“He who reads Today’s House also pays today’s House’s bills.”
“Don’t push your luck.”
“I already did,” he said, refolding the letter and putting it back in the pile. “I called Nicole.”
It took me a moment to adjust to the segue; he’d clearly been eager to get that off his chest. “And how is her royal highness?”
“Acting very royal, which doesn’t really do credit to her democratic leanings.”
I put the magazine back on the pile. “Did she know about Balthasar?”
“He visited Atlanta,” Ethan said. “I don’t have the sense he was there very long, but long enough at least to meet her, to reconnect, to convince her of his identity.”
“When?”
Ethan’s eyes fairly glowed at the question. “You don’t miss the details, Sentinel. Two months ago. Before the Testing. Before she came to Chicago.”
“And she never mentioned it. You think they’re working together on something? That that’s why he’s here?”
He put his hands on his hips, frowned. “Our conversation was brief, but I didn’t have that sense. She sounded, I suppose, starstruck. In my experience, Balthasar enjoys more of a challenge than that.”
“So the next few weeks should be really quiet around here.”
Ethan chuckled, kissed my forehead. “As before, after. Let’s worry about that tomorrow, Sentinel, and get this night behind us.”
I had no objection to that.
* * *
I pulled on pajamas, dried my hair, and brushed my fangs like a good little vampire. I checked my phone, found Jonah had left a voice mail I didn’t especially want to listen to.
And being a good little vampire, I sat down on the bed, lifted the phone to my ear.
“Merit,” the message said, “it’s Jonah. We need to talk. You can’t just ignore me. We’re partners. Call me, and we’ll talk about the monitoring. I’m sorry if you took it personally, but it’s not personal. It isn’t. It’s just caution. We all want to believe the best in those who lead us. But every empire has fallen, Merit. Every empire will fall.”
The message cut off.
I liked Jonah. Respected him, and what he stood for. He was my partner, after all. A partner I’d agreed to serve with, and a man who’d helped me and the House countless times.
Frankly, I didn’t disagree that every empire would fall eventually. Hadn’t we just seen that happen to the GP? And I could admit my sensitivity to Balthasar’s glamour was concerning. Hell, it concerned me. But I’d adjusted. Jonah’s insistence that I’d be blind to what might happen, that I’d miss the signs of Ethan’s becoming utterly dictatorial—or that I’d purposely ignore them—that I’d let all vampires suffer because I loved a man, was just wrong. And coming from someone I thought I’d known, and certainly had respected, it hurt. A lot.
I tossed the phone onto the nightstand, but it spilled over the end and landed on the floor at Ethan’s feet.
He’d emerged from the bathroom in dark boxer briefs that hugged his thighs. He picked up the phone, placed it on the nightstand. “Everything all right?”
“Just an irritating message.”
“From Jonah?”
I looked up at him suspiciously.
“I saw your phone when he called you. And when you didn’t answer.” He cocked his head. “You aren’t speaking to him?”
“Not at the moment.”
“Would you like to tell me why?”
I fluffed my pillows with cathartic thumps. “Nope.”
This time, his brow lifted. “Is this something I should also be irritated about?”
I caught the thread of possessiveness in his voice, almost wished it was that simple. I didn’t think Jonah was interested in me anymore, but even if he had been, handling that would have been comparatively easy.
“No,” I said on a sigh. “He’s just being unreasonable about something RG-related.”
Ethan didn’t answer. He just looked at me, waiting, with his face drawn into Masterly features.
“I can’t talk about it,” I insisted. “It’s nothing dangerous to the House. Just—something between us.”
“Ah,” he said, and walked around the bed, sat down, and turned off the light. “I see.”
“Do you?”
He stretched out beside me, then snaked an arm around my waist and pulled me tight against his body. “I do. You’re in the RG, and you’re dating—very seriously—a member of the AAM. It’s not unforeseeable he’d have concerns. The RG is an organization, Merit, which is built on a certain fundamental sense of fear. That those in power will erode the very rights they’ve promised to protect, and that if we are not careful and vigilant, it will happen sooner rather than later.”
“So you’re saying he’s being reasonable?” I asked.
“No. But I am suggesting he’s being rational. For some—and the RG is among them—vigilance isn’t paranoia; it’s inevitability. Consider this: If he was dating Lakshmi, would you have the same concerns?”
Lakshmi was a member of the now-defunct GP, and a woman who’d had a definite romantic interest in Jonah. She’d helped during the GP’s reign, but she was undeniably manipulative.
“I wouldn’t trust her,” I said. “But I’d trust Jonah’s judgment. I’m not getting the same trust. That’s what’s frustrating.”
“Ah,” was all he said. “Would you like me to talk to him?”
“No. I can fight my own battles.” And would. I just wasn’t looking forward to it.
“I’ve no doubt of it,” he said. “In other news, it appears Mallory and Catcher are to be married.”
“So they say.”
“You don’t sound enthused.”
“They sounded like they were discussing getting a small business loan, not making a lifetime commitment of love and fidelity.”
“You have doubts about their love and fidelity?”
“Well, no, not in the abstract. I know he loves her, and vice versa. But that’s not what I heard from her tonight.” I shifted, suddenly restless, and stretched out beside him. He gave me the room but linked our fingers together.
“I heard business. And I heard nerves. Once upon a time, she’d wanted this big wedding in New Orleans, for God’s sake, on Bourbon Street. With fire-eaters, a jazz band, a second line, the entire shebang. And, okay, we’ve grown since the last time we talked about it, so maybe her tastes have changed. But she didn’t even sound excited. That’s what bothers me, I guess. It’s her wedding. She should sound excited.”