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

they’d separated out. But it wasn’t just a thing. A power.”
    “What was it?” Lindsey quietly asked, transfixed by the story.
    Suddenly, it all made sense. Well, most of it.
    “It was them ,” I said. “The fallen angels. The Maleficium was created to separate good and evil—they thought the fallen angels were evil. Which means the Maleficium was created to hold the fallen angels. Dominic and the others.”
    “The magicians didn’t know how to kill them,” Seth said, “so they thought to lock them away for eternity. At least until Mallory came along. Mallory’s spell at the silo—what was she trying to do?”
    “It was a conjuring spell,” Lindsey said. “It does seem like she conjured someone.”
    But I shook my head. “The Maleficium didn’t release Dominic. He didn’t pop out of the book. He split off from Seth.”
    “Is that why you look alike?” Lindsey asked.
    Seth’s expression was sad. “No,” he said. “I’m afraid the answer is much simpler. Messengers of justice and of peace were always born to earth in pairs. It was an innate way of keeping the world in balance.”
    The magical world was big on balance. Good and evil. Dark and light. The reason Mallory’s first attempt to unleash the Maleficium on the world caused so much havoc in Chicago was precisely because dark and light magic were thrown out of whack.
    And humans thought magic was all about fairy tales and simple stories. Little did they know.
    “You are twins,” Lindsey said. “Real-life twins.”
    “We were. Are ,” he corrected, his expression slinking toward despair. “Although he and I are very different creatures. We always have been.”
    Before any of us could react to that, the door burst open. Ethan stood there, Juliet and Luc behind him. A perk of magic filled the air, and Ethan had the fire of a devil in his eyes.
    He moved toward Seth, his strides long and determined. His hair had come loose from its tie, and it streamed around his face as he moved like he was a warrior moving into battle.
    “Ethan,” I said, but he threw me a silencing look. The look of a Master vampire whose irritation at me was matched only by his irritation at the party crasher in his House.
    He grabbed Seth’s cassock by the shoulders and pushed him backward. Seth stumbled but stayed on his feet, and stared back at Ethan with equal intensity, but much less hatred.
    “Are you looking for a fight, Tate? Because I will show you a fight.”
    Oh, God. Ethan didn’t know this wasn’t Dominic—the man who’d tried to kill me—and he was ready for war.
    “You would have killed her, goddamn it. Do you understand that?”
    Seth’s eyes went wide, and his gaze snapped to me. “Merit?”
    “I’m fine,” I said, eyes shifting between him and Ethan. “Ethan, this is Seth. Not Dominic.”
    “Merit can tell the difference between them,” Lindsey said.
    But neither Ethan nor Seth was willing to listen; they were both too wrapped up in their own emotions. Ethan thought the man who’d tried to kill me was here again. Seth, who’d known me since I was a child, had only just learned his twin brother had tried to kill me.
    “This will not stand,” Ethan said.
    “He hurt you?” Seth asked.
    “Dominic decided I’d interrupted his work. He put me in the sun. But I’m fine now.”
    Seth looked horrified but turned back to Ethan. “I am sorry,” he said, and there was no mistaking the sincerity in his voice. “I am so sorry. I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have come here if I’d known.”
    The words finally seemed to shake Ethan out of his fury. Chest heaving, he ran his hands through his hair, then linked them atop his head and walked away from us. Just a few feet away, but enough to gain distance. Enough room for him to think.
    He didn’t walk toward me. He wouldn’t even make eye contact.
    My stomach tightened with worry.
    “Lindsey?” Ethan asked. “You allowed this man to enter our House?”
    She looked nervously at me, and I nodded. “This is Seth,” she said. “Merit believes she can tell the difference.”
    Ethan looked back at me, expression flat. “Can she?”
    “I can. But he can prove it better than me,” I said. After all, I’d seen the pictures in the Kantor Scroll . There was at least one difference between demon and angel, even if it wasn’t normally visible.
    Even if they weren’t normally visible.
    I looked at Seth. “Show them.”
    Seth looked at me for a moment, debating the request, then