I hopped up onto the post and windmilled my arms to keep from falling over again. On shaky knees and ankles, arms outstretched, I slowly stood up, then cast a glance back at Frank.
“This volley tests your endurance, your strength, your balance,” he said.
“What do we do exactly?” Juliet asked.
“You stand there,” Frank said, “until you can’t stand there anymore.”
“The sun will be rising soon,” Lindsey pointed out.
“And you will stand there until you can’t stand there anymore,” Frank repeated.
I looked at Malik. He nodded at me, an acknowledgment of our struggle, and a promise to intervene should the need arise. I closed my eyes in anticipation of the coming drama and wished for the strength to deal with it.
And so, with three hours to go until dawn, we stood on posts in the middle of Hyde Park, and we waited for the sun to rise.
For nearly three hours, we stood on our posts—vampires being used as pawns in a political game that had nothing to do with us. It was unfair, sure, but certainly not the first time people had been used and manipulated to meet some political goal. Wasn’t that the mechanism of virtually every dictator and demagogue anrta in history? To use the people to accomplish some presumably important political end?
Three hours ago there’d been four of us. Now we were down to two. Kelley had stumbled and fallen from her pole as darkness began to give way to dawn and exhaustion had finally overtaken her. Lindsey, tired and dehydrated, had gotten a cramp and had crumpled to the ground.
The test, whatever its purpose, was down to me and Juliet.
We stood in silence, she of the elfish frame and delicate features. Me with the fortuitous balance of a former ballerina, but still stiff and aching. Juliet had thrown on tennis shoes for the racing portions of the test, but I was still barefoot, and I could hardly feel my feet, the cramps having long since given way to a buzzing numbness. Every other muscle in my body ached from the effort of balancing myself in that spot, and I knew I’d be sore when this task was done.
The eastern sky was beginning to turn a searing shade of orange. The vampires who’d stayed outdoors with us hunched into bits of shade that would protect them from the rising sun.
We had no such option.
Frank walked into the backyard, a pretentiously delicate mug in his hand. He’d popped in and out of the House to check in on us, presumably to ensure we hadn’t fallen off the posts or taken disqualifying breaks. I had no respect for a proctor who couldn’t bother to keep vigil over the exams he’d decided were crucial for the House.
Malik, on the other hand, stood in front of us, his back to the east, arms crossed over his chest. He looked obviously tired, his eyes swollen with exhaustion, but he’d stayed with us. He’d watched over us. It was like a promise from father to children that even if he couldn’t face the trials for us, he’d unwaveringly support us while we went through them.
This man was a Master of vampires.
He watched Frank suspiciously as he crossed the yard. “The sun is rising,” Malik said. “If there’s a point to this test, you should reach it now.”
“Of course there’s a point,” Frank responded. “This is an endurance test. The endurance isn’t merely standing on the pole; that’s not exactly a complicated task. The endurance is standing on the pole in the sun.”
Juliet and I exchanged a nervous glance. “But that will kill us,” she said.
We were partially protected by the trees at the back of the yard, but as the sun rose, the rays of light would shift across the lawn, moving ever closer to where we stood . . . And Juliet was closer to those rays than I was.
“This is ridiculous,” I said, and could hear the hysteria in my voice. “She’s closer than I am. The sun will burn her before it ever reaches me.”
“That was the luck of the draw,” Frank said. “She drew the position she finds herself in. There is no one to blame for that.”
But that simply wasn’t true. Frank had directed us to our poles.
“I cannot believe the GP would condone such a thing,” Malik said. “Not to any vampires who’ve taken oaths to their House, who’ve sworn to protect it.”
Frank tilted his head at Malik. “You don’t think facing the sun is an important skill for a vampire? You don’t think it’s a situation they may encounter?”
“God willing,” Malik said, eyes narrowing, “should they everoulk it face it, it would be at the hands of an enemy, not an organization that exists to protect them.”
And that, I thought, encapsulated perfectly what I’d seen of the GP. It might have been established all those years ago to protect vampires, to organize Houses, and to provide order, but from what I’d seen of Darius West and this monster, it was only now concerned with proving a political point.
Maybe it was time to reconsider my involvement in the Red Guard. Maybe, now that Ethan was gone and Malik was under the gun, it was time to think about taking a step to protect all vampires, not just those in the House.
As the sun breached the horizon and light crossed the yard, the case in favor of RG membership grew stronger.
The ray of sunlight lengthened, deepened, reaching Juliet’s post and crawling up the side. Horrified, I watched as the tips of her tennis shoes began to glow bright red.
“Juliet? Are you okay?”
Tears began to stream down her face, but she clenched her jaw and maintained her position in stoic silence. She must have been in tremendous pain, and still she stood atop her post, refusing to submit.
Her hunger also seemed to take its toll; her eyes silvered and her fangs extended, the predator awoken by pain, hunger, and exhaustion.
I looked back at Frank, who was sipping from his mug, completely unmoved by her agony. “You have to call a stop to this. Can’t you see she’s in pain?”
He just arched an arrogant eyebrow.
“Fine. If you won’t do something, then I will. I’ll resign from the test.” I made a move to hop down from the post, but his words stopped me cold.
“Maintain your position, Merit. Maintain your position on that post, or your position as Sentinel will be revoked immediately. And the same goes for Juliet. If you cannot respect the importance of the common good over any individual vampire, neither of you deserve your positions.”
A sob echoed from Juliet’s corner of the lawn as I gaped at Frank. “You can’t unmake me Sentinel. Ethan gave me that position. Only Malik can make that call.”
