House Rules (26 page)

“He went into the House; he came out again,” I said. “The egg was taken, but it’s
not in his hands when he leaves.”

I glanced at Ethan. “The GP knew they’d have to come right back to Cadogan House with
the egg to pay the fairies, kick us out, and take control. In fact, they were
counting
on the possibility we’d give up and walk away rather than risk bloodshed. They also
had to think we’d comb the city looking for it . . . and the last place we’d look
would be right here, under our feet in Cadogan House.”

“The dragon’s egg is in the House,” he said, astonishment in his voice, looking at
me with awe, then wrapping me into a giant hug that soothed my heart . . . and every
other part of me. “He left it in the goddamn House!”

“Damn, Sentinel,” Luc said, standing up and clapping me on the back. “You have been
listening to me.”

Him, and a renegade GP member, and a shifter. But sure, him, too.

“One problem,” Luc said, checking the clock on the wall. “We don’t have much time
until they arrive, and it’s a big House.”

Ethan looked at me. “Did your, er, source provide you with any clue about where it
might be?”

“High regard,” I said, and luckily thought to disguise my pronoun: “They said it was
in a ‘place of high regard.’”

Ethan and Luc exchanged a glance. “My apartments,” Ethan said. “Perhaps the library?”

Luc shook his head. “The librarian didn’t leave for the ceremony. He’d have known
if someone came in. The ballroom?”

Ethan nodded. “You stay here. I’ll check the ballroom. Merit, check the apartments.”

I nodded and dashed back to the stairway and up three flights of stairs. I tore open
the doors to our apartments and began combing the room. I pulled open cabinet drawers,
pushed back curtains, pushed clothes aside in closets. I unzipped pillows, checked
beneath ottomans, and crawled under the bed.

I tossed the rooms, but I found nothing.

Defeated, I walked back into the hallway just as Ethan bounded up the stairs, chest
heaving.

“Anything?”

I shook my head, just as his beeper sounded.

Blowing out a breath, he looked at it. “They’re here,” he said. “The fairies are outside.”

I shook my head. “This isn’t the end. It’s here, Ethan. I know it.”

“I cannot allow them to bloody this House,” he said, his posture and expression beaten.
He turned back to the stairs . . . but I refused to give up.

“High regard,” I muttered, taking only a single step farther toward the stairs. “High
regard. High, like prestigious? High, like on drugs? High, the opposite of low?”

I stopped. “High, like the opposite of low.”

Ethan glanced back. “Merit?”

“It’s high, as in height,” I said, realization and memory coalescing together. “I
know where it is. Go, go downstairs. I’ll come to you.
I promise
.”

He looked dubious, but I didn’t wait for an argument. I ran back to the door at the
end of the hallway that led not just to a room, but to an attic . . . and onto the
Cadogan roof.

The room was empty but for the set of fold-down stairs, already unfolded. Air from
the attic, cold and stale, rushed through the opening, and I climbed through it and
emerged into rafters and insulation. I glanced around, but saw nothing.

But the window outside, which led to the House’s widow’s walk, was open.

“Hot damn,” I said, rushing to the window and climbing outside into the night and
onto the tiny balcony ringed by a railing of wrought iron.

I dropped to my knees and searched the shingles, one by one, in the dark, waiting
to feel the lump of gold and enamel I knew I’d find . . . but still I found nothing.
I stood up again, glancing down at the vampires and fairies assembling on the lawn
just as Ethan walked outside.

The vertigo made me momentarily dizzy, and I put a hand out to balance myself—and
felt the lump beneath the sandpaper shingle. I lifted it up and squeezed my hand into
the opening I’d created . . . and pulled out a silk-wrapped package.

“I believe you have something that belongs to me.”

I glanced back. Harold Monmonth stood in the window, scowling at me with dark eyes
and a darker expression. The fairies were here, and it was time to produce his trophy.

But I had different plans.

“I believe you’re wrong,” I said, not waiting for his argument.

As he reached out to grab me, I hopped up to the railing of the widow’s walk, then
took a step into nothingness.

Vampires had a special relationship with gravity, and it was one I’d learned to exploit.

