Wild Things

Chapter Twenty-one ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK

At dusk the next evening, Lakshmi arrived to discuss the GP and its variety of issues, looking gorgeous in a sleek black dress with an asymmetrical neckline and stiletto heels. I stood in the foyer with Luc, Malik, and Helen, nodding politely as she arrived, and then directing her to Ethan’s office.

“And now, once again, we wait,” Luc said with a grumble. “I swear to God, I spend half my time doing that.”

I didn’t disagree. But I’d already arranged a way to spend the time.

An hour later, I stood at the tall fence outside the former brick factory where the CPD had held Seth Tate once upon a time, and where they now held his niece.

And now, thanks to Detective Jacobs, Regan and her uncle were going to have their own reunion.

A taxi pulled up the long drive, and after exchanging bills, a man emerged. He had short sandy hair and a thick nose, and he wore khakis and a button-down shirt.

Seth Tate could have passed for an accountant, but he still smelled like freshly baked cookies.

“Nice disguise,” I said.

He nodded. “They’ll have the building warded, so I had to go old-school.”

Headlights appeared in the darkness, and a golf cart pulled up to the gate. A young, fit woman in a black uniform climbed out and walked to the gate.

“Caroline Merit and John Smith?”

I waved a little bit. “That’s us.”

She nodded officially, unlocked the gate, and held it open for us.

“Mind the gap,” she said, gesturing toward the bench on the back of the cart.

“John Smith?” Seth murmured as he took a seat beside me.

“The alias wasn’t really the key component of the plan,” I said, as the guard accelerated and we bobbled down the gravel road. The factory was actually a set of several large buildings used to mold and fire bricks during wartime. Seth had been held in a small stand-alone building, but we passed it as we headed toward a long single-story building on the other side of the compound.

“Are you nervous?” I quietly asked, as his gaze settled on his former prison cell.

“A little,” he admitted. “I’ve never had a niece before. Or a relative of any kind other than Dominic. And I’m not sure he counted.”

“More a supernatural parasite.”

“And yet he was sentient enough to control me. To connect with a woman and father a child.”

But Dominic had been a lover in his time. He’d seduced Claudia, the queen of the fairies. It had been her love that bound Dominic to Seth and kept him out of the Maleficium.

The guard stopped in front of the entrance and escorted us into the building. It was a large empty space but for the series of small square rooms that dotted the concrete floor. Guards were stationed here and there, and they had the look of well-seasoned military types.

The mayor wasn’t taking any chances with Regan. And she now had a facility to hold a small supernatural army. Not a comforting thought.

“She’s in the first one,” the guard said, gesturing us forward. The rooms were made of concrete, with a window and door on the front side. “You can go ahead.”

We walked toward the window, peered inside.

Regan sat at an aluminum table, and she’d exchanged her designer clothes for an orange jumpsuit. She moved nervously in her chair, kept nervously touching her hair. She might have been a badass in her element, but here she looked small and insecure.

I glanced at Seth.

He watched her, head angled, eyes wide, for a long moment. “There’s more of him in her than I’d have imagined,” he finally said.

“Is that good or bad?”

“I’m not certain.”

“All things considered, I don’t know if she’s capable of contrition. But maybe you can give her peace. Maybe you can ensure she doesn’t hurt anyone else.”

Seth nodded. There weren’t many times I’d seen him nervous. But here, facing the family he hadn’t known he had, he looked absolutely bewildered.

“You can do this,” I said. “And right now, I don’t think you even have to be good at it. You just have to be there.”

He squeezed my hand. “You are wise beyond your years, Ballerina.”

“Immortality tends to do that,” I murmured.

Seth blew out a breath, put a hand on the door, and walked inside.

Regan looked up as Seth walked in and sat down in the chair across from her.

“What’s going on in there?” the guard asked, moving closer to the door.

“A family reunion.”

Maybe a little family would do them both some good.

• • •

They talked for nearly an hour, which was all the time Jacobs could eke out of the mayor considering the multiple charges against Regan.

I stood by watching from the window with the guard until Seth’s hour was up and the guard knocked on the door again.

Seth squeezed Regan’s hand, rose, and came to the door.

When he stepped outside, his gaze found mine. There was a disconcertingly familiar intensity in his eyes that scared me to the bone. Had I made a mistake, bringing him here? Putting the two of them together?

“You’re all right?”

He nodded, and a smile blossomed. “I can’t thank you enough for this. For arranging this reunion after everything that’s happened.”

I hadn’t expected thanks, and it flustered me. “You’re welcome. It went okay?”

“It did,” he said, scratching his head nervously. “She’s got issues. Many of them involve Dominic; others, magic. But I think there’s a chance for her, Merit.”

I glanced back at Regan and thought about what Gabe had said at Lupercalia, there with Mallory in front of the totem before things had gone so wrong. About those brave enough to crawl back from their wrongs and try to make things better.

“The supernaturals in her menagerie were well cared for. She told me she thought of them as family. Maybe that’s what she needs now. Maybe she is capable of contrition; maybe she isn’t. But she’s yours, and you deserve the chance to help her try.”

“Oh, I intend to,” he said, and before I could respond, he pulled off his wig and the plastic that had covered his nose. He ran a hand through his dark hair, smiled at the guard.

The guard, whom Tate had finally managed to shake, swallowed hard. “You’re—you’re the mayor.”

