House Rules (18 page)

“You would,” Darius said. “Regardless your opinion of it, you should accept the state
of the world you have created. In consideration of the rising sun and the number of
vampires you’ll need to displace, we’ll afford you some time to gather your personal
belongings and vacate. You have forty-eight hours. By then, you should be resigned
to your fate and out of this House. Should you fail to do so, you’ll find a contingent
of armed fairies ready to escort you out. And think on this, Ethan: In consideration
of the bridges you’ve burned, who will help you now?”

* * *

The GP and fairies disappeared. For a moment, we simply stood there in shock.

“The fairies,” Ethan said. “The goddamn fairies.”

The fairies weren’t known to be lovers of vampires, but that didn’t diminish the insult
of their actions. They were our guards, for God’s sake. They kept watch over us while
we slept. Or at least they had.

“What could possibly motivate them to do this?” I asked. “What could they possibly
want badly enough to do this?”

I looked at Ethan . . . and understanding dawned. It wasn’t what the fairies wanted . . .
it was what we had.

“Upstairs,” Ethan said. “Check our apartments.”

Already knowing what he was thinking, I ran back into the House and up the stairs,
taking them two at a time. I reached the third floor and was nearly home when I stopped
short.

The doors to our apartments were open. Alarm quickened my heart.

Malik appeared in the hallway behind me, his breathing quickened by the run. “I expect
you know what you’re looking for.”

“I think I do.” I waited outside for a moment to let my vampiric senses scan the room,
and when I was sure it was empty of trespassers, I walked inside and looked around.

Nothing seemed immediately askew: no cushions ripped or bleeding their stuffing, no
drawers or lamps overturned. In fact, nothing was disturbed at all . . . except the
glass case in the corner of the room.

One side was completely shattered, and the dragon’s egg was gone.

“Malik,” I called out, as I moved closer to the case.

“A GP affiliate must have taken it,” he said, disgust in his voice. “Undoubtedly during
the ceremony. Even as they insulted us, they sent someone in here to retrieve an object
to which they have no right. As if there wasn’t enough drama in the world, Darius
had to create more of it.”

Malik moved closer, head tilted as he looked over the remains of the case.

“Should I clean up the glass?” I asked, but he shook his head.

“Leave it. Ethan will want to take a look anyway. We’ll ask Helen to take care of
it.”

“We could file a police report,” I suggested.

“For what purpose?” Ethan asked, stepping into the room behind us, Luc and Lacey with
him.

Luc gave me a nod, and Lacey ignored me completely. Her eyes, and quite likely her
mind, were on Ethan. Was it stupid to hope she’d see reason, forget about what she’d
imagined she’d seen, and let us get through this crisis before creating another one?

Ethan deposited his suit jacket on a table by the door and walked toward the case.
“I seriously doubt they’d care much for the missing trinket of a vampire.”

It was an unfortunate point, but no less accurate for that.

“It was trinket enough for the GP to steal and hold before the fairies like a carrot
on a stick,” Luc said.

“The fairies want it back?” I asked.

“They must,” Ethan said, “to be willing to raise arms against us.”

“Why now?” Luc asked. “We’ve had the egg for more than a century, and they’ve been
guarding the House for years. Why didn’t they simply ask for it back?”

“Perhaps they didn’t know where it was,” I said. “Claudia mentioned it in her tower.
Her guards were there; maybe that’s when they learned it was here.”

“And when Darius sought their help,” Malik said, “they knew exactly what they wanted.”

“Possibly,” Ethan said. “Or it’s possible they waited because they didn’t want to
risk the income they receive from the House. Once they believe our stability is questionable,
they decide the income is no longer a given, and they’re willing to take a chance
to get the egg.”

Malik nodded. “And perhaps they hoped Cadogan House’s new ‘tenants’ would continue
to pay them a fair wage for guarding it. They get both things they want.”

Looking suddenly exhausted, Ethan sat down in an armchair and dropped his head back,
loosening the tie around his neck. He closed his eyes for a moment, taking a haggard
breath while Luc, Malik, and I waited for direction.

I took the opportunity to message my grandfather and Jonah about events, and the possibility
that I’d be heading to my grandfather’s house for an extended stay in the guest room.

