Blood Games

I’d already suspected a GP member; they were the most likely to have the access and funds to get the scheme under way. Danica wanted Darius’s position, so she had the ambition to do it. But why bother with a complicated theft when you’d already issued a challenge to take Darius’s position—and control the funds yourself? If Diego and Lakshmi were clear as allies, that left Edmund and Dierks as the most likely GP suspects. Both were from European countries, so that didn’t really narrow the list.



I still hadn’t received a response from my father about the bank accounts’ origins. I had asked him to dig out information no one was supposed to be able to access. That was, after all, the point of a Swiss bank account—total anonymity. Maybe he was still looking. And he was undoubtedly busy with his new building project. But ignoring me was still unusual.



Family. Couldn’t live with them, couldn’t run a stake through them.



Cadogan House, I thought, as I glanced up at the stories of stone and glass that glowed above the fence line, was a kind of family. A big, dysfunctional, hyperfashionable family of neurotic vampires who, for the most part, wanted to make something better of the world.



And at the center of it, Ethan. The House, its Novitiates—we were who he’d made us. Vampires with consciences. Regardless his past or what happened tonight and tomorrow, he would still be a Master of vampires to us.



I should tell Ethan that, I thought. Remind him of that before the testing.



When my double circuit of the grounds was done, I walked in the front door, found vampires milling about, waiting for something to happen. The entire House was tense, as if the building floated in a cloud of anxious magic. Testing was upon our Master, and we were nervous about it.



Ethan’s office door was shut, and equally tense magic seeped from inside. I didn’t want to interrupt him, not if he was trying to focus, to prepare himself. But the words still needed to be said.



I settled on a text message: I LOVE YOU, REGARDLESS. REMEMBER THAT TONIGHT.



And remember it, I thought, before you drift so far away that you can’t find your way back to me.



* * *



I’d tucked away my phone, was preparing to go back to the Ops Room, when a familiar face stepped into the foyer.



Lakshmi Rao unbuttoned the short camel trench she wore over a knee-length black sheath, her straight black hair pulled into a low pony that settled on one shoulder. She scanned the foyer, settled her gaze on me.



I stepped toward them. “Lakshmi.”



“Merit,” she said. “Has the Heart House entourage arrived yet?” Her accent was British, and as refined as her clothes.



“Not yet,” I said, taking her coat and hanging it on a rack just inside the door. She was no longer my GP superior, but that didn’t negate a little common courtesy. “She has a couple of hours yet.”



“He is ready?” Lakshmi asked.



The question made something squeeze tight in my chest, and so did the fact that I couldn’t answer it with any certainty. He was resigned to it, was the most I could say.



But where truth was hard to find, bluffing would suffice.



“Yes,” I said simply, chin lifted confidently. “He is.” I hoped I was right.



I silently told Ethan she’d arrived. A door opened down the hall, and he and Malik stepped into the foyer a moment later.



“Lakshmi,” Ethan said, walking directly to her—and not making eye contact with me.



“Ethan. Malik.”



While they stepped toward each other to make their greetings, I stood a few steps away, secondary to the meeting of the Masters.



“We’ve set up the ballroom for your introductory comments. There’s also blood, coffee.”



Lakshmi nodded. “I’d love some coffee. Perhaps we could go upstairs, discuss the rules before Nicole arrives?”



Light sparkled in Ethan’s eyes, and I felt my chest loosen just a bit. We might have been far apart, but we had a proctor who was paying attention.



“Of course,” he said, gesturing her toward the staircase.



I watched them ascend the stairs, Malik in front, then Lakshmi and Ethan at the rear. They reviewed preparations as they walked and had nearly reached the second floor when Ethan looked back, a hand on the banister, and gazed at me.



His eyes were dark, the color of deep forests. He didn’t speak, or blink, or make any gesture. He just looked at me, as if words were perched on the end of his tongue, but he was powerless to release them.



Tears threatened, but I pushed them back, kept my gaze solid and steady. I had needs and wasn’t ashamed of them. But tonight, here in the House with the edge of fear and magic, when the balance of power rested on a knife-edge, his needs were paramount.



