Biting Cold (Chicagoland Vampires #6)(58)
Author: Chloe Neill

I saw the flicker of hope in his eyes, and I waited for him to grab on to it, but fear got the better of him, and he turned away again.

"I need to get back to Darius," he said. And as he walked out of the balroom, I put my hands on my hips and stared up at the ceiling and wished for patience.

Chapter Seventeen

SHE’S GOT A WAY

I stormed up the stairs to the third floor, fueled by my own indignation.

Why did everything have to be his way? Why did he have to control every situation, even when that very control threatened to tear everything apart?

Fear loomed in the back of my mind. Fear that I’d changed, and Ethan had changed, and who we’d become in the months he’d been gone was too different for us to find each other again.

But I put it aside. I was Sentinel of the House, and since Keley and Luc now had plenty of House guards, I was officialy a ful-time Sentinel again. I was going Sentineling, and my first stop was Malory. Paige and Seth could investigate the Dominic-Seth link from here; I’d use my original source. She stil may not have been trustworthy, but I doubted anyone else in Chicago had as much knowledge about the Maleficium and the evil stuck into it.

I zipped up my leather jacket, puled my hair into a ponytail, and grabbed my sword. I stil gave Keley a heads-up before I left, but Ethan was in time-out as far as I was concerned. If he needed me, he could cal. I had work to do.

I trotted down the sidewalk to the gate, and both mercenary fairies stared at me as I passed them by. I stopped short, glancing back at them in turn.

"Is everything okay?"

They looked at each other. Since they were nearly identical, it was like watching one of them look into a mirror. A strange effect in the middle of an already strange city.

My instincts triggered, I walked back to them. "What is it?"

They looked at me simultaneously. "Your Dark One," said the one on the left. "It is possible he wil contact her."

"Her? You mean Claudia?"

He nodded. "They are acquaintances, of a sort."

So Dominic and Claudia knew each other. She certainly hadn’t confessed that to me. On the other hand, I hadn’t asked her outright, either, and Claudia wasn’t exactly free with information.

"Did they know each other before his wings turned black?"

"Before, during, and after," said the other fairy, not with approval, but earning a narrow-eyed look from his partner. He must have spiled too much.

I looked back at the apparent team leader and decided to skip the political wrangling. "Why are you teling me this?"

They both look flummoxed by the question. Since we paid them to stand guard outside our House – and, admittedly, I’d been baited into going for one’s jugular while visiting Claudia – the confusion was understandable.

"He is dangerous. She is our queen, but she is…vulnerable to his suggestion. The sooner he is gone, the better for al of us."

Not that I needed the incentive to nab Dominic, but I’d heard Claudia’s threats before. "Nuclear" was her first and only option.

Whatever had been between them, love or business, it wasn’t a complication I needed right now.

I nodded at both of them. "Thank you for the heads-up."

I climbed into my orange, boxy Volvo, which was admittedly a downgrade from Ethan’s shiny new Aston Martin. But until I got a promotion or a stiff pay raise, the Volvo would have to do.

My phone rang nearly as soon as I buckled my seat belt. I propped it on the dashboard and turned on the speakerphone.

"Merit," I answered, puling onto the street.

"Hey, it’s Jeff."

"What’s new?"

"Absolutely nothing. Catcher went to see Malory, and it’s dead quiet over here. I mean, I racked a new server, and the cabling was a bitch, but that’s about it. I thought I’d cal and see if you had any news."

if you had any news."

"Wel, Seth Tate showed up at Cadogan House, if that counts."

"Oh, shiz. That totaly counts. How do you know it was him?"

"Long story short, about twenty linear feet of white, fluffy wingspan."

"That’s a pretty good indication."

"Yes. It was. We did manage to get a little more background.

It’s no coincidence that they look alike. Dominic and Seth are twin angels, although Dominic turned to the dark side after his mythological hissy fit. We think Dominic has somehow been inside Seth for centuries, and they got split apart when the Maleficium was triggered. Seth has the scar to prove it."

"And he had no idea?"

"Not as far as we can tel. Personaly, it sounds like Dominic may have been the little red devil that sat on his shoulder and told him to do naughty things, but Seth’s accepting responsibility for now. Which is kind of a nice change."

"No kidding. It’s definitely usualy the other way around.

What did Seth have to say?"

"He wants to help us deal with Dominic as part of his atonement. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have any idea how to go about doing that. What about you? Might there be anything in your shifter encyclopedia about that?"

"We don’t have an encyclopedia. We’re more of a storyteling people. But I’m not aware of a fable on bat-winged, parasitic dudes who feed off mayors. Although that would have explained a lot of Chicago’s political history."

"Sad but true. I’m heading out to see Malory. I’l ask if she has any information. Oh – and another weird one. The mercenary fairies at the gate think Dominic and Claudia, their queen, are going to have a meet and greet. While you’re researching him, look for any connection with the fairies."

"Wil do."

"I appreciate it. And Jeff, how’s Falon?" I felt like I hadn’t heard anything about Gabriel’s sister – and Jeff’s newish flame –  in a while. I wasn’t sure if that was because things were going wel, or because they weren’t.

"She’s good. She’s…" He sighed. "I think she has things to figure out."

That didn’t sound good. "What kinds of things?"

"What she wants in life and in a man. There’s a lot of pressure growing up in the Apex’s family. I think she’s stil sorting out who she thinks she is versus who she thinks her family expects her to be."

"That’s tough. Anything I can do?"

"Just stay in play as my backup."

I nearly swerved the car off the road. "I’m sorry – your backup?"

"You know, in case it doesn’t work out with Falon."

"And what about Ethan?"

Jeff chuckled. "I just figured he was your backup for me."

Of course he did. "Good night, Jeff," I said, and hung up the phone.