“There were days,” Ethan said, “when I considered a minor dip in the House’s investments
a tragedy. Oh, how times have changed.”

“Same issues,” Lacey said. “Only the scale is different.”

“Hoss, you want some blood?” Luc asked Ethan. “Or maybe a drink?”

“Two fingers of whiskey, please. No, fuck it. Just bring me the bottle.”

I was closest to the apartment’s small bar area, so I made the drink. I wasn’t sure
even a fifth of fine Scottish whiskey would soothe the sting of Darius’s betrayal.
I poured the amber liquid into a short glass, the potent smell tickling my nose. When
the bottle was recapped, I offered it to Ethan, and sat down in the armchair near
his.

“The fairies are gone,” Luc said, looking at his phone again, “and we’ve got the backup
firm on the line. They’ll have a full contingent of guards here within the hour, and
Michael Donovan’s agreed to rendezvous with them.”

“Who’ll guard us now?” I asked.

Luc leaned against a console table nearby. “Humans. We’ve had a security firm on retainer
for years as a backup, but we don’t reveal the firm’s name even to guards. Or Sentinels,”
he apologetically added.

“It’s a sabotage prevention mechanism,” Lacey said, eyes narrowed at me.

Okay, so she clearly wasn’t going to let us focus on one crisis at a time.

“Ya,” Luc agreed, oblivious to the undercurrent. “We’d preferred fairies, since they’re
stronger and generally less fickle.” His eyes narrowed.
“Generally
.
”

Ethan sipped his whiskey, then put the glass heavily on the cocktail table beside
him. “Who, in God’s name, could have predicted this? That the GP would force us to
fight? That they’d prefer to leave us homeless instead of simply accepting our graceful
departure? Goddamned bastards.”

“They can’t really take the House, can they?” I asked, looking from vampire to vampire,
but no one offered a response.

My heart sank low in my chest.

I felt for the apartment key in my jacket pocket and looked around the space I’d only
so recently moved into. This House had become my home; I didn’t want to give it up,
especially not to Darius West and his ilk. Talk about adding insult to injury.

“Darius has made his gambit,” Lacey said. “For better or worse, he’ll follow it through
if he believes it’s in his vampires’ best long-term interest.”

“The key phrase being ‘his vampires,’” Luc said. “And we’ve just defined ourselves
as falling outside that group.”

“We knew he’d label us as the enemy,” Ethan said. “I’d merely hoped for more of a
‘live and let live’ approach. And the irony? Michael broached the possibility the
fairies were dangerous last night.”

He’d mentioned it to me, too. Not that we hadn’t known of the risks before. But we’d
weighed the benefits against the costs, and we’d kept them around because the math
didn’t seem so bad.

“And so it begins,” Ethan said. “More strife between vampire and fae. And I’d thought
we’d made significant inroads.”

“We did,” I assured him. I hated to see him so defeated. “We were actually communicating
with Claudia. We can’t just let them get away with this.”

I looked around the room, but no one met my eyes.

“There has to be some way to deal with it, some way to fix it. And we’ll figure it
out. All of us, together. Right?” I smiled at Ethan, feeling suddenly—weirdly—like
a Cadogan House cheerleader, sans pleated skirt and bloomers. “I mean, you did ask
your transition team to come all this way. At least now you’ll get your money’s worth.”

Ethan looked back at me, and I saw that familiar spark light in his eyes. He sat up,
and looked at each of us in turn. “She’s right. We work this problem like any other,
and we find a solution. Is that understood?”

We all nodded.

Ethan looked at Malik. “Start a timer. I want it in my office within the hour, counting
down the hours we purportedly have to fix this situation. Thank God it’s winter, and
we’ll actually be awake for a good portion of that time.”

“Liege,” Malik said, a little smile at the corner of his mouth at Ethan’s sudden sense
of action.

Ethan stood up and ran his fingers through his hair, then put his hands on his hips.

“I say this one time, and you may spread the word to the House as you like. We are
not
leaving this House. Peter bade me captain his ship, and as long as I am alive on
this earth and Master of this domain, I will captain it. They will take this House
over my dead body. Call Paige, the librarian, and Michael Donovan. I want them in
my office within the hour.”