I looked back at him and nodded. Just once, just barely, but enough to acknowledge his feelings, his fear, his pain, and the war that waged within him. The war that had consumed both of us.



It seemed to be enough. His posture didn’t change, but something softened in his eyes. Would that something be enough? Enough to get him—and us—through these trials?



I’d offer him more if I knew what to offer. If I understood what solace I could provide that would make him feel better about his past, about Nicole, about us, I’d provide it. In a heartbeat.



Chapter Sixteen



GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF BEST



As time ticked down to Nicole’s arrival, House security ticked up. Vampires trickled into the ballroom, waiting for a glimpse of the contender, or perhaps just wanting to surround Ethan with support.



The room on the House’s second floor was lovely on its own—a large space with wooden floors, gleaming chandeliers, and gilded mirrors on the walls. The ballroom glowed with light and smelled like hazelnut coffee and warm chocolate. A table draped in crisp white linens stood on one side of the room, beverage dispensers and baskets of pastries set atop it.



Ethan and Malik stood apart from the rest of the black-clad vampires who mingled in the room, the magic nervous and leaving a tingling edge in the air. We were riding on nerves, on possibilities our lives—and our House—would change substantially in a matter of days.



No—not the possibility of change. Change was inevitable. But the nature of that change. Whether involving ourselves with the GP again would be good or would bring more pain and drama.



Figures appeared in the ballroom doorway. Helen, a man and two women behind her. Nicole Heart and her retinue.



She was striking, with dark hair and skin and a lean, curvy figure. Her hair reached her shoulders and was curled into soft waves that reminded me of Marilyn Monroe. She wore a long-sleeved ivory top and long, straight pants in silk that flowed around her body like water. Her eyes were tipped with dark lashes, her mouth generous and accented with shimmery peach gloss, her cheeks two rosy apples.



The effect was impressive. She had a movie star’s bearing and a princess’s grace.



The next question—was she a contender?—was more of a mystery. She looked physically fit, with strong shoulders and a trim figure. And there was little doubt about the intelligent gleam in her eyes. (There was also calculation and assessment in her eyes, but that just made her a vampire.)



I suppose having the wherewithal to frighten Ethan into holding things back from me was telling enough. Emotionally or otherwise, she wouldn’t be easy to best.



Behind her stood a man and a woman—the man was shorter, with dark skin, short hair, and a black suit. The woman was about my height, with a sleek bob of angled blond hair against vampirically pale skin. She wore an ensemble of black leather, and a cross-body holster for the katana sheath strapped to her back. She was me, but blond.



Weird.



“Bennett and Sarah,” Nicole said, gesturing to the man and woman behind her. “My Second and Sentinel.”



Another Sentinel—the first I’d met. Ethan had resurrected the position by Commending me into it. I guess he’d started a trend.



Sarah looked at me, lips pursed haughtily. I wasn’t interested in playing Dueling Sentinels—not with so many things on my mind—but she looked entirely up for the challenge.



All right, I was a little interested in it. But this wasn’t the time or place. Unfortunately. I gazed back at her beneath my lashes and long bangs, a hint of a smile across my face, just enough attitude to let her know I was a player.



She gave me the same sly smile back, tapped a thumb against the end of her katana’s pommel, as if daring and impatience battled for control.



The Sentinel Games? A definite possibility.



“Malik,” Ethan said, “my Second. Luc, captain of my guards. Merit, my Sentinel.”



Nicole glanced at each of us, nodding quickly and dismissively. She was a Master, and we, quite simply, weren’t.



“And, of course, you know Lakshmi,” Ethan said.



Nicole bowed her head deferentially. “Madam.”



“Your travel was pleasant?” Lakshmi asked.



“It was. Thank you for asking. And yours?”



“Fine, thank you.”



Vampire drama had apparently ruined me for pleasant small talk, as I had to work not to roll my eyes irritably at the exchange. Or maybe it was just jealousy. We never had pleasant chitchat with the GP.



“Perhaps we should get the business out of the way,” Lakshmi said. “Then I’ll review the premises and you can talk, if you’d like.”



