I found the Mercedes parked on Stockton, the only car in the vicinity. I drove past it, parked, then got out of the car, belted the katana, and in a moment of uncharacteristic forethought, grabbed an aspen stake from the bag Jeff had given me, still stuffed behind the front seat. I stuck the needle-sharp stake in my belt, quietly closed the door, and began to hike back. I crept through the grass, between the trees, until I was close enough to see him, tall and lean, standing just outside the pagoda. His hands were in his pockets, his expression alert, his body relaxed.
I stopped, stared at him. Why, in God’s name, would he have come here alone? Why would he have agreed to meet a source in the middle of an empty park, after dark, without a guard?
I stayed in the shadows. I could leap out if necessary, come to his rescue (again), but if his goal was to glean information from whoever had asked him to meet, I wasn’t about to ruin that.
The scritch of footsteps on the path broke the silence. A tall form appeared. A woman. Red hair.
Amber.
Wait. Amber?
I saw the jolt of recognition in Ethan’s face, the shock, the sudden wash of humiliation. I sympathized, felt the flash of it in the pit of my stomach.
He approached her, head snapping as he looked around him, and reached out an arm, taking hers just above the elbow. “What are you doing here?”
She looked down at his hand on her arm, blinked up at him, then pulled his fingers away. “What do you think I’m doing here?”
“Frankly, I’ve no idea, Amber. But I’ve got business-”
“Ethan, really.” Her voice was flat.
He stopped, stared at her, understanding dawning, and offered the conclusion I’d reached seconds before. I knew I didn’t like the little tramp. Voice defeated, he said, “You took the medals. You were in my apartments, and you took the medals.”
She shrugged standoffishly.
He took her arm again, this time his grip fierce enough to make her grimace. “You took House property from my apartments. You took from me . Did you”-he spit out a curse-“did you kill those girls?”
Amber grunted, yanked her arm away, and took a couple of steps, put space between them. She rubbed her arm, where the red marks of his fingers-even in the dark-were obvious.
“You’re-” Ethan shook his head, fisted his hands on his hips, and whipped aside his jacket in the process. “How could you do this? You had everything. I gave you everything .”
Amber shrugged. “We’re tacky, Ethan. Clichéd. Among the sups, not authentic enough. Among the vampires, a little too authentic. Cadogan House is old news.” Amber looked up, and her eyes gleamed with something-hope, maybe? “We need change. Direction. She can give us that.”
Ethan froze, scanned her face. “She?”
Amber shrugged and, when a car door slammed shut, popped up her head. “That’s my cue to go. You should listen, love.” She leaned in, brushed a kiss against his cheek, and whispered something I couldn’t hear. And then she was off, and he let her go, let her walk away. Not the decision I would have made, but traipsing after her, giving her the beat down she deserved, would have given away my position. And if the car door was any indication, the fun was only just beginning.
It took only seconds for her to reach him, to walk-lithe and catlike-toward Ethan. Her black hair was up in a snug knot at the crown of her head, held by long silver pins. She was dressed like a dominatrix masquerading as a secretary-impossibly tight pencil skirt, black stockings with a back stitch that ran the length of her legs, patent black stiletto heels with ankle straps, and a tucked-in snug white blouse. I half expected a riding crop, but didn’t see one. Left it in the car, maybe.
Celina walked toward Ethan, and stopped four feet in front of him, one hand on a cocked hip. And then she spoke, her voice smoky and fluid like old Scotch.
“Darling, you’re out here all alone. It’s dangerous at night.”
Ethan didn’t move. They faced each other silently for a moment, magic swirling and flaring between them, spilling its tendrils through the trees. I ignored it, had to resist the urge to brush the wispy breeze of it away with a hand.
But I used the cover of their distraction, slipped the cell phone from my pocket, and texted a phrase to Catcher and Luc: CELINA EVIL. God willing, they’d send out the troops.
“You look surprised to see me,” she said, then chuckled. “And certainly surprised to see Amber. All women, human or vampire, are looking for something more, Ethan. Something better. It was naive of you to have forgotten that.”
Wow. Nothing like a little sexism to cap off the night.
Celina sighed her disappointment, then began to circle his body. Ethan’s head turned slowly, his gaze following her as she moved. She stopped next to him, her back to me.