Ethan could be frustrating at times. Infuriating at others. But there was no doubt
he was a Master among men.

* * *

The troops inspired, I waited while Luc, Lacey, and Malik left the apartments to begin
the process of beginning the process, then looked at Ethan. “You’re all right?”

He walked toward me and pressed a soft kiss to my lips. “I’ve survived world wars,
Sentinel. This is a drop in the bucket.”

We both knew he was exaggerating, but I forgave him the boast.

I turned toward the door and held out a hand. “Then let’s go downstairs and take care
of this real quick.”

He smiled a little, which was the point. “Real quick?”

I shrugged. “You know, since it’s a drop in the bucket.”

He put his hand in mine and we walked toward the door, pretending we had a solution.
Pretending we had a fix.

And hoping to God we could find one.

* * *

We found Lacey in the doorway of his office, her eyes narrowing at the sight of Ethan
and me together. I knew I had to tell him the truth about the RG—if nothing else to
beat her to the punch—but this was not the time to add to his burdens. Hopefully she
was mature enough to see that, too.

We walked inside to find Michael Donovan, Paige, the librarian, Luc, and Malik already
in the room. On the wall was the timer Ethan had requested. It was large, with a black
screen and squarish white numbers that ticked the seconds, minutes, and hours that
we had left until the fairies tried to forcibly remove us from our home. Unless we
figured out a way to stop them.

Luc had scrounged up another whiteboard and set it up near the conference table.

“This looks like a party.”

We glanced back at the door. Gabriel Keene, head of the North American Central Pack,
stood there with a black motorcycle helmet in hand. Memphis was his home base, but
Chicago was, for all intents and purposes, his city. With sun-burnished hair and amber
eyes, he looked like a force to be reckoned with. And was.

He took a step inside. “I hear you’ve got a problem. Thought perhaps you could use
some assistance.”

Word traveled fast among supernaturals—or in this case from my message to my grandfather,
probably to Jeff, and then to Gabriel. The look on Ethan’s face was priceless: Hope
and joy blossomed, and perhaps for the first time, he believed there might actually
be a way out of this.

He skipped the greeting, walked toward Gabriel, and offered a bear-sized hug. Gabriel
slapped him on the back.

“All right, old man. Let’s not make Kitten jealous.” He glanced around Ethan and smiled
at me. “Hello, Kitten.”

Gabriel had taken to calling me that, mostly as a comic insult, kittens being among
the least powerful of the animals shifters could change into. “Gabe. Welcome to the
party.”

“It means a lot to the House that you’re here,” Ethan said, as they moved toward the
conference table.

“Yeah, well, don’t take it too personally.” He glanced around the room, his gaze falling
on Michael Donovan. “I’m not sure I know everyone?”

Ethan made the appropriate introductions, and we began to gather around the conference
table.

“Oh, one more thing,” Gabriel said before sitting, swinging a black backpack off his
shoulder. He unzipped it and produced a bundle wrapped in aluminum foil. The scent
of barbecue filled the air.

“Mallory sends her regards,” he said, handing the packet to me.

By having Gabriel bring me a bundle of meat? She most certainly did.

“Now that Merit’s fed, which is clearly our most important consideration,” Ethan snarked
with a smile, “let’s get down to business.”

I put the meat on the table and sat down, but didn’t open it. Now was not the time.

Ethan stood at the head of the table. “We have what’s left of this evening and tomorrow
night to figure out how to keep this House in our hands, and prevent the GP from destroying
what we’ve built in this city. Failure,” he said, looking at each member of the transition
team in turn, “is not an option. I don’t care what form the remedy takes—whether contractual,
legal, or a good old-fashioned brawl. But we will have a plan in place that assures
the continuation of this House in our hands.

“Now,” he said, taking a seat, “let’s get to work.” He looked first at Paige and then
the librarian, who sat beside me. “The contracts?”

The librarian nodded. “The contract has what amounts to a good-behavior clause,” he
said, handing Ethan a document with a flagged page. “It basically says the House is
obliged to act in a manner consistent with GP values. If the House fails to do so,
the GP is entitled to damages.”