House Rules (20 page)

There was a sudden sadness in his eyes, a sadness that hurt me more than anything
else and seared me to the bone. He wasn’t just angry; he was hurt.

“I am so sorry. I didn’t want this to come between us.”

“
This
, Merit, is an organization that presumes I’m shitty at my job, that I require guarding,
that I am like
them
, the members of the goddamn Greenwich Presidium, which is currently trying to take
my House away.”

I stood a little straighter; he was making my point for me. “That’s exactly why I
had to do it, Ethan—because that’s what the GP is. They’re
tyrants
. And we’re trying to keep that from happening. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you. But
for better or worse, the secret wasn’t mine to tell.”

Fury unabated, Ethan shook his head. “You told me Jonah helped you while I was gone.
It appears that wasn’t an accident.”

“He helped me with the raves while you were busy taking care of the House. And after
you were gone, we worked together to figure out what Mallory was doing.”

“And have you lied to me about anything else?”

That question stung just like a slap. “I didn’t lie about this.”

“You significantly omitted. Regardless, you’ll resign.”

“What?”

“You’ll resign.” He took out his phone and held it out, fire in his eyes. “You’ll
call him right now, you’ll tell him it was a mistake, and you’ll resign.”

I stared back at him. “I won’t resign. I made a promise, and it was the right promise
to make.”

His eyes blazed again. “You took an oath to me. To this House.”

“That’s why I’m doing it! Ethan, now more than ever, we need the Red Guard. We need
eyes on the GP. We need vampires who are willing to look beyond what the GP tells
them to do and think critically. We need help.”

“We need a Sentinel with undivided loyalties.”

I stepped closer to him. My own temper was rising, but damn, did anger feel better
than guilt and fear.

I put a finger in my chest. “I’m Sentinel of this House, and I’m loyal to it. My job
is to do the right thing, and in my judgment, this is the right thing.”

“You joined a secret organization whose goal is to undermine my leadership!” He sounded
flabbergasted.

“No, I joined a secret organization to watch the bad guys who were undermining—and
who continue to undermine—your vampires.”

“And now you’ll resign.”

“I absolutely will not resign.” Whatever doubt remained about my RG membership was
quickly dissipating, despite Ethan’s efforts to the contrary.

His nostrils flared. He wasn’t used to being challenged. “I am Master of this House.”

Finally, familiar territory. “And I am Sentinel of this House. Ethan, if the RG came
to you tomorrow, you’d do the exact same thing. Yes, I made a difficult decision.
I made a decision that clearly is making you ask questions about my loyalties, and
that truly sucks. But this is the right thing for the House, and I stand by it. And
if you’ll stop acting on your prejudices and think—
truly think
—about the advantages this gives us, you’ll know it, too.”

“I know I trusted you with my House, Merit, and with my honesty, and with my heart.
Was that the right thing?”

As if in answer for me, my phone rang. I didn’t so much as reach down to turn it off,
but his eyes narrowed anyway.

“Who is it?”

“Ethan—”

“Check the goddamn phone, Merit.”

My hand shaking with adrenaline, I pulled it out of my jacket pocket and checked the
screen. I closed my eyes.

“Who is it?” The words were half question, half accusation.

I opened my eyes, staring back at him, countering his distrust with irritation of
my own.

And meanwhile, the phone still rang, the new sound track to our battle. “It’s Jonah.”

As Ethan’s eyes narrowed, my heart raced faster. “Answer it,” he gritted out.

“We’re in the middle of a—”

“Oh, no,” he said. “We are quite done here. Answer the phone, Merit. Let’s see what
brings the intrepid captain to your door.”

His tone was insinuating and insulting, but I wasn’t going to argue with him. Not
about the RG. I’d made my decision, and he’d live with it.

Or he wouldn’t. I replayed his words in my mind.
Done here?
I mentally repeated. What had he meant by “done here”? Done with me? Done with us?

I raised the phone to my ear, and had to work to keep my hand from shaking.

