Silence, as Ethan considered. My shoulders tense, I waited for a response, expecting a blowup of temper or carefully modulated fury.
“Screw them,” Ethan finally said.
After a moment of utter shock, I enjoyed my second biggest smile all night. Malik’s wasn’t much smaller.
“I’m sorry,” I said, “did you just say ‘screw them’?”
Ethan smiled grimly. “It’s a new dawn, so to speak. I don’t give the GP a lot of credit, but they’re smart enough to recognize incompetence when they see it.” He looked fixedly at Malik. “And if they don’t, they defeat their very purpose for existence.”
He hadn’t exactly used the word “revolution,” but it lurked there—the possibility that Cadogan House could exist without the GP.
Maybe my RG membership wouldn’t freak him out as much as I’d thought.
Not that I had any plans to tell him.
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“I’m on my third life,” Ethan said. “And in this one, I may be at the beck and call of a sorceress with an addiction to black magic. It tends to put the GP’s irrationality into perspective.”
“And control of the House?” Malik wondered.
“The GP will never allow me to retake the House until they’re assured Mallory doesn’t have control. And while I understand the House isn’t exactly fond of the GP right now, I couldn’t disagree with that position. It’s too risky. The House should remain in your very apt Mastery until you’re confident I’m acting of my own free will.”
My beeper buzzed with an alert: There was a meeting in the ballroom. Clearly the Master(s) of the House hadn’t scheduled it, because they were both here. Curiosity piqued—and since they’d moved right into discussing historical applications of the vampiric line of succession—I politely excused myself and walked downstairs to the second-floor ballroom.
One of the doors was propped open, so I followed the crowd of vampires inside and sidled up beside Lindsey and Kelley, whom I found in the back of the room.
Frank stood on the platform in the front of the ballroom, waxing poetic about the evils of Cadogan House and the lack of restraint of its vampires. “Cadogan House is on an unsustainable course,” he said. “Taking too much interest in human affairs. Attempting to solve problems that are outside its purview and authority. That course cannot continue, and I cannot in good faith recommend to the Presidium the continuation of the status quo.”
He paused as if for dramatic effect while the vampires looked nervously around, the pepper of tense magic rising in the room. They shuffled nervously, waiting for Frank’s verdict.
“There is too much doubt in this House. Doubt about its position within the umbrella of the Greenwich Presidium. Doubt about its loyalties. You have taken oaths to your House. Unfortunately, those oaths have been sublimated by the Masters of this House. Therefore, tonight, you’ll each of you take a new oath. You’ll recall that you exist through our generosity, and you will swear fealty to the Greenwich Presidium.”
The room went silent, the magic peaking with an electric spark that felt strong enough to illuminate the room.
“He cannot be serious,” Lindsey whispered, expression aghast as she stared at the podium.
“I think it only appropriate that the captain of our guards, she who is tasked with protecting the House from all enemies, dead or alive, take the first oath.”
The wave of turning heads divided, splitting to create a gap that put Kelley directly in Frank’s line of sight. He beckoned her forward with a hand.
“Kelley, captain of this House, come forward and swear your fealty.”
She looked at me with doubt in her eyes, clearly unsure what to do. I sympathized. If she refused to go forward, she’d undoubtedly catch hell. Sure, Malik and Ethan were in the building, but they were two floors away, and she was surrounded by vampires who’d be honor bound to obey whatever dictate Frank laid out.
On the other hand—swear an oath to the GP? Was this guy crazy?
There was no good option, no right choice, I thought, except to create as little new drama as possible. So I reached out and squeezed her hand, and gave her the gaway,same confident nod she’d given me on the lawn.
She took a moment to compose herself, then walked slowly forward through the gap of vampires. Some looked at her with obvious sympathy; some looked like they expected more from their captain than kowtowing to the dictates of a GP figurehead.
She reached the dais at the front of the room, which was Frank’s signal to wax poetic again.
“Kelley, captain of this House,” he said again. “Swear your oath to the Greenwich Presidium.”
“I have sworn oaths to Cadogan House,” she said, her voice ringing clearly through the ballroom. “I am already bound.”
I felt a surge of relief from the crowd, but the pulse of magic from the front of the room was much less friendly.
“Then rebuke your oaths to Cadogan House.”
“I will not rebuke my oaths,” Kelley said. “I did not make them lightly, and I will not rebuke them so you can make a better report to the GP.”
A vein in his neck pulsed with fury. “You will swear your loyalty to the GP,” he gritted out, “or you will regret it from here ’til eternity.”
The doors burst open. “Like hell she will.”
All heads turned back to the doorway. Malik stood there, fury in his eyes, his arm around Ethan’s waist as he helped him into the room. A complete hush fell over the crowd, just before the room erupted in noise and sound and joyful tears. Vampires rushed toward the door, and Malik gave them a moment to welcome their fallen hero.
I took the opportunity to look back at Frank and savor the shocked expression on his face. That expression, after the grief he’d put this House through, almost made it worthwhile.
And then Malik called the vampires to order again.
“Quiet,” he said, and the room silenced immediately. “For your information, Mr. Cabot, the vampires of this House take oaths to the House and its vampires, not the GP.”
Frank composed himself and offered him a dubious look. “And by whose authority do you challenge mine?”
Malik gave back a look that was just as imperious. “By the authority instilled in Cadogan House and its Master by the Greenwich Presidium.”
Frank looked from Malik to Ethan. “A Masterdom that appears to be in some state of disarray.”