“Oh, but I can,” Frank said. “It’s my responsibility to get this House in order. A vampire who voluntarily withdraws from the testing—who refuses to hold herself to the standards of her brothers and sisters in arms—is not a vampire who has the best interests of the House foremost in mind.”
I looked over at Juliet, who was shaking ferociously at the pain, her hands wrapped around her waist as she sobbed.
“Juliet, get down from there!”
“I c-c-can’t,” she stuttered out. “I can’t not be a guard. It’s all I’ve known. This House is my life.”
She wouldn’t have much of one left if I didn’t act. The punishment was unfair, but it was more unfair for Juliet to suffer doubly—the burns of the rising sun and the loss of her position in the House.
For as long as I was able to do it—even if only a few more minutes—my job was to protect the House and its vampires. If I could so easy dismiss the value of her life, I shouldn’t have been Sentinel anyway.
It was an easy call, but that didn’t mean the repercussions would be easy to bear. Ethan had named me Sentinel. Ethan had Commended me into the House and thrown me into thewn easy dismi position. And while I may not have been ready to accept it at the time, it was my position now. Mine to have. Mine to protect.
And just as with my Cadogan medal, mine to forfeit.
I found Malik’s face in the crowd, and when he nodded at me, I raised my hands in the air. “I forfeit,” I said. “I forfeit. Juliet wins. Get her down!”
There was a mad rush to Juliet’s pole. Luc reached up and grabbed her and carried her into the House, followed by a stream of vampires seeking the cover of shade. The sun was rising, and my faculties were deserting me. I was shaking with exhaustion, but I managed to hop down without falling into the nearing ray of light—only to face Frank, who stood before me with a gleeful expression on his face.
“There are simpler ways to get me to resign,” I told him, and enjoyed seeing the smile wiped from his face. He’d been the one who’d ensured I was on the safest pole, that I’d have to forfeit in order to protect someone else from being burned. I guess it was a compliment that he thought I’d sacrifice myself . . . and that he thought me dangerous enough that he’d rather leave the House without a Sentinel than leave me in that position.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I doubt that,” I said, “but that’s between you and your conscience.” I hurried toward Malik, who now stood in the doorway of the House, ensuring everyone made it inside safely.
Frank was the last one inside, and he made it in just as the sun filled the backyard with light. Thankfully, the House’s shutters were already down.
I stood inside the cool, quiet of the kitchen for a moment with my eyes closed, savoring the darkness.
When I opened my eyes, Malik was the only vampire in sight.
“I’m sorry,” I told him. “It may not have been the right thing to do for the House—to forfeit my position—but I couldn’t just stand there and let her take it.”
“It was the only right thing to do,” he assured. “That said, with Cabot here . . .”
He didn’t need to finish the point. I couldn’t stand Sentinel as long as Frank—and the GP—had control of the House.
Oh, how things had changed. In a few short months, Ethan had lost his life and a new Master had been installed. And summarily replaced. The Ombud’s office had been dismantled. I’d been stripped of my identity as a Sentinel.
But just as there’d been no choice those months ago when Ethan had named me to the position in the first place, there was no choice now but to accept the change and deal with it with as much grace as possible.
Even if I acted alone, I would act with bravery. A Sentinel in heart and mind, even if not officially.
I nodded. “I understand.”
“Ethan would have been proud of you today, Merit. I am proud of you today, as are the other vampires of this House. You played Cabot’s game the only respectable way it could have been played, even if the outcome was predetermined.”
“The result’s the same, though. The House is left without a Sentinel.”
Malik smiled slyly. “The forfeit extended only to your current position. You cannot stand Sentinel, at least not for the time being. But he placed no restrictions on your service as a guard.”
Although exhaustion was beginning to wear me down, I managed a smile. “Very creative, Liege.”
“I have my moments.”
I hobbled back to my room, nearly wiped unconscious by the sun, and into the cool, crisp sheets and comforting dark that awaited me there. I wasn’t too exhausted to cry when my head hit the pillow, pent up rage and frustration and grief escaping now that I’d managed to finish the testing.
Grief, because in the matter of an evening I’d lost my connections to Ethan and the House: the bond that we’d shared when he named me Sentinel and the medal I’d worn as a symbol of my oaths.
I’d still stand guard for the House, and there was no denying the importance of that role. But it felt like another little bit of Ethan had been torn away.
And that hurt as much as anything else.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
A HOUSE DIVIDED
I
woke up from a thankfully dreamless sleep in the same dark mood I’d been in when I’d fallen unconscious some hours ago. I considered playing sick and hiding in bed under the covers all day, but that wasn’t going to solve my problems or the city’s.
When I was up and showered, I also considered calling Mallory. I had no doubt she was stressed about exams, but I wasn’t sure if letting her hermit while she studied was the best thing to do. On the other hand, she specifically told me not to bother her until she was done with exams.
That still stung.
Sure, it wasn’t the first time we’d had a disagreement. There’d been a boy she dated who I’d thought was obnoxious, and she tended to give my parents more credit than I did. We’d grown apart when I’d been made a vampire and hadn’t adjusted gracefully to my new life. Her apprenticeship training in Schaumburg hadn’t done much for our social schedule.
But we’d always managed to get through. I could only hope this time was no different, that even with magic and exams between us, we’d manage to find each other again.
After tossing the phone in my hands for a few minutes, I decided not to call. If she really needed space, I’d give it to her. God knows she’d have done the same thing for me.