Chicagoland Vampires - Friday Night Bites Part 29

Ethan arched a single brow. "Neutral? About Celina? Have her actions to date suggested that she should be afforded neutrality?"

Agreed, I thought, given that the woman had tried to kill Ethan and had tried to have me killed. I had very specific, and very concrete, feelings about Celina Desaulniers. Neutrality wasn't even on the menu.

"Look," Noah said, "her previous acts notwithstanding, before we get too involved in personal vendetta, I'm with Greer. If we have no evidence either way, then let's leave out a.s.signing blame to anyone in particular. The GP released her, so we'll be overstepping our bounds if we take too close a look-you know how that goes." I didn't, but the comment made me wonder. I added that to my library to-do list.

"So the only thing that focusing our attention on Celina is likely to accomplish is p.i.s.sing off Greenwich or wasting our limited time on a direction we don't have the political capital to pursue." Noah shook his head, leaned back in his chair. "No. It's not that I think she's a saint, but without specifics, I say we keep the investigation open at this point."

Scott shrugged. "Definitely not a saint, but I agree. I threw it out there to test the waters. If we don't have evidence, we keep our focus broad."

"That's decided, then," Ethan said, but that line of worry was settled between his brows. The comments didn't suggest that Scott or Noah was blindly supportive of Celina, but they were going to have to be convinced of her guilt. That burden, apparently, lay on us.

"It comes back to the Breckenridges," Luc suggested. "There must be something we're missing. Why this family? Why now? If the perp had information on Jamie, and they're using it to get something out of the Brecks, why involve us? What's the connection between the Brecks and vamps? Why the animosity?"

Animosity.

That was the word that did it, that forced the puzzle pieces into place.

I thought about Nick's questions outside the House, then the labyrinth.The tingle of magic, the hatred in his eyes.

The movement in the underbrush, and the animal that stared back at me through the trees.

The selfsame tingle I'd felt in Papa Breck's office.

The obvious prejudice, the hatred of vampires.

Circling the wagons around Jamie, protecting him.

"They aren't human," I said aloud, then glanced up, met Ethan's gaze.

"They aren't human?" Scott asked.

Ethan stared at me, and I saw the instant he understood. "The animosity. The distrust of vampires." He nodded. "You may very well be right."

"What are you saying?" Morgan asked.

Ethan, still looking at me, nodded, giving me the go-ahead to take the lead, to announce the conclusion. I looked around the room, met their gazes. "They're shifters. The Breckenridges are shifters."

That was why I'd felt the p.r.i.c.kle of magic around Nick. He was a shifter. And unlike vampirism, being a shifter was hereditary, so he was a shifter like his father, like his brothers. All bound in loyalty to Gabriel Keene, the Apex, the alpha, of the North American Central Pack.

"The animal at the rave sight," I said, remembering that tingle of animal and magic. "That must have been Nick."

Morgan's head snapped in my direction. "You went to a rave site?" He leaned forward, palms flat on the table, then turned his head toward Ethan. "You took her to a rave site? She's barely two months old, for Christ's sake."

"She had her sword."

"And I repeat, she's barely two months old. Are you trying to get her killed?"

"I made a decision based upon my knowledge of her skills."

"Jesus, Sullivan. I don't understand you."

Ethan pushed back his chair, stood up and leaned over the conference table, fingers splayed on the tabletop. "First of all, I would never put Merit in a situation I didn't think she was equipped to handle.

Besides which, she was with me, as well as Catcher and Mallory Carmichael, who, as we've discussed, is coming into sufficient powers of her own to offer protection to those within her circle. I understand the Order is establishing a presence in Chicago solely to be able to capitalize on her skills."

That made me sit up a little straighter. Apparently, Mallory's trips to Schaumburg were a little more meaningful than I'd been led to believe.

He leaned down a little farther, skewered Morgan with a glance that would have sent me into a corner whimpering, tail between my legs, and arched an imperious brow.

"Second, I have said this to you once before, and this is the last time I'll say it. You need to remember your position. I make no argument with the age or prestige of your House, Greer. But you have been a Master for less time than Merit has been a vampire, and you might recall that you owe your House to her, because your former Master saw fit to make an attempt on my life." He stopped talking, but the look in his eyes said plenty that he'd left unspoken-that if Morgan did challenge Ethan again, Ethan would see that he suffered the consequences of it.

