Hard Bitten - Chloe Neill [79]
“He said, ‘Fix this, goddamn it, or else.’ We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
ALL THAT GLITTERS
As Ethan had pointed out, one obvious downside of being nocturnal was the fact that the sun exerted more power on me than I cared to admit. On the other hand, I didn’t need caffeine to wake up. I might have spent a few minutes being groggy, but the haze blew off quickly enough, leaving a wideawake (and usually starving) vampire in its wake.
I started the evening with a bowl of crunchy cinnamon cereal and as much blood as I could stomach. I’d done a lot of fighting last night, and my stress level had been pretty high. Fighting and stress generally tripped my hunger trigger faster than anything else.
Well, maybe other than Ethan. I could confirm the bagged stuff didn’t compare in taste to the real thing, but that didn’t make it any less satisfying. Nutrition was all well and good, but the emotional comfort also paid off.
I showered and dressed in my Cadogan black. I wasn’t sure what the night held in store, but I was confident that after last night’s escapades Darius would be involved at some point. It was probably best to dress a bit nicer than I had been the last time he’d seen me.
I brushed my hair until it shone and added my Cadogan medal and Mary Jane shoes. I’d been so busy with vampire drama that I’d forgotten about Mallory’s sorcery drama, so before I went downstairs I flipped open my phone. I found a message from my father, probably another entreaty to allow him to help Cadogan House. Joshua Merit was nothing if not persistent.
I sent Mallory a message checking in, and got back a quick response: “BETTER TONIGHT. PRACTICUM ON HEALING MAGIC. FUN!”
I wasn’t sure if her “Fun!” was sarcastic, but “healing magic” sounded a lot better than dark magic.
My phone buzzed again just as I was shutting my door. This time, it was a text from Lindsey, and not a promising one.
“WE NEED TO TALK,” she’d texted.
I hated hearing that. My fingers were fast on the keys. “HOUSE TRAUMA?”
“BOY TRAUMA,” she replied, and my shoulders unknotted a bit. “DRAMA OF MY OWN MAKING.”
I wasn’t entirely sure how she’d managed to have boy trauma or drama. She’d been with me last night, and it wasn’t yet an hour after sunset. I couldn’t resist asking.
“HOW COULD YOU HAVE BOY DRAMA THIS EARLY IN THE EVENING?”
“JUST FIND ME LATER,” she responded. “THE DEVIL’S IN THE DETAILS.”
Wasn’t that always true?
A potentially distressing conversation with Lindsey on my agenda for later, I made my way downstairs to Ethan’s office. I found him alone, the door open, adjusting the knickknacks he’d salvaged from the battle on his new bookshelves.
“A little interior decorating to start the night?”
“Trying to make my office feel like my office again.”
“Procrastination can be very satisfying.”
He laughed ruefully. “As you pointed out, it may be a very human emotion, but there’s undoubtedly something satisfying about pretending the world is fine and your problems will keep until you’re ready to deal with them.”
“It’s a lovely coping mechanism,” I agreed. “I’m glad you’ve made it to our side. Where’s Darius tonight?”
“Scott won the lottery this evening; Darius is at Grey House.” He turned and glanced at me. “Tell me you learned something last night. Tell me this mess will have some good end.”
“How much should I tell you? I mean, I don’t want to put you into an awkward position with Darius.”
Ethan made a sarcastic sound. “You clearly haven’t seen last night’s local news.”
I hadn’t, and by the tone of his voice, I probably wouldn’t want to. “That bad?”
“It’s so bad, Darius hasn’t called me yet.”
I grimaced. The only thing worse than being yelled at by a boss was having screwed up so royally, he’d moved right into silent treatment.
I decided not to sugarcoat it. There were details I didn’t need to give—information about the vamps who’d actually bought and used the drugs, for one—but I wasn’t going to give him a false sense of the problem.
“It all comes down to V,” I began. “It