“Chicago is at a crossroads,” she said. “We are the first city with a visible vampire population. And we were the first to announce our existence. Why take the risk? Because as long as we stayed quiet, we were destined to remain in shadow, to be subservient to the human world. It was time for us to step forward. It is time for us to flourish. We can’t erase history”-she paused, gazed at him solemnly-“but we can make it.”
Celina began to move again, circling his body until she stood on his other side.. The sound of her voice was muffled, but I caught enough.
“There are few vampires who are capable of the kind of leadership we need right now. Vampires who are disciplined. Intelligent. Cunning. Navarre fits that mold, Ethan. I fit that mold.” Her voice became insistent. “Do you understand how powerful we could be under my leadership? If I unified vampires? If I unified the Houses?”
“The Presidium would never allow that,” Ethan said.
“The Presidium is antiquated.”
“You’re a member of the Presidium, Celina.” Ethan’s voice was perfectly flat, perfectly modulated to hide the fury that I knew lay beneath it. Say what you wanted about his strategizing, his penchant for manipulation, the man had control. Icy control.
Celina waved off the criticism. “The GP doesn’t understand our modern problems. They won’t let us expand, Commend more Initiates. We’re shrinking relative to the other sup populations, and they’re getting braver. The nymphs are fighting. The shifters are preparing to meet in our city ”-she punctuated the last three words with a finger pointed toward the ground-“and the fairies demand more and more each year to protect us from humans. And the angels”-she shook her head ruefully-“the bonds are breaking there, the demons loosed.”
She looked up at him, chin raised defiantly. “ No. I will not allow vampires to become less than what we are. Only the strongest will survive the coming conflict, Ethan. Being strongest means unification-vampires coming together, working together, under the guidance of a vampire with vision.”
She completed her circle so that she faced him again, maybe five feet between them. Her eyes gleamed in the darkness, like a cat’s caught in the light, shifting shades and colors, green and yellow. “I am that vampire, Ethan.” She waved a negligent hand. “Of course, in every war there are casualties. The deaths of those humans were a messy necessity.”
He spoke the words as I thought them, voice flat. “You killed them.”
She held up a slender finger. “Let’s be precise, Ethan. I had them killed. I wouldn’t waste my time on the actual doing of it. Of course, that does pose certain . . . quality-control problems.” She snickered, evidently pleased at her joke. “I found a Rogue. I convinced him, through no little work on my part, to do the dirty work. I had to change horses after Merit’s attack.” She shrugged. “I do hate sloppy work. Nevertheless, you got a Merit out of the deal. A Merit vampire, Commended into your House.”
“Leave her out of this.”
She chuckled without amusement. “Interesting answer. And unfortunate that we don’t have time to explore your affection for your pet Sentinel.”
Without warning, Celina reached behind her and whipped the pins from her hair. Or, rather, what I’d thought were pins, but were actually twin stiletto blades that gleamed in the moonlight. Her hair, released from its moorings, spilled in an inky wave down her back.
She took a step forward, angling her body so that, had Ethan not been standing between us, I’d have faced her directly.
I stepped forward, prepared to defend him, but heard a WAIT echo through my head.
Not yet , he told me. Let her finishing confessing it.
He knew I was there, then. Knew I was ready. So I obeyed the order, katana handle in one hand, already slipped from its guard, halfway loosed from its scabbard, the aspen stake in the other.
“Sloppiness or not, my plan worked,” she said. “Humans are now suspicious of Cadogan vampires-they think you killed Jennifer Porter. And humans are suspicious of Grey vampires, who they think killed Patricia Long. You’re wicked, Ethan. All of you. All except Navarre . . .” She paused and smiled, and the effect was as lovely as it was maniacal. “If I’m the only one that humans trust, I can consolidate my influence in both worlds-human and vampire. The Houses will need me as their ambassador, and I will offer my guidance. Under my leadership we will become what we were meant to be.”
“I can’t allow you to do that.”
“It’s amusing that you believe the decision is in your hands,” she said, waggling the stilettos in the air. “You’ll be another sacrifice, of course, and an expensive one-a lovely one-but the cause is worth it. How many of us were staked, Ethan? You were alive during the Clearings. You know .”
But he wouldn’t be drawn into a discussion of history. “If you wanted to bring down Cadogan and Grey, why the notes? Why implicate Beck and his people?”