The room fell heavily silent. After a minute of continuing to flay Morgan with that narrowed gaze-and Morgan staring back defiantly-Ethan slowly lifted green eyes to me, and I saw something different there.

Respect.

My stomach clenched with the force of that look, of being looked to as an equal by someone who'd previously seen me as something much less. We'd become a kind of team, a Cadogan duo united against our foes.

"Now," Ethan said, returning to his seat. "If they are shifters, how does that inform our investigation?"

"Maybe they're protecting the weaker member," Luc concluded. "They've been guarding Jamie, protecting Jamie, from this supposed threat against him. And from what I understand, that's unusual for the Brecks. Jamie had previously been the black sheep. The aimless one. Maybe that's why the Breckenridges were picked. Maybe someone knows something about Jamie, thought that made thefamily vulnerable." He frowned. "Jamie could have a magic glitch. Maybe he can't transform completely, maybe he can't shift at will. Something."

"If that's true, Papa Breck has a problem," Ethan concluded.

"And since Jamie's still alive, Papa Breck has a secret," Luc concluded.

I frowned at Luc. "What do you mean, since Jamie's still alive?"

"The Packs are strictly hierarchical," Noah explained. "The strongest members lead the Pack, the weaker members serve, or they're culled."

Culled. A politic way of suggesting the runts of the litter were put down. "That's . . . horrible," I said, my eyes wide.

"In human terms," Noah said, "Maybe. But they aren't human. They're ruled by different instincts, have different histories, different challenges in their histories." He shrugged a shoulder. "I'm not sure it's for us to judge."

"Killing off members of your society?" I shook my head. "I'm fairly comfortable judging that, regardless of their history. Natural selection is one thing, but this is eugenics, social Darwinism."

"Merit," Ethan said. There was gentle chastis.e.m.e.nt in his voice. "Neither the time nor the place."

I closed my mouth, accepted the criticism. I heard a disgusted sniff from Morgan's side of the table, a.s.sumed he'd disagreed either with the chastis.e.m.e.nt or with my obeying it.

"Putting aside the ethics," Ethan said, "Jamie is clearly still a part of the family. Either Gabriel doesn't know, or he knows and doesn't care."

"Jesus Christ," Scott said, scrubbing hands across his face. "It was bad enough when it was us against theTrib and the city of Chicago, but now we're gonna face off against the G.o.dd.a.m.ned North American Central? Greer was right," he said, worry clear in his face. "We're f.u.c.ked."

"Suggestions?" Ethan asked.

"Let me make a phone call," I said, figuring I already owed Jeff one favor. One more wasn't going to hurt.

Ethan looked at me for a moment, maybe deciding if he was willing to trust my judgment. He nodded.

"Do it."

I volunteered to meet Jeff at the door of Cadogan House. I figured he'd appreciate the personal attention and be a little more comfortable in a House of vampires if he had his own personal guard and attendant.

At least, that's how I explained it to him.

I stood in the doorway, arms crossed, waiting for the RDI guards to clear Jeff onto the property. He walked up wearing khakis and a long-sleeved, b.u.t.ton-up shirt over his thin frame, the shirtsleeves rolled halfway to his elbows. His brown hair flopped as he bobbed up the sidewalk, hands in his pockets and a goofy grin on his face.

He hopped up the portico stairs and met me at the open door. There was a little more adoration in his eyes than I was comfortable with, but Jeff was doing us a big favor-particularly as a shifter, walking into a den of enemies-so I dealt.

"Hi, Merit."

I smiled at him. "It's about time you got here. Any news about the e-mail?"

"Yeah," he said, casting a worried glance inside the House. "But not here. Too many ears."

His answer didn't bode well, but I took the hint. "I appreciate your coming over here. And spending your evening sourcing an e-mail."

"That's why they call me the Champ."

I chuckled and moved aside to let him in the House. "Since when do they call you the Champ?"

He paused in the foyer as I closed the door behind us, and gave me a grin. "Remember how you and I are dating?"

"Right," I solemnly said. "How's that going, by the way?" I pointed the way toward Ethan's office and he fell in step beside me, surveying the House and the scattering of vampires.

"Well, they do call me the Champ. I mean, my work is suffering, though."

