CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

SALEM’S FIRE

Jonah’s message was waiting the next evening, a single question mark that somehow managed to query and chastise at the same time.

It was so easy to have opinions, and so much harder to actually do things. Which was one thing I planned on talking to the RG about.

I offered a time that would give me a chance to get dressed, changed, and fed. I still felt low after the past night’s battle, despite the good that being on the same page with Ethan had done.

After grabbing a breakfast wrap in the cafeteria with Lindsey and Juliet, I stopped by Ethan’s office. He, Malik, and Luc were chatting when I walked in.

“Did I miss a meeting?” I asked.

“No,” Ethan said, Malik and Luc splitting apart to let me join their circle. “We were reviewing the photographs of last night’s perpetrator.”

Ethan extended the portrait-sized color photograph to me, and I could feel him watching my reaction.

Luc had been right last night. The video was grainy, but it was definitely him. The brooding eyes, the beard, the muscles.

“Yeah.” I looked at Ethan first, nodded just a little to assure him that I was okay. “Recognizable enough. Does he look familiar to either of you?”

“Not to me,” Malik said. “Not as a Novitiate or an attacker. It was dark that night, and he moved quickly.”

“No dice for me, either,” Luc said.

“Nor me,” Ethan said. “You’re going to talk to Noah?”

“I’m working on a meet, yeah. Can I borrow the photograph?”

“Take it,” Luc said. “I’ve printed a few more, and we’ve alerted the Houses. We’ll also run it against the database of Housed vampires, just in case. It’s always possible he was a Housed vampire once upon a time and left.”

“Not unlike Caleb Franklin, who was an official Pack member once upon a time,” I said. “Thank you again.”

“Think nothing of it,” Luc said. “He threatens you, he threatens the House.” He patted my arm. “You’re one of us, Sentinel. For better or worse.”

“Some nights I presume it definitely feels worse,” Malik said sympathetically, then glanced at Ethan. “I’m going to get back to fielding calls.”

“And I’m going back to the Ops Room.” Luc put a collegial arm around Malik’s shoulder. “Hey, did I ever tell you about Calamity Jane?” he asked as they walked to the door.

I looked back at Ethan. “I’m shocked I hadn’t heard that story before now. Seems like he enjoys telling it.”

“It’s in the rotation,” Ethan agreed.

“What calls is Malik fielding?”

“Press,” Ethan said, and walked to his desk, then behind it. There was a stack of papers there, and the light on his phone was blinking fiercely. “The Tribune, the Sun-Times, the Chicago World Weekly.”

The first two were legit. The Chicago World Weekly was the city’s gossip paper.

“Who reads the Weekly?” I asked, taking the paper from the stack. I was in the color photograph on the front page, Hailey Stanton in my arms. VAMPIRE SAVIOR? was the headline.

“Not the worst headline I’ve ever read,” I said. “Overblown, but generally positive.” It had been a crappy week for vampires, but a pretty good week for vampire press.

“It’s not bad,” Ethan agreed. “The print media are generally positive. The Internet is the usual mix of praise, condescension, idiocy, and trolls.” He glanced at his computer. “And, at last check, four marriage proposals for my Sentinel.”

My mood brightened, and I leaned toward the desk, trying to see around to the screen. “Really? Any good candidates?”

“I don’t find that amusing.”

“I don’t find fake proposals amusing.” I grinned and spread my hands. “And yet here we are.”

Ethan’s gaze went so immediately sly that my heart skipped a beat in anticipation.

“At any rate,” he said, smiling as he looked at the screen again, “there are several requests for statements, for interviews, for information about the perpetrator and the reason you chased him.”

“They’ll find out sooner or later who he is and what he did.”

“They may,” Ethan agreed. “You don’t have to talk about that unless you want to; Malik won’t respond to any questions in that regard. But at the risk of sounding overly strategic, should you decide to discuss it, it would help build the case against Reed.”

I nodded. “I’ve thought about that. Depends on whether we need it or not. Problem is, I’m relatively small dice. He has too much goodwill in the city, even if he didn’t come by it honestly. If we’re going to bring him down—and by God we’re going to bring him down—it will have to be big. We need a break, and soon.” We also needed allies, I thought, and glanced at Ethan with speculation. “Have you talked to Gabriel?”

