to Claudia as the other vampires looked at him, still trying to figure out what was happening and what they should be doing about it.