“Former,” Seth said with a soft smile. “Now I’m just a man, and I believe you’ll find there are warrants out for my arrest. I’ve been avoiding my punishment. But I’ll take it now.”

The guard looked at him for a moment, then back at me, clearly unsure what to do. It couldn’t have been every day that she was faced with a felon who offered himself up to incarceration.

“It’s no trick,” Seth said. “I’m just finally—after too long—doing the right thing. I’d like to serve my time honorably.”

Another moment passed, but the guard relented. “All right, then,” she said, gesturing two more guards forward. While they watched Tate with weapons drawn, she cuffed his wrists with zip strips she’d pulled from a pouch on her belt.

“You have a right to talk to a lawyer,” she said, putting a hand on his arm.

“No need,” he said. “But you might want to call the mayor.”

When the guard gestured toward the second room, Seth looked back at me and smiled magnanimously.

“What are you doing?” I asked, still completely dumbfounded.

“Neither Dominic nor I protected her before. But if I’m here, I can protect her now. At least in some way.”

And he let the guard lead him away.

• • •

The House cafeteria was located in the back of the first floor, the large windows looking out over the beautiful grounds that surrounded the House. Snow still glistened magically there. It was between meals, so the cafeteria was empty but for the bustle of staff who worked to prepare the next round of meals for the vampires.

Ethan wasn’t yet done with Lakshmi, so I sat at a wooden table in a wooden chair beside one of the windows and stared out across the lawn at the banks of trees and hillocks of undisturbed snow. A rabbit darted into view, paused and looked around for predators, then dashed away to safety again.

At the sound of footsteps, I looked up. Ethan walked into the room, then over to a glass-doored cooler on the opposite wall. He grabbed two bottles of Blood4You, brought them to the table.

“You all right?” he asked, popping the tops on both and handing one to me.

“Having some quiet time. I don’t get that often.”

“No,” he agreed. “You do not. Seth?”

“Incarcerated,” I said. “Turned himself in so he’d be in prison with Regan.”

Ethan’s eyes widened. “He’s made quite a turnaround.”

I nodded. “That’s an understatement. But it’s also kind of perfect.”

I made myself wait a beat, gave him an opportunity to take a drink, before asking him. “What did Lakshmi say? What is the GP demanding of the House?”

He took another drink, set the bottle on the table. “The GP believes, as we have killed one of their vampires, they have a right to the same.”

My blood chilled. “They want to kill a member of Cadogan House?” The GP had made ignorant and thoughtless moves before, but none as heartless as that. None that were as conniving or, frankly, stupid.

“They’re bluffing,” I said, and Ethan smiled back faintly.

“Bluffing or not, that was their offer, delivered here by Lakshmi Rao. I understand you’re well acquainted.”

I kept my expression as neutral as possible, but I was sure he saw the hitch in my eyes. “Oh?” I innocently asked.

He gave me a dubious look. “She is supportive of the idea of challenging Darius for the GP. She suggested I should do it.”

“Hmm. And are you?” I realized my hands had begun to shake, and I tucked them between my knees. Even if I accepted the notion that Ethan loved me unconditionally, that didn’t mean I wouldn’t fear for his safety if he decided to challenge Darius.

He looked at me for a long, quiet moment, took my hand. “I believe, Sentinel, that I am.”

I felt like I’d been pushed off a cliff, suddenly dizzy, suddenly worried. “And the House? Chicago?”

“Will be protected,” he said. “There is a long road before the leadership of the GP is settled. A potentially dangerous road,” he admitted. “But a long road nonetheless. All things can be worked out.”

“And London?” I asked. “Can it be worked out?”

“Come here,” Ethan murmured, and before I could move, my hand was in his, and we were moving. He led me up and out of the cafeteria, down the hallway, and up the stairs.

“Where are we going?” I asked as we rounded the third-floor landing and headed down the hallway to a room I knew was empty except for the pull-down ladder that led to the attic and the House’s widow’s walk.

“I’m showing you something,” Ethan said, pulling down the ladder. He gestured toward it. “You first.”

I knew when to obey without sarcasm. I climbed up and into the attic, which wasn’t much to see. Mostly rafters and insulation. The window that led to the roof was closed. I unlatched it and pushed it open, assuming that was what Ethan had intended me to do. As he climbed the ladder behind me, I stepped outside.

The widow’s walk was a narrow ledge around this part of the roof, marked by a short wrought-iron barrier. Lake Michigan was a dark stain to the east, and downtown Chicago shined to the north.

The roof creaked as Ethan stepped beside me. He put one hand around my waist and used the other to point at the blinking lights of the city.

“There,” he said. “If I take power, that is the new seat of the Greenwich Presidium.”

It took me a moment to understand what he’d said, the scope of the change he’d just proposed. “You want to move the GP to Chicago?”

“I will move the GP to Chicago,” Ethan said, filling those words with every bit of pretention and egoism I knew him capable of.

He tilted my chin to meet his gaze. “You are my soul, Merit. But vampires are my body. To be whole, I must respect both. And the GP has held court too far from the American Houses for far too long. It’s time the GP came home to roost.”

“They’ll fight to keep the seat in Europe,” I said. “Danica and the others won’t let you move it.”

“If they do not control the GP, they will have no choice.” He touched a fingertip to my lips. “I made my choice, Merit, many months ago. There is no turning back. Not now.”

His lips so soft, yet so stern, he pressed his mouth to mine.

“I will have both of you,” he said. “My Sentinel and my city. And the GP will learn exactly how stubborn we both can be.”