“I haven’t.”

I guessed that meant Gabriel hadn’t called him, and he hadn’t reached out. Since we weren’t fighting (at the moment), I opted to poke the bear. “And do you think you should?”

“That’s a bit passive-aggressive for you.”

“I learned the technique from Meredith Merit, mistress of passive-aggressive.” That was my mother.

My phone beeped, and I checked the screen. FIFTEEN MINUTES, was the entire message from Jonah, and it took me a moment to grasp the meaning. I had fifteen minutes to get to the meet with Noah, and since Jonah hadn’t specified a location, the meeting place would be the Chicago Lighthouse, not far from Navy Pier.

There was no way I’d make it from Hyde Park to Navy Pier in fifteen minutes, much less over the breakwater I’d have to climb to get into the lighthouse.

They were setting me up to be late, which was a remarkably petty thing to do. Was Jonah that pissed, or was this punishment for my not having bowed to the RG’s demands?

Not that it mattered. I’d asked for information, and this was his offer. I didn’t have a lot of choice.

I looked at Ethan. “I don’t suppose you could get me downtown in fifteen minutes?”

He smiled with masculine enjoyment. “Let’s find out.”

•   •   •

It took him eighteen minutes and, by my count, fourteen seconds. That was no fault of Ethan or the car. The LSD was a nightmare, as it had been all week.

Ethan didn’t know exactly where the RG was located, but due to the spying of one of his former flames, he knew it was near Navy Pier. I was perfectly fine with his ignorance of the details. That was need-to-know information, and not even my lover and the Master of Cadogan House needed to know it.

“Just drop me off here,” I said as he pulled the car to a stop in front of the pier.

“I can walk you in.”

“I have to draw a line somewhere. Might as well be in front of Bubba Gump Shrimp.” I leaned over and kissed him hard on the lips. “Don’t follow me.”

“I would do no such thing.”

“You absolutely would, partly because you’re curious, and partly because you enjoy vampire lording.”

“I do not lord.” Ethan bit off each word.

“Oh, you lord,” I said. “That’s why we call you Sire and obey your every whim and command.”

His eyes sparked, light passing through peridot. “I am but a common soldier.”

I snorted. That had been an insult leveled at me by that same former flame. “Yeah, pal. Me, too.” I climbed out of his luxury vampire lording car, closed the door, and leaned in through the window.

“How will you get home?” he asked.

“Taxi,” I said. “I’ll message you when I’m on my way. And if we’re lucky, I’ll bring information with me.”

“Good luck,” he said, his expression utterly serious now. “And take care.”

“I’ll do my best,” I promised, then watched the car speed away.

I looked back at the lake, the broken shoal that led to the lighthouse. I was going to need all the luck I could get.

•   •   •

Unless you had a boat, traversing the barrier of rocks and riprap that made up the harbor’s protective wall was the only way to get to the RG’s HQ. Jonah had once hinted that the RG had just such a vessel, but they certainly weren’t sending it for me.

The breakwater was several hundred yards long, and it took precious time to make my way across it, which certainly wasn’t going to help with my punctuality problem. The trip wasn’t an easy one. The hulking chunks of concrete were meant to keep the harbor safe, not provide a walking path. To the contrary—anyone making the attempt would have been thwarted pretty easily.

The lighthouse itself was called a “spark plug,” a shout-out to its slightly stumpy shape. I climbed the rusty ladder that led to the main platform, wiped my dirty hands on my pants, and walked around to the red door that led inside.

I waited for a moment before knocking, gathering up the self-righteousness I was going to need if there was going to be any headway. Knocking making me suddenly self-conscious (and not just because I’d be facing the partner I’d seen only once in a matter of weeks), I straightened the hem of my jacket.

They made me wait for a solid two minutes before opening the door.

Jonah greeted me, wearing jeans and a dark Henley shirt, his hair tucked behind his ears. “Come in,” he said, and stepped aside.

I walked into the room, which was heavy on the brass, nautical accents, and 1970s décor. Half a dozen vampires were in the room, and none of them looked pleased to see me. I didn’t recognize many. RG members weren’t in the same place at the same time very often.

