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

bread and crust.” She made a gagging sound. “But it’s something to do that’s not magical. And there’s a kind of security, I guess, with all of them around me. Like I can’t backslide while they’re watching. And that they really believe I could do something worthwhile someday.”
    “How long is someday?”
    She shrugged. “How long does it take to make up for what I’ve done?” She stood up. “I need to get downstairs.”
    I didn’t want to go back to the House. I didn’t want to face Dominic on the way or Darius or Ethan when I arrived. I got her point about security. Here, I was behind a wall of dozens of shifters and lots of firearms. It might not have been safe from Dominic, not really, but it felt safer. It felt removed from the world, and I could use that right now.
    “I could help you?”
    She looked at me, tentative hope in her face, and nodded.
    So I stayed with her. We walked downstairs again and I hung my leather jacket on the back of the door. She dumped food while I rinsed, and in the rising heat and steam, under the watchful eye of a very big shifter with a very large gun, we did our work in silence.
    It wasn’t an act of forgiveness, but it was a step forward. And right now, I needed one of those.

C HAPTER E IGHTEEN

    DEEP DISHING
    I left Ukrainian Village with the radio on and the windows up. I baked in the sauna of a full-blast heater but only marginally enjoyed the warmth on the way back to the House.
    I nearly popped a fist on the dashboard when the radio was interrupted with a staticky beep, but it wasn’t a problem with my radio.
    It was a warning.
    “Folks, we’re sorry for the interruption,” said the announcer, “but we’re going live to the home of Dan O’Brian, who you may remember was one of the South Side Four—the four Chicago Police Department officers recently released in connection with the alleged attack on vampires and humans.”
    Sirens wailed in the background. Knowing this message wasn’t going to be good, I pulled the car over onto the side of the road, turned down the heat, and turned up the radio.
    “Officer O’Brian, along with Officer Owen Moore and Officer Thomas Hill, were found dead outside O’Brian’s home just moments ago, and parents, this will be graphic if you have any young ones listening, it appears all three died of severe wounds to their throats. Officer Coy Daniels had been killed in the attack at the officers’ release. We have learned the remaining officers refused protection details offered by the city—”
    I switched off the radio, closed my eyes, and put my head back on the headrest.
    All that work to save the rest of them, and it had been for naught. Dominic had found them and killed them anyway. What was the moral of that story supposed to be? That evil would always win? That fighting the battle was pointless?
    This night needed a happy ending, and soon.
    There were few places in Chicago where I was all but guaranteed an unhappy ending. One of them was the home of the city’s sky-masters, the tower in Potter Park where Claudia, the queen of the fairies, lived.
    As I’d told Ethan and Paige, my last visit to the fairies hadn’t exactly been promising. But Claudia said we left with a clean slate, so I was hoping against hope that she’d remember that promise today and not kill me on sight.
    I was desperate for information, and if she and Dominic had a connection, I was going to ferret it out.
    The park was empty and quiet, and I parked along the street and walked through dying grass to the tower. It was made of stone and barely managing to stand, but Claudia had made it her home. I carefully took the spiral stone staircase to the door at the top, stopping at the ornate tower door.
    Steeling myself, I knocked twice.
    It opened, and a mercenary fairy stared out. “Yes?”
    The last time I’d done this, Jonah had spoken in Gaelic to request admission to see Claudia. I didn’t have any such skills, so English would have to do.
    “I would like to speak with Claudia, if she’d allow it.”
    The door thumped closed, pushing a puff of dust and wood rot into my face. I brushed off my cheeks just as it opened again.
    “Briefly,” the fairy said with a snarl, stepping back to allow me in.
    The room in which Claudia lived was round and magically enhanced, filling a space significantly larger than the tower’s appearance outside would have let on. It was simply furnished and smelled of a garden’s worth of