“I know my timing’s bad,” Jonah said, and my first thought was that he’d somehow psychically
ferreted out our argument. “And you have House issues to deal with. But we have a
problem.”

“What happened?”

There was silence for a moment as Ethan stared me down. But even he could see the
concern in my face, and his expression softened just a bit.

“Two of Morgan’s vampires are dead. Decapitated, just like Oliver and Eve. They found
them at dusk. Their guard captain just called me. But, Merit, it’s worse. The murder
was in the House.”

I felt the blood drain from my face, even as I wondered—and then answered—why Morgan
hadn’t called us first. Because it was me, and it was Morgan, and the not-very-interesting
history between us still made him weird that way.

“Okay,” I said. “Let me see what I can do.”

“I’m at Navarre now. Get here as soon as you can.”

I hung up the phone and put it back in my pocket. I could see the debate in Ethan’s
face:
Should I show her how angry and hurt I am by asking something snarky, or lose the
attitude, given the expression on her face?

“What happened?” he finally asked, his voice carefully neutral.

“Two of Morgan’s vampires are dead. They found them in Navarre House at dusk.”

Ethan’s eyes widened. “The killer was inside the House?”

I nodded.

Ethan ran a hand absently through his hair. “You should tell your grandfather. They
can assist with arrangements or the investigation . . . whatever’s necessary.”

I nodded again. “I’m sorry this is happening right now,” I said. “I know the timing
is atrocious. I didn’t mean for you to find out—about the RG.”

For the second time tonight, that was exactly the wrong thing to say. I’d reminded
him of what I’d done, and why he should be angry.

He snatched his suit jacket from the back of a chair.

“Where are you going?”

He slipped on the jacket, and slipped his phone into a pocket. “I think you’d know
that, Sentinel. I’m going with you.”

“But the House?”

“We have hours yet, and the lawyers are on it. Perhaps, should the opportunity present
itself, I will have words with your new partner.”

The expression on his face left little doubt about what those words would be.

* * *

Ethan gave Malik a heads-up that we were leaving. Malik was obviously surprised, but
after scanning our faces for a moment, he wisely decided not to argue.

Ethan told him about the deaths at Navarre House and asked him to apprise Luc. I also
stood by while he had a closed-door chat with Lacey, no doubt warning her to keep
quiet about what she’d seen and dismissing her claim that I was having an affair.

I couldn’t imagine he’d tell her about the Red Guard, but I wisely decided not to
ask.

Navarre House was in the Gold Coast, north of Hyde Park and near the lake, and I was
still the default transportation mechanism.

We drove in total silence. Ethan didn’t mutter a word, too angry at me to speak. And
I wasn’t especially interested in talking to him. I’d opted to put my ass on the line
to keep Cadogan safe from the GP. In my position, he’d have done the same thing.

And you know what? If I was the type of girl who quit an obligation because my boyfriend
told me to, Ethan wouldn’t have been interested in me in the first place.

So I concentrated on driving and not becoming any more furious than I already was.

When we reached Navarre House, an imposing white mansion with a turret at one corner,
I parked in the first open spot I could find.

Ethan looked over at me, and his gaze was flat. “I presume, since Jonah called you,
Scott knows about the murders.”

Scott Grey was the Master of Grey House, the third of Chicago’s three vampire Houses.
“I would think so. I’m sure word has traveled from Noah.”

“Does he know about the RG?”

“No. Just Jonah. And me. And now you.”

“Is that why Jonah called you?”

“I doubt it. He knows we’ve been investigating the Rogues’ deaths. Ethan—”

I said his name, unsure how to begin but knowing we needed to talk. But he held up
a hand. He’d hear nothing more from me, not right now.

“Let’s just get through this meeting,” he said.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

MADNESS

E
than and I walked side by side down the sidewalk. His body language was clear—we were
working together. Nothing more, nothing less, at least until we had a good talk.

But now was not the time for that talk.

We walked inside Navarre House and found the front desk empty. The three lovely brunettes
who usually greeted visitors to the House were gone.