I did recognize the man at the small table on the other side of the room—tall and thin, with pale skin, dark hair, and enormous, fuzzy sideburns. Horace had been a soldier in the Civil War. His girlfriend, a petite woman with dark skin and a cloud of dark hair, walked into the room, moved to stand beside him.

It was common—hell, maybe even expected—for RG partners to date. That was another bit of tension between me and Jonah.

I’d seen Horace’s girlfriend a couple of times but still hadn’t learned her name. From the expression on her face, which wasn’t exactly friendly, I guessed I wouldn’t be learning it tonight.

“You’re late,” said a voice from an interior doorway.

I glanced back. Noah Beck, broad-shouldered, with pale skin and shaggy brown hair, his eyes bright blue, walked into the room. He wore a Midnight High School T-shirt, dark blue with a white spider icon across the front. All RG members got T-shirts for the faux high school; we wore them in the rare times we appeared together in public to help identify one another.

Noah walked to the table, put a hip on the edge, crossed his hands in front of him. The other vampires gathered around him, like a posse coming together to battle a common enemy. Jonah stayed closer to me, but positioned so that I stood between him and the rest of the guards. Symbolic enough that I wondered if he’d done it on purpose.

The room quickly filled with magic, and none of it friendly.

“I was at the House,” I said. “I came as soon as I got your message.” I let my flat voice point out the obvious—I could only get here so quickly.

“We haven’t seen you around much,” Noah said. “Except in the papers, of course.”

“Then you know I’ve been busy,” I said, then glanced at Jonah. “And I haven’t been invited.”

“And what brings you here tonight?” Noah asked.

“A threat. I take it you’ve heard what happened last night?”

“Your very public battle with another vampire?” Noah asked. “Yes. Hard to avoid.”

I ignored the tone. “I don’t know his name. But he’s the one who killed the shifter in Wrigleyville. Caleb Franklin.”

Jonah frowned, his expression all business now. He might have been angry with me, but Grey House was in Wrigleyville, which meant Wrigleyville was his territory, and Franklin’s death was a concern.

“He’s also the vampire who attacked me the night Ethan made me a vampire. He’s the reason Ethan made me a vampire.”

The lighthouse went quiet again.

“You were attacked,” Jonah said. I guessed word hadn’t spread to him, either.

I looked at him, met his concerned gaze. “At U of C. Celina hired him to kill me. He made the attempt, but Ethan and Malik happened upon us, and he ran away.”

Jonah’s eyes widened with realization. “You were one of the women Celina tried to kill.”

I nodded. “Yeah. She didn’t succeed.” Quite the contrary; I’d killed her in former Mayor Seth Tate’s office.

“There’d been no sign of the Rogue since he attacked me,” I said. “Not that I’m aware of, anyway.”

“Until he killed Caleb Franklin,” Noah said, and I nodded.

“We didn’t see his face that night. We gave chase, but he had a car, got away. Last night, he was standing outside Cadogan House.”

“He ran,” Noah said, “and you gave chase again.”

I nodded. “I knew he was Franklin’s killer. I didn’t realize until we got on the train that he’d been my near assassin, too.”

“You’re certain it was him?”

I looked at Noah. “Without a doubt.” I zipped open my jacket, and when the vampires jumped, I slowly removed the photograph, handed it to Noah. “We got this from the video. Celina told us the vampire she’d hired had been a Rogue, but we didn’t have any details. Do you know him?”

Noah looked at the photograph, then handed it to Jonah, who’d stepped forward to take it.

“I don’t know him,” Noah said. “I heard the rumors a Rogue had been involved with Celina’s murders, but never any specific leads. When Celina was arrested, the story went quiet.”

“You’re the head of Chicago’s Rogue vampires. Wouldn’t you be in the best position to know him?”

“I’m a spokesman, if that. Vampires go Rogue because they don’t want to be Housed. And for many, it means they don’t want to be tracked. Is it possible I’d know him? Yes. But I don’t.”

Jonah handed the photograph back to me. “I don’t know him, either.”

“He’s working for Reed,” I said, and gave them the details about Reed, the alchemy, and his plan.

