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"Keep an eye on him."
I promised I would and snapped shut the phone, then waited until Ethan and Catcher had shaken hands. Ethan walked to the Mercedes, cast a glance down the darkened street, then unlocked the door and slipped inside. Catcher stayed on the sidewalk, watched as Ethan's car pulled away. When he was a block down the road, I turned the ignition and drove forward to where Catcher stood. Motioning me to follow Ethan, Catcher raised his cell phone, then flipped it open. My phone rang almost immediately.
"What's he up to?"
"He's going to Lincoln Park," Catcher said, frustration in his voice.
"Lincoln Park? Why?"
"He got a note, same paper, same handwriting, as the ones left for you and Celina. It asked to meet him there, promised information about the murders. He had to agree to go alone."
"They won't know I'm there," I promised.
"Stay a few cars behind him. It'll help that it's night, but your car sticks out like a sore thumb."
"He doesn't know what I drive."
"I doubt that's true, but do it all the same." He explained where Ethan expected to meet his source - near the small pagoda on the west side of North Pond - which at least gave me a chance to be surreptitious. I could take another route, get there without having to keep too close a tail on the Master vampire in front of me.
"You have your sword?"
"Yes, oh captain, my captain, I have my sword. I have learned to follow orders."
"Do your job, then," he said, and the line went dead.
If Ethan knew I was tailing him, he didn't act like it. I stayed three cars behind, grateful there was enough traffic in the early evening to keep a shield between his car and mine.
Ethan drove methodically, carefully, slowly. That shouldn't surprise me - it was in keeping with the way he lived his life, orchestrated his other moves. But in the Mercedes, it disappointed me. Cars like that should be driven.
I found the Mercedes parked on Stockton, the only car in the vicinity. I drove past it, parked, then got out of the car, belted the katana, and in a moment of uncharacteristic forethought, grabbed an aspen stake from the bag Jeff had given me, still stuffed behind the front seat. I stuck the needle-sharp stake in my belt, quietly closed the door, and began to hike back. I crept through the grass, between the trees, until I was close enough to see him, tall and lean, standing just outside the pagoda. His hands were in his pockets, his expression alert, his body relaxed.
I stopped, stared at him. Why, in God's name, would he have come here alone? Why would he have agreed to meet a source in the middle of an empty park, after dark, without a guard?
I stayed in the shadows. I could leap out if necessary, come to his rescue (again), but if his goal was to glean information from whoever had asked him to meet, I wasn't about to ruin that.
The scritch of footsteps on the path broke the silence. A tall form appeared. A woman. Red hair.
Amber.
Wait. Amber?
I saw the jolt of recognition in Ethan's face, the shock, the sudden wash of humiliation. I sympathized, felt the flash of it in the pit of my stomach.
He approached her, head snapping as he looked around him, and reached out an arm, taking hers just above the elbow. "What are you doing here?"
She looked down at his hand on her arm, blinked up at him, then pulled his fingers away. "What do you think I'm doing here?"
"Frankly, I've no idea, Amber. But I've got business - "
"Ethan, really." Her voice was flat.
He stopped, stared at her, understanding dawning, and offered the conclusion I'd reached seconds before. I knew I didn't like the little tramp. Voice defeated, he said, "You took the medals. You were in my apartments, and you took the medals."
She shrugged standoffishly.
He took her arm again, this time his grip fierce enough to make her grimace. "You took House property from my apartments. You took from me. Did you" - he spit out a curse - "did you kill those girls?"
Amber grunted, yanked her arm away, and took a couple of steps, put space between them. She rubbed her arm, where the red marks of his fingers - even in the dark - were obvious.
"You're - " Ethan shook his head, fisted his hands on his hips, and whipped aside his jacket in the process. "How could you do this? You had everything. I gave you everything."
Amber shrugged. "We're tacky, Ethan. Cliched. Among the sups, not authentic enough. Among the vampires, a little too authentic. Cadogan House is old news." Amber looked up, and her eyes gleamed with something - hope, maybe? "We need change. Direction. She can give us that."
Ethan froze, scanned her face. "She?"
Amber shrugged and, when a car door slammed shut, popped up her head. "That's my cue to go. You should listen, love." She leaned in, brushed a kiss against his cheek, and whispered something I couldn't hear. And then she was off, and he let her go, let her walk away. Not the decision I would have made, but traipsing after her, giving her the beat down she deserved, would have given away my position. And if the car door was any indication, the fun was only just beginning.
It took only seconds for her to reach him, to walk - lithe and catlike - toward Ethan. Her black hair was up in a snug knot at the crown of her head, held by long silver pins. She was dressed like a dominatrix masquerading as a secretary - impossibly tight pencil skirt, black stockings with a back stitch that ran the length of her legs, patent black stiletto heels with ankle straps, and a tucked-in snug white blouse. I half expected a riding crop, but didn't see one. Left it in the car, maybe.
Celina walked toward Ethan, and stopped four feet in front of him, one hand on a cocked hip. And then she spoke, her voice smoky and fluid like old Scotch.
"Darling, you're out here all alone. It's dangerous at night."
Ethan didn't move. They faced each other silently for a moment, magic swirling and flaring between them, spilling its tendrils through the trees. I ignored it, had to resist the urge to brush the wispy breeze of it away with a hand.
But I used the cover of their distraction, slipped the cell phone from my pocket, and texted a phrase to Catcher and Luc: CELINA EVIL. God willing, they'd send out the troops.
"You look surprised to see me," she said, then chuckled. "And certainly surprised to see Amber. All women, human or vampire, are looking for something more, Ethan. Something better. It was naive of you to have forgotten that."
Wow. Nothing like a little sexism to cap off the night.
Celina sighed her disappointment, then began to circle his body. Ethan's head turned slowly, his gaze following her as she moved. She stopped next to him, her back to me.