"Is it now?"We reached the closed office door, and Jeff ran a hand through his hair. Nerves, I imagined, but he looked at me, laughed it off.

"Yeah, you tend to be a little . . . distracting. You know, with the hands. And always calling me, texting me." He looked over at me, and while he smiled, fear tightened his eyes, marked the air with an astringent tang.

"When we go in there, I'm your Sentinel, too."

This time he smiled, and I think a little of the tension went out of his shoulders.

"And you know what?" I asked him, clasping the doork.n.o.b.

He ran a hand through his hair again. "What?"

"You're my most favorite shifter."

Jeff rolled his eyes. "Not that I'm denying my manly appeal, but I'm the only shifter you know."

"Actually, Jeff, that's kind of our problem." I opened the door, and in we went.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

THE RUNT OF THE LITTER.

Although the rest of the vamps were still seated around the conference table, Luc had moved closer to the door and was leaning against the back of a leather chair when we walked in. I appreciated the move.

This way, we could both escort Jeff to the table, give him protection from two sides. While Catcher had once a.s.sured me that Jeff could take care of himself, and having seen the depth of Nick's fury, I didn't doubt the shifter had it in him. But at twenty-one, he was younger, by far, than everyone else in the room, and the member of a group that wasn't high on the vamps' list of favorites right now. Even if there wasn't much of a risk that we'd have to break out the weaponry, this ensured that the Masters kept their manners.

"Thank you for agreeing to speak with us," Ethan said, standing and extending a hand as we moved to the table. "Especially on such short notice."

"No problem," Jeff lightly said, taking his hand. "Glad I can help, I guess." He sat down in an empty chair; I took the seat beside him.

Ethan smiled and turned back to the rest of the table. "I believe you know everyone here, but we'll do the introductions for form." He made the intros and the vampires responded graciously, probably because I gave everybody the evil eye, a warning against snarking back to our House guest.

Introductions complete, Jeff looked at Ethan, then me. "So, what do you want to know?"

"As you know," I began, "we're looking into a threat against Jamie Breckenridge that was supposedly made by Cadogan vampires. But we haven't been able to find anyone-any vampires-with a grudge against Jamie." I paused. "We believe that the Breckenridges are shifters."

"Oh," Jeff said, surprise in his expression. "Okay."

"What we're trying to figure out," I continued, "is whether another shifter might have a grudge against the family."

Jeff frowned. "I'm not following."

"Jamie's always been a little aimless, wouldn't you say, Merit?" Ethan asked.

I nodded. "I think that's fair."

"However, it seems the Breckenridge family is now circling around him. No one else, as far as I'm aware, knows that the Breckenridges are shifter in origin. The theory we're working from is that maybe they're circling for a reason. Maybe Jamie's weak, has some sort of magical problem. And maybe some members of the Pack want to do something about that."

Jeff shook his head. "I still don't-" Then he stopped, mouth falling open, shock and dismay and, worst of all, hurt, in his expression. He sat back in his chair, as if deflated by the question. "Wow."

The room went silent, gazes dropping guiltily to the table, the vamps unable to make eye contact.

A minute or two pa.s.sed in silence. I wanted to reach out a hand, to touch him, both to comfort him andto rea.s.sure myself, but the move seemed patronizing. Instead, I looked up, caught Ethan's eye, that line of worry between his brows.

"No offense, but this is why shifters don't like vampires," Jeff quietly said, drawing our eyes back to him.

"The rumor, the speculation. That you would actually ask me that to my face-do you kill off members of your Pack? That's insulting."

He looked at me. "I know you're new and maybe you don't know better," he said, then looked at Ethan and the rest of the vampires, "but the rest of you have been around. Surely you do."

None of them, to their credit, offered their ignorance as an excuse.

"Now," Jeff continued, sitting forward in the chair and putting his elbows on the table, "the fact that we don't exterminate members"-he gave us all a pointed look, suggesting he knew exactly which supernatural species did, and given the sword belted at my side, I thought he had a pretty good point-"doesn't mean we don't have intra-Pack struggles. Just because Jamie won't actually be taken out doesn't mean he wouldn't be bullied by stronger Pack members, that folks wouldn't use his weakness, whatever it is, against him or his family."

"Blackmail?" I asked.