I let my gaze slip to the other vampires in the room, who still watched me with some suspicion. But there was, at least, more curiosity now than there’d been when I opened the door.

“Have you seen anything like that? The alchemy? Magical symbols in a room, on a wall?”

No one spoke, raised, a hand, indicated they had any idea what I was talking about.

“Reed is well connected—politically, economically, supernaturally. And whatever he’s cooking up—whatever this alchemy is for—is going to be big. Dangerously big. We could use your help.”

“You want our help?” A female vamp I didn’t know stepped into the doorway from which Noah had entered, crossed her arms. She was tall and thin, with straight, dark hair, tan skin, and wide brown eyes. “That’s rich. You won’t do our work, but you’ll ask us for a favor?”

It didn’t bother me that they thought ill of me, as it didn’t come as a surprise. It didn’t even bother me when she walked toward us, stood protectively by Jonah. But it did bother me that she—and the rest of them—had so entirely missed the point.

“I do your work,” I said, and it only just occurred to me that that was what had bothered me about the RG all along. “Cadogan House does your work. We watch out for the vampires in this city, deal with the nasties that keep cropping up, and handle the human fallout. You don’t.”

“We’re a secret organization,” Noah said.

“Of which we’re all well aware,” I said. “But you aren’t even requesting private access to Cadogan House to attend meetings. You aren’t offering to contribute anonymously. You aren’t offering to contribute at all. Instead you’re stuck on this idea that I’m the enemy. Why would you think you have anything to worry about?”

“Morgan and Celina,” Horace and his girlfriend said simultaneously.

“You know what she’s done with the Circle,” he said.

“Celina’s debts to Reed have nothing to do with Morgan; he was innocent.” Or close enough for my purposes, anyway. “She was indebted to the Circle for millions. Had been for years. Morgan didn’t even know about it until it was too late. But I’ll bet you knew something, and yet you did nothing about it.”

The woman had the grace to look a little chagrined. “That’s more complicated than it sounds.”

“Oh, I’m aware of how complicated it is,” I said, anger starting to build, “because Cadogan House ended up in the middle of it. Cadogan House always ends up in the middle of it, and even when we’ve done absolutely nothing wrong.”

I took an aggressive step forward, could feel them growing restless. “By contrast, nothing is exactly what you do. You want to fix the bad guys? Fine. But you should also be willing to help the good guys. Which we are.”

“So you say.” Horace’s expression wasn’t friendly.

“Damn right I say. And I’d be happy to go a round with anyone who says different.” I looked at Noah, decided that if he was putting me on the spot, I could put him on the spot, too. “Why did you invite me to join the Red Guard if you didn’t trust me?”

“He was dead when we invited you,” Noah said.

Silence fell over the room like a curse. Noah’s voice was flat. I didn’t think he’d meant to be cruel, even if the statement was crude. But more important, it was wrong.

“No,” I said. “He was alive when you invited me. I said yes when he was gone, because I couldn’t possibly have betrayed his confidence then. There was no risk to me that way. He wasn’t dead the first time I came to the lighthouse, or any of the other times since then that Cadogan House has stepped up.”

I put my hands on my hips. I hadn’t meant to come here and begin a tirade, but I found I couldn’t stop. I was too frustrated by inaction, by apathy, by their treating every issue as someone else’s problem.

“When the GP came knocking at our door, when the cops came knocking at our door, when Adrien Reed came knocking at our door, you weren’t there. So don’t give me bullshit about how you’re on the side of vampires against the oppressors. You pick and choose your battles. And you know what? I think you’ve decided Ethan and I are one of those battles because you think that battle’s actually winnable. I think you know the Red Guard is useless, that if you demonstrate you can control me, control Cadogan House, you can show you have balls. But that’s bullshit. The only thing you get out of it is pissing off the people who have worked themselves to death—literally—to clean up the messes you’ve been ignoring.”

“Looks like Sullivan’s creating his own mess,” the tall woman said. “He’s making a spectacle of himself with Reed.”

