Dark Debt (Chicagoland Vampires #11)(32)
Author: Chloe Neill

“Roger that,” Kelley said quietly. “Moving forward.”

The camera moved closer to Balthasar, to the woman in his arms. She put a hand on his chest, and as the crowd guffawed with amusement—as if she were only acting her coquettish part—leaned forward and pressed her lips to his.

Kelley pushed through to them, the camera jerking as she tried to muscle through a crowd unwilling to part for her. The humans were too absorbed in the show to turn away or lose their seats.

Like prey scenting predator, Balthasar looked up and right into the camera, smiled broadly for all of us to see . . . and then pushed the hapless woman into Kelley’s arms.

Kelley muttered a curse, grabbed the human, helped her to the ground, where the rest of the crowd surrounded them to offer aid.

“Shit,” Luc said. “Kelley, get eyes on him! Get eyes on him!”

Kelley moved fast, and the camera panned up again . . . but he was gone.

“Move!” Luc barked out.

Kelley did, rising and tunneling through the arms, legs, and torsos of the humans who’d surrounded her and the woman, forcing her way back to the stone railing that marked the drop to the Chicago River below.

She looked down, left, right, scanned the stone dock where a water taxi sat empty, bobbing in dark water. There was no sign of Balthasar.

Luc spat out a curse.

“He can’t have just disappeared,” Ethan said, his voice low and dangerous.

“No,” I said. “But he’s fast. So fast that being in his spell makes it seem as if everyone around you has slowed.”

The vampires in the room looked at me curiously.

“That’s what it felt like,” I said, forcing my voice to stay calm, “when he glamoured me. He is very, very powerful.”

“He’ll show up again,” Ethan said ruefully, sounding suddenly tired. “He won’t be able to resist. Tonight, he showed us what he can do, what he will do, to disrupt this city unless and until we give him what he wants.”

“He can’t get into the House,” Catcher said. “Not with the wards.”

“No,” Ethan said. “But I suspect that won’t stop him trying. Either here, or in the street, or wherever else he believes he can extort action from us. He hasn’t made demands, not specifically, but he’ll do that soon enough.”

He muttered a curse. “I should have killed him when I had the chance.”

*   *   *

After Luc turned off the screen and hurled his earpiece across the room in frustration, we reconvened in Ethan’s office.

“Murder wouldn’t have eased your conscience,” I said quietly.

“No. But it would have rid the world of one more sociopath. He will not stop until he has achieved his goal, whatever that may be. Adoration? Power? Almost certainly. Perhaps to destroy everything that has been built here. Perhaps to destroy me and mine.”

“We won’t let him,” I said, sliding my hand into his, squeezing our joined fingers.

He muttered something in Swedish. “What had I said about alcohol?”

“That there wasn’t enough of it. But I bet some really old gasoline-style Scotch would take the edge off.”

“Perhaps,” he said, then leaned forward and kissed my forehead. “Perhaps.”

My phone rang, and I pulled it out, found Jonah’s number on the screen. I wasn’t any happier to talk to him now than I had been before. If he had things to tell me—or an apology to issue—he could send me a text. Since he didn’t, I put the phone away again.

Ethan looked at Luc. “How will we get rid of him?”

“Well, we haven’t exactly had much time to research.”

“What about the timeline?” I asked Luc.

“It’s moving, but slowly. The Librarian’s gotten some of the Memento Mori scans from London, and he’s working with Jeff on an algorithm to search them for mentions of Balthasar or the other vampires.”

I needed to get Jeff a gift basket. Did giant white tigers like catnip?

“What about the safe houses?” Ethan asked.

“Safe houses are safe houses for a reason; they aren’t big on giving out information, especially now that we’ve given up our connection to the GP. But we’ve got a lead on the house in Aberdeen, and we’re circling back to that.”

“And the condo owner?” Ethan asked.

“I feel like I’m being interrogated,” Luc said, yanking dramatically at the collar of his shirt. “Fortunately, the condo, being in Chicago, was much easier to find. Smallish real estate management company. Legit, and they’ve got several condos across the Loop. Tend to rent them out to executive types.” He grinned at me. “I did check to see if it was one of your father’s. No hit there, unfortunately.”

“A small miracle,” Ethan said.

“The Librarian did look into disavowal,” Luc said, “at last, after a lecture about being overloaded. He said, ‘It depends.’”

Ethan rolled his eyes. “If I wanted to hear that, I’d have called the damn lawyers.”

“Actually, I told him the same thing. But he wasn’t trying to sidestep—he had a good point. According to Canon, official disavowal takes place in front of a GP quorum.”

“Ah,” Ethan said, understanding. “And there is no GP.”

“There is not, since Nicole abolished it. Does the AAM count for those purposes? Probably. But who’s to say?”

“Does it really matter?” I asked. “He’s not a member of Cadogan House or the AAM, so it’s not like they’re going to be stripping him of any rights. If this is just an issue of a public denouncement, whether the AAM backs it doesn’t seem relevant.”

“It wouldn’t be literally,” Malik said. “But the move wouldn’t have as much impact. It’s a public denouncement, yes, but without the broader consequences—shunning by colleagues, the relationship between the vampires being removed from the NAVR registry, et cetera.”

I glanced back at Ethan. “Some of that stuff won’t apply to Balthasar. Do you think he would care about the rest of it? You left him, disavowed him, once already. It didn’t take.”

“Being a narcissist, he is less interested in the opinions or desires of others. But your point is well taken. Even disavowal may not assuage him. Not if he’s willing to go this far.”

“If Scott and Morgan weren’t already aware of Balthasar’s antics, they’ll need to know. They won’t have known the depth of his egocentrism, but they’ll begin to suspect it now.”