Biting Cold (Chicagoland Vampires #6)(51)
Author: Chloe Neill

Since musical thumping could easily be accompanied by physical thumping, I opened the door carefuly and peeked inside.

Success! There were no chaps in sight.

Keley and Juliet sat at the conference table. The computers and CCTV monitors were al staffed. Although their faces looked familiar – they were Cadogan vamps I’d seen around the House – I’d never seen them in the Ops Room.

Curiosity piqued, I walked inside, pointed at the newcomers, and looked at Keley. "What’s going on?" I yeled over the music.

I hadn’t exactly been shy about the question, and al of them turned to look at me.

I waved a little.

"Helpers," Juliet said. "New probationary guards."

"You actualy hired someone? How long was I out?" I looked over the guards, who al wore the Cadogan uniform (black suits) and smal earpieces tucked around their earlobes. They typed quickly and scanned their screens intently, and generaly looked pretty competent.

"They’re temps," Keley said, her head bobbing with the music. "We gave up on interviews."

That was understandable, especialy if the few interviews I’d seen were any indication of the whole. The applicants weren’t big on social skils. Or physical skils. Or realy any skils that would have made them decent candidates for House guards.

"Glad to hear it. That you have temps, I mean, not that the interviews were awful. And the music?"

"Vamps and shifters are no longer the only sups in town!"

Juliet said, raising her hands in the air.

Luc and Lindsey appeared in the doorway, and Lindsey squealed when she saw me. She puled me into a hug that nearly rebroke my rib. After a moment she released me but stil pressed a big kiss to my forehead.

"We were so freaking worried about you!"

"I’m glad to be back."

Luc puled the door shut, then directed one of the newbies to turn down the music. "The big man’s in the House," he said, "so let’s keep the celebration quiet and simple. As far as we are concerned, this office is more efficient and under budget than any other in the House. We keep our little corner of things quiet, and we keep the GP out of it." Luc sat down at the conference table and kicked his feet atop it. "Although we are celebrating because of a very important tenet. One of my key rules for House success, actualy."

Lindsey and I roled our eyes. Luc had a lot of "key rules," as wel as "tenets," "scenarios," and "protocols." And he liked to share them regularly.

He pointed at me. "A vampire’s best aly, Sentinel, is the guy that makes your enemy more nervous than you do."

I assumed he was referring to the other sups’ announcement that they existed, and he was probably right.

"And I’l tel you what else I know," he said, punching his fingertip into the top of the conference table. "We have our Master back, our Sentinel is alive, and I have four new probies to harass. Life hardly gets better than that."

Lindsey cleared her throat. Loudly.

Luc’s ears turned crimson red. "Wel, it gets a little better."

Lindsey sent him an arch look. "A little?"

"Hugely better," he said.

"Fundamentaly better. Tremendously better."

"Thank you."

"Sure thing, Sugar Lips. But that’s not even the best part.

Now that we have staff to cover House security, our Sentinel can focus on her job instead of slumming around here."

I sat down at the table and pouted a little. "I like hanging out down here. I don’t have a staff."

Lindsey cleared her throat again.

"Or a Lindsey."

"You’re welcome here anytime you like. But you don’t have to worry about taking patrol shifts when you should be out there mixing it up with the bad guys. Deal?"

"Deal," I said.

"And speaking of deals, let’s figure out why the hel we’ve got a man-sized bat picking off our city’s fine, uniformed police officers." His expression changed – from sily-in-love vampire to master tactician. He reached over to the console in the middle of the table and pressed some buttons. The sound of a ringing phone filed the air.

"Yo?" Jeff answered.

"Jeffrey, it’s Luc. I’m here with Keley, Lindsey, Juliet, a very healthy Merit, and the rest of our now fuly staffed office. You may refer to them as ‘Probies.’ "

"Helo, everyone and Probies," Jeff said. "Especialy a very healthy Merit."

"Helo, my knight in shining armor," I said, taking a seat. "Or at least my knight with a very shiny reflective blanket."

"It was nothing. Just doing my duty. What’s up?"

Luc leaned over the speakerphone gadget. "We’re just about to get an update from Merit. If you’ve got time, we’d love for you to join us."

"God, yes," Jeff said, a little quieter. "I’ve been fielding cals from nervous sups al day."

"I thought they agreed to reveal themselves?" I asked with a frown.

"Only the big four," Jeff said. "The rest are now extra-nervous and they apparently want to vent about their concerns. Loudly.

And there’s nothing I can do for them right now."

"I feel their pain," Luc said. "Now, Sentinel, tel us about the angel in our midst. What is he, and how can we take him out?"

"His name is Dominic. He’s a messenger – a falen angel – from way back in the day, and he split off from Tate when Malory tried to conjure something and Tate touched the Maleficium. Dominic has black wings, as I’m sure you’ve seen.

And he looks exactly like Seth. There’s no physical differences, as far as I could tel."

"And he’s a sadist," Keley said, taking notes on an electronic tablet.

I smiled grimly. "I told him the same thing."

"I don’t suppose he gave you his master plan while you two were chatting it up a la sunlight?" Luc asked.

"Not expressly, but his motivation’s pretty easy to figure out.

Back in the day, he thought punishment wasn’t severe enough.

He’s big on justice and retribution, Hammurabic Code – style. He wanted to take out the four cops because they’d done wrong, and he wanted to take me out because I interrupted his work.

That’s the same reason he burned Paige’s house down after he and Seth escaped the silo. As far as he’s concerned, he’s conducting business as usual."

"Falen angel. Sword of justice," Jeff said.

"Exactly," I said. "From that perspective, Paulie’s murder makes sense. Dominic seems to be completely blind to his own flaws – the murder and whatnot. Paulie did wrong for this city – he sold drugs. That’s enough to trigger Dominic’s justice reflex, even though Paulie was actualy working for him at the time."