“Going to the Garden wasn’t the best idea,” I agreed. “Reed threatened me, wanted to get a reaction out of Ethan, and he did. Ethan knows it was a mistake, but the arrest was a complete sham. They’d spent maybe ten minutes talking. It was a show of power by Reed, because that’s the kind of guy he is. That’s why we need to be united. That’s why it’s crucial.” And it was a damn pity I couldn’t say that to Ethan and Gabriel right then. But one step at a time.

The woman opened her mouth to speak again, but I held up a hand. “No. I’m not done. I’m sure you’ve had plenty of conversations about me, and this is my chance to speak my piece. Here’s the question you have to ask yourselves: Are you going to keep wasting your time on me, on Ethan, when there are enemies out there with plans to bring the city to its knees? Instead of joining us, instead of helping fight, are you going to keep debating whether I’m the enemy? Here’s a tip: I’m not.”

“Big words,” someone muttered.

“Damn right they are,” I said. “And not easy ones. You’ve seen what Cadogan has gone through. I’m not saying it will be easy. But that’s not why the RG was founded, was it? To do what’s easiest?”

I didn’t wait for a response, but walked to the door, glanced back. I centered my gaze on Jonah, let it linger there. His eyes, crystalline blue, showed absolutely nothing.

“When you’re ready to get to work,” I said to him, “you know where to find me.”

And I walked out.

•   •   •

I stared out the windows of the taxi that sped toward Hyde Park. The driver kept checking his rearview mirror, and he’d made it plain he was in a hurry to get me the hell out of his car.

“I could drop you off at the university,” he said for the third time.

“You’ll drop me off at the House, or I’ll call the city and tell them you refused a fare to a vampire.”

I didn’t think that was illegal; civil rights for vampires hadn’t exactly caught on. But he blanched, and kept driving.

Sometimes you took the victory where you could find it.

•   •   •

I slammed into the House in the mood for a fight, was momentarily disappointed Ethan and I had made up. A good, screaming yell-fest would have worked out some of my anger. The next best thing, I decided, would be a good bout of exercise. I could go for a run or get in a little time of my own in the training room, maybe practicing the ballet Berna had mentioned.

But Mallory intercepted me in the hallway. She wore cropped jeans rolled up above her ankles, sneakers, and over a fitted shirt, a stained canvas tunic that looked like something kindergarteners wore to protect their clothes while finger-painting. Her hair was parted to the side, the wider part braided in front, the braid tucked behind her ear. “First of all, Catcher told me about the Rogue, which completely sucks. But it looks like you kicked his ass.”

“Not enough to bring him down permanently.”

“One step at a time,” she said. “Second, I have something to show you. Ethan said you were on your way back to the House.” She gestured for me to follow her. “You need to come outside.”

“Mallory, I don’t have time for—”

“Come outside,” she said again. “Ethan, Malik, and Paige are already out there, and it’s work-related, I promise. I’ve got a little something in the crucible.”

That wasn’t an offer I thought I should refuse.

•   •   •

They’d set up in the House’s fancy barbecue, an enormous brick structure that was as much outdoor kitchen as grill. I recognized Mallory’s crucible, the slightly pitted and char-marked surface. It had survived the trip back to Wicker Park. I wondered if Margot’s snacks had fared as well.

Paige stood in front of the brick counter, looking at a book open beside the crucible, a basket on the brick patio at her feet.

Ethan and Malik stood a few yards away, presumably out of the danger zone. Both had their arms crossed as they watched the proceedings warily.

“What’s going on, exactly?” I asked as I joined them, and Mallory joined Paige in front of the barbecue.

“We’ve picked out a testable portion of the alchemy,” Paige said, putting drops of clear liquid in the crucible with a dropper.

“And why are you testing it here?”

“Because it needs testing,” Mallory said. “And we don’t want to burn down Wicker Park.”

I glanced at Ethan. “So you’re going to let her burn down Cadogan House?”

“I’m not going to burn anything down,” Mallory said, looking back with a grin. “It’s just, the houses in Wicker Park are really close together, so if anything did go wrong—which it won’t—it would spread quickly. Here, there’s plenty of room. Besides, I have Paige as my partner in crime.”

“I don’t have nearly as much practical experience,” she said. “More of the book stuff. So this is good practice for me.”

“I’m not sure that inspires confidence,” Ethan murmured.

