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I gave him an update on what I'd learned from Malory and the issues I'd asked Catcher and Jeff to investigate. I also told him that I'd visited Claudia again. He clearly wasn't thriled, but he managed to hold in his irritation that I'd put myself in danger.
"Going alone isn't the best course of action," he gently chastised. I could work with that.
"I know. I should have taken a partner, but time was of the essence. I thought I had a string to pul, so I took a chance. I got lucky, and next time I'l use a partner."
He looked amazed that I'd answered so logicaly.
"I realy do like being alive and in one piece."
"Al evidence to the contrary," he muttered, and I punched him - deservedly - in the arm.
Since we seemed to be on relatively solid footing again, I delved into the other crisis.
"How were your meetings with Darius?"
"Ful of numbers," he said. "Ours is the second-strongest House in the country. Navarre is first, possibly because Celina wasn't entirely conscionable in her selection of investments. Our funds are wel diversified, our debt-to-income ratio is low, and our credit rating is high."
He splashed water on his face, then tamped it dry with a towel. "We are in good financial shape."
I leaned against the doorjamb. "Why do I have a sense Darius couldn't care less about our financial shape?"
Ethan pushed his hair behind his ears and gestured toward the bedroom. He folowed me out, then turned off the light behind us.
"Because the majority of the American Houses are superbly good at managing their finances. If he wishes to rearrange the American system, that's not the best point of contention."
I sat down on the bed and puled a pilow to my chest.
Ethan flipped off the bedroom lights, leaving us in momentary darkness until our eyes adjusted. I slung the pilow behind me and pressed into his body.
"Darius talked to me," I said.
"Did he now? What did he have to say?"
"He's confident any and al crises in Chicago are our fault."
"So par for the course, then."
"In that respect." I hesitated to add more, but Ethan pressed on.
"Tel me the rest, Sentinel."
"He isn't sure who you are. I think his meeting with me was just to get dirt on you. He's not thriled with our relationship, halted or otherwise, but he wanted to know more about you.
About your weaknesses. About whether you'd changed after Malory brought you back."
"What did you tel him?"
"That you are who you are...and you're too stubborn to be anyone different. I think he's afraid of you. Not for who you are, but for what you might do if the House is excommunicated."
"We wil find out soon enough."
"That sounds ominous."
Ethan nodded. "He's caled a House meeting: tomorrow at midnight. If you'd stayed in your room, you'd find a note to that effect on your door tomorrow evening."
"You wouldn't let me stay in my room."
"No, Sentinel, I would not. For now, let us sleep. We wil undoubtedly face new dangers tomorrow."
That seemed undeniable, but for now, I had his body to protect me.
Some hours later, we woke to a pounding on the door.
"That better be breakfast," I said.
"Margot is rarely so loud, and I am hardly dressed. Perhaps you better answer the door."
I flipped off the blankets and sheets and, as the knocking sounded louder, jogged to the door and puled it open.
Juliet stood at the door, a furious expression on her face, and I could hear yeling downstairs. "It's a raid - the cops think Dominic is here."
Dominic wasn't, but I'd have bet his twin brother stil was, and I didn't think Mayor Kowalcyzk or her storm troopers would much care about the difference.
Think fast, I told myself.
"Seth has wings," I said, "and I know he can fly. Get him to the widow's walk. We'l be down in a minute."
When I shut the door, Ethan was already up and behind me.
"What is it?"
"If you had any plans to vote for Mayor Kowalcyzk, you
might want to rethink those."
Chapter Twenty
THE FAIRY TALE
We hurried into clothes and ran down the stairs. Cops in black shirts and cargo pants with yelow SPECIAL UNIT designations on their backs were tearing through the first floor of the House. The yard was littered with paper and other objects, as the cops had already overturned furniture and flipped open drawers, as if the secrets of the city's sups were hidden away in a notebook in a foyer drawer.
The leader appeared to be a woman in a black pantsuit. She was tal and slender, with dark skin and darker hair puled into a bun so tight it stretched the corners of her eyes. She might have been attractive if her face hadn't been pinched into an "Aha, I caught you!" expression.
"Lieutenant Tamara Hays," she said, flipping out a walet-style badge for Ethan's inspection and then shoving it back into her pocket.
"We have reason to believe you are harboring a fugitive," she said. "Mayor Seth Tate. He's wanted in connection with a series of murders."
The city might have known supernaturals were out of the closet, but they realy had no clue what was going on behind the scenes.
"Mayor Tate is not here," Ethan said, and I hoped he was right and Juliet had gotten Seth out in time. I doubted the cops would check the skies to see if a white-winged Seth Tate was flying by overhead. On the other hand, they had seen Dominic.
Hays gestured toward one of her cops, who passed a couple of folded sheets of paper to Ethan. He looked them over, then handed them to Malik. "Cal Fitzhugh and Meyers," he said. I assumed they were our attorneys. Hays blanched at the name, so the firm must have meant something to her.
"High-profile lawyers won't help you here, Mr. Sulivan. We have the authority to search the premises."
Ethan held out a hand. "Then do so."
There were probably a dozen cops in al. While suited Cadogan vampires looked on, they stormed up the stairs, eager to find evidence that would implicate us al, whatever that might have been.
"Keep the vampires calm," Ethan told Luc. "Have the guards get as many as possible onto the first floor in the event we need to make an exit. Tel them not to lock their bedroom doors - there's no point in giving them an excuse to break the hardware, too."
Ethan stood beside the open door, hands on his hips, watching as strangers ripped apart his home and terrorized his family. But his gaze was calculating, recording each wrong move they made, no doubt for recolection to the House's attorneys later on.