Ethan cleared his throat. “Malik Washington is Master of this House. He was duly Invested by the GP upon my death, such as it was. He will remain in that position until I am Invested again.”
In other words, Malik was Master of the House, and Ethan wouldn’t challenge his position.
The crowd rustled with anticipation.
“The vampires in this House,” Malik said, “including the captain of its guards, have proven their worth time and time again. Tonight, we saw their willingness to head immediately into battle, the danger to them notwithstanding, to protect this House. They are brave and honorable. And in response, you accuse them of disloyalty and demand new oaths? I seriously doubt the GP would condone such behaviors. You are hereby ordered to leave this House, Mr. Cabot.”
“You have no power to order me out.”
Malik arched a very Ethan-like eyebrow at Frank. eyebrowrand, “inI have power to remove any forces that are disruptive to this House, and Ethan is in agreement with me. No one would argue that you fall well within that category. You have ten minutes to remove your belongings.”
“I will report you to the GP.”
“I’m sure you will,” Malik said. “You may report that our House is well in order, that it is home to brave and true vampires. Oh—and you can also advise them that Merit has been reappointed Sentinel.”
He smiled a bit evilly, and I had to bite back my own wide grin.
“Take that back to the GP, Mr. Cabot. And should the urge arise, feel free to tell them to fuck off.”
With Frank expunged from the House, the rest of the vampires surrounded Ethan with joyous celebration. As if energized by their affection, he managed to stand on his own again.
When the vampires quieted, Malik put a hand on his shoulder. “This House is yours, by blood and by bone, and you are welcome in its walls at any hour.”
Ethan had once said something similar to me, assuring me that I was a member of his House “by blood and by bone.” Maybe it was one of the phrases vampires used, part of the collective vocabulary, the communal memory, of a people bound together by the need for assimilation.
“When the time is right,” Malik said, “I will hand the torch back to you. In the meantime, the city will undoubtedly have questions. I’ve no doubt the mayor will be pounding on the door soon enough.”
“Quite possibly,” Ethan said, and then took my hand and grinned at Malik. “But if you don’t mind, I plan to use the last bit of the evening to full advantage.”
I felt my cheeks warm, but I was in good company; even Luc blushed at that one.
With Malik’s assurance that Ethan’s apartments were his to use, we returned to his room, hand in hand.
We’d barely closed the door before his mouth was on mine, hungry and insistent. Passion flared and spiraled around us with the magnitude of ancient magicks.
I didn’t argue with him. I kissed him back with everything I had, devoured him with every tool in my arsenal, and moved in and around him as love ensnared us.
After a moment he pulled back, his own breathing labored; he opened his eyes and captured my cheeks in his hands. “I haven’t forgotten where we left things, Sentinel, nor do I plan to forget it.”
“You’ve been gone a long time.”
“Only to you. To me, there was only a vague dream of darkness . . . and occasionally your voice. You kept me bound to earth, and I called your name to do the same for you.”
I’m sure I paled a bit at that confession. The emotion of his being back was still new, still raw, still untested. I was thrilled that he was back, but the emotion was so unexpected I was afraid to trust it.
He tipped up my chin and forced me to meet his gaze. “Is there someone else?”
“No. But for two months, there was no you,
either.”
We were silent for a moment while he searched my gaze.
There was a time,” he finally said, “when I would have acknowledged your reticence and given you time and space to reach your own decision.”
He tipped my head down again ad /font
“This is not that time, Merit.”
And then his mouth was on mine, and he took my breath away again. He kissed me like a man possessed, like a man with nothing more on his mind but the taste and feel of me.
Like a man returned to life.
“I have been given a third chance at life, even if the circumstances are somewhat disconcerting. You are mine, and we both know it.”
He kissed me again, and as I began to believe that he was really, truly back, I felt as possessive of him as I’d ever felt about anything, sure in the bone-deep knowledge that he was
mine
, and regardless of the circumstance, I intended to keep it that way.
After another long moment, he ended the kiss and wrapped his arms around me.
When the sun rose, we were nestled together, two bodies pressed together for warmth, for love, in gratefulness for miracles that probably shouldn’t have been.
It was the best night’s sleep I’d ever had.
EPILOGUE
W
e awoke with our bodies intertwined, the phone beside Ethan’s bed ringing loudly. I crawled across his very naked body and picked up the receiver.
“Yes?” I asked.
Catcher’s voice was frantic. “She woke up. She overpowered the guards, and she left.”
I sat up and shook Ethan’s leg to wake him. “Slow down. What do you mean she overpowered the Order?”
Alarm in his eyes, Ethan sat up beside me, his legs wrapped in a sheet. He pushed the hair from his face.
“They removed the restraints so they could check her out. She managed to convince them that she was feeling better, that she knew she’d done wrong. As soon as they were off, she knocked out the guard. He’s banged up pretty badly. She knocked out two others on the way out. They called a few minutes ago.”
“Do you know where she went?”
“A temporary guardian left this morning to drive the
Maleficium
to Nebraska. There are rooms in the Order’s silo that are impermeable to magic. The plan is to keep it there until a permanent guardian is appointed.”
“The Order is supposed to guard the book of evil? That’s a horrible idea.”
“The Order’s just providing the space. The temp is in charge of it until it goes to its new home.”
“That’s where she’ll go. She wants to finish her task,” I quietly said. “Combining good and evil together. She thinks it’s necessary, that it will help the world.”