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

seriously—unlike everyone else in the Order.”
    I flipped back the covers. I was dressed in a slinky nightgown. I gave him a look. “Seriously?”
    “That was Lindsey’s doing,” he said. “She said it was the first thing she found, and time was of the essence. We weren’t sure how badly you’d been burned, and we wanted you out of your clothes.” We both checked out my arms. They were still pink from the burns, but they were clearly healing.
    “They may be tender for a bit,” he said, “but you’ll heal.” He paused. “I was afraid it was going to be too late.” True anguish crossed his features.
    “They cut it close.”
    “They found you,” he corrected, “and that’s what counts.”
    “Morgan was the key. If we hadn’t been able to communicate . . .” I trailed off as tears threatened to breach my lashes again.
    Ethan nodded. “He called after you were home to ensure you were okay.”
    “He did good. Comforting, but with just enough push to make sure I stayed awake.”
    We’d been concerned Morgan had been too immature to handle his position as House Master. Maybe he could grow into it. Maybe he already was growing into it.
    “I need to thank him,” I said. It was the right thing to do and might help clear the air between us.
    “You may do so in one hundred years when I let you leave the House again.”
    “Ha.”
    “I’m only slightly joking, Merit. I have a nearly irresistible urge to lock you away and keep you out of trouble.”
    “Locking me away wouldn’t keep me safe or out of trouble. And if you locked me away, I couldn’t keep you safe.” Of course, there were some things from which I couldn’t protect him. “How did your interview with Darius go?”
    He shook his head. “Let me navigate the political streams. I am the captain of this ship, after all.”
    “Wow. You usually go for naughty. Tonight it’s nautical. It’s bad, isn’t it?”
    “It’s not good.”
    “What happened? Is he going to remove our accreditation?”
    Ethan stood up and walked to the window and didn’t say a thing. My chest tightened uncomfortably.
    “You aren’t going to tell me?”
    “I’m not avoiding the conversation because I don’t trust you,” he said, glancing back at me, that line of worry between his eyes. “But because there’s nothing to tell. The shofet ruled; you know that. Darius will decide what he decides. He hasn’t verbalized that decision, and until he does so, we have to wait.”
    With that enigmatic statement, he went silent on the issue. I decided he’d been through enough tonight and didn’t press him further.
    “What about the fallout from the press conference? I can’t imagine the new mayor is thrilled someone who looks like the former mayor, except with bat wings, tried to take out four of her cops.”
    “She wasn’t thrilled,” Ethan agreed. “But she also didn’t try to blame it on vampires. Of course, that’s pretty easy, since you were there with a sword trying to defend the cops. The human-interest reporters loved that.”
    “Ironic,” I said.
    “There has, however, been a bit of a change in the status quo.” Ethan reached over and grabbed a folded newspaper from the nightstand and handed it to me.
    The top half of the front page was devoted to a photograph of Dominic, his black wings spreading ominously across the newsprint. Beneath the photo was the headline: winged mayor attempts cop hit; city home to other sups.
    It hadn’t actually been the mayor, of course, but I could forgive them the error. The city didn’t know two Tates were on the loose, and they were hard to tell apart, anyway.
    “Read the first paragraph,” Ethan said.
    I read aloud: “‘Chicago reels today after Mayor Seth Tate, bearing a pair of batlike wings, attacked the so-called South Side Four outside the police precinct where they were released. In response, three new species of supernaturals—so-called nymphs, sirens, and trolls—were outed in a press release sent to news outlets across Chicago. Mayor Diane Kowalcyzk says she was shocked to learn Mr. Tate was ‘one of the monsters.’ A source close to the mayor’s office says Kowalcyzk is aware the city harbors dozens of supernatural species but kept that information from the public.’”
    I glanced up at Ethan, nervous about his reaction. But he was smiling.
    “Someone just outed more supernaturals to the mayor and everyone else.” I pointed to the paper. “You’re okay with this? How are you not