Drink Deep - Chloe Neill [3]
“You have to learn to fall safely,” he said.
“I know,” I said. “Catcher trained me to spar. He was big on falling down correctly.” Catcher was my former roommate and best friend Mallory’s live-in beau. He was also an employee of my grandfather.
“Then you know being immortal doesn’t mean being careless,” Jonah added, extending a hand toward me, and my heart jumped, this time as much from the gesture as the height.
I’d put myself—and my heart—on a shelf for the last two months, my work as Sentinel of Chicago’s Cadogan House mostly limited to patrolling the House’s grounds. I could admit it—I was gun-shy. My newfound vampire bravery had mostly evaporated after the Master of my House, Ethan Sullivan, the vampire who’d made me, named me Sentinel, and been my partner, had been staked in the heart by my mortal enemy . . . right before I’d returned the favor to her.
As a former grad student in English literature, I could appreciate the perverse poetry of it.
Jonah, captain of the guards in Grey House, was my link to the Red Guard, a secret organization dedicated to providing oversight to the American vampire Houses and the Greenwich Presidium, the European council that ruled them from across the pond.
I’d been offered membership in the RG, and Jonah was the partner I’d been promised if I’d accepted. I hadn’t, but he’d been nice enough to help me deal with problems GP politics made too sticky for Ethan.
Jonah had been more than happy to act as Ethan’s replacement—professionally and otherwise. The messages we’d exchanged over the last few weeks—and the hope in his eyes tonight—said he was interested in something more than just supernatural problem-solving.
There was no denying Jonah was handsome. Or charming. Or brilliant in a weirdly quirky way. Honestly, he could have starred in his own romantic comedy. But I wasn’t ready to even think about dating again. I didn’t think I would be any time soon. My heart was otherwise engaged, and since Ethan’s death, mostly broken.
Jonah must have seen the hesitation in my eyes. He smiled kindly, then pulled back his hand and pointed toward the edge.
“Remember what I told you about jumping? This is the same as taking a step.”
He’d definitely said that. Two or three times now. I just wasn’t buying. “It’s a really, really long step.”
“It is,” Jonah agreed. “But it’s only the first step that sucks. Being in the air is one of the greatest things you’ll ever experience.”
“Better than being safely on the ground?”
“Much. More like flying—except we don’t do ‘up’ nearly as well as we do ‘down.’ This is your chance to be a superhero.”
“They do call me the ‘Ponytailed Avenger,’” I grumbled, flipping my long dark ponytail. The Chicago Sun-Times had deemed me a “Ponytailed Avenger” when I’d helped a shifter in a bar attack. Since I usually wore my hair in a ponytail to keep it away from the errant katana strike (my bangs not included), the name kind of stuck.
“Has anyone ever told you you’re particularly sarcastic when you’re scared?”
“You’re not the first,” I admitted. “I’m sorry. I’m just—this is freaking me out. There is nothing in my body or mind that thinks jumping off a building is a good idea.”
“You’ll be fine. The fact that it scares you is reason number one to do it.”
Or reason number one to turn tail and run back to Hyde Park.
“Trust me,” he said. “Besides, this is a skill you need to master,” Jonah said. “Malik and Kelley need you.”
Kelley was a former House guard now in charge of the House’s entire guard corps. Unfortunately, since we were now down to three full-time guards (including Kelley) and a Sentinel, that wasn’t exactly a coup for her.
Malik was Ethan’s former second in command, Master of the House since Ethan’s demise. He’d taken the Rights of Investiture, and the House had been given to his keeping.
Ethan’s death had sparked a nasty case of vampire musical chairs.
As a Master, Malik Washington had gotten back his last name; Masters of the country’s twelve vampire Houses were the only vamps allowed to use them. Unfortunately, Malik had also gotten the House’s political