Biting Cold: A Chicagoland Vampires Novel (CHICAGOLAND VAMPIRES SERIES)

even twenty-four hours before allowing her to escape.”
    “No,” Ethan agreed, “they did not.”
    Gabriel looked at Jeff. “Could you excuse us for a moment?”
    When Ethan waved a hand collegially, Gabriel led Jeff a few feet away. Heads together, they began to whisper.
    “What’s that about?” I quietly asked.
    “I’m not entirely sure,” Ethan said, but there was no denying the curiosity in his voice.
    After a moment, they walked back toward us. “We’ll take her,” Gabe said.
    Stunned silence filled the air.
    “You’ll take her where?” Ethan asked.
    “We’ll take custody of her. The Order didn’t manage her before. You know I’m not one to get involved in politics, but I’d also really prefer that the city not burn down around us, since we’ve decided to stay in it.”
    Ethan looked completely befuddled. “I’m sorry, but I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around this. Where would you take her?”
    “We have a place” was all Gabe said. “And you’d be welcome to visit her at your convenience. Catcher, too,” he said, looking at Mallory. “She wouldn’t dare try that bullshit she pulled on the Order with us.”
    He gave her an ugly, pointed stare that should have scared the shit out of her. It scared me a little, and I wasn’t even the one in trouble.
    “She’ll need caretakers,” Ethan said. “She believes she’s ill—that she has a magical imbalance that necessitated what she’s done.”
    Gabriel’s lip curled. “She doesn’t need to be coddled. She has acted like a criminal without remorse. If she were one of mine, the problem would have solved itself.”
    Gabriel had been betrayed by his youngest brother, Adam, and we hadn’t heard from Adam since. “She won’t work magic around us. We can arrange that fairly easily. As it is, she doesn’t need excuses. She needs to get her shit together.”
    “And you can help her do that?”
    “No,” Gabriel said, eyes narrowed at Mallory. “No one can help her. She either does it or she doesn’t. That’s the choice we’ll give her.”
    So he was taking the tough-love approach. It certainly didn’t sound easy, but nothing else had worked. The Order put her in a medical facility—gave her around-the-clock care and treatment—and look where that got us.
    “I’ll want to check on her,” Paige said to Gabriel, apparently willing to let them have the burden of watching her.
    He nodded. “I understand decisions will need to be made about her long-term status. She has amends to make. Many amends, to friends and family.” Gabriel looked up at me. “I’m going to give her the chance to do that. Success or failure is up to her.”
    “It’s a lot of responsibility,” Ethan said.
    Gabriel nodded. “And I’m not looking for new responsibilities. I’ve got a wife and a son and problems of my own. But if I can help address this now, I won’t have to worry about it later. Besides,” he said, turning his golden eyes on me, “you’ve helped us before. I still owe you one.”
    Gabriel had made a prophecy about me and my future with, or without, Ethan. It had something to do with a favor I was going to do for him, but of course he hadn’t given away any details about that.
    Ethan glanced at Mallory. “Are you sure you can make it back to Chicago without her causing trouble?”
    Gabriel chuckled. “There’s always a solution to that problem.” He walked over to Mallory and crouched down before her.
    “How are you doing?”
    She looked up to respond to him, but before she could speak he put a hand on her cheek and tapped it gently. When her head went limp on her shoulders, Gabriel stood up again. “And that takes care of that.”
    “Is she okay?” I asked.
    “She’s fine. Just a careful touch. It’s like holding a shark upside down—it calms them. A handy little technique for putting out errant sorceresses. Gives us a good four or five hours before she wakes up again. And when she does wake up, we can have a nice chat.”
    I gave him a flat look. “You couldn’t have done that three days ago?”
    Gabe shrugged. “No one asked me to.”
    And that was a succinct lesson in using all available assets during a crisis.
    “How will you get her back to Chicago?” Ethan asked.
    “Sidecar,” Jeff said, thumbing his hand back toward the driveway.
    “You have a sidecar?” I held up a hand. “Wait. Let me restate that. You rode to Nebraska in a sidecar?”
    Adorable as Jeff was, I couldn’t get the image of