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

to the wall, mere inches of space between me and the moving sunlight, when a sound as loud as a gunshot split the air, and I clapped my hands over my ears. Voices burst out. Yelling, the roar of an engine, the sound of rocks and gravel.
    Unaware of the danger it posed, immune to my tears, the sunlight crept closer. I was running out of time. “Please be help. Please be help.”
    Morgan’s voice popped into my head again, as exhausted as mine must have sounded. Merit, they’re coming to get you. Hold on, okay?
    I dropped my head back to the wall behind me, tensing every muscle to keep myself upright and poised in the tiny bit of shade. You can do this , I told myself over and over again. You can do this. You can do this .
    Paige burst into the room. “I found her!” she called out.
    I sobbed in relief.
    Jeff rushed in behind her, a shiny silver blanket in his hands. Immune to the sunlight, he ran to me. “I’m getting you out of here, okay?”
    I managed a nod before he threw the cloth over my head and whipped me into his arms like I weighed nothing. I wrapped an arm weakly around his neck. “Tate?”
    “Temporarily incapacitated,” Paige said, hustling Jeff out the door. “So we don’t have much time.”
    Jeff carried me outside, where I heard the sound of an engine revving and a door opening. I was gently placed on something soft, and then we were moving again.
    Jeff pulled away the blanket. My heart skipped at the sudden darkness. I reached out, and he squeezed my hand.
    “I can’t see anything.”
    “It’s temporary,” said another voice. Catcher, in front of us. “It’s because you were exposed to sunlight for so long; it’s too dim in here for your receptors. It will pass.”
    I nodded but couldn’t stop the tears that slid down my face. A minute more, and I’d have been a pile of ash.
    I sobbed, and Jeff pulled me into his chest.
    “Shhh,” he said, as I breathed in the spicy scent of his cologne and gripped a fistful of his shirt. “You’re okay. Rest for a few minutes, and we’ll get you home. Oh, and I think Catcher found your jacket.”
    “Thank you,” I said, crying in relief until my eyes closed again.
    I didn’t wake up again until midnight the next evening.
    I sat up in my bed, the room lit by a golden light that filtered in from the open hallway door. My eyes took a moment to adjust, but I could finally see again.
    “Water?” I touched my throat. I was parched, my voice harsh and gravelly.
    Ethan walked into the room, relief on his face. He wore a suit, but the top of his shirt was unbuttoned and his tie was loose around his neck. He strode to the bed and handed me a cup of water from the nightstand.
    I drank it greedily.
    “How are you feeling?” Ethan asked.
    He looked down at the bed but didn’t touch me. Even after the night we’d faced, he was keeping his distance.
    “I feel miserable,” I said, and I didn’t just mean the Tate situation. “Like I haven’t slept in twenty-four hours.” I handed the empty glass back to him. “More, please.”
    He refilled it. “Blood would also be a good idea. Keep drinking that, and I’ll get you some.”
    I didn’t argue and kept drinking. I drank so much so quickly I nearly didn’t keep it all down. Nausea overwhelming me, my stomach suddenly swollen, I sat back and closed my eyes.
    “Is Jonah all right?” I asked.
    “He’s fine. He’s the one who called us. He waited here until just before the sun rose, then returned to Grey House. Catcher and Jeff looked for you for some hours. Apparently, you led them on quite a chase.”
    “How’s that?”
    “You don’t remember?”
    I shook my head. “He touched me at the lockup and knocked me out somehow. I didn’t remember anything until I woke up in that room.” I looked up at Ethan. “I know what he is. His name is Dominic. He’s a fallen angel, just like the librarian said. He has great black wings, Ethan. Bat’s wings.”
    “If he’s Dominic, what’s Seth?”
    I shook my head. “I don’t know. Dominic was the only one there. At least, I think he was. How did Paige stop him?”
    “Magical flash bang,” he said. That explained the loud noise. “It disorients someone sensitive to magic, but the effect is only temporary.”
    “I should thank her, too.”
    “She’s out tonight. She said she needed to talk to Baumgartner. She said she had some things on her mind.”
    I smiled. “Good for her. She seems like the type to take her magic