House Rules (Chicagoland Vampires #7)(75)
Author: Chloe Neill

"We climb the fence," Jonah said. "Then we go inside. Swords drawn and at the ready."

We nodded, and then we did our things.

The fence was chain link and made for an easy climb. We hopped down on the other side and found the building creepily quiet. Snow already covered the concrete outside, which made the steel exoskeleton look as if it had risen straight from ashes. Not exactly a comforting metaphor.

"The roof?" I asked, casting a glance upward. "Can we even get up there?"

"They keep ladders and stairwells open for the demolition crew," Jonah said. "Getting up there won’t be a problem."

We crossed the dirty and dusty hull of a lobby and went into the stairwell. We began the climb, and said good-bye to Ethan on the sixteenth floor.

You’ll be careful, Ethan silently said.

I promise, I assured him, and he disappeared into the hallway.

"Focus," Jonah said, and I pushed Ethan’s safety from my mind and we made the slow climb to the top of the building.

We emerged into a kind of waiting area, with a door marked ROOF in front of us. I swallowed down a dose of fear.

"You ready?"

"On three," I said.

One . . . two . . . three, he mouthed, then pushed open the door.

A freezing wind met us on the other side. It whipped around us at this height, biting through my jacket and quickly numbing the hands around my sword.

The roof was still covered in gritty tar paper, and it looked like every rooftop I’d seen on cop shows – a flat surface marked with vertical pipes, antennas, and skylights. Around the roof was an edge of concrete that kept folks from tumbling over the sides.

I sincerely hoped we weren’t going to need that.

Ethan’s voice burst into my earpiece. "I’ve got Lakshmi," he said. "Bleeding, but I’m stanching the wound. I’m going to get her out. Luc, get Delia ready for an incoming."

"On it," Luc said.

"Michael and the other vampire are on the north side of the building," Jeff said.

We took cautious steps forward. The snow was still falling, but it had melted to slush on the roof’s dark fabric.

"Behind me," Jonah said.

The roof was dotted with small outcroppings – utility sheds and HVAC units that hadn’t yet been removed. We hustled across the surface from obstacle to obstacle, trying to get as close to Michael as possible without blowing our cover . . . or risking his taking out a vampire before we could reach him.

"Twenty feet," Jeff said, and we stopped behind a bank of air conditioners.

I dropped my guard and reached out for the magic in the air – and there was plenty of it: a cloud around us, and a swell emanating from the other side of the utilities. That was Michael’s location, and I signaled it to Jonah.

"I’ll step in front and distract him," Jonah whispered. "Go around; cover his other side. I’ll wait ten seconds before I move."

I nodded. "Be careful."

I crept along the air-conditioning unit until I’d passed Michael’s position, crouched behind a gigantic vent pipe, and glanced around the corner.

Michael Donovan stood beside a bit of plumbing that pushed through the roof’s surface, his long black coat swirling in the wind.

Darius kneeled on the ground in front of him, cowed by the katana that Michael held in his right hand and the gun in his left. The latter was the same weapon I’d seen McKetrick raise against me, and likely the same one that Michael had used to threaten Oliver and Eve.

With bullets of aspen, it was decidedly deadly.

"You had to run," Michael said to Darius. "I tried to arrange you just so, and you had to run. And now she’s down there alone."

Michael lifted the sword.

Jonah stepped into Michael’s line of sight. "Michael, you’re surrounded. Drop the weapon and step away from Darius."

Shocked, Michael jerked, glancing around the roof. I crawled around the vent and began to creep along the edge of the roof toward him.

But he wasn’t going to simply give up. "I can’t allow you to interrupt," he said. "I’m obviously in the middle of something here."

"You’re going to have to hit ‘pause,’" Jonah said. "I’ve got guards on the roof and around the building."

"Great," Michael said. "Then you won’t mind when I do this."

Jonah jumped, but not before Michael slashed out, the tip of his sword catching Darius across the throat. Blood spilled, filling the air with the scent of heady vampire magic.

As my eyes silvered, Jonah leaped for Darius.

It was a perfect distraction. I extended my katana, and before Michael could react I sliced forward, hitting the underside of his left hand. The wound wasn’t deep, but it was enough to startle him. He instinctively dropped the gun, and I used the tip of the sword to change its trajectory, batting it away like a crappy pitch. Instead of falling at Michael’s feet – within easy reach – it flew fifteen feet away, then skittered beneath one of the utility units.

Michael’s smile drooped, and he took a step backward, katana still in hand.

Darius whimpered as Jonah worked to stop the bleeding at his throat. I moved closer to Michael, forcing him backward and away from the pair.

Now that we had equal weapons, it was up to me to bring him down. But first and foremost, he was going to answer some questions.

I kept my katana at heart height. "You’ve murdered four vampires. You killed Oliver and Eve."

Michael looked confused. "Who?"

"The vampires you slaughtered at Carlos’s warehouse."

"I didn’t even know their names until you told me. They were the first vampires who stumbled along."

He’d just admitted to murder – serial murder – as if it were nothing more than admitting he’d run out of milk or forgotten to vote on Election Day.

Michael slid a glance to Darius behind him. Michael’s expression was cold, as if he were irritated that Jonah was interrupting his plans – and Darius’s death.

"Why kill them at the warehouse?"

"It seemed as good a place as any."

His nonchalance had to be feigned. No one went to all that trouble – killed multiple vampires with linked locations and meticulous placement – and didn’t care. That is, he might not have cared for Oliver, Eve, Katya, or Zoey, but he cared about the killing.

Time to poke the bear, I thought.

"So Carlos made you a vampire?"

Michael glanced back at me. Concern flashed in his eyes, but disappeared. But that flash was enough for me.

I pulled up every memory of the night I’d been made a vampire, digging into the feelings of fear, horror, and brutality, and used them against him.

"You didn’t want it, did you? You didn’t want to be a vampire. You didn’t want to be a part of that lifestyle. But Carlos found you. Selected you. And then he subdued you. Restrained you, maybe? And bit you."