“No, it does not,” Malik agreed.

“And what, exactly, will you be doing?” I asked.

“We’re increasing the resonance of rosemary,” Paige said, holding the crucible still as Mallory glopped green paste into it, stirred it with a wooden spoon.

“Elaborate, please,” Malik said.

“Alchemists were really committed to the idea that everything in its basic form was a little bit crappy,” Paige said. “But if you worked hard enough, you could raise something to its true potential.”

“Like all the work we’ve put into Merit over the last year?” Malik asked with a wink.

“Like that,” Mallory said, with an answering grin. “Pretty much anything organic—especially plants and people—have that quality. A lot of alchemy is about distilling things down to their essence—to the purity inside them. And if you can do that, if you can get, I don’t know, rosemary, down to its true, unadulterated essence, its resonance changes, and it develops these healing properties. You ingest those, and you get closer to your own real essence, spiritually and physically, to a change in your own resonance.”

“Alchemy is really weird,” I said.

“Completely bonkers,” Paige agreed.

“How does resonance—this test of it—relate to the symbols we’ve found?” Ethan asked.

“This is what we’re calling a ‘pattern test,’” Mallory said. “The actual equations are set up in phrases that, so far, don’t stand on their own. In order words, we haven’t been able to find one excerpt that we can run as an experiment. It would be like mixing one part of a recipe—let’s say baking soda and flour—and expecting to get cookies out of it. That one step is useless on its own.”

“We’re looking for confirmation we’re translating correctly,” Paige said. “Even if we can’t yet translate the entire thing, we’ll know we’ve translated correctly certain parts of it.”

Mallory nodded. “It will help me calibrate the machine. We want to find this alchemy. I need to be certain I’m looking for this alchemy. Otherwise we’re going to end up with a machine that tags, I don’t know, coffee drinkers in Chicago or something.”

“Which would be useless,” I said. “Especially in the Loop.”

“And Wicker Park!” Mallory said. “There’s a whole-bean, shade-grown, cage-free coffeehouse on every corner now.”

“I didn’t realize beans required cages,” Ethan said.

“Neither did I,” Mallory said. “Now hush and let me work.”

“I guess she’s giving you orders now,” I said to Ethan with a smile.

“I guess she is,” Ethan said as they turned to their work, putting material in the crucible, arranging components on the top of the patio.

Paige and Mallory looked happy and very compatible working together. Paige’s height and red hair matched interestingly with Mallory’s petite stature and blue locks. Mallory moved quickly, efficiently, as she prepared the work. Paige’s movements were more deliberate. For two sorcerers on the right side of the law, they hadn’t spent much time together. Maybe a friendship could blossom. If so, I’d take credit for that, too.

“How was the meeting?” Ethan asked.

In response, I growled.

“I guess that means we’ll discuss it later.”

“That would probably be best.”

“All right,” Mallory said as Paige handed her a box of matches. “Let’s do this.”

When Mallory snapped the match against the side of the box, Malik, Ethan, and I took a simultaneous step backward. As she dropped it into the crucible, Paige took a step backward, too. Mallory stayed exactly where she was, watching and waiting for something to happen.

The crucible rattled once. Then again. And then it began to vibrate as if someone had flipped a switch.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have alchemy.” Mallory put her hands on her hips, and her smile was as sly as a vampire’s. “That’s resonance.”

We clapped politely, and Malik leaned in. “Is anyone else disappointed there wasn’t a pretty blue or green explosion?”

It was as if he’d made a wish.

There was a whistle, like a teapot at the ready, and a small blue spark popped out of the crucible, burst like a tiny firework.

Malik nodded. “Nice.”

A second spark popped, and then a third, all in shades of blue, all shattering in the air like tiny crystals. But it took only a moment for those few pretty sparks to grow bigger, faster, and more explosive. Daubs of blue flame began to shower from the crucible, whistling like an Independence Day celebration.

Paige squeaked, darted away from the showering fire. Mallory just stood there, hands on her hips, and stared at it like a woman contemplating the cosmos.

After a moment, when the sparks had died down, she patted at a spark in her hair. “And that’s why we didn’t do it in Wicker Park.”