We walked into the House proper, and the mood was dark—grief stricken and silent.
Every vampire House had a style. Grey House was an urban loft. Cadogan House had a
European flair. Navarre House was sleek and modern. Although the exterior of the building
looked more like a princess’s castle than a vampire enclave, the interior looked like
an art gallery. The walls and floor were gleaming marble, with occasional pops of
art and furniture.

The first floor was full of vampires, but they’d clustered behind an invisible line,
leaving a gap between themselves and the Masters, Morgan Greer and Scott Grey. Both
were dark haired. Scott looked like a former college athlete—broad shoulders, small
waist, and a dark soul patch below his lips. Morgan looked like a male model. His
dark, wavy hair now reached his shoulders, but across his handsome face—strong cheekbones,
cleft chin, dark blue eyes—was a mask of grief.

We hadn’t exactly had the best working relationship, but this wasn’t the time to dwell
on our petty disagreements. He was suffering, and we’d do what we could to help. Besides,
the last time I’d talked to Morgan, he’d saved my life. Being here was really the
least we could do.

Jonah stood slightly apart from them. He and Scott both wore blue-and-yellow Grey
House jerseys, which Scott had selected, in lieu of medals, to identify his House’s
vampires. A blond man I didn’t know, but assumed was the Navarre House guard captain,
stood with the group.

Ethan nodded, barely sparing Jonah a glance. “Our condolences for your loss.”

Jonah looked at me curiously, and I found I couldn’t make eye contact. My stomach
felt suddenly raw. I was fighting with my boyfriend about my new partner—and my new
partner was standing in front of us.

“What happened?” Ethan asked.

Morgan moved to the side, revealing the covered bodies of their fallen colleagues
beside the stairs, a pool of blood beside them. They’d placed a blanket atop the bodies,
giving them decency the killer hadn’t bothered to show.

“Two of my vampires have been murdered,” Morgan said. “The first is Katya. She’s the
sister of my Second.”

My lips parted. Morgan’s Second was a woman named Nadia, who was beautiful in an effortless,
European way. I didn’t know Katya, but I’d met Nadia briefly before.

“I’m so sorry,” I said.

Morgan nodded. “The second is Zoey, a member of our administrative staff. They were
friends.”

“What happened?” Ethan asked.

“We found them at dusk. Will, our guard captain, found them.” Morgan gestured toward
the curly-haired blond beside him.

“May we?” Ethan asked, motioning toward the bodies.

Will nodded grimly, then took a knee and drew back the blanket. I didn’t recognize
the vampires, but then, I hadn’t had much interaction with Navarre House other than
Morgan and, once upon a time, Celina.

Katya was curvier than Nadia, with long, dark hair and angelic features. She wore
what looked like sleepwear—a short satin nightgown of pale pink, and fuzzy white slippers.
Zoey also wore pajamas—a tank and cotton pants. Her skin was dark and her hair was
darker, cropped close to her head in tight curls.

Like he’d done with Oliver and Eve, the killer had separated the girls’ heads from
their bodies with the same long cut, and they were holding hands, their fingers stained
with blood.

“Thank you,” Ethan said, and Will covered them again. But covering the women didn’t
prevent the visage of their deaths from searing into my mind. Perhaps I was becoming
desensitized, as it was less the blood and violence that affected me than the slippers
on Katya’s feet. They were soft and young and somehow pitiable, and made their deaths
that much more offensive.

“Had they behaved unusually last night? Or perhaps disappeared for any time?” Ethan
asked Will.

“They were hanging out together,” Will said. “They spent the evening with friends
at Red”—that was the official Navarre House bar—“and then returned here. They shared
a room. No one noticed anything amiss until they were found this morning.”

“What about the room?” I quietly asked, and eyes turned to me. “I mean, they’re in
pajamas. Either they were taken from the room, or they left it to come out here for
some reason.”

Will nodded just a bit, as if appreciating the logic. “Their beds had been slept in,
and the door was slightly ajar. The House kitchen is on this floor. We think they
might have come downstairs for something to eat or drink.”

