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

bedroom at the top of a narrow staircase at the back of the kitchen.
    There wasn’t much to the room. A twin-sized bed. A small table. The walls were hung with old-fashioned wallpaper bearing cartoonish strawberries.
    Mallory sat on the edge of the bed, staring down at the chapped hands in her lap.
    She looked up at me and blew a wisp of lank blond hair from her face. “What are you doing up here?”
    “I wanted to check on you.”
    Silence descended. I’d imagined my reunion with Mallory would be awkward, and I’d been right. “Awkward” was a gentle word for the thousand unspoken words that hung between us. But she was the one who had explaining to do, so I walked inside and shut the door. I sat down on the hardwood floor cross-legged and, in the awkward silence, took a look at my nails. They didn’t look great, but I had fought a mutant gnome, a sorceress, and a Tate.
    “How are you feeling?” I finally asked.
    She laughed mirthlessly and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “The same. Bad. Stupid. I felt wrong, Merit. Deep in my bones, I felt wrong. I still do.”
    “I know.”
    She looked back at me. “I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone.”
    “That you weren’t trying to do it doesn’t mean you aren’t responsible for it.”
    She nodded.
    “You could be dead right now, Mallory. We all could be. As it is, Paige’s house burned down and the Maleficium is toast. Tate is twice the man he used to be, and we have no idea where he is or how to stop him.”
    “I know,” she said. “I know.”
    “How did you and Tate hook up?”
    “I knew the book was in the silo, but I didn’t know how to get in there.”
    So much for my Internet research theory.
    “I watched the farm, thinking you’d show up and get into the silo. That’s where he found me. He said we could help each other.”
    “You’d be the distraction, and he’d get Paige to show him the book?”
    She nodded. “I’m sorry. I know that’s not enough, but I’m sorry.”
    “Do you understand how much danger you’ve put the city in? How much danger you put vampires in? When shit goes bad, Mallory, they blame us. They blame vampires . The city, the GP, the mayor. We have to register with the city just to live here, like we’re convicts on parole.”
    “What do you want me to say?”
    That was a good question. What could she possibly say to erase the last few days?
    “I don’t know,” I said honestly. “We have a lot of history together, you and I. And as glad as I am that you brought Ethan back, it will be a long time before you will make this up to the people you’ve hurt.”
    “The pain beat me,” she quietly said. “The pain won. I know it’s hard to understand . . .”
    “It’s hard to understand because you didn’t talk to anyone about it. I found out you were involved when I discovered you betrayed me and my House. If you didn’t think Simon got it, you should have talked to Catcher. Or my grandfather. Or someone. You should have done anything but what you did.”
    She was quiet for a moment. “Do you hate me?”
    It didn’t say much for either of us that I had to think about my answer. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how I felt. Mallory and I had a history of friendship—more of a history than anybody else currently a part of my life. But she’d pushed forward regardless of whom else she hurt and regardless of the consequences. She’d nearly destroyed Chicago and she’d managed to unleash two Tates on the Midwest.
    It was certainly hard for me to like her very much. And it would be a really long time before I could respect her again. But . . .
    “No, I don’t hate you. You brought him back to me.”
    “Not for the right reasons.”
    “No. But you still did it.” It would have been all the better if Ethan hadn’t been tied to her at all, but I wasn’t about to clue her in to that. He may not be her familiar, but I didn’t want her testing exactly how deep their connection ran. She wasn’t ready for that yet. I wasn’t ready for that yet.
    “I hated him at first,” she said. “And I think you did, too. He was overbearing, and he didn’t sympathize with your situation. And then you let yourself be vulnerable, and then he invited another girl to your House. And then he took a stake for you, and he proved himself.”
    I nodded.
    “Maybe he’s not quite Darth Sullivan anymore,” she said.
    We were both silent. “I don’t know if I can do this,” she said after a couple of minutes.
    “Do