A second later, the dragon’s egg safely in hand, I dropped down to the grass below,
landing in a crouch with a thud that drew all attention to me.

With all the bravado I could manage, I rose and walked toward Ethan, trophy in hand.
I smiled slyly. “Liege, I believe you were looking for this.”

The crowds erupted into sound and noise—cheers from the Cadogan vampires, jeers from
the GP members and the fairies. Not that they cared who carried the token. They just
wanted it in hand.

Swollen with pride, and as Harold, Darius, Lakshmi, and the rest of the GP members
watched, Ethan gazed across the lines of fairies in the yard.

“I presume you’re here to retrieve the dragon’s egg?”

“It is ours,” said one fairy, stepping forward. “Made by our hands.”

“Perhaps,” Ethan said, “but it was created for one of our own, given to us by royalty
among you. It is rightfully ours. Although by your deeds, you have proven how little
you care for what is right.”

There were scowls aplenty among the fairies.

“But tonight I offer this: Take our dragon’s egg. And in return, swear to us that
fae will do no more business with the Greenwich Presidium or threaten harm to Cadogan
House, and we will consider our business here concluded.”

Concluded, I presumed, because we could no longer trust them to guard the gate.

The fairies communed together for a moment, and then the fairy who’d stepped forward
nodded at Ethan. “Accepted,” he said, and took the dragon’s egg from Ethan’s hands.

Like a defeated army of the supernatural, they marched out the gate again.

Slowly, Ethan glanced at Darius, eyebrow imperially raised.

I had to bite back a smile, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one in the crowd.

“It appears your plan has been . . . thwarted,” Ethan said.

“They are only our tool,” Darius said. “You have wronged us, and we have a right to
your House, irrespective of the arms we bring to bear in the conversation.”

“Well, that position is as unfortunate as it is wrong. What you failed to anticipate,
Darius, is that your little power play—your raising arms against our House and its
vampires—is a fairly significant breach of your contract with Peter Cadogan.”

Darius’s smile faded.

Ethan put his hands in his pockets. “And do you know what happens when you breach
the contract? By its terms, Cadogan’s obligations to the GP are dissolved.” Ethan
snapped his fingers. “
Gone
. Not only don’t you get the House, you also don’t get the check. We called the bank,
and they are more than happy to keep our rather substantial assets safe and sound
within their vault.”

Ethan crossed his arms and arched an eyebrow at Darius. “As you’ve lost your army
and your battle, I suggest you get the hell off my lawn.”

“This isn’t over, Ethan,” Darius gritted out.

“I’m sure it isn’t,” Ethan said. “All’s fair in love and war, after all.”

Their current state of defeat obvious, Darius and the GP members began to slink toward
the front of the House, and Ethan was swamped by Cadogan vampires celebrating our
very close call.

But he met my gaze over the crowd, a promise in his eyes—and his words.
All the chocolate in the world
, he silently said.

I presumed that was my reward, but this hadn’t been my doing. I was only the vessel
for the clue someone else had given me. I glanced across the sea of vampires, and
locked eyes with Lakshmi Rao. She stood her ground, shoulders straight, expression
just haughty enough to qualify for GP membership.

She looked back at me, and there was a very clear reminder in her eyes:
You owe me
.

As she disappeared from the Cadogan grounds with the rest of them, I shuddered.

* * *

The cold drove us inside, and we gathered in the foyer while Helen, Margot, and her
staff unboxed crystal flutes and poured champagne.

“Novitiates,” Ethan called out, “it would be naive of me to say that we are now in
a world free of challenges. We are Rogue vampires, and if they weren’t already, we
have undoubtedly made an enemy of the GP tonight. Our guards still search for a killer
who haunts our city. But most of all, we are Cadogan vampires. Drink up,” he said,
lifting his glass, “and then back to work.”

Like a boss
, I thought with a smile.

For a few minutes of bliss, I let Luc ply me with beef jerky and I pretended I was
as competent as he made me out to the vampires sitting around us. But the fact that
we’d found the egg was a lesson in human (and vampire) nature: Be nice to people (and
shifters), because you never knew when you were going to need to pick their brains.

