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

somebody has to step up.”
    I couldn’t argue with that. “What’s the story about the prophecy?”
    “He made a prediction—you know we can do that, right?”
    I nodded.
    “The prediction was about really bad things going down in Chicago. He warned the Order, but the Order was afraid that because he’d made the prediction, he’d be involved in those really bad things. They banned him from coming to Chicago.”
    “He came anyway.”
    “He came anyway,” Paige agreed, “and they kicked him out of the Order because of it. I asked him about it.”
    “What did he say?”
    “He said the world would continue to turn and the prophecy would fulfill itself, and he wanted to be here when it did. He said he worked to stop all the natural disasters when they were going on and tried to help you figure out what was going on. The irony was that the trouble was boiling in front of his eyes, but he was so focused on the city, he completely ignored it.”
    “And so here we are,” I said.
    “Here we are,” she agreed.
    “Actually, I meant that literally.” I pointed Paige to the double doors in front of us, then opened them with a whoosh of air.
    It was an impressive reveal, if I do say so myself. The Cadogan House library was pretty spectacular. Two floors of books linked by a red wrought-iron staircase. The library held volumes on all sorts of vampire and supernatural topics, from history and food to a complete set of the Canon of the North American Vampire Houses , the codified law for American vampires.
    Paige’s reaction was pretty similar to what mine had been a few months ago. She walked inside, mouth agape, and stared up at the shelves and stacks and balcony of books. I figured it was an important room for an archivist.
    “Welcome to the Cadogan House library.”
    “Shut the front door,” she said. She walked toward the closest row and began to scan the books’ spines. “ Morphology of Vampirus Americanus. Pixies and Their Parts. The Horn of the Unicorn, and Other Important Features .”
    She trailed her fingertips across more of the spines, then looked back at me, eyes wide in amazement. “Your anatomy section is crazy impressive.”
    Not that I’d looked, but I didn’t have the supernatural literature chops to disagree with her. “Yeah. It’s pretty good.”
    She rubbed her hands together like a plotting evil stepmother. “So I need to research the secondary and tertiary effects of conjuration spells. Where might I find—”
    “Quiet down, could you?”
    We turned around. The House librarian, whom I knew only by his title, stood at the end of the row. He was a little shorter than average, and his arms were crossed over a black short-sleeved polo shirt. His shortish brown hair stood up in little whorls, like he’d been running his hands through it.
    “Sorry,” I said with an apologetic smile. “She got a little excited. Your library is pretty phenomenal.”
    “She?” he asked, turning his gaze on Paige. He cast a long, lingering look at her boots-clad legs before meeting her gaze. “You’re tall, aren’t you?”
    “I am . . . yes . . . tall. So, yeah. Tall.”
    The room went silent as they stared at each other. There must have been something in the water today.
    “This is Paige,” I said. “She’s the Order’s archivist. She’s stationed at the silo in Nebraska where the you-know-what is sometimes kept. She’s staying with us for a bit. Do you have any literature about conjuration?”
    He ignored me, probably because he was still staring at Paige. I knew she’d like the books; it hadn’t occurred to me that the librarian would like her.
    I cleared my throat to get his attention. “Conjuration,” I said, more loudly, when he finally looked my way. “Got any books on that?”
    His expression was flat. “Of course we do. Follow me.”
    He disappeared into a row. We didn’t dare disobey.
    An hour later, the books had piled up. There were four stacks, each two feet tall, on our library table, and there was a pile of open volumes around us.
    The evidence of our failure to find anything useful.
    I closed one more and rubbed my eyes, which were beginning to blur from scanning tiny print. The library doors opened, and Ethan stepped inside. My stomach lit with nerves, and I darkly wondered if that was going to happen every time I saw him for the rest of our immortal lives. I did not look forward to that possibility.
    But it was what it was, and until I figured out a way to end