Hard Bitten - Chloe Neill [109]
I didn’t care to have my own hypocrisy pointed out to me. I looked away.
When I glanced back at the path again, he was gone. My mood wasn’t any better when I returned to the second floor. My head was beginning to throb again, this time for different reasons. I put the box of Mallocakes back in the kitchen, then walked back to my room. My hand was on the door when I heard a voice behind me.
“He’s not as cold as he seems, you know.”
I glanced back. Charlie, Darius’s assistant, stood in the hallway, arms crossed over his chest.
“Excuse me?” I asked.
He gestured toward the door. “Can we go inside?”
“Um, sure,” I said, then opened the door. Charlie walked inside. I followed, then shut the door behind us.
He sat on the edge of my bed and linked his hands in his lap. “Darius is dedicated to the Houses, and he has no greater interest in drama here in the States than he does in the UK. The problem is,” Charlie said, looking down at the floor, “he is a strong believer in hierarchy. The Masters should control the Houses. Problems beyond the Houses are the concerns of the GP, and only the GP.”
I liked Charlie’s honesty, but I had no doubts about where his loyalties lay. “Be that as it may, the GP hasn’t actually taken any steps to control Celina or keep peace in Chicago. We are doing what we can to keep the city together in spite of what she’s doing.”
Charlie shook his head. “Has it occurred to you that you’re playing into her hands? That by acknowledging Celina and bringing her activities to light—instead of ignoring her antics—you end up giving her the very thing she wants?”
“Which is?”
“Attention. By the Houses, the GP, humans, the press. Celina wants to be seen, to be heard. She wasn’t getting sufficient attention as a Master, so she sabotaged that relationship in order to exchange it for something different—the attention of humans. And when she learned that she wasn’t the beloved of humankind, she acted out again. Each time you seek her out, each time you fight back, you give her a reason to come back again.”
“You’re saying we enable Celina?”
He answered with nothing more than a challenging look. The question in his eyes was obvious—Don’t you?
Shaking my head, my arms crossed, I leaned back against the closed door. “That theory assumes that if we ignored Celina, she wouldn’t act out. That’s simply not true. Each time things settle down in Chicago—like when we get a confession from her about the park murders and send her away—she pops up again. Believe me, Charlie, she forces us to act.”
This time, he shook his head. “I’m sorry, Merit, but we have to disagree with you. I have to disagree with you.” He frowned, then looked up at me. “I don’t like saying this, making this accusation. Darius won’t say it—it’s not his position to do so—but I think it bears consideration.”
“What’s that?”
“None of this started until after you joined Cadogan House.”
My heart beat like a timpani drum in my chest. “Excuse me?”
He held up a hand. “Hear me out. For better or worse, Celina seems to have an obsession with you. You move into the House, you elicit a confession from her, and as a result she apparently decides you, and perhaps Ethan, are her new targets.”
I forced myself to bite my tongue. Ethan clearly hadn’t told him that I’d been Celina’s intended victim, that he’d brought me into the House because a Rogue she’d hired hadn’t done his job completely. I wasn’t sure why he’d made that call, but I wasn’t going to be the one to break the news to the GP. I had no objection to the GP knowing as little about me as possible.
“We’re aware of the Breckenridge situation,” Charlie continued, “of the fact that she attacked you outside the House. Would you deny that you appear to be one of her keenest targets?”
“No,” I said. It would be impossible to deny that. On the other hand, “I’m not the only target. Cadogan