After a few minutes, I stood up to find Ethan. I needed to get back to work, but we
needed to clear the air. I’d shown him, I hoped, that the RG was a benefit to the
House, not a burden. A bond that worked both ways—and worked for the overall good
of vampires.

I walked down to his office and found his door slightly ajar. I peeked inside. He
and Lacey stood in the middle of the room.

Ethan’s expression was polite. “I appreciate that you came. You’re a good Master;
you’re an even better ex-Novitiate.”

He teased Lacey, but her expression was serious, and there seemed little doubt of
what was on her mind.

“Ethan, I have to say this: I think it’s time you gave serious thought to your relationship
with Merit.”

“Lacey—” he began, but she interrupted.

“You need someone strong. Someone honorable. Someone who isn’t going to run into the
arms of another vampire in the middle of a crisis. You need someone worthy of this
House. Someone worthy of you.”

However much she wanted him, she had no right to diminish the gravity of what he’d
done—the stake he’d taken for me—by suggesting he hadn’t done it on purpose.

It was time to clear the air with her, too, so I pushed open the door and stepped
inside.

Lacey caught a glimpse of me, and before I could speak, she reached out, grabbed Ethan
by the lapels . . . and kissed him fiercely.

“Jesus!” Ethan said, pushing her back and wiping his mouth with a hand. “Lacey, get
ahold of yourself.”

“She let you
die
,” Lacey insisted. “She failed to protect you. Do you know what that did to us? To
all of us?”

Thinking it best to keep the witnesses to this drama to a minimum, I closed the door
behind me with a resonant thud.

Ethan looked back, his eyes widening, probably wondering what I’d seen.

“If you’re going to insult me, at least respect me enough to insult me to my face.”
I kept my tone calm, but my voice was loud enough to carry across the room.

For a split second, I saw fear in Lacey’s eyes. But then in an instant it was gone,
replaced by haughty arrogance.

“This is how you train your Sentinel? To be disruptive? To be dishonorable? She’s
cuckolding you, Ethan. And lying to you about it.” She reached into her pocket and
pulled out the Saint George coin Jonah had given me. “I found this on the floor of
your apartment, and it stinks of Grey House.”

My eyes widened, and I only just managed not to reach into my pocket and confirm the
coin was gone. It was clearly gone; it must have fallen from my jacket.

Ethan’s expression was a sad mix of fury, disappointment, and bewilderment. “You were
in the apartment?”

“Yes, because I’m right, Ethan. I’ve always been right about her. I don’t care who
her father is. She’s dishonest, and she’s hurting you.”

I wondered if Ethan appreciated the irony that two of his vampiric students had acted
without his permission because they were sure they were right. I’d acted for the House.
Lacey had acted . . . for Ethan? Or for herself? Did she truly believe I was as dangerous
as she said, or was that the best excuse she could imagine to insinuate herself between
us?

And then there was the shot about my father, which certainly didn’t endear her to
me. It was a sensitive spot, which she must have known.

Ethan sensed my rising anger; he held up a hand to stop me from speaking. “It is unacceptable
for you to go into our home without permission.”

Our home
, he’d said. Tears nearly popped to my eyes from the rush of relief prompted by those
two little words, but I held them back. I did not want to cry in front of her.

She blanched, just as I had. “I did it to help, Ethan. You have to know that.” She
thrust out the coin again. “Look! Look at this. It proves what I’ve been saying.”

“Merit has no reason to be ashamed about that coin. And you have no reason to concern
yourself with it.”

Wait, did Ethan just
defend
me . . . and the RG?

“You knew about it?” she asked.

Ethan didn’t answer. He just extended his hand, kept it there until Lacey dropped
the coin into it. And then he turned and held it out to me.

“I suppose you dropped this, Sentinel?” His eyes were unfathomable.

“Yeah, yes,” I said, then tucked it into my pocket again.

Ethan looked back at Lacey. “I think it’s time you return to San Diego,” he said.
This time his tone wasn’t that of a Master speaking to a colleague, but a Master speaking
to a Novitiate who’d disappointed him.

“Ethan—”

“Lacey, I don’t care to be manipulated. While our relationship is long-standing, and
I appreciate your service to this House, for the sake of that relationship, this is
a chapter you must close. If you cannot close it on your own, I will close it for
you.”