Midnight Marked

“Is everything all right?” Lindsey asked. “Malik didn’t give us the details, just that you were back and seemed to be in one piece.”

“I believe ‘all right’ is relative,” Ethan said. “Why don’t we sit down and talk about it?”

“My House is your House,” Luc said, and moved back to his seat at the table. “And we’re glad you’re home, Sentinel.”

Right now there was nowhere else I’d rather have been.

When Kelley, Juliet, Lindsey, Luc, and Ethan had gathered at the conference table, I gave them the story of my encounter with the Rogue, such as it was. From contact to chase, to his use of a human as hostage and shield, to the Rogue’s escape into the night.

Luc knew the circumstances of how I’d been attacked, made a vampire, as did other key players in the House—including Malik, since he’d been there. I’d figured word had still spread—vampires liked gossip as much as humans—but from the sympathetic look on Kelley’s face, I guessed I’d been wrong about that.

“As far as I’m aware,” I finished up, “the CPD hasn’t found him.”

“He’d have gone underground,” Kelley said, flicking back a lock of straight, dark hair over her shoulder. “To wherever rats scurry and hide.” She looked at me, and there was strength and solidarity in her gaze.

“Yeah,” I said. “Agreed.”

Luc linked his hands on the table, leaned forward, his gaze solemn. “You think he’ll try again?”

“I know he will. Especially if this is prompted by Reed.”

“Then we’ll find him first,” Kelley said.

“It might be worth talking to Noah again,” Lindsey said. “At least you’ll have a description to give him now.”

“We’ll do you one better,” Luc said. “Keiji,” he called to one of the temps at the bank of computers. “Can you scan the Internet videos of the fight, see if you can get a clear shot of our perp, enhance and distribute the images?”

Keiji looked back, nodded once, his eyes sharpening with interest in the task. “On it, boss.”

Luc nodded, looked back at me. “The video wasn’t great, but should be clear enough to get a rough image.”

“Send the image to the Chicago Houses,” Ethan said. “Put them on alert.”

Luc nodded.

“Thank you for the help,” I said. “I need to know his name. I’d feel better somehow if I knew his name.”

Juliet smiled, serious hard blue eyes a contrast to her delicate features. “Knowing the name of your enemy is important. Names define us as individuals, and in relation to each other. They”—she paused, looking for the right phrase—“set the boundaries of who we are. If you can give this guy a name, you give him a boundary. It gives him less power, and gives you more.”

Since “Merit” was actually my last name, and I didn’t use my first name for personal and family reasons, I understood the notion of names defining us.

“We’ll put the pictures in your box,” Luc said. “Did the child’s mother say if she wanted to press charges?”

“She told the CPD she didn’t want to,” I said. “He didn’t know her or her child, and she didn’t want to give him any more information by pursuing it. I told them I didn’t want to pursue it, either.”

“At least not officially,” Luc suggested, and I nodded.

“And Reed?” he asked.

“If the vampire was telling the truth,” Ethan said, “and we have no reason to believe he wasn’t, this isn’t inconsistent with what Reed’s done before.”

“He uses the personal,” I agreed. “He used Balthasar against Ethan, he used money against Celina, and he’s used the Rogue for me, which is another hit at Ethan. He’ll try again,” I added.

“Then we’ll stop him before he does,” Luc said. “And if we don’t, he’s yours.”

“Although you may have to battle Gabriel for him,” Ethan said lightly. “This vampire has a long list of very powerful enemies.”

“The way my luck with him is going, Gabe might have a better shot,” I muttered, in a moment of self-pity.

“You should tell her about Calamity Jane,” Lindsey said to Luc.

I glanced from her to Luc. “Who’s Calamity Jane?”

“Long story very short,” he said, “she was a woman from my dry and dusty and tumbleweed-ridden past.” Luc had been a cowboy in his human life.

“She was a thief, an assassin, and a general ne’er-do-well,” Lindsey said with a smile. “Accused of fourteen murders that the county was aware of. And she escaped from him four separate times.”

Four was definitely larger than three. If not by a lot.

“‘Escaped’ is a tough word,” Luc said. “I prefer to say she ‘evaded incarceration.’ But yeah, four times.”

“How’d you finally get her?”

He smiled. “With help from the dirt and dust and tumbleweeds. She rolled into Dodge City wanting, of all things, a hot bath. I caught her while she was performing her ablutions,” he said, eyebrows winging up.

“Is the moral of that story that it’s safest to avoid good hygiene?” Ethan asked.

“Har-har, Sire. Har-har. The moral of the story is to always keep going! Ever forward! Forward progress! You can do it! And all that other motivational shit.” Luc looked at me, a gleam in his eye. “And if you can catch ’em with their pants down, they tend to be a little more amenable.”

Words of wisdom.

• • •

Following Lindsey’s suggestion, I e-mailed Jonah, asked for a meeting with Noah the next evening at the RG headquarters to talk about the Rogue vampire.

When this evening drew to a close and we were secure in our Hyde Park tower, Ethan carefully removed my clothes, used hands and words to soothe and seduce.

This was about need as much as the library had been, but of a different variety. This was about partnership as much as touch. About tenderness as much as passion. And about comfort as much as satisfaction. Every movement was slow and languid, every word tender. His mouth was soft against mine, then against the rest of my body, and pleasure rose and crested in waves that cleared violence from my mind.