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I smiled at her. "Thanks."
Luc rolled his eyes. "Before we were interrupted" - he gave me a heavy glance that made clear whom he was holding responsible for the disturbance - "I was explaining to your crew that I'm going to be testing you on the C-41 protocol, and that if you don't yet understand the four subsets of the C-41 protocol, you'll find your ass in Ethan's office explaining to him why you spent the evening partying with the baby vamps when you should have been preparing to ensure the security of your House."
Luc raised his gaze to mine. "I assume you looked through the Web site last night and can take us through the C-41 subsets?"
I swallowed down a keen sense of panic. It was like living the nightmare - the one where you're unprepared for an exam and you show up to the test completely naked? Here I was, nicely dressed, but still about to be humiliated in front of the squad of Cadogan guards. I might as well have skipped the wardrobe upgrade.
I opened my mouth to spit out some kind of response - an apology, a couple of lame sentences about the importance of House security in the days of dueling alliances (and Ethan said I never listened!) - when Luc was hit, square in the face, with a flying piece of jerky.
Lindsey snorted and nearly fell out of her chair laughing, catching herself - and the giant plastic tub of jerky that was sitting in her lap - just before she stumbled.
With the calm aplomb of a man accustomed to being hit in the face with dried beef, Luc peeled the square of jerky from his shirt, lifted it, and leveled a skewering glance at Lindsey.
"What?" she said. "You can't think I'm going to let you sit there and torture her." She glanced back at me. "He's bullshitting you. There's no such thing as a C-41 protocol." She reached into the tub and pulled out a ruler-shaped piece of meat, then looked back at Luc, as she nibbled on the end. "You're such a shit."
"And you're fired."
I'm not fired, she mouthed to me, shaking her head. She held out the tub. "Jerky?"
I'd never been a jerky fan, but the urge to nosh was undeniable. I reached in and grabbed two sticks of it, and immediately began gnawing. Weird thing about being a vampire - you never knew you were hungry until you were around food. Then the urges kicked in.
Luc grumbled at the set down, but kicked his legs off the table, motioned for the bucket, and when she offered it, grabbed some jerky of his own. He tugged at one end toothily, then said, "Folks, since our resident troublemaker has finally decided to join us, why don't you all introduce yourselves?" He put a hand on his chest. "I'm Luc. I exist to give you orders. If you question those order, you'll find your ass on the floor." He smiled wolfishly. "Any questions, doll?"
I shook my head. "I think I'm good."
"Right. Peter, you're next."
Peter was about six foot, with a thinner build, and brown hair that fell just past his ears. He wore a gray sweater, jeans, and boots. He'd probably been made in his early thirties, and had a look of casual wealth that reminded me of the new Novitiates. But where they wore a gloss of naive optimism, Peter had the vaguely tired look of a man who'd seen too much in his life.
"Peter. I've been here thirty-seven, thirty-eight years."
"Peter's concise," Luc commented, nodding at the next guard. "Juliet."
Juliet was the feylike redhead. "Juliet. Eighty-six years, fifty-four in Cadogan. I was Commended into Taylor, transferred over. Nice to meet you, Merit."
"Kel, you're next."
"I'm Kelley," said the woman to my right. Her black hair was long and straight, her mouth a perfect cupid's bow, her skin perfectly pale, her eyes slightly uptilted. "Two hundred and fourteen years. I was made by Peter Cadogan before the House was formed. When he was killed, I stayed with Ethan. You'll stand Sentinel?"
I nodded, the only option available, as her tone brooked no argument. The energy that surrounded her was contained, intense, and almost thickly aggressive. For all that, she was lithe and slim, and was probably deceptively unfrightening to the average human.
"And last, and arguably least, we have Lindsey." He looked over at her, gave her a haughty look.
Lindsey just waved an airy hand. "You know who I am. I'm one hundred and fifteen, if it matters, originally from Iowa, but I did my time in New York - Yankees rule. I had too much to drink last night, and I have a splitting headache, but I divested a newbie of a pint."
I grinned, but caught a low-grade growl from Luc's end of the table. Some unrequited feelings there, maybe?
"Do us a favor and spare us the bloody details, Linds."
Lindsey smirked at him, smiled at me. "And I'm the resident psychic."
He snapped his fingers. "Of course. I knew there was a reason he kept you around. Everyone has their specialties - Peter's got the contacts, Juliet's slippery. She gathers data." I assumed he meant surreptitiously. "Kelley's our resident mechanical and software genius."
When he turned to look at me, the rest of the guards followed suit. I sat still while they gave me calculating, appraising glances, probably registering strengths and weaknesses, estimating powers and potentials.
"I'm strong and fast," I offered. "I don't know how I match up against everyone else, but as you probably heard, I at least gave Ethan a run for his money, so you know what I could do a couple of days out. Since then, I've been training with Catcher Bell, learning moves and sword work, and that's coming along. I seem to have some resistance to glamour, but I don't have any other psychic powers. At least, not yet."
Her wide whiskey eyes on me, Kelley offered, "I suppose that makes you a soldier."
"And I'm the fearless leader," Luc said, "haranguing this group of ragtag vampires into something greater than the sum of its parts. I like to think of it as - "
"Boss, she's in. She doesn't need the recruiting speech." Peter lifted brows expectantly at Luc.
"Right." Luc nodded. "Right. Well, in addition to the six of us, we liaise with the daylight guards, the folks who stay at the gate. They're employed by RDI - that's our external security company."
"And how do we know we can trust them?" I asked.
"Cynical," Luc said with approval. "I like it. Anyway, RDI is run by fairies. And nobody f**ks with fairies. The thing is, while we protect the House - "
"Because a safe House is a safe Master," the four guards parroted together, their words ash-dry, and I guessed Luc broke out the proverb frequently.
"Jesus, you bastards do listen to me. I'm touched. Really." He rolled his eyes. "As I was saying, our primary loyalty is to Ethan, to the vamps. Your loyalty is first and foremost to Cadogan. I don't think that'll make too much difference in the short run, but should something arise that tests the bond between Master and House, you'll need to be aware of that." He shook his head, mouth pursed. "That'll put you in a helluva goddamn spot, having to counter Ethan about House security. But he thought you were the girl for the job, so . . . You know anything about guns?" he asked, expression suddenly tight.