Nicole and Ethan nodded.



“The psych testing will take place at five o’clock in the training room. I will proctor the exam.”



“The testers?” Bennett asked.



“I won’t reveal their Houses, so as not to provide an unfair advantage.” Or an opportunity for the Heart and Cadogan minions to research the hell out of them before the test.



“They were selected by a random lottery and agreed to participate. Both are very strong psychs. Both are quite well equipped. I will monitor psychically and physically. No areas of inquiry are off-limits. That will complete the test. The physical test will be held tomorrow at midnight at a location to be announced by me. Each test will be scored, and the scores will be gathered.”



“And then the Houses will vote?”



Lakshmi nodded at Ethan, smiling as if pleased he’d gotten the right answer. “I will return to London with the scores, and I’ll receive the scores from the European candidates. The top three candidates will be placed on the slate, and the Houses will vote. Well,” she added, a footnote, “the Houses without candidates will vote.



“The tests will not be easy,” Lakshmi said, glancing between them. “They are not intended to be. They are intended to test your strength, your focus, your ability to lead vampires through challenges. The immortality of the GP’s vampires lies in the hands of the man or woman chosen to lead them. It is no little responsibility, and they will be no little trials.”



That didn’t make me feel any better about what would be happening here today—or the fact that Ethan and I weren’t on the same ground.



“Any questions?”



Nicole and Ethan shook their heads.



“In that case, perhaps you should relax for a few moments while I review the preparations with your Seconds.”



“Nicole and I will wait in the anteroom,” Ethan said, gesturing to a door at the side of the ballroom.



Lakshmi nodded. “Training room at five o’clock.” Wordlessly, Malik guided Lakshmi back to the door, Bennett behind them.



Ethan and Nicole looked at each other. Whatever emotions they’d been hiding for the sake of their vampires, or for Lakshmi’s sake, bubbled to the surface. Their eyes darkened, and for a moment they both looked like the vampires they truly were—and the darkness that lived inside both of them.



* * *



The anteroom was small but pleasantly furnished. There were a couple of oversized white couches, and along one wall a series of mirrors with bare bulbs overhead where—once upon a time—I’d waited as an Initiate to be Commended into Cadogan House.



Nicole walked around the room before settling on a couch. She sat down on one end, crossed her legs, linked her hands on the arm.



Ethan took a seat across from her. Sarah and I stayed on our feet.



“Your House is lovely,” Nicole said. “The photographs don’t do it justice.”



“If that’s your opening salvo, Nicole, it’s not impressive.”



“You think we’re rivals, Ethan, but we aren’t.”



Ethan looked only mildly interested. “Aren’t we?”



“We are vampires who want to improve the lot of our own kind. Make them full and integrated members of the society into which they’ve been flung. I’d say that makes us allies.”



Ethan didn’t seem impressed by the argument. “So you say, but I didn’t send a man to attack you. To shoot at your vampires.”



There was silence for a moment, and when Nicole did speak, she was unapologetic. “As I’ve said, it wasn’t an attempt to kill you—otherwise, it would have been a very sloppy attempt.” She slid her gaze to me. “I thought, perhaps, that those closest to you would persuade you to step back.”



“Those closest to me understand me and my drive. And they understand that Cadogan vampires do not stand back merely because we are afraid.”



That angered her, undoubtedly. Her expression didn’t show it, but magic lit through the room with such force I instinctively reached for my katana. Sarah did the same, and the surprise in her eyes matched mine. I shifted my weight, prepared to move in case Nicole or Sarah did, watched Sarah do the same. We both were poised on tenterhooks, in case the physical testing began early.



By her blackmail, Nicole had raised their mutual past as a weapon to be wielded. But Ethan wasn’t afraid to battle back, with fear, anger, irritation, pent up and festering for several days. This was what he’d been holding on to. Anger at her betrayals: the threats, the blackmail, the challenge. From what I could gather, they’d both been the victims, the prey, of a monster. Maybe that was the root of his real anger and irritation—not just that she’d threatened to expose his past, but that she was the one making the threats.