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I roled my eyes. "What did you bring?" I asked, but the answer became clear quickly enough, and I smiled for the first time in a while.
"You made a trip to Maxwel Street," I said.
"It's cold out. I thought 'hearty' would do you good."
There were a number of foods in Chicago that were totaly recognizable to tourists, like Chicago-style hot dogs and deep-dish pizza. But those of us who lived here knew some of the other secret delights: rainbow cones; Garrett's popcorn; and Maxwel Street Polishes. The latter were Polish dogs with griled onions and mustard. They were hot, spicy, and crazy delicious.
And there weren't just Polishes. She'd also provided cheese fries, ramekins of custard, and glasses of blood.
Cholesterol was no match for vampire immortality.
"This looks wonderful, Margot," Luc said as Juliet and Lindsey grabbed plates and Polishes. Pity Keley was out on patrol.
"You're quite welcome." Margot finished up, then wheeled out the squeaky cart and closed the door behind her.
"You've outdone yourself, Merit."
"I didn't know she'd actualy make a run for Polishes. She went above and beyond for that." I grabbed a Polish and took a bite, closing my eyes in sheer pleasure. I loved Chicago.
We ate quietly, four vampires with quick metabolisms and worry in our hearts, at least until Luc's pager buzzed. He unclipped it and checked the screen. "You might as wel head upstairs. Paige is here."
I finished my dog and wiped my face with a napkin. "I'l get her settled in the library." The next words were out of my mouth before I thought better of it. "Could you tel Ethan about the conjuration spel?"
Luc and Lindsey exchanged a glance. "Why don't you tel him?" Lindsey asked.
Because he's being an ass, I silently thought, but played my cards diplomaticaly.
"I want to get Paige into the library, so I won't have time to drop by his office, and my phone doesn't work very wel in the library. Because of the stairs. And such."
It was a crappy excuse, and I could tel neither one of them bought it, but they let it go.
"We'l tel him," Luc said. "You get to work."
I smiled with false cheer, then hightailed it to the door. Lindsey was going to have a field day with this one.
I found Paige in the first-floor foyer. She had shopping bags in hand, and she was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved White Sox T-shirt. She'd found some clothes of her own; pity she'd picked the wrong team. We did live on the South Side of the city, which made the White Sox a logical choice, but that didn't diminish my love for the Cubs.
"Welcome back," I said.
"Thanks. It's been a long night."
I guided her toward the stairs, and we headed to the second floor. "Where did you go?"
"Catcher gave me a lift to meet with Baumgartner. I talked to him. I talked to Simon."
"What did Baumgartner have to say?"
"Not a lot." She sounded saddened by the answer.
We rounded the second-floor landing. Paige paused and tapped her fingers against the banister. "I had this idea - that I was part of something good. Something important."
"And you don't think so now?"
She looked away. "I don't know. I asked him about Malory, about Simon, about Catcher. About what they al missed."
"What did he say?"
"He shrugged. Just kind of" - she imitated a beefy, shoulder shrug - "shrugged, and said we do the best we can."
"That's pretty lame. I mean, the Order failed this city - and Malory - in a pretty spectacular way."
"Yeah," Paige said. "And I asked him about Tate. He said it was interesting, and that was that. He went back to polishing his bowling bal."
"He was not polishing his bowling bal."
"Hand to God. The Order is a union, and I guess not in the workers-rights-and-fair-labor-standards way. More like the let's-sit-around-and-blame-Jimmy-Hoffa way. I've only talked to Baumgartner on the phone, and I guess I never got how truly lame they are. And there's so much talk about the majesty of our magic, how powerful we are, how special. And how do we use that power? We talk a lot and completely ignore what's going on around us."
"Too much talky, too little walky?"
"Exactly!"
"That is a bummer."
"How's Malory doing?" I felt weird asking the question, like I was checking in with my best friend's new best friend.
"You'd know better than me. I didn't know her before, so it's hard to compare what she's like now. The shifters stil have her doing manual labor, and I don't think they're going to change that plan anytime soon."
"A little more of that walking we were referring to," I thought aloud. "They're very particular about the things they get involved in, but when they're in, they're in al the way."
Paige nodded. "That was my impression."
"Catcher told you about the spel she tried to work?"
"Conjuration?" Paige nodded. "Yeah. That's another advanced spel, impressive for her to work."
"I stil don't buy that a conjuration spel made one Tate split into two Tates. That doesn't make any sense to me. That should be the result of a duplication spel or something."
She nodded. "Duplication's not the way the conjuration spel is supposed to work; it's not the predicted outcome. Hey, about Catcher, and what I said earlier. I'm not trying to bash him. He's a legend in Order circles. Famous - or infamous, as the case may be. I know he's got the goods, or the Order wouldn't care so much. But when I caled him out yesterday, I realy felt like I had to lay down the law, you know?"
"You definitely put him in his place."
She grimaced. "I wasn't trying to humiliate him, but somebody has to step up."
I couldn't argue with that. "What's the story about the prophecy?"
"He made a prediction - you know we can do that, right?"
I nodded.
"The prediction was about realy bad things going down in Chicago. He warned the Order, but the Order was afraid that because he'd made the prediction, he'd be involved in those realy bad things. They banned him from coming to Chicago."
"He came anyway."
"He came anyway," Paige agreed, "and they kicked him out of the Order because of it. I asked him about it."
"What did he say?"
"He said the world would continue to turn and the prophecy would fulfil itself, and he wanted to be here when it did. He said he worked to stop al the natural disasters when they were going on and tried to help you figure out what was going on. The irony was that the trouble was boiling in front of his eyes, but he was so focused on the city, he completely ignored it."
