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

know.”
    “At the fund-raiser,” I said. “You said you wanted to talk to me. That’s what you wanted to talk to me about?”
    Seth nodded. “There was never time to say the words, and when the confession finally came out, it came out in violence. It caused violence.” He looked away. “Whatever her faults, Celina did not deserve to die at my hand. Or yours.”
    Something clenched in my gut, the monumental regret that I’d taken a life, even one as wasted as Celina’s. She hadn’t been the first I’d killed, but she was undoubtedly the most memorable.
    “And there’s nothing we can do now to change what happened,” I added.
    “Not to change it,” Seth said, “but perhaps to atone for it.”
    “Those actions may not have been yours,” Ethan said. “If Dominic was somehow inside you, leading you astray . . .”
    “Maybe it was Dominic. Maybe it was the slow, creeping influence of the Maleficium . Maybe it was just me. But I have never killed. And I would never do so. He must be stopped. I’ll help however I can. I will make my atonement in that fashion. I will stand here, and I will help you face him.”
    There was strength in his eyes, but I knew it was going to take a lot of time before he was truly healed again. And even if his scar faded, he would be tortured for a very long time.
    “What did you have in mind?” Luc asked. “Do you know how to stop him?”
    “I do not. I’d hoped your magical friend might have some idea. Her people bound Dominic and the others into the Maleficium in the first place. Perhaps we could bind him there again?”
    I broke the bad news. “The Maleficium was destroyed when you split apart. But surely there’s something else we can do. If he was born, he can die, just like the rest of us.”
    “We saw the footage from his attack at the lockup,” Luc said. “He’s powerful. Strong. Bullets don’t affect him.”
    “Bullets don’t affect us, either,” I pointed out. “He may be strong, but we already know he’s susceptible to magic—that’s why the conjuring spell worked. What magic could we work now to bring him down again? Could we create another Maleficium ?”
    “The Maleficium was the work of hundreds of sorcerers over decades,” Seth said, raining on my parade. “That wouldn’t be possible. Not in the near term.”
    And not before he killed more people. Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands?
    “There must be a way,” I said. “There will be a way. There were battles against demons—Carthage, Sodom, Gomorrah. There must have been some fatalities on the demons’ side.”
    Ethan nodded. “We have to try something. We are immortal. Better we take a chance on putting him away than humans he could so easily injure. Or worse.” Ethan looked at Luc. “Find Paige and get her and Seth in a room together to discuss the magical underpinnings.”
    Luc nodded, then held out an arm to guide Seth back to the door. Seth walked back to us and picked up his cassock from the ground. He stopped when he reached me.
    “I am sorry.”
    I wasn’t sure I owed him honesty, but I decided I needed it. “I killed someone there, I watched my lover staked through the heart, and you made me believe my father paid him to make me a vampire. Forgiveness will take time.”
    He nodded. “Then I accept the challenge of my contrition.” He put a hand on my shoulder, then walked past me toward the door, lemons and sugar in his wake.
    Lindsey leaned toward me. “Is it wrong that I really want to eat a cookie right now?”
    “Not at all,” I said.
    “Let’s go, Lindsey,” Luc said, ushering her and Juliet outside again. Linds gave me a small smile, then left Ethan and me in the ballroom together.
    He’d come into the room fighting, and he’d been sullen for most of the conversation with Seth. I had a pretty good sense a fight was looming, so I bucked up my courage and made myself meet Ethan’s gaze.
    His eyes flashed silver. “You invited him into this House.”
    “Only after I was sure it was him.”
    “You believed he wasn’t Dominic. But as you know nothing else about Seth or who he is, that may not have mattered at all. Did you stop to consider what anyone in a position of authority in this House would have decided?”
    I didn’t appreciate the insinuation that I hadn’t thought through the considerable consequences of bringing Seth into the House. My own temper rising, I crossed my arms and glared back at him.
    “There was no one else in authority,” I said.