“And the killer was waiting,” Ethan finished.

Will nodded.

“Do you know how long they’d been dead when you found them?” Ethan asked.

Will cleared his throat, obviously uncomfortable. “The bodies were still warm. So
not long.”

“What about security cameras?” I asked.

“We have closed circuit, but it’s not recorded,” Morgan said, voice flat with grief.
“And we don’t have full-time external security staff. We don’t need it,” he added.
But he didn’t have to justify his decisions to me. Besides, it wasn’t like our external
security was working out so well right now.

“So it seems likely this happened just after dusk,” Ethan said. “What type of security
do you have on the doors? Who could get in?”

“Our security is biometric,” Will said. “The system was on, and we’ve confirmed that
it’s functioning properly and has been. No breaches were registered.”

“Can you track individual vampires?” Ethan asked.

“No. Our system doesn’t record information; it operates like a door lock. If you match
the data stored in the receiver, the door unlocks.”

“That was Celina’s preference,” Morgan said. “She didn’t want the vampires to feel
they were living in a police state.”

Or
, I silently thought,
she didn’t want anyone tracking the comings and goings of her lovers and secret allies.

“What does the security system actually scan?” I asked. “Fingerprints? Retinal scan?”

“It’s keyed for Navarre vampires,” Morgan said.

His tone was matter-of-fact, but his implication was significant. Huge, actually.
Because we’d found aspen slivers on the ground at the apartment building, we assumed
McKetrick had been the killer. But McKetrick was human, as his daylight press conference
with the mayor amply demonstrated. He wasn’t a vampire, and certainly not a Navarre
vampire.

Four vampires were dead, and the killer was a vampire . . . which meant we were looking
at a vampire serial killer.

Ethan and I exchanged a worried glance. Thank God, even when he was angry, we could
work together. That endeared him to me as much as anything else had.

“No one from Navarre House would do this,” Morgan said, as if guessing our thoughts.

“Respectfully,” Scott said, “if your security’s working, only a Navarre vampire could
have done this.”

Morgan opened his mouth to respond, but he was interrupted by a commotion near the
door.

Nadia, Morgan’s Second and Katya’s sister, ran into the room. Her cheeks were pink
from cold, and she wore jeans, boots, and a long baggy sweater beneath the coat she
hadn’t taken time to button.

“Katya!” she screamed, her voice choked with tears, running toward her sister’s body.
But Morgan reached out and grabbed her before she reached Katya, wrapping his arms
tightly around her and whispering softly in what I thought was Russian.

Since when did Morgan speak Russian?

Nadia screamed to be loosed. “She is my sister! Let me go!”

Morgan maintained his hold, and as her rage transmuted into grief, she turned her
body into Morgan as he kissed her temple, trying to comfort her through her gut-wrenching
sobs.

It seemed Morgan and his Second were closer than I would have guessed.

“I’m going to take her upstairs,” Morgan said, and we nodded as he escorted Nadia
toward the staircase.

Will watched them leave, then looked back at us, desperation in his face. “Do you
know who did this? Are you close to catching whoever murdered those two Rogues?”

I looked at Ethan, who nodded. “This is similar to Oliver’s and Eve’s deaths. The
same method of death, and the same positioning of the bodies. Oliver and Eve were
holding hands, too.”

“But it’s not in a hidden location this time,” Jonah said, and I nodded.

“We’d thought McKetrick, the new Ombudsman, might be involved. But he’s human, not
a vampire. And if only Navarre vampires can get into the House . . .”

“Then you’re out of luck,” Scott said.

I didn’t appreciate his tone or his conclusion, especially since he hadn’t exactly
participated in the investigation or offered any assistance. Thank God his guard captain
was more willing to help.

“We have the information we have,” Ethan said. “Nothing more.”

Scott looked at him. “You’ll look into this?”

Ethan looked at him silently for a moment. “Will, would you excuse us, please?”

Will nodded and walked away, leaving me, Ethan, Scott, and Jonah. Ethan took a step
closer into the group, ensuring his words would stay private.

“Why not encourage Morgan to call the CPD?” Ethan asked.

Scott looked surprised. “Because they’re part of the same city administration that
hired McKetrick. Do you actually think we’d get a fair shake? Or that they wouldn’t
simply call this inter-House nonsense and attempt to oppress us even more? Or publicize
the fact that it was probably a vampire who did this?”

I knew for a fact that there were perfectly honorable members of the CPD, my grandfather
among them, but Scott had a point. If Morgan was right, and only Navarre vampires
could enter and leave the House, that meant a Navarre vampire was the killer. Which
was almost unfortunate, because we had no other evidence suggesting a Navarre vampire
was involved.

“We will do what we can to bring the killer to justice,” Ethan said. “But we are not
here to dirty our hands so that yours and Morgan’s can stay clean. We have reaped
the punishment of that particular course of action for long enough. You owe favors
to our House, and we will collect.”

There was no denying the anger in Scott’s expression; I doubted he was challenged
by other vampires very often. But Ethan wasn’t a Novitiate of Scott’s House. He’d
been a vampire—and a Master—longer than Scott had been alive.

I’d long thought that Ethan’s premature death had changed him. Given him new bravado,
perhaps. This was pretty good evidence that I was right. And since Ethan was one hundred
percent correct, it was an attitude I liked. Cadogan didn’t exist to serve Grey or
Navarre, and while there was no question we wanted to find the perpetrator, I was
glad they were on notice that their free rides were over.

There was something else in Scott’s expression—a begrudging respect. Scott had seemed
to me to be a forthright, balls-to-the-wall type of guy. Even though he didn’t like
hearing harsh truths, maybe part of him appreciated Ethan’s frankness.

“Agreed,” Scott said.

“In that case,” Ethan said, “we’ll leave the House to make its arrangements. We’ll
advise Morgan, and you, if we have any information.”

Scott nodded, and the deal was done.

Ethan didn’t spare him or Jonah another look, but headed back to the door. At least
he’d managed to restrain himself from confronting Jonah about my RG membership here
and now. Thank God for small miracles.

We left Navarre House through the cloud of grief and anger.

Unfortunately, those emotions followed us back to the House. Ethan wasn’t talking,
and I was becoming more upset. My RG membership was entirely justifiable, and it was
supposed to be secret. Telling Ethan would have defeated the point of my being a member
of a clandestine organization.

Not that I couldn’t sympathize. I’d agonized about joining the RG for exactly the
reasons he was angry now: because it would be perceived as slap against Ethan and
the House. It wasn’t; I knew that now better than ever. But that didn’t ease the stone
of guilt that settled heavily in my stomach.

When we got out of the car, Ethan waited for me before reentering through the Cadogan
gate, but still didn’t offer a single word.

“You’ll tell Luc?” he asked, when we stepped into the House foyer.

I nodded. “Sure.”

With a nod, he disappeared directly into his office without another word.

So much for our détente. I suppose it applied only to murder investigations, and not
to the destruction of our House by contractual shenanigans.

My stomach clenched at the thought, but first problems first. I hadn’t had a chance
at Grey House to tell Jonah what had happened, and he needed to know, so I stepped
outside onto the portico, dialed him up, and got right to the heart of it.

“Hello?”

“Ethan knows about the RG.”

There was silence on the other end, and I could feel the disappointment radiating
through the phone.

“I had to tell him,” I said. “Lacey Sheridan followed me to our meet.”

“She followed you? Why would she follow you?”

“Because she’s in love with Ethan and is looking for an excuse to knock me out of
the picture.”

“Did she find one?”

“I don’t know,” I quietly said. “He’s angry. The RG is kind of an insult to Masters,
and he’s taking it personally.”

“That explains why he kept giving me nasty looks at Navarre House.”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Fuck, Merit. I do not want to add to an already shitty night.”

“I know. I didn’t plan on it, either. I’m not quitting,” I added. “I made a commitment
to you and the RG, and I know the RG is on the right side of things.”