Drink Deep - Chloe Neill [122]
“And control of the House?” Malik wondered.
“The GP will never allow me to retake the House until they’re assured Mallory doesn’t have control. And while I understand the House isn’t exactly fond of the GP right now, I couldn’t disagree with that position. It’s too risky. The House should remain in your very apt Mastery until you’re confident I’m acting of my own free will.”
My beeper buzzed with an alert: There was a meeting in the ballroom. Clearly the Master(s) of the House hadn’t scheduled it, because they were both here. Curiosity piqued—and since they’d moved right into discussing historical applications of the vampiric line of succession—I politely excused myself and walked downstairs to the second-floor ballroom.
One of the doors was propped open, so I followed the crowd of vampires inside and sidled up beside Lindsey and Kelley, whom I found in the back of the room.
Frank stood on the platform in the front of the ballroom, waxing poetic about the evils of Cadogan House and the lack of restraint of its vampires. “Cadogan House is on an unsustainable course,” he said. “Taking too much interest in human affairs. Attempting to solve problems that are outside its purview and authority. That course cannot continue, and I cannot in good faith recommend to the Presidium the continuation of the status quo.”
He paused as if for dramatic effect while the vampires looked nervously around, the pepper of tense magic rising in the room. They shuffled nervously, waiting for Frank’s verdict.
“There is too much doubt in this House. Doubt about its position within the umbrella of the Greenwich Presidium. Doubt about its loyalties. You have taken oaths to your House. Unfortunately, those oaths have been sublimated by the Masters of this House. Therefore, tonight, you’ll each of you take a new oath. You’ll recall that you exist through our generosity, and you will swear fealty to the Greenwich Presidium.”
The room went silent, the magic peaking with an electric spark that felt strong enough to illuminate the room.
“He cannot be serious,” Lindsey whispered, expression aghast as she stared at the podium.
“I think it only appropriate that the captain of our guards, she who is tasked with protecting the House from all enemies, dead or alive, take the first oath.”
The wave of turning heads divided, splitting to create a gap that put Kelley directly in Frank’s line of sight. He beckoned her forward with a hand.
“Kelley, captain of this House, come forward and swear your fealty.”
She looked at me with doubt in her eyes, clearly unsure what to do. I sympathized. If she refused to go forward, she’d undoubtedly catch hell. Sure, Malik and Ethan were in the building, but they were two floors away, and she was surrounded by vampires who’d be honor bound to obey whatever dictate Frank laid out.
On the other hand—swear an oath to the GP? Was this guy crazy?
There was no good option, no right choice, I thought, except to create as little new drama as possible. So I reached out and squeezed her hand, and gave her the same confident nod she’d given me on the lawn.
She took a moment to compose herself, then walked slowly forward through the gap of vampires. Some looked at her with obvious sympathy; some looked like they expected more from their captain than kowtowing to the dictates of a GP figurehead.
She reached the dais at the front of the room, which was Frank’s signal to wax poetic again.
“Kelley, captain of this House,” he said again. “Swear your oath to the Greenwich Presidium.”
“I have sworn oaths to Cadogan House,” she said, her voice ringing clearly through the ballroom. “I am already bound.”
I felt a surge of relief from the crowd, but the pulse of magic from the front of the room was much less friendly.
“Then rebuke your oaths to Cadogan House.”
“I will not rebuke my oaths,” Kelley said. “I did not make them lightly, and I will not rebuke them so you can make a better report