Drink Deep - Chloe Neill [114]
The Great Fire of 1871 had destroyed huge swaths of the city.
“The Order argued it was a coincidence,” Malik said, “but having seen what we’ve seen this week, there’s a strong argument they were equally in denial then.”
“But you’re talking about turning a living vampire into a familiar. Ethan is gone,” Luc quietly said. “There is nothing left of him but ash. How could she make that happen?”
“If he was human, she probably couldn’t,” Malik said. “But vampires are different than humans. Genetically. Physiologically. The ties that bind the soul are different—which is why the body simply turns to ash.”
“This is real,” Luc said after a moment of silence, crossing himself. It was an odd move for a vampire, but there was no doubting the sincerity in his expression.
Malik stood up and pushed back his chair. “I’m going to alert the Order to the possibility that a sorceress is attempting to create a familiar, and has done so using the ashes of a Master vampire. I will also alert them that she may be using the Maleficium to do so, and that her attempts may completely disrupt the order of the natural world. Does that sum it up?”
Guilt heavy on my shoulders, I nodded.
He looked at me. “I know that she is practically your family. But this is a crime the GP will not let go unpunished.”
I nodded my understanding, and hoped I wouldn’t have to be the instrument of her destruction.
I waited in the darkened cafeteria for a phone call. I hadn’t been able to reach Jonah or Catcher, and I’d left frantic messages for both of them.
And now . . . I was waiting.
Of course I had to stop her. I had to keep her from finishing whatever magic she was attempting to work. I had to keep the city safe, and I had no doubt that life as a mindless familiar under Mallory’s control wasn’t a life Ethan would want. He was too independent to be under the thumb of anyone, let alone a woman so focused on achieving a magical end she was willing to destroy Chicago to do it.
How had Catcher missed this? Why hadn’t he seen what she was doing, what she was becoming? Why hadn’t he stopped her before it got this far . . . before I had to be the one to clean it up?
I put my elbows on the table and my forehead in my hands, and I rued my luck. It was a catch-22, and I was the one who had to pull the trigger.
My phone rang, and I glanced over at the screen.
But it wasn’t Jonah or Catcher.
It was Mallory.
With shaking fingers, I opened the phone. “Hello?”
“I’m behind the House. Meet me outside. Alone.”
I shut the phone again, but not before texting Jonah to let him know what I was doing. I tucked the phone into my pocket, then walked to the fence, pushed through a bare spot in the shrubbery, and scaled it. This time, my landing was more graceful, even if a half-crazed, pissed-off sorceress was the only one there to see it.
She stood in front of Catcher’s car, a hipster sedan. The blue of her hair seemed to have faded even more since I’d seen her earlier; it was now nearly completely blond. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her hands were chapped and shaking. She looked like an addict in the middle of a wicked craving.
Maybe she was.
My temper rising, I had to remind myself that she was the same person, blue hair or blond, black magic or good.
Mallory pushed off the car and walked forward, carrying an oily breeze of magic with her. I stood my ground. I’d expected at this moment to feel fear or regret, but neither was at the top of the list. Most of all, I was pissed that she’d invaded my home, stolen precious things, and determined to use them for her own narcissistic purposes.
“What have you done?”
“Are you accusing me of something, vampire?”
“I trusted you. I asked you to stay with me when he died because I needed you there. You violated that trust twice over.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Bullshit. You stole things from us, Mallory. From me. Where’s the Maleficium, and where are his ashes?”
“Gone.”
My knees shook, and I had to lock them to keep myself upright. “So you could make him a familiar?”
She